Writer's accountof transformation

Many of those who paint pictures of a Shangri-La in the Tibet before March 1959, clearly show they had never set their foot in the Old Tibet, which the Dalai Lama and his followers left behind.

Among the 19 journalists and writers who visited Lhasa on a fact-finding trip five months after the rebellion by serf-owners was quelled was Anna Louise Strong (1885-1970).

The culmination of her trip was When Serfs Stood up in Tibet, which is still "the best book for understanding the startling transformations on 'the roof of the world'," according to veteran journalist Israel Epstein (1915-2005).