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High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Prior to 1959, there were three main social groups in Tibet: ordinary laypeople (mi ser in Tibetan), lay nobility (sger pa), and monks.The ordinary layperson could be further classified as a peasant farmer (shing-pa) or nomadic pastoralist (trokpa). The Tsang (17th century) and Dalai Lama (Ganden Podrang) law codes distinguished three social divisions: high, medium and low, each in turn was divided into three classes, to give nine classes in all. Social status was a formal classification, mostly hereditary and had legal consequences: for example the compensation to be paid for the killing of a member of these classes varied from 5 (for the lowest) to 200 'sung' for the second highest, the members of the noble families.Nobles, government officials and monks of pure conduct were in the high division, only - probably - the Dalai Lama was in the very highest class. The middle division contained a large portion of the population and ranged from minor government officials, to taxpayer and landholding peasants, to landless peasants. ... Read more

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High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Women of Tibet: A Quiet Revolution is a documentary film directed and produced by Rosemary Rawcliffe. The film premiered at the 2007 Mill Valley Film Festival where it was awarded Official Selection and had it's television release on PBS on April 12, 2008. The film won an Emmy® for Historic/Cultural - Program/Special on May 16, 2009. A Quiet Revolution is the second film in the Women of Tibet trilogy of one-hour documentaries exploring the Buddhist values at the heart of Tibetan culture - compassion, nonviolence and peace. The film first tells theDocumentary Film, Rosemary Rawcliffe, Nonviolence story of the 15,000 unarmed Tibetan women who assembled on March 12, 1959 speaking out for peace, justice, and freedom in an expression of non-violent resistance in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, which sparked an uprising against China's occupation of Tibet. ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from Arena Magazine, published by Arena Printing and Publications Pty. Ltd. on April 1, 2008. The length of the article is 773 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

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Title: Why Tibet?(EDITORIAL)(Editorial)
Author: Alison Caddick
Publication: Arena Magazine (Magazine/Journal)
Date: April 1, 2008
Publisher: Arena Printing and Publications Pty. Ltd.
Issue: 94Page: 3(1)

Article Type: Editorial

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This digital document is an article from First Things: A Monthly Journal of Religion and Public Life, published by Institute on Religion and Public Life on December 1, 2003. The length of the article is 1014 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

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Title: East meets West, sort of.(Dalai Lama)(The Public Square: A Continuing Survey of Religion, Culture, and Public Life)
Author: Richard Neuhaus
Publication: First Things: A Monthly Journal of Religion and Public Life (Refereed)
Date: December 1, 2003
Publisher: Institute on Religion and Public Life
Issue: 138Page: 69(2)

Article Type: Biography

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In the fall of 1999, at the invitation of The Association of Global New Thought, a small group of innovative thinkers from around the world gathered together for five days with H.H. the Dalai Lama of Tibet at his home-in-exile in Dharamsala, northern India. This was a special invitation-only dialogue about the future of humanity and the planet. Explored in this special four-part series are highlights from the conference featuring an exchange of ideas in the areas of global ecology and media/arts and culture, and an intimate dialogue between host Michael Toms and the Dalai Lama. 4 Hours. ... Read more

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Provides an introduction to the history and origins of the Lhamo. Describing opera in Tibet, this book looks at each aspect of the performance and also includes synopses of nine enchanting opera stories. ... Read more

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High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Women of Tibet: Gyalyum Chemo - The Great Mother is a documentary film directed and produced by Rosemary Rawcliffe. The film premiered on May 28, 2006 at the Mountainfilm in Telluride Festival where it was awarded Official Selection. The film had it's television release on PBS on May 7, 2006.Women of Tibet: Gyalyum Chemo - The Great Mother is the first of a trilogy of films about Women of Tibet and recounts the life story of Dekyi Tsering, the mother of one of the world's leading ambassadors for peace, His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama. During the course of her life, Tsering, known by Tibetans as "Gyalyum Chemo" or "Great Mother," gave birth to 16 children, three of whom were recognized as incarnate lamas, or tulkus. This story is uniquely Tibetan, yet it shares the same core qualities of all universal Great Mother stories: loss and resurrection, love and sacrifice, and the courage to survive. ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from Encyclopedia of Religion, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 2778 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.The second edition of this highly regarded encyclopedia, preserving the best of the first edition's cross-cultural approach, while emphasizing religion's role within everyday life and as a unique experience from culture to culture, this new edition is the definitive work in the field for the 21st century. An international team of scholars and contributors have reviewed, revised and added to every word of the classic work, making it relevant to the questions and interests of all researchers. ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from Encyclopedia of Religion, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 2532 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.The second edition of this highly regarded encyclopedia, preserving the best of the first edition's cross-cultural approach, while emphasizing religion's role within everyday life and as a unique experience from culture to culture, this new edition is the definitive work in the field for the 21st century. An international team of scholars and contributors have reviewed, revised and added to every word of the classic work, making it relevant to the questions and interests of all researchers. ... Read more

