Like alternate worlds in science fiction, two distinct Tibets co-exist these days. One flourishes in the light of celebrity patronage, museum openings, academic opportunities, pop spirituality and New Age fashions. This is the Tibet that has captured the romantic fantasy of the West and which has drawn much of the interest that the Tibet issue receives at the moment. Here, the problems of Tibet: the nation of the Tibetans, is nowhere as relevant or important as that of Tibet: the repository of a secret wisdom to save a materialistic and self-destructive West. The other Tibet exists in the shadow of a cruel and relentless Darwinian reality. Under Chinese Communist occupation it is a world o paid informers, secret police, prison walls, torture, executions, unemployment, racism and overwhelming cultural loss; revealing itself in individual lives, like sores on plague victims, in alcoholism, sexual degradation, broken families, violence and growing hopelessness. In the exile community this manifests itself, especially in the leadership, in intellectual confusion and complete loss of political direction. Yet, this is also a world, unacknowledged perhaps, of selfless service, loyalty, love of country-and when called upon-of heroism and sacrifice. This is the world the author has attempted to write about. This is shadow Tibet.
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