We Measure the Earth with Our Bodies
CBC Books | Posted: June 1, 2022 7:38 PM | Last Updated: October 6, 2022
Tsering Yangzom Lama
In the wake of China's invasion of Tibet throughout the 1950s, Lhamo and her sister, Tenkyi, arrive at a refugee camp on the border of Nepal, having survived the dangerous journey across the Himalayas into exile when so many others did not. As Lhamo — haunted by the loss of her homeland and her mother, the village oracle — tries to rebuild a life amid a shattered community, hope arrives in the form of a young man named Samphel and his uncle, who brings with him the ancient statue of the Nameless Saint, a relic long rumoured to vanish and reappear in times of need.
Decades later, the sisters are separated, and Tenkyi is living with Lhamo's daughter, Dolma, in Toronto's Parkdale neighbourhood. While Tenkyi works as a cleaner and struggles with traumatic memories, Dolma vies for a place as a scholar of Tibetan Studies. But when Dolma comes across the Nameless Saint in a collector's vault, she must decide what she is willing to do for her community, even if it means risking her dreams.
Breathtaking in scope and powerfully intimate, We Measure the Earth with Our Bodies is a gorgeously written meditation on colonization, displacement, and the lengths we'll go to remain connected to our families and ancestral lands. Told through the lives of four people over fifty years, this beautifully lyrical debut novel provides a nuanced portrait of the world of Tibetan exiles. (From McClelland & Stewart)
We Measure the Earth with Our Bodies is on the 2022 Scotiabank Giller Prize shortlist. The winner will be announced on Nov. 7, 2022.
Regenerative in spirit, the pages of this story are both an homage to survival and a home for the exiled. - 2022 Scotiabank Giller Prize jury
From the 2022 Scotiabank Giller Prize: "Through a stirring intergenerational saga that spans decades and continents, Tsering Yangzom Lama deftly unearths how exiles create home when their homeland has been stolen. With tender authenticity, We Measure the Earth With Our Bodies delicately and vigorously illustrates the ongoing human cost of Tibetan displacement, and the resolve of refugees to uphold a strong diaspora despite the violence of colonialism. The Tibetan women at the centre of Lama's story are bound by an unflinching love for each other, their people, and the country to which they can no longer return. Vast in time, space, and feeling, this determined novel builds a vibrant world that's both expansive and exact. Each line carefully bears the weight of longing for what once was, and the hope to sustain an uprooted culture still coming to be. Regenerative in spirit, the pages of this story are both an homage to survival and a home for the exiled."
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Tsering Yangzom Lama is a Tibetan author based in Vancouver. Born and raised in Nepal, she's also lived in Toronto and New York City. We Measure the Earth with Our Bodies is her debut novel.
Why Tsering Yangzom Lama wrote We Measure the Earth with Our Bodies
"Within the last 50 years, Tibetans have lost their homelands and experienced profound upheaval — personal and societal. We have gone from being nomads or farmers living on our ancestral lands, to refugees begging on the streets for food, to immigrants living all over the world.
"Tibetans in Tibet can no longer move freely throughout their country. They need Chinese permits to simply go from one region to another. The occupation of our homeland is also a form of spiritual violence, one that denies people freedom to worship in this ancient way.
The occupation of our homeland is also a form of spiritual violence, one that denies people freedom to worship in this ancient way. - Tsering Yangzom Lama
"Meanwhile, those of us in exile cannot enter Tibet, except in rare circumstances. Instead, we travel across the face of the earth in search of safety and refuge. Whether inside or outside Tibet, we experience this colonization and displacement in our bodies. We carry it in our day-to-day existence.
"I wanted to understand what had happened to us, how we survived, and how colonization and exile have shaped us."