What do you think?
Rate this book
Old Demons, New Deities
The first English-language anthology of contemporary Tibetan fiction, Old Demons, New Deities brings together the best Tibetan writers from both Tibet and the diaspora, who write in Tibetan, English and Chinese.
Modern Tibetan literature is just under forty years old: its birth dates to 1980, when the first Tibetan language journal was published in Lhasa. Since then, short stories have become one of the primary modern Tibetan art forms. Through these sometimes absurd, sometimes strange, and always moving stories, the English-reading audience gets an authentic look at the lives of ordinary, secular, modern Tibetans navigating the space between tradition and modernity, occupation and exile, the personal and the national. The setting may be the Himalayas, an Indian railway, or a New York City brothel, but the insights into an ancient culture and the lives and concerns of a modern people are real, and powerful.
For this anthology, editor and translator Tenzin Dickie has collected 21 short stories by 16 of the most respected and well known Tibetan writers working today, including Pema Bhum, Pema Tseden, Tsering Dhondup, Woeser, Tsering Wangmo Dhompa, Kyabchen Dedrol, and Jamyang Norbu.
Modern Tibetan literature is just under forty years old: its birth dates to 1980, when the first Tibetan language journal was published in Lhasa. Since then, short stories have become one of the primary modern Tibetan art forms. Through these sometimes absurd, sometimes strange, and always moving stories, the English-reading audience gets an authentic look at the lives of ordinary, secular, modern Tibetans navigating the space between tradition and modernity, occupation and exile, the personal and the national. The setting may be the Himalayas, an Indian railway, or a New York City brothel, but the insights into an ancient culture and the lives and concerns of a modern people are real, and powerful.
For this anthology, editor and translator Tenzin Dickie has collected 21 short stories by 16 of the most respected and well known Tibetan writers working today, including Pema Bhum, Pema Tseden, Tsering Dhondup, Woeser, Tsering Wangmo Dhompa, Kyabchen Dedrol, and Jamyang Norbu.
286 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2017
19 people are currently reading
611 people want to read
About the author
Tenzin Dickie
5 books25 followersTenzin Dickie’s translation work focuses on a group of poets and writers from northeastern Tibet. Her translations have been published in the Washington Post online and are forthcoming from Modern Poetry in Translation. Her poetry and essays have been published in Indian Literature, The Yellow Nib: Modern English Poetry by Indians, Apogee Journal, Tibetan Review, and Cultural Anthropology, among other publications. She is an editor of Tibetan Political Review and Tibet Web Digest. She is also editor of the Treasury of Lives, a biographical encyclopedia of significant figures from Tibet, Inner Asia, and the Himalayan Region. She has an MFA in Fiction and Literary Translation from Columbia University, where she was a Hertog Fellow, and a BA from Harvard University. She was a 2014 ALTA Fellow of the American Literary Translators’ Association.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
September 16, 2018
This is an interesting collection of short stories by Tibetan authors from around the world (most - all?- currently living outside of Tibet and China). The styles range from naive to modern to post-modern. A majority of the stories turn on an ironic twist, recalling O Henry, or reflect a deep dyed sense of human failings, like those of Guy de Maupassant..
A couple stories I didn’t understand - for example, Tsering Dondrup’s ‘Ralo’ appears to be a story about a fool, but whether it is a kind of harsh comedy, or whether we’re supposed to feel compassion for him, I couldn’t tell. Multiple stories take oppression of Tibetans by China’s government as a central theme; others explore the sense of alienation felt by Tibetans who have found refuge in Nepal, America, or other places.
Favorites for me include Pema Tsewang Shastri, ‘The Flight of the Wind Horse’, a story about of girl who releases a helium balloon with a message and acquires a pen pal with her same name; Tsering Wangmo Dhompa, ‘Letter for Love’, exploring the freedom and constraints facing a middle-aged mother, her friend, and her daughter; and Tsering Dondrup, ‘In the Valley of Black Foxes’.
A couple stories I didn’t understand - for example, Tsering Dondrup’s ‘Ralo’ appears to be a story about a fool, but whether it is a kind of harsh comedy, or whether we’re supposed to feel compassion for him, I couldn’t tell. Multiple stories take oppression of Tibetans by China’s government as a central theme; others explore the sense of alienation felt by Tibetans who have found refuge in Nepal, America, or other places.
Favorites for me include Pema Tsewang Shastri, ‘The Flight of the Wind Horse’, a story about of girl who releases a helium balloon with a message and acquires a pen pal with her same name; Tsering Wangmo Dhompa, ‘Letter for Love’, exploring the freedom and constraints facing a middle-aged mother, her friend, and her daughter; and Tsering Dondrup, ‘In the Valley of Black Foxes’.
August 23, 2018
As a Tibetan, it is both refreshing and reassuring to find a book that reclaims the "Tibetan" narrative, both diasporic and otherwise oppressed. This fictional short-stories collection add richness and depth to our collective experiences/struggles without the baggage of anecdotal/non-fictional writings.
