The Rainbow Palace: A Harrowing Memoir Of Spiritual Resistance

by Tenzin Choedrak, Gilles van Grasdorff

This moving and powerful book charts Choedrak's painfully deprived Childhood in rural Tibet, the harsh years of training in the monastery and his eventual rise to become a Lhamenpa, personal physician to the Dalai Lama. But unfortunately, this personal achievement only marked the beginning of his greater struggle. The Chinese occupied Tibet in 1950 and the country descended into violence and chaos. Choedrak, among thousands of others, was imprisoned under the most cruel and repressive conditions imaginable. The events he was forced to be witness to and endure were so appalling that it is hard to believe he managed to retain his humanity let alone his religion. Yet Choedrak managed not only to find incredible reserves of bravery and strength but compassion for his torturers whom he ended up tending as patients. This book is not only a humbling and inspiring personal testimony but a historical account of the Chinese oppression of Tibet: a horrific and systematic breach of human and civil rights that the international community has left shamefully unchallenged. Choedrak's life, and those of other Tibetans who have suffered under occupation is both a terrible measure of the cruelty of which human beings are capable and the incredible resilience of the human spirit and its will to love.--Rebecca Johnson

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, History, China, Religion

329 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

Reviews

[Gary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tenzin Choedrak, was the personal physician to his Excellency, the Dalai Lama.
In this incredible autobiography he describes his upbringing as a poor orphan and as a student of Tibetan medicine, the rich, beautiful and peace-loving culture and philosophy of Tibet, so much of which was to be so cruelly destroyed by the Communist Chinese,
as well as the unique therapeutic practises of Tibetan medicine.

He details the cruel Chinese invasion of Tibet in 1950, which had been until then a free and independent nation.
Choedrak provides a first hand, eye witness account of the terror, violence and injustice sowed by the Chinese, and their evil and brutal campaign to completely destroy Tibetan culture and identity, in which over a million Tibetans have been murdered.
The natural resources of Tibet were destroyed, the artwork removed from the monasteries of which almost all of the thousands were destroyed, monks were burned alive, nuns raped, young girls sterilized and women forced to abort.
The aim of the Chinese was both to destroy Tibetan culture and identity and to reduce the Tibetan population, while flooding Tibet with millions of Han Chinese settlers.
From 1959 to 1980, Choedrak was a prisoner in the horrific Chinese prison and death camps, experiencing starvation and the most horrific tortures. The Communists, as describes in this book, beat the prisoners with electric truncheons, jabbing them in the mouth, the anus, or placing them in the genitals. Daily the Communists authorities exercised their right to kill children and women whose only crime was to be born or give birth without the authorization of the occupying administration. Thousands of Tibetans were murdered and their organs sold by the Communist authorities.

He was one of the very few Tibetans who survived these Laogais (Chinese gulags), where the Communists tried to force their sick and twisted world view on the Tibetan population, branding the democracies such as the USA. Britain, India, Japan and France as "imperialist" and wantonly destroying Tibet's animal life almost completely for no material purpose at all, other than to completely strip Tibet of all she held dear.
As Choedrak describes "Today part of our territory serves as a depository for nuclear waste; the flora and fauna in these parts has been destroyed.
That is of extreme gravity. Everything that was the basis of the Tibetan people's pride, everything the extraordinary richness of our country, that constituted it's unique culture is in the process of disappearing."

Choedrak, died in 2001, three years after completing this book. He predicted in this book he would never return to Tibet.
The horrors and atrocities of the Chinese destruction and oppression of Tibet continues today, with no sign f freedom for this ancient country.
That is because very few in the world care.

