What is Lhakar? How did Lhakar Diaries Begin?

The following is a short interview I did with Phayul Media, the popular Tibetan news platform based in Dharamsala, India, in the summer of 2022 (they published it a year later in 2023).… Continue reading →

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When Tibetan Women Speak, Are We Heard? Challenging Etic Frameworks in Tibetan Gender Studies

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There is a growing trend among non-Tibetan scholars—primarily those from Western or Chinese backgrounds—to analyze Tibetan women’s experiences through frameworks focused on gendered roles, marginality, or violence in relation to Tibetan men. I have written about how such analyses often overlook critical and temporal factors, such as intersectionality (Lokyitsang 2015) and the historical and ongoing violence and marginalizing policies imposed by Chinese authorities (Lokyitsang 2017a). Moreover, these scholars rarely interrogate their own etic (outsider) assumptions embedded in their own analytics.

Within these frameworks, Tibetan women’s emic (insider) scholarly perspectives are routinely sidelined—especially when some of us turn the analytical lens back on these scholars to examine the power dynamics of their positionalities, and to critique their uncritical use of categories like “modernity” and “gender empowerment.” These categories, rooted in Western Enlightenment ideals, have already been challenged by Black and Indigenous feminist thinkers as embedded in white supremacist frameworks and serving the interest of imperial projects.

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Youth on Climate & Indigenous Futures, hosted by David Lam Center @ Simon Fraser University

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This public conversation brings Indigenous youths, activists, and scholars working across Nepal, Tibet and Canada to discuss Indigenous futures, climate change and solutions. Speakers ground the stakes of their call for action in the non-economic losses and damages in the face of climate disaster. This conversation centers around an article by speaker Dawa T. Lokitsang, “Are Tibetans Indigenous? The Political Stakes and Potentiality of the Translation of Indigeneity” to which speakers respond and discuss to consider Indigenous futures across the globe.

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Exploring Tibetan Indigeneity in the Context of Globalizing Settler Colonialism, talk @ U of British Columbia (2024)

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Thank you to the Department of Asian Studies’ Himalaya Program, Institute for Critical Indigenous Studies, and School of Public Policy and Global Affairs at the University of British Columbia for hosting my November 22, 2024 talk.

Based on the article “Are Tibetans Indigenous?”, this presentation examined how North American settler-colonialism literature might complicate our understanding of relationships between Asian nation-states and their ‘Indigenous’ populations. The talk included a Q&A session.

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Understanding Asian Settler-Colonial Imperialisms and Indigeneities, China in Tibet

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From the article: Are Tibetans Indigenous? The Political Stakes and Potentiality of the Translation of Indigeneity

How does settler-colonial imperialism operate in Asia, and what are the ways in which Asian Indigeneities become mobilised? To address this question, in 2017, I brought together scholars who are observing various settler-colonial and imperial dynamics and developments across Asia for a panel discussion titled ‘Asian Settler-Colonialisms and Indigeneities’ at the 116th annual American Anthropological Association conference. At that time, scholarly considerations about Asian land and resource extraction emphasised capitalism, development, and governmentality, with scant consideration of settler colonialism, even though the last remains a vital framework for understanding the structural nature of imperial projects (Wolfe 2006). Even the literature that adopted this frame drew its analysis primarily from Euro-American–centred examples, implicitly suggesting that settler colonialism is an innately Western phenomenon (Pels 1997). Yet, capitalist developments with imperial consequences continue to impact Asia at varying scales (Tsing 2005). Such contemporary developments, alongside long Asian imperial histories, including those of China, Japan, and India, complicate this assumption. This provokes questions such as: How does settler domination work when those involved in it are neither white nor from the West? How can we critically engage with this while not Orientalising this history as a cultural peculiarity or delinking it from the deep influence of Western empires?

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The Dalai Lama’s Future Succession: Understanding the 14th Dalai Lama and His Formidable Contributions, a keynote lecture by Dr. Dawa Lokyitsang

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This keynote lecture by Dr. Dawa Lokyitsang on “The Dalai Lama’s Future Succession: Understanding the 14th Dalai Lama and His Formidable Contributions” with responses from Tenzin Dorjee (Columbia University), Cameron Warner (Aarhus University), and Nicole Willock (Old Dominion University) took place on September 13, 2024 at the University of Colorado Boulder’s Department of Anthropology. This lecture is part of the Leadership and Reincarnation of the Dalai Lamas Project (LEAD): A Research Network on Succession, Innovation, and Community.

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Battle for Tibet’s Future: China Closes Acclaimed Tibetan Private School

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In Episode 8 of Tibet Unlocked, Pema Yoko and Tibetan education expert Dr. Gyal Lo discuss the forced closure of one of the most influential Tibetan-run private schools in Tibet by Chinese authorities… Continue reading →

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The Untold Story of Tibetan Students in the 1989 Tiananmen Movement

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June 4, 2024, marks 35 years since the monumental protests by Chinese students and citizens demanding freedom and democracy – a powerful moment of hope and inspiration brutally crushed by the Chinese government,… Continue reading →

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Nyima Lhamo’s Journey for Justice

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Nyima Lhamo’s journey, and her quest for justice for her uncle who was wrongly imprisoned by China, sheds light on the many ways China tries to control and intimidate Tibetans, including through the… Continue reading →

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On translation with Janet Gyatso, Dawa Lokyitsang, & Amy Langenberg, and the importance of Listening

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This panel workshop on Translation at Northwestern University began with a short introduction of what Janet, Amy, and I (in this order) mean when we say “Inclusive/feminist approaches to Buddhist translations” and shared a list of questions to generate discussion for the audience.

The audio of the session is available for listening.

I also suggest we practice active listening and be aware of our own and other’s gendered, racialized, and classed positionalities if we truly want Tibetan women to be part of the conversation in white-dominated spaces.