Columbia University
UNDERSTANDING MODERN TIBET
Sessions: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 2.40-4pm
Lecturer: Dr. Robert Barnett
Web-readings: http://www.columbia.edu/itc/ealac/barnett/ (original syllabus)
Class size: maximum 40 students, any level; but priority will be given to graduate students if necessary  

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The Course

This course aims to raise questions about popular and academic descriptions of contemporary foreign societies. How do these descriptions work? Do they tell us anything about the societies they describe? Are there more effective approaches that we as foreigners could pursue in order to know something of other communities?

Our method will involve looking at contemporary Tibet. We will study some of the ways in which texts and images of Tibet are interpreted, and try to form our own interpretations in terms of the historical and cultural context of Tibet and of the wider region. In particular, we will try to look beyond the question of representation of places in foreign writings to questions of modernity and tradition, and to the role of earlier cultural and religious ideas within modern Tibet.

The course should be useful for those with general interest in the East-South-Central Asian interface, in China’s nationality policies, in Tibet, or in regional affairs and development, as well as for students with general interest in history, religion or the social sciences. It will be open to both undergraduates and graduates. Classes will consist generally of a lecture followed by a discussion, with some sessions devoted wholly to class discussions and others to films, slides or videos.

Course Description

The course is divided into five sections.

Part I: Representations of Tibet . This looks at some of the ways in which both foreigners and Tibetans have depicted themselves, and in particular at key ideas of their history.

Part II: The Question of Modernity and Tradition: Tibet Before 1950 Was the 1950 arrival of the Chinese army and administration in Tibet the beginning of modern Tibet, or were there already signs of a "modern" society there?

Part III: Problems in Tibetan History Since 1950 - looking at some of the choices and controversies faced by China's leaders in their Tibet policies since 1950, and especially at the ways in which Tibetan leaders responded to these policies

Part IV: Conflict and Resistance - using original documentation and visual images to look at questions surrounding political protest in the 1980s and 1990s, and studying in particular the role of women in this movement

Part V: Contemporary Culture and Identity - "identity", like culture, can be formed from outside as well as from inside, and we look at Chinese views of Tibetans, and at some western ideas of Tibetan Buddhism as compared with actual religious practices. Are modern literature, popular writings, music, art, and film signs of a modern Tibetan culture? And what places and which people are included in this modern Tibet? Are the exile communities part of "modern Tibet"? And finally, what kinds of development options are being offered to Tibetans, and are there any indications in writing or in films as to the futures Tibetans themselves are considering?

Course Requirements

Students should attend classes regularly and participate in class sessions. Non-attendance or repeated late attendance will affect grades. You will be expected to complete all required readings before the classes, and to read or look briefly at optional pieces wherever possible. Most of the reading materials will be included in course packs, since some of them are hard to find. There will be a bulletin board for students to post comments and thoughts about the readings and the lectures; by each Monday evening students will be required to post a brief comment on one or other of the required readings for the coming Tuesday's class. You will be asked to complete one essay and an assignment by mid-term and to submit a second essay by the end of the term.

Assignments

1. Post your responses to one or more of the readings for the Tuesday class on the class discussion board, at least two paragraphs in length

2. During the term, each student will be asked in turn to give at least one 5-10 minute class presentation of their summary of and comments on an optional reading for that class.

3. There will be one take-home examination at mid-term.

4. One month before the end of the term, each student will submit a one page proposal for their research paper, due at the end of the term, and will meet individually with Dr Barnett to discuss their research topic and plan.

5. The final examination will be a take-home paper requiring some basic library or similar research. You will chose the subject of your research paper.

Reading List - Books

Required Texts

Melvyn Goldstein, A History of Modern Tibet: The Demise of the Lamaist State, Berkeley, University of California, 1989.

Tsering Shakya, The Dragon in the Land of Snows: A History of Modern Tibet Since 1947. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999.

Optional Texts

Robert Barnett (ed.), Resistance and Reform in Tibet, Bloomington: University of Indiana Press, 1994, pp. 285-89

Melvyn Goldstein and Matthew Kapstein (eds.), Buddhism in Contemporary Tibet – Religious Revival and Cultural Identity, Berkeley: University of California, 1998.

Readings which are out of print or difficult to obtain will be available in photocopy in the course packs or as files which you can access on the Columbia course website. Copes of the reading packs will be held on reserve at the East Asian Library. The correct, updated version of the syllabus and the web-readings are on the courseworks site. 

Readings and Syllabus for each Session

The course consists of two sessions per week for 13 weeks, each lasting one and a half hours. Some optional texts are listed here for reference only; you should treat this as a bibliography in case you want to further research in the future..

U means that this reading is required for undergraduate and graduate students.

G means that this reading is required for graduate students, but should be read by undergraduates also

You should try to read at least one other reading and to skim the others wherever possible - especially the web-readings, many of which are translations of rare primary documents - even if you don't have time to read them in full.

Introduction

Session 1: Background to the course and the subject

Briefing papers on background information will be handed out, including notes on pronounciation, chronology and geography.

Session 2: The field: is there a modern Tibet, and if so, where is it? The slow and contested emergence of modern Tibetan studies

Web Readings

U Gray Tuttle, "Modern Tibetan Historiography", in Papers on Chinese History, Spring 1998, Cambridge: Harvard University, pp 85-108

U Tsering Shakya, “Introduction: The Development of Modern Tibetan Studies” in Robert Barnett (ed.), Resistance and Reform in Tibet, Bloomington: University of Indiana Press, 1994, pp. 1-14

U Palden Gyal (Tsering Dhondup, translator) Lamentations in Verse on the Demise of the Noble Professor, Dungkar Rinpoche, July 1997, republished in World Tibet News, 6 th August 1997; see also "Leading Scholar Dies, Cultural Criticism Stepped Up", TIN News Update, Tibet Information Network, London, 4 August 1997

Optional:

