Schedule (Fall 2024)
Weekly readings will be marked by where they can be found: ereserve or online for articles available for downloading from the web. For class announcements, ereserves, streaming films, posting your Film Journal entries, submitting your work, and discussion forums go to the Course Moodle Page.
Course Activities and Policies
Student Film Workshops and Schedule
- Part I: "Tibet" as a Figure in Key Films
- Week 1: Introductions
- Week 2: Telling Stories, (Dis)placing "Tibet"
- Week 3: (Mis)representing the Anti-Colonial
- Week 4: Setting the Scene: Hollywood and Translating Tibet
- Week 5: "Minority" Film Worlds: Representing Tibetans in the PRC
- Week 6: The Rise of Tibetan Filmmakers: Pema Tseden
- Week 7: Gender and The Rise of Tibetan Filmmakers: Pema Tseden 2
- Week 8: Observing Tibet: Documentary Films by Tibetans
- Week 9: Green Tibetans? Observing Environmentalisms
- Part II: Your Films!
Part I: "Tibet" as a Figure in Key Films
Week 1: Introductions
Assignments
Chronology: Turning points in Modern Chinese-Tibetan Relations
Mon Sept 2 Labor Day, No Class!
Wed Sept 4: Introductions and Goals of the Course
- No reading assignments
Further Reading
General Sources for Tibet-Related film
Barnett, Robert. Television Drama Series in Tibet, Tibetan Arts in Transition: Journey through Theater, Cinema and Painting, edited by Valeria Donatti and Mara Matta, ASIA Onlus, 2009.
Bishop, Peter. Caught in the cross-fire: Tibet, media and promotional culture, Media, Culture & Society, 2000.
Carlton, Scott Andrew. Constructing Tibetanness from the ‘In-Between’: Self- Representations of Hybrid Identity in Tibetan Fiction Films [Unpublished Masters Dissertation]. The University of Texas at Austin, 2016.
Dorje Tsering Chenaktsang. "On the Relationship between Literature and Cinema in Tibet," Tibetan Arts in Transition: Journey through Theater, Cinema and Painting, edited by Valeria Donatti and Mara Matta, ASIA Onlus, 2009, pp 71-77. (I have pdf)
Gokul, KS. Contemporary Tibetan Cinema: Image and Voice. Yeshe Journal, 2021.
Korom, Frank J. “Click Here for Enlightenment: On Tibet, Hollywood, Virtual Communities, Cyberspace Discourse, and Other Matters of Representational Practice.” Tibetan Subjectivities on the Global Stage: Negotiating Dispossession, edited by Shelly Bhoil and Enrique Galvan-Alvarez, Lexington Books, 2018, pp. 43-67. (Reed has ebook)
Norbu, Jamyang. “Cinema and Tibet: A Brief Historical Overview.” Tibet Writes, Sept. 2004, https://www.tibetwrites.in/articles/cinema-and-tibet-a-brief-historical-overview/.
—. “The Happy Light Bioscope Theatre & Other Stories.” Shadow Tibet, 10 Feb & 22 Feb 2010, www.jamyangnorbu.com/blog/2010/02/22/the-happy-light-bioscope-theatre-other-stories-part-2/.
Matta, Mara. “SEARCHING FOR A (NEW) CINEMATIC LANGUAGE IN TIBET.” Il Tibet, Fra Mito e Realtà. Tibet between Myth and Reality: Atti Del Convegno per Il Centenario Della Nascita Di Fosco Maraini (Gabinetto G.P. Vieusseux – Provincia Di Firenze, Firenze, 14 Marzo 2012), edited by Erberto Lo Bue, 1st ed., vol. 24, Casa Editrice Leo S. Olschki s.r.l., 2014, pp. 113–134.
Robin, Françoise, editor. “Cinema in Tibet.” Latse Journal, vol. 7, 2011-2012.
—. “Cinema, Tibet.” Pop Culture in Asia and Oceania, edited by Jeremy A. Murray and Kathleen M. Nadeau, ABC-Clio, 2016, pp. 145-147.
Yang Li. Screening Tibet : approaching new Tibetan cinema from a postcolonial perspective and the field of subaltern studies (diss), 2018.
Film and The Tibetan Diaspora
Bloch, Natalia. “We Are No Monks. Narrating the Self through New Tibetan Exile Cinema.” Ethnologia Polona, vol. 37, 2017, pp. 101-114.
Dukes, Kimberly. Cultural Citizenship in the Tibetan Exile: Movies, Media, and Personal Stories. Temple University, 2006. (diss)
Matta, Mara. “Liminal Gazes: Reflections on Tibetan Diasporic Cinema.” Tibetan Arts in Transition: Journey through Theater, Cinema and Painting, edited by Valeria Donatti and Mara Matta, ASIA Onlus, 2009, pp. 25-36.
—. “The Karma of Chicken Curry: Tibetan Masala Films and Youth Narratives of Exile.” Annali di Ca’Foscari.Serie Orientate, vol. 54, 2018, pp. 289-317.
—. “Tibetan Diasporic Cinema: Traces of Memory, Visions of Hope.” Resistant Hybridities: New Narratives of Exile Tibet, edited by Shelly Bhoil, Lexington Books, 2020, pp. 165-183.
Morcom, A. "Bollywood, Tibet, and the spatial and temporal dimensions of global modernity," Studies in South Asian Film & Media, 2009.
Films
- "Applause" - Chinese Central TV advertisement for the 2008 Beijing Olympics
- Chinese Counter-protest to pro-Tibet demonstrators - Duke University, April 2008
- Chinese Counter-protest to pro-Tibet demonstrators, Grace Wang intervenes(5:28)- Duke University, April 2008
- Discovering China and Tibet [DS712 .D58 1988 video]
Links
Maps
Week 2: Telling Stories, (Dis)placing "Tibet"
Assignments
Film of the Week: Lost Horizon, 1937, Frank Capra, 130 mins. Stream on Moodle.
Mon Sept 9 The Orientalist Gaze: Lost Horizon
- Said, Edward. 1978. The Scope of Orientalism, (pp. 31-49) Orientalism. New York: Vintage Books. (ereserve)
- Jamyang Norbu. Behind the Lost Horizon, in Dodin and Rather, eds., Imagining Tibet. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2001. (ereserve). (5 pp)
- Ma, J. & Toncic, J. C. (2014). Consuming Tibet: Imperial romance and the wretched of the holy plateau. In J. Whalen-Bridge & G. Storhoff (Eds.), Buddhist and American Cinema (pp. 53-81). Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. (ebook/ereserve). (30 pp) Focus: pp 53-75; Skim: pp. 76-81.
Wed Sept 11 Workshop 1: Anthro, and the Multimodality of Film Narrative
Guest: Tony Moreno, Digital Project Manager
- Westmoreland, Mark. "Multimodality: Reshaping Anthropology," Annual Review of Anthropology 2022. 51:173–94. (ereserve) (15 pp).
- Pramaggiore, Maria. "Ch. Four: Narrative Form," Film: a Critical Introduction. London, England : Laurence King Publishing, 2020 (ebook/ereserve).
Handout Final Film Project Guidelines, Learning Goals Reflection Guidelines
Less ideally, by Friday Sep 13, midnight (after we discuss it).
Further Reading
- Brauen, Martin. In Search of Shangri-La. Dreamworld Tibet : western illusion; translated by Martin Willson. Trumbull, CT : Weatherhill, c2004.
- Carrier, James. "Occidentalism: the World Turned Upside Down," American Ethnologist 19(2), 1992.
- Dodin and Rather. Imagining Tibet: Btw Shangri-la and Feudal Oppression. Dodin and Rather, eds., Imagining Tibet. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2001.
- Lopez, Donald. New Age Orientalism: The Case of Tibet, Tricyle, 1994.
- Lopez, Donald. Prisoners of Shangri-la: Tibetan Buddhism and the West. UChicago Press, 1998. [new 20th anniversary edition with new foreword by Lopez].
- Said, Edward. "Orientalism Reconsidered," Barker et al, eds., Europe and its Others, Colchester: University of Essex, 1985.
- Said, Edward. 1989. "Representing the Colonized: Anthropology's Interlocutors," Critical Inquiry 15(2): 205-225.
- Sperling. Orientialism and Aspects of Violence, in Dodin and Rather, eds., Imagining Tibet. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2001.
- Suh, Sharon. Silverscreen Buddha: Buddhism in Asian and Western Film. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2015 [see ch. 1 Introduction and ch. 3 Zen Appetites, discusses Lost Horizon]
- Tong, Q.S. ‘Lost Horizon’: Orientalism and the Question of Tibet. Writing China Essays on the Amherst Embassy (1816) and Sino-British Cultural Relations, pp. 167 - 187, Boydell & Brewer, 2016. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781782048169.010
- Zhang, Benzi. Orientalism Re-oriented: The Poetics/Politics of Performing Cultural Difference, Colonizer and Colonized, Brill, 2000,161–180. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004488861_018
Film, Photography and the Image of "Tibet"
- Barnett, Robert. “The Secret Secret: Cinema, Ethnicity and Seventeenth Century Tibetan- Mongolian Relations.” Inner Asia, vol. 4, no. 2, 2002, pp. 277–346.
- Bělka, Luboš, Daniel Berounský, Petr Jandáček and Jarmila Ptáčková (eds). “Experiencing Tibet from the Heart of Europe. Missionaries, Scholars, Filmmakers and Motorbikes”, 2022. [7 Articles on Czech and Slovak Tibetologist and their work]
- Bishop, Peter. Ch. 4: The Axis Mundi Appears. The Myth of Shangri-La. 1989.
- Hansen, Peter. (1996) "The Dancing Lamas of Everest: Cinema, orientalism and Anglo-Tibetan relations in the 1920s," reprinted in Alex Mckay, ed. The History of Tibet, vol III: The Modern Period 1895-1959 Encounter with Modernity. London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003
- Hansen, Peter. (1996) "The Dancing Lamas of Everest: Cinema, orientalism and Anglo-Tibetan relations in the 1920s," reprinted in Alex Mckay, ed. The History of Tibet, vol III: The Modern Period 1895-1959 Encounter with Modernity. London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003
- Harrer, Heinrich. Lost Lhasa. (my office)
- Tibet The Sacred Realm: Photographs 1880-1950. (my office)
- Harris, Clare and Tsering Shakya, ed.s. Seeing Lhasa : British depictions of the Tibetan capital 1936-1947. Chicago : Serindia, 2003
- Harris, Clare. In the image of Tibet : Tibetan painting after 1959. London : Reaktion, 1999
Anthro Approaches to Film and Media Studies
- Marcus Banks, Jay Ruby, eds. Made to Be Seen: Perspectives on the History of Visual Anthropology (reed has print book)
- J Collier. Visual anthropology and the future of ethnographic film
Anthropological filmmaking, 2014, 1988. - Devereaux, Leslie, ed. Fields of Vision: Essays In Film Studies, Visual Anthropology, and Photography. E-book, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995.
- Grimshaw, Anna. Observational cinema : anthropology, film, and the exploration of social life
2009; Bloomington : Indiana University Press (Reed has print book) - CM Levin, AR Cruz. Behind the scenes of a visual ethnography: A dialogue between anthropology and film, Journal of Film and Video, 2008
- W Martinez. Who constructs anthropological knowledge? Toward a theory of ethnographic film spectatorship, in Film as ethnography, 1992.
- MacDougall, David. “Anthropology and the Cinematic Imagination.” Photography, Anthropology and History, 1st ed., Routledge, 2009, pp. 55–64, https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315600413-4.
- Pink, Sarah. Multimodality, multisensory ethnography, 2009.
- Ruby, Jay. Picturing culture : explorations of film & anthropology. Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 2000.
Films
- Edward Said: On Orientalism. Sut Jhally, dir. 1998. [DS12.S24 1998 DVD, YouTube]
Links
- Shadow Tibet - Jamyang Norbu's Blog
- Edward Said - Wikipedia entry on Edward Said, with links to his works and critics' articles
- Edward Said Archive - Marxists.org collection of some of Said's main works. Unofficial but comprehensive online database with links to a wide variety of Said's works and critical responses.
- "Tibetan Orientalism" - Salon.com, Apr. 2008
- Treasury of Lives Interactive Map of Tibet
- Tibet Maps (Multiple sources compiled by the Tibetan Studies WWW Virtual Library)
- Virtual Lhasa (Tibet Heritage Fund website with interactive maps)
- Lhasa (Chinese government sanctioned website China's Tibet News introduction to Lhasa)
- August 09 Beijing Exhibition on Achievements in Tibet (reported on govt-sanctioned website China Tibet Online)
Maps
- Treasury of Lives Interactive Map of Tibet
- Tibet's geography: View - HiRes
- p.xix in Kapstein, Matthew. The Tibetans, Blackwell, 2006.
- Current Political Divisions: View - HiRes
- p.xxxi in Smith, Warren. Tibetan Nation: a History of Tibetan Nationalism and Sino-Tibetan Relations. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1996.
- Plan of Lhasa by Lt. col. Waddell: View - HiRes
- pp.xxx-xxxi in Barnett, Robert. Lhasa: Streets with Memories. Columbia University Press, 2006.
- Tibet and her Neighbours: View - HiRes
- pp.x-xi in Bstan-ʼdzin-rgya-mtsho, Dalai Lama XIV. Freedom in exile: the autobiography of the Dalai Lama. San Francisco, Calif.: HarperPerennial, 1991, c1990 (1st HarperPerennial ed).
- Map of Tibet (the Central Tibetan Administration in exile)
- Map of Tibet (Xizang Ditu, PRC map site, "World Maps")
Week 3: (Mis)representing the Anti-Colonial
Assigments
Chronology: Shifting Claims on "Tibet"
Chronology: Shifting Claims on "China"
Film of the Week: Red River Valley (Hong He Gu), Feng Xiaoning, dir., 1997, 120 mins., Stream on Moodle. **Content Notes: some graphic scenes of fictional battle violence.
Mon Sept 16 Film and Nationalist History
- Anderson, Benedict. READ: “Introduction,” and OPTIONAL ONLY: "Ch. 1 Cultural Roots," in Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. London: Verso, 1983. (36 pgs). (ereserve, book reserve).
- Barnett, Robert. "Younghusband Redux: Chinese Dramatisations of the British Invasion of Tibet," Inner Asia , 2012, Vol. 14, No. 1, SPECIAL ISSUE: The Younghusband 'Mission' to Tibet (2012), pp. 195-234. (ereserve). (34 pp).
Wed Sept 18 De-colonizing film studies?
- Higbee, Will, and Saër Maty Bâ. "Introduction," De-Westernizing Film Studies. Routledge, 2012. (13 pp). (ebook/ereserve).
- Brown, William. "Has film ever been Western? Continuity and the question of building a “common” cinema," De-Westernizing Film Studies. Routledge, 2012. (11 pp). (ebook/ereserve).|
Less ideally, by Friday Sep 20, midnight (after we discuss it).
Further Reading
Nationalist Discourses
- Dalai Lama. Sept. 1987. Five Point Peace Plan for Tibet. Address to Members of the United States Congress; Washington, D.C. (7 pgs). available online
- PRC State Council. 2021. Foreword, Sections I-V, X, Conclusion. Tibet Since 1951: Liberation, Development and Prosperity. (27 pp).
- Jamyang Norbu, April 1999. "Rangzen Charter," (23 pgs). available online
Anthropology, Nationalism and China-Tibet Relations
- Ana Maria Alonso. The Politics of Space, Time, and Substance: State Formation, Nationalism, and Ethnicity. Annu. Rev. Anthropol. 1994 , Vol. 23: 379-405.
- Asad, Talal. Where are the Margins of the State? in Veena Das and Deborah Poole, eds., Anthropology in the Margins of the State, 2004.
- Eriksen, Thomas Hylland. 1993. Ethnicity and Nationalism: Anthropological Perspectives. London: Pluto Press. (Ch. 1 available online)
- http://www.nationalismproject.org/links/article.htm
- Foster, Robert J. "Making National Cultures in the Global Ecumene", Annual Review of Anthropology 20, 1991. (20pp)
- Gupta, Akhil and J. Ferguson. "Beyond 'Culture': Space, Identity and the Politics of Difference," in Gupta and Ferguson, eds, Culture, Power, Place: Explorations in Critical Anthropology. Durham: Duke University Press, 1997. (18 pp.)
- Kleiger, Christiaan. Tibetan Nationalism. Berkeley: Folklore Institute, 1992.
British and American Imperialism and the Image of Tibet
- Addy, Premen. British and Indian Strategic Perceptions of Tibet. in Barnett, ed. Resistance and Reform in Tibet, 1994.
- Anand, Dibyesh 2007. Geopolitical exotica: Tibet in western imagination. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
- Anand, Dibyesh. Strategic Hypocrisy: The British Imperial Scripting of Tibet's Geopolitical Identity. The Journal of Asian Studies Vol. 68, No. 1 (February) 2009: 227–252.
- Bishop, Peter. The Myth of Shangri-La. University of California Press,1989.
- Brauen, Martin. Part 1 In Search of Utopia (section on early Christians). Dreamworld Tibet : western illusion; translated by Martin Willson. Trumbull, CT : Weatherhill, c2004.
- Chakrabarty, Dipesh. "Introduction: The Idea of Provincializing Europe" in Provincializing Europe: Postcolonial Thought and Historical Difference. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2000. (20 pp).
- Coales, Oliver. "Narrative of a Journey from Tachienlu to Ch'amdo and back via Batang," unpublished report to Govt. of India 1916, reprinted in Alex Mckay, ed. The History of Tibet, vol III: The Modern Period 1895-1959 Encounter with Modernity. London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003.
- Hansen, Peter. Tibetan Horizon: Tibet and the Cinema in the Early 20th Century, Dodin and Rather, eds., Imagining Tibet. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2001. (16 pp)
- Lopez, Donald. Prisoners of Shangri-La: Tibetan Buddhism and the West. University of Chicago Press. 1998.
