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| Beyond the Sky and the Earth: A Journey into Bhutan | 
 enlarge | Author: Jamie Zeppa
Publisher: Riverhead Trade
Category: Book
List Price: $16.00
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Avg. Customer Rating:  (79 reviews)
Sales Rank: 42554
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 5.5 x 0.9
ISBN: 157322815X
Dewey Decimal Number: 954.98
EAN: 9781573228152
ASIN: 157322815X
Publication Date: May 1, 2000
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
In the tradition of Iron and Silk and Bicycle Days, comes the story of a young woman's self-discovery in a foreign land.
At the age of twenty-two, Jamie Zeppa, raised in a small Canadian town by her grandparents, engaged to be married, never having left the North American continent, decided to embark on one great adventure before settling down for a happy, if conventional, life. She sought a place at the outer reaches of the globe and the outer limits of her imagination and ended up in Bhutan, a tiny Buddhist kingdom closed to the West for centuries, an unspoiled land of Himalayan peaks and lush valleys.
Jamie Zeppa went to Bhutan as a teacher on a two-year Canadian government contract. During her early weeks of hardship and disorientation, this neophyte traveler was on the verge of packing it in. After a few weeks more, however, the country and its people worked their alchemy on her; she canceled her trip home for Christmas and requested an extension of her contract. In time, she broke off her engagement. After two years, she was not only in love with the country but also with a young Bhutanese man.
From the pristine, heart-crushing beauty of the landscape to the celebrations and sorrows of its people, Zeppa conjures and captures the true spirit of her unforgettable pilgrim experience. Stirring, poignant, funny, and full of joy, Beyond the Earth and the Sky is at once a classic tale of discovery and adventure, and a love story--between a woman and a country, a people, a man.
Amazon.com Review
As a teacher of English literature, Jamie Zeppa would understand how the story of her journey into Bhutan could be fit into the convenient box of "coming-of-age romance," a romance with a landscape, a people, a religion, and a dark, irresistible student. An innocent, young Catholic woman from a Canadian mining town who had "never been anywhere," Zeppa signed up for a two-year stint teaching in a remote corner of the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan. Despite the initial shock of material privation and such minor inconveniences as giardia, boils, and leeches, Zeppa felt herself growing into the vast spaces of simplicity that opened up beyond the clutter of modern life. Alongside her burgeoning enchantment, a parallel realization that all was not right in Shangri-La arose, especially after her transfer to a college campus charged with the politics of ethnic division. Still she maintained her center by devouring the library's Buddhist tracts and persevering in an increasingly fruitful meditation practice. When the time came for her to leave, she had undergone a personal transformation and found herself caught between two worlds that were incompatible and mutually incomprehensible. Zeppa's candid, witty account is a spiritual memoir, a travel diary, and, more than anything, a romance that retraces the vicissitudes of ineluctable passion. --Brian Bruya
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| Customer Reviews: Read 74 more reviews...
 A must read journey about beauty in a remote area in the world! October 26, 2008
I chose this book, as I had no knowledge of this country.
My interest of international studies evolves around Tibet, India and Nepal. Until Jamie Zeppa wrote about her journey into Bhutan, I felt a piece of that region was excluded from my area of interest.
I was expecting this book to be a sociological one, but the author's journey and the writing of it far exceeded that conclusion...to my personal benefit!
The author crossed this remote, mountainous region and gave us a glimps of it's beautiful land and it's beautiful people.
Clearly, Tibet, India and Nepal have had their influence on this country, even though Bhutan is tucked away within it's mountainous terrain. But many settlers of these countries remain there, as their languages, foods, and cultures seem to be all incorporated, in their regions.
What was so overwhelmingly interesting about this story is that I could identify with the author. She basically picked a remote region of the world to move to, and offered her skills as an English teacher.
As the author's first journey into Bhutan came to be an unsure one(due to getting to her destination), it was
visibly clear that passage of transportation would be impossible at times, by barriers created from the monsoons and the winter months. Yet for the people of Bhutan, there is an acceptance in living with inconveience. I think that their acceptability has everything has to do with their religion...Tibetan Buddhism.
Thus, a journey in and out of the country takes time and effort; but, time is not of the essence to these people. They don't need to hurry and scurry in their lifestyles. They are quite satisfied and proud with what they have.