Eugen Wehrli, “Tibet Research in China by Tibetans and Chinese after 1949”, Proceedings of the International Seminar on the Anthropology of Tibet and the Himalaya, September 21-28, 1990, at the Ethnographic Museum of the University of Zuerich, Ethnological Museum of the University Zurich, 1993, pp. 425-432 (see reading pack)

Colin Mackerras, China’s Minorities: Integration and Modernization in the Twentieth Century, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994, pp…. (currently not available in the Columbia library)

Part I: Representations of Tibet

Session 3: Foreign Representations of Tibet: colonial, exotic and “fellow traveller” views

Web Readings

U Don Lopez, Prisoners of Shangri-la, Chicago: University of Chicago, 1998, pp. 1-13

G Toni Huber, “Shangri-la in Exile: Tibetan Identity Representations & Transnational Culture”, paper presented at the conference “Mythos Tibet”, Bonn, May 1996 and published in Thierry Dodin and Henz Raether, Imaging Tibet, Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2001, pp. 357-372

U Beatrice D. Miller, "American Popular Perceptions of Tibet from 1858-1938", Tibet Journal, 1988, pp.3-12

Optional:

Anna Louise Strong, When Serfs Stood Up in Tibet, Beijing: New World Press, 1960, pp 18-31 (see reading pack)

Peter Bishop, “Reading the Potala” in Toni Huber, Sacred Spaces and Powerful Places in Tibetan Culture, Dharamsala: Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, 1999, pp. 367-85 (see reading pack)

Francis Younghusband, India and Tibet, London: John Murray, 1910, pp. vii-viii, 1-3, 251-253, 307-311, 414-421, 434-438 (see reading pack)

L. A. Waddell, Lhasa and its Mysteries, London: John Murray, 1905, pp.1-5, 12-21, 330-343 (see reading pack).

Robert Ford, Captured in Tibet, London: Pan Books, 1958 or Oxford: Oxford University Press 1990 (also published as Wind between the Worlds, New York: McKay, 1957), pp. 3-19, 46-49, 72-73, 128, 178-181 (see reading pack).

Stuart and Roma Gelder, Timely Rain – Travels in New Tibet, London: Hutchinson, 1964, pp.29-32, 40-43, 50-51 (see reading pack)

Hisao Kimura & Scott Berry, A Japanese Agent in Tibet: My Ten Years of Travel in Tibet, Serindia, London, 1990, pp ….[currently not available in the Columbia library]

Session 4: Looking at Tibet as a site of cultural exceptionality – classical and exile Tibetan representations of early Tibet

Web Readings

U R. A. Stein, Tibetan Civilization, London: Faber and Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1972, chapter 1 (especially pp. 27-44)

U The 14 th Dalai Lama, Freedom in Exile: The Autobiography of the Dalai Lama, San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1990, pp. 1-15

G Paul Harrison, “In search of the source of the Bka' 'gyur”, in Per Kvaerne (ed.), Tibetan Studies: Proceedings of the 6 th Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies, 1, Oslo: Institute for Comparative Research in Human Culture, 1994, pp. 295-317

Optional:

Guiseppe Tucci, The Religions of Tibet, Berkeley, University of California Press, 1980, pp. 163-187, 205-212 (library copy is missing).

Hugh Richardson & David Snellgrove, A Cultural History of Tibet, Boston: Shambala. 1986 (first edition 1968), pp. 15-28 (see reading pack)

Tiley Chodag, Tibet, The Land and the People, New World Press, Beijing, 1988, pp. 3-21, 281-283 (see reading pack)

Session 5: The recollection of an imperial past: Tibet as an Historical Entity - the Tibetan Empire.

G Wang Furen and Suo Wenqing, Highlights of Tibetan History, New World Press, Beijing, 1984, pp.14-31 (see reading pack).

Web Readings

G Michael Aris, “Foreword” in Dan. Martin (1997), Tibetan Histories, London: Serindia Publications, pp.9-12

U Dan Martin, “Introduction”, in Dan Martin (1997), Tibetan Histories, London: Serindia Publications, pp.13-21

U Christopher Beckwith, The Tibetan Empire in Central Asia, Bloomington: University of Indiana Press, pp.1-43, 69-83

Optional:

’Gos lo-tsa-ba gZnu-nu-dpal (George Roerich, translator), The Blue Annals, Delhi: Motilal Barnarsidas, 1976, pp. 35-47 (chapter on “the Royal Chronicle”).

W.D. Shakapba, Tibet: A Political History, New York: Potala, 1984 (first published 1966), pp.23-53 (see reading pack)

Session 6: The perception of a unified Tibet: the Sakya-Yuan period and the Ganden Phodrang. The construction of Tibet as a nation state and the perception of the Dalai Lamas as unifying source of leadership.

G Geoffrey Samuel: Civilized Shamans: Buddhism in Tibetan Societies, Washington, D.C: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1993, pp.3-13, 39-63.

Web Readings

U Melvyn Goldstein, "The Balance between Centralization and Decentralization in the Traditional Tibetan Political System: An Essay on the Nature of Tibetan Political Macro-Structure", in Central Asiatic Journal, xv (1971), pp. 170-82.

