Tibetan Subjectivities on the Global Stage

Negotiating Dispossession

Edited by Shelly Bhoil and Enrique Galvan-Alvarez - Introduction by Thierry Dodin - Contributions by Franz Xaver Erhard; Julia Meredith Hess; Kamila Hladíková; Lama Jabb; Frank J. Korom; Per Kvaerne; Thomas Kauffmann; Jigme Yeshe Lama; Yu-Shan Liu; Dawa T. Lokyitsang and Martin A. Mills

Tibetan Subjectivities on the Global Stage: Negotiating Dispossession explores the many ways Tibetans are reimagining their cultural identity since the communist takeover of Tibet in the 1950s. Focusing on developments taking place in Tibet and the diaspora, this collection of essays addresses a wide range of issues at the heart of Tibetan modernity. From the political dynamics of the exiled community in India to the production of contemporary Tibetan literature in the PRC, the collection delves into various aspects of current significance for the Tibetan community worldwide such as the construction of Bon identity in exile, the strategic use of the discourse of development or the issue of cultural and linguistic purity in an increasingly hybrid and globalized world. Moving away from the preservationist paradigm that regards Tibetan culture as an endangered and precious object, the essays in this book portray Tibetan identities in motion, as lived subjectivities that travel, change and creatively reimagine themselves on various global stages. Even if recent Tibetan history is marked by imposed transitions and a sense of dispossession, this collection highlights the ways Tibetans have not only managed traumatic historical events but also become agents of change and reinventors of their own traditions.

Lexington Books

Pages: 262 • Trim: 6¼ x 9⅜

978-1-4985-5238-7 • Hardback • November 2018 • $117.00 • (£90.00)

978-1-4985-5239-4 • eBook • November 2018 • $111.00 • (£85.00)

Series: Studies in Modern Tibetan Culture

Subjects: History / Asia / China, Social Science / Anthropology / Cultural, Religion / Eastern, Social Science / Popular Culture, Political Science / World / Asian

Tibetan Subjectivities on the Global Stage

Negotiating Dispossession

Hardback

eBook

Summary

Tibetan Subjectivities on the Global Stage: Negotiating Dispossession explores the many ways Tibetans are reimagining their cultural identity since the communist takeover of Tibet in the 1950s. Focusing on developments taking place in Tibet and the diaspora, this collection of essays addresses a wide range of issues at the heart of Tibetan modernity. From the political dynamics of the exiled community in India to the production of contemporary Tibetan literature in the PRC, the collection delves into various aspects of current significance for the Tibetan community worldwide such as the construction of Bon identity in exile, the strategic use of the discourse of development or the issue of cultural and linguistic purity in an increasingly hybrid and globalized world. Moving away from the preservationist paradigm that regards Tibetan culture as an endangered and precious object, the essays in this book portray Tibetan identities in motion, as lived subjectivities that travel, change and creatively reimagine themselves on various global stages. Even if recent Tibetan history is marked by imposed transitions and a sense of dispossession, this collection highlights the ways Tibetans have not only managed traumatic historical events but also become agents of change and reinventors of their own traditions.

Details

Lexington Books

Pages: 262 • Trim: 6¼ x 9⅜

978-1-4985-5238-7 • Hardback • November 2018 • $117.00 • (£90.00)

978-1-4985-5239-4 • eBook • November 2018 • $111.00 • (£85.00)

Series: Studies in Modern Tibetan Culture

Subjects: History / Asia / China, Social Science / Anthropology / Cultural, Religion / Eastern, Social Science / Popular Culture, Political Science / World / Asian

Author

Shelly Bhoil is writer and research scholar and has previously taught at Delhi University and Amity University.
Enrique Galvan-Alvarez is associate professor at Universidad Internacional de La Rioja-UNIR.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Thierry Dodin
Part I: Strategies of Identity in Motion
1. Zhangzhung, Bön, and China: The Construction of an Alternative Tibetan Historical Narrative
Per Kværne
2. Narratives of Becoming: Tibet-born Tibetans in Diaspora
Julia Meredith Hess
3. Click Here for Enlightenment: On Tibet, Hollywood, Virtual Communities, Cyberspace Discourse, and Other Matters of Representational Practice
Frank J. Korom
4. The Words of the Developees: Study of the Discourse of the Tibetan Refugees
Thomas Kauffmann
Part II: Reclaiming Dispossession through Writing
5. Acting and Speaking through Modern Tibetan Poetry
Lama Jabb
6. A Tibetan Heart in a Chinese Mouth: Tsering Woeser's Notes on Tibet
Kamila Hladíková
7. Inner Emigration and Concealed Writing: Folk Literary Elements in Contemporary Fiction from Tibet
Franz Xaver Erhard
Part III: The Political Cultures of Exile
8. The Last Gift of the God-King: Narrating the Dalai Lama’s Resignation
Martin A. Mills
9. Exile Tibetans and the Dance of Democracy
Jigme Yeshe Lama
10. Who is a Pure Tibetan?: Identity, Intergenerational History, and Trauma in Exile
Dawa T. Lokyitsang
11. Annual Commemorations and Celebrations: Negotiations of Identities in the Bonpo Settlement in Dolanji
Yu-Shan Liu

Reviews

The book is a valuable resource for people in Tibetan studies trying to familiarize themselves with the current debates within the community. . . The book makes important connections between Tibetans in Tibet and those in exile by focusing on modes of literary and visual production and religious networks operating across this political divide. . . . This book is a careful selection of interconnected processes that shape the flows of identity in Tibet and Tibetan speaking communities.
— TibetScapes

Tibet as an independent entity has been written out of geopolitics through Chinese colonization and yet Tibet as an issue remains alive because of the resistance against the occupation as well as the dynamism of the diaspora. What comes out clearly in this multidisciplinary volume is that despite state oppression and international silence, Tibetan cultures, identities, and polities are flourishing. Tibetan Subjectivities on the Global Stage is an essential read for any scholar, activist, or curious reader looking to understand the modern, Tibetan world.
— Dibyesh Anand, University of Westminster

The eleven chapters of this volume cover a large variety of fields and theoretical approaches, but all challenge stereotypes about what it means to be Tibetan today, both in Tibet proper and in exile. This book demonstrates how Tibetans negotiate between competing and well-established narratives to invent and express their rich and complex subjectivities, be they individual or collective.
— Francoise Robin, Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales

Tibetan Subjectivities on the Global Stage is a significant contribution to the literature on Tibetan history and culture of the latter half of the 20th century. Moving across several spatial scales, cultural environments, and disciplinary approaches, the authors of this book investigate eleven case-studies which persuasively demonstrate the multi-layered dispossession that the modern world has imposed on Tibet and the diverse coping strategies developed by Tibetans in response. This important volume deserves the attention of scholars specializing in Modern Tibet and of a wider readership interested in issues of identity and agency, place and displacement, tradition and modernity, change, transition and resilience.
— Lara Maconi, INALCO, Paris