The Rise of Gönpo Namgyel in Kham

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Publisher : Lexington Books
ISBN 13 : 0739177931
Total Pages : 401 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (391 download)

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Book Synopsis The Rise of Gönpo Namgyel in Kham by : Yudru Tsomu

Download or read book The Rise of Gönpo Namgyel in Kham written by Yudru Tsomu and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2014-12-11 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines the ascendancy of a minor nineteenth-century Tibetan chieftain Gönpo Namgyel who hailed from Eastern Kham, a frontier region situated between the power centers of Central Tibet and Qing China. For most of the nineteenth century, Gönpo Namgyel dominated the politics of Kham and posed a serious challenge to both the Qing and Lhasa regimes. The study explores the dynamics of local and national politics, as well as the tensions over power and authority between the two power centers. Drawing upon both Tibetan and Chinese primary sources, the study sheds new light on the governance and polity of the Kham region, enhancing our understanding of Sino-Tibetan conflicts regarding Kham from the nineteenth century, up to the mid-twentieth century. The book focuses on local events, rather than seeing history as shaped solely by the power centers. The rise of Gönpo Namgyel is situated within the context of the local politics of Kham while taking into consideration its relations with mid-nineteenth century Qing and Central Tibet. It further explores the social-cultural milieu that gave rise to this charismatic and controversial chief. A series of questions emerge concerning traditional historiographical practice, including the historical practices of Chinese and Tibetan scholars as well as approaches to the history of China and Tibet by Western scholars. Probing into history from a local perspective adds a new dimension to the study of nineteenth-century Sino-Tibetan relations. This research reveals that there is no single force determining history, nor are persons in the periphery mere passive observers of national events. The kings, governors, and chieftains in Kham were active in shaping their own regional identity and asserting their own terms in relation to the two power centers, demonstrating that the peripheries are equal partners in central-periphery relations, rather than passive recipients as has commonly been represented in earlier historical narratives.

The Truth of Tibet

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Author :
Publisher : Notion Press
ISBN 13 : 1649839618
Total Pages : 344 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (498 download)

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Book Synopsis The Truth of Tibet by : Brigadier Jasbir Singh Nagra

Download or read book The Truth of Tibet written by Brigadier Jasbir Singh Nagra and published by Notion Press. This book was released on 2021-01-06 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In October 1950, within days of the establishment of the People’s Republic of China, Mao achieved an exceptional feat that no ruler of Dynastic China had ever accomplished before - the annexation of Tibet. The achievement was unique in that Tibet, with a territorial expanse four and a half times the size of France, a cultural heritage as old as that of any ancient civilization of the world, and seat of one of largest religions of the world, was forcibly occupied without any intervention by nations who claimed to be champions of liberty, freedom, human rights, and equality. Amazingly, the nation whose national security was directly affected by the act, not only remained oblivious, but played an active role in the demise of Tibet. It was a tragedy that was to torment India forever. This book offers a stirring account of the secret history of Tibet from its earliest settlement, its Golden Age, its heroes, its wars, its politics and intrigues, its transition into one of the most peaceful and spiritual nations in the world and finally, the death blow to its independence. The transmission of Buddhism, mainly by Indian Buddhist intellectuals in Tibet, resulted in converting Tibetan warriors, who by their valour and grit established one of the largest empires in Central Asia, into pacifists. The tragedy was waiting to occur…

The Sakya Jetsunmas

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Publisher : Shambhala Publications
ISBN 13 : 1645470911
Total Pages : 321 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (454 download)

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Book Synopsis The Sakya Jetsunmas by : Elisabeth A. Benard

Download or read book The Sakya Jetsunmas written by Elisabeth A. Benard and published by Shambhala Publications. This book was released on 2022-03-01 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An exploration of an extraordinary group of female meditation masters from the Buddhist tradition in Tibet whose determination and accomplishments can serve as a great example for meditators the world over. Among Tibetan spiritual biographies there are many life stories of exceptional male wisdom-holders or vidyādharas. But biographies of religious women are few. This book focuses on the hidden world of the great female spiritual adepts who were born into a prominent lineage of the Sakya school of Tibetan Buddhism. For centuries, this family of wisdom holders has been committed to helping others alleviate their suffering and develop a strong dedication to spiritual practice.