U2 Dung-dkar blo-bzang 'phrin-las (Dungkar Lobsang Thrinley), The Merging of Religious and Secular Rule in Tibet (bod-kyi chos srid zung 'brel-skor bshad-pa), pp.53-82

Optional:

Turrell Wylie: “Reincarnation: a Political Innovation”, in Proceedings of the Csoma de Koros Memorial eSymposium, ed. Louis Ligeti, Budapest: Akademiai Kiado, 1978, [ currently not available in the Columbia library - the library copy is missing]

David Snellgrove and Hugh Richardson, A Cultural History of Tibet, Boston: Shambhala, 1986 (first ed. c.1968) pp. 177-203 (see reading pack)

Geoffrey Samuel: " Tibet as a Stateless Society and Some Islamic Parallels", Journal of Asian Studies, XLI No.2, February 1982, pp.215-229 (see reading pack)

Melvyn Goldstein, “Religious Conflict in the Traditional Tibetan State” in Lawrence Epstein and Richard F. Sherburne, (eds.), Reflections on Tibetan Culture: Essays in Memory of Turrell V. Wylie, Lewiston, Maine: The Edwin Mellen Press, 1990, pp.231-247 (see reading pack)

Georges Dreyfus: “Proto-nationalism in Tibet”, Per Kvaerne (ed.), Tibetan Studies: Proceedings of the 6 th Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies, Vol.1, Oslo: Institute for Comparative Research in Human Culture, 1994, pp. 205-218 (see reading pack)

Session 7: The China Question and Legitimation Discourse: The debate over Tibet’s status, and the merging of dynastic distinctions

G D. Seyfort Ruegg, “‘Mchod yon’, ‘yon mchod’ and ‘mchod gnas’/‘yon gnas’: On the Historiography and Semantics of a Tibetan Religio-Social and Religio-Political Concept” in Tibetan History and Language: Studies Dedicated to Uray Geza on His Seventieth Birthday, Vienna, Wiener Studien zur Tibetologie und Buddhismuskunde, No. 26, 1991, pp. 329-351 [currently not available in the Columbia library]

Web Readings:

U Luciano Petech, “Foreword” (pages not numbered), “Introduction” (pp. 1-4) and “Concluding Remarks” (pp.130-142) in Central Tibet and the Mongols: The Yuan-Sa-skya Period of Tibetan History, Rome: Istituto Italiano per il Medio ed il Estremo Oriente (IsMEO) 1990 (also pulished as Serie Orientale, Vol. 45)

G Nga phod ngag dbang ’jig med [Ngapo Ngawang Jigme], “Apei Awang Jinmei on the Relationship between Tibet and the Motherland - When did Tibet come within the sovereignty of China?”, Bulletin of the History of the Tibet Communist Party, 1988 Vol. 3 (No.21 of the General Series), published in translation in Background Papers on Tibet - September 1992, Part 2, London: Tibet Information Network, 1992 , pp. 81ff.

Optional:

Jing Wei (ed.), Hundred Questions About Tibet, Beijing: Beijing Review Press, 1989, pp.1-27 (see reading pack)

Michael van Walt, The Status of Tibet: history, rights, and prospects in international law, Boulder: Westview, 1987, pp.119-141 (see reading pack)

Dawa Norbu, “An Analysis of Sino-Tibetan Relations, 1245-1911: Imperial Power, Non-coercive Regime and Military Dependency” in Barbara Aziz and Matthew Kapstein (eds.), Soundings in Tibetan Civilization, New Delhi, Manohar, 1985, pp 176-95[currently not available in the Columbia library - the library copy missing]

Warren Smith, Tibetan Nation: A History of Tibetan Nationalism and Sino-Tibetan Relations, Boulder Colorado: Westview Press, 1996, pp.145-149, 659-667 (see reading pack)

Session 8: The Regional Question: Tibet as Southern/Central/ Inner/Eastern Asia. Perceiving Tibet as different from its regional counterparts, and where to place it.

G Linda Benson, “Contested History: Issues in the Historiography of Inner Asia's Uighurs” in Toronto Studies in Central and Inner Asia, Vol. 2. Toronto: University of Toronto - York University Joint Center for Asia Pacific Studies, 1997, pp. 115-131 (see reading pack)

G John King Fairbank, China: A New History, Harvard University Press, 1992, pp.1-3, 23-25, 152-15 (see reading pack).

Web Readings:

U Owen Lattimore, Inner Asian Frontiers of China, American Geographical Society. Research Series No. 21. New York: American Geographical Society, 1940, pp 13-25, 206-218, 238-242 .

Optional:

Geoffrey Samuel: Civilized Shamans: Buddhism in Tibetan Societies, Washington, D.C: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1993, pp.115-154

Morris Rossabi, China and Inner Asia: From 1360 to the Present Day, New York: Pica Press, 1975, pp.pp.13-22, 139-149, 218-237

Sherry Ortner, High Religion: A Cultural and Political History of Sherpa Buddhism, Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1989, pp.26-35, 45-53, 59-71 (see reading pack)

Part II: The Question of Modernity and Tradition: Tibet Before 1950

Session 9: Modern or Traditional? The foreign policy efforts of the 13 th Dalai Lama and the nature of the bureaucracy.

G Tsering Shakya, The Dragon in the Land of Snows: A History of Modern Tibet Since 1947. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999, pp. xxi-xxv, 5-32, 33-51, 61-70, 89-91.

Web Readings:

U Melvyn Goldstein, A History of Modern Tibet: The Demise of the Lamaist State, Berkeley, University of California, 1989, pp. 6-20, 36-37, 41, 44-45, 65-78, 89-98.

U Tsering Shakya, "The 1948 Tibetan Trade Mission to the United Kingdom" in Tibet Journal, XV(4), Winter 1990, pp. 97-114 .

G Pierre Bourdieau, "Structures, Habitus, Power: Basis for a Theory of Symbolic Power", in Nicholas Dirks, Geoff Eley, Sherry Ortner (eds.), Culture/Power/History - A Reader in Contemporary Social Theory, Princeton University Press, 1993, p.155-166

Optional:

Melvyn Goldstein, Tsering Tashi and William Siebenschuh, The Struggle for a Modern Tibet: The Autobiography of Tashi Tsering, Armonk, New York: M . E. Sharpe, 1997, pp.1-41 (see reading pack).

Melvyn Goldstein, “Re-examining Choice, Dependency and Command in the Tibetan Social System: Tax Appendages and Other Landless Serfs”, Tibet Journal, 9(4), (1986): 79-112 (see reading pack)

Tsering Shakya, “ Tibet and the League of Nations” in Tibet Journal, X (3), 1985. pp. 48-56

Web Readings:

William Monroe Coleman, Writing Tibetan History: The Discourses of Feudalism and Serfdom in Chinese and Western Historiography - Chapter 3: "The Discourse of Serfdom in Tibet” and Chapter 4 "Conclusion", Master’s Thesis, East-West Centre, University of Hawaii, 1998

Session 10: Tibet Before 1950: Progressives and radicals in Tibet - Dissident voices and their sources of inspiration.

