Beyond the Sky and the Earth: A Journey Into Bhutan

By Jamie Zeppa

In the tradition of Iron and Silk and Touch the Dragon, Jamie Zeppa’s memoir of her years in Bhutan is the story of a young woman’s self-discovery in a foreign land. It is also the exciting début of a new voice in travel writing.

When she left for the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan in 1988, Zeppa was committing herself to two years of teaching and a daunting new experience. A week on a Caribbean beach had been her only previous trip outside Canada; Bhutan was on the other side of the world, one of the most isolated countries in the world known as the last Shangri-La, where little had changed in centuries and visits by foreigners were restricted. Clinging to her bags full of chocolate, hair conditioner and Immodium, she began the biggest challenge of her life, with no idea she would fall in love with the country and with a Bhutanese man, end up spending nine years in Bhutan, and begin a literary career with her account of this transformative journey.

At her first posting in a remote village of eastern Bhutan, she is plunged into an overwhelmingly different culture with squalid Third World conditions and an impossible language. Her house has rats and fleas and she refuses to eat the local food, fearing the rampant deadly infections her overly protective grandfather warned her about. Gradually, however, her fear vanishes. She adjusts, begins to laugh, and is captivated by the pristine mountain scenery and the kind students in her grade 2 class. She also begins to discover for herself the spiritual serenity of Buddhism.

A transfer to the government college of Sherubtse, where the housing conditions are comparatively luxurious and the students closer to her own age, gives her a deeper awareness of Bhutan’s challenges: the lack of personal privacy, the pressure to conform, and the political tensions. However, her connection to Bhutan intensifies when she falls in love with a student, Tshewang, and finds herself pregnant. After a brief sojourn in Canada to give birth to her son, Pema Dorji, she marries Tshewang and makes Bhutan her home for another four years.

Zeppa’s personal essay about her culture shock on arriving in Bhutan won the 1996 CBC/Saturday Night literary competition and appeared in the magazine. She flew home to accept the prize, where people encouraged her to pursue her writing. Her letters from Bhutan also featured on CBC’s Morningside. The book that grew out of this has been published in Canada and the United States to ecstatic reviews, followed by British, German, Dutch, Italian and Spanish editions.

Although cultural differences finally separated Jamie and Tshewang in 1997 while she was writing the book and she returned to Canada, she will always feel at home in Bhutan. Zeppa shares her compelling insights into this land and culture, but Beyond the Sky and the Earth is more than a travel book. With rich, spellbinding prose and bright humour, it describes a personal journey in which Zeppa acquires a deeper understanding of what it means to leave one’s home behind, and undergoes a spiritual transformation.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Jan 28, 2011
• ISBN: 9780385674157

Reviews for Beyond the Sky and the Earth

[katyefk · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Very moving and interesting book written by a Canadian English teacher sent to Bhutan to teach English as a 2nd language. She really connected with the people after a rough start as the culture is very different from hers.We are visiting Bhutan soon and it really gave me a feel for the country and the people.

[nancynova · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

written in the 1990's, no internet, cell phones or global economy yet. Jamie is at a cross-roads in Canada. She sees an ad for English teachers in Bhutan and thinks why not? Massive culture shock in a land that's very mountainous and the people very poor - but she discovers that they are content. She is then posted to a larger school, where there are more amenities, but still very primitive. And she falls in love with the country and one of the students. In the end, she returns pregnant to deliver her child in Canada, but moves back in the end and marries her lover.

[klburnside · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book is a memoir written by a Canadian woman who travels to Bhutan in the late 1980s for several years to teach. The book is engaging, well-written, and thoughtful. I felt that it accurately depicted the struggles and joys of traveling and culture shock. I appreciated her insights on the romanticization of poverty, the "Shangri-La" image of Bhutan, and the whole idea of "they have nothing, but they are still so happy!"

I also was interested to read about the Bhutanese conflict with ethnic Nepalis and how that played out in the university setting.

[debnance_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Jamie Zeppa is at loose ends. Almost impulsively, she decides to move to Bhutan and teach.She almost as quickly regrets her decision. No convenience foods here. Minimal toilet facilities. Great poverty. Friends are all far, far away.Zeppa wants to go home to Canada.But she doesn’t. And, as time goes on, she gradually comes to regard Bhutan as her home. Its simplicities delight her. The kindnesses of Bhutan’s people overwhelm her. And she loves her new life.A very satisfying moving-and-starting-over tale.

[kineocarr · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

This is a beautiful book, but also a frustrating and ultimately disappointing one. Jamie Zeppa, a teacher from Canada, presents the reader with an intricate and poignant account of the time she spent teaching young children and college students in Bhutan. Her descriptions of the landscape, the culture, and the people she meets are nothing short of breathtaking, and she captures the essence of a nation beginning to undergo the dramatic changes brought about by modernization.Unfortunately, after gliding along smoothly for 250 pages, Zeppa's story veers entirely off course and comes to an awkward, unsatisfying conclusion. She glosses over major events with little to no explanation, and her attempt to wrap up the final pages of the book borders on nonsensical. Perhaps Zeppa didn't want to disclose too many personal details, but it's very unsatisfying to have followed her that far only to be led into a dead end. It's a shame that such a beautiful book couldn't live up to its own potential.

[dickcraig · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book came out in my top ten of all the books read in the last seven years. It is the story of a teacher running away to a new adventure and finding how a country is shaped by its geography and people. Zeppa has a poetic style of writing that will grab you and pull you along with her.

[cestovatela · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A teacher working with a Canadian non-profit organization, Jamie Zeppa is one of the few foreigners permitted to enter the closed Buddhist kingdom of Bhutan. Though I read this book years ago, I still remember Zeppa's first meeting with her village elementary school students, her hikes through the mountains and her gradual loss of illusion about poverty and life in a third world country.