The Nine-Eyed Agate: Poems and Stories (Studies in Modern Tibetan Culture)

The Nine-Eyed Agate seeks to break stereotyped images of Tibet and Tibetans inside the PRC today, and in the diaspora, by presenting an outstanding personality who survived childhood during the Cultural Revolution, then going on to lead a rich and somewhat controversial career within the PRC. As a free-wheeling, restless traveller in samsara (the cycle of existence), Jangbu has explored every corner of the Tibetan plateau with a view to understanding the culture and history of his people, their plight, and the key issues that Tibet faces today. Widely read in world literature through Chinese translation he has traveled around the world, attending international poetry meetings and film festivals, taking part in university conferences and developing his passion for film. This rich diversity is reflected in his poems and prose, the subject matter ranging through eternal themes such as love and betrayal, fantasy and 'magical realism', mystical flight and biting social satire. His poetry is experimental, presenting a panorama of styles with examples in modern free-verse, classical Indo-Tibetan metrical poetics (though this is rare), and more characteristically, in the dense "obscure" poetry of the post-Cultural Revolution years in China (1980s onwards), for which Jangbu is particularly well known. His work is often semi-autobiographical, written in a "docu-fictional" mode, announcing Jangbu's growing fascination for the screen.--Lara Maconi, INALCO, Paris "The Nine-Eyed Agate is a great illustration of the free-style poetry that dominates the Tibetan literary scene today. The author, Chenaktsang Dorje Tsering, alias Jangbu, is one of the most celebrated and talented writers of his generation. His poetry and prose has been wonderfully rendered into English by Heather Stoddard, a leading expert in the field of Tibetan literature and history. The book is illustrated with Jangbu's sketches, which, in addition to the poet's own preface and the translator's introduction, add great value to this unique publication." --Nicolas Tournadre, author of Manual of Standard Tibetan The Nine-Eyed Agate is an overview of poetry and prose written between 1984 and 2002 by one of Tibet's most well known contemporary authors and intellectuals, Jangbu. Illustrated by his original sketches and covering a broad spectrum, the author evokes nomadic life, love and betrayal, social upheaval, political satire and mystical revelation. Experimenting with language and genre, his writing ranges from the ""obscure"" post-Cultural Revolution style to recent pithy read-between-the-lines statements Contient les références des publications originales