Tibet, the Last Cry

Eric Meyer and Laurent Zylberman were the only freelance journalists allowed into Tibet after the 2008 riots which left parts of Lhasa in ruins. They saw the friction between two cultures: police and soldiers patrol the towns, while crowds of Han immigrants pour into the region like new frontier settlers seeking their fortunes. Tibet is going through drastic economic change, shaking up ancient ways of life and altering the fragile ecological balance of the once-nomadic high plateau. China is massively investing to turn Tibet into a modern country. Downtown shops crammed with made-in-China fashion are run by battalions of saleswomen in uniform, and night-clubs draw crowds of Tibetan teenagers in search of Western music. A series of black-and-white photographs intertwine -- often in a single shot -- the clashes between two very different communities who have never fully understood each other. Narrated day by day, both text and images immerse the reader in an eye-opening journey across the roof of the world.