We Measure the Earth with Our Bodies by Tsering Yangzom Lama

Abstract

We Measure the Earth with Our Bodies, the debut novel of Tsering Yangzom Lama, is a gripping tale of deprivation, displacement and distorted representation that grapples with raw emotions and harsh realities. Lama also presents thought-provoking instances and brings out the rich culture and traditions of the Tibetans through the narrative, the characters and also through the arduous journey which the characters are forced to embark upon. The novel opens in the wake of the Chinese annexation of Tibet in the 1950s when the Dalai Lama, guided by the divination of the Nechung Oracle, escaped to India as the ancient prophecy heralds, “When the iron bird flies and horses run on wheels, the People of Snows will be scattered like ants across the face of the earth.” Following which two Tibetan sisters Lhamo and Tenkyi along with their parents and a few of the villagers were compelled to flee their homes guided by their mother who was an oracle, and after an arduous journey through hills and caves, they landed in a refugee settlement in Nepal never to return home again. From the very first chapter of the novel, we can get a glimpse of Tibetan customs and traditions, divinations and oracles. Even the title of the novel resonates with a holy tradition- “(a) pilgrim who had even travelled across all of Tibet, from east to west, lying down and rising, over and over until he reached the yearly Kalachakra prayers in India… To measure the earth with my body, to know our country with my own skin. It seemed like the only way to fathom such a land”. The idea of land here becomes symbolical of the loss of homeland coupled with the loss of identity and traditions which become a prominent theme of the entire novel. The novel articulates the atrocities the soldiers had subjugated the Tibetans to – of Chinese soldiers tossing and mocking the oracles, tossing aside the prayer flags, forcing the Tibetans to pulverise the holy statues and relics of the monasteries and making bullets out of them- “They will kill us with our own gods”.

Keywords

• tsering yangzom lama
• tibet
• homeland
• displacement
• refugee