The fact that these stories are contributed by different writers, any individual will find at least one story in this book that you can resonate with or relate to.
The fact that these stories are contributed by different writers, any individual will find at least one story in this book that you can resonate with or relate to.
August 30, 2021
Excellent selection of writings from Tibetan authors from within and outside of political China. Reading these stories alongside one another, the differences in personal background and location of upbringing of the authors are very clear. What they all share is the difficult act of navigating the new while still remaining faithful to family and tradition.
January 9, 2021
Leuk om verhalen van en over Tibetanen te lezen, maar ook niet meer dan dat.
October 23, 2017
I admit I have not yet all of the short stories yet but those I have read are great and I really enjoyed reading them. They were clear and understandable and relatable even for someone from a very different culture. I certainly reccomend this book for those who love short stories.
More detailed review will follow.
NB, I was one of the lucky winners of a Goodreads giveaway and love short stories in general.
More detailed review will follow.
NB, I was one of the lucky winners of a Goodreads giveaway and love short stories in general.
June 25, 2018
what can i say about something that i have very limited to no prior knowledge of? nothing, i suppose, except maybe my enjoyment through it all. which i think is hardly fair, but that is nobody's fault but mine.
this book painted so many things about the Tibetan--their history, their diaspora, their way of living--and it was told in such a way that i can feel every smile of the characters, every heartbreak, can almost taste their butter tea and butter-less tea. the short stories format makes it easier for me to nibble on and it brought up very vivid imagery of what it means for the people of Tibet to be Tibetan. it still left me reeling quite a bit.
this is my very first real exposure to a glimpse of Tibetan culture. i don't know how many books out there with the same topic, but i'm glad this is the first that found its way to me. i hope i'd continue to come across of more in the future.
Under the Shadow, The Agate and the Singer are only a couple of my favorites, but my most loved is perhaps Letter for Love.
this book painted so many things about the Tibetan--their history, their diaspora, their way of living--and it was told in such a way that i can feel every smile of the characters, every heartbreak, can almost taste their butter tea and butter-less tea. the short stories format makes it easier for me to nibble on and it brought up very vivid imagery of what it means for the people of Tibet to be Tibetan. it still left me reeling quite a bit.
this is my very first real exposure to a glimpse of Tibetan culture. i don't know how many books out there with the same topic, but i'm glad this is the first that found its way to me. i hope i'd continue to come across of more in the future.
Under the Shadow, The Agate and the Singer are only a couple of my favorites, but my most loved is perhaps Letter for Love.
March 1, 2018
Updated review -
I loved this book. My knowledge about Tibetan culture isn't extensive but it made me want to look at it more and research it thoroughly to understand it better.
In my first review, I didn't do much research about their culture and I have thought that it could be a little misunderstood. Talking about cultures that you don't know much about isn't an easy thing to do and there are things that a person can accidentally hurt if proper research isn't done.
Just from a literary point of view (because I'm a literature student who is not equipped to comment on social and political conditions of any other culture - including mine. probably mostly mine -) I enjoyed this book and I think many people should also read it. It was more enjoyable than I thought because I'm not usually a short story person.
I loved this book. My knowledge about Tibetan culture isn't extensive but it made me want to look at it more and research it thoroughly to understand it better.
In my first review, I didn't do much research about their culture and I have thought that it could be a little misunderstood. Talking about cultures that you don't know much about isn't an easy thing to do and there are things that a person can accidentally hurt if proper research isn't done.
Just from a literary point of view (because I'm a literature student who is not equipped to comment on social and political conditions of any other culture - including mine. probably mostly mine -) I enjoyed this book and I think many people should also read it. It was more enjoyable than I thought because I'm not usually a short story person.
December 6, 2017
What i can say is thank you for this book is exist, so we know more about how is the Tibetan story.
this book contains several short stories, sometimes it related to politic, how Tibetan feel as refuges, romance on there, and other thing.
On one of this short story there is something that interesting, the movie the movie theater that playing movie trailers for free, but it is unusual trailers.
21 stories, there are various genre. Sometimes it is fun, happy, comedy that can make you smile not laugh, even the saddest one.
recommend if you love reading short stories. Also this book is very well English translated
this book contains several short stories, sometimes it related to politic, how Tibetan feel as refuges, romance on there, and other thing.
On one of this short story there is something that interesting, the movie the movie theater that playing movie trailers for free, but it is unusual trailers.
21 stories, there are various genre. Sometimes it is fun, happy, comedy that can make you smile not laugh, even the saddest one.
recommend if you love reading short stories. Also this book is very well English translated
February 22, 2018
There are some really strong pieces, and some less so. But on the whole it is definitely a fascinating read. What is best is that it skips and jumps through, past, and with the here and now, giving us looks into 'traditional culture' as well as 'modernity', refusing and refuting simplistic divisions between them and the suggestion that they are not interlinked.
June 29, 2018
My friend was the editor of this book, contributed one of the stories, and translated some of the others, so I'm not exactly an unbiased reviewer, but regardless this book is a wonderful introduction for westerners to Tibetan literature. Go Dickyi!
