Some time ago, a reader of my other blog asked a fair question, “Do people think about Tibet?” She was questioning the tagline I use to describe my novel. I never gave her a satisfactory answer; for that matter, I have no way of knowing if she cared to hear an answer from me.

How often do we think about people in far-flung places? For those of us who do, will our pondering ever affect their lives? These days, horrific images of bloodshed and suffering often fill our TV screens, naturally many of us will experience the pang, nevertheless, is this collective empathy likely to have any impact on the policymakers?

It’d be silly to think of Tibet as merely a metaphor of human conditions. Tibet is real.