G Melvyn Goldstein, A History of Modern Tibet: The Demise of the Lamaist State, Berkeley, University of California, 1989, pp.186-212, 449-463.

Web Readings:

U Heather Stoddard, " Tibet: Transition from Buddhism to Communism" in Government and Opposition, Volume 21, No.1, Winter 1986, London School of Economics, London, pp. 75-95

U Scott Berry, Monks, Spies and a Soldier of Fortune, St. Martin's Press, New York, 1995, pp. 309-317

U Melvyn C. Goldstein, "Lhasa Street Songs: Political and Social Satire in Traditional Tibet" in Tibet Journal, vii, nos. 1-2 (1982), pp.56-66

Optional:

Heather Stoddard, Le Mendiant de l'Amdo, Paris : Societe d'Ethnographie, Universite de Paris X, 1985, pp.69-94 (in French) (see reading pack)

Hsiao Kimura & Scott Berry, A Japanese Agent in Tibet: My Ten Years of Travel in Tibet, Serindia, London, 1990

T. N. Takla, “Notes on Some Early Tibetan Communists” in Tibetan Review, Vol. II, No. 17, 1969, pp. 7-10. (see reading pack)

Wang Fan and Chen Shumei, “The Man Whom Time Forgot”, in Renwu, Issue No. 3, 1996, (see reading pack)

Benson, Linda, “Uygur Politicians of the 1940s: Mehmet Emin Bugra, Isa Yusuf Alptekin and Mesut Sabri” in Central Asian Survey 10 (4), 1991, pp. 87-114 (see reading pack).

Part III: Problems in Tibetan History Since 1950

Session 11: The United Front and the Uses of Periodisation - Controversies over ways of viewing modern Tibetan history.

U Tsering Shakya, The Dragon in the Land of Snows: A History of Modern Tibet Since 1947, New York: Columbia University Press, 1999, pp.92-118, 122-130, 302-313, 367-408.

Web Readings:

U Wang Yao, “Hu Yaobang’s Visit to Tibet, May 22-31, 1980” in Robert Barnett (ed.), Resistance and Reform in Tibet, Bloomington: University of Indiana Press, 1994, pp. 285-89

U Israel Epstein, Tibet Transformed, Beijing: New World Press, 1983, pp.7-15, 152-164, 242-257

U Michel Foucault, "Truth and Power" from Power/Knowledge, in Paul Rabinow (ed.) The Foucault Reader, Pantheon Books, New York, 1984, pp.51-75

G Melvyn Goldstein, Tibet, China and the United States: Reflections on the Tibetan Question, Occasional Paper of the Atlantic Council of the United States, section on "The Initial Period of Chinese Communist Rule"

Optional:

Wang Furen and Suo Wenqing, Highlights of Tibetan History, New World Press, Beijing, 1984, pp.171-179

Melvyn Goldstein, Tsering Tashi and William Siebenschuh, The Struggle for a Modern Tibet: The Autobiography of Tashi Tsering, Armonk, New York: M. E. Sha rpe, 1997, pp. 89-112, 169-95.

Session 12: The Panchen Lama: Demon or Saint? Interpretations of the Panchen Lama and the implications of the 1962 Petition.

U Tsering Shakya, The Dragon in the Land of Snows: A History of Modern Tibet Since 1947, New York: Columbia University Press, 1999, pp. 237-275, 287-301, 364-367, reread 372-374 [on the Panchen Lama, the Cultural Revolution]

Web Readings

G The 10 th Panchen Lama (Robert Barnett, ed.), A Poisoned Arrow: the Secret Petition of the 10th Panchen Lama, Tibet Information Network, London, 1998, pp.v-vii, xi-xxii, 96-119

The 10 th Panchen Lama, “The Panchen Lama's Last Speech: Full Text” in Reports from Tibet, November 1990 - February 1991, London: Tibet Information Network, February 1991; see also "Retrospective: Political Statements by the Panchen Lama" in Reports from Tibet, November 1990 - February 1991 , TIN News Update, Tibet Information Network, London, 20 February 1991

Optional:

Dhondub Choedon, Life in the Red Flag People's Commune, Office of Information of H.H. the Dalai Lama, Dharamsala, 1978, pp. i-viii, 1-34, 56-58, 64-66 (see reading pack)

John Avedon, In Exile from the Land of Snows - The First Full Account of the Dalai Lama and Tibet Since the Chinese Conquest, New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 1984, pp. 305-315 (see reading pack)

Session 13: Tibetan Leaders in the Chinese Administration. Viewing history by looking at the elite; critiquing the collaboration-resistance paradigm.

U Tsering Shakya, The Dragon in the Land of Snows: A History of Modern Tibet Since 1947, New York: Columbia University Press, 1999, pp. 130-136, 144-147, 163-170, 327-347

G June Dreyer, 1972. "Traditional Minorities Elites and the CPR Elite Engaged in Minority Nationalities Work" in Robert A. Scalapino (ed.), Elites in the People's Republic of China, Seattle and London: University of Washington, pp. 416-430, 443-450 (see reading pack)

Optional Web Readings:

Tsering Shakya, “Historical Introduction” in Victoria Conner and Robert Barnett, Leaders in Tibet: A Directory, London: Tibet Information Network, pp. 1-14

Robert Barnett, “The Babas are Dead: Street Talk and Contemporary Views of Leaders in Tibet” in Elliot Sperling (ed.), Proceedings of the International Association of Tibetan Studies, University of Indiana, Bloomington (forthcoming)

Session 14: Internal debates, nationality policy and the question of special characteristics

G Uradyn E. Bulag, “From Inequality to Difference: Colonial Contradictions of Class and Ethnicity in `Socialist' China” in “Post-colonialism and Its Discontents”, special issue of Cultural Studies, 2000, pp.1-9, 13-18, 22-25 in the manuscript version (see reading pack).

