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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:  76 reviews
Sales Rank: 48686
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
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Amazon.com
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
Book 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.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 71 more reviews...
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!!!
Beautifully-constructed first half leaves us high and dry at the end October 26, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
In Beyond the Sky and the Earth, Jamie Zeppa presents an overall intriguing and insightful account of her experience as a schoolteacher and college lecturer in the remote kingdom of Bhutan. Published more than ten years after the author originally left for Bhutan, the book succeeds in presenting a fascinating view of the author's early experiences in the country. In the first two-thirds of the book, Zeppa's vivid images and careful attention to detail are possible only as she writes sincerely from her heart. One believes that her only motivation is to share her love of the Bhutanese and her gratitude for the privilege of living there and being loved by the children and villagers of Pema Gatshel. The reader feels a part of Zeppa's lovely world.
The reliability of Zeppa's account is bolstered by her consistent address her own imperialist mind. Most of us White people living in the Western world have inherited a perception clouded by a pervasive sense of superiority to other races and cultures. Zeppa is mindful of this fact, and sincere in her efforts to unlearn racism and imperialism. Zeppa wrestles with her desire to perceive the Bhutanese in romantic sentiments, and to impose her values upon them. Zeppa provides an interesting account of her personal despair over the social and political unrest she witnessed in Bhutan, some of which played out among students at her university.
In the final third of the book, however, Zeppa's sincerity begins to waver as the details give way to rushed summaries of particular events. Suddenly a year and a half has passed, and the reader is no longer invited into Zeppa's world. Although one doesn't doubt the veracity of the events reported, the tone of the events and the words spoken savor of emotional editing. The brief paragraphs of conclusion Zeppa offers to tie up her story indicate a difficult relationship with her Bhutanese husband and a host of regrets. One gets the impression that the story of the love affair, which hurriedly takes over the last part of the book, is presented for the benefit of Zeppa's spouse, meant to send some message about "the way it used to be." In any case, the reader is left behind. In the second edition of this book, it is hoped that Zeppa will rewrite the last 80 pages or so, and even (gasp!) go over the 300-page limit to present more fully, and more honestly, the story of the second half of her tour as a lecturer in Bhutan.
Not what I thought it would be July 30, 2007
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is a travel memoir, but it reads as much more of a personal journey. She goes from the western world into an isolated eastern world that is also very poor. She learns and learns, sometimes is very naive, sometimes very wise. Where she ends up was a surprise to me.
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