The synopsis for a manuscript I have completed is below:
Windhorse Warrior
by Richard Friedericks
One sweltering summer morning in Shanghai, China in 1947, a young student named Chuang Wei Ming discovers his girlfriend taking part in a communist protest march against the Nationalists. He watches horrified as she is murdered by a squad of Nationalist soldiers. Her martyrdom nudges him to find out about her passion for communism.
Three years later Chuang volunteers to take communism to Tibet. Coincidentally assigned to Lithang on the Eastern Tibetan Plateau, he finds the Tibetan relatives of his Shanghai girlfriend. He persuades the family to turn over their ancestral land to the farmers working on their land. Together they form a successful cooperative that captures the imagination of several surrounding communities. The Chinese Communist Party is not appreciative of Chuang’s methods which honors the will of the local people and upholds their traditional culture and religion. Management of the cooperative is, instead, given to Tenzin, a young Tibetan eager to do the will of the Party.
Chuang turns his attention to another community and meets a lama with a dream of reviving the ‘enlightened society’ of the legendary King Gesar. Chuang jumps at the chance to use the lama’s clout with the people to further his own mission. But Chuang’s ideals are challenged by the lama’s apprentice Dechen, the twin sister of his Shanghai girlfriend. As their relationship develops, Dechen’s ideas, rooted in Tibetan Buddhism, enrich Chuang’s understanding of a truly enlightened society and help him to recognize the spiritual purpose of life.
Tenzin, who wants to marry Dechen, is jealous of Chuang and has him arrested for kidnapping Dechen. Chuang’s rescue leads to injuries that nearly kill him. During his convalescence he enters the world of King Gesar through a shamanic trance. When he recovers, Chuang is able to recite the story of Gesar which marks him as a fully integrated member of Tibetan culture. Chuang, Dechen and the lama now implement a plan to promote an enlightened society through spiritual renewal, social reforms and non-violent resistance to the Party’s dictatorial control of the people.
Deng, the local Commander of the People’s Liberation Army and Communist Party representative, issues an ultimatum: the people must voluntarily choose the ‘Red Road’ of Communism or the ‘Black Road’ will result. Chuang suggests another road; the Golden Way of an enlightened society. In keeping with the legend of King Gesar, a horse race is proposed to which Commander Deng agrees. The winner will choose which road the people will follow and marry Dechen. Deng believes he can rig the race in Tenzin’s favor and impose the Red Road. But Chuang enters the race in disguise and wins. His mission and dreams fulfilled, Chuang takes Dechen’s hand and together they invite the people to unite and walk the Golden Way to an enlightened society that honors spiritual as well as material abundance.
Tenzin, recovering from defeat and pressured to please Commander Deng, takes aim at Chuang with a pistol. Dechen is shot instead and dies in Chuang’s arms just as her sister died in Shanghai.
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I am currently seeking a publisher. The manuscript is 120,000 words with maps, character list and translations of Tibetan words.
Threshold 