Common Ground

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Publisher : Columbia University Press
ISBN 13 : 0231556357
Total Pages : 155 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (315 download)

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Book Synopsis Common Ground by : Lan Wu

Download or read book Common Ground written by Lan Wu and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2022-08-23 with total page 155 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Qing empire and the Dalai Lama-led Geluk School of Tibetan Buddhism came into contact in the eighteenth century. Their interconnections would shape regional politics and the geopolitical history of Inner Asia for centuries to come. In Common Ground, Lan Wu analyzes how Tibetan Buddhists and the Qing imperial rulers interacted and negotiated as both sought strategies to expand their influence in eighteenth-century Inner Asia. In so doing, she recasts the Qing empire, seeing it not as a monolithic project of imperial administration but as a series of encounters among different communities. Wu examines a series of interconnected sites in the Qing empire where the influence of Tibetan Buddhism played a key role, tracing the movement of objects, flows of peoples, and circulation of ideas in the space between China and Tibet. She identifies a transregional Tibetan Buddhist knowledge network, which provided institutional, pragmatic, and intellectual common ground for both polities. Wu draws out the voices of lesser-known Tibetan Buddhists, whose writings and experiences evince an alternative Buddhist space beyond the state. She highlights interactions between Mongols and Tibetans within the Qing empire, exploring the creation of a Buddhist Inner Asia. Wu argues that Tibetan Buddhism occupied a central—but little understood—role in the Qing vision of empire. Revealing the interdependency of two expanding powers, Common Ground sheds new light on the entangled histories of political, social, and cultural ties between Tibet and China.

Renunciation and Longing

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Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 0226816923
Total Pages : 315 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (268 download)

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Book Synopsis Renunciation and Longing by : Annabella Pitkin

Download or read book Renunciation and Longing written by Annabella Pitkin and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2022-05-20 with total page 315 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "In the early twentieth century, Khunu Lama wandered like a beggar across Tibet and India, meeting Buddhist masters and living, so his students say, on cold porridge and water. Yet this ragged beggar-yogi became a revered teacher of the current Fourteenth Dalai Lama. At his death in 1977, he was mourned by Himalayan nuns, Tibetan lamas, and American meditators alike. The myriad surviving stories about Khunu Lama reveal unexpected forms of Tibetan Buddhism, shedding new light on questions of secularism, religion, and what it means to be modern. In Beggar Modern, Annabella Pitkin explores the emotionally charged Tibetan Buddhist imaginaries of renunciation, devotion, and the teacher-student lineage relationship as resources for Tibetan Buddhist approaches to modernity. By examining narrative accounts of the life of a remarkable twentieth-century Himalayan Buddhist and focusing on his remembered identity as a renunciant bodhisattva, Pitkin illuminates Tibetan and Himalayan practices of memory, reinvention, and mourning. Refuting longstanding caricatures of Tibetan Buddhist communities as unable to be modern because of their religious commitments, Pitkin shows instead how twentieth- and twenty-first-century Tibetan Buddhists have used precisely the cultural resources that connect them to their past as vital tools for creating new futures"--

The Dalai Lama's Special Envoy

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Author :
Publisher : Columbia University Press
ISBN 13 : 0231556500
Total Pages : 513 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (315 download)

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Book Synopsis The Dalai Lama's Special Envoy by : Lodi Gyaltsen Gyari

Download or read book The Dalai Lama's Special Envoy written by Lodi Gyaltsen Gyari and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2022-11-15 with total page 513 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Lodi Gyaltsen Gyari spent decades drawing attention to the plight of the Tibetan people and striving for resolution of the Tibetan-Chinese conflict. He was the Dalai Lama’s Special Envoy and chief negotiator with the People’s Republic of China in the formal negotiations over the status of Tibet. In this revealing memoir, Gyari chronicles his lifetime of service to the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan cause. Gyari recounts his work conducting formal dialogue with the Chinese leadership from 2002 to 2012, as well as his efforts during the many years of quiet diplomacy preceding these historic negotiations. He details the fits and starts of the parties’ relationship, addressing successes as well as failures and highlighting misperceptions, missteps, and missed opportunities by both sides. Gyari grounds his recollections of his time as Special Envoy in his life experience, providing a powerful account of the personal side of Tibet’s struggles. He describes the Tibetan resistance to the Chinese invasion and the tumultuous early years of the Tibetan community in exile as well as his family’s history and spiritual lineage. A reincarnated Tibetan Buddhist lama forced to flee Tibet during the Chinese invasion, Gyari illuminates how his political efforts fulfilled his spiritual calling. Informed by his unparalleled experiences, Gyari offers realizable—but provocative—recommendations for restarting the Tibetan-Chinese dialogue to achieve a mutually beneficial resolution of the issue. For all readers interested in Tibet’s complex modern history, this book offers an incomparable look inside the decades-long effort to achieve the Dalai Lama’s vision of a reunited Tibet.

