This book examines how territorial, civilisational and cultural location determines one’s gaze and attitude while representing a contested space like Tibet. It analyses representations of Tibet in three novels: James Hilton’s Lost Horizon (1933), Jamyang Norbu’s The Mandala of Sherlock Holmes (1999) and Kaushik Barua’s Windhorse (2013). It shows how these novels project different types of gaze — insider, outsider and insider-outsider — and explores them within the context of some contemporary Tibetan activist writers. The book also looks at Tibetan exilic writings and virtual activities of the Tibetan activists whose programmes and rhetoric counter the age-old image of the Tibetans as passive and non-violent people. It shows how activists utilise social networking as an effective platform to counter imperialist occupation of Tibet by China. It includes interviews of eight Anglophone Tibetan writers – Tenzin Tsundue, Thubten Samphel, Tsering Namgyal Khortsa, Tsering Wangmo Dhompa, Jamyang Norbu, Tenzin Dickie, Bhuchung D. Sonam, and an Indian writer who has written on Tibet, Kaushik Barua. Interdisciplinary, accessible and engaging, this book presents one of the first studies on how Tibet has been represented in English fiction. It will be of interest to scholars and researchers of literature, media and cultural studies, politics, history and China studies.

Tibetan Subjectivities on the Global Stage: Negotiating Dispossession explores the many ways Tibetans are reimagining their cultural identity since the communist takeover of Tibet in the 1950s. Focusing on developments taking place in Tibet and the diaspora, this collection of essays addresses a wide range of issues at the heart of Tibetan modernity. From the political dynamics of the exiled community in India to the production of contemporary Tibetan literature in the PRC, the collection delves into various aspects of current significance for the Tibetan community worldwide such as the construction of Bon identity in exile, the strategic use of the discourse of development or the issue of cultural and linguistic purity in an increasingly hybrid and globalized world. Moving away from the preservationist paradigm that regards Tibetan culture as an endangered and precious object, the essays in this book portray Tibetan identities in motion, as lived subjectivities that travel, change and creatively reimagine themselves on various global stages. Even if recent Tibetan history is marked by imposed transitions and a sense of dispossession, this collection highlights the ways Tibetans have not only managed traumatic historical events but also become agents of change and reinventors of their own traditions.

At publication date, a free ebook version of this title will be available through Luminos, University of California Press’s Open Access publishing program. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more. Islamic Shangri-La transports readers to the heart of the Himalayas as it traces the rise of the Tibetan Muslim community from the 17th century to the present. Radically altering popular interpretations that have portrayed Tibet as isolated and monolithically Buddhist, David Atwill's vibrant account demonstrates how truly cosmopolitan Tibetan society was by highlighting the hybrid influences and internal diversity of Tibet. In its exploration of the Tibetan Muslim experience, this book presents an unparalleled perspective of Tibet's standing during the rise of post–World War II Asia.

This book explores China's efforts to assimilate Tibet, in the process rewriting Tibetan history to conform to Beijing's goals. Warren Smith provides the historical context for understanding the current situation through an overview of China's actual -- as opposed to its promised -- policies toward Tibet over time. His appraisal of Chinese policy shows that the PRC's ultimate intention is assimilation rather than autonomy. The author argues that Beijing fears that any genuine autonomy or dialogue withthe Dalai Lama will fuel renewed nationalistm in "China's Tibet." as the Chinese leadership calls its possession. This book highlights China's past and current propaganda on Tibet to demonstrate China's sensitivity and defensiveness regarding the legitimacy of its rule. Smith shows how China has tried to use Sino-Tibetan dialogue to defuse Tibetan exile and international criticism, while making no concessions in regard to Tibetan autonomy. In the absence of any solution, Smith advocates the promotion of Tibet's right to self-determination as the most viable strategy for sustaining international attention and maintaining the most essential elements of Tibetan national identity.

Re-imagining South Asian Religions is a collection of essays offering new ways of understanding aspects of Hindu, Tibetan Buddhist, Sikh, Jain, Theosophical, and Indian Christian experiences.

Based on the author’s cross-regional fieldwork, archival findings, and critical reading of memoirs and creative works of Tibetans and Chinese, this book recounts how the potency of Tibet manifests itself in modern material culture concerning Tibet, which is interwoven with state ideology, politics of identity, imagination, nostalgia, forgetting, remembering, and earth-inspired transcendence. The physical place of Tibet is the antecedent point of contact for subsequent spiritual imaginations, acts of destruction and reconstruction, collective nostalgia, and delayed aesthetic and environmental awareness shown in the eco-religious acts of native Tibetans, Communist radical utopianism, former military officers’ recollections, Tibetan and Chinese artwork, and touristic consumption of the Tibetan landscape. By drawing connections between differences, dichotomies, and oppositions, this book explores the interiors of the diverse agentive modes of imaginations from which Tibet is imagined in China. On the theoretical front, this book attempts to bring forth a set of fresh perspectives on how a culturally and religiously specific landscape is antecedent to simultaneous processes of place-making, identity-making, and the bonding between place and people.

This book explores the devastating consequences and psychological ruptures of refugeehood as it evocatively recounts the life histories of dislocated Tibetans expelled from their homes since 1959. Following the genre of a story, the book offers dynamic understandings of unconscious processes and the intergenerational transmission of trauma across generations of an exiled and internally displaced people. The book analyses the paradoxical spaces which Tibetans in exile occupy as they strive to preserve their cultural and spiritual heritage, rituals, religion, and language while also dynamically remoulding themselves to adapt to their living realities. Presenting a nuanced picture, it narrates stories of refugees, political prisoners and survivors of torture along with stories of loss and angst, cultural celebrations and political demonstrations. The author in this new edition highlights and explores the art, artists, and poetry in the exiled community. The volume also looks at the significance of Buddhism and the philosophy of the Dalai Lama for the people in exile and the personal and collective will of the community to connect their lost past to a living present and an imagined future. Rooted in the psychoanalytical tradition, this book will be of interest to psychologists, sociologists, political scientists, scholars of literature, and arts and aesthetics. It will also appeal to those interested in Sino-Tibetan relations, Buddhist studies, South Asian Studies, cultural and peace studies, and those working with refugees, and displaced persons.