Souls Are Like the Wind: Impressions from Tibet

by Ma Lihua

Translated from the Chinese by Markus S. Conley and Song Meihua,
with a postface by Peter Schwieger

Reihe Phönixfeder 37
OSTASIEN Verlag
Paperback (21,5 x 12,5 cm), vii + 299 Seiten, mit 37 Farbbildern und 1 Karte
2017. € 29,80
ISBN-13: 978-3-946114-37-6 (978-946114376, 9783946114376) ISBN-10: 3-3946114-37-7 (3946114377)
Vertrieb: CHINA Buchservice / Bestellen

“When we first set foot in Thragu to film its spring plowing ceremony, the trees had not yet turned green. When we were finished filming, it was already late autumn. The leaves of the tall white poplars were a glowing yellow, a warm color rather than an intermediate hue. Some of the willow trees, which were comparatively short, remained green, while others were a mix of green and yellow, giving the entire rural landscape the appearance of being composed of a multitude of different layers.”

These few sentences already give the reader a sense of the power of the author’s words, which let the landscape of Tibet unfold before the reader’s inner eye.

Ma Lihua 马丽华 first came to Tibet in 1976 and stayed there for 27 years. In the beginning of the 1990s, she started filming of a documentary series about Tibet that would portray the land and its people. In this book, she describes how she and her film crew went from one village to another capturing both everyday life and the colorful festivals in the villages on celluloid. Her descriptions of these activities are captivating and make readers feel as if they themselves were present in the homes of the people she describes. What is more, her warm and vivid descriptions allow the reader to sense that Ma Lihua is much more than just a Han Chinese observer of Tibetan culture – she has formed an intimate friendship with the Tibetan people.