Being Present Mobile Cinema In Kham Tibetan Areas

This book presents the restoration of rural mobile cinema network in the Great Triangle region at the conjunction of Yunnan, Sichuan, and Tibet in China in the new century, which has added a new chapter to the long-standing complex relationship between cinema and social change. Based on five years of multi-sited fieldwork, abundant interviews and oral history narratives, this work shows the entanglement of the State, the projectionists and local film viewers in the historical and social context in a holistic analytic framework. By using the key concept of “being present” to examine the tangling relations between the actors in mobile cinema as social practice, the work argues that mobile cinema and contemporary Chinese society are mutually constructed in both textual and practical level.

Exploring ethnic Tibet independently is a challenge. With the 'land of snows' having some of the wildest and roughest road routes in high Asia, motoring, mountain-biking and trekking options are all given due attention in this new edition. High quality, numerous maps set this guide apart from other guides on Tibet and the trekking section has been expanded to include more on the main treks, including Everest Base Camp, Genden to Samye, Namtso trek and Kailiash region treks. Particular attention has been paid to the Amdo and Kham regions, not usually covered in guidebooks. Political and cultural issues make Tibet a sensitive destination for Westerners, so Michael Buckley's authoritative advice includes guidelines on cultural etiquette, local customs, and travelling with minimum impact on the culture and environment. The chapter on language includes a section covering Tibetan script.

For millions of people around the world, Tibet is a domain of undisturbed tradition, the Dalai Lama a spiritual guide. By contrast, the Tibet Museum opened in Lhasa by the Chinese in 1999 was designed to reclassify Tibetan objects as cultural relics and the Dalai Lama as obsolete. Suggesting that both these views are suspect, Clare E. Harris argues in The Museum on the Roof of the World that for the past one hundred and fifty years, British and Chinese collectors and curators have tried to convert Tibet itself into a museum, an image some Tibetans have begun to contest. This book is a powerful account of the museums created by, for, or on behalf of Tibetans and the nationalist agendas that have played out in them. Harris begins with the British public’s first encounter with Tibetan culture in 1854. She then examines the role of imperial collectors and photographers in representations of the region and visits competing museums of Tibet in India and Lhasa. Drawing on fieldwork in Tibetan communities, she also documents the activities of contemporary Tibetan artists as they try to displace the utopian visions of their country prevalent in the West, as well as the negative assessments of their heritage common in China. Illustrated with many previously unpublished images, this book addresses the pressing question of who has the right to represent Tibet in museums and beyond.

Through a lyrical narrative of her journey to Tibet in 2007, activist Canyon Sam contemplates modern history from the perspective of Tibetan women. Traveling on China's new "Sky Train," she celebrates Tibetan New Year with the Lhasa family whom she'd befriended decades earlier and concludes an oral-history project with women elders. As she uncovers stories of Tibetan women's courage, resourcefulness, and spiritual strength in the face of loss and hardship since the Chinese occupation of Tibet in 1950, and observes the changes wrought by the controversial new rail line in the futuristic "new Lhasa," Sam comes to embrace her own capacity for letting go, for faith, and for acceptance. Her glimpse of Tibet's past through the lens of the women - a visionary educator, a freedom fighter, a gulag survivor, and a child bride - affords her a unique perspective on the state of Tibetan culture today - in Tibet, in exile, and in the widening Tibetan diaspora. Gracefully connecting the women's poignant histories to larger cultural, political, and spiritual themes, the author comes full circle, finding wisdom and wholeness even as she acknowledges Tibet's irreversible changes.

The province of Kham is one of the remotest regions in in all of Tibet, and its people, the fierce horsemen who for twenty-five years waged a relentless guerilla war against the Chinese occupation, the most elusive. In Among Warriors, Pamela Logan, a recognized expert in the martial arts, gives a breathtaking account of her journey across the windswept plateaus and icy mountain passes of eastern Tibet to find them. Written with vast sympathy for an embattled culture, Logan's vivid evocation of drinking tea with monks and herdsmen, dodging Chinese police, and observing pilgrims making their way toward Lhasa, will captivate anyone interested in Buddhism, the martial arts, or one of the world's last inaccessible regions.

Each number is the catalogue of a specific school or college of the University.

Mahamudra is the basic meditation practice for many Tibetan Buddhists, particularly of the Kagyu tradition. It is particularly adaptable for modern people, since it involves no rituals and can be incorporated into all daily activities. Saraha's "Song for the King" is a short verse text from classical India that is a basis for the tradition and is widely known in Tibetan Buddhist circles. It is often the basis for teachings given in the West, but there is only one outdated translation of it in print, first published in 1969. Michele Martin has produced a stellar new translation, which is accompanied by a commentary from the well-known teacher Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche, who is uniquely skilled and concerned with making this method of meditation available to Westerners. While pithy and accessible, the book easily stands up to academic scrutiny, and includes the original Tibetan as well - making it ideal for the popular, scholarly, and Tibetan audiences all at once.

Mahamudra practice can lead to a profound realization, but it is also a peaceful and gentle practice.