Web Readings:

U Warren W. Smith, "Chinese Nationality Policies and the Socialist Transformation of Tibet" in Barnett, Robert (ed.), Resistance and Reform in Tibet , Bloomington: University of Indiana Press, 1994, pp. 51-75

U Liu Wei and He Guanghua, "Looking at Tibet in a New Light" (title also given as “Backwardness is Not Terrifying, What is Terrifying is Rigid and Conservative Thinking”), Renmin Ribao ("People’s Daily"), Beijing, 16th May 1994, p.1, published in translation as Renmin Ribao views Tibet's Economic Development" in The BBC Summary of World Broadcasts, 31 st May 1994

Optional:

Tseten Wangchuk Sharlho, “ China’s Reforms in Tibet: Issues and Dilemmas” in Journal of Contemporary China, Vol. 1(1), Fall, 1993, pp.34-43, 55-60.

Web Readings:

The Tibet Youth Association for Theory, "Reflections on the Current State of Theoretical Policy in Tibet", Xizang Ribao ("Tibet Daily", Chinese language edition), 7th August 1989

Zhang Shirong and Guo Wutian, "On the Regional Characteristics of Party Construction in Tibet", Xizang Ribao ("Tibet Daily", Chinese Language edition) 7th January 1991 published in translation in part as "Communist Party in Tibet: Nearly 20% Illiterate", TIN News Update, 31st August 1991, London: Tibet Information Network, 1991

Session 15: The Frontiersman View and the Battle over History and Culture: Textual Analysis of speeches and poems of Chen Kuiyuan, 1992-2000

Barnett, Robert and Mickey Spiegel, Cutting Off the Serpent’s Head: Policy Changes in Tibet, 1994-95, London & New York: TIN/Human Rights Watch, 1996, pp.20-26, 31-40, 45, 150, 155-157 (see reading pack)

Web Readings:

U [Anon.], Wode Xinyuan (Tibetan: Bdag gi re smon, "My Aspirations"), Kandze: Ganzi baoshe yinshuachang (Ganzi [Kandze] Newspaper Office Printing Press), undated (November 1995), (extracts)

G Chen Kuiyuan, “Speech on Literature and Art”, delivered 11th July 1997; as published by Xizang Ribao (“Tibet Daily”), Lhasa, 16th July 1997; published in translation as “Tibet party secretary criticizes "erroneous views" of literature, art” in The BBC Summary of World Broadcasts, 4th August 1997

U Chen Kuiyuan, Lantian baixue ('Blue Sky, White Snow'), Beijing Chubanshe, Beijing, 1999 (selections in translation)

Optional:

Mao Zedong, "Talks at the Yan'an Forum on Literature and Art" in Bonnie McDougall, Mao Zedong's "Talks at the Yan'an Forum on Literature and Art": A Translation of the 1943 Text with Commentary, Ann Arbor 1980, pp. 36-41, 53-67, 82-85 (see reading pack)

Deng Xiaoping, "Congratulatory Speech at the Fourth National Literary Representatives' Meeting”….

Geremie R. Barme, In the Red, On Contemporary Chinese Culture, New York: Columbia University Press, 1999, pp, 273-287, 333-344 (see reading pack)

Web Readings:

Robert Barnett, "The Chinese Frontiersman and the Winter Worms - Chen Kuiyuan in the T.A.R., 1992-2000", Paper Presented at the History of Tibet Seminar, St Andrew's University, Scotland, August 2001

Chen Kuiyuan's "important speech" at the 7th November 1997 forum for non-CCP patriotic personalities, entitled "Study the spirit of the 15th National Party Congress, reinforce the patriotic front; and strive for Tibet's stability, reform, and development" from the "Tibet News" programme, Tibet People's Broadcasting Station, Lhasa, 9th November 1997, published in translation in The BBC Summary of World Broadcasts, 17th November 1997

Part IV: Conflict and Resistance

Session 16: Strategies of Open Conflict: Armed Resistance, Street Movements and Samizdat Texts. Interpretations of overt protest

U Tsering Shakya, The Dragon in the Land of Snow pp. 165-170, 176-204, 282-286, 343-347 (sections on the 1959 Uprising, the CIA, and Nyemo Ani)

Web Readings:

U Ronald Schwartz, “ The Anti-Splittist Campaign and Tibetan Political Consciousness" in Robert Barnett (ed.), Resistance and Reform in Tibet, Bloomington: University of Indiana Press, 1994, pp. 207-237

G Wang Lixiong, "Tibet: PRC's 21st Century Underbelly", in Beijing Zhanlue Yu Guanli, pp. 21-33, Beijing, 2nd January 1999, (republished by Ta Kung Pao, Hong Kong, 30th March 1999 and published in translation by FBIS)

Optional:

William R. Jankowiak, “The Last Hurrah? Political Protest in Inner Mongolia” in Australian Journal of Chinese Affairs 19/20, 1988, pp. 269-88 (see reading pack)

Web Readings:

Elliot Sperling, “The Rhetoric of Dissent: Tibetan Pamphleteers” in Robert Barnett ( ed.), Resistance and Reform in Tibet, Bloomington: University of Indiana Press, 1994, pp. 267-284

A. Tom Grunfeld, “Tibet And The United States”, paper presented at the XVIIIth IPSA World Congress, Quebec City, Quebec, August 1-5, 2000, pp. 5-27

Session 17: Women and Resistance

U Donald Lopez (ed.), Religions of Tibet in Practice, Princeton: Princeton University Press, pp. 499-510, 548-552 (includes F. Pommaret on the delog) (see reading pack)

U Janet Gyatso, “Down with the demoness: reflections on a feminine ground in Tibet” in Tibet Journal, XII-4, Winter 1987, pp. 38-53, also published in Janice Willis (ed.), Feminine Ground: Essays on Women and Tibet, Ithaca, New York: Snow Lion Publications, 1989 (see reading pack)

Web Readings:

U Hanna Havnevik, “The Role of Nuns in Contemporary Tibet” in Robert Barnett (ed.), Resistance and Reform in Tibet, Bloomington: University of Indiana Press, 1994, pp. 259-266

G Charlene Makley, “The meaning of Liberation. Representations of Tibetan women” in Tibet Journal, XXII-2, Summer 1997, pp. 4-29 .

