The Soil and Green Shoots: Ecocritical Reading of a Home in Tibet

Abstract

The question of rampant environmental degradation resulting from the ambitious Chinese projects and policies in the Tibet region of People’s Republic of China in the recent decades has been raised not only by environmentalists but also by the contemporary Tibetan writers and poets. The mission undertaken by the Chinese government to ‘modernize’ Tibet has subsequently resulted in polluting and destroying the ecosystem of the region. Surviving and thriving in the difficult terrains of the ‘Roof of the World’ since antiquity, the Tibetan people had mastered the skilful balancing of their needs and the resources provided by Mother Nature in a way that both had existed in perfect harmony until the mid-twentieth century. The contemporary Tibetan writings voices the disruption of this harmonious relationship in the recent past. The paper will critically explore this disruption by employing Ecocritical approach to A Home in Tibet, a memoir by Tibetan author and poet in exile- Tsering Wangmo Dhompa. This non-fiction prose by Dhompa is laudable for its depiction of the deep association of Tibetan people with the natural flora and faunaof their homeland Tibet. Dhompa’s use of ecological settings and landscapes provides ample opportunity to study the problem of environmental awareness in modern Tibet. The paper will examine the conflict between the essentiality of modernization and the necessity of ecological consciousness in the Tibetan case by demonstrating the ecological implications visible in her book.