At the request of the organizers of the TIBETAN INDEPENDENCE DAY celebration at New York City, on the 13 of February 2013, I was asked to give a talk on the background story, as it were, of the events and personalities that contributed to the creation of an independent Tibet in 1913. JN. The profound …
English Translation of 13Th Dalai Lama’s Decree
This complete translation of the 13th Dalai Lama’s decree was prepared by Tsewang Norbu la of Germany. He calls it a “decree” rather than “declaration” as he feels that the Dalai Lama was not “declaring Tibet´s independence but reiterating her independent status.” It is an interesting point, though strictly speaking a declaration does not necessarily …
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Shakabpa and the Awakening of Tibetan History
Shakabpa’s history can be read not merely as a record of the past but as a powerful revolutionary document, that even now, twenty-two years after the author’s death, is deeply disturbing to Beijing, and which frustrates and confounds those Tibetans attempting a final handover of Tibetan sovereignty to China.
High Mountain Elegy
I was waiting at Denver airport for my ride when I got a call from a Tibetan acquaintance who asked (somewhat expectantly I thought … but I could be wrong) if the Americans had revived the program to train and support Tibetan jamak (guerrilla operations) inside Tibet. I explained that nothing of the kind was …
Tremors of History: Gyalrong 2008 & 1775
You would think that the first requirement in reporting a natural disaster would be getting the name of the geographical location right, especially in the case of an earthquake, which unlike unlike a messy flood or a roving tornado, has an identifiable epicenter.
Independent Tibet – the Facts
This is a considerably revised and expanded version of the document, Losar Gift for Rangzen Activists, that I posted on Feb 25, 2009. This version has new information and illustrations. Last year when I was in India I gave a talk and powerpoint presentation based on this essay…
High Sanctuary
WILDLIFE AND NATURE CONSERVANCY IN OLD TIBET . One evening at McLeod Ganj, in the late ‘90s, a couple of my sarjor (new arrival) friends from Lhasa brought Taktra Rimpoche over to my house. He was the incarnation of the last regent of Tibet who died in 1951, or thereabouts. Rimpoche had been a small …
Dalai Lama Discovers Maps of Independent Tibet
His Holiness seemed pleased … when visited the Marciana library and found very old maps and documents of the Middle Ages referring of Tibet as an independent country
Black Annals: Goldstein & the Negation of Tibetan History (Part II)
In Marxist inspired narratives of feudal (or capitalist) states collapsing of their inherent contradictions, there should fittingly be a role for a revolutionary movement and perhaps even a revolutionary hero. Goldstein provides us a detailed account…
Black Annals: Goldstein & the Negation of Tibetan History (Part I)
What made many in the Tibetan world stand up and pay attention to Goldstein’s A History of Modern Tibet, when it appeared in 1989 was the unmistakable impression the book gave that here was a radical reinterpretation of Tibetan history.