Buddhists are carefree and mindful people. They are taught to never intentionally harm other sentiment beings...an important key to their religion. More of this religion is explained in the book.
It was great reading about a person in our Western Hemisphere, going into this remote country, and finding so much beauty. In fact, she returns to Bhutan more times than I could physically imagine.
The simplicity and the repertoire of this remote country entices me to visit this land of splendor some day in my life. But I can not physically do so; therefore, I am hoping that maybe others of you who read this book will want to travel there and update Bhutan to us by publishing your own journey, as well.
This book is a story of survival and inconveience in the beginning, but that is well overcome before long, because the importance of life there can change a person, as author Jamie Zeppa illustrates it does on her journey.
So, thank you, Jamie Zeppa! You brought me into a beautiful region that is rarely written about, particularly on a personal level! The people, the land and the religion are so worth your study.
Please know this is one of the most interesting books that I have ever read!
Fabulous travel philosophy September 30, 2008
This book should be a must-read for anyone planning to work outside their own culture. Its treatment of culture shock and adjustment is so very well done.
The author is a very good writer and has a fabulous story to tell, full of interesting characters, amazing places, politically based tension and conflicting emotions as she balances her two worlds and tries to find her place between them. This is a thoroughly enjoyable book, worth a place in any library.
Memoir of a Canadian teacher's experience in Bhutan August 19, 2008
Memoir of a Canadian Teacher in Bhutan
Jamie Zeppa, an English teacher from Canada, in 1999 wrote of her life experience in Bhutan from 1989 to 1992. With the World University Service of Canada (WUSC) financed overseas education program in Bhutan, the slightly over 20 year old teacher changed her whole life to take a chance at living in a completely different part of the world. Practically without knowledge of the culture she was going to impact and loads of useless baggage she transferred to this tiny Himalayan kingdom convinced of reaching the Shangrila. The cultural shock of the small village posting, the solitude, the breathtaking but initially frightening environment, the incapacity of connecting to such a different population almost drove her crazy at the beginning. But due to her strong ego and a particularly ironic and self-mocking attitude she slowly learns to cope and understands the life philosophy of these simple but practical people. "Anyone can live anywhere" she wisely concludes. The beauty of the landscape and the joy de vivre of her students conquers her heart and starts a transformation that not only converts her to Buddhism but leads her to accept a new challenge in a superior school in a bigger city.
The college students and colleagues contribute to her re-evaluation of her Western cultural heritage and the deeper comprehension of the Eastern way of life and open her vision of the true nature of Bhutanese culture and difficult political situation. With magisterial delicate tones Zeppa describes the political and ethnological undertones of the Bhutanese youth and the gender discrimination of women.
Unexpectedly she also falls in love with one of her students and bravely decides to make a life commitment to her new found values.
This diary/novel is well written, funny, full of quaint and memorable episodes and a pleasure to read. It conveys all the puzzlement of cultural shocks in the pre-globalization era and shows how the concept of "sustainable economy" was already evident at the beginning of the 1990's. The book contains a plethora of useful information to understand modern Bhutan.
The "spirit of place" is conveyed with grace, the personal experiences gain an universal value and it is possible to identify with the Author.
If you like these types of memoirs I suggest reading Louisa Waugh's "Hearing Birds Fly", a similar experience of a British teacher in Mongolia.
Great book to see a different way of life August 12, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Many here in America and maybe elsewhere (I never lived anywhere else so can't say) are taught to be believe or come to believe that material comfort, good education and a high-paying job are of great importance. People spend their lives striving for these things without considering the importance of family, friends, love and the personal satisfaction that comes with having a job you enjoy. I think that Ms. Zeppa found these things in her journey to Bhutan. I wouldn't go to say that Bhutanese culture promotes those things but certainly being away from her native surroundings gave Ms. Zeppa the chance to experience this. Maybe that's the great thing about places like America and Canada, we all have the freedom to find for ourselves how we want to live. If it takes a journey to the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, so be it.
amazing!!! April 10, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
this book was absolutely amazing from start to finish. i was so fascinated and excited by what she would write next... i looked forward to every page and slowed down towards the end because i never wanted it to end! anyone who didnt like this book is insane!!!
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