‘Stories from Beyond the Clouds’ – an anthology of Tibetan Folk Tales’ brings together stories made in the oral tradition and collected from among Tibetans living in Dharamsala, India, where writer Clifford Thurlow spent 12 months studying Buddhism. He made the collection with oral translations by Dala Sonam Khalintsang, a student at Delhi University. The story-tellers were Thupten Sangay, Khamtrul Rinpoche, Sonam Dhondup, Dawa Saldon, Ngawang Norby, Dhonden, a monk, and others. The book was first published by the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, in Dharamsala, with all proceeds donated to the Dalai Lama's fund for the refugees who fled from Chinese occupied Tibet.
Folk tales are morality tales populated by special people. Not ordinary people like those we meet on our journey through life, but the whole secret and exciting society of one-eyed sorcerers, evil giants, handsome princes and dancing fairies who weave magic spells as they fly between the folds of a rainbow. These Tibetan tales follow that tradition.
'These stories radiate the inner happiness and ancient wisdom that emanated from the people who told them and appear on the page like golden rays of sunshine,’ Rachel McCourt, Time Out.