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It contains the papers and proceedings of the Csoma de Koros-Symposium on Tibetan, Central Asian and Buddhist studies. IT demonstrated the quickly expanding development of the more and more differentiated field of Tibetan Studies. Alongside of the traditionally established fields of Tibetological research, history, cultural, history, linguistics and literature. ... Read more

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Tibetan Buddhist scholar-monks have long engaged in face-to-face public philosophical debates. This original study challenges Orientalist text-based scholarship, which has missed these lived practices of Tibetan dialectics. Kenneth Liberman brings these dynamic disputations to life for the modern reader through a richly detailed, turn-by-turn analysis of the monks' formal philosophical reasoning. He argues that Tibetan Buddhists deliberately organize their debates into formal structures that both empower and constrain thinking, skillfully using logic as an interactional tool to organize their reflections. This careful investigation of the formal philosophical work of Tibetan scholars is a pathbreaking analysis of an important classical tradition. The book is packaged with a CD-ROM that offers examples of debating strategies, videos (with English translations) of actual debates, and an interactive debate. ... Read more

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Innovative Sociology of Buddhist Debating Practice
Dialectical Practice in Tibetan Philosophical Culture: An Ethnomethodological Inquiry into Formal Reasoning by Kenneth Liberman, (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers) Tibetan Buddhist scholar-monks have long engaged in face-to-face public philosophical debates. This original study challenges Orientalist text-based scholarship, which has missed these lived practices of Tibetan dialectics. Kenneth Liberman brings these dynamic disputations to life for the modern reader through a richly detailed, turn-by-turn analysis of the monks' formal philosophical reasoning. He argues that Tibetan Buddhists deliberately organize their debates into formal structures that both empower and constrain thinking, skillfully using logic as an interactional tool to organize their reflections.
During his three years in residence at Tibetan monastic universities, Liberman observed and videotaped the monks' debates. He then transcribed, translated, and analyzed them using multimedia software and ethnomethodological techniques, which enabled him to scrutinize the local methods that Tibetan debaters use to keep their philosophical inquiries alive. His study shows that the monks rely on such indigenous dialectical methods as extending an opponent's position to its absurd consequences, "pulling the rug out" from under an opponent, and other lively strategies. This careful investigation of the formal philosophical work of Tibetan scholars is a pathbreaking analysis of an important classical tradition.
The book is packaged with a CD-ROM that offers photographs of debates; a guide to the participants; a grammar of Tibetan debating, which includes sample propositions, responses, and strategies; the ethnomethods employed by debaters; videos of illustrative debates, complete with English translations, all analyzed in detail in the book; and an appendix comprising an interactive debate, glossary, manual, and illustrations.
Excerpt: During two years at Sera over four separate visits, I videotaped some twenty hours of formal debate, mostly on Madhyamaka topics. I prepared for those by reading most of the critical texts involved, in classes and in private tutorials. The best recordings were filmed during the annual public examinations when each debater was being ranked by a panel of senior scholars. Because they were being evaluated, the debaters put their best arguments forward. Also, the other young scholars present, who would usually be shoving their way in to pose their own questions, respected the priority of the examinee's arguments. These debates were relatively short, typically ten minutes in duration; such a short period provided me with technical detail limited enough for me to be capable of mastering. Of these debates I selected fifteen for transcription, guided by their rankings (which were posted), my own judgment of the debate, and the recommendation of colleagues. I translated all of these fifteen debates and spent many dozens of hours analyzing each one, and more frequently hundreds of hours when the time for the transcribing and translation, and showing them to the debaters being filmed and to other colleagues, is included. My field work required three years of residence in monastic universities, and it was proceeded by six years of Tibetan language study. The transcription, rechecking the transcription, making the translation, rechecking the translation, analyzing, posing questions about my analyses, etc., occupied an additional three years. Only after these tasks did the writing begin, which itself was interrupted by heart surgery, and by having to reanalyze some debates, and also by the need to spend two additional years learning the multimedia programs necessary for me to analyze my tapes digitally and to prepare the digital record on the CD-ROM.