Singer of the Land of Snows

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Publisher : University of Virginia Press
ISBN 13 : 0813950678
Total Pages : 245 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (139 download)

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Book Synopsis Singer of the Land of Snows by : Rachel H. Pang

Download or read book Singer of the Land of Snows written by Rachel H. Pang and published by University of Virginia Press. This book was released on 2024-03-13 with total page 245 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The singular role of Shabkar in the development of the idea of Tibet Shabkar (1781–1851), the “Singer of the Land of Snows,” was a renowned yogi and poet who, through his autobiography and songs, developed a vision of Tibet as a Buddhist “imagined community.” By incorporating vernacular literature, providing a narrative mapping of the Tibetan plateau, reviving and adapting the legend of Tibetans as Avalokiteśvara’s chosen people, and promoting shared Buddhist values and practices, Shabkar’s concept of Tibet opened up the discursive space for the articulation of modern forms of Tibetan nationalism. Employing analytical lenses of cultural nationalism and literary studies, Rachel Pang explores the indigenous epistemologies of identity, community, and territory that predate contemporary state-centric definitions of nation and nationalism in Tibet and provides the definitive treatment of this foundational figure.

China's Encounters on the South and Southwest

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Author :
Publisher : BRILL
ISBN 13 : 9004282483
Total Pages : 441 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (42 download)

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Book Synopsis China's Encounters on the South and Southwest by : James A. Anderson

Download or read book China's Encounters on the South and Southwest written by James A. Anderson and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2014-11-06 with total page 441 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: China's Encounters on the South and Southwest. Reforging the Fiery Frontier Over Two Millennia describes the southern periphery of China and the many local and state agents acting first to shift and then to shape this territory over two thousand years, mainly by land but now by sea.

A Change in Worlds on the Sino-Tibetan Borderlands

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Author :
Publisher : Lexington Books
ISBN 13 : 0739173812
Total Pages : 303 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (391 download)

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Book Synopsis A Change in Worlds on the Sino-Tibetan Borderlands by : Jack Patrick Hayes

Download or read book A Change in Worlds on the Sino-Tibetan Borderlands written by Jack Patrick Hayes and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2013-12-19 with total page 303 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Change in Worlds explores the environmental, economic, and political history of the Sino-Tibetan Songpan region of northern Sichuan from the late imperial Qing Dynasty to the early 21st century. A historically Tibetan region on the eastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau, with significant Han and Muslim Chinese populations, Songpan played important roles in the development of western and modern China’s ethnic relations policies, forestry sector, grasslands and environmental conservation, and recent developments in eco- and ethnic tourism as part of various Chinese states. However, in spite of close associations with various Tibetan and Chinese regimes, the region also has a rich history of local independence and resilient nomadic, semi-nomadic and agricultural populations and identities. The Sino-Tibetan diversity in Songpan, partly formed by unique ecological conditions, conditioned all attempts to incorporate the region into larger and more centralized state homogenizing structures. This historical study analyzes the social force of markets and nature in the Songpan region in concert with the political and social conflicts and compromise at the heart of changing political regimes and the area’s ethnic groups. It presents new perspectives on the social transformation and economies of Tibetans and Han Chinese from the late Qing Dynasty to Mao era and contemporary western China. It not only allows for a new understanding of how the natural environment and landscapes fit into the imagination of the Sino-Tibetan borderlands, it also figures in the challenges of negotiating ethnic and market relations among societies. The mix of complicated relations over natural environment, resources, politics and markets was at the heart of the region’s social and political infrastructures, with far-reaching implications for both historical and contemporary China.