- Kaschewsky, Images of Tibet in the West, Dodin and Rather, eds., Imagining Tibet. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2001.
- Kvaerne, Tibet Images Among Researchers of Tibet, Dodin and Rather, eds., Imagining Tibet. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2001.
- Lopez, Donald. The Image of Tibet of the Great Mystifiers, Dodin and Rather, eds., Imagining Tibet. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2001.
- McGranahan, Carole. Empire and the Status of Tibet. in Alex Mckay, ed. The History of Tibet, vol III: The Modern Period 1895-1959 Encounter with Modernity. London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003
- McKay, Alex. 1997. Tibet and the British Raj: The Frontier Cadre.
- McKay, Alex. "The British Construction of an Image of Tibet," Dodin and Rather, eds., Imagining Tibet. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2001. (19 pp)
- McKay, Alex. Tibet 1924: a Very British Coup Attempt? reprinted in Alex Mckay, ed. The History of Tibet, vol III: The Modern Period 1895-1959 Encounter with Modernity. London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003
- McKay, Alex. Tibet The Myth of Isolation. reprinted in Alex Mckay, ed. The History of Tibet, vol III: The Modern Period 1895-1959 Encounter with Modernity. London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003
- McKay, Alex. We Want a United Tibet, reprinted in Alex Mckay, ed. The History of Tibet, vol III: The Modern Period 1895-1959 Encounter with Modernity. London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003
- Teichman, Sir Eric. (1922). "Travels of a Consular Officer in Eastern Tibet," reprinted in Alex Mckay, ed. The History of Tibet, vol III: The Modern Period 1895-1959 Encounter with Modernity. London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003.
Missionaries
- Bělka, Luboš, Daniel Berounský, Petr Jandáček and Jarmila Ptáčková (eds). “Experiencing Tibet from the Heart of Europe. Missionaries, Scholars, Filmmakers and Motorbikes”, 2022. [7 Articles on Czech and Slovak Tibetologist and their work]
- Bray, John. (1993). "Christian Missions and the Politics of Tibet, 1850-1950," reprinted in Alex Mckay, ed. The History of Tibet, vol III: The Modern Period 1895-1959 Encounter with Modernity. London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003.
- Bray, John. French Catholic Missions and the Politics of China and Tibet 1846-1865, reprinted in Alex Mckay, ed. The History of Tibet, vol III: The Modern Period 1895-1959 Encounter with Modernity. London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003
- Bray, John. Missionary Images of Tibet, Dodin and Rather, eds., Imagining Tibet. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2001.
- Ekvall, Robert. pp 13-24, pp. 35-46, pp. 153-173. Gateway to Tibet. Christian Publications, inc. 1928.
- Jamyang Norbu, ed. Christian Missionaries and Tibet. Lungta No 11 Aris, Michael. India and the British According to a Tibetan text of the Later 18th Century. reprinted in Alex Mckay, ed. The History of Tibet, vol II: The Medieval Period. London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003 (Jigmelingpa's text, includes translation, Tibetans' views of barbarians)
- Kalman, Jonathan. Going Undercover for Jesus in Tibet. The Guardian. Feb. 2013.
- Matthew W. King & Pamela E. Klassen. (2015). Suppressing the Mad Elephant: Missionaries, Lamas, and the Mediation of Sacred Historiographies in the Tibetan Borderlands, History and Anthropology, 26:5, 529-552, DOI: 10.1080/02757206.2015.1037300.
- Singh, Yunas. On the Roof of the World: Visits to Tibet (1917, London Missionary Society). reprinted in Alex Mckay, ed. The History of Tibet, vol III: The Modern Period 1895-1959 Encounter with Modernity. London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003.
Tibet and Imperial China
- Akester, Matthew. 2008. Review of A History of Modern Tibet, Volume 2: The Calm before the Storm, 1951-55, by Melvyn C. Goldstein. Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies (4). [JIATS online - PDF]
- Patricia Berger. 2003. Empire of Emptiness: Buddhist Art and Political Authority in Qing China
- Cuevas, Bryan and Kurtis Schaeffer, eds. 2006. Power, Politics and the Reinvention of Tradition: Tibet in the 17th and 18th centuries. Brill. [Illich, Pomplun, Tsyrempilov, Tuttle on Qing-lama interactions;]
- Goldstein, Melvyn C. 2009 (unpublished). Response to M. Akester's review of "A History of Modern Tibet, Volume Two". [Word doc]
- Harrell, Stevan. "Civilizing Projects and the Reaction to Them," in Cultural Encounters on China's Ethnic Frontiers. Seattle: Univ. of Washington Press, 1995.
- Buddhism Between Tibet and China (Studies in Indian and Tibetan Buddhism), Matthew Kapstein, ed. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2009. [chapters by Tuttle and Zablocki on Han/Taiwan patronage, Jagou, others on 13th DL and other lamas in China]
- Jagou, Fabienne. A Pilgrim's Progress: The Peregrinations of the 6th Panchen Lama, reprinted in Alex Mckay, ed. The History of Tibet, vol III: The Modern Period 1895-1959 Encounter with Modernity. London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003.
- Jenco, Leigh K. and Jonathan Chappell. Overlapping Histories, Co-produced Concepts: Imperialism in Chinese Eyes. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0021911820000066 Cambridge University Press: 20 July 2020
- Hevia, James. Ch. 2 "A Multitude of Lords: The Qing Empire, Manchu Rulership, and Interdomainal Relations," in Cherishing Men from Afar: Qing Guest Ritual and the Macartney Embassy of 1793. Durham: Duke University Press, 1995. (27 pp.)
- Hevia, James. 1993. Lamas, Emperors and Rituals: Political Implications in Qing Imperial Ceremonies. Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 16(2).
- Hostetler, Laura. Qing colonial enterprise : ethnography and cartography in early modern China. Chicago : University of Chicago Press, c2001.
- Illich, Marina. Imperial Stooge or Emissary to the dge lugs Throne? Rethinking the Biographies of Chankya Rolpe Dorje, in Cuevas, Bryan and Kurtis Schaeffer, eds. 2006. Power, Politics and the Reinvention of Tradition: Tibet in the 17th and 18th centuries. Brill.
- Makley, Charlene. "Rethinking Emanational Politics in Inner Asia," Harvard Journal of Asian Studies, 2022.
- Mala, Guilaine. A Mahayanist Rewriting of the History of China by mgon po skyabs in the rgya nag chos 'byung, in Cuevas, Bryan and Kurtis Schaeffer, eds. 2006. Power, Politics and the Reinvention of Tradition: Tibet in the 17th and 18th centuries. Brill.
- Oidtmann, Max. Forging the Golden Urn. Columbia University Press, 2020.
- Powers, John. pp. 101-140. History as Propaganda: Tibetan Exiles versus the People's Republic of China. Oxford. 2004.
- Rossabi, Morris. "Introduction," Morris Rossabi, Ed., China Among Equals: The Middle Kingdom and its Neigbors, 10-14th Centuries, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983. (12 pp)
- Tsyrempilov, Nikolay. Dge lugs pa Divided: Some Aspects of the Political Role of Tibetan Buddhism in the Expansion of the Qing Dynasty, Cuevas, Bryan and Kurtis Schaeffer, eds. 2006. Power, Politics and the Reinvention of Tradition: Tibet in the 17th and 18th centuries. Brill.
- Wang, Xiangyun. "The Qing Court's Tibet Connection: Lcang skya Rol pa'i rdo rje and the Qianlong Emperor," Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 60, no. 1 (June 2000), pp. 125-63.
Early Modern Sino-Tibetan Relations
- Barnett, Robert. “Close Encounters of the Filmic Kind: Visualising the Chinese Arrival in Tibet.” Conflicting Memories: Tibetan History under Mao Retold, edited by Robert Barnett et al, Brill, 2020, pp. 141-203. (I have the book)
- Peng Wenbin. Frontier Process, Provincial Politics and Movements for Khampa Autonomy during the Republican Period. Epstein, ed, Khams pa Histories: Visions of People, Place and Authority. Brill, 2002.
- Sperling, Eliot. (1976). "The Chinese Venture in K'am, 1904-1911," reprinted in Alex Mckay, ed. The History of Tibet, vol III: The Modern Period 1895-1959 Encounter with Modernity. London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003.
Western Scholarly History of Tibet
- Barnett, Robert. Preface, Preamble, Ch. 1 The Unitary View, Ch. 2: Foreign Visitors, Oscillations and Extremes (p. xi-xix, p 1-39). Lhasa: Streets with Memories. Columbia University Press, 2006.
- Beckwith, Christopher. The Tibetans in the Ordos and North China: Consideration on the role of the Tibetan Empire in World History, reprinted in Alex Mckay, ed. The History of Tibet, vol I: The Early Period. London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003
- Beckwith, Christopher. The Tibetan Empire in Central Asia.
- Bishop, Peter. Ch. 2: Tibet Discovered (1773-92), Ch. 5: Outside Time and Space (1875-1914). The Myth of Shangri-La. 1989.
- Dalton, Jacob. Introduction and Ch. 2 Demons in the Dark (p. 1-22, p. 44-76), in The Taming of the Demons: Violence and Liberation in Tibetan Buddhism. Yale Univ. Press, 2011.
- Dalton, Jacob. Ch. 4 Sacrifice and the Law, and Ch. 5 Foundational violence (p. 95-125), in The Taming of the Demons: Violence and Liberation in Tibetan Buddhism. Yale Univ. Press, 2011.
- Jacob P. Dalton. The Gathering of Intentions: A History of a Tibetan Tantra.
- Dargyay, Eva. Srong-btsan sgam-po of Tibet: Bodhisattva and King. reprinted in Alex Mckay, ed. The History of Tibet, vol I: The Early Period. London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003.
- Dreyfus, George. Cherished Memories, Cherished Communities: Proto-Nationalism in Tibet. reprinted in Alex Mckay, ed. The History of Tibet, vol II: The Medieval Period. London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003.(13 pp).
- "Early Glimpses of Tibet," in Alex Mckay, ed. The History of Tibet, vol I: The Early Period: to c. AD 850 The Yarlung Dynasty. London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003 (3 pgs)
- Gyatso, Janet. Down with the Demoness in Feminine ground: essays on women and Tibet, edited by Janice D. Willis. Ithaca, N.Y.: Snow Lion Publications, 1995, (reprinted in Alex Mckay, ed. The History of Tibet, vol I: The Early Period. London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003). (18 pp).
- Kapstein, Matthew. Ch. 3. The Tsenpo's Imperial Dominion. The Tibetans. Blackwell, 2006. (bookstore, book reserve)
- Kapstein, Matthew. Ch 1 The Vessel and its Contents. The Tibetans. Blackwell, 2006. (25 pp).
- Karmay, Samten. The Origin Myths of the First King of Tibet as Revealed in the Can-lnga, reprinted in Alex Mckay, ed. The History of Tibet, vol I: The Early Period. London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003
- Kirkland, Russel. The Spirit of the Mountain: Myth and State in Pre-Buddhist Tibet. reprinted in Alex Mckay, ed. The History of Tibet, vol I: The Early Period. London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003.
- Mills, Martin. Re-Assessing the Supine Demoness: Royal Buddhist Geomancy in the Srong btsan sgam po Mythology. JIATS 3, 2007.
- Powers, John. p. 29-46, Ch. 2, Characters, Plots and Motivations in Tibetan History, History as Propaganda: Tibetan Exiles versus the People’s Republic of China. Oxford. 2004. (16 pp.).
- Questions 1-7, Blondeau, Anne-Marie and Katia Buffetrille, eds. 2008. Authenticating Tibet: Answers to China's 100 Questions. Berkeley: University of California Press.
- Samuel, Geoffrey. 1993. Ch. 3 and 4, Tibetan Societies and Tibetan Communities. Ch. 23, Tibet to AD 841. Civilized Shamans: Buddhism in Tibetan Societies. Smithsonian Institution Press.
- Samuel, Geoffrey. Buddhism and the State in 8th Century Tibet. in Blezer, ed. Religion and Secular Culture in Tibet. 2002.
- Smith, Warren. Ch.s 3, 4. Tibetan Nation: a History of Tibetan Nationalism and Sino-Tibetan Relations. 1996.
- Sneath. Introduction. The Headless State: Aristocratic Orders, Kinship Society, and Misrepresentations of Nomadic Inner Asia.
- Snellgrove and Richardson. 1968. Ch. 1 Manifestation of Tibetan Power. A Cultural History of Tibet. Shambhala.
- Uebach, Helga. Ladies of the Tibetan Empire. in Gyatso and Havnevik, eds. Women in Tibet. Columbia. 2005.
- Taming the demoness, reprinted in Alex Mckay, ed. The History of Tibet, vol I: The Early Period. London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003
- Tucci. G. The Sacral Character of the Kings of Ancient Tibet. reprinted in Alex Mckay, ed. The History of Tibet, vol I: The Early Period. London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003
- Bell, C.A. Portrait of a Dalai Lama: The Life and Times of the Great Thirteenth. Wisdom Publications, 1987[1946].
- Questions 8-12, Blondeau, Anne-Marie and Katia Buffetrille, eds. 2008. Authenticating Tibet: Answers to China's 100 Questions. Berkeley: University of California Press.
- Wen-shing Chou Reimagining the Buddhist Universe: Pilgrimage and Cosmography in the Court of the Thirteenth Dalai Lama (1876–1933) . The Journal of Asian Studies, 2014.
- Ekvall, Robert. The Tibetan Self-Image. reprinted in Alex Mckay, ed. The History of Tibet, vol III: The Modern Period 1895-1959 Encounter with Modernity. London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003.
- Epstein, ed, Khams pa Histories: Visions of People, Place and Authority. Brill, 2002.
- Gedun Choephel. English Poems, Lungta No 9. Two Thousand Years and More of Tibetan Poetry Edited by Jamyang Norbu, 1995. [Link]
- Goldstein, Melvyn. Chs. 4-5, pp. 364-464, A History of Modern Tibet 1913-1951: The Demise of the Lamaist State. 1989.
- Gould, B.J. (1941). "The Discovery, Recognition, and Installation of the 14th Dalai lama," reprinted in Alex Mckay, ed. The History of Tibet, vol III: The Modern Period 1895-1959 Encounter with Modernity. London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003.
- Hansen, Tibetan Horizon, Dodin and Rather. Imagining Tibet.
- Harrer, Heinrich. Lost Lhasa. (My office)
- Harris, Clare and Tsering Shakya, ed.s. Seeing Lhasa : British depictions of the Tibetan capital 1936-1947. Chicago : Serindia, 2003
- Kapstein, Matthew. Ch. 5, pp 168-174 (The Life and Times of the Great 13th Dalai Lama), The Tibetans. Blackwell, 2006.
- Kleiger, Christiaan. Tibetan Nationalism. Berkeley: Folklore Institute, 1992.
- Jagou, Fabienne. A Pilgrim's Progress: The Peregrinations of the 6th Panchen Lama, reprinted in Alex Mckay, ed. The History of Tibet, vol III: The Modern Period 1895-1959 Encounter with Modernity. London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003.
- Jamyang Norbu, ed. The Lives of the Panchen Lama. Lungta No 10, 1996 [Link]
- Lopez, Donald. Preface and Ch. 1. (pp. ix-46). The Madman's Middle Way: reflections on reality of the Tibetan monk Gendun. Chopel. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, c2006.
- Makley, Charlene. Ch. 1 Fatherlands: Mapping Masculinities (p. 48-75 only!), in The Violence of Liberation: Gender and Tibetan Buddhist Revival in Post-Mao China, Univ of CA press, 2007.
- McGranahan, Carole. sa spang mda' gnam spang mda': Murder, History and Social Politics in 1920s Lhasa, in Lawrence Epstein, ed, Khams pa Histories: Visions of People, Place and Authority. Brill, 2002.
- Mengele, Irmgard. dge-'dun-chos-'phel: a Biography of the 20th Century Tibetan Scholar. Library of Tibetan Works and Archives. 1999. (My office).
- Thupten Jinpa and Donald Lopez, trans. Grains of Gold: Tales of a Cosmopolitan Traveler. UChicago Press, 2014.
- Rakra Tethong. Gedun Choephel or the Loss of a Sage. Lungta 6, 1992.
- Smith, Warren. Ch.s 7-8. Tibetan Nation: a History of Tibetan Nationalism and Sino-Tibetan Relations. 1996.
- Stoddard, Heather. “Tibet from Buddhism to Communism,” Government and Opposition 21, 1986 (20 pp.)
- Travers, Alice. “Marching into View: the Tibetan Army in Historic Photographs (1895-1959)”
- Tsering Shakya. 1948 Tibetan Trade Mission to United Kingdom. reprinted in Alex Mckay, ed. The History of Tibet, vol III: The Modern Period 1895-1959 Encounter with Modernity. London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003.
- Tuttle, Gray. Tibetan Buddhists in the making of modern China. New York : Columbia University Press, c2005.
- Ishihama Yumiko and Alex McKay (Eds.). The Early 20th Century Resurgence of the Tibetan Buddhist World”
Films
- Course YouTube playlist: Early 20th Century Films of Tibet
- Tibet: Land of Isolation (1935)
- Sir Basil Gould's Films of Tibet (1940, BFI archives)
- Frederick Williamson's films (British clips of Tibet from the 1930's)
- Seven Years in Tibet (1997) [PN1995.9.T52 S49 1998 DVD]
- The Shadow Circus: the CIA in Tibet, 2000. [Catalog]
- lcang skya (Jangjya) II: Preceptor to the Great Manchu Emperor (Youtube, Opensource Buddhism)
- Yonghegong temple proves Tibet was always part of China (CCTV English language channel, April 2008, just after Tibet unrest)
- Qing Chengde Resort Tibetan temples as proof Tibet was always part of China(CCTV English language channel, April 2008, just after Tibet unrest)
- Qing is Not China (anti-PRC Manchu history)
- Youtube film: Tibet, China: Ownership of Tibet (China-based filmmaker refers to Qing history to argue for PRC ownership of Tibet in 2008)
- Youtube Playlist: All about Old Tibet (Japan-based pro-PRC films on Tibetan history, serfs, nobles, etc., clips from British official's films as evidence, etc.)
