Portland Public Library

Lhasa, streets with memories, Robert Barnett

eng

Includes bibliographical references and index

illustrationsmaps

index present

non fiction

Lhasa

bibliography

59879455

Robert Barnett

"In this new work, Robert Barnett offers a powerful and lyrical exploration of a city long idealized, disregarded, or misunderstood by outsiders. Looking to its streets and stone, Robert Barnett presents a searching and unforgettable portrait of Lhasa, its history, and its illegibility. His book not only offers itself as a manual for thinking about contemporary Tibet but also questions our ways of thinking about foreign places."

Asia perspectives

streets with memories

"Barnett juxtaposes contemporary accounts of Tibet, architectural observations, and descriptions by foreign observers to describe Lhasa and its current status as both an ancient city and a modern Chinese provincial capital. His narrative reveals how historical layering, popular memory, symbolism, and mythology constitute the story of a city. Besides the ancient Buddhist temples and former picnic gardens of the Tibetan capital, Lhasa describes the urban sprawl, the harsh rectangular structures, and the geometric blue-glass tower blocks that speak of the anxieties of successive regimes intent upon improving on the past. Barnett's excavation of the city's past, the buildings and the city streets, interwoven with his own recollections of unrest and resistance, recount the story of Tibet's complex transition from tradition to modernity and its painful history of foreign encounters and political experiment."--Jacket

The unitary view -- Foreign visitors, oscillations, and extremes -- The square view and the outstretched demoness -- The city, the circle -- Monumental statements and street plans -- From concrete to blue glass -- The new flamboyance and the Tibetan palm tree -- Mestizo : two narratives converge -- The multilayered streets