[Fadillah · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Cultural Revolution continued to deal severely with Tibet. There were many reasons for the Tibetan people to rebel. The authorities violently put down revolts, despatching special forces into the most zealous regions. Tens of thousands of Tibetans had died in the camps. Humiliated, wasted, annihilated, some actually even thanked their torturers. Once freed, they said they remained grateful to them for the atrocities and the humiliations they had endured. Outside, in the cities and villages, my compatriots endured constant government intrusion: house searches, required declarations of pregnancy, forced contraception. The policy of controlling births continues to this day and reports reveal that, since 1960, girls who had been sterilized and pregnant women were used as guinea pigs for unscrupulous Chinese 'scientists'. In submitting to the demands of the Chinese administration, the Tibetan woman lost all her rights, including the right of control over her own body. From the instant of conception, the Tibetan child was appropriated by the Chinese state, which handed him a birth certificate like a deed of ownership. Daily the authorities exercised their right to kill children and women whose only crime was to be born or give birth without the authorization of the occupying admin-istration. The Chinese Communists wanted to eradicate our civilization completely.
- Survival at Yititok : The Rainbow Palace by Tenzin Choedrak
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This memoir introduced me to the late venerable Tenzin Choedrak who’ve served the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso as his own personal physician. I have to be honest that i know nothing about him so i went on reading this book blindly only to discover that he was considered as the Master in the Tibetan Medical Tradition. Again, me being ignorant, was wondering at first why so many details about natural medicines and illnesses (yes, i know he is a doctor but in the beginning of the book, i was expecting more on his past, how he was raised, how he aspired to pursue spiritual path and eventually become the physician of Dalai Lama). Now that i know how his expertise was recognised and held in high regards, i actually enjoyed how he established the connection of nature and medicine. A typical story of success blooming from the underprivileged background to finally achieving his dream in becoming a Tibetan Doctor that specialises in Tibetan Medicine and its ancient traditions. His childhood was rough and hardened by death and poverty. From what he wrote, we can see that he was being neglected by his stepmother and was looking for affection after his mother died, and then he was reprimanded and beaten when he’s not doing well in his study. However, this was nothing if we compared to what he experienced during Cultural revolution in China and how Tibet paid the price of resisting their invasion. It is important to state that between 1911 and 1949, Tibet was free in their governance from the Republic of China and at that time, they are functioning as an independent entity. Unfortunately, the spread of communism were unstoppable during China’s cultural revolution and China deployed the red guards throughout the country to carry out the propaganda campaigns. Thus, the destruction of Tibetan prayer flags, religious art, and sacred texts were initiated despite Tibet tried to protect them by forming their own Red Guard in Lhasa. This historical part is eventually will be connected to Tenzin Choedrak’s memoir - a major part of it as he was being detained , tortured and imprisoned for 22 years due to him being a physician of the Dalai Lama. He was pushed to give up names, plans or anything relating to Tibet which he himself don’t know anything. He maintained his innocence and refused to admit any allegations made by the chinese officials. This memoir provided us readers, a first hand, eye witness account of the violence acts - murder, rape, and even sterilisation by Red Army and China Government towards Tibetans. Their cruel campaign to completely wipe out Tibetan culture and identity by destroying over 6000 monastaries and thousands of Tibetans have been imprisoned without any solid charges. This ultimately led to Today's Tibet is internationally recognised as part of China. Overall, this has been an eye-opening and somewhat inspiring read for this year. Despite suffering all of those torture, Tenzin Choedrak found strength in his faith and never gives up. He’s courageous when he needed to be and he’s forgiving when he believes its the right thing to do. I would recommend this if you wanted to know about Tibetan ancient medicine practices and Tibet History in a simplified form.

[Penny Blanch · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an amazing story of a Tibetan who was the Physician to the Dalai Lama. It tells of his impoverished childhood,his amazing strength and determination,and his compassion for the Chinese who also imprisoned and tortured him for 21 years. You should never ever complain about life again after reading this story!

[MmeDum Bledore]

Great people...great book.. great gift

[Maria Lancaster]

The late venerable Tenzin Choedrak was the Dalai Lama's personal physician and his story is a very remarkable one. What a soul!

[Karen Stone · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful story from a true Bodhisattva, but very very sad as well.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazing and moving story.