Suggested Reading & Viewing
Below are some highly recommended books and movies which will help you better prepare for your experiences in India.
History:
John Avedon, In Exile From the Land of Snows, NY: A Knopf, 1984
This excellent book and should almost be required reading! It offers a clear and concise background on Tibetan culture, and details the events surrounding the occupation of Tibet by the Chinese.
Tenzin Gyatso, H. H. the Dalai Lama, My Land and My People NY: Potala, 1983
This is an autobiographical account of the history of modern Tibet, told by His Holiness Tenzin Gyatso, the XIVth Dalai Lama. We also recommend any other publication by His Holiness such as Ethics for a New Millennium , The Art of Happiness and The World of Tibetan Buddhism.
Mahatma Gandhi, (Louis Fischer, ed.) The Essential Gandhi, Vintage, 1962.
Mahatma Gandhi , Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth, Beacon Press, 1993.
Gitanjali Kolanad, Culture Shock! India: A Guide to Customs and Etiquette, Times Books Intnl., 1994.
Gita Mehta, Karma Cola: Marketing the Mystic East, Vintage Books, 1991.
Travel/ Historical Fiction
Rudyard Kipling, Kim, Bantam Classics and Loveswept, 1983
Peter Mathessien, The Snow Leopard, Penguin Nature Classics, 1978.
Herman Hesse, Siddhartha, NY: New Directions, 1951
Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things, Harper Collins, 1998.
Rushdie, Salman et al., Mirrorwork: 50 Years of Indian Writing 1947-1997, Henry Holt & Co., 1997. (an excellent anthology; a good way to sample many authors who have written about India)
Buddhism/Hinduism
Diana Eck, Banaras, City of Light, Knopf, 1982.
Diana Eck, Darshan, Columbia University Press, 1998.
Michele Martin, Music in the Sky: The Life, Art & Teachings of the 17th Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorje, Snow Lion Publications, 2002.
John Powers, An Introduction to Tibetan Buddhism, Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion Publications, 1995
Chogyam Trungpa, Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism, Boston & London: Shambala, 1973
Walpola Rahula, Paul Demieville What the Buddha Taught, Grove Press, 1986.
A.L. Herman, A Brief Introduction to Hinduism: Religion, Philosophy and the Ways of Liberation, Westview Press, 1991.
Kim Knott, Hinduism: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press, 1999.
Juan Mascaro, ed., The Bhagavad Gita, Viking Press, 1983.
Juan Mascaro, ed., The Upanisads, Viking Press, 1965.
Movies (Available at most video rental stores)
Tibet: Cry of he Snow Lion, Kundun, Windhorse, The Cup, Seven Years in Tibet, Gandhi, Earth, Saalom Bombay, Water