Reviews with content warning for Injury/Injury detail - We Measure the Earth with Our Bodies

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We Measure the Earth with Our Bodies by Tsering Yangzom Lama

6 reviews

paguroidea's review

emotional reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Loved the writing and insight into the culture of Tibetan people, but there is no way to learn about that without the truth of their suffering- both under monastic feudalism (in some regions previously) and as refugees forced out of their own country. It is not an emotionally easy read by any means. It was well worth reading despite that.

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just_one_more_paige's review against another edition

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challenging emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

I'm not actually sure how this one came across my radar. I don't think I've seen anyone else review it, which is normally how I find books. Nor has it been on any lists, I don't think. Perhaps this is one that I talked to a patron at the library about? Usually book recs go the other way, from me to them, but sometimes that switches up. Either way, I haven't read anything by a Tibetan author before, that I can remember, nor anything even set in/around Tibet, so I was very interested in this one.

We Measure the Earth with Our Bodies is an intergenerational family story, focusing entirely on the women of the family. Opening with the 1950s, with China's invasion of Tibet, Lhamo, her younger sister Tenkyi, and their family, are forced to flee their home for a refugee camp in Nepal. Although the sisters survive the trip across the Himalayas, their parents do not. Over the next years, as they adjust to life in the camp, the differences in daily life and survival there, they each make goals and plans for the future, while also doing their best to cope with their losses and grief. Decades in the future, the sisters are separated by an ocean, as Lhamo has stayed in Nepal while Tenkyi has traveled to live in Canada. Lhamo has sent her daughter, Dolma, to live and study in Toronto with her aunt. Through her studies, Dolma is pulled back to her roots in Tibet, a country she has never seen, as she struggles to learn more about and come to terms with the turmoil of her land and family that is pervasive through all their relationships, even though her mother and aunt speak very little of it.

There is a deep thread of mysticism throughout this novel. That's probably the biggest vibe I took away from this reading experience. From the exploration and role of female oracles in Tibetan/Buddhist society to the statue of the Nameless Saint that is thread woven across generations and continents to the general sort of transcendent connections between the women of Lhamo's family and the spiritual connections with their homeland, it was ubiquitous from start to finish. This definitely lined up with the belief-base upon which this story was built. I loved reading about the traditions and systems Lama shares in these pages: of prayer flags, of the respect for life (all life, especially demonstrated by the parts sections with the ants, for me), of the importance of (yak) butter in daily food and life, nomadic traditional practices, and the general rituals around death and mourning. Lama writes of it with such a deep feeling, it was incredibly touching. I really appreciated the opportunity to learn this history (ancient and contemporary, both - as I had very little knowledge of the Chinese annexation of Tibet and the continuation of that offense against the country and its people to this day) and culture. It was fascinating and educational, and also inspired me to do quite a bit of follow-up research of my own on many of the topics.

On both an individual and a population level, this is a crushing story, heavy with tragedy and loss and doing whatever one can to make the best of circumstances one has little control over. The way that colonialism is innate in every part of the world, that belief in superiority that is so universal and deep-seated, is as heartbreaking here as it is anywhere. Watching, in this novel, how much is lost to that imperial reality, between generations (culturally and within families) because of externally forced "leaving behind" combined with the way that older community members hold trauma close, doing what they must to survive and move past (often purposefully forgetting or compartmentalizing) - the way that leaves younger generations without the chance to hear the stories of their ancestors, or feeling otherwise disconnected from their heritage - is so horribly tragic and heart-rending. Lama does an exceptional job imparting the way that feels on the reader, with Dolma's perspective. Her meditations on who she is, when she's thrust into a land she doesn't know, that isn’t hers (whether it's meant to help her escape from or to something), even with the goal of surviving/thriving, it’s still not her true homeland. Reading how she is unable to go back, cannot re-enter Tibet, and yet she cannot make somewhere else (whether Nepal or Canada) the same kind of "true" home is so emotionally intense.

Lama's writing in this entire novel is spectacular. I highlighted so many passages. The way she is able to convey both sorrow and hope in equal measure is almost too much at once. As it ends, and she writes of the land that remains, how it holds the memories of those who once inhabited it, even though they are gone, and how that can carry their presence on and on is so affecting. As I mentioned earlier, the sort of otherworldly aspect that Lama is able to bring to such an agonizing story is a very unique style, one that was perfect for giving the reader a real impression of both the incredible loss and the remaining affinity of the Tibetan people and traditions. I loved how it allowed me to be emotionally invested, but in a sort of necessarily ephemeral way. It made for a slightly slower-than-normal reading experience for me, but I think that was right for the story this novel was telling. And again, as this carried through, thematically, with the focus on (almost) all female characters, especially a spiritual/holy type of woman, and the thread of the ku (the Nameless Saint) as a symbol for the everlasting tie to one's heritage, despite everything, it was very moving.