Nationalist Lenses
- Yeti: a will to exist... will to overcome extinction. [DS786 .Y38 2008 DVD]
- The Dalai Lama's Congressional Gold Medal Address, Oct. 2007
- The Dalai Lama Rebukes Tibetan minister who challenged his Middle Way approach (May 2013)
- How will this Olympics be Remembered? Jamyang Norbu (English)
- Jamyang Norbu at March 10 Rally in San Francisco (Tibetan)
- Tibet: Cry of the Snow Lion [DS786 .T524 2004 DVD]
- Interview with John Powers (on Chinese perspectives of Tibet, Digital Dharma Films, pro-Tibet activist films by 2 white Californians, 2008)
Links
- The British Raj (Wikipedia)
- Manas (UCLA History professory Vinay Lal's blog on Indian history and culture)
- The Younghusband "Expedition" to Tibet (Wikipedia)
- Tibet and the British (Liverpool Museum collection of objects collected by British officers while in Tibet early 20th century).
- The Tibet Album: British photography in Central Tibet 1920-1950
- Curated by the University of Oxford and the British Museum
Nationalist Claims
- Animated Timeline of UN member states
- Shadow Tibet - Jamyang Norbu's Blog
- Debate over what "Rangzen" means in the last words of Tibetan self-immolators (2011, Tibetan Political Review, Elliot Sperling vs. ICT)
- Central Tibetan Administration (in exile) - based in Dharamsala, India
- Chinese Government White Paper
Maps
- Painting of Tibet mapped as the Supine Demoness (Rubin Museum)
- Plan of Lhasa by Lt. col. Waddell: View - HiRes
- pp.xxx-xxxi in Barnett, Robert. Lhasa: Streets with Memories. Columbia University Press, 2006.
- Tibet's geography: View - HiRes
- p.xix in Kapstein, Matthew. The Tibetans, Blackwell, 2006.
- The Tibetan empire, late eighth-early ninth centuries: View - HiRes
- p.xx in Kapstein, Matthew. The Tibetans, Blackwell, 2006.
- Western Tibet: View - HiRes
- p.xxi in Kapstein, Matthew. The Tibetans, Blackwell, 2006.
- Central Tibet and Tsang: View - HiRes
- p.xxiii in Kapstein, Matthew. The Tibetans, Blackwell, 2006.
- Far Eastern Tibet: View - HiRes
- p.xxiv in Kapstein, Matthew. The Tibetans, Blackwell, 2006.
- Shakya - maps 2: 1914 Tibet border claims View - HiRes
- Shakya - maps 3: 1914 Simla Conference border claims and purview of Dalai Lama's govt. View - HiRes
- Shakya - PLA invasion: View - HiRes
- Shakya - Sino/Indian 1: Kashmir border conflict View - HiRes
- Shakya - Sino/Indian 2: Arunachal Pradesh border conflict View - HiRes
- Ekvall - Amdo ethnic borders: View - HiRes
- Far Eastern Tibet: View - HiRes
- p.xxiv in Kapstein, Matthew. The Tibetans, Blackwell, 2006.
- Eastern Tibet (1725-1950): View - HiRes
- p.xxx in Smith, Warren. Tibetan Nation: a History of Tibetan Nationalism and Sino-Tibetan Relations. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1996.
- Amdo - The Eastern Regions of Tibet, C.A. 1800: View - HiRes
- Map 2 ICT - Contemporary Tibetan Regions: View - HiRes
- Map 4 ICT - 8th Century Borders: View - HiRes
- Map 5 ICT - 17th Century Borders: View - HiRes
- Map 6 ICT - 19th Century Borders: View - HiRes
- Map 8 ICT - PLA routes: View - HiRes
- NE Amdo Map Ocean Annals: View - HiRes
- Plan of Lhasa by Lt. col. Waddell: View - HiRes
- pp.xxx-xxxi in Barnett, Robert. Lhasa: Streets with Memories. Columbia University Press, 2006.
- Missionary Map of Tibet (1897): View - HiRes
- From the Tibetan Studies WWW Virtual Library
- Qing Empire c. 1820
- Nationalist China 1928-1937 (blue areas under direct KMT control).
- Sino-Japanese war (1931/37-1945) (purple areas under Japanese control in 1940.)
- The Eurasian Steppe and neighboring regions in the mid-seventeenth century: View - HiRes
- p.xi in Sneath, David. The Headless State: Aristocratic Orders, Kinship Society, and Misrepresentations of Nomadic Inner Asia. New York: Columbia University Press, 2007.
Week 4: Setting the Scene: Hollywood and Translating Tibet
Assignments
Chronology: The Maoist Years and the Rise of the PRC
Film of the Week: Kundun, Martin Scorcese, dir., 1998, Stream on Moodle, 135 mins.
Mon Sept 23 Translating Buddhism and the Dalai Lama
- Bstan-ʼdzin-rgya-mtsho, Dalai Lama XIV. Ch.s 1-3. Freedom in exile : the autobiography of the Dalai Lama. San Francisco, Calif. : HarperPerennial, 1991, c1990 (1st HarperPerennial ed). (pp. 1-57), (ereserve).
- Chan, Felicia. (2014). Politics into aesthetics: Cultural translation in ‘Kundun,’ ‘Seven Years in Tibet,’ and ‘The Cup.’ In J. Whalen-Bridge & G. Storhoff (Eds.), Buddhist and American Cinema (pp. 83-104). Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. (ebook/ereserve). (22 pp)
Structure of the Tibetan Government (late 19th-early 20th)
The Main Tibetan Buddhist Schools/Lineages
Wed Sept 25 Workshop 2 : Mise-en-Scene
Guest: Tony Moreno, Digital Project Manager
- Pramaggiore, Maria. "Ch. Five: Mise-en-Scene," Film: a Critical Introduction. London, England : Laurence King Publishing, 2020 (ebook/ereserve).
Less ideally, by Friday Sep 27, midnight (after we discuss it).
Further Reading
Filmic Representations of Tibetan Buddhism
- Frangville, Vanessa. “Tibet in Debate: Narrative Construction and Misrepresentations in Seven Years in Tibet and Red River Valley.” Transtext(e)s Transcultures, 2009.
- Mullen, Eve. “Orientalist Commercializations: Tibetan Buddhism in American Popular Film.” Journal of Religion & Film, vol. 2, 2016.
- AB Renger. Buddhism and Film—Inter-Relation and Interpenetration: Reflections on an Emerging Research Field. Contemporary Buddhism, 2014 - Taylor & Francis
- Robin. “Performing Compassion: A Counter-Hegemonic Strategy in Tibetan Cinema?” Tibetan Arts in Transition: Journey through Theater, Cinema and Painting, edited by Valeria Donatti and Mara Matta, ASIA Onlus, 2009, pp. 37-50.
- Silver Screen Buddha. Intro Buddhism and film, ch. 3 Zen Appetites longing for otherness (looks at Lost Horizon and Shangri la myth).
Western Scholarly History: Tibetan Buddhism
- Bell, Sir Charles (1946). The Political Testament of H. H. the 13th Dalai Lama, reprinted in Alex Mckay, ed. The History of Tibet, vol III: The Modern Period 1895-1959 Encounter with Modernity. London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003. (2 pp).
- Blondeau, Anne-Marie and Katia Buffetrille, eds. 2008. Question 19, Authenticating Tibet: Answers to China's 100 Questions. Berkeley: University of California Press. [
- Cuevas, Bryan and Kurtis Schaeffer, eds. 2006. Power, Politics and the Reinvention of Tradition: Tibet in the 17th and 18th centuries. Brill. [Bogin, Maher, Mala, Ronis, Schaeffer on 5th DL and JY].
- Debreczeny, Karl, ed., Faith and Empire: Art and Politics in Tibetan Buddhism. New York: Rubin Museum of Art, 2019
- Dreyfus, George. SKIM: Ch. 1 (read several paragraphs of each section); READ: Chs. 2-3, and Ch 13. The Sound of Two Hands Clapping: The Education of a Tibetan Buddhist Monk. University of California Press, 2003.
- Gamble, Ruth. Reincarnation in Tibetan Buddhism: The Third Karmapa and the Invention of a Tradition, Oxford University Press, 2018
- Goldstein, Melvyn. READ: Introduction and Ch. 1, SKIM: Ch. 3, READ: Ch. 4, A History of Modern Tibet 1913-1951: The Demise of the Lamaist State. 1989. (~60 pp)
- Huber, Toni. The holy land reborn : pilgrimage & the Tibetan reinvention of Buddhist India. Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 2008.
- Jacoby and Terrone, eds. Buddhism Beyond the Monastery: Tantric Practices and their Performers in Tibet and the Himalayas, Proceedings of the 10th Seminar of the IATS, edited by Sarah Jacoby & Antonio Terrone (Brill 2009)
- Kapstein. Skim: ch. 4, "Fragmentation and Hegemonic Power," Read/Skim Ch. 5, "the Rule of the Dalai Lama," pp. 127-168, Chs 6-7, Tibetan Society and Religious Life and Thought,The Tibetans. Blackwell, 2006. (bookstore, book reserve).
- Kapstein, Matthew. The Tibetan Assimilation of Buddhism: Conversion, Contestation, Memory. Oxford. 2000.
- Kapstein. Plague, Power, and Reason: the Royal Conversion to Buddhism Reconsidered. reprinted in Alex Mckay, ed. The History of Tibet, vol I: The Early Period. London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003
- Karmay, Samten. The Ordinance of Lama Yeshesod, in Arrow and the Spindle.
- Lopez, Donald. Introduction. Religions of Tibet in Practice. Princeton, 1997.
- Lopez, Donald. 1998. Ch. 1, The Name. Prisoners of Shangri-La: Tibetan Buddhism and the West. University of Chicago Press. (30 pp).
- Makley, Charlene. Ch. 1 Fatherlands: Mapping Masculinities (p. 29-48 only!), in The Violence of Liberation: Gender and Tibetan Buddhist Revival in Post-Mao China, Univ of CA press, 2007.
- Martin, Dan. The Woman Illusion? Research into the Lives of spiritually Accomplished Wome Leaders of the 11th and 12th Centuries. in Gyatso and Havnevik, eds. Women in Tibet. Columbia. 2005.
- McCay, ed. The History of Tibet, vol II: The Medieval Period. London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003 Materials on monastic power, sects, trulkus and Dalai Lamas: Sperling, Wylie, Kapstein, Yumiko, Richardson, Petech, Goldstein.
- Oidtmann, Max. Forging the Golden Urn: The Qing Empire and the Politics of Reincarnation in Tibet. Columbia University Press, 2018.
- Richardson, Hugh. The Dalai Lamas. In High Peaks, Pure Earth
- Samuel, Geoffry. 1993. Parts 2 and 3, selections. Civilized Shamans: Buddhism in Tibetan Societies. Smithsonian Institution Press.
- Smith, Warren. Ch.s 5, 6. Tibetan Nation: a History of Tibetan Nationalism and Sino-Tibetan Relations. 1996.
- Snellgrove and Richardson. 1968. Ch.s 2-8,. A Cultural History of Tibet. Shambhala.
- Tucci, Giuseppe. 1980 [1970]. The Religions of Tibet. University of California Press.
Chinese Modernist Claims and Tibetan Resistance
- Bstan-ʼdzin-rgya-mtsho, Dalai Lama XIV. Ch.s 3-7 (focus on ch.s 3, 5 and 6, skim rest). Freedom in exile : the autobiography of the Dalai Lama. [San Francisco, Calif.] : HarperPerennial, 1991, c1990 (1st HarperPerennial ed).
*Content Notes: descriptions of torture, military violence. - TM Chen. Maoist China and film: Textual communities and localized practices of film in Maoist China. Film, History and Cultural Citizenship, 2020 - taylorfrancis.com
- Goldstein, Melvyn. Ch. 2, 7-10, 11-21, A History of Modern Tibet 1913-1951: The Demise of the Lamaist State. 1989.
- Herberer, Old Tibet a Hell on Earth? Dodin and Rather, eds., Imagining Tibet. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2001. (36 pp).
- Kapstein. Ch. 9 Tibet in the Modern World, The Tibetans. Blackwell, 2006 Powers Ch. 3 Reinventing China, History as Propaganda: Tibetan Exiles versus the People's Republic of China. Oxford. 2004.
- Khetsun, Tubten. 2007. preface, ch. 1, chs. 13-16; (~38 pp) (Matthew Akester, trans.) Memories of Life in Lhasa under Chinese Rule. Columbia. **Content Notes: some graphic description of state violence.
- Li Jianglin. Chapter 16 The 1958 “Religious Reform Movement,” and "Afterword," When the Iron Bird Flies. (~42 pp).
*Content Notes: descriptions of torture, military violence. - Questions 12-18, Blondeau, Anne-Marie and Katia Buffetrille, eds. 2008. Authenticating Tibet: Answers to China's 100 Questions. Berkeley: University of California Press.
- Smith, Warren. Ch.s 1, 2, 9, 10. Tibetan Nation: a History of Tibetan Nationalism and Sino-Tibetan Relations. 1996.
- Smith, Warren. 2008. Ch. 2, Tibet Under Chinese Communist Rule, China's Tibet? Autonomy or Assimilation. Rowman & Littlefield.
- Tsering Shakya. Chs 1-6, The Dragon in the Land of Snows. Columbia Univ Press. 1999.
- Tsering Shakya. Appendix 1: 17-pt agreement. in The Dragon in the Land of Snows. Columbia Univ Press. 1999.
- Tibet Information Network. Appendix B4, B5, B6: PRC news articles 1958. A Poisoned Arrow: The Secret Report of the 10th Panchen Lama. 1997. (7 pp)
The CIA and Tibetan Resistance
- Conboy, Kenneth and James Morrison. 2002. The CIA's secret war in Tibet. Kansas.
- Jamyang Norbu. The Tibetan Resistance Movement and the Role of the CIA. (Resistance and Reform) reprinted in Alex Mckay, ed. The History of Tibet, vol III: The Modern Period 1895-1959 Encounter with Modernity. London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003.
-
Jamyang Norbu. Echoes from Forgotten Mountains. Viking, an imprint of Penguin India, July 2023.
Novelist, historian, playwright and polemicist, Jamyang Norbu's book is a deep dive into Tibet’s modern history of resistance. Jamyang Norbu has taken the stories of ‘forgotten’ Tibetans–resistance fighters, secret agents, soldiers, peasants, merchants, even street beggars–and skillfully worked their myriad accounts into a single glorious ‘memory history’ of the Tibetan struggle. - Dunham, Mike. 2004. Buddha's Warriors: The story of the CIA-backed Tibetan Freedom fighters, the Chinese Communist Invasion and the ultimate fall of Tibet. Tarcher.
- Knaus, John. 1999. Orphans of the Cold war: America and the Tibetan Struggle for Survival.
- McGranahan, Carole. 2006. "Tibet's Cold war: The CIA and the Chushi Gangdrug Resistance, 1956-1974." Journal of Cold War Studies 8(3): 102-130. [Link]
- Akester, Matthew. 2008. Review of A History of Modern Tibet, Volume 2: The Calm before the Storm, 1951-55, by Melvyn C. Goldstein. Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies (4). [JIATS online - PDF]
- Avedon, John. In Exile from the Land of the Snows.
- Barnett et al, eds. Conflicting Memories
- Barnett, Robert. Beyond the Collaborator-Martyr Model: Strategies of Compliance, Opportunism, and Opposition Within Tibet. in Sautman and Dreyer, eds. Contemporary Tibet: Politics, Development and Society in a Disputed Region. M.E. Sharpe, 2006.
- Parts 2, 3, 5-7. Blondeau, Anne-Marie and Katia Buffetrille, eds. 2008. Authenticating Tibet: Answers to China's 100 Questions. Berkeley: University of California Press.
- Dawa Norbu. 2001. China's Tibet Policy. RoutledgeCurzon.
- Dreyer, June. China's Forty Millions, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1976
- Dreyer, June. "The Radical Experiment and Its Background, 1956-1958,"China's Forty Millions: Minority Nationalities and National Integration in the People's Republic of China. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1976.
- Fei Xiaotong. "Ethnic Identification in China," in Toward a People's Anthropology, Beijing: New World Press, 1981. (17 pp).
- Ginsburgs, George and Michael Mathos. Communist China and Tibet: The First Dozen Years. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1964.
- Goldstein, Melvyn C. 2009 (unpublished). Response to M. Akester's review of "A History of Modern Tibet, Volume Two". [Word doc]
- Goldstein, Melvyn 2007. A history of modern Tibet, volume 2, the calm before the storm, 1951-55. UC Press.
- Goldstein, Melvyn et al. 2009. On the Cultural Revolution in Tibet: The Nyemo Incident of 1969. UC press.
- Makley, Charlene. Review of Goldstein et al, The China Journal 2009.
- Goldstein, Melvyn. 1999. The Snow Lion and the Dragon: China, Tibet and the Dalai Lama. UC Press.
- Harris, Clare. Ch.s 4, 5, on Chinese rep of Tibetans
- Herberer, Thomas. China and Its National Minorities: Autonomy or Assimilation? Armonk: M.E. Sharpe, Inc., 1989.
- Herberer, Thomas. Ch. 2 "The Cultural Revolution and the Ethnic Minorities" in China and Its National Minorities: Autonomy or Assimilation? New York: M.E. Sharpe, 1989. (6 pp.)
- Kelly, Gert Bastian and Pat Aiello, eds. The Anguish of Tibet. Parallax Press, 1991.
