Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #himalayanhistories
Most recents (3)
🧵Four by @ChawlaSwati
1/ 🚨🚨Who is a #Tibetan?🚨🚨
Relatedly,
❓Where is #Tibet?
❓Are all Tibetans #Buddhist?
❓Do all of them revere @DalaiLama?
❓Are there Tibetans (other than #exiled pop"n) outside Tibet?
❓Do all #Tibetans identify as... erm ..Tibetan?
#TweetHistorians
1/ 🚨🚨Who is a #Tibetan?🚨🚨
Relatedly,
❓Where is #Tibet?
❓Are all Tibetans #Buddhist?
❓Do all of them revere @DalaiLama?
❓Are there Tibetans (other than #exiled pop"n) outside Tibet?
❓Do all #Tibetans identify as... erm ..Tibetan?
#TweetHistorians
2/ The 11th Zurmang Trungpa (1939-87) said #Tibetan 'insiders' (ནང་པ་) share these common features:
☑️speaking some variant of Tibetan lang
☑️following #Buddhist faith
☑️eating tsampa (roasted barley flour)
Who was he?
treasuryoflives.org/biographies/vi…
A handy definition, but...
~SC
☑️speaking some variant of Tibetan lang
☑️following #Buddhist faith
☑️eating tsampa (roasted barley flour)
Who was he?
treasuryoflives.org/biographies/vi…
A handy definition, but...
~SC
3/ Let's tackle the big one first: #Tibet has long been identified as a pristine Buddhist #Shangrila.
But,
❌Not Tibetans are Buddhist.
❌Not all Tibetan Buddhists revere the @DalaiLama in the same way.
See #himalayanhistories 🧵on #Shangrila:
~SC
But,
❌Not Tibetans are Buddhist.
❌Not all Tibetan Buddhists revere the @DalaiLama in the same way.
See #himalayanhistories 🧵on #Shangrila:
~SC