Optional:

Melvyn Goldstein, “Stratification, Polyandry and Family Structures in Central Tibet” in Southwestern Journal of Anthropology, 1971, 27(1): 64-74 - pp. 68-72 (see reading pack)

R. A. Stein, Tibetan Civilization. London: Faber and Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1972, pp. 138-141, 156-163 (see reading pack)

Huber, Toni: “Why Can’t Women Climb Pure Crystal Mountain? Remarks on Gender, Ritual and Space at Tsa-ri” in Per Kvaerne (ed.), Tibetan Studies: Proceedings of the 6 th Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies, 1, Oslo: Institute for Comparative Research in Human Culture, 1994, pp. 350-57 (see reading pack)

Philippa Russell & Sonam Lhamo Singeri, “The Tibetan women's uprising” in Choyang, The voice of Tibetan religion and culture, No.5, Dharamsala, 1992, pp. 51-60 [not available in the Columbia libraries]

Web Readings:

Phuntsog Nyidron and others, “Songs from a Tibetan Prison: 14 Nuns Sing to the Outside World” in News from Tibet, October-March 1994, TIN News Review, Tibet Information Network, London, 26 April, 1994, pp. 18-21

Session 18: Questionable Images: the problems of interpreting texts and images: Nuns, Prisoners and Praise of the State. Images of counter-currents (Slide show followed by discussion)

G James Scott, Weapons of the Weak: Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistance in New Haven: Yale University Press, 1985, pp. xv-xvii, 22-47, 241-243, 289-303, 338-341, 347-350 (see reading pack)

Web Readings:

U Uradyn Bulag, “Ethnic resistance with Socialist Characteristics” in Elizabeth J. Perry and Mark Selden (eds.), Chinese Society: Change, Conflict and Resistance, New York: Routledge, 2000, pp. 178-197

U Various, “Poems and Songs”, published in translation in Background Papers on Tibet - September 1992, Part 2, London: Tibet Information Network, 1992, pp. 27-28

Optional Web Readings:

"Tibetan Newspaper Sabotage; Lama's House Bombed," TIN News Update, January 28, 1996

Basang Norbu, “A Rebuttal to the Nobel Peace Prize", Xizang Ribao ("Tibet Daily"), 9th December 1989 and "Summary of the internal report about the Nobel Peace Prize" (original title not certain), from Internal Analysis, Tibet Academy of Social Sciences, December 1989

Part V: Contemporary Culture and Identity

Session 19: Chinese Representations of Minority Culture

Web Readings

U Ma Yin, “Introduction” in Ma Yin (ed.), China's Minority Nationalities, Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 1989

U Dru Gladney, “Representing Nationality in China: Refiguring Majority/Minority Identities” in Journal of Asian Studies, 53 (1), 1994, pp 92-123

G Jin Binggao, “When Does The Word 'Minority Nationality' [shaoshu minzu] [First] Appear in Our Country?”, Bulletin of the History of the Tibet Communist Party, 1988 Vol. 1 (No.19 of the General Series), 5th January 1988, pp. 45ff., published in translation in Background Papers on Tibet - September 1992, Part 2 London: Tibet Information Network, 1992 (extracted from Jin Binggao's article in Minzu Tuanjie ("Nationality Solidarity"), Volume 6, 1987)

Optional:

Stevan Harrell, “Civilizing Projects and the Reaction to Them”, in Stevan Harrell (ed.), Cultural Encounters on China’s Ethnic Frontiers, Seattle: University of Washington, 1995, pp. 3-36 (see reading pack)

Almaz Khan, “Who Are the Mongols? State, Ethnicity, and the Politics of Representation in the PRC” in Melissa Brown, (ed.), Negotiating Ethnicities in China and Taiwan, Berkeley, CA: East Asian Institute, University of California, 1995, pp. 125-159 (see reading pack)

Ma Jian, “Show me the colour of your tongue or Fuck All” in Geremie Barme and John Minford (eds.), Seeds of Fire: Chinese Voices of Conscience, New York: Noonday, 1989”, Hill and Wang New York 1988, pp. 414-416, 432-452, including editor’s introduction (Also translated as "Stick Out the Fur on Your Tongue or It's All a Void" in Herbert Batt (ed.), Tales Of Tibet: Sky Burials, Prayer Wheels, And Wind Horses, Rowman and Littlefield, 2001) (see reading pack)

Louisa Schein, "Performing Modernity" in Cultural Anthropology, 14 (3), 1997, pp. 361-395 (see reading pack)

Frank Dikotter, "Racial Discourse in China: Continuities and Permutations" in Frank Dikotter (ed.), The Construction of Racial Identities in China and Japan, University of Hawai'i Press, Honolulu, 1997, pp. 12-18, 25-33 (see reading pack)

Barry Sautman, "Myths of Descent, Racial Nationalism and Ethnic Minorities in the People's Republic of China", in Frank Dikotter (ed.), The Construction of Racial Identities in China and Japan, University of Hawai'i Press, Honolulu, 1997, pp.75-77, 91-95

Vincanne Adams, “Karaoke as Modern Lhasa, Tibet: Western Encounters with Cultural Politics”, in Cultural Anthropology, 11 (4), 1996, pp. 510-546 (see reading pack)