- Panchen Lama. A Poisoned Arrow: The Secret Report of the 10th Panchen Lama. Tibet Information Network.1997.
- Powers, John. pp. 101-140. History as Propaganda: Tibetan Exiles versus the People’s Republic of China. Oxford. 2004
- PRC State Council. White Paper: "National Minorities Policy and Its Practice in China". (Available on-line: http://www.china.org.cn/e-white/4/index.htm)
- Safran, William (Ed.). Nationalism and Ethnoregional Identities in China. London: Frank Cass, 1998.
- Sautman, Barry and June Dreyer. Introduction: the Tibet Question in Contemporary Perspective. in Sautman and Dreyer, eds. Contemporary Tibet: Politics, Development and Society in a Disputed Region. M.E. Sharpe, 2006. [
- Schein, Louisa. Minority Rules: The Miao and the Feminine in China's Cultural Politics. Durham: Duke Univ. Press, 2000.
- Smith, Warren. Ch.s 11-14. Tibetan Nation: a History of Tibetan Nationalism and Sino-Tibetan Relations. 1996.
- Smith, Warren. 2008. Chs. 3-7, China's Tibet? Autonomy or Assimilation. Rowman & Littlefield.
- Tsering Shakya, foreword, and stories by Chinese authors (Ma Yuan, Ma Jian), Batt, ed. Tales of Tibet: Sky Burials, Prayer Wheels, & Wind Horses. 2001. [
- Tsering Shakya. Chs 5-14, Postscript. The Dragon in the Land of Snows. Columbia Univ Press. 1999.
- White, Lynn. Ch. 1 "What the Cultural Revolution Was, and Why it Happened," in Policies of Chaos: The Organizational Causes of Violence in China's Cultural Revolution. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1989. (47 pp).
- Woeser. Forbidden Memory: Tibet During the Cultural Revolution. Locus Publishing, Taiwan, 2006. [in Chinese]
- Woeser, Forbidden Memory. Nebraska U Press. [in English, rare photos of Cultural revolution in Lhasa]
Tibetan Autobiographies of the Maoist Years
- Ama Adhe (with Joy Blakeslee). Ch.s 5-8, Ama Adhe, the Voice That Remembers : The Heroic Story of a Woman's Fight to Free Tibet . Wisdom Publications, 1997.
- Dawa Norbu. Red Star Over Tibet. New Delhi: Sterling Publishers, 1987.
- Dhondup Choedon. Life in the Red Flag People's Commune. Dharamsala: Information Office of H.H. the Dalai Lama, 1978. (My office).
- Goldstein et al. 2006. A Tibetan revolutionary: the political life and times of Baba Phuntso Wangye. UC Press.
- Goldstein, Siebenschuh and Tashing Tsering. The Struggle for Modern Tibet: The Autobiography of Tashi Tsering. NY: ME Sharpe, 1997. ch 7-10 (49 pp).
- Makley, Charlene. (2005). "Speaking Bitterness: Autobiography, History and Mnemonic Politics on the Sino-Tibetan Frontier,"Comparative Studies in Society and History.
- Pema Bhum. Translated by Lauran Hartley. Six Stars With a Crooked Neck: Tibetan Memoirs of the Cultural Revolution. (My office).
Films
- In Search of Kundun with Martin Scorcese (Trailer for the documentary on the making of Kundun).
- Daughters of wisdom [Ye śes rgyud ʼdzin ma]. [BQ6345.K25 D28 2007 DVD]
- Seven years in Tibet (1998 feature film starring Brad Pitt) [PN1995.9.T52 S49 1998 DVD]
- Dalai Lama: a portrait in the first person (An interview with the current Dalai Lama, Bstan-ʼdzin-rgya-mtsho, originally broadcast on Canadian television in 1990).[PN1995.9.T52 S49 1998 DVD]
- The Golden Child (1999 comedy starring Eddie Murphy) [PN1995.9.C55 G654 1999 DVD]
- The Little Buddha (1993 feature film starring Bridget Fonda and Keanu Reeves)
- Bill Murray as Carl talks about the Dalai Lama (Caddyshack film clip)
- Dalai Lama and Dorje Shugden, Part 1 (Youtube documentary made by opponents of the Dalai Lama's position on the protector deity Dorje Shugden)
Links
- The Tibet Album: British photography in Central Tibet 1920-1950
- Curated by the University of Oxford and the British Museum
- Wikipedia: The Thirteenth Dalai Lama
- The Tibet Album: The Thirteenth Dalai Lama
- The Tibet Album: Charles Bell
- The Tibet Album: Tsarong Dzasa
- The Tibet Album: Lungshar
- The Tibet Album: The Nechung Oracle
- The Tibet Album: Pandatshang
- The Tibet Album: Reting Rinpoche
- Official biography of the 14th Dalai Lama, Office of HH the Dalai Lama of Tibet, Dharamsala, India
- Gendun Chophel bio, Heather Stoddard, The Treasury of Lives
- Rare images of/by Gendun Chophel, Tibet Journal
- Memories of Gendun Chophel (as transcribed by Jamyang Norbu)
- Gendun Choephel Artists Guild (Lhasa)
- The Office of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama
- Timeline of Tibetan Buddhism
- The Treasury of Lives (online database of lama biographies)
- Wikipedia: The Dalai Lama (scroll down for chart of reign dates)
- Lama Osel Hita (Spanish boy recognized as child to be incarnation of a Tibetan lama)
- Wikipedia: Osel Hita
- Wikipedia: Dorje Shugden Affair
- Dorje Shugden.com (pro-Dorje Shugden website)
- Interactive Guide to Sera Monastery
- Interactive Guide to Meru Nyingpa Monastery (on Barkhor, Lhasa)
- Interactive Guide to Drepung Monastery (by George Dreyfus)
- Himalayan Arts: Mandalas (detailed resources on iconography, etc.)
- Exploring the Mandala (Cornell University's online resources)
- Tibetan Buddhist Mandala (Account of a Sand mandala created at Ithaca Univ, 2022, includes time-lapse video)
- The Meaning and Use of a Mandala (Berzin archives)
Kundun, Disney and the PRC
- Wikipedia: Kundun film
- The Story Of Kundun, The Martin Scorsese Film That Disney Tried To Bury. Slash Film, 2022.
- Kundun at 25. The Decider, 2022.
Kundun’s legacy is inextricable from its reprehensible treatment by presiding studio Disney, which decisively turned on their own project as the executives formulated plans to bring a theme park to the burgeoning Chinese market. Hoping to save face with his prospective business partners, Disney CEO Michael Eisner deemed Scorsese’s devotional hymn a “stupid mistake” and added, “The bad news is that the film was made; the good news is that nobody watched it. Here I want to apologize, and in the future we should prevent this sort of thing, which insults our friends, from happening.” Disneyland Shanghai would open in 2016; following decades of advocacy for the cause of Tibetan autonomy, screenwriter Melissa Mathison would pass away one year earlier. This would be the first sign of a craven amorality in the Mouse that’s only worsened in the years since, most recently manifested in the decision to shoot the live-action Mulan in China’s Xinjiang province, which also hosts internment camps for China’s persecuted Uighur Muslim ethnic minority.
Maps
- Ling-Wei Kung, Mapping Tibetan Monasteries (digital database of over 2000 monasteries)
- Tsering Wangyal Shawa. Mapping Tibet (photo essay of a variety of mapping strategies historically)
- Plan of Lhasa by Lt. col. Waddell: View - HiRes
- pp.xxx-xxxi in Barnett, Robert. Lhasa: Streets with Memories. Columbia University Press, 2006.
- Tibet: View - HiRes
- pp.4-5 in Bstan-ʼdzin-rgya-mtsho, Dalai Lama XIV. Freedom in exile: the autobiography of the Dalai Lama. San Francisco, Calif.: HarperPerennial, 1991, c1990 (1st HarperPerennial ed).
- Tibet's geography: View - HiRes
- p.xix in Kapstein, Matthew. The Tibetans, Blackwell, 2006.
- The Tibetan empire, late eighth-early ninth centuries: View - HiRes
- p.xx in Kapstein, Matthew. The Tibetans, Blackwell, 2006.
- Western Tibet: View - HiRes
- p.xxi in Kapstein, Matthew. The Tibetans, Blackwell, 2006.
- Central Tibet and Tsang: View - HiRes
- p.xxiii in Kapstein, Matthew. The Tibetans, Blackwell, 2006.
- Far Eastern Tibet: View - HiRes
- p.xxiv in Kapstein, Matthew. The Tibetans, Blackwell, 2006.
- Shakya - maps 2: 1914 Tibet border claims View - HiRes
- Shakya - maps 3: 1914 Simla Conference border claims and purview of Dalai Lama's govt. View - HiRes
- Shakya - PLA invasion: View - HiRes
- Shakya - Sino/Indian 1: Kashmir border conflict View - HiRes
- Shakya - Sino/Indian 2: Arunachal Pradesh border conflict View - HiRes
- Ekvall - Amdo ethnic borders: View - HiRes
- Far Eastern Tibet: View - HiRes
- p.xxiv in Kapstein, Matthew. The Tibetans, Blackwell, 2006.
- Eastern Tibet (1725-1950): View - HiRes
- p.xxx in Smith, Warren. Tibetan Nation: a History of Tibetan Nationalism and Sino-Tibetan Relations. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1996.
- Amdo - The Eastern Regions of Tibet, C.A. 1800: View - HiRes
- Map 2 ICT - Contemporary Tibetan Regions: View - HiRes
- Map 4 ICT - 8th Century Borders: View - HiRes
- Map 5 ICT - 17th Century Borders: View - HiRes
- Map 6 ICT - 19th Century Borders: View - HiRes
- Map 8 ICT - PLA routes: View - HiRes
Week 5: "Minority" Film Worlds: Representing Tibetans in the PRC
Assignments
Film of the Week: The Horse Thief (Dao Ma Zei), Tian Zhuangzhuang, dir, 1986, 88 mins, Stream on Moodle.
Mon Sept 30 Tibetans as "minorities"
- Lo Kwai-Cheung. 2014 (Un)folding Hollywood and New Chinese Subjectivity through the PRC's minority Nationality films in the 1950s and 1960s" in American and Chinese-Language Cinemas : Examining Cultural Flows, edited by Lisa Funnell, and Man-Fung Yip, Taylor & Francis Group, 2014. (13 pp). (ereserve).
- Frangville, Vanessa. "Minority Film and Tibet in the PRC: From 'Hell on Earth' to 'the Garden of Eden," Latse Journal 7, 2011-2012, pp 8-21. (online).
Wed Oct 2 The Public Secret: Reckoning with the Censor
- Hillenbrand, Margaret. "Introduction: Staking out Secrecy," (FOCUS: pp 1-20, look for examples pp. 21-39); and OPTIONAL: "Conclusion: Out of the Darkroom," Negative exposures : knowing what not to know in contemporary China. Durham ; London : Duke University Press, 2020. (53 pp) (ereserve/ebook).
- Jin Wei. “Technical Reasons”—The Unspoken Rules of Chinese Film Censorship," Medium, March 21, 2024. (short explainer, online).
Less ideally, by Friday Oct 4, midnight (after we discuss it).
Further Reading
PRC Representations of "Minorities"
- Barnett, Robert. “Close Encounters of the Filmic Kind: Visualising the Chinese Arrival in Tibet.” Conflicting Memories: Tibetan History under Mao Retold, edited by Robert Barnett et al, Brill, 2020, pp. 141-203.
- Berry, Chris. 1992. "Race" (民 族): Chinese Film and the Politics of Nationalism. Cinema Journal, Vol. 31, No. 2 (Winter, 1992), pp. 45-5.
- Bulag, Uradyn E. (pages 1-9). "Twentieth‐Century China: Ethnic Assimilation and Intergroup Violence." Oxford Handbook of Genocide Studies. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010.
- TM Chen -Textual communities and localized practices of film in Maoist China, Film, History and Cultural Citizenship, 2020 - taylorfrancis.com
- Clark, Paul. 1987. Ethnic minorities in Chinese films: cienma and the exotic. East-west film journal 1.2: 15-31
- Frangville, Vanessa. 2012. the Non-Han in Socialist Cinema and Contemporary films in the PRC" China Perspectives 2: 61-69.
- Joniak-Luthi, Agnieszka. Introduction and Chapter One: "Narrating 'the Han'", The Han: China's Diverse Majority. Seattle: Univ of Washington Press, 2017.
- Mullaney, Thomas. Ch. 1 "Identity Crisis in Postimperial China," Coming to Terms with the Nation: Ethnic Classification in Modern China. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2011. (23 pp).
Western Scholarship: Tibetan ritual worlds
- Bishop, Peter. The Myth of Shangri-la: Tibet, travel writing, and the western creation of sacred landscape. Berkeley : University of California Press, 1989. [DS786 .B53 1989]
- Buffetrille, Reflections on Pilgrimages to Sacred Mountains, Lakes and Caves. reprinted in Alex Mckay, ed. The History of Tibet, vol II: The Medieval Period. London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003
- da Col, Giovanni. Event-time.
- Huber, Toni. 2008. The Holy Land Reborn: Pilgrimage and the Tibetan Reinvention of Buddhist India. University of Chicago Press.
- Huber, Toni. Chs 1-3, 9 (pp. 3-35, 153-174) The Cult of Pure Crystal Mountain: Popular Pilgrimage and Visionary Landscape in Southeast Tibet. Oxford. 1999.
- MacDonald, A.W. Mandala and Landscape. New Delhi : D.K. Printworld, 1997.
- Alex McKay, ed. Pilgrimage in Tibet. Richmond, Surrey : Curzon ; [Leiden, the Netherlands] : International Institute for Asian Studies, 1998.
- Alison Melnick Dyer. The Tibetan Nun Mingyur Peldrön. A Woman of Power and Privilege Materials in McCay, ed. The History of Tibet, vol II: The Medieval Period. London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003 on sacred geography, taming and pilgrimage: Macdonald, Shastri, Davidson, Buffetrille, Huber
- Jacoby, Sarah. Introduction (FOCUS: p. 1-19) and Chapter 2: A Guest in the Sacred Land of Golok (FOCUS: Part I, p. 76-91, SKIM: Part II p. 92-99, FOCUS: Part III p. 100-120, SKIM: p. 120-128, FOCUS: p. 129-130). Love and Liberation: Autobiographical Writings of the Tibetan Buddhist Visionary Sera Khandro. Columbia University Press, 2014. (75 pages).
- Ortner, Sherry. Life and Death on Mt Everest: Sherpas and Himalayan mountaineering. Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, 1999.
- Samuel, Geoffry. 1993. Part One: Tibetan Societies. Civilized Shamans: Buddhism in Tibetan Societies. Smithsonian Institution Press
- Schaeffer, Kurtis. The Autobiography of a Medieval Hermitess. in Gyatso and Havnevik, eds. Women in Tibet. Columbia. 2005.
- Schaeffer, Kurtis. Ritual, Festival and Authority Under the 5th Dalai Lama. Cuevas, Bryan and Kurtis Schaeffer, eds. 2006. Power, Politics and the Reinvention of Tradition: Tibet in the 17th and 18th centuries. Brill.
Films
Links
- China News Digest's Virtual Cultural Revolution Museum
- Steve Landsberger's Site Chinese propaganda posters
- Landsberger's Propaganda posters: National Minorities
- The Horse Thief film Tibetan language, remastered version debuts at Cannes Film Festival, 2019.
Princess Wencheng and Tibet
- Wikipedia entry on Princess Wencheng
- Princess Wencheng tour - (Chinese travel agency tour of Tibet)
- Princess Wencheng Thangka - (Commissioned painting to celebrate 60th anniversary of founding of PRC)
- Multi-million yuan Wencheng Opera premiered in Lhasa (2013) (from pro-Tibet ICT)
- Tibetan dissident writer Woeser on the Wencheng Opera in Lhasa (2013) (from her blog)
- Rethinking the Princess Wencheng Opera (2016), Simon Denyer
Week 6: The Rise of Tibetan Filmmakers: Pema Tseden
Assignments
Film of the Week: Old Dog, Pema Tseden, dir, 2011, 93 mins., Stream on Moodle.
Mon Oct 7 The Rise of Pema Tseden
- Barnett, Robert. "DV-made Tibet: Domestic Videos, Elite Films, and the Work of Pema Tseden," in DV-Made China : Digital Subjects and Social Transformations after Independent Film, edited by Zhen Zhang, and Angela Zito, University of Hawaii Press, 2015. (READ: pp.119-128, SKIP Documentary section, READ: 134 bottom to 154 Fiction) (ebook/ereserve).
- Tsering, Phurwa, and Françoise Robin. “Pema Tseden, The Master.” Yeshe: A Journal of Tibetan Literature, Arts and Humanities, vol. 1, July 2021 (5 pp). (online).
Wed Oct 9 Workshop 3: Cinematography
Guest: Tony Moreno, Digital Project Manager
- Pramaggiore, Maria. "Ch. Six: Cinematography," Film: a Critical Introduction. London, England : Laurence King Publishing, 2020 (ebook/ereserve).
- Come prepared with your practice camera work footage cued up.
Less ideally, by Friday Oct 11, midnight (after we discuss it).
Further Reading
Pema Tseden Studies (and other Tibetan Filmmakers)
- Berry, Chris. “Pema Tseden and the Tibetan road movie: space and identity beyond the ‘minority nationality film’.” Journal of Chinese Cinemas, vol. 10, no. 2, Apr. 2016, pp. 89-105.
- Cansdale-Cook, James. “Short Film Review: Grassland (2004) by Pema Tseden.” Asian Movie Pulse, 14 Feb. 2020.
- Ding, Shaoyan. “Articulating for Tibetan Experiences in the Contemporary World: A Cultural Study of Pema Tseden’s and Sonthar Gyal’s Films.” Critical Arts, vol. 31, 2017, pp. 44-58.
