Author Archive

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How is a Truth Created in the First Place?

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As a Tibetan, I am sure most of you can relate when I say, I’ve had the “Tibet was never part of China” history, full MC-style, battles with more Chinese than I’d like to remember. The amazing part of all this is how convinced most of these Chinese individuals, even the most well meaning, are about the truth of their historical version of China’s Tibet.

So, how then do you begin having a dialogue with these different individuals when—according to them—you don’t even know the truth about your own history?

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Race & The Making of “Common Sense”

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Han chauvinism, in other words, Racism, seemed to have been the big issue in 1953. It’s too bad that this report only highlights a small fraction of the officials that felt this way then.

I’ve been reading Ann Stoler’s book, “Carnal Knowledge and Imperial Power” and it has been making me think a lot about the role of the State in creating and/or encouraging cultural attitudes, such as racism, through the implementation of laws. Although Stoler’s archival ethnography focuses more on how these legislation affected the intimate lives of mixed children and their white/native parents with a focus on women at that time; for the purposes of this post, I want to center this discussion on the State.

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Lhakar Diaries, Facebook, and How we communicate

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…we both agreed that Facebook has changed the way Tibetans from different walks of life, whom occupy different level of status in our society, communicate.

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Work, Lhakar Academy, & PLAY!

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Work, Lhakar Academy, and Play.

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How do you teach self-immolations in Tibet?

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Last Thursday, April 5th, I gave a talk on the self-immolations at my school, followed by a Q&A. I was a bit nervous. How does one begin to try to make sense out of such a powerful yet painful act, without sensationalizing, to people who don’t know much about Tibet in the span of one hour?

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Destroying The Space Of Oppression One Explosion At A Time

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This morning I saw the news regarding the bombing that took place in Derge. According to the reports, a 32 year old man named Tashi bombed the government building that was “newly constructed to allow station officials to watch over residents of Rekpa and Wapa villages, angering the residents, according to Ngawang Sangpo, a Tibetan with contacts in the area.”

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Losar, Lhakar, and Ama Adhe

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Losar and Lhakar Tashi Delek To All. In honor of Losar and Lhakar I am wearing my Tibetan chupa.

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Tubote, Tibet, and the Power of Naming

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In response to my previous post, “The Significance of Naming or Terming,” Professor Elliot Sperling has offered a more in-depth look at this significance in the following article, originally published on Rangzen Alliance

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Are We Ignoring the Self-Immolation’s?

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Guest Post by Ngawang Choephel.

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The Significance of Naming or Terming

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As many of you may already know, there have been more self-immolations followed by protests by Tibetans lately. As a result, Chinese authorities have responded by shooting and killing Tibetan protestors. It has been a relief to see these recent incidents be reported in the international news. Unfortunately, some journalists have failed to correctly call the place’s where these incidents took place by their correct Tibetan names, especially for incidents that took place in regions of Amdo, Tibet.