Sky Burial
Encyclopedia
Sky Burial is a 2004 novel
by Xue Xinran, her second. Xue is a British-Chinese journalist who writes for The Guardian
. Sky Burial was listed in the Los Angeles Times
as one of their favorite non-fiction books of 2005.
.
In the 1950s, as China revels in its unification under communism, Shu Wen, a doctor, marries a military doctor who gets orders to go into Tibet to pacify the Tibetan people and bring them under Chinese rule. The reputation of the Tibetans from the government paints them as sympathetic and welcoming to the Chinese, but gradually she learns of their resistance to subjugation. She is informed that her husband has gone missing, and against the wishes of her family and friends, she leaves her comfortable life in Suzhou to join the Army and search for him in Tibet.
Her unit encounters a Tibetan woman near death in the highlands, and Shu Wen decides to treat the woman and take her away from her soldiers, who suspect she is a scout or a resistance fighter. Shu Wen goes to live with the woman's nomadic family, and over 30 years learns the Tibetan way of life and gradually loses her sense of Chinese identity while quietly hoping for news of her husband's fate.
Years after joining the nomads, she encounters Chinese soldiers who tell her about a doctor who sacrificed himself after his unit wounded a Tibetan in a skirmish in order to prevent the Tibetans from retaliating. After going to a nomad gathering, she meets an old sage, who tells her that he was the man her husband had treated, and in the end he was killed and disposed of in the sky burial
, a tradition of the Tibetans. The sage said he would continue to sing the praises of the doctor as long as he lived, and Shu Wen finds peace. She returns to Suzhou, where Xinran encounters her, still searching for her relatives and eking out a modest living.
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
by Xue Xinran, her second. Xue is a British-Chinese journalist who writes for The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
. Sky Burial was listed in the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
as one of their favorite non-fiction books of 2005.
Plot summary
The novel involves a Chinese woman, Shu Wen, retelling her life in Tibet to Xinran in a tea shop in SuzhouSuzhou
Suzhou , previously transliterated as Su-chou, Suchow, and Soochow, is a major city located in the southeast of Jiangsu Province in Eastern China, located adjacent to Shanghai Municipality. The city is situated on the lower reaches of the Yangtze River and on the shores of Taihu Lake and is a part...
.
In the 1950s, as China revels in its unification under communism, Shu Wen, a doctor, marries a military doctor who gets orders to go into Tibet to pacify the Tibetan people and bring them under Chinese rule. The reputation of the Tibetans from the government paints them as sympathetic and welcoming to the Chinese, but gradually she learns of their resistance to subjugation. She is informed that her husband has gone missing, and against the wishes of her family and friends, she leaves her comfortable life in Suzhou to join the Army and search for him in Tibet.
Her unit encounters a Tibetan woman near death in the highlands, and Shu Wen decides to treat the woman and take her away from her soldiers, who suspect she is a scout or a resistance fighter. Shu Wen goes to live with the woman's nomadic family, and over 30 years learns the Tibetan way of life and gradually loses her sense of Chinese identity while quietly hoping for news of her husband's fate.
Years after joining the nomads, she encounters Chinese soldiers who tell her about a doctor who sacrificed himself after his unit wounded a Tibetan in a skirmish in order to prevent the Tibetans from retaliating. After going to a nomad gathering, she meets an old sage, who tells her that he was the man her husband had treated, and in the end he was killed and disposed of in the sky burial
Sky burial
Sky burial, or ritual dissection, is a funerary practice in Tibet, wherein a human corpse was incised in certain locations and placed on a mountaintop, exposing it to the elements and animals – especially to predatory birds. The locations of preparation and sky burial are understood in the...
, a tradition of the Tibetans. The sage said he would continue to sing the praises of the doctor as long as he lived, and Shu Wen finds peace. She returns to Suzhou, where Xinran encounters her, still searching for her relatives and eking out a modest living.