- Frangville, Vanessa. “Pema Tseden’s The Search: the making of a minor cinema.” Journal of Chinese Cinema, vol. 10, no. 2, 2016, pp. 106-119.
- Grewal, Anup. “Contested Tibetan landscapes in the films of Pema Tseden.” Journal of Chinese Cinemas, vol. 10, no. 2, 2016, pp. 135-149.
- Gyal, Sonthar. “An Interview with Sonthar Gyal.” Interview conducted by Trace Foundation. Trace Foundation, 2016.
- Hladíková, Kamila. Shangri-la Deconstructed: Representations of Tibet in the PRC and Pema Tseden’s Films. Archiv Orientální 84, 2016, pp. 349-380. (see me). [Hladikova is a Czech scholar who got her Phd in 2011, dissertation and now book on Tibetan and Chinese cinema].
- Kraicer, S. (2012). 50 Best Filmmakers Under 50: Pema Tseden. Cinema Scope, 50.
- K.S., Gokul. “Sonam Tseten’s ‘Pema’ and ‘Settlement’: Vignettes of Separation and Waiting in Exile.” Tibetscapes, 11 Sep. 2021.
- Latse Journal, Vol 7, Special Issue on Tibetan Film, 2011-12 (online).
- Essay by Pema Tseden on student short films in Tibetan language
- Tenzing Sonam on the rise of Pema Tseden
- Robert Barnett on Tibetan documentaries
- Sonthar Gyal on his film The Sun Beaten Path
- Liu Qing. (Obituary) Five Pema Tseden Films to Watch. Sixth Tone, May 11, 2023.
- Lo, Kwai-Cheung and Jessica Wai Yee Yeung, editors. “Special Issue on the Tibetan cinema of Pema Tseden.” Journal of Chinese Cinemas, vol. 10, no. 2, 2016.
- Lo, Kwai-Cheung. “Buddha found and lost in the Chinese nation of ‘Diversity in Unity’: Pema Tseden’s films as a Buddhist mode of reflexivity.” Journal of Chinese Cinemas, vol. 10, no. 2, Apr. 2016, pp. 150-165.
- Pecic, Zoran. Boxed within the frame: Tibetan masculinities in transformation in Pema Tseden’s Jinpa, New Cinemas: Journal of Contemporary Film, Volume 20, Issue 1, Mar 2022, p. 91 - 102.
- Robin, Francoise. “Performing Compassion: A Counter-Hegemonic Strategy in Tibetan Cinema?” Tibetan Arts in Transition: Journey through Theater, Cinema and Painting, edited by Valeria Donatti and Mara Matta, ASIA Onlus, 2009, pp. 37-50.
- Qin, Amy. “From a Tibetan Filmmaker, an Unvarnished View of His Land.” New York Times, 21 June 2019.
- Sonam, Tenzing. “Quiet Storm: Pema Tseden and the emergence of Tibetan cinema.” Latse Journal, vol. 7, 2011-2012, pp. 36-47.
- Yang Li. "Tracking on the “Edge” of Chinese Discourses: Drawing the Trajectories of Pema Tseden's “Tibetan” Filmmaking in the PRC," Quarterly Review of Film and Video, 2023 - Taylor & Francis
- Yau, Wai-Ping. “Reading Pema Tseden’s films as palimpsests.” Journal of Chinese Cinemas, vol. 10, no. 2, Apr. 2016, pp. 120-134.
- Yü, Dan Smyer. “Pema Tseden’s Transnational Cinema: Screening a Buddhist Landscape of Tibet.” Contemporary Buddhism: An Interdisciplinary Journal, vol. 15, no. 1, 2014, pp. 125-144.
Films
Links
The Untimely Death of Pema Tseden (2023)
- Pema Tseden: A Complete Film Retrospective of the Groundbreaking Tibetan Filmmaker
Museum of the Moving Imagem NYC - New York Times Pema Tseden Obituary, 2023.
- Sixth Tone Pema Tseden Obituary, 2023.
Maps
Week 7: Gender and The Rise of Tibetan Filmmakers: Pema Tseden 2
Assignments
Film of the Week: Tharlo, Pema Tseden, dir, 2015, 123 mins., Stream on Moodle.
Mon Oct 14 Gendering the Gaze: Women in Tibetans' Films
- Yang Li. "The silent Tibetan women and their visual exclusions in Pema Tseden’s ‘Tibetan Trilogy,'" Visual Studies, Vol. 38, Nos. 3–4, 2021, 473–486. (ereserve). (13 pp)
- Robin, Françoise. Women in Pema Tseden’s films: a so far uneasy relationship: A brief overview. Asianart.com, May 2020. (6 pp). (ereserve).
Wed Oct 16 Whose Gaze?
- Laura Mulvey. "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema". Screen 16 (3): 6–18, 1975. (13 pp) (ereserve).
- hooks, bell. "The Oppositional Gaze: Black Female Spectators," Black Looks: Race and Representation, 1992. (15 pp.) (ereserve).
Less ideally, by Friday Oct 18, midnight (after we discuss it).
2 page Midterm project process essay due (Optional: include a first storyboard),
Fall Break Oct 19-27
Further Reading
Pema Tseden Studies (and other Tibetan Filmmakers)
- Berry, Chris. “Pema Tseden and the Tibetan road movie: space and identity beyond the ‘minority nationality film’.” Journal of Chinese Cinemas, vol. 10, no. 2, Apr. 2016, pp. 89-105.
- Cansdale-Cook, James. “Short Film Review: Grassland (2004) by Pema Tseden.” Asian Movie Pulse, 14 Feb. 2020.
- Ding, Shaoyan. “Articulating for Tibetan Experiences in the Contemporary World: A Cultural Study of Pema Tseden’s and Sonthar Gyal’s Films.” Critical Arts, vol. 31, 2017, pp. 44-58.
- Frangville, Vanessa. “Pema Tseden’s The Search: the making of a minor cinema.” Journal of Chinese Cinema, vol. 10, no. 2, 2016, pp. 106-119.
- Grewal, Anup. “Contested Tibetan landscapes in the films of Pema Tseden.” Journal of Chinese Cinemas, vol. 10, no. 2, 2016, pp. 135-149.
- Gyal, Sonthar. “An Interview with Sonthar Gyal.” Interview conducted by Trace Foundation. Trace Foundation, 2016.
- Hladíková, Kamila. Shangri-la Deconstructed: Representations of Tibet in the PRC and Pema Tseden’s Films. Archiv Orientální 84, 2016, pp. 349-380. (see me). [Hladikova is a Czech scholar who got her Phd in 2011, dissertation and now book on Tibetan and Chinese cinema].
- Kraicer, S. (2012). 50 Best Filmmakers Under 50: Pema Tseden. Cinema Scope, 50.
- K.S., Gokul. “Sonam Tseten’s ‘Pema’ and ‘Settlement’: Vignettes of Separation and Waiting in Exile.” Tibetscapes, 11 Sep. 2021.
- Liu Qing. (Obituary) Five Pema Tseden Films to Watch. Sixth Tone, May 11, 2023.
- Lo, Kwai-Cheung and Jessica Wai Yee Yeung, editors. “Special Issue on the Tibetan cinema of Pema Tseden.” Journal of Chinese Cinemas, vol. 10, no. 2, 2016.
- Lo, Kwai-Cheung. “Buddha found and lost in the Chinese nation of ‘Diversity in Unity’: Pema Tseden’s films as a Buddhist mode of reflexivity.” Journal of Chinese Cinemas, vol. 10, no. 2, Apr. 2016, pp. 150-165.
- Pecic, Zoran. Boxed within the frame: Tibetan masculinities in transformation in Pema Tseden’s Jinpa, New Cinemas: Journal of Contemporary Film, Volume 20, Issue 1, Mar 2022, p. 91 - 102.
- Robin, Francoise. “Performing Compassion: A Counter-Hegemonic Strategy in Tibetan Cinema?” Tibetan Arts in Transition: Journey through Theater, Cinema and Painting, edited by Valeria Donatti and Mara Matta, ASIA Onlus, 2009, pp. 37-50.
- Qin, Amy. “From a Tibetan Filmmaker, an Unvarnished View of His Land.” New York Times, 21 June 2019.
- Sonam, Tenzing. “Quiet Storm: Pema Tseden and the emergence of Tibetan cinema.” Latse Journal, vol. 7, 2011-2012, pp. 36-47.
- Yang Li. "Tracking on the “Edge” of Chinese Discourses: Drawing the Trajectories of Pema Tseden's “Tibetan” Filmmaking in the PRC," Quarterly Review of Film and Video, 2023 - Taylor & Francis
- Yau, Wai-Ping. “Reading Pema Tseden’s films as palimpsests.” Journal of Chinese Cinemas, vol. 10, no. 2, Apr. 2016, pp. 120-134.
- Yü, Dan Smyer. “Pema Tseden’s Transnational Cinema: Screening a Buddhist Landscape of Tibet.” Contemporary Buddhism: An Interdisciplinary Journal, vol. 15, no. 1, 2014, pp. 125-144.
Tibetan Women's Voices
- Autobiography: Ama Adhe (with Joy Blakeslee). Ch.s 1-4, Ama Adhe, the Voice That Remembers: The Heroic Story of a Woman's Fight to Free Tibet . Wisdom Publications, 1997. (40 pp)
- Autobiography: Taring, Rinchen. Daughter of Tibet. 1970
- Short Story: Geyang. "An Old Nun Tells her Story," in Song of the Snow Lion: New Writing from Tibet, Manoa 12(2), 2000. **Content Notes: brief reference to rape.
- Short story: Kyabchen Dedrol. "Snow Pilgrimage," in Old Demons, New Deities, 2018.
- Short Story: Yangtso Kyi (Lauren Hartley, trans.). "Journal of the Grassland," in Song of the Snow Lion: New Writing from Tibet, Manoa 12(2), 2000.
Scholarship on Tibetan Women
- Allione, Tsultrim. Women of Wisdom. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1984.
- Barnett, Robert. "Women and Politics in Contemporary Tibet, in Hanna Havnevik and Janet Gyatso, Eds., Women in Tibet .
- Devine, Carol. Determination: Tibetan Women and the Struggle for an Independent Tibet. Toronto: Vauve Press, 1993.
- Denchen, Pema. "The Oppression and Resistance of Tibetan Women," in The Anguish of Tibet. Berkeley: Paralax Press, 1991. (3 pp)
- Alison Melnick Dyer. The Tibetan Nun Mingyur Peldrön. A Woman of Power and Privilege Materials in McCay, ed. The History of Tibet, vol II: The Medieval Period. London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003 on sacred geography, taming and pilgrimage: Macdonald, Shastri, Davidson, Buffetrille, Huber
- Gutschow, Kim. "The Women Who Refuse to be Exchanged: Nuns in Zangskar, Northwest, India," in Bell and Sobo, eds., Celibacy, Culture and Society: The Anthropology of Sexual Abstinence. Madison: Univ. of Wisconsin Press, 2001.
- Gutschow, Kim. Being a Buddhist nun: the struggle for enlightenment in the Himalayas. Harvard Univ. Press, 2004.
- Havnevik, Hanna. "The Role of Nuns in Contemporary Tibet," in Barnett, ed. Resistance and Reform in Tibet. London: Hurst and Co., 1994. (7 pp)
- Havnevik, Hanna. Tibetan Buddhist Nuns, Oslo: Norwegian University Press, 1990.
- Huber, Toni. "Why Can't Women Climb Pure Crystal Mountain? Remarks on Gender and Space at Tsa-ri," in P. Kvaerne, ed., Tibetan Studies: Proceedings of the 6th Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies, Fagernes, (1992), Vol. 1., Oslo, 1994.
- Jacoby, Sarah. Introduction (FOCUS: p. 1-19) and Chapter 2: A Guest in the Sacred Land of Golok (FOCUS: Part I, p. 76-91, SKIM: Part II p. 92-99, FOCUS: Part III p. 100-120, SKIM: p. 120-128, FOCUS: p. 129-130). Love and Liberation: Autobiographical Writings of the Tibetan Buddhist Visionary Sera Khandro. Columbia University Press, 2014. (75 pages).
- Levine, Nancy. The Dynamics of Polyandry: Kinship, Domesticity and Population on the Tibetan Border, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988
- Makley, Charlene. "Consuming Women: Consumption, Sexual Politics and the Dangers of Mixing," in The Violence of Liberation, 2007.
- Makley, Charlene. "The Body of a Nun: Nunhood and Gender in Contemporary Amdo," in Hanna Havnevik and Janet Gyatso, Eds., Women in Tibet . (31 pp)
- Makley, Charlene. 1997. "The Meaning of Liberation," in The Tibet Journal. (18 pp)
- Na Zhen. Women, Marriage and the Family," in Tibet. New York: McGraw Hill Book Co., 1981. (4 pp)
- Rajan, Hamsa. "The Discourse of Tibetan Women’s Empowerment Activists," Revue d’Etudes Tibétaines, no. 33, October 2015.
- Schaeffer, Kurtis. The Autobiography of a Medieval Hermitess. in Gyatso and Havnevik, eds. Women in Tibet. Columbia. 2005.
- Seagh, Kehoe. 2019. "Global Connections: Chinese Feminism, Tibet, and Xinjiang," in Smashing the Belljar: Shades of Gender in China, Made in China Journal 1 (Online).
- Tenzin Jinba. "Introduction," Chapter 1, Chapter 3, In the Land of the Eastern Queendom: The Politics of Gender and Ethnicity on the Sino-Tibetan Border. Seattle. University of Washington press, 2014. (bookstore, book reserve). (50 pp).
- Tshering Chotsho. "A Drop from the Ocean: The Status of Women in Tibetan Society," Tibet Journal, Vol 22 (2), 1997.
- Watkins, Joanne. Spirited Women: Gender, Religion and Cultural Identity in the Nepal Himalaya. New York: Columbia University Press, 1996.
- Willis, Janice, ed. Feminine Ground: Essays on Women and Tibet, Ithaca: Snow Lion Publications, 1987.
Films
Links
Maps
Week 8: Observing Tibet: Documentary Films by Tibetans
Assignments
Film of the Week: Yartsa Rinpoche: Precious Caterpillar, Dorje Tsering Chenaktsang, dir., 2013, 101 mins., Stream on Moodle. **Content notes: scenes of police raids on diggers' tents, brief footage of wrapped, dead bodies.
Mon Oct 28: Dorje Tsering Chenaktsang's observational eye
- Dorje Tsering Chenaktsang. "An Introduction to My Experience as a Documentarist," and "On the Relationship between Literature and Cinema in Tibet," Tibetan Arts in Transition: Journey through Theater, Cinema and Painting, edited by Valeria Donatti and Mara Matta, ASIA Onlus, 2009, pp 71-77. (ereserve)
- Barnett, Robert. "Formal Digital Documentaries and the Work of Dorje Tsering," (p. 127 bottom-134, Section on documentary). "DV-made Tibet: Domestic Videos, Elite Films, and the Work of Pema Tseden," in DV-Made China : Digital Subjects and Social Transformations after Independent Film, edited by Zhen Zhang, and Angela Zito, University of Hawaii Press, 2015. (6 pp.) (ereserve).
- Grimshaw, Anna, and Amanda Ravetz. “Rethinking Observational Cinema.” The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, vol. 15, no. 3, 2009, pp. 538–56 (15 pp). (ereserve).
Wed Oct 30 Workshop 4: Editing
Guest: Tony Moreno, Digital Project Manager
- Pramaggiore, Maria. "Ch. Seven: Editing," Film: a Critical Introduction. London, England : Laurence King Publishing, 2020 (ebook/ereserve).
Less ideally, by Friday Nov 1, midnight (after we discuss it).
Further Reading
Tibet and Documentary Film
- Barnett, Robert. “Documentaries by Tibetans in Tibet: The Digital Era.” Latse Journal, vol. 7, 2011-2012.
- Chenakshang, Dorje Tsering. “Reflections on Tibetan Film.” Tibetan Modernities: Notes from the Field on Cultural and Social Change (PIATS), edited by Robert Barnett and Ronald Schwartz, Brill, 2003.
- Yangdon Dhondup. “Independent Tibetan Documentary Films: A Review of Dorje Tsering’s Works” High Peaks Pure Earth, 2014. (~3 pp) (online).
- S Zeng. The Dalai Lama in American Documentaries: Symbol, Politics and American Mirroring, 2014 - scholarworks.wm.edu
Anthropology and Film as Ethnography
- Marcus Banks, Jay Ruby, eds. Made to Be Seen: Perspectives on the History of Visual Anthropology (reed has print book).
- Carta, S. (2011). Orientalism in the Documentary Representation of Culture. Visual Anthropology, 24(5), 403–420. https://doi.org/10.1080/08949468.2011.604592
- J Collier. Visual anthropology and the future of ethnographic film. Anthropological filmmaking, 2014 (1988).
- Crawford, Peter and David Turton. Film as Ethnography. Manchester, 1992.
- Devereaux, Leslie, ed. Fields of Vision: Essays In Film Studies, Visual Anthropology, and Photography. E-book, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995.
- Grimshaw, Anna. Observational cinema : anthropology, film, and the exploration of social life
Bloomington : Indiana University Press, 2009. (Reed has print book). - CM Levin, AR Cruz. Behind the scenes of a visual ethnography: A dialogue between anthropology and film. Journal of Film and Video, 2008
- MacDougall, David. “Anthropology and the Cinematic Imagination.” Photography, Anthropology and History, 1st ed., Routledge, 2009, pp. 55–64, https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315600413-4.
- W Martinez. Who constructs anthropological knowledge? Toward a theory of ethnographic film spectatorship. Film as ethnography, 1992
- Pink, Sarah. Doing Sensory Ethnography, Sage, 2009.
- Ruby, Jay. Picturing culture : explorations of film & anthropology, Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 2000.
