We Measure the Earth with our Bodies by Testing Yangzom Lama

We Measure the Earth with our Bodies is Tsering Yangzom Lama’s debut novel—and what a debut it is! The author invites the reader into a multi-generational migration experience, exploring the interconnectedness of family over space and time while considering the meaning of home when one is physically separated from the land of one’s ancestors.

This sweeping story centers on three women: sisters Lhamo and Tenkyi, and Lhamo’s daughter Dolma as they live through and experience the Tibetan diaspora. After the Dalai Lama flees to India, Lhamo and Tenkyi’s family make their gruelling escape into Nepal. Despite deep loss and uprootedness, the girls hold fast to their traditions and spirituality while making a new home for themselves in a refugee camp. As the novel progresses, we follow Lhamo’s daughter to Canada where she must make a choice between obligation to her family and community and her own success as a hopeful academic scholar. Nothing is easy for these women; every choice has a consequence. It’s interesting to notice how the struggles of women are the same in every time and in every place. Nevertheless, these characters persevere, finding solace in each other and in the hopes and prayers they hold for each other.

This novel is ambitious in scope—perhaps a bit too ambitious. Despite the book’s length, the narrative, at times, seems rushed or hurried, particularly concerning certain characters and their motivations. But what the novel might lack in character development, it makes up for in its lush description of the land and of the Tibetan people and their customs. This novel is vast and rich. It is a triumph for first time author Tsering Yangzom Lama and a recommended read.

Thank you McClelland & Stewart for sending me a copy of the book to read and review.

We Measure the Earth with our Bodies By Tsering Yangzom Lama McClelland & Stewart, 2022, pp. 349 ISBN: 978-0-7710-4724-4