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Tibetan Refugees & the Negotiation of Relatedness: Semi-Orphans of the 1960s & 1990s

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During exile’s initial construction, orphaned and semi-orphaned Tibetan refugees from the 1960s promoted and practiced terms of relatedness at refugee schools that were fairly open. However, the desire to construct biological family outside refugee schools to safeguard vulnerable conditions of exile caused the terms of relatedness to narrow by the time semi-orphan children from Tibet arrived in the 1990s. What caused such a shift? What happens when a group desires forms of relatedness not contingent on the construction of a traditional and biological family?

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New Spaces For Tibetan Art: A Conversation With Nyema Droma, Founder of Himaalaya Studio Lhasa

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Nyema Droma is a Lhasa based photographer and recent graduate of the London College of Fashion, where she studied fashion styling and photography. Last summer I had the opportunity to attend her senior… Continue reading →

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“Tibet and Modernity” with Sperling, Venturi, & Vitali: What is Tibetan modernity?

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I think Dr. Sperling and Dr. Venturi are correct in saying we need to be clear when we use the word ‘modern’ in Tibetan studies. However, in such an engagement, following Dr. Vitali’s warnings, we also need to be careful we do not reproduce the same problems in reifying notions of ‘tradition,’ and assumptions of cultures as belonging on a singular (Euro-American) evolutionary trajectory that is assumed under the banner of the singular modern. This is the same critique that has been launched against academia in general for over 70 years, and something Tibetan studies has only recently begun to consider.

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A TIBETAN WOMAN ICON FELLED

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[Guest post by Tenzin Sudip Chogkyi] One of my female friends messaged me in a rather perplexed manner to ask what I thought about Kalon Dicki Chhoyang’s ‘sudden’ resignation. She was disappointed for obvious… Continue reading →

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Lama-jelya with Aba

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[Guestpost by Jamyang Phuntsok] 1. The other day Aba took me to see a rinpoche before I left for the States. In the past he’d do it before I went back to boarding… Continue reading →

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Consumerist Buddhist

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[Guestpost by Kunsang Palmo] I had sat with the White Buddhists for at least thirty minutes. It was a frustrating experience. I sat in silence watching the gross fetishization of Tibetan Buddhism. I… Continue reading →

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Untitled

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[Guestpost by Kaysang] teach me how to be Gesar’s daughter: fierce warrior-like firm in the war for truth true freedom you could kill for — no, i’m Gandhi’s niece but maybe not not… Continue reading →

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WHERE I AM FROM

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[Guestpost by Tenzin Desel ] I am from the mesmerizing snowcapped mountains, The perennial rivers, the tall pines, The blooming rhododendrons, the gnarled trees, The winding cobbled street. I am from swishing cool… Continue reading →

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Ayu Khandro, the Traveling Yogini of Kham

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Ayu Khandro was a highly regarded neljorma, yogini, in eastern Tibet, who was born in 1839 and died in 1953 at the age of hundred-and-fifteen. Unlike Sera Khandro, Ayu Khandro did not leave… Continue reading →

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How do we Tibetans create our own sense of Place? Why should it matter?

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How do Tibetans construct their own space and place, and what does cham have anything to do with this? While there are many socio-cultural ways in which Tibetans construct their own place, I focus my discussion on how Tibetans construct their own spaces through the masculine ritual practice of cham, and how Tibetans respond when those spaces and places are encroached upon.