Session 20: Religious revival: the question of continuity or revitalisation

G David Germano, “Re-membering the Dismembered Body of Tibet: Contemporary Tibetan Visionary Movements in the People’s Republic of China” in Melvyn Goldstein and Matthew Kapstein (eds.), Buddhism in Contemporary Tibet – Religious Revival and Cultural Identity, Berkeley: University of California, 1998, pp. 53-95

Web Readings:

U Pama Namgyal, “Lamaism in the Tibetan Autonomous Region” in James D. Seymour and Eugen Wehrli, “Religion in China”, in Chinese Sociology and Anthropology, Vol.26, No.3, Armonk, New York: M.E. Sharpe, Spring 1994, pp. 61-72

U Anon. “Nang khul gyi dus deb yin bas nyar chags bya rgyud do snang byed dgos” in Bod sjongs 'phrin deb ("Tibet Information Book”), Volume 9, pp. 39ff., partially published in translation as “The Heroes of Ling: Elimination of a Sect” (including postscript by John Hillary) in Background Papers on Tibet - September 1992, Part 2, London: Tibet Information Network, 1992, pp. 30-33

Optional:

Andre Gingrich, "Hierarchical Merging and Horizontal Distinction - A Comparative Perspective on Tibetan Mountain Cults" in A.M. Blondeau, E. Steinkellner (eds.), Reflections of the Mountain, Verlag der Oesterreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna, 1996, pp. 233-262 (see reading pack)

Lawrence Epstein and Peng Weibin, “Ritual, Ethnicity and Generational Identity” in Melvyn Goldstein and Matthew Kapstein (eds.), Buddhism in Contemporary Tibet – Religious Revival and Cultural Identity, Berkeley: University of California, 1998, pp. 120-138

Guiseppe Tucci, Tibetan Painted Scrolls, Roma: Libreria dello Stato. Vol.1, 1949, pp 17-24 (see reading pack)

Roberte Hamayon, “Reconstuction identitaire autour d’une figure imaginaire chez les Bouriates post-sovietiques?" in J. C. Attias, P. Gisel and L. Kaennel (eds.), Messianismes. Religions et perspectives Nr. 10, pp. 229-252 (see reading pack)

Donald McInnis, Religion in China Today: Policy and Practice, Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 1989, pp.7-10, 20-22, 32-34, 154-156, 165-172, 367-374, 403-405 (see reading pack)

Session 21: Modern Literature and the Dispute over Chinese Tibetan and Tibetan Tibetan

Web Readings:

U Heather Stoddard, “Don grub rgyal (1953-1985): Suicide of a Modern Tibetan Writer and Scholar” in Per Kvaerne (ed.), Tibetan Studies: Proceedings of the 6 th Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies, Oslo: Institute for Comparative Research in Human Culture, 1994, pp. 825-34

U Tsering Shakya, “Introductory Essay: The Waterfall and Fragrant Flowers" in Song of the Snow Lion - Special Focus: New Writing from Tibet, Manoa 12.2, 2000 (Issue on contemporary Tibetan literature)

G Heather Stoddard, “Tibetan Publications and National Identity” in Robert Barnett (ed.), Resistance and Reform in Tibet, Bloomington: University of Indiana Press, 1994, pp. 121-157

G Pema Bhum, (Ronald Schwartz, translator) "The Heartbeat of a New Generation: A Discussion of the New Poetry," in Lungta (special issue on Modern Tibetan Literature), Dharamsala: Amnyemachen, May 1999

Optional

Ma Lihua, Glimpses of Northern Tibet, Beijing: Panda Books, 1991, pp. 6-11, 106-111, 242-257, 262-265, 313-313 (see reading pack)

Web Readings:

Anonymous (Adrian Moon, translator), “A Monk’s Story,” published in translation in Background Papers on Tibet - September 1992, Part 2, London: Tibet Information Network, 1992, p.20-26

Tashi Dawa (Herbert Batt, translator) "The Glory of the Wind Horse" in Song of the Snow Lion - Special Focus: New Writing from Tibet, Manoa 12.2, 2000

Yidam Tsering (Herbert Batt, translator) “Two Poems” (from Manoa, Song of the Snow Lion)

Dhondup Gyal (Tsering Shakya, translator) "The Waterfall" (from Manoa, Song of the Snow Lion)

Tashi Pelden (Yangdon Dhondup, translator) “Tomorrow's Weather Will be Better” (Manoa, Song of the Snow Lion)

Yangtso Kyi (Lauran Hartley, translator), "Journal of the Grassland" (from Manoa, Song of the Snow Lion)

Session 22: Modern Art: Socialist Realism and the Sweet Teahouse Group

G Justin Jon Rudelson, “The Xinjiang Mummies and Foreign Angels: Art, Archaeology and Uyghur Muslim Nationalism in Chinese Central Asia” in Toronto Studies in Central and Inner Asia, Vol. 2. Toronto: University of Toronto - York University Joint Center for Asia Pacific Studies, 1997, pp.168-183 (see reading pack)

Web Readings:

U Clare Harris, In the Image of Tibet: Tibetan Painting after 1959, Reaktion Books, 2000, pp.7-15, 150-191

Optional:

Per Kvaerne, “The ideological impact on Tibetan art” in Robert Barnett (ed.), Resistance and Reform in Tibet, Bloomington: University of Indiana Press, 1994, pp. 166-185 (see reading pack)

Clare Harris, “Struggling with Shangri-La: a Tibetan artist in exile” in Frank J. Korom (ed.), Constructing Tibetan culture. Contemporary perspectives, Quebec: World Heritage Press, 1997, pp. 160-177 [not available]

Session 23: Tibetan Modernity: images, language and programming on Tibet TV

Video: extracts from Tibet TV - Discussion

Session 24: Amdo, Kham questions and the debate over identity

U Matthew Kapstein, “Concluding Remarks”, in Melvyn Goldstein and Matthew Kapstein (eds.), Buddhism in Contemporary Tibet – Religious Revival and Cultural Identity, Berkeley: University of California, 1998, pp. 139-150

Web Readings:

