This is a realisation that comes through again and again as Ezell travels through Tibet; as he comes into contact with everybody from lamas to school teachers, restaurant owners to nomads, petty bureaucrats, hotel workers. It comes forth in the landscape he wanders through. Soaring mountains and intimidatingly harsh desertscapes, yes; but also glittering skyscrapers of steel and glass that soar high into the sky; dams that hold in rivers and inundate settlements; highways and railways that cut through the land.
People robbed of not just their livelihood, but also of their very identity. Ezell’s conversations—many fleeting—show the different sides of Tibetans caught under the trampling of the Chinese government. There are those who yearn to escape, to make their way to the fabled land of opportunity, America. Others, struggling to somehow survive. What comes through, however, repeatedly, is the warm-heartedness, generosity and kindness of the average Tibetan: in many instances, Ezell is given food, shelter, and a kind word—in exchange for nothing more than an ear that listens and a heart that understands.
Journey to the End of the Empire is a mix of travelogue, poetry (often even prose poetry), and socio-political and economic commentary. While a hard-hitting look at the tragedy that is China’s treatment of Tibet, it also ends up being a metaphor for industrial societies everywhere: for the greed that propels people not just here, but across the world
to squeeze every last bit out of a land, to ravage and plunder until nothing remains. Ezell speaks out against the frightening decimation of the ecosystem, against the suppression of heterogeneity and diversity, against the large-scale ‘canting and bevelling’ of all that does not agree with the powers that be.
While it is a paean to Tibet, the book is, all said and done, more too. It is, in its way, an act of subversion, a song for freedom and for the right to live as one would wish.
A tribute to indigenous ways of life, to living in harmony with the land.
Journey to the End of the Empire: In China Along the Edge of Tibet
By: Scott Ezell
Publisher: Speaking Tiger
Pages: 284 Price: Rs 499
