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Falling Through the Roof
by Thubten Samphel
Reviewed by Tsering Namgyal
Effortlessly written in a supple and fluid prose, India-based Tibetan author Thubten Samphel's debut novel Falling Through the Roof traces the life of Tashi, a Tibetan student at Delhi University. With his idealistic and eager cohorts, Tashi one day decides to form a Tibetan communist party, which he believed would help propel their troubled country into the modern world. They study hard during the daytime, writing essays on history, literature and also read Karl Marx and Frantz Fannon. In the evening, they go to drink at what was then a budding Tibetan community outside of Delhi, where some of their Tibetan compatriots, desperate to eke out a living, sell barley and rice beer, known as chang, in the shacks covered by corrugated iron roofs. There discuss politics and the state of the world over the delicious barley drink.
Much of the novel's action happens in "Changistan" where Tashi, the novel's protagonist, and the narrator, Kunga Dhondup, meet a high-ranking Tibetan monk with a knack for "tall tales of Tibet". The monk, who also has a weakness for the drink, tells stories about Tibet's past to the students and eventually becomes convinced that Tashi is a reincarnation of a major Tibetan lama, the lama who had discovered the Tibetan language, "the Word", the invention of which, in Kashmir, had allowed Tibetan scholars to import the philosophy and knowledge of India to the Himalayan plateau.
The novel travels to Kashmir, exactly to the spot where the lama had discovered the language. Samphel mixes fact (including the historical figures Jawaharlal Nehru, India opposition and Tibet sympathizer Raj Narain, Mongolian emperor Kublai Khan and even Marco Polo) and fiction to trace the history of the Tibetan alphabet.
However, this is no history book, for Samphel is obsessed with telling the story of exile in India, warts and all. Samphel's vivid and descriptive language shines throughout and he is perhaps at his best describing the scenes in Delhi, quarrels among the college students, the zeal with which they protest on the streets of the Indian capital, the love affairs. Samphel's fabulous sense of humor, peppered throughout, makes the book laugh-out-loud funny in several places.
Falling Through the Roof is ambitious in both scope and vision. The highly enjoyable and gripping tale aside, the author offers insights into both the traditional world of Tibet and the hybrid world of exile. The characters' frustration at the lack of homeland is combined with hope; their youthful energy is matched by an ability to laugh at their unique condition.
While Samphel was born in Tibet, he grew up in India. Educated at universities of Delhi and Columbia, he currently works as spokesman for the Tibetan government in exile. In Falling Through the Roof, Samphel implies that while the Tibetans may have lost their home, they have gained a world in return. Their culture thrives, albeit in their various hybridized forms. This magnificent novel from India -- at once elegiac and exuberant -- is in itself a proof of the Tibetan resilience.
--
Tsering Namgyal's collection of essays about Tibetans in India, Little Lhasa, was published in India in 2006. He lives in Iowa.
by Thubten Samphel
Reviewed by Tsering Namgyal
Effortlessly written in a supple and fluid prose, India-based Tibetan author Thubten Samphel's debut novel Falling Through the Roof traces the life of Tashi, a Tibetan student at Delhi University. With his idealistic and eager cohorts, Tashi one day decides to form a Tibetan communist party, which he believed would help propel their troubled country into the modern world. They study hard during the daytime, writing essays on history, literature and also read Karl Marx and Frantz Fannon. In the evening, they go to drink at what was then a budding Tibetan community outside of Delhi, where some of their Tibetan compatriots, desperate to eke out a living, sell barley and rice beer, known as chang, in the shacks covered by corrugated iron roofs. There discuss politics and the state of the world over the delicious barley drink.
Much of the novel's action happens in "Changistan" where Tashi, the novel's protagonist, and the narrator, Kunga Dhondup, meet a high-ranking Tibetan monk with a knack for "tall tales of Tibet". The monk, who also has a weakness for the drink, tells stories about Tibet's past to the students and eventually becomes convinced that Tashi is a reincarnation of a major Tibetan lama, the lama who had discovered the Tibetan language, "the Word", the invention of which, in Kashmir, had allowed Tibetan scholars to import the philosophy and knowledge of India to the Himalayan plateau.
The novel travels to Kashmir, exactly to the spot where the lama had discovered the language. Samphel mixes fact (including the historical figures Jawaharlal Nehru, India opposition and Tibet sympathizer Raj Narain, Mongolian emperor Kublai Khan and even Marco Polo) and fiction to trace the history of the Tibetan alphabet.
However, this is no history book, for Samphel is obsessed with telling the story of exile in India, warts and all. Samphel's vivid and descriptive language shines throughout and he is perhaps at his best describing the scenes in Delhi, quarrels among the college students, the zeal with which they protest on the streets of the Indian capital, the love affairs. Samphel's fabulous sense of humor, peppered throughout, makes the book laugh-out-loud funny in several places.
Falling Through the Roof is ambitious in both scope and vision. The highly enjoyable and gripping tale aside, the author offers insights into both the traditional world of Tibet and the hybrid world of exile. The characters' frustration at the lack of homeland is combined with hope; their youthful energy is matched by an ability to laugh at their unique condition.
While Samphel was born in Tibet, he grew up in India. Educated at universities of Delhi and Columbia, he currently works as spokesman for the Tibetan government in exile. In Falling Through the Roof, Samphel implies that while the Tibetans may have lost their home, they have gained a world in return. Their culture thrives, albeit in their various hybridized forms. This magnificent novel from India -- at once elegiac and exuberant -- is in itself a proof of the Tibetan resilience.
--
Tsering Namgyal's collection of essays about Tibetans in India, Little Lhasa, was published in India in 2006. He lives in Iowa.
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