Marina Nebro
Comparative Literature 102W – Final Paper
May 9, 2013
Travel literature comes in many different genres and describes many
different journeys. Each journey, although distinct, creates a sense of self-identity
and awareness among the individual travelers or wanderers. One’s identity is
comprised of not just childhood memories, but rather one’s entire life experience. A
journal about a mundane life, an epistolary novel about an exploration, and even a
travel blog all show a progression in self awareness, as these journeys give the
individual a new way of looking at the world – a new perspective. In Palden
Gyatso’s Autobiography of a Tibetan Monk and Esther Stermer’s memoir We Fight
to Survive, both authors describe their journey as one through struggle and turmoil.
Such unrest tested their self-confidence, their beliefs, and in the end strengthened
their identities and changed their perspectives on the way they viewed the world.
This paper will discuss the challenges both Gyatso and Stermer faced during
imprisonment and hiding, how they overcame certain obstacles, why they chose to
write in the memoir and autobiography genre, and what the purpose was of writing
down their stories. Ultimately, this essay will show how their obstacles
strengthened their self-identity and reinforced the identities of many individuals
after them.
In order to understand the struggles faced by the two protagonists, it is
important to have a background in what they were fighting against. Palden Gyatso
grew up in Tibet, a small country situated between India and China – the two
countries with the largest populations on the planet. His childhood seems quite
unique as he “was one of the candidates for the reincarnation of a high lama” (3) and
he later went on to live with his aunt after his mother died soon after his birth. One
would think that these events, the death of mother and a high honor, would shape
Gyatso’s future and self-identity. But this is not the case, and I digress. Tibet was a
Buddhist and independent country that was organized by a feudal system. Monks
and Buddhist temples would exist in each village, and the people of the village
would often donate money or goods to their temples. In Tibetan society, one either
remained a peasant, or rose up to become a monk. Beginning in the 1950s, “rumors
of the growing Chinese presence in Tibet began to seep into the monastery” (34). By
this, Palden Gyatso is hinting that the Chinese had most probably been in Tibet for
quite some time as monasteries were usually the last to hear about worldly affairs.
In the early 20th century, China had turned towards communism after several
revolutions and uprisings. 1945, in particular, was a pivotal year for communist
China as Mao Zedong rose to power. With communism comes much paranoia on the
part of the government. To ensure the maintenance of power, communists
governments stress the abandonment of the “’four olds’: old culture, customs, habits,
and thoughts” (127). Instead, communist citizens must focus only on the new
socialist order. These practices were prevalent and very oppressive during the
Cultural Revolution. When China entered Tibet and started enforcing these rules,
the main victims were the landlords and the monks. That being said, all of Tibet
suffered, as the country was previously a culturally rich haven for Buddhists
following the Dalai Lama. Now, no one was able to hold onto his or her precious
beliefs.
To jump to our second protagonist, Esther Stermer was a Jewish woman
living in a small town by the name of Korolowka, on the border between Poland and
the Ukraine during the time of the Holocaust. This mass religious and ethnic
genocide was part of a larger war: World War II (1939-1945). Adolf Hitler, the
chancellor of Germany at the time as well as the leader of the fascist Nazi Party, had
been invading lands surrounding the German country such as Czechoslovakia and
Austria. Once he entered Poland, though, war broke out among the great world
powers prompting the second World War. In all of his conquered territories, Hitler
sought to elevate the Aryan race – a superficial race of pure Germans – by
eliminating all who did not fit its bill – blonde hair, blue eyes, Christian, and loyal
Nazis. Jews, gypsies, invalids, and mentally disabled peoples fell under the category
of people that were to be exterminated. They were sent to ghettoes, concentration
camps, and death camps to be exploited and then removed from the face of the
Earth. Many brave individuals and families tried to escape this persecution by
hiding in bunkers, in forests, and by trying to flee to unoccupied territories. It didn’t
matter that Esther’s “husband was a business man… [and that they] owned fields
and lived in a big house with a fine garden” (1). As long as they didn’t fit Hitler’s
ideal, they were doomed.
In order to show how struggle and exile strengthens an individual’s selfidentity and self-fashioning, it is important to know from where this positive
progression stems. Palden Gyatso – or Ngodup, his original name given to him by a
high lama – came from a well-to-do family in Tibet, as his “family kept over 600
sheep and goats, and were relatively wealthy by Tibetan standards” (6). His father
was a landlord and “was regarded as a fair man and [his] tenants and the villagers
called him Bari Jho la, a term that implies endearment and respect” (7). As
mentioned above, early on in his childhood he was considered a nominee for the
reincarnation of a high lama – an immense honor in Tibetan culture. Since this
event, his family always saw him as growing up to be a monk – especially his
grandmother who was beginning to “fret about [his] future” (19). Gyatso explains
his love for monasteries at an early age, stating that he “was lonely in the village, but
in the monastery [he] found companionship and even the adults seemed to have
more time for me” (18). His original push towards monastic life was his family’s
desires as well as a desire for a place of acceptance. He was a very intelligent monk,
and one that worked hard and was always interested in learning from great
teachers, but over all, it all comes down to that last line – he felt like he was at home.
