Some readers asked if I could manage to have my last essay “The Case for a United Independent Tibet” translated into Tibetan. It took me a little while as many of the translators I previously used have moved away from Dharamshala. Finally Mangri Gangthik la took on the task and did a fantastic job . …
The Rangzen Imperative
I am giving a talk in New York City on October 5th to the Tibetan public. The English and Tibetan posters below explains the theme of the talk summarized in the words of Rangzen warrior and self-immolator, Phagmo Thondup: “without independence Tibet will be annihilated.” The talk (in Tibetan) is sponsored and organized by the …
The Case For a United Independent Tibet
On the surface of it the official Middle Way Approach (MWA) theory that even if Tibet were to become independent most of Kham and all of Amdo would somehow inevitably be excluded from this wonderful development, might seem just pseudo-historical speculation of a particularly simple-minded kind.
The Catch-22* of Middle Way Unity – Part
Asking a question and answering it yourself is a rhetorical device known to the ancient Greeks as hypophora. To be effective the answer should follow the question smoothly, perhaps with a well-timed pause in between to heighten the effect. For example: “You ask, what is our aim? (pause) I can answer in one word: It …
Middle Way Economics 101
. One of the more depressing things about being a spokesperson for the Rangzen cause, even in the unofficial “of sorts” way that I am, is being obliged to participate in the occasional Middle Way Approach (MWA) vs Rangzen debate, organized by some SFT or TYC chapter or the other. I am not a good …
Rangzen in Your Heart?
During the Dalai Lama’s recent visit to the United States he met a group of Tibetan students in Madison, Wisconsin. One of them asked a question that, to put it mildly, made him very upset. The student stumbled over his words and was generally so awkward that it seemed to me he had been set-up …
Lhasa, Eternal City (2)
1980-2000 The next phase of Communist China’s destruction of Lhasa came innocuously enough with Deng Xiaoping’s “Liberalization”, starting from the turn of the eighties. In the groundbreaking cartographic study published by the Amnye Machen Institute, Map and Index of Lhasa City by Christophe Besuchet, a more specific time period is provided in the introduction. “The …
Lhasa, Eternal City (1)
. Tsering Woeser-la’s recent clarion call ““Our Lhasa is on the Verge of Destruction! Please, Save Lhasa!”, stirred me to undertake this modest history project. I thought it would be worthwhile to provide, as aide mémoire, brief overviews of the different periods in the destruction of the Holy City, which began when the Red Army …
Reading Jn in a Banakshol Teahouse
. Its not every day that you can make both your enemies and your friends happy with the same blog post, but I have something special here that I think will do do the job. It was sent to me by a friend who discovered it on a website in Tibet: Sangdhor.com . My detractors …
Highest Mountains to Lowest Gutters
In a somewhat lame effort to divert attention away from the widening discussions on the Dharamshala instigated attacks on TYC and Chushigangdruk, some on the religious right have been circulating this photograph of me taken at Camp Hale, Colorado in 2010, where a commemorative plaque was being dedicated to the memory of the 300 Tibetan …
