Enticement: Stories of Tibet

Pema Tseden

Sep 2018 · State University of New York Press

About this ebook

Enticement marks the English-language debut of prominent Tibetan writer and filmmaker Pema Tseden. This collection gathers together his most relevant and influential short stories, including "Tharlo," which he adapted into an award-winning and internationally acclaimed film in 2015. Written originally in the Chinese and Tibetan languages, these stories make use of a variety of literary styles and sources, ranging from traditional Tibetan oral tales to magical realism, surrealism, and the theater of the absurd. They humanize the Tibetan experience by stepping away from patronizing, mystic, or idealized visions of Tibet to speak with empathy and humor about the real challenges faced by Tibetans in the age of globalization.

About the author

Pema Tseden is Tibet's most prestigious filmmaker and an accomplished and prolific fiction writer. He has released five major feature films to date: The Silent Holy Stones, The Search, Old Dog, The Sacred Arrow, and Tharlo. His films have won prestigious awards in China, Japan, and Taiwan. Most recently, Tharlo was nominated for a Golden Lion at the 72nd Venice International Film Festival. His short stories have also been translated into French, German, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, and Czech, and anthologies of his works have recently been published in France and Japan. Patricia Schiaffini-Vedani is a Senior Lecturer of Chinese Language at Texas State University in San Marcos. She is the coeditor (with Lauran R. Hartley) of Modern Tibetan Literature and Social Change. Michael Monhart is a freelance translator and psychoanalyst in New York City.