G Samten Karmay, “Mountain Cults and National Identity” in Robert Barnett (ed.), Resistance and Reform in Tibet, Bloomington: University of Indiana Press, 1994, pp. 112-120

U Tsering Shakya, "Whither the Tsampa Eaters?", in Himal, Kathmandu, Vol. 6, No. 5, 1993, pp. 8-11

Optional

Janet Upton, “Home on the Grasslands? Tradition, Modernity and the Negotiation of Identity by Tibetan Intellectuals in the PRC” in Melissa Brown (ed.), Negotiating Ethnic Identities in China and Taiwan, Berkely: University of California Press, 1995, pp. 98-124 (see reading pack)

Lauren Hartley, “Opinion-makers in Amdo: Views on the role of traditional Tibetan culture in a developing society”, paper presented at the 9 th Seminar of the International Association of Tibetan Studies, Leiden July 2000 (see reading pack)

Samten Karmay, "The Cult of Mountain Deities and its Political Significance" in A.M. Blondeau, E. Steinkellner (eds.), Reflections of the Mountain, Verlag der Oesterreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna, 1996, pp.59-76 (see reading pack)

Justin Jon Rudelson, Oasis Identities: Uyghur Nationalism Along China’s Silk Road. New York: Columbia University Press, 1997, pp.39-69 (see reading pack)

Session 25: Exile strategies, Human Rights and the Contradictions of Diaspora: Dharamsala, Tibet Support Groups, Amnyemachen, and New York Immigration

Web Readings:

U Meg McLagan, "Mystical visions, in Manhattan: Developing Culture in the Year of Tibet", in Korom, Frank (ed.), Tibetan Culture in Diaspora, Vienna: Austrian Academy of Science, 1997, pp.69-89

U Melvyn Goldstein , Tibet, China and the United States: Reflections on the Tibetan Question, Occasional Paper of the Atlantic Council of the United States, section on "Post-Mao Tibet"

Optional:

Jamyang Norbu, Rangzen Charter - Appeal to My Fellow Tibetans and Freedom-loving People Everywhere, in World Tibet News, 27 April 1999 (available at http://www.tibet.ca/wtnarchive/1999/4/27-2_1.html) \; Rangzen Charter Supplement issued 24 th August 1999 (available at http://www.tibet.ca/wtnarchive/1999/8/24_1.html )

Michael van Walt, “Speech”, 2 nd Forum of Tibet Support Groups, Bonn, 1996, in Second International Conference of Tibet Support Groups - A Report, Germany, June 1996, no publication details given

Margaret Nowak, Tibetan Refugees: Youth and the New Generation of Meaning, New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 1984, pp. 55-70, 86-97, 107-118, 132-139 (see reading pack)

Web Readings:

Samdong Losang Tenzin Rinpoche, Satyagraha (Truth-Insistence), republished in World Tibet News, August 11, 1995 (available at www.tibet.ca )

Session 26: Development and Economy

G Dru Gladney, "Getting Rich is Not so Glorious: Contrasting Perspectives on Prosperity among Muslims and Han in China." In Robert W. Hefner, (ed.), Market Cultures: Society and Morality in the New Asian Capitalisms, Boulder: Westview Press, 1998, p. 121ff

U Wang Xiaoqiang and Bai Nanfeng (Angela Knox, translator), The Poverty of Plenty, London: Macmillan, 1992, pp.xiii-xix, 6-13, 23-43, 64-67, 83-85, 90-105, 169-189 [not on web or in pack for technical reasons]

Web Readings:

U Dee Mack Williams, "Grassland Enclosures: Catalyst of Land Degradation in Inner Mongolia" in Human Organization, 55 (3), 1996, pp. 307-312

Optional

Ronald Schwartz, "The Reforms Revisited: Grain Procurement in Tibet," in Graham E. Clarke ( ed.), Development, Society, and Environment in Tibet, Vienna: Verlag der Oesterreichen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1998, pp. 153-165 (see reading pack)

Daniel J. Miller, "Nomads of the Tibetan Plateau in Western China - Part 3: Pastoral Development and Future Challenges", in Rangelands, 21 (2), April 1999, pp. 17-22 (or instead read: New Perspectives on Range Management & Pastoralism & Their Implications for HKH-Tibetan Plateau Rangelands, Kathmandu , ICIMOD, 1996, pp.7-12) (see reading pack)

Dee Mack Williams, “The Barbed Walls of China: A Contemporary Grassland Drama” in The Journal of Asian Studies, vol. 55 no. 3, 1996, pp. 665-691 (see reading pack)

Tsundue, K. "Pastoral-nomadism in Tibet: between Tradition and Modernization," in “People and Rangelands Building the Future”, Proceedings of the VIth International Rangeland Congress, 1999 [not available in the Columbia Library]

Ma Rong, "Han and Tibetan Residential Patterns in Lhasa" in China Quarterly, N28, December 1991, pp. 814-836 (see reading pack)

Graham Clarke, "Development, Society and Environment in Tibet," in Graham E. Clarke ( ed.), Development, Society, and Environment in Tibet, Vienna: Verlag der Oesterreichen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1998, pp. 1-11, 29-47 (see reading pack)

Web Readings:

Becquelin, Nicholas, “New Mediums of Xinjiang’s Integration by the Centre since the Emergence of Post-Soviet Central Asia,” paper presented at the Association of Asian Studies Meeting, Boston, 1999

"Nomads killed in Pasture Fights", TIN News Update, London: Tibet Information Network, 21 st June 1999

Legs mchog, “Report on the Work of the Government [2000]”, delivered at the Third Session of the 7th Tibet Regional People's Congress on 22nd May 2000, published in Xizang Ribao ("Tibet Daily", Chinese language edition) on 12th June; published in translation by The BBC Summary of World Broadcasts as “ Tibet leader delivers government work report to regional congress”

Session 27: Futures

Film: Khyentse Norbu Rinpoche's Phurpa, the Cup or Duan Jinchuan's No. 16, Barkhor South Street