Even after such a length of time I was faced with the questions, how many debates were enough and how much analysis was sufficient. Many ethnomethodological researchers prefer to analyze a few minutes of microinteraction with terrific care and attention. Feeling responsibile to capture the phenomenon in a way that was ethnographically faithful to the broader phenomenon of philosophical discourse among Gelug scholars, I spread my ethnomethodological analyses over a larger corpus (some 150 minutes or so of debating). I learned that when the phenomena came to be familiar, and even began to be repetitive, I had tape-recorded and analyzed a sufficient number of debates. And when my collection had covered a fair portion of the topics raised in the formal classes I at-tended, I considered that I had done justice to the Tibetans' enterprise. It was only after a thousand hours of reviewing the debates that I began to get a sense for the spontaneity of the negative dialectics that Tibetans practice...
Geshe Lhundrup Sopa summarized both the risk and the promise of Tibetan dialectics when he advised, "Just reviewing the arguments as a dead inventory in insufficient. We need to place our minds within the living quandaries that each position faces." We have observed that Tibetan debating is inhabited by both living sophistries and living quandaries. The criticism that it is more inclined toward dry formalism than other philosophical cultures seems too severe, however. In fact, this criticism is made more likely when the critic her/himself is constricted to a logocentric view of Tibetan Buddhist tenets, a perspective that is deficient in having familiarity with lived reflection in the course of actual formal reasoning. What they see as dry formalism is dry in part because the Buddhologists employ a hypertextual dependency that regards words in a way that is dislocated and disembodied from any lived sense that they may have or come to have. What are assumed to be blindly accepted received notions may in fact be made vulnerable to a path of vigorous dialectics, depending upon the skills of the Tibetan debaters involved. Further, the endless rehearsing of commitments and truisms may be about organizing the local orderliness of the talk and preliminary to what will be philosophically germane.
The notion that European philosophy is self-reflective in a more original way is too chauvinist to be taken seriously, for Europeans also have their received notions, and these received notions provide for European thought much of its intelligibility. We have learned that what is logical is also social, and that is necessarily the case for European as well as Tibetan scholars. The determination of when grounds have been given and the dialectics can proceed to other things is in part a social determination. The idea that there can be a pure thinking without any sophistry is unsound, for any thinking requires some formalization, and any formal apophansis will support sophistry.
There are important differences between the two philosophical cultures. For one, among Tibetan scholars individualism is less valued as a personal creed or as a methodological practice. It is much like the difference between European and Tibetan painting-Europeans seek an individual style, sign their canvases, and paint self-portraits; whereas, Tibetan painters do not sign their canvases and seek to paint only just like any other expert painter. But is individualism really a necessary requirement for either artistic or philosophical sensibility? I think many European scholars, in a fit of self-aggrandizement, would insist that this is the case, but I doubt that it is. It seems to me that, as Rudy Visker once suggested, a philosopher should neither repeat the obvious nor soar above it. Given this characterization, both philosophical traditions have successes and failures that may be identified.
Another European criticism must be taken more seriously, and indeed it has been by most active contemporary Tibetan scholar-monks. This is the criticism, also formulated by Leibniz in his speaking of the balance of reason, that reason should not have any particular agenda. The complaint is that Buddhist dialectics is a journey the destinations of which are too well known; hence, it is not philosophy. Stephen Batchelor, who spent ten years as a Buddhist monk, has complained, "Reason was subordinate to faith. In other words, you only set out to prove what you have already decided to believe," and there is some truth to his charge. Two Tibetan colleagues of mine once confessed to me, "We admire you Westerners, you say whatever you think just on the basis of your own reasoning." But it seems excessive to assert that this portrait exhausts the capacity of Tibetan philosophical culture. This study has demonstrated that alongside reasoning with routine forms exists a capacity to sustain intriguing philosophical insights. Any philosophical culture includes this diversity.