- Verstappen, Sanderien and Sarah Davies. Ethnographic film as world-making: Connecting visual anthropology with Science and Technology Studies. Visual Anthropology Review, 2024.
Scholarship on Tibet and Economic Development
- Dreyer, June. Economic Development in Tibet under the People's Republic of China. Sautman, Barry and June Dreyer, eds. Contemporary Tibet: Politics, development and society in a disputed Region. M. E Sharpe. 2006.
- Escobar, Arturo. Ch. 1 "Introduction: Development and the Anthropology of Modernity," Encountering development : the making and unmaking of the Third World. Princeton, 1995. (30 pp)
- "II. Tibet's Modernization Achievements" in PRC State Council White Paper: "Tibet's March Toward Modernization," Nov. 2001. http://www.china.org.cn/e-white/20011108/3.htm
- Sautman, Barry and Irene Eng. 2001. "Tibet: Development for whom?" China Information 15(2):20-74. [PDF link]
- Fisher, Andrew. Intro and Conclusion. State Growth and Social Exclusion in Tibet. 2005.
- Makley, Charlene. The Battle for Fortune: State-led Development, Personhood and Power among Tibetans in China. Cornell U. Press, 2018.
- Wang Xiaoqiang and Bai Nanfeng. The Poverty of Plenty (Furao de Pinkun), translated by Angela Knox, New York: St. Martin's Press, 1991.
- Wang Xiaoqiang. The Dispute Between the Tibetans and the Han: When Will it be Solved? in Barnett, ed. Resistance and Reform in Tibet, 1994.
- Tibet Information Network 2002. Mining Tibet: Mineral exploration in Tibetan areas of the PRC. pp. 7-36, (preface and Chapter 1, Policy and objectives) and Chapter 5, Environmental issues, pp. 147-180 and Chapter 6, "Costs and benefits" pp. 18 206
- Goodman, David S.G, ed. 2004. The Campaign to 'Open up the West': National, provincial-level and local perspectives. China Quarterly Series Special No. 5, Cambridge UniversityPress. [Link]
- PRC State Council. White Paper: "Tibet's March Toward Modernization," Nov. 2001. (available on-line: http://www.chinaguide.org/e-white/20011108/index.htm)
- Tibetan Govt. in Exile. "Height of Darkness: Chinese Colonialism on the World's Roof," Dec. 2001. (available on line: http://www.tibet.net/en/index.php?id=129&rmenuid=11)
- Yeh, Emily. 2007. Tibetan indigeneity: Translations, Resemblances, and Uptake. in Cadena and Starn, eds. Indigenous Experience Today. Berg.
- Yeh and Henderson. Interpreting Urbanization in Tibet: Administrative Scales and Discourses of Modernization. Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies. Issue 4, December 2008.
- Tibet Information Network. China's Great Leap West : [a report], London, 2000.
- Tibetan Govt. in Exile. "Guidelines For International Development Projects And Sustainable Investment In Tibet". (Available on-line: http://www.tibet.com/aidTibet.html)
- Parts 8, 9. in Blondeau, Anne-Marie and Katia Buffetrille, eds. 2008. Authenticating Tibet: Answers to China's 100 Questions. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Case Studies
- Barnett and Schwartz, eds. Tibetan Modernities. Brill. Articles by Costello, Yeh, Feldj.
- Clarke, Graham. "Socio-Economic Change and the Environment in a Pastoral Area of Lhasa Municipality," in Clarke, ed., Development, Society and Environment in Tibet. Proceedings of the 7th Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies, Graz, (1995), Wien 1998. (20 pp)
- Fischer, Andrew. The Muslim Cook, the Tibetan Client, His Lama and Their Boycott: Modern Religious Discourses of Anti-Muslim Economic Activism in Amdo, in Pirie and Huber, eds., Conflict and Social Order in Tibet and Inner Asia. Brill. 2008. (A rare look at Tib-Hui conflict)
- Yeh, Emily. Tropes of Indolence and the Cultural Politics of Development in Lhasa, Tibet. Annals of the Association of American Geographers 97(3), 2007.
- Yeh, Emily. 2008. "Modernity, Memory and Agricultural Modernisation in Central Tibet, 1950-1980," in Barnett and Schwartz, eds., Tibetan Modernities.
- Yeh, Emily. From Wasteland to Wetland? Nature and Nation in China's Tibet. Environmental History 14 (January), 2009. [mtsho glang and wetland engineering].
- Huber, Toni, ed. Sacred Spaces and Powerful Places in Tibetan Culture. 1999. [essays by Stuchbury, Buffetrille, Huber, Diemberger, Pommaret on land, pilgrimage, tamings].
- Essays on Amdo dev in Toni Huber, ed. Amdo Tibetans in Transition. 2000.
- Lustgarten, Abrahm. 2008. China's Great Train: Beijing's Drive West and the Campaign to Remake Tibet. Times Books.
- Hu, Xiaojiang. 2003. The Little shops in Lhasa, Tibet: Migrant businesses and the formation of markets in a transitional economy. PhD Dissertation, Harvard University.
- Makley, Charlene. 2018. The Battle for Fortune: State-led Development, Personhood and Power among Tibetans in China. Columbia University Press.
- Wang, Shiyong. 2007. "The failure of education in preparing Tibetans for market participation." Asian Ethnicity 8(2): 131-148.
Rangeland Management
- Yeh, Emily. 2005. "Green governmentality and pastoralism in western China: 'Converting pastures to Grasslands'" Nomadic Peoples. 9(1): 9-30.
- Yan, Zhaoli, Wu Ning, Yeshi Dorji and Ru Jia. 2005 9(1-2). "A review of rangeland privatization and its implications in the Tibetan Plateau, China." Nomadic Peoples. pp 31-51.
- Bauer, Ken. 2005. "Development and the enclosure movement in the Tibet Autonomous Region since the 1980s" Nomadic Peoples 9:85-115.
- Goldstein, Melvyn. 1991. "Change and continuity in nomadic pastoralism on the Western Tibetan Plateau." Nomadic Peoples 28:105-23.
- Harris, Richard. 2007. Wildlife conservation in China: Preserving the habitat of China's wild west. M.E. Sharpe. Chapter 2, "China's Wild West: Geography is destiny" pp. 20-57.
- Yan, Zhaoli, Wu Ning, Yeshi Dorji and Ru Jia. 2005 9(1-2). "A review of rangeland privatization and its implications in the Tibetan Plateau, China." Nomadic Peoples. pp 31-51.
- Bauer, Ken. 2005. "Pastoral development and the enclosure movement in the Tibet Autonomous Region since the 1980s" Nomadic Peoples 9:85-115.
- Foggin, Marc. 2008. "Depopulating the Tibetan grasslands: The role of national policies and perspectives for the future of Tibetan herders, Qinghai Province, China." Mountain Research and Development 28(1): 26-3.
- Klein, Julia, et al. "Synchronizing environmental and climate change adaptation policy in resource-dependent communities: a case study from the Tibetan Plateau"
- Banks, Tony. 2003. "Property Rights Reform in Rangeland China:: Dilemmas On the Road to the Household Ranch" World Development, 31(12): 2129-2142. [Link]
- Bauer, Ken. 2007. Land use, common property and development among pastoralists in Central Tibet (1884-2004). PhD dissertation, Oxford.
- Clarke, Graham (ed.) 1998. Development, Society, and Environment in Tibet. Papers Presented at a Panel of the 7th International Association for Tibetan Studies, Graz 1995.
- Ekvall, Robert. 1983. Fields on the Hoof: Nexus of Tibetan nomadic pastoralism. Waveland Press.
- Goldstein, Melvyn and Cynthia M. Beall. 1990. Nomads of Western Tibet: The survival of a way of life. UC Press.
- Goldstein, Melvyn and Cynthia M. Beall. 1991. "Change and Continuity in Nomadic Pastoralism on the Western Tibetan Plateau". Nomadic Peoples 28 :105-122.
- Klein, Julia A., J. Harte & X.Q. Zhao. (2007) Experimental warming, not grazing, decreases rangeland quality on the Tibetan Plateau. Ecological Applications 17(2): 541–557.
- Klein Julia A., J. Harte & X.Q. Zhao. (2004) Experimental warming causes large and rapid species loss, dampened by simulated grazing, on the Tibetan Plateau. Ecology Letters 7(12): 1170-1179.
- Levine, Nancy E. 1999. "Cattle and the Cash Economy: Responses to Change among Tibetan Pastoralists in Sichuan, China," Human Organization, Vol. 58(2):161-172.
- Miller, Daniel J. 2000. "Tough times for nomads in western China: Snowstorms, settling down, fences and the demise of traditional nomadic pastoralism." Nomadic Peoples 4(1): 83-109.
- Richard, Camille. 2005 . "Developing Alternatives to resettlement for pastoralists on the Tibetan Plateau. Nomadic Peoples 9(1).
- Schaller, G. B.1998. Wildlife of the Tibetan Steppe. The University of Chicago Press, 1998.
- Williams, Dee Mack. 2002. Beyond Great Walls: Environment, Identity and Development on the Chinese Grasslands of Inner Mongolia. Stanford University Press.
- Yeh, Emily T. 2003. "Tibetan range wars: Spatial politics and authority on the grasslands of Amdo." Development and Change. 34(3):499-523.
Films
Links
Maps
- Amdo - The Eastern Regions of Tibet, C.A. 1800: View - HiRes
- Map 2 ICT - Contemporary Tibetan Regions: View - HiRes
- Map 4 ICT - 8th Century Borders: View - HiRes
- Map 5 ICT - 17th Century Borders: View - HiRes
- Map 6 ICT - 19th Century Borders: View - HiRes
- Map 8 ICT - PLA routes: View - HiRes
- Shakya - PLA invasion: View - HiRes
- NE Amdo Map Ocean Annals: View - HiRes
- Eastern Tibet (1725-1950): View - HiRes
- p.xxx in Smith, Warren. Tibetan Nation: a History of Tibetan Nationalism and Sino-Tibetan Relations. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1996.
Week 9: Green Tibetans? Observing Environmentalisms
Assignments
Film of the Week: Khata, Huatse Gyal, dir., 2023, 45 mins., Stream on Moodle. **Content Notes: two graphic photos of the bodies of cattle killed by scarves in their environments.
Mon Nov 4: The Figure of Green Tibetans
- Yeh, Emily. 2014. "The rise and fall of the Green Tibetan." Emily Yeh and Chris Coggins, eds. Mapping Shangrila: Contested Landscapes in the Sino-Tibetan Borderlands. University of Washington Press, 2014. (ereserve). (22 pp).
- Berry, Chris. "Pristine Tibet? The Anthropocene and Brand Tibet in Chinese Cinema," in K.-C. Lo, J. Yeung (eds.), Chinese Shock of the Anthropocene: Image, Music and Text in the Age of Climate Change, Palgrave Macmillan, 2019. (18 pp). (ereserve).
Wed Nov 6 Reed Alum, anthropologist and filmmaker Huatse Gyal Zoom-in
- "The Sacred Polyester of Tibetan Khata," an interview with Huatse Gyal, Tricyle: The Buddhist Review, Feb 2024.
- Brox, Trine. "Tibetan Buddhism in the Age of Waste," Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 2024, XX, 1–16. (ereserve).
Less ideally, by Friday Nov 8, midnight (after we discuss it).
Further Reading
- Craig, Sienna. Introduction (p 1-20). Healing Elements: Efficacy and the Social Ecologies of Tibetan Medicine. Univ of CA press, 2012.
- Craig, Sienna. Craig, Sienna. READ Ch. 5: p. 146-156, p. 174-182 (Ebook: Ch. 5 p. 122-129, up to "Holy Water and Polluting Flowers" and p. 142-148 "The Budda and Commodity Fetishism"); READ: Ch. 6. Healing Elements: Efficacy and the Social Ecologies of Tibetan Medicine. Univ of CA press, 2012.
- Huber. Green Tibetans: a Brief Social History. in Korom, ed. Tibetan culture in the Diaspora. 1997. (12 pp).
- Kalzang Dorjee Bhutia et al. Replacing Plastic Prayers With Biodegradable Blessings in the Himalayas. Sapiens, Feb. 27, 2024.
- Short story: Tsering Dondrup. "Black Fox Valley," The Handsome Monk and Other Stories, Christopher Peacock (trans.) New York: Columbia University Press, 2019.
Tibet and environmentalisms
- Clark. Tradition, Modernity and Environmental Change. Dodin and Rather, Imagining Tibet.
- Hanyu Chen & Betty Weiler (2014) Chinese Donkey Friends in Tibet – Evidence from the Cyberspace Community, Journal of China Tourism Research, 10:4, 475-492, DOI: 10.1080/19388160.2014.951503
The aim of this paper is to provide insights into Chinese backpacking tourism in Tibet. Chinese backpackers, also referred to as “donkey friends” in China, are distinctively Generation Y born in the 1980s and 1990s. They grew up at a time when China shifted political power to Deng Xiaoping’s explorations with capitalism and greater openness. Aided in part by the diffusion of the internet and web-based donkey friend associations, backpacking flourished in China. Through a virtual ethnography of a leading internet travel forum, it has been found that Tibet appeals to Chinese backpackers mainly because of its natural environment. Backpackers in Tibet emphasize the “donkey friend” spirit and self-actualization as an important part of their trip. - Huber, Toni. Ch. 11 "Culture, Nature and Economy Around a Holy Mountain," The Cult of Pure Crystal Mountain: Popular Pilgrimage and Visionary Landscape in Southeast Tibet. Oxford. 1999.
- Huber, Toni. "Traditional Environmental Protectionism in Tibet Reconsidered," Tibet Journal 16(3), 1991. (10 pp)
- John Keay. Himalaya: Exploring the Roof of the World (ordered for reed lib)
- Mapping Shangrila chapters on nature reserves, theme parks
- Norberg-Hodge. Tibetan Culture as a Model of Ecological Sustainability. Dodin and Rather, eds., Imagining Tibet. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2001. (bookstore, book reserve).
- "Tibet's Environment and Development Issues," Tibetan Government in Exile White paper. http://www.tibet.net/en/index.php?id=85&rmenuid=11
- Tibet Information Network 2002. Mining Tibet: Mineral exploration in Tibetan areas of the PRC. pp. 7-36, (preface and Chapter 1, Policy and objectives) and Chapter 5, Environmental issues, pp. 147-180 and Chapter 6, "Costs and benefits" pp. 18 206
- Vigoda, Marcy. "Religious and Socio-Cultural Restraints on Environmental Degradation among Tibetan Peoples--Myth or Reality" Tibet Journal, vol. 14, 4, 1989.
Films
Youtube
- Berkeley Conference on China's Environment (Youtube: Dec. 2008)
- The Environmental Cost of China's Growth (Youtube: New York Times report, 2007)
- The Dalai Lama on Tibet's Environment (Youtube: the Dalai Lama's 2007 speech in English)
- The Dalai Lama on Green Party (Youtube: from April 2008 appearance at University of Michigan)
- Nechung Oracle Speaks on Peace, the Environment (Youtube: circa 2007, Dharamsala documentary excerpt uploaded by US-based director of sustainable development NGO Partnerships for Change)
- China's Train to Tibet (Youtube: Italy-based Earth Energy Environment TV channel documentary)
- Save the Tibetan Antelope (Youtube: US-based Chinese man's amateur video using video game avatars and clips from the film Kekexili)
- Saving the Antelope (Youtube: Chinese English language documentary)
- Promotion video for Beijing Olympic Mascots, (Youtube: 2008, featuring Yingying the Tibetan antelope)
- Olympic Torch Relay in Golmud Qinghai (CCTV 9, features man credited with saving the Tibetan antelope)
- Storms over China [Catalog]
- Course YouTube playlist: Commercial Tibet
Relevant Films in Reed Library
- China on the march [videorecording] : [China 1949-1958]; [S.l.] : MB Productions, [1958?] ; [s.l.] : Ergo Media, [1990?] 1 videocassette (130 min.)
- China, unleashing the dragon [videorecording] / series producer, Richard Hall; New York : First Run/Icarus Films, 1995 4 videocassettes (203 min.)
- China [videorecording] : beyond the clouds / photographed, directed and produced by Phil Agland ;[Washington, D.C.] : National Geographic Society, c1994 2 videocassettes (240 min.)
- China Rises [HC427.92 .C4644485 2006 DVD]
- Leaving fear behind [videorecording] / produced by Filming for Tibet ; [directed by Dhondrup Wangchen [Zurich, Switzerland : Filming for Tibet, 2009?] 1 videodisc (ca. 25 min.) (filmed undercover in Amdo regions during the run-up to the Beijing Olympics, the filmmaker is currently in prison).
- Kekexili (Mountain Patrol), 2006, 89 mins. [PN1995.9.A5 K45 2006 DVD]
Links
- Improving Power in Rural China (Western development worker travels to nomadic regions of Amdo: herders "wandering the hills" need dev help)
- Tibet's Environment - link list (Dharamsala-based Tibet.org's list)
- China Tibet Online Environment-related Articles (Chinese state-sponsored People's Daily)
- "Tibet's environment well preserved in development" (Xinhua March 2009 report on recent Beijing-based think tank report)
- "China Destroys Tibet's Sacred Environment" (Wired Science blog, Brandon Kerm weighs in in the midst of the 2008 unrest in Tibet)
- Qinghai-Tibet Railway (BBC photographic essay)
Art and Music Media on Tibet Environment Issues
- Online Exhibition of Contemporary Tibetan Paintings of the Lhasa Train (Peaceful Wind Gallery, Santa Fe)
- Save Tibet's Environment (Youtube: Tibetan folk singer in the PRC sings about the environment)
Maps
Tibetan Plateau (Ecological Regions): View - HiRes
- p.xxviii in Smith, Warren. Tibetan Nation: a History of Tibetan Nationalism and Sino-Tibetan Relations. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1996.
Sanjiangyuan National Nature Preserve, Qinghai Province (Amdo)
- Tesi Environmental Awareness Movement, Dharamsala, India
Part II: Your Films!
