Across Many Mountains: A Tibetan Family's Epic Journey from Oppression to Freedom

A powerful emotional memoir and an extraordinary portrait of three generations of Tibetan women whose lives are forever changed when Chairman Maos Red Army crushes Tibetan independence sending a young mother and her six-year-old daughter on a treacherous journey across the snowy Himalayas toward freedomKunsang thought she would never leave Tibet. One of the countrys youngest Buddhist nuns she grew up in a remote mountain village where as a teenager she entered the local nunnery. Though simple Kunsangs life gave her all she needed: a oneness with nature and a sense of the spiritual in all things. She married a monk had two children and lived in peace and prayer. But not for long. There was a saying in Tibet: When the iron bird flies and horses run on wheels the Tibetan people will be scattered like ants across the face of the earth. The Chinese invasion of Tibet in 1950 changed everything. When soldiers arrived at her mountain monastery destroying everything in their path Kunsang and her family fled across the Himalayas only to spend years in Indian refugee camps. She lost both her husband and her youngest child on that journey but the future held an extraordinary turn of events that would forever change her life--the arrival in the refugee camps of a cultured young Swiss man long fascinated with Tibet. Martin Brauen will fall instantly in love with Kunsangs young daughter Sonam eventually winning her heart and hand and taking mother and daughter with him to Switzerland where Yangzom will be born. Many stories lie hidden until the right person arrives to tell them. In rescuing the story of her now 90-year-old inspirational grandmother and her mother Yangzom Brauen has given us a book full of love courage and triumphas well as allowing us a rare and vivid glimpse of life in rural Tibet before the arrival of the Chinese. Most importantly though ACROSS MANY MOUNTAINS is a testament to three strong determined women who are linked by an unbreakable family bond.