Book Reviews : Michael C. Van Walt Van Praag, The Status of Tibet: History, Rights and Prospects in International Law (Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1987), 381 pp. $ 32.50
Abstract
Book ReviewsMichael C. Van Walt Van Praag, The Status of Tibet: History, Rights and Prospects in International Law (Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1987), 381 pp. $ 32.50 SAGE Publications, Inc.1988DOI: 10.1177/002190968802300308 Paul Hyer Brigham Young University Provo, Utah, U.S.A. This book analyzes in a perceptive, sophisticated manner one of the troubled countries of the world. Tibet was forcibly integrated into the Peoples' Republic off China in the 1950s, but its status has never been resolved to the satisfaction of the Tibetans nor the majority of the world that sympathizes with them. Tibet has been the subject of much polemical writing with the Chinese maintaining that Tibet is simply a part of China while the evidence confirms that Tibet has a long, separate history with a distinct culture and language. As the debate lingers on, the Tibetans continue to maintain a government in exile under the leadership of the Dalai Lama. The author of the book under review, Michael C. van Walt van Praag is former director of the Tibetan Affairs Coordination Office in the Netherlands. He has lectured on Tibet at the Monterey Institute of International Studies and presently practices international law in Washington, D.C. and London. This