Top: Yangchen Dolkar, Yangzom, unknown, Tsering Dolma, Pema Donkar, unk, unk.2nd row: Captain Jaswant Singh, Kalsang Wangmo,unk, unk, Lhakpa Phenthok, Zomba, unk, unk, Pema Khando, unk Indian officer3rd row seated: Dapon Jampa Kalden, Gyakpon Pema, Gykpon Ugen Tsekyi , Major General Oberoi?, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, Gyakpon Dechen Wangmo, Brigadier Rai, unk Sargent, Dapon Ratu Ngawang. Seated on …
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 …
A Cup of Tea And a Slice of Art, Please
Sweet Tea House artists in 1985. Gonkar Gyatso is fourth from left. Emerging from the aftershocks, debris and trauma of the Cultural Revolution a loose-knit group of young Lhasa artists in the early and mid-eighties decided to come together to better utilize their individual creativity and to promote their own works. They joking called themselves …
Gateway to Lhasa
In my post “Lhasa: Eternal City 2”, I mentioned how the destruction of the Drago Kaling Stupas, the Gateway to Lhasa, had inspired the first “protest” song in the Tibetan freedom movement. I requested readers to help me locate the original song sung by Dadon la. Two readers, Tenzin la (in exile) and another person …
A Letter from Lhasa
Yesterday it was quite hot outside and the soldiers guarding one of the petrol stations had a big umbrella to protect them from the intense sunlight. Today it’s the opposite: cold, cloudy and even light snowfall as storm-fronts hover over the mountains and sometimes close in on the valley. Like the weather here in Lhasa the rules are quickly changing too.
Was It Violence?
It was unfortunate that when the protests started in Lhasa last month His Holiness made a statement threatening to resign because of “violence committed by Tibetans in his homeland” (AP). I don’t want to subject His Holiness’s use of the word “violence” to any kind of semantic scrutiny, in the manner of William Safire in the New York Times Magazine, but …