Georges Dreyfus, a European who also spent a decade as a monk, offers the criticism that "the quasi-canonization of definitions in contemporary Geluk practices manifests an essentialist tendency" that contradicts the anti-essentialism that is at the heart of their philosophical tenets. However true in the deepest possible ways, this again is the living irony of any, and every, philosophical practice. In three of our debates, the debaters offered some truly penetrating insight into the shortcomings of essentialism and the limits of formal analysis, yet in their own philosophical practice each of them violated the spirit of their insight.
In debate II.3, the debaters ask whether logical theses are necessary for a realization of emptiness, and they conclude that such theses may be useful but do not guarantee a realization of emptiness. They draw a distinction between "non-dual innate awareness" and formal analytics, but the distinction in itself is formal analytic, and they recognize that it is, and they continue to work formally to establish a universal truth about the matter. In debate II.4, the scholars collaborate in a dialectical examination of essentialism. The clarifier of the reasoning asserts, "When one understands the way of positing how concepts are merely imputations, IT FOLLOWS THAT one does not necessarily realize that concepts are merely imputations. >-" Conceptual understanding and an actual realization are not identical. The respondent concurs, "We speak of a general understanding of the formulation that concepts are merely imputations.... We say that concepts are merely imputations," and he goes on to argue, echoing Hegel, that understanding a formulation is less than a fulfilled understanding of its meaning or, even more vital, its habitual integration within one's everyday praxis. This latter interest, being the real motive for their philosophical inquiry, ought to serve to reduce the vulnerability of Tibetan philosophical practice to sophistry. However, the practical work of the debaters remains developing a logical discussion about not needing logic. Debate III.2 sustains a brilliant philosophical quandary, and gives no ground to sophistry, even at the price of irresolvable irony. These debaters acknowledge that realizing emptiness requires that one think the unthinkable. The clarifier of the reasoning summarizes,
T: Although there the nature of things may be formulated as arising through the force of appearing to the mind, it is not formulated so. It's this way is it not? It is not formulated so, and although the wisdom that realizes just-how-it-is formulates the nature of things through the force of the mind, yah, the wisdom that realizes just-how-it-is does not formulate the nature of things as existing in that way.
Even philosophical insight into the meaning of nonessentialism is "a subtle notion that conceals as a customary practice." And despite such a splendid in-sight, the debaters themselves perform, by means of their apophansis, the work of concealing, in the form of the essentialism of trying to formulate the idea that an understanding of emptiness is not capable of formulation.
More simply put, these Tibetan scholars are philosophers, which entails a double helix of original insight and sophistry. The fact that Buddhist philosophy takes for its topic the ways that philosophy betrays itself offers not the slightest protection that it itself will not betray itself every bit as quickly as any other culture's practice of reasoning does. Even great profundities, if they are to be communicated, must be thematized; and thematization leads naturally to betrayals. The founder of the Gelug sect Tsong Khapa formulates this universal human dilemma in a question about the pedagogy for meditation on emptiness: "Although one travels across the sky-like suchness, that mode of traveling-the accomplished being's meditative experience-cannot be described by them. So how, by what witness, will a hearer ever be able to listen?" It seems to be that it is humankind's curse and blessing that once the talk begins, even sky-like insight may be dragged earthward.
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This digital document is an article from New Internationalist, published by New Internationalist Magazine on November 1, 2008. The length of the article is 467 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Money talks: China uses free trade to dominate Tibetans.(TIBET)(Lhasa Economic and Technical Development Zone)
Author: James Low
Publication: New Internationalist (Magazine/Journal)
Date: November 1, 2008
Publisher: New Internationalist Magazine
Issue: 417Page: 28(1)

