Bettie's Books

bookshelves: published-2002, series, paper-read, china, mystery-thriller, tibet, tbr-busting-2013, spring-2013, hardback

** spoiler alert ** First line - "Sift the sand to find the seeds of the universe."

Shan, the canny Han, and his sidekick Lokesh in another grim tale about an even grimmer reality. In this one we get to know a bit about another religion: Bon-Po

The minority Bon-Po faith of Tibet represents a continuing stream of religious knowledge and practise dating back in time to before prehistory. Bon-Po has sought throughout its existence to include best practise from other faiths into which it has come into contact. It has absorbed ideas wherever it can. Consequently today it is a mixture of Buddhism, Shamanism and magic rituals. It is the old faith of Tibet.

Drong - extremely rare.

The bharal or Himalayan blue sheep or naur (Pseudois nayaur) is a caprid found in the high Himalayas of Nepal, Tibet, China, India, Pakistan, and Bhutan.

Vaidurya Buddha - the medicine Buddha



From the Independent Newspaper:

30th August 2011 - Beijing sets 'bulldog of Tibet' on its Catholics

The hardline official who led Beijing's tough response to the Dalai Lama and his Tibetan Buddhist supporters has shifted jobs to tackle a new target: the country's embattled Catholics.

Zhang Qingli, known as the "Tibetan bulldog", has been made Communist Party Secretary of Hebei province, which is home to around a quarter of China's Roman Catholics and where tensions between the state and the Vatican run at their highest.



Himahlya reads in Spring 2013:

3* In the Forbidden Land
4* Trespassers on the Roof of the World
3* In the Himalayas
CR Bone Mountain
CR Beautiful Ghosts



5* The Skull Mantra (Inspector Shan #1)
5* Water Touching Stone (Inspector Shan, #2)
CR Bone Mountain (Inspector Shan, #3)
CR Beautiful Ghosts (Inspector Shan #4)

TBR Busting 2013

Deep in the heart of Tibet, Shan Tao Yun, an exiled Chinese national and a former Beijing government Inspector, is caught between the brutal Chinese army and a Western oil company. Shan has agreed to lead an expedition to return the eye of an idol, stolen almost a century ago and recently, clandestinely recovered, to a distant valley, an act that will fulfill an important Tibetan prophecy. But the pilgrimage turns into a desperate flight when the monk who is to lead them is murdered. Shan also discovers that the stone was stolen back from a brigade of the Chinese army that is now in hot pursuit.

Still possessing an investigator's love of truth, Shan faces a perplexing tangle of mysteries. Why are the Chinese so desperate to retrieve the stone eye, why has an American geologist abandoned the oil company's drilling project and fled into the mountains, and why are rumors sweeping the countryside that an ancient lama is returning to liberate this country? As he digs into these questions, Shan realizes that there is more at stake than mere justice: the spiritual survival of his people is in danger as well.