Week 10: Student Film Workshops
Assignments
Mon Nov 11 Harper and Isabelle: Jinpa (Pema Tseden)
- Reading: Berry, Chris. “Pema Tseden and the Tibetan road movie: space and identity beyond the ‘minority nationality film’.” Journal of Chinese Cinemas, vol. 10, no. 2, Apr. 2016, pp. 89-105. (ereserve)
- Film: Pema Tseden, Jinpa, 2015 (Stream on Moodle).
Pema Tseden continues his amazing directing in the film Jinpa. He highlights the rugged territory of the Kekexili Plateau, an isolated Tibetan region with an average elevation of more than 16,000 feet and gives voice to a key piece of Tibetan culture: Karma. Jinpa follows the story of a truck driver who meets a hitchhiker with the same name. Jinpa and Jinpa aren’t the best of friends but do have a markable impact on one another. Through the journey of Jinpa, we see the duality in their lives, depicting a culture in the midst of transformation by modernity, all while presenting a range of individual responses to these changes. By exploring the themes of karma and revenge and spirituality without definitive judgment, Tseden allows the viewer to reflect on the complexities of Tibetan identity, tradition, and the struggle between the past and the present. As you go into this reading, think about the duality of culture and how the two lives we see in Jinpa reflect the battle of modernity and tradition in Tibet toda - See scenes: 8:10- 12:50: When our main character Jinpa, runs over a sheep which showcase Tseden's style and tell alot about the main character
32:15- 36:30: Shows a monk blessing this sheep. It speaks to the directors goal to show modern tibet life and how religion is realistically practiced.
48:11- 59:00: With a waitress in a busy tavern-like establishment and how she behaves, I think it speaks to our conversation about Tharlo and how women are written in Tseden's films.
Wed Nov 13 Workshop 5: Sound
Guest: Tony Moreno, Digital Project Manager
- Pramaggiore, Maria. "Ch. Eight: Sound," Film: a Critical Introduction. London, England : Laurence King Publishing, 2020 (ebook/ereserve).
Further Reading
Films
Links
Maps
Week 11: Student Film Workshops
Assignments
Mon Nov 18 Emilie: The Silent Holy Stones (Pema Tseden, 2006 102 mins)
- Reading: Saxer, Martin. “The Moral Economy of Cultural Identity: Tibet, Cultural Survival, and the Safeguarding of Cultural Heritage.” Civilisations 61, no. 1 (2012): 65–81. (ereserve)
- Film: The Silent Holy Stones Stream on Moodle
This Pema Tseden’s first feature film. It follows a young Lama who goes on holiday break from the monastery and visits his hometown. While at home, he becomes obsessed with watching Journey to the West, an ‘80s Chinese TV show that is a retelling of a classic 16th century novel. At the end, he must return to the monastery, leaving the TV behind. - Scenes:
[6:00-9:57] - the young Lama and Tulku watch Drime Kundun’s play (a DVD produced locally, in the young Lama’s hometown, of a classic Tibetan story).[21:43-25:33] - meeting Uncle Zoba, a mani stone carver.
[53:32-58:30] - the kids skipping out on the play, going to the movies
[1:15:00-1:17:29] - finding out about Uncle Zoba’s death
[1:29:55-1:35:44] - end of the film
Wed Nov 20 GiGi: The Golden Child (Michael Ritchie, 1986, 94 mins)
- Reading: Banerjee, Mita, Vijay Prashad, and Gary Okihiro. “The Rush Hour of Black/Asian Coalitions?: Jackie Chan and Blackface Minstrelsy.” In AfroAsian Encounters: Culture, History, Politics, edited by Heike Raphael-Hernandez and Shannon Steen, 204–22. NYU Press, 2006. (ereserve) or online: http://www.jstor.org/stable/
43487296. - Film: The Golden Child (Stream on Moodle)
When the 14th Dalai Lama is stolen from a Tibetan Monastery, Keenang hires private investigator Chandler Jarrel to fing him. On this journey, he learns about trust, love and American Exceptionalism. Content Notes: misogyny, dead children, mild violence, severely objectified depictions of women, sexual assault jokes and cringe (that last one is completely serious) - Scenes:
Opening Scene - (00.00.20 - 00.05.53)
Snake Women Scene - (00.18.03 - 00.20.37)
Dream Sequence - (00.39.44 - 00.44.50)
Knife Scene - (00.55.34 - 00.57.45)
Love Scene - (01.04.00 - 01.07.51)
Ending Scene - (01.28.37 - 01.29.37)
Further Reading
Films
Links
Maps
Week 12: Student Film Workshops
Assignments
Mon Nov 25 Oliver: We're No Monks
- Film: We’re No Monks(2004) (Stream on Moodle)
Pema Dhondup’s first feature-length film, follows the lives of four
young Tibetan men living in Dharamsala, India. As the title suggests, the movie is not about
monks but instead about the modern lives of Tibetans struggling with their identity and
oppression beyond Tibet’s borders. They spend their time drinking, smoking, and flirting with
foreigners while also trying to bring meaning to their struggles. Each character grapples with
their own conflicts and questions about what a violent struggle means for Tibet. Ultimately, three of the friends manage to overcome their personal conflicts and reach a sustainable life, while one succumbs to the calls for violent action against their oppression. - Reading: Bloch, Natalia. “We Are No Monks. Narrating the Self through New Tibetan Exile Cinema.” Ethnologia Polona, vol. 37, 2017, pp. 101-114. (ereserve)
- Scenes:
[0:30-2:10] Tenzin Speaks directly to the audience through Damdul’s camcorder, giving a call-
to-action speech on the Tibetan struggle
[17:37-18:45] Passang advocates for violent action while rehearsing for his play.
[1:03:00-1:08:30] Passang drunkenly calls for violent acts of terror with his friends after the
party
[1:59:40-2:01:10] Cuts between scenes of Damdul purchasing explosives and the end of
Passang’s play condemning terrorism
[2:06:30-2:07:15] Damdul (I think) explains what he did.
Wed Nov 27 Rest day!
Thanksgiving Nov 28-29
Further Reading
Modernity, Conflict and resistance
- Adams, Vincanne. Modernity and the Problem of Secular Morality, in Houben and Schrempf, eds., Figurations of Modernity. [CB357 .F54 2008]
- Barnett. Violated Specialness. Dodin and Rather, Imagining Tibet [DS785.A1 I45 2001]
- Barnett, Robert. Women and Politics in Contemporary Tibet. in Gyatso and Havnevik, eds. Women in Tibet. Columbia. 2005. [HQ1769.T55 W66 2005]
- Barnett, Robert. Symbols and Protest: the Iconography of Demonstrations in Tibet, 1987-1990. in Barnett, ed. Resistance and Reform in Tibet, 1994. [DS785.A1 R47 1994]
- Barnett, Robert. Questions 90-100. in Blondeau, Anne-Marie and Katia Buffetrille, eds. 2008. Authenticating Tibet: Answers to China's 100 Questions. Berkeley: University of California Press. [DS786 .T4963413 2008]
- Bstan-ʼdzin-rgya-mtsho, Dalai Lama XIV. Chs. 14-15. Freedom in exile : the autobiography of the Dalai Lama. [San Francisco, Calif.] : HarperPerennial, 1991, c1990 (1st HarperPerennial ed).
- Trine Brox and Elizabeth Williams-Oerberg, Eds., Buddhism and Waste: The Excess, Discard, and Afterlife of Buddhist Consumption.
- Dreyfus, Georges. Tibetan Religious Nationalism: Western Fantasy or Empowering vision? in Klieger, ed. Tibet, Self and The Tibetan Diaspora. Brill 2002. [DS785.A1 I58 2000]
- Duojie Zhaxi. Shelter or status? Housing and the shifting markers of family status in Tibetan communities in China.
- Heidi E. Fjeld. The Return of Polyandry: Kinship and Marriage in Central Tibet.
- Germano or Kapstein on revived pilgrimage, new monast. in Goldstein and Kapstein, eds. Buddhism in Contemporary Tibet. Univ. of Calif. Press, 1998. [BQ7590 .B84 1998]
- Goldstein, Melvyn. Introduction and Ch. 2: Revival of Monastic Life in Drepung Monastery, in Goldstein and Kapstein, eds. Buddhism in Contemporary Tibet. Univ. of Calif. Press, 1998. [BQ7590 .B84 1998]
- Peter Hessler, 1999. 'Tibet through Chinese eyes" Atlantic Online. http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/99feb/tibet.htm
- Jamyang Norbu. "Atrocity and Amnesia: Goldstein and the Revision of Tibetan History," Tibetan Review, May 1992.
- Karmay, Samten. Mountain Cult and National Identity in Tibet. in The Arrow and the Spindle. Also in Barnett, ed., Resistance and Reform [DS785.A1 R47 1994]
- Makley, Charlene. 2004. The Body of a Nun: Nunhood and Gender in Contemporary Amdo, In Women in Tibet. Edited by Hanna Havnevik and Janet Gyatso. New York: Columbia University Press. [HQ1769.T55 W66 2005]
- Makley, Charlene. Ch. 3 Mother Home: Circumambulation, Femininities and the Ambiguous Mobility of Women, in The Violence of Liberation: Gender and Tibetan Buddhist Revival in Post-Mao China, Univ of CA press, 2007.
- Makley, Charlene. 2007. The Violence of Liberation: Gender and Tibetan Buddhist Revival in Post-Mao China. University of California Press. [DS786 .M295 2007]
- Gerald Roche, Gwendolyn Hyslop (eds). Bordering Tibetan Languages: Making and Marking Languages in Transnational High Asia”.
- Schrempf, Mona. Planning the Modern Tibetan Family. in Houben and Schrempf, eds., Figurations of Modernity. [CB357 .F54 2008]
- Smith, Warren. Ch.s 15, 16. Tibetan Nation: a History of Tibetan Nationalism and Sino-Tibetan Relations. 1996. [DS786 .S56 1996]
- Smyer-Yu, Dan. "Money, Freedom, and the Price of Charismatic Teachings," The Spread of Tibetan Buddhism in China: Charisma, Money, Enlightenment, Routledge, 2013.
- Smyer Yu, Dan. ch. 2 A Sino-Tibetan Buddhist Modernism, in Buddhism and Business, 2020
- Tibet Information Network: A Sea of Bitterness: Patriotic Education in Qinghai Monasteries. TIN Briefing Paper 32, 1999. [DS786 .S43 1999]
- Yeh, Emily. 2007. Tibetan indigeneity: Translations, Resemblances, and Uptake. in Cadena and Starn, eds. Indigenous Experience Today. Berg. [GN380 .I523 2007]
Modern Tibetan Media
- Adams, Vincanne. 1996. "Karaoke as Modern Lhasa, Tibet: Western Encounters with Cultural Politics" Cultural Anthropology 11 (4), 1996,: 510-546 [JSTOR]
- Jose Cabezón & Roger Jackson eds. 1996. Tibetan Literature: Studies in Genre. Ithaca: Snow Lion Publications, pp.11-32. [Summit]
- Chenaktshang Dorje Tshering. Reflections on Tibetan Film. in Barnett and Schwartz, eds. Tibetan Modernities. Brill. [HN740.T55 I58 2003]
- Essays in Modern Tibetan Literature and Social Change. Duke. 2008. [PL3705 .M626 2008]
- Hartley and Schiaffini-Vedana. Introduction. in Modern Tibetan Literature and Social Change. Duke. 2008. [PL3705 .M626 2008]
- Hartley, Lauran. in Toni Huber, ed. Amdo Tibetans in Transition. 2000. [DS731.A53 I58 2000]
- Kapstein, Matthew. The Tulku's Miserable Lot: Critical Voices from Eastern Tibet. in Toni Huber, ed. Amdo Tibetans in Transition. 2000 (e-reserve, book reserve) [DS731.A53 I58 2000]
- Kvaerne, Per. The ideological Impact on Tibetan Art. in Barnett, ed. Resistance and Reform in Tibet, 1994. [DS785.A1 R47 1994]
- Lama Jabb. Oral and Literary Continuities in Modern Tibetan Literature : The Inescapable Nation, Lexington Books, 2015.
- Lara Maconi. Lion of the Snowy Mountains: the Tibetan poet Yi dam Tshe ring and his Chinese Poetry. in Klieger, ed. Tibet, Self and The Tibetan Diaspora. Brill 2002. [DS785.A1 I58 2000]
- Pema Bhum. The Life of Dhondup Gyal: A Shooting Star that Cleaved the Night Sky and Vanished, in Lungta No 9. Two Thousand Years and More of Tibetan Poetry. Edited by Jamyang Norbu, 1995.
- Rabgey, Tashi. Citizenship as Agency in a Virtual Tibetan Public. in Barnett and Schwartz, eds. Tibetan Modernities. [HN740.T55 I58 2003] Brill.
- Robin, Francoise. The Unreal World of Tibetan Free Verse Poetry. in Blezer, ed. Religion and Secular Culture in Tibet. 2002. [DS786 .I485 2000]
- Sperling, Elliot. The Rhetoric of Dissent: Tibetan Pamphleteers. in Barnett, ed. Resistance and Reform in Tibet, 1994. [DS785.A1 R47 1994]
- Stoddard, Heather. Tibetan Publications and National Identity. in Barnett, ed. Resistance and Reform in Tibet, 1994. [DS785.A1 R47 1994]
- Tsering Shakya. Politicization and the Tibetan Language. in Barnett, ed. Resistance and Reform in Tibet, 1994. [DS785.A1 R47 1994]
- Tsewang Tashi. Twentieth Century Tibetan Painting. in Barnett and Schwartz, eds. Tibetan Modernities. Brill. [HN740.T55 I58 2003]
- Upton, Janet. 2002. "The Politics and Poetics of Sister Drum: 'Tibetan' Music in the Global Marketplace" in Timothy J. Craig and Richard King, eds., Global Goes Local: Popular Culture in Asia Vancouver: UBC Press, pp 99–119. [Summit]
- Yangdon Dhondup. Dancing to the Beat of Modernity: the Rise and Development of Tibetan Pop Music. in Barnett and Schwartz, eds. Tibetan Modernities. Brill. [HN740.T55 I58 2003]
Films
- 1988 Lhasa Demonstrations Documentary (Youtube: English voice-over in uncited documentary using famous police footage)
- Tibetan language Waterfall of Youth (Wikipedia)
- Waterfall of Youth (pop/rap tribute to Dongrup Gyal by Tibetan group Yudrug, 2011, Amdo gcan tsa, Qinghai, PRC)
- High Peaks Pure Earth page on Yudrug's Waterfall of Youth (notes revival of interest in DG in Amdo)
- Waterfall of Youth (poem recited by woman in Lhasa dialect, 2013)
- Dondrup gyal poem recited on stage (diaspora, 2010, Lhasa dialect)
- Dadon: mtsho sngon po (Famous Tibetan woman singer, recorded in Lhasa, now in U.S., Tibetan version of music video of famous Dongrup Gyal song discussed by Stirr)
- Kunga: mtsho sngon po (Famous Tibetan male singer in PRC; rock/pop Tibetan version of music video of famous Dongrup Gyal song discussed by Stirr)
- Dechen Wangmo: Qinghai Hu (Chinese version of music video of famous Dongrup Gyal song discussed by Stirr, recorded before the Tibetan version)
- Windhorse [PN1995.9.T5 W5 2000 video]
- What Remains of Us [DS786 .C4 2008 DVD]
Links
Lhasa, Modernization and Protest
- Virtual Lhasa (Tibet Heritage Fund website with interactive maps)
New Tibetan Art
- Sangster, Leigh Miller. "Meeting old Buddhas in new clothes." (PDF)
- Waves on the Turquoise Lake: Contemporary Expressions of Tibetan Art (online exhibit of Tibetan painting, 2006, Univ of Colorado, Boulder.
- Online Exhibition of Contemporary Tibetan Paintings of the Lhasa Train (Peaceful Wind Gallery, Santa Fe)
- Online Exhibition of Contemporary Tibetan Paintings (Peaceful Wind Gallery, Santa Fe)
Maps
- Central Tibet and Tsang: View - HiRes
- p.xxiii in Kapstein, Matthew. The Tibetans, Blackwell, 2006. [DS786 .K313 2006]
- Plan of Lhasa by Lt. col. Waddell: View - HiRes
- pp.xxx-xxxi in Barnett, Robert. Lhasa: Streets with Memories. Columbia University Press, 2006. [DS797.82.L537 B37 2006]
- Inner City of Lhasa, plan: PDF
- Tibet Hertiage Fund
- Potala and Chakpori: PDF
- Tibet Hertiage Fund
- Schwartz Tibet: View - HiRes
- Schwartz Tibet Detailed: View - HiRes
- Interactive map of 2008-2009 protests in Tibetan regions (Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy)
- Phayul.com map of March 2008 protests
Weeks 13-14: Student Film Workshops
Assignments
Mon Dec 2 Jake: What Remains of Us (2004) Content Notes: Footage of self-immolation by fire protests (Stream on Moodle)
- Film: What Remains of Us by Francois Prevost summarizes an eight-year journey dictating the history and current status of Tibetans living in Chinese regions and their relationship to the Dalai Lama since his exile. The film crew consisted of a Tibetan woman (Kalsang Dolma) and several European directors (François Prévost, Hugo Latulippe) who travelled through Tibet and smuggled a video message from the Dalai Lama to any Tibetan who would be willing to listen. The documentarians travel to secluded camps, neighborhoods and temples to deliver the film to Tibetans of all ages, inspiring hope and rekindling faith among the people now almost accustomed to Chinese rule. This film follows the documenters journey to deliver a hopeful message while exploring official Chinese archives to chronicle Tibet’s occupation. This film seeks to raise awareness by showing the ugly history between the two nations while establishing a theme of connectedness and individual sovereignty.
