EVENTS

Abstract    

Tibetan Studies today is on the ‘cusp’ of an interesting phenomenon wherein many Tibetan scholars, inside and outside Tibet have emerged and are making important contributions to the discipline. This was unmistakably discernible at the conference at Johns Hopkins University from 5-6 September. Presentations ranged from contemporary Tibetan poetry and literature to the 1950s history of Tibet based on archival research; from ethnic issues in China pertaining to the  ‘2^nd generation reforms’ to recruitment patterns in ‘China‘s Tibetan regions’; from discussions on the ‘precarious state of the Tibetan Diaspora in India’ to the issue of Tibetan ‘self-determination’ and from an attempt to explain ‘why reforms have not restored genuine autonomy’ to how and why the Sino-Tibetan talks have repeatedly reached an impasse.

The need for (re)framing the language, points of reference and existing narratives, dominated much of the discussion at the conference. The presentation will mainly elaborate on the nature of these discussions and analyse the implications for future Tibetan studies as also the Tibet issue, based on the understanding that academic discussion cannot exist in a void. Where possible, the presentation will refer to additional Tibet conferences to analyse the general trend in Tibetan studies internationally, in China and in India. Six academic Tibet conferences have been organized internationally this year alone within a period of six months in Norway, Beijing, Sichuan, Delhi, Washington DC and London, with the speaker having participated in three of them. There are still others on the anvil to be held in Dharamsala and Russia that should generate interesting insights on the state of contemporary Tibetan studies.

About the Speaker

Tshering Chonzom Bhutia is an Associate Fellow at the Institute of Chinese Studies. She has a PhD from the Centre for East Asian Studies, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, India. Apart from following developments in the Tibet issue internationally and in India, as well as China’s Tibet policy (both internal and external dimensions), she is presently working on a comparative research project supported by the ICSSR to study Indian and Chinese ethnic minority policies. Some of her writings on the aforementioned issues have appeared in the publications of ICS, ICWA, IPCS and NUS; and in China Report, Hindustan Times, The Diplomat, Tibetan Review, China-India Brief, ICS Analysis, World Focus, Phayul, Tibetan World and Peace and Conflict.