Yes, the DPRK (North Korea) is a dreadful place with an absolutely dreadful dictator, but I can’t get the over the feeling that the huge media driven fuss we’ve had about the Seth Rogen comedy (concerning a CIA plot to kill Kim Jong Un), the actual hacking of Sony Pictures computers and the ostensible “freedom …
Tibet’s First War Photographer
. A couple of weeks ago someone posted on Facebook a photograph of a Tibetan man holding a camera. I wrote a comment that he was Tsongkha Jhanjup Jinpa, Tibet’s first war photographer and gave a brief description. Some old friends: Michael Buckley, Ajay Singh and Neil Cooper (a photographer who worked for the DIIR) …
Frying Up a Revolution
We were having dinner at the very cosy Little Tibet Restaurant at Jackson Heights last month. Someone insisted I try a Shabhalay from a plate he had ordered. It’s not my favorite food. The shabhalays I had eaten before had largely been products of institution kitchens (chi-thab): too oily, the dough wrap too leathery, stuffing …
A Cup of Tea And a Slice of Art, Please
Sweet Tea House artists in 1985. Gonkar Gyatso is fourth from left. Emerging from the aftershocks, debris and trauma of the Cultural Revolution a loose-knit group of young Lhasa artists in the early and mid-eighties decided to come together to better utilize their individual creativity and to promote their own works. They joking called themselves …
100th Anniversary of Tibet’s International Declaration of Independence
Check out this YouTube video of TNC sponsored talk in New York City featuring Cheden Lhagyal Adhetsang, Jigme Ugen, Tenzin Dorjee, and Jamyang Norbu.
Remembering Our Rangzen Warriors
Andrug Jindak enjoyed his chang and arak in the evening, but was a moderate drinker according to his secretary Loten la, who is in the background photograph 3rd from right. Left of him is Kusho Lhamo Tsering, chief of operations. In the center is Baba Gyen Yeshi, who Jindak appointed as commander of Mustang. I …
The Political Vision of Andrugtsang Gompo Tashi
Download, print and mount poster and offer a prayer or chomay lamp in rememberance. The condescending Lhasa-centric view of Khampas is that they are brave, warlike, forthright and plain speaking, but (ahem!) not too bright when it comes to politics. Hence Gonpo Tashi Andrugtsang’s creation of the Four Rivers Six Ranges, the paramount resistance force …
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India Impresses China Oppresses
. In the old days when you saw a movie in India you invariably got an Indian News Review newsreel before the main feature. From the early seventies there were occasional reports on India’s fledgling space program. A rocket would be launched and invariably it would corkscrew in the air and explode – or flame …
The Great Middleway Referendum Swindle
. This is probably the last article I am going to write on the subject of the Middle Way Approach (MWA). I have posted about a dozen pieces on various aspects of this policy: from its crafty (but dishonest) name, its simpleminded political and diplomatic justifications, its screwball economic rationale and its grovelling, too-clever-by-half, modi …
Tibetan Scientist in Team Discovering Final Genetic Proof of Tibetan High Altitude Exceptionalism
Aug 17 2014. A study led by University of Utah researchers has identified for the first time the genetic reason Tibetans can survive on the Tibetan Plateau, which has an average elevation of 14,800 feet. The results of the study, led by Josef Prchal, internist Donald McLain and hematologist and researcher Tsewang Tashi, were published …
