Chinese police shielding themselves from Tibetan missiles. Image: uprisingarchive.com. DON’T STOP THE REVOLUTION by Jamyang Norbu, High Asia, 2018. A Review by Dr. Warren W. Smith Jr. …
Don’t Stop the Revolution! –– A Review
My Personal Audience with His Holiness
All the delegates at the 5th International Rangzen Conference received a group audience and a photo opportunity with the Dalai Lama on the last day of the conference. It was a large group and I was kneeling close by his feet (he was standing) so most probably he didn’t see me. I understand he later …
Untangling a Mess of Petrified Noodles II
REFLECTIONS ON GYALO THONDUP & MODERN TIBETAN HISTORY Power Struggle in Exile – The Opening Guns The above image by pioneering color photographer, Ernst Hass, compellingly captures the early Tibetan refugee experience: dislocation, disease, trauma, desperate poverty and so much more. It also underlines the native toughness of these women and men, and their readiness to …
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Untangling a Mess of Petrified Noodles
REFLECTIONS ON GYALO THONDUP & MODERN TIBETAN HISTORY Politicians and celebrities around the world employ ghostwriters for their memoirs and screeds. So the autobiography of a prominent Tibetan political figure being ghosted (or co-written) should come as no surprise to anyone. What was unexpected about Mr. Gyalo Thondup’s archly titled The Noodlemaker of Kalimpong (NMK), …
The Clarity of Committment (Part 1)
Quite a few months have passed since the Sikyong elections and the strange events that followed. Nonetheless, being reminded of that depressing experience by a fuzzy Facebook video of the emetic countenance of Speaker Penpa Tsering staring at his rival Dr. Lobsang Sangay being sworn in for yet another five years of purposeless posturing, is still enough to plunge …
The Real Threat to the Dalai Lama
Photograph in Meng Zang Yuebao of “The Divine Child” (lingtong), May 1939, Kumbum Monastery. That Tibetans are devoted to the Dalai Lama is pretty much a given. Most of them express this devotion enthusiastically (but quite innocently) by celebrating his birthday, his Nobel Peace Prize day and also by holding elaborate “Long Life” (tenshug) ritual …
The Matrix in the Middle Way
Last November, as I was preparing to fly to Toronto for my talk “Forging a Rangzen Strategy”, I received an email from Gashi Tenpa la, one of the TNC organizers there. He had an amusing suggestion for a concluding message I could leave the audience: “Jamyang la, don’t forget to tell them to choose the …
Election by Divine Intervention
Those of us who grew up in the world’s largest democracy – Jai Hind! – know a thing or two about electoral hijinks: poll rigging, vote buying, proxy voting, and such exotic regional variations as “ballot stuffing” and “booth capturing”. But however desperately Indian netas, their chamchas, chelas and goondas try – in their remorseless …
An Open Letter to the Sikyong, Kashag, and Election Commissioner of the Central Tibetan Administration in Dharamsala, India
We, the undersigned 27 long-time Tibet Supporters, are writing to you to express our concern about several recent events relating to the current Tibetan Election processes. His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama has worked tirelessly to implement democracy in the Tibetan polity and has expressed many times the personal and national satisfaction felt in his …
Growing Support for Lukar Jam Atsok in Europe
English Translation of an article written by veteran Tibet activist, Tsewang Norbu la (of Germany) recently published in Tibet Times Strong Rangtsen Results will Strengthen Umaylam True to my principle of transparent public dealings I am outing myself right at the beginning that I am going to cast my vote to Lukar Jam Atsok for …
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