When I first held this book in my hand, I was captivated by the picture of a Tibetan woman's face that measured less than a half inch square on the book's cover. Who is this Ani Pachen? I asked myself. And what bliss lies on the other side of Sorrow Mountain that she wears it so? This beautiful face shines with such a radiance of love and enlightenment, that I carry it now in my mind and heart. One afternoon when I was sitting in my recliner halfway dozing off, as I was recovering from a minor accident which was more painfull than serious, I held the book up and said to my wife, "I've only managed to read six pages." Which brought me not quite to page 100. The next morning I held the book again before her and said, "I could not have survived what this woman has. I'm not sure I've ever known anyone who could have." I held my emotions in check, as I had cried the night before, when I turned the final pages. My wife looked at the book and said, "You've never read a book that fast before." This was not far from true. I spoke briefly about the book and then I spoke my heart aloud. "I know we have no money, but I feel compelled to do something for the people of Tibet." If this review resonates with your heart, then I have made a start. As someone who loves the Chinese people and culture, it was difficult for me to read about the atrocities committed against the Tibetan people during the Cultual Revolution. After watching her homeland destroyed and her people murdered, after enduring 21 years of torture and imprisonment, Ani Pachen's message is pure, as she prays for an end to all human suffering.
