Howard Goldblatt

Alai

Sylvia Li-chun Lin

A lively and cinematic twentieth-century epic, Red Poppies focuses on the extravagant and brutal reign of a clan of Tibetan warlords during the rise of Chinese Communism. The story is wryly narrated by the chieftain's son, a self-professed "idiot" who reveals the bloody feuds, seductions, secrets, and scheming behind his family's struggles for power. When the chieftain agrees to grow opium poppies with seeds supplied by the Chinese Nationalists in exchange for modern weapons, he draws Tibet into the opium trade -- and unwittingly plants the seeds for a downfall. A "swashbuckling novel" (New York Times Book Review), Red Poppies is at once a political parable and a moving elegy to the lost kingdom of Tibet in all its cruelty, beauty, and romance.

Red Poppies

The Song of King Gesar is one of the world's great epics, as significant for Tibetans as the Odyssey and Iliad for the ancient Greeks, and as the Ramayana and Mahabarata in India. Passed down in song from one generation to the next, it is sung by Tibetan bards even today. Set partly in ancient Tibet, where evil spirits mingle with the lives of humans, and partly in the modern day, The Song of King Gesar tells of two lives inextricably entwined. Gesar, the youngest and bravest of the gods, has been sent down to the human world to defeat the demons that plague the lives of ordinary people. Jigmed is a young shepherd, who is visited by dreams of Gesar, of gods and of ancient battles while he sleeps. So begins an epic journey for both the shepherd and the king. The wilful child of the gods will become Gesar, the warrior-king of Ling, and will unite the nation of Tibet under his reign. Jigmed will learn to see his troubled country with new eyes, and, as the storyteller chosen by the gods, must face his own destiny.

The Song of King Gesar

Cântul regelui Gesar al Tibetului este inspirat de o legendă pe care Alai, îndrăgostit de istoria și tradițiile pământului natal, a studiat-o timp de trei ani, intervievând artiști populari și strângând documente și materiale legate de această adevărată Iliadă a poporului tibetan. Povestea lui Gesar, cel mai tânăr și mai viteaz dintre zei, trimis în lumea oamenilor pentru a se lupta cu demonii care le amenință viața și libertatea, se împletește cu destinul lui Jigmed, un tânăr păstor din secolul XXI, ale cărui vise sunt frământate de vechile bătălii dintre zei și demoni. Cele două personaje vor începe o călătorie de proporții epice urmând firul unei legende glorioase, iar Jigmed, inspirat de regele luptător care a unit poporul Tibetului sub domnia sa, va învăța nu doar o lecție despre trecut, ci și despre prezent, descoperind cum să-și înfrunte propriul destin.

Cântul regelui Gesar al Tibetului

This suspenseful saga of Tibet during the rise of Chinese Communism “conjures up a faraway world . . . panoramic and intimate at the same time” (Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times). A lively and cinematic twentieth-century epic, Red Poppies focuses on the extravagant and brutal reign of a clan of Tibetan warlords during the rise of Chinese Communism. The story is wryly narrated by the chieftain’s son, a self-professed “idiot” who reveals the bloody feuds, seductions, secrets, and scheming behind his family’s struggles for power. When the chieftain agrees to grow opium poppies with seeds supplied by the Chinese Nationalists in exchange for modern weapons, he draws Tibet into the opium trade—and unwittingly plants the seeds for a downfall. A “swashbuckling novel,” Red Poppies is at once a political parable and a moving elegy to the lost kingdom of Tibet in all its cruelty, beauty, and romance (The New York Times Book Review).

Alai

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