Family in Buddhism

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Publisher : SUNY Press
ISBN 13 : 1438447531
Total Pages : 300 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (384 download)

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Book Synopsis Family in Buddhism by : Liz Wilson

Download or read book Family in Buddhism written by Liz Wilson and published by SUNY Press. This book was released on 2013-08-01 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A wide-ranging exploration of Buddhism and family in Asia—from biological families to families created in monasteries. The Buddha left his home and family and enjoined his followers to go forth and “become homeless.” With a traditionally celibate clergy, Asian Buddhism is often regarded as a world-renouncing religion inimical to family life. This edited volume counters this view, showing how Asian Buddhists in a wide range of historical and geographical circumstances relate as kin to their biological families and to the religious families they join. Using contemporary and historical case studies as well as textual examples, contributors explore how Asian Buddhists invoke family ties in the intentional communities they create and use them to establish religious authority and guard religious privilege. The language of family and lineage emerges as central to a variety of South and East Asian Buddhist contexts. With an interdisciplinary, Pan-Asian approach, Family in Buddhism challenges received wisdom in religious studies and offers new ways to think about family and society.

Tibet

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Publisher : Yale University Press
ISBN 13 : 0300172176
Total Pages : 435 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (1 download)

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Book Synopsis Tibet by : Sam Van Schaik

Download or read book Tibet written by Sam Van Schaik and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2011-06-28 with total page 435 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Presents a comprehensive history of the country, from its beginnings in the seventh century, to its rise as a Buddhist empire in medieval times, to its conquest by China in 1950, and subsequent rule by the Chinese.

The Dalai Lama and the Emperor of China

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Author :
Publisher : Columbia University Press
ISBN 13 : 023153860X
Total Pages : 355 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (315 download)

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Book Synopsis The Dalai Lama and the Emperor of China by : Peter Schwieger

Download or read book The Dalai Lama and the Emperor of China written by Peter Schwieger and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2015-03-31 with total page 355 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A major new work in modern Tibetan history, this book follows the evolution of Tibetan Buddhism's trülku (reincarnation) tradition from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries, along with the Emperor of China's efforts to control its development. By illuminating the political aspects of the trülku institution, Schwieger shapes a broader history of the relationship between the Dalai Lama and the Emperor of China, as well as a richer understanding of the Qing Dynasty as an Inner Asian empire, the modern fate of the Mongols, and current Sino-Tibetan relations. Unlike other pre-twentieth-century Tibetan histories, this volume rejects hagiographic texts in favor of diplomatic, legal, and social sources held in the private, monastic, and bureaucratic archives of old Tibet. This approach draws a unique portrait of Tibet's rule by reincarnation while shading in peripheral tensions in the Himalayas, eastern Tibet, and China. Its perspective fully captures the extent to which the emperors of China controlled the institution of the Dalai Lamas, making a groundbreaking contribution to the past and present history of East Asia.

China's Last Imperial Frontier

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Publisher : Lexington Books
ISBN 13 : 073916810X
Total Pages : 309 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (391 download)

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Book Synopsis China's Last Imperial Frontier by : Xiuyu Wang

Download or read book China's Last Imperial Frontier written by Xiuyu Wang and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2011-11-28 with total page 309 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: China's Last Imperial Frontier explores imperial China's frontier expansion in the Tibetan borderlands during the last decades of the Qing. The empire mounted a series of military attacks against indigenous chieftaincies and Buddhist monasteries in the east Tibetan region seeking to replace native authorities with state bureaucrats by redrawing the politically diverse frontier into a system of Chinese-style counties. Historically, at all the strategic frontier locations, the state had been for the most part outstripped by local institutions in political, military, and ideological strengths. With perceived threats from the Anglo-Russian “Great Game” accentuating Qing vulnerability in Tibet, the Sichuan government took advantage of the frontier crisis by encroaching upon local and Lhasa domains in Kham. Even though the Kham campaign was portrayed in Qing official discourse as a part of the nationwide reforms of “New Policies” (xinzheng) and administrative regularization (gaitu guiliu), its progress on the ground was influenced by the dynamics of interregional relations, including Sichuan’s competition with central Tibet, power struggles among Qing frontier officials, and varied Khampa responses to the new regime. The growing regionalism intensified the resistance of local forces to imperial authority. Despite the uneven results of the late Qing campaign, it had come to serve as an important source of sovereignty claims and policy inspirations for the subsequent governments.