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The “Encyclopedia of Buddhism” provides a comprehensive overview of one of Asia's most important religious and social forces, describing the Buddhist worldview, basic teachings and practices, history, and the different schools and sects. This intriguing set illuminates a religion that is a mystery to most Westerners by exploring Buddhist scriptures, art, architecture, saints, demons, monastic orders, festivals, rites and ceremonies, as well as the different forms Buddhism has taken in different parts of the world, and how it has blended with other religions like Shinto, Confucianism, Daoism and Christianity.

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The “Encyclopedia of Buddhism” provides a comprehensive overview of one of Asia's most important religious and social forces, describing the Buddhist worldview, basic teachings and practices, history, and the different schools and sects. This intriguing set illuminates a religion that is a mystery to most Westerners by exploring Buddhist scriptures, art, architecture, saints, demons, monastic orders, festivals, rites and ceremonies, as well as the different forms Buddhism has taken in different parts of the world, and how it has blended with other religions like Shinto, Confucianism, Daoism and Christianity.

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The Vale of Kashmir is too well known to require description. It is the 'happy hunting-ground' of the Anglo-Indian sportsman and tourist, the resort of artists and invalids, the home of pashm shawls and exquisitely embroidered fabrics, and the land of Lalla Rookh. Its inhabitants, chiefly Moslems, infamously governed by Hindus, are a feeble race, attracting little interest, valuable to travellers as 'coolies' or porters, and repulsive to them from the mingled cunning and obsequiousness which have been fostered by ages of oppression. But even for them there is the dawn of hope, for the Church Missionary Society has a strong medical and educational mission at the capital, a hospital and dispensary under the charge of a lady M.D. have been opened for women, and a capable and upright 'settlement officer,' lent by the Indian Government, is investigating the iniquitous land arrangements with a view to a just settlement.

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A classic in Tibetan litterature
This book is essential for any student , or anyone interested in Tibetan studies. In beautiful prose ,Hugh Richardson remembers the Tibet that once was. Filled with interesting stories of personal events as well ascitations and explanations of important historical events, the authorpaints a very realistic view of Tibetan history and culture. As Tibetanculture is at the brink of being lost ,this book is highly useful to remindus just how much we are losing if there is no attempt to preserve it. Thiswill undoubtley become one of the jewels of tibetan related literature ... Read more

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High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Nangpa La shootings or Nangpa La massacre was a murder of unarmed Tibetan pilgrims attempting to leave Tibet via the Nangpa La pass by the Chinese Border Security police on September 30, 2006. It was confirmed that 2 were shot dead and 18 went missing, presumed dead. Nangpa La is a traditional trade route between Tibet and Nepal. The victims were shot from a distance by Chinese Border Security police as they moved slowly through chest-deep snow. The Chinese government initially denied the charges but the shootings were filmed by a Romanian photographer. ... Read more

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This digital document is a journal article from Social Science & Medicine, published by Elsevier in 2005. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

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A psychosocial care project for Tibetan torture survivor's and other Tibetan refugees suffering from psychological distress was opened in Dharamsala, North India in 1995 by a western non-government organisation (NGO) in collaboration with the Tibetan government-in-exile. The clinic explicitly sought to integrate western and local traditional approaches to healing. The aim of the present study was to examine the views of key stakeholders of the project in the context of broader cultural and social issues faced by exiled Tibetans. Twenty individual interviews were conducted with 'officials' (members of the Tibetan government-in-exile, religious leaders, other community leaders, and senior medical staff), the staff of the project (Tibetan and western) and the clients themselves. The interviews were taped, transcribed, and analysed using a grounded theory approach. All interviewees considered that mental health was an important issue and that awareness of psychological health in the community had improved since the initiation of the project. Clients and staff of the project, and some of the 'officials', believed that it provided a much-needed service and that it effectively and sensitively combined western psychological approaches with local cultural and religious beliefs and practices. However, a majority of the 'officials' felt that mental health issues were not a top priority in the competing health needs of the community, and that other ways of dealing with such problems (using traditional approaches or local health services) were adequate. Given these and other factors, the longer-term sustainability of the project appears to be a major challenge. According to the users and providers interviewed, the current project has developed an important and beneficial psychosocial support service. However, the continuing debate amongst community leaders regarding the place and future of the project suggests the importance of accommodating the views and priorities of all local stakeholders-and focusing on sustainability and capacity building of relevant community members-from the outset of such projects. This includes acknowledging the perceived threat to traditional beliefs and coping strategies-particularly in the context of wider socio-cultural disruption-posed by initiatives seeking to integrate western intervention approaches with local healing resources. ... Read more