- Reading: Matta, Mara. “Liminal Gazes: Reflections on Tibetan Diasporic Cinema.” Tibetan Arts in Transition: Journey through Theater, Cinema and Painting, edited by Valeria Donatti and Mara Matta, ASIA Onlus, 2009, pp. 25-36. (get pdf)
- Scenes:
[11:51-13:10], [14:48-16:57], [30:40 - 31:53], [49:03 - 50:36], [1:03:40 - 1:04:23] - Each of the Dalai Lama’s messages (Listen carefully! Each message is different!)
[45:37 - 49:00] a Tibetan city torn apart by Beijing military
[38:31 - 41:56] - Dolma reviewing the official documents for the Chinese annexation of Tibet, and the victims/prisoners that followed
[1:11:52 - 1:13:32] - Self-immolation footage and other forms of protes
Wed Dec 4 Theta: Satya: Prayer for the Enemy (Ellen Bruno) Content Notes: footage of violent military crackdowns on Tibetan protestors, violence against women, sexual assault/rape, mentions of torture, images of bound women. (Stream on Moodle)
- Film: Ellen Bruno’s film Satya: A Prayer for the Enemy (1997) is a documentary that details the experiences of Tibetan Buddhist nuns who have been imprisoned and tortured by Chinese authorities following their protest and resistance to China’s occupation and oppression of Tibet. The film uses personal testimonies and visuals of Tibet to explore the story of oppression in response to resistance. The Tibetan Buddhist nuns detail their experiences and the courage it took to oppose China’s occupation while suffering extreme violence. Satya has a reflective tone with minimal narration, emphasizing the power of individual and collective resistance while shedding light on a largely underrepresented group.
- Reading: Cooke, Susette. "To Struggle for Freedom is Our Responsibility: Tibetan Nuns in the Chinese State," Women, Activism and Social Change, Routledge, 2005. (ereserve)
- Scenes:
[05:34 - 06:20] Discussion of karma
[06:55 - 07:55] Slow motion
[11:50 - 13:50] Protest
[15:57 - 16:42] Image of bound woman
Mon Dec 9: Vicky: Summer Pasture (Stream on Moodle)
- Film: Summer Pasture was released in 2010 by Lynn True, Nelson Walker, and Tsering Perlo. It was shot in the summer of 2007 about a young couple living a nomadic life in Dzachukha, Kham, off the beaten track in nowadays Sichuan Province. At the time of transition, when lots of nomads decided to live a town life, the young couple Locho and Yama could hardly remain nomadic under the rapid development. This film records their thoughts and experience of housework arrangement, marriage, illness, pregnancy, education, interaction with town people, and the dissolution of their community during their work of daily life.
- Reading:
Nash, K. (2011). Documentary-for-the-other: Relationships, ethics and (observational) documentary. Journal of Mass Media Ethics, 26(3), 224. (ereserve) -
Scenes:[21:30-22:05] Locho zooming in through a binocular, looking into the filmmaker’s lens.[1:09:05-1:09:55] Yama acknowledged that women are taking more work in a nomadic life and said that “I hope my daughter can be a nun. I hope she can read & write.”
[27:10-30:10] Yama and Locho talking about their unnamed young daughter.
[39:20-40:44] Yama talking about her experience in town and outside Tibet.
[54:10- 1:02:10] Yama talking about her illness, her marriage, and her previous dead infants. Yama praying outside their tent. Yama and Locho doing housework and singing together.[1:15:00-1:21:00] The couple moving their tent.
Final 10-minute video (posted to Moodle Panopto folder), with 3-page process/goals discussion, (posted to Moodle), Tuesday, Dec 17, midnight
Final Portfolio Reflection, including a suggested grade,
posted to Moodle, Wednesday, Dec 18, midnight
Further Reading
Translocalizing Tibetan Buddhism
- Makley, Charlene. (2010). "Minzu, Market and the Mandala: National Exhibitionism and Tibetan Buddhist Revival in Post-Mao China." in Faiths on Display, Timothy Oakes and Donald Sutton, eds. Routledge.
- Huber, Toni. 2008. The Holy Land Reborn: Pilgrimage and the Tibetan Reinvention of Buddhist India. University of Chicago Press.Lopez, Donald. 1998. Prisoners of Shangri-La: Tibetan Buddhism and the West. University of Chicago Press. [BQ7604 .L66 1998]
- McLagan, M. Mystical visions in Manhattan: Deploying Culture in the Year of Tibet, in Korom, ed. Tibetan culture in the Diaspora. 1997. [DS786 .I58 1995]
- Moran, Peter. Chs. 3-4 (pp. 34-85). Buddhism Observed: travelers, exiles and Tibetan Dharma in Kathmandu. New York : RoutledgeCurzon, 2004. . [BQ384 .M67 2004]
- Zablocki, Abraham. The Taiwanese Connection: Politics, Piety, and Patronage in Transnational Tibetan Buddhism. Buddhism Between Tibet and China (Studies in Indian and Tibetan Buddhism), Matthew Kapstein, ed. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2009. [BQ626 .B825 2009]
- Brauen, Martin. Dreamworld Tibet. [DS786 .B7113 2004]
- Schell, Orvill. Virtual Tibet: Searching for Shangri-La From the Himalayas to Hollywood. New York: Metropolitan Books, 2000. [DS786 .S295 2000]
- Lopez, Donald. Foreigner at the Lama's Feet. reprinted in Alex Mckay, ed. The History of Tibet, vol III: The Modern Period 1895-1959 Encounter with Modernity. London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003 [DS785 .H67 2003]
- French, Patrick. 2004. Tibet, Tibet: A personal history of a lost land. Harper Perennial. [DS786 .F74 2003]
- Ortner, Life and Death on Mt Everest, 1999. [GV199.44.E85 O78 1999]
- Kvaerne, Tibet Images Among Researchers of Tibet, Dodin and Rather, Imagining Tibet [DS785.A1 I45 2001]
- Pederson, Tibet, Theosophy and the Psychologization of Buddhism, Dodin and Rather, Imagining Tibet [DS785.A1 I45 2001]
- Korom, The Role of Tibet in the New Age Movement, Dodin and Rather, Imagining Tibet [DS785.A1 I45 2001]
- Stoddard. The Development in Perceptions of Tibetan Art. Dodin and Rather, Imagining Tibet [DS785.A1 I45 2001]
- Hopkins. Tibetan Monastic Colleges, Dodin and Rather, Imagining Tibet. [DS785.A1 I45 2001]
- Dagyab Kyabgon Rinpoche. Buddhism in the West and the Image of Tibet. Dodin and Rather, Imagining Tibet [DS785.A1 I45 2001]
- Bharati, Agehananda. (1974). "Fictitious Tibet: The origin and persistence of Rampaism," reprinted in Alex Mckay, ed. The History of Tibet, vol III: The Modern Period 1895-1959 Encounter with Modernity. London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003. [DS785 .H67 2003]
- Magnusson, Jan. A Myth of Tibet: Reverse Orientalism and Soft Power. in Klieger, ed. Tibet, Self and The Tibetan Diaspora. Brill 2002. [DS785.A1 I58 2000]
- Zablocki, Abraham. 2005. The Global Mandala: The transnational transformation of Tibetan Buddhism. PhD Dissertation, Cornell. [Summit]
Tibet and China Scholars' Statements on the 2008 Unrest
- China Beat Blog Coverage
- "A Reader on Tibet" (April 3, 2009)
- Selected coverage
- Andrew Fischer, "Hardlines Help No one" (The Guardian, April 2008)
- Elliot Sperling, "Tibet as 'Hell on Earth'," (Far Eastern Economic Review, March 2009
- Pico Iyer, "'a Hell on Earth," (New York Review of Books, Volume 56, Number 6 · April 9, 2009).
- Geramie Barme, "Torching the Relay," (China Beat blog, May 2008).
- James Miles, "James Miles on Media Coverage in Tibet," (China Beat blog, March 2008)
- Robbie Barnett
- "Seven Questions: What Tibetans Want," (Foreign Policy, March 2008)
- "2 Realities of Tibet," (New York Times, March 2008)
- "In Case You Missed it: Tibet Special, part 4", (China Beat Blog, October 2008)
- 2009. The Tibet Protests of Spring, 2008: Conflict between the Nation and the State, China Perspectives 3.
- Don Lopez, "How to Think about Tibet," (Open Democracy Blog, March 2008)
- Pankaj Mishra, "At War with the Utopia of Modernity," (The Guardian, March 2008).
- Jeff Wasserstrom, "China's Olympic Delusion," (The Nation, March 2008)
- John Powers, "Chinese Perspective on Tibet," (Youtube interview, ~Aug. 2008)
- Jamyang Norbu, "Barefoot Experts," (JN responds to Tibet experts' views on the unrest in his Blog Shadow Tibet, June 2008, see comments section as well)
- Like Gold that Fears no Fire, writings from Tibetans post 2008
- Makley, Charlene. (2009). "Ballooning Unrest: Tibet, State Violence and the Incredible Lightness of Knowledge," in China in 2008: a Year of Great Significance, Kate Merkel-Hess, Kenneth L. Pommeranz, and Jeffrey Wasserstrom, ed.s, Routledge. (e-reserve).
- Sautman, Barry. 2008. "Protests in Tibet and Separatism: The Olympics and beyond." China Left Review Volume 1. http://chinaleftreview.org/index.php?id=28
- Yeh, Emily. Tibet and the problem of radical reductionism. Antipode 41, October 2009.
Critiques of China Scholars' Self-Censorship
- Link, Perry. 2002. "China: The Anaconda in the Chandelier," New York Review of Books, Volume 49, Number 6.
- Holz, Carsten A. 2007. "Have China Scholars All Been Bought?" Far Eastern Economic Review (July 4).
- Jamyang Norbu, "Barefoot Experts," (JN responds to Tibet experts' views on the unrest in his Blog Shadow Tibet, June 2008).
- Mooney, Paul. 2008. "Want access? Go easy on China," The National (Monday, September 15)
- Redden, Elizabeth. 2008. "The Blacklist Academic Leaders Ignore," Insider Higher Education (July 14).
- Makley, Charlene. 2009. "Anthropology and the Anaconda: China post-2008" [Word doc]. The Anthropology News (April 2009).
Debates over the nature of self-immolation protests among Tibetans
-
Benn, James. Multiple Meanings of Buddhist Self-Immolation in China — A Historical Perspective. Revue d'Etudes Tibétaines, no. 25, Décembre 2012, pp. 203-212.
- Barnett, Robert. 2012. "Political Self-Immolation in Tibet: Causes and Influences", Revue d'Etudes Tibétaines, no. 25, Décembre, pp. 41-64.
-
---------------. Burning for the Buddha: Self-Immolation in Chinese Buddhism. Studies in East Asian Buddhism. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2007.
-
Biggs, Michael. 2012. "Self-Immolation in Context, 1963-2012", Revue d'Etudes Tibétaines, no. 25, Décembre, pp. 143-150.
-
------------------. 2005. "Dying Without Killing: Self-Immolations, 1963-2002," Diego Gambetta (ed.), Making Sense of Suicide Missions. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Buffetrille, Katia. 2012. "Self-Immolation in Tibet: Some Reflections on an Unfolding History," Revue d'Etudes Tibétaines, no. 25, Décembre, pp. 1-17. -
Cabezon, Jose. 2013. "On the Ethics of the Tibetan Self-Immolations". Religion Dispatches (June 16).
- Cultural Anthropology. 2012. Self-Immolation as Protest in Tibet, Carole McGranahan and Ralph Litzinger, ed.s [most Tibet scholars, including Tsering Shakya, Makley, Yeh, Woeser, weigh in in brief online essays].
- Robin, Francoise. 2012. Fire, Flames and Ashes. How Tibetan Poets Talk about Self-Immolations without Talking about Them, Revue d'Etudes Tibétaines, no. 25, Décembre, pp. 123-131.
- Wang Lixiong. 2012. Last-words analysis – Why Tibetans Self-immolate?
- Woeser. 2012. "The Testimonies Left By Tibetan Self-Immolators," translated in High Peaks Pure Earth blog, originally posted September 12.
- Woeser. 2013. The Message Communicated by Tibetans Destroying Their Swords. Responds to Makley 2012 Cultural Anthropology piece on self-immolations. Invisible Tibet blog. [but the response is based on a mis-translation of the final sentence of my piece; the translator mistook the word 'untimely' for 'ultimate' and presumed I was predicting the imminent 'death' of the Tibetan people as a whole]
Debates over the Future of Tibet
Ma Rong Statements on eliminating China's Ethnic Regional Autonomy System
- Ma Rong, "The key to understanding and interpreting ethnic relations in contemporary China," ISS, December 2009.
- Elliot Sperling, "Autonomy? Think Again," Times of India, July 2009 (reprinted in Phayul.com)
- Lobsang Sangay, "Rejoinder to 'Autonomy? Think Again?" (Aug 2009)
- Elliot Sperling, "A Response to Lobsang Sangay," (Phayul.com, Aug. 2009)
- Lobsang Sangay, "Lobsang Sangay's response to Elliot Sperling (2)," (Phayul.com, Aug 2009)
Scholarly Debates
- Bob, Clifford. "Merchants of Morality," Foreign Policy No. 129, Jan-Feb, 2002. (e-reserve)
- Jamyang Norbu. "The incredible weariness of hope" (a review and scathing response to Patrick French's Tibet, Tibet ) http://www.tibetwrites.org/?The-Incredible-Weariness-of-Hope
- Xu Mingxu and Yuan Feng. The Tibet Question: a New Cold War. in Sautman and Dreyer, eds. Contemporary Tibet: Politics, Development and Society in a Disputed Region. M.E. Sharpe, 2006. [BQ7590 .B84 1998]
- Barnett, Robert. Violated Specialness. Dodin and Rather, Imagining Tibet Klieger, Christiaan. Riding High on the Manchurian Dream: three Paradigms in the Construction of the Tibetan Question. in Sautman and Dreyer, eds. Contemporary Tibet: Politics, Development and Society in a Disputed Region. M.E. Sharpe, 2006. [BQ7590 .B84 1998]
- Lopez, Donald. 1998. Conclusion: The Prison. Prisoners of Shangri-La: Tibetan Buddhism and the West. University of Chicago Press. [BQ7604 .L66 1998]
- Tuttle, Gray. Postscript. Tibetan Buddhists in the making of modern China. New York : Columbia University Press, c2005. [DS786 .T866 2005]
- Goldstein, Melvyn. Ch. 5, "The Future" The Snow Lion and The Dragon: China, Tibet, and the Dalai Lama. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997. [DS786 .G636 1997]
- Kapstein, Matthew. "Concluding Remarks," in Goldstein, Melvyn and Matthew Kapstein, (Eds.). Buddhism in Contemporary Tibet: Religious Revival and Cultural Identity. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998. (10 pp) [BQ7590 .B84 1998]
- Wang Lixiong. "The People's Republic of China's 21st Century Underbelly," Beijing Zhanlue Yu Guanli, January 2, 1999, translation by BBC Monitoring service. (Also was translated and appeared in Ta Kung Pao in Hong Kong). [PDF link]
- H.H. The Dalai Lama. Guidelines for Future Tibet's polity and the basic features of its Constitution. (Available on-line: http://www.tibet.com/future.html)
- Samdhong Rinpoche. "Tibet: a Future Vision," New Delhi: Tibetan Parlimentary and Policy Research Centre, 1997. (My office). [Summit]
Films
Translocal Buddhism
- Why are we Silent? - Award-winning 1998 PSA for the Int'l Campaign for Tibet featuring Hollywood Celebrities.
- Tibet's Stolen Child [BQ7945.R597 T53 1999 video]
- The Cup [PN1995.9.C55 P676 2007 DVD]
- The spirit of Tibet: a journey to enlightenment: the life and world of Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche [BQ982.A23 S64 1998 video]
Key Footage on China's Olympic Year
- Beijing 2008: highlights, the games of the XXIX Olympiad [GV742.3 .B456 2008 DVD]
- Leaving Fear Behind [Catalog]
- 2008! China Stand up! (Zhongguo Zhanqilai) (Youtube video discussed by Yeh)
- Documentary on Lhasa, Tibet, China Riots (CCTV 9 documentary, March 2008)
- Monks Protest Outside Labrang Monastery (cellphone footage, March 15, 2008)
- Fresh Protest at Labrang (video footage, March 17, 2008)
- Labrang Monks Protest in Front of Journalists (Chinese official tour of int'l journalists, April 9, 2008)
- Monk Jigme at Labrang speaks of the time of protests there (Youtube, orginally aired by VOA, filmed Sept 3, 2008)
- Course Youtube playlist: Self-Immolations in Tibet (viewer discretion advised)
Links
- High Peaks Pure Earth (Diaspora-based blog providing English translations of Tibetan blogs from inside PRC, including important entries from Woeser).
- Tibetan self-immolations fact sheet 2009-2022 (international Campaign for Tibet)
Timelines
Coverage and Debates over Beijing Olympics
- The Official Website of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games
- Official site from the PRC
- International Olympic Committee - Beijing 2008 (official news and statements)
- Reporters Without Borders (international network of activist journalists covering media and free speech issues around the Olympics)
- Olympic Watch (Czech watchdog group and human rights campaign)
- Olympics forum (general discussion, searchable)
- Coca-Cola letter to Free Tibet Campaign (major Olympic sponsor responds to activists)
- Free Tibet 2008
- Students for a Free Tibet page specific to the Olympics
- Anti-CNN.com (website established by Chinese student in response to perceptions of biased western media coverage of the Tibetan unrest).
- 2008 Olympics Wikipedia page
- Good collection of news articles in context, see the references section
- Richard Gere talks about current US/Tibet relationships
- Radio Free Asia video
- Causes on Facebook
- Use the search term "Tibet"
Maps
- Map of Tibetan self-immolation protests 2009-2019 (Int'l Campaign for Tibet)