REMEMBERING KHEWANG ELLIOT SPERLING It’s a year now since my dear friend passed away. Although I have become, by default, the unofficial obituary writer in the exile Tibetan world, I could not, at the time then, bring myself to perform the necessary honors for my departed friend. In fact I was not able …
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 …
The Lhasa Ripper
A PRELIMINARY INVESTIGATION INTO THE “DARK UNDERBELLY” OF SOCIAL LIFE IN THE HOLY CITY This is a preliminary and largely impressionistic overview of a neglected strata of old Lhasa society, and lays no claim to serious scholarship. The spelling of the names of the various groups and fraternities mentioned in this article have been difficult …
Unleashing the “R” Word
I may be getting paranoid but it seems to me that in most academic discussions and scholarly forums on Tibet, these days, a conscious effort is being made all round to avoid mentioning the word “rangzen”. Sometimes, of course, it happens that the term just has to be used and there is no judicious way …
Elliot Sperling on “Serf Emancipation Day”
I think I could not do better than round off the discussion on “Serf Emancipation Day” with the insightful yet refreshingly matter-of-fact observations of Elliot Sperling on the subject. Professor Sperling studied under the late Taktser Rimpoche and is now the director of the Tibetan Studies program at Indiana University’s department of Central Eurasian Studies …
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