After his mother’s death, he never seemed to fit in at home with his father and for
this reason moved in with his aunt. When she passed, he felt ultimately alone and
shifted his focus to the monastery.
Esther Stermer, as I mentioned above, came from a small town on the border
between Poland and the Ukraine. Her family, like Palden Gyatso’s was also quite
well off. Many of the Jews – “about 500 Jewish families in Korolowka” (1) to be
specific – “were in business or were craftsmen” and were in similar positions as the
Stermer family. Before the Nazi invasion, life was quite pleasant in their town as
they traded with the Ukrainians and Poles “their crops, their cows, and their
agricultural products” (1). Esther Stermer definitely does not come off as a selfish
individual, and even before the main struggles ensued, she was always thinking of
her family and of her people. During the start of German occupation of other lands,
Jews were pushed out and forced back into Poland, but “Poland refused them entry
[and] they remained on no man’s land in Zbonzhin” (1). Esther felt such a
connection to these uprooted and dislocated Jews that she and her family
“contributed monies and material and sent them to Zbonzhin” (1).
Both the Nazis and Chinese sought to eliminate unique identities and
cultures, and did so through systematic physical and moral persecution. For most
individuals, enough physical and mental torture will create submission to
authoritative forces. In the case of Tibet, the Chinese forced most of its monks into
work camps. Their goal was to reform these religious figures and have them praise
the socialist state rather than the Dalai Lama and their old customs and ways of life.
As is mentioned above, it was important to eliminate the “four olds” and integrate
the new views on socialism and communism. The monks in prison were
“encouraged to throw [their] belongings on to the fire” (127). The old would then
be enveloped in flame and smoke, never to be seen again – a form of moral and
emotional persecution. In place of the old, the prisoners had to learn a “new
socialist idiom” (129) and were forced to read Mao’s “Little Red Book” or the Tibet
Daily. The Chinese guards would turn Tibetan against Tibetan, by instigating a new
belief in class struggle that had never been formerly present in Tibetan culture. This
would lead to the feeling of isolation and paranoia between prisoners and cut off
their support system. In terms of physical punishment, prison guards would
organize thamzing or beatings. One prisoner would be subject to physical and
verbal abuse by his fellow inmates.
Similarly, the Nazis sought to eliminate support systems among the Jewish
people and to inflict upon them mental and physical turmoil. Anti-Semitism was a
huge problem, both during the Holocaust and before. Hitler exaggerated this issue
and made it beneficial for Gentiles to rat out and not support their Jewish neighbors
and friends. Esther Stermer speaks about this often, as Jews entrusted their
property and lives to non-Jewish neighbors just to be turned in to the authorities.
“The Ukrainians whom their Jewish neighbors had given their valuables to hide
knew that each Jew was doomed to death and that no one would ever come to them
for an accounting. This is why many ‘friendly Ukrainians’ proved to be creatures
without conscience” (91). The difference between our two stories, then, arises in
the isolation factor. For the Chinese, their goal was to isolate the individual, where
as the Nazis sought to isolate an entire people and population as a whole. There is
also a discrepancy when it comes to the final objective. In the case of the Chinese,
they sought to incorporate Tibet successfully into Communist China and eliminate
dissent. In Nazi Europe, though, Hitler sought to totally annihilate a culture through
mass extermination. Both methods, in the end, destroy unique and traditional ways
of life.
Palden Gyatso was subject to much of the turmoil that is mentioned above.
He was being watched by his fellow prisoners, was subjected to thamzing, and the
guards even “put [him] in handcuffs and shackled [his] feet together with a chain”
(69), making even the most basic of tasks painful and difficult. Despite this extreme
form of mental and corporal cruelty that Palden Gyatso underwent, he still remained
true to himself. During his beating, he refused to succumb to Chinese forces. In
response to why he had tried to escape, Palden answered, “’I escaped because I
feared I would die of starvation’” (98). Of all things to say, this was probably one of
the worst, because it blamed the Chinese government for food shortages and ousted
one of their main problems. Many of his fellow prisoners wondered “why [he] was
making life so difficult for [himself]” (99), and the reason was because he wouldn’t
let the Chinese win. In response to prisoners committing suicide, Palden Gyatso
admits that death would definitely be a pleasant relief, but that all it would do would
strengthen the Chinese. In opposition to his oppressors, Gyatso would secretly
circulate throughout the country “reactionary” or revolutionary – depending on how
you perceive the position of the Tibetan prisoners – posters and pamphlets. He
wouldn’t allow the Chinese forces within the prison to prevent him from trying to
overthrow their rule.
