Lord Jim of Dilling - Diplomat Magazine

DELIGHTS|BOOKSThe great non-existentBhutan conspiracyBy George FetherlingOur Books section provides a comprehensivelook at books on Bhutan, Tibetand philanthropy. Here is a list of the16 titles mentioned.Mad Dogs, James GradyJames Grady is a thriller writer (oneof the “50 to read before you die”,according to the Daily Telegraph inLondon) whose new CIA conspiracy yarn,Mad Dogs, has quickly made its mark withreaders — and with Hollywood as well.But it is unlikely to surpass the successof his Six Days of the Condor, publishedin 1974. The following year, that book becamea Robert Redford movie called ThreeDays of the Condor, its time-span obviouslyreduced by half so as to speed up the action.Either way, it’s quite a fine thriller,despite one enormous glitch in the plot.The protagonist is a low-level CIA employeein New York whose job is to readall new spy thrillers as they are published.He is to look for possible security leaksrelating to company techniques and gadgets.But he also stays alert for tricks andhardware that have come straight from theauthors’ imaginations but which the boysin Langley might consider copying. Hebegins to grow suspicious that so manyspy tales are being translated into Arabicbut not into any of the western Europeanlanguages. His curiosity leads him to uncoveran illicit CIA programme designedto safeguard America’s supply of MiddleEastern oil.Mr. Grady should have known, as otherauthors do, that the question of whichworks gets translated in which foreigncountries is purely as a matter of chanceand is not susceptible to logical explanation.One of my recent books, to use theeasiest example at hand, was publishedin Japanese (not unusual in the least)and also in Czech and Bulgarian, butnot in, say, French, Spanish or German.There was no conspiracy here. The resultswere simply a matter of which Canadianpublisher happened to have once had adrink with opposite numbers from Pragueand Sofia. In modern times, introducingpublishers and their editors to colleaguesin other countries has largely been thepurpose of the Frankfurt Book Fair (whichwas founded in 1480).Still, if one were prone to crackpot theories,one might be forgiven for suspectingthat there is indeed a Canadian conspiracyinvolving Bhutan, the ruggedly mountainousand predominately Buddhist state ofonly a million or fewer people, bordered26istockSix Days of the Condor, James GradyBeyond the Sky and the Earth: AJourney into Bhutan, Jamie ZeppaButter Tea at Sunrise: A Year in theBhutan Himalaya, Britta DasUnder the Holy Lake: A Memoir ofEastern Bhutan, Ken HaighChina’s Great Train: Beijing’s DriveWest and the Campaign to RemakeTibet, Abrahm LustgartenThe Old Patagonian Express, PaulTherouxGhost Train to the Eastern Star: On theTracks of the Great Railway Bazaar,Paul TherouxThe Great Railway Bazaar, PaulTherouxSaint Jack, Paul TherouxThe London Embassy, Paul TherouxHalf Moon Street, Paul TherouxThe Elephanta Suite, Paul TherouxA Blue Hand: The Beats in India,Deborah BakerA Place Within: Rediscovering India,M.G. VassanjiUnderstanding Philanthropy: ItsMeaning and Mission, Robert T.Payton and Michael P. Moodyby the topmost reaches of India on theeast, south and west and by China onthe north. A relatively short distance tothe west lies the somewhat similar (butHindu) state of Nepal, which is far betterknown, more deeply understood andmore often visited. For until recently, tourismin Bhutan was actually forbidden, andonly a small handful of English-languagebooks, or portions of books, were givenover to the strange little place it is today.Most of these were guide books, aimedat the sort of hardy travellers who havealready had their fill of Tibet.When Beyond the Sky and the Earth: AJourney into Bhutan by Jamie Zeppa of Torontowas published by Doubleday Canadain 1999, it drew an immense amountof publicity because of its sheer noveltyas well as its style. The small portion ofthe public concerned with the region wasprimed for the book’s appearance by theway Bhutan was losing its Shangri-la imagein the face of democracy, televisionand the Internet.Canadian volunteers have being goingto Bhutan for years. They have helpedthe society, which is wretchedly poor, inimproving its medical and educationalinstitutions, for example. One such humanitarianis Britta Das, a Toronto physiotherapist,who returned home with suchstriking photographs of Bhutanese life thatJamie Zeppa suggested she write a bookto go with them. The result is Butter Teaat Sunrise: A Year in the Bhutan Himalaya,published recently by Dundurn Press($24.99 paper).The latest evidence of what even sinisterand cynical-minded people could viewonly as a most benevolent conspiracy indeedis Ken Haigh’s book Under the HolyLake: A Memoir of Eastern Bhutan ($29.99paper), which lists Ms. Zeppa’s work inits wild-ranging bibliography of bookson Bhutan in various languages. Thathis book in fact has such a bibliographyis illustrative of Mr. Haigh’s publisher,SPRING 09 | APR–JUN