“It’s no small matter to leave, [...] Our homes are here. our gods are here, in our mountains and rivers that we know so well. We are tied to this land and this land is tied to us, in every way possible.”

“My mother was not just an idea. She was made of a body, and a body is not simple or plain. It has its own will and its own memories. When it gives up, no song, no prayer can bring it back.”

“How ragged and tired we seem. Like old prayer flags strung across a hillside, the colors have been stripped from our bodies over many hard days. What would peace do for us? Would it make us new again? Would it stitch us back together?”

“Have you ever felt a cool pocket of air around you? [...] You don't know it's there until you touch it, but it's always there. All you have to do is hold out your hand. That's what it's like to receive a terma. To lay a hand on a rock and recognize verses of metaphysics. To grind an herb and discover a moment of wisdom that unleashes entire teachings. or to look up at the sky and see a symbol right there that unlocks a transmission from a thousand years ago. Imagine how that feels. To come up against something so ancient, which was left there just for you.”

“The world has forgotten us. To the vast majority, we do not matter. How else could they pass around our gods as possessions, display them in the sterile confines of museums and private collections, as though we were already long gone?”

“But the occupation doesn't begin and end on the edges of my country. It lives in the words you select when you write about us.”

“Please overlook our present degradation. You should have seen us before the invasion, when our country had kings and gods and an unbroken thread of history from a time before time.”

“How many people are doing this right now? Making their way from place to place, countless ants crossing the planet, some on boats in the middle of the ocean, some in mountain passes, others hidden in the kitchens of city restaurants, or tucked inside a dark box. […] All these journeys. Already fated to succeed, no matter how many lifetimes they take. From far away, we may look like we're standing still, but we are all traveling great distances, forging our fates.”

“It’s strange, isn’t it, how a few slivers of the past seem to swell in the mind while so much else falls away?”

“In the end, this may be how we survive. Collecting the shards of ourselves and offering them with honesty to someone else.”

“But I suppose we must all make peace with the things we cannot have.”

“What I do know is that survival is an ugly game, and our objects are all the world really values of our people. Our objects and our ideas. But not us, and not our lives.”

“Nothing here lasts for long, not even the past.”

“Yes, this is how you break a heart. With a wire fence that shows everything that cannot be touched.”

“For now, we must leave. But we will continue to circle this land. In this life and the next. That is our sorrow and our hope.”

Content Warnings

hollyd19's review against another edition

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challenging emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

This epic follows a family of Tibetan refugees from their flight to Nepal during China’s Cultural Revolution through to Vancouver in 2012. Sisters Lhamo and Tenkyi are young girls when their family is forced to flee violence and cultural erasure. They land in a refugee camp set up in Nepal for the incoming migrants, and the book follows their unfolding lives.

The structure of this novel is creative with sections delineated by relational groupings (daughters, sisters, lovers, etc). The story goes back and forth from the 50s until nearly present day, converging to bring the whole story into focus. The writing is truly exceptional. Several passages bowled be over with poetic, insistent prose determined to scrub away grit from a window and reveal beyond wise, hard-earned truths.

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internationalreads's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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sarah984's review

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challenging hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

I thought this book was really well done and managed to showcase a lot of heavy concepts regarding exile, trauma, survival and continuity of culture in a relatively low page count. I enjoyed the multiple points of view as many characters looked at the same situation in entirely different ways. The trajectory and different meanings of the Nameless Saint were my favourite parts of the novel. It meandered a bit in the middle with a sort of melodramatic romance that didn't really feel necessary but overall I loved this.

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careinthelibrary's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

This is the kind of book that, while fiction, was so educational to me. <i>We Measure the Earth with Our Bodies</i> imparted so much information and nuance to historical and contemporary Tibetan cultural and political issues.
I didn't love all the perspectives equally and found myself yearning to be back in the minds of a couple of our characters when I was reading about someone elsewhere. Jumping around in the timeline didn't work for me.
Actually, if I'm being honest, the story itself didn't stick with me a whole lot. It was those characters and the content regarding Tibetan culture that I remember best about the novel. The biting critique of white westerners' fascination and appropriation of Tibetan culture without a care for the Free Tibet movement. Especially in the art world where culturally sacred artefacts are taken from their homelands and denied repatriation.
Beautiful writing and beautiful message. I can see why it's making waves in the litfic world.

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