Though Esther Stermer and her family were not directly subjected to the
harsh treatment that the Nazis wielded in the concentration and death camps, they
were exposed to harsh Anti-Semitism and tough conditions nonetheless. In an effort
to escape the Nazis, the Stermers and their extended family hid away in bunkers and
in caves. The family remained as an extremely tight-knit unit, and helped each other
throughout the entire experience. In the caves, they “sought out a tunnel which was
so low that one could not stand in it” (31). The floor was always damp and moist,
and soon enough shoes were deteriorating and the family was left walking around
barefoot. “Water was a great problem” (31) and the family struggled with food
supply as well. Although they were technically free from Nazi forces, they were still
subjected to the same conditions that many faced in the ghettoes and work camps –
starvation, exhaustion, uncertainty, and fear. One thing the family did not lack,
however, was will power. Being away from Nazi camps made the family more
determined that ever to remain away from said sites. It is quite remarkable how
human determination and spirit can come out in such times of hardship. In
response to possible exposure, the Stermer family had to find multiple exits in their
cave hiding places. Twice they were forced to create secret entrances and exits, in
their first and their second grotto. Even though their situation was due to their
religion and background, the family still clung onto their identity and culture.
Within the caves they would hold prayer services and holiday celebrations as best
they could. Esther in particular “knew about the rising of the new moon and its
passing every day” (81) and kept a precise calendar not only for the purpose of
sanity, but also because such cycles were necessary to know when it came to
celebrating Jewish holidays. Even in the caves, where they were starving and
struggling every day, the family celebrated Yom Kippur or the Day of Judgment and
“fasted and prayed the entire day” (81). The Stermers would not accept defeat.
Each time they were found out, each time they were faced with another problem,
they pushed forward and waited for their true freedom.
Palden Gyatso and Esther Stermer both write in the first person and recount
struggles they had to face. The difference comes up in their specific styles. Gyatso is
writing an autobiography, which is defined as “a life story written by self,” where as
Esther wrote a memoir which is “a biography of historical account.” Where do these
two genres differ? Gyatso begins his story from his birth, and follows
chronologically each of his days until his escape from the Chinese forces and
prisons. Esther Stermer, on the other hand, recounts one specific event or time in
her life, not its entirety. Where does the significance arise in these differences? As
mentioned in class, Palden Gyatso’s autobiography isn’t only a chronological
account of his life, but of the Tibetan people from before Chinese influence to the
present. Esther Stermer, as well, though specifically telling the story of her family
during the Holocaust, is indirectly telling the story of the Jewish people through
struggle and exile. Throughout her entire account, she makes it her goal to mention
every Jew along the way that may have died or went missing during this tough time.
If Esther had written her book as an autobiography, it would have taken away from
the universality of the story. If Palden Gyatso chose to write a memoir about a
specific experience during his time in prison, he would have forgone all the
background information of Tibet’s existence.
Both Palden Gyatso and Esther Stermer had a goal in mind when writing
their stories: to make known to the world the atrocities their people have and are
continuing to face. In writing his story, Gyatso brought the Tibetan-Chinese conflict
to the forefront of our knowledge. Without this firsthand account, there would be
no way of understanding what is really happening, as the Chinese will be the last to
admit their wrong doing. Stermer’s book has influenced much of her family in the
recent past. The creation of a documentary, No Place on Earth, features alternate
viewpoints on the experience in the caves by her two sons and nieces. In her tome,
she even predicts the making of this movie as she says, “if this cave were now in the
hands of the Allies, it would be possible to make a film there about our life in this
grotto which would have surpassed the fantasies of scenarists in showing how
human beings can survive under such conditions. But now the area is under Soviet
control” (68). Once the Soviet Union collapsed and the Ukraine and Poland became
independent countries, it became possible for such a film to be produced. Not only
have her offspring and nieces been able to return to the caves in which they grew
and survived for 511 days as young children and adults, but also her decedents –
grandchildren and great-grandchildren – have returned to see the place where their
grandmother exerted such strength as an individual and matriarch.
Though both Palden Gyatso and Esther Stermer may not have gone on
elaborate journeys from one end of the world to another, they nonetheless
experienced an individual transformation that changed their lives, and the lives of
those coming after them, forever and for the better. The fact that their journeys
were forced shows just how much will power and strength they had as individuals.
Their struggles pushed them even more in their convictions, as they continued
practicing their religions and cultural customs in spite of every obstacle in their
way.
Bibliography
Gyatso, Palden. The Autobiography of a Tibetan Monk. New York: Grove Press, 1997.
Print.
Stermer, Esther. We Fight to Survive. Montreal: Jewish Institute of Higher Research,
1975. Print.