I first met him when I was researching my play YUNRU, about the Khampa chieftain Yunru Pon Sonam Wangyal, who died defending the great monastery of Lithang (Lithang Gonchen). Someone told me that I would probably get some help from this Lithangwa who was running the Chushi-Gangdruk office at the Kailash Hotel in McLeod Ganj. …
Lukar Jam: Prisoner of Conscience
Some exile Tibetans are angry with Sikyong candidate Lukar Jam Atsok for criticizing HH’s policies. He has not only been attacked in speech and writing but also on video, in one of which the accuser bursts into tears and dramatically sobs out his condemnation. A specific accusation against Lukar is that he once talked about …
The Girl and the Golok Chiefs
My mother, Lodey Lhawang (nee Tethong) passed away peacefully on the morning of January 9th, 2005, at my home in the mountains of Tennessee. There are only a few thousand Tibetans scattered around North America, so it was probably my mother’s “accrual of merit” (sonam saba), as we say, that somehow the great monastery …
André Gide and the “Virtue of Freedom”
There are certain writers one must go back to, every once in a while, whenever one’s moral compass requires reorienting. Orwell and Lu Xun are excellent for this, but André Gide is no less effective when one has been hit by a case of the intellectual blahs. One of France’s greatest writers and the 1947 …
Tibet’s First War Photographer
. A couple of weeks ago someone posted on Facebook a photograph of a Tibetan man holding a camera. I wrote a comment that he was Tsongkha Jhanjup Jinpa, Tibet’s first war photographer and gave a brief description. Some old friends: Michael Buckley, Ajay Singh and Neil Cooper (a photographer who worked for the DIIR) …
The Arrogance of Treason
PHUNTSOK WANGYAL & HIS ADMIRATION SOCIETY-IN-EXILE The Buddha and Christ both spoke of the virtue of turning the other cheek when wronged, but no one has suggested, to date, that if violently sodomized it would be the correct thing (excuse me) to turn the other cheek, and furthermore, shower the sodomizer with affection and praise. …
Some Updates on Rakra Rimpoche Obituary
A number of readers have posted comments requesting information on Rakra Rimpoche’s writings and poetry. Some of his books are available at the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives (LTWA), but many of his shorter works and poems are out of print and unavailable. His heirs have put together a project to publish his collected …
Poet, Artist, Scholar, Teacher and Reluctant Rimpoche
. Rakra Thubten Choedhar (1925-2012), In Memorium. The First National Conference of Tibetan Writers took place in Dharamshala in 1995 (March 15-17). Hosted by the Amnye Machen Institute (AMI), sixty-two writers and other delegates from India, Nepal, Switzerland, UK and USA took part in this first ever gathering of its kind in the Tibetan world. …
Continue reading “Poet, Artist, Scholar, Teacher and Reluctant Rimpoche”
A Most Unassuming Man
I met my old friend Sonam Topgyal la last summer – June 25th to be exact. He was in a bad way. Definitely cancer. I suspected stomach cancer of a kind, but could not bring myself to ask. He was weak from his last chemotherapy, but seemed glad to see me. As always we talked …
“Tibetans Never Had a Country” Dr. Lobsang Sangay
Kalon Tripa Dr. Lobsang Sangay needs to explain the statement he made on video to stol.it, the South Tyrol Online journal on March 02. 2012. Replying to a question “What is it like being a prime minster without a country?. Dr. Lobsang Sangay answered clearly and deliberately ” Well… I can’t say for sure because, …
Continue reading ““Tibetans Never Had a Country” Dr. Lobsang Sangay”