The Gathering of Intentions

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Author :
Publisher : Columbia University Press
ISBN 13 : 0231541171
Total Pages : 273 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (315 download)

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Book Synopsis The Gathering of Intentions by : Jacob P. Dalton

Download or read book The Gathering of Intentions written by Jacob P. Dalton and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2016-03-29 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Gathering of Intentions reads a single Tibetan Buddhist ritual system through the movements of Tibetan history, revealing the social and material dimensions of an ostensibly timeless tradition. By subjecting tantric practice to historical analysis, the book offers new insight into the origins of Tibetan Buddhism, the formation of its canons, the emergence of new lineages and ceremonies, and modern efforts to revitalize the religion by returning to its mythic origins. The ritual system explored in this volume is based on the Gathering of Intentions Sutra, the fundamental "root tantra" of the Anuyoga class of teachings belonging to the Nyingma ("Ancient") school of Tibetan Buddhism. Proceeding chronologically from the ninth century to the present, each chapter features a Tibetan author negotiating a perceived gap between the original root text—the Gathering of Intentions—and the lived religious or political concerns of his day. These ongoing tensions underscore the significance of Tibet's elaborate esoteric ritual systems, which have persisted for centuries, evolving in response to historical conditions. Rather than overlook practice in favor of philosophical concerns, this volume prioritizes Tibetan Buddhism's ritual systems for a richer portrait of the tradition.

The Taming of the Demons

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Publisher : Yale University Press
ISBN 13 : 0300153929
Total Pages : 325 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (1 download)

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Book Synopsis The Taming of the Demons by : Jacob P. Dalton

Download or read book The Taming of the Demons written by Jacob P. Dalton and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2011-06-28 with total page 325 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Taming of the Demons examines mythic and ritual themes of violence, demon taming, and blood sacrifice in Tibetan Buddhism. Taking as its starting point Tibet's so-called age of fragmentation (842 to 986 C.E.), the book draws on previously unstudied manuscripts discovered in the "library cave" near Dunhuang, on the old Silk Road. These ancient documents, it argues, demonstrate how this purportedly inactive period in Tibetan history was in fact crucial to the Tibetan assimilation of Buddhism, and particularly to the spread of violent themes from tantric Buddhism into Tibet at the local and the popular levels. Having shed light on this "dark age" of Tibetan history, the second half of the book turns to how, from the late tenth century onward, the period came to play a vital symbolic role in Tibet, as a violent historical "other" against which the Tibetan Buddhist tradition defined itself. -- Georges Dreyfus

The Buddha Party

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Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 019935815X
Total Pages : 393 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (993 download)

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Book Synopsis The Buddha Party by : John Powers

Download or read book The Buddha Party written by John Powers and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017 with total page 393 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Buddha Party tells the story of how the People's Republic of China employs propaganda to define Tibetan Buddhist belief and sway opinion within the country and abroad. The narrative they create is at odds with historical facts and deliberately misleading but, John Powers argues, it is widely believed by Han Chinese. Most of China's leaders appear to deeply believe the official line regarding Tibet, which resonates with Han notions of themselves as China's most advanced nationality and as a benevolent race that liberates and culturally uplifts minority peoples. This in turn profoundly affects how the leadership interacts with their counterparts in other countries. Powers's study focuses in particular on the government's "patriotic education" campaign-an initiative that forces monks and nuns to participate in propaganda sessions and repeat official dogma. Powers contextualizes this within a larger campaign to transform China's religions into "patriotic" systems that endorse Communist Party policies. This book offers a powerful, comprehensive examination of this ongoing phenomenon, how it works and how Tibetans resist it.

The Social Life of Tibetan Biography

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Author :
Publisher : Lexington Books
ISBN 13 : 0739165216
Total Pages : 253 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (391 download)

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Book Synopsis The Social Life of Tibetan Biography by : Amy Holmes-Tagchungdarpa

Download or read book The Social Life of Tibetan Biography written by Amy Holmes-Tagchungdarpa and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2014-07-30 with total page 253 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Social Life of Tibetan Biography explores the creation of Tibetan religious authority in Tibetan cultural areas throughout East, Inner, and South Asia through engaging with the relationship between textual biography and social community in the case of the Eastern Tibetan yogi Tokden Shakya Shri (1853–1919). It explores the different mechanisms used by Shakya Shri’s community in the creation of his biographical portrait to develop his lineage, including the use of biographical tropes, details of interpersonal connections, educational and patronage networks, and representations of sacred site creation and maintenance. In doing so, this study decenters Tibetan and Himalayan religious history through recognizing that peripheries could act as alternative centers of authority for diverse Tibetan Buddhist communities.