Namgay Dorjee

From childhood to adulthood, Tibet's fourteenth Dalai Lama deals with Chinese oppression and other problems.

When an event triggers a blockage of tunnel in a hydro power project in Bhutan, frantic rescue teams from Nepal and Bhutan race against time to save the trapped workers and students unaware that an ancient gate has been unsealed and the survivors are battling not just the rubble, but a rising tide of possession and karmic doom.

A young government official, named Dondup, who is smitten with America (he even has a denim gho) dreams of escaping there while stuck in a beautiful but isolated village. He hopes to connect in the U.S. with a visa out of the country. He misses the one bus out of town to Thimphu, however, and is forced to hitchhike and walk along the Lateral Road to the west, accompanied by an apple seller, a Buddhist monk with his ornate, dragon-headed dramyin, a drunk, a widowed rice paper maker, and his beautiful daughter, Sonam.