March 12, 2025
I can't imagine the editor, Tenzin Dickie had a large pool of talent from which to draw stories for this book, which makes it even more impressive that she has managed to compile a book with such variety and consistent quality.
A lot of the stories are set outside of Tibet, reflecting the modern diasporic nation, forced into exile after the annexation of Tibet by China in the 1950s. There are a couple of stories which deal with life under Chinese communist rule, and these probably feel the clunkiest, though it doesn't help having recently read Bandi's The Accusation, which treads similar ground in North Korea, but does so rather better.
The stories range from the thoroughly post-modern to new takes on traditional myths, most deal with the minutiae of Tibetan life, some have broader sweeping themes.
A personal highlight was Dhondup Tashi Rekjong's Dolma, a strikingly simple tale where the complexities lie in what is not said. There are several other gems, and no real duffers.
As an introduction to Tibetan literature of the 21st century I can not think of a better example, and I will be going on to explore several of the authors in the future.
A lot of the stories are set outside of Tibet, reflecting the modern diasporic nation, forced into exile after the annexation of Tibet by China in the 1950s. There are a couple of stories which deal with life under Chinese communist rule, and these probably feel the clunkiest, though it doesn't help having recently read Bandi's The Accusation, which treads similar ground in North Korea, but does so rather better.
The stories range from the thoroughly post-modern to new takes on traditional myths, most deal with the minutiae of Tibetan life, some have broader sweeping themes.
A personal highlight was Dhondup Tashi Rekjong's Dolma, a strikingly simple tale where the complexities lie in what is not said. There are several other gems, and no real duffers.
As an introduction to Tibetan literature of the 21st century I can not think of a better example, and I will be going on to explore several of the authors in the future.
September 5, 2022
The cover of the book is an artwork by the Nepalese born Tibetan artist Tsherin Sherpa, whose mid-career solo exhibition “Spirits” is on view at the VMFA museum now (https://vmfa.museum/exhibitions/exhib... )
Sherpa’s spirits are part deities part human creation, imagining the lives of protector deities in Himalayan Buddhism traditions would have fared when being dispersed from their home and scattered around the world, like those Tibetan people who left their hometown, by choice or by fate.
The book is compilations of 21 short stories by contemporary Tibetan writers, whose lives are impacted by events happened in the middle of last century. Their stories reflected that. They wrote as “Tibetan Chinese”, “Tibetan Indian”, “Tibetan American”.
The writings are a bit uneven, with a few poorly written stories (“Ralo” what’s that about?), but overall a great and often somber read (“wink”, “letter for love”- best overall imo; “winter in plikuhl”, “snow pilgrimage” and “the valley of black foxes”, are my favs) allow a glimpse of the lives of a group of deeply spiritual people.
Victory to the spirits!
Sherpa’s spirits are part deities part human creation, imagining the lives of protector deities in Himalayan Buddhism traditions would have fared when being dispersed from their home and scattered around the world, like those Tibetan people who left their hometown, by choice or by fate.
The book is compilations of 21 short stories by contemporary Tibetan writers, whose lives are impacted by events happened in the middle of last century. Their stories reflected that. They wrote as “Tibetan Chinese”, “Tibetan Indian”, “Tibetan American”.
The writings are a bit uneven, with a few poorly written stories (“Ralo” what’s that about?), but overall a great and often somber read (“wink”, “letter for love”- best overall imo; “winter in plikuhl”, “snow pilgrimage” and “the valley of black foxes”, are my favs) allow a glimpse of the lives of a group of deeply spiritual people.
Victory to the spirits!
July 3, 2020
The introduction alone was worth the read: what exactly is contemporary Tibetan literature and where did it come from? The stories swing back and forth across place and time where Tibetans now live. Those written about life in Chinese-occupied Tibet have much the same vibe as contemporary short stories in Chinese literature in the 80s and 90s. What is unique, though, is the infusion of Buddhism that is an integral part of the Tibetan worldview.
October 6, 2025
Perhaps the best place to start exploring the world of contemporary Tibetan fiction. Though it weighted more toward Tibetan writers in exile writing in English more than those in Tibet writing in Tibetan, it is nonetheless an invaluable resource give the lack of material on modern Tibetan literature in English.
August 1, 2019
Sad to hear about the culture of this country ripped away from its inhabitants. Although I did not feel keen to read this for a course, it pleasantly surprised me.
September 9, 2021
Remarkable! I hope that another volume will appear someday.
January 21, 2024
An interesting and diverse cross section of different stories. Some felt like they were from another world entirely, but others, somewhat familiar.
[Tibet 🗺️📖]
[Tibet 🗺️📖]
January 27, 2024
didnt finish
July 12, 2025
A wide range of stories on life issues, often involving relationships - personal and social. Really thought-provoking about what matters in our own lives.
February 15, 2020
Great book! Bought when I was in Nepal, gives a beautiful insight into Tibetan culture.
June 5, 2024
Fantastic collection with an eye opening experiential window into the lives of Tibetans everywhere.
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews