Translating Tibet's Cultural Dispersion
Solzhenitsyn, Paine, and Orwell in Dharamsala
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4893230 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Steven Venturino (Loyola University Chicago), Steven J Venturino (Loyola University Chicago, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1995 |
| Volume | 4 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 153-180 |
| Publication date | 1995-09-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Diaspora A Journal of Transnational Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1044-2057 • E-ISSN: 1911-1568 |
| Publisher | Project MUSE (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1353/dsp.1995.0003 |
| OpenAlex | W4240207980, W2095424949 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 8 |
Diaspora 4:2 1995 Translating Tibet's Cultural Dispersion: Solzhenitsyn, Paine, and Orwell in Dharamsala Steven Venturino Loyola University Chicago In the closing years ofthe 1940s, the Tibetan government formed a trade delegation that traveled to India, China, the United Kingdom , and the United States. The new delegation intended, among other things, to renegotiate existing trade relations with India, improve access to foreign currencies such as the American dollar and British pound, and open formal relations with a world community largely uninformed of Tibet's political existence. Delegation members carried Tibetan passports, which were recognized by all of the countries visited (Shakabpa 294-95).1 Diverging from Tibet's history ofrelative isolation, the thirteenth Dalai Lama (1876-1933) had actually taken the first steps, largely in reaction to imperial threats from Britain and China, to enhance Tibet's political and cultural integrity. Several of the Dalai Lama's programs initiated new contacts with other countries: a friendship treaty was signed with Mongolia, paper currency and postage stamps were introduced, English education was (for a time) conducted , and relationships with India, Japan, and the United States were strengthened or begun (Shakabpa 249-52, 264-68). In 1947, then, when the fourteenth (and present) Dalai Lama was still too young to assume his full leadership role, his regents hoped that the trade delegation would further demonstrate Tibet's independent status to the rest of the world.2 Historians and commentators have noted, however, that Tibet's attempts to address its changing role in global politics during the early twentieth century were simply too limited and came too late (see, for example, Ingram 408n). Events since 1949 have confirmed the impossibility ofadequately articulating Tibet's political and cultural roles through trade missions, passports, and naively optimistic diplomacy. Today, the vast region of Tibet remains under the occupation and administration ofthe People's Republic ofChina, with some areas incorporated into Chinese provinces and a smaller region designated as the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR). As a result , approximately six million Tibetans currently live under Chinese administration, while hundreds of thousands of Tibetans have fled their country to live as refugees or immigrants in several other 154 Diaspora 4:2 1995 countries. Tibet's current struggle for independence, prompted by the 1949 occupation, continues to this day in a variety of contexts barely glimpsed by Tibetans nearly half a century ago.3 In 1959, 10 years after refugees had first begun to flee, Tibetans were faced with making serious choices regarding the future oftheir culture. In that year, the present Dalai Lama was forced to flee from Lhasa at the height of the March uprising against Chinese abuses.4 While still on Tibetan soil and upon hearing that the Chinese government had dissolved the Tibetan government, the Dalai Lama proclaimed a temporary Tibetan government-in-exile. Back in Lhasa, the Chinese army had already responded to the uprising by shelling several key Tibetan buildings and killing as many as 12,000 Tibetans (Shakabpa 319-20). Indian Prime Minister Nehru then granted the Dalai Lama and his escape party political asylum, and, following a brief stay in Mussoorie, the Dalai Lama and his exiled administration settled at Dharamsala in the northern mountains of Himachel Pradesh. There, the Tibetan kashag (cabinet) resumed its administration, focusing on financing and government reforms , as well as aid and housing for the sick and injured refugees emerging daily from Tibet. Also of primary importance was the need to develop the social, cultural, and religious structures necessary to support Tibetan life outside of the occupied country. Settlements and schools were among the first institutions to be built, with the aid of the Indian government, in 1960. New monasteries, their ancient namesakes in Tibet damaged or destroyed, were also built throughout India. A performing arts organization and the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives were founded in the exile "capital city" of Dharamsala. According to Lhasang Tsering, the exile settlements themselves, as well as the schools, monasteries, institutions, and organizations, "continue to serve as the basic framework for keeping the exile community together and preserving the culture and the national identity " (personal communication). Currently, more than 100,000 Tibetans live in exile throughout the
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| Citations per year | 0.07 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 1997 - 2000 (4) |
| Highly cited | No |