You might not agree with His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s decision to give up the fundamental national goal of Tibetan independence, but you have to admit that whoever was put in charge of branding and marketing this policy did a bang-up job. Just the name “Middle Way” confers on this “approach” a deeply spiritual aura. …
Reply to ICT
Kate Saunders of the International Campaign for Tibet posted this comment on my blog “Seeking the Power of the Powerless” at Huffington Post at 01:16 PM on 1/10/2011. Interesting and thought-provoking, but Jamyang Norbu is wrong (not for the first time) about the International Campaign for Tibet. Yes, the Clinton Administration mounted a campaign for …
Seeking the Power of the Powerless
It’s almost the end of the year now, and nearly two months since Aung San Suu Kyi was released, but I haven’t quite gotten over the dopamine rush of that event. I’ve been waiting a long time to see her a free woman. Not as single-mindedly and passionately, to be sure, as her loyal Burmese …
Strawberry Fields In Himalayan Snow
Remembering John Lennon at Dharamshala . I remember the exact night, thirty years ago, when I heard John Lennon had been murdered. I was in the hall of the kashag (the Tibetan cabinet) building in Dharamshala, at a benefit dance for the literary magazine Lotus Fields (Pemathang). Raju, the lead guitarist of The Subterranean Vajra …
Attention All Katri Election Junkies!
Our very own Tenpa Gapshi la has written a very discerning and balanced article on the Katri elections, with emphasis on the results of the preliminary elections. I highly recommend it to everyone. Read it at http://bit.ly/9L1xNT I haven’t seen as much genuine and animated discussion about our elections and our democracy anywhere as on …
Through a Blurry Cellphone Video, Darkly
LANGUAGE, IDENTITY & REVOLUTION IN TIBET . The task of getting news out of Tibet these day has taken on the frustrating ambience of cold-war research methodology. We haven’t exactly gone back to the days of Sovietologists and China watchers poring over precious photographs of Mayday line-ups for scraps of usable information, but we’re heading …
Lhasa Public Security Summon Woeser
Urgent Blogpost by Woeser; Lhasa Public Security Bureau Summon Her High Peaks Pure Earth has translated an urgent blogpost by Woeser describing how she was summoned on the phone by the Lhasa Public Security Bureau. The blogpost was written approximately one hour ago. “Urgent: Someone on the Phone Claiming to be from Lhasa City Public …
Investigating Lobsang Sangay’s “Obama of China” Statement
Thanks to Lobsang Sangay la and Jamyang Norbu la, the Kalon Tripa race has its first Sarah Palin incident. Palin, of course, is the defeated 2008 U.S. vice presidential candidate who supposedly said she had foreign policy experience because she could “see Russia” from her house in Alaska. That gaffe was taken somewhat out of context to criticize the half-term governor for her perceived weakness; in her case inexperience.
Further Musings on the Upcoming Elections
Readers must forgive me for nit picking, but the term “kalon-tripa”, literally “the enthroned minister” bothers me. It doesn’t exactly sit well (no pun intended) in a democratic system. Thrones might be okay, these day, for titular sovereigns as the Queen of England or the King of Thailand, and certainly for His Holiness who Tibetans …
Continue reading “Further Musings on the Upcoming Elections”
Lobsang Sangay La’s Response
A week ago Lobsang Sangay la called me on the telephone and expressed his objection to my piece which in large part dealt with his candidacy. Lobsang la told me that he did not remember making any statement (at the Woodrow Wilson conference) about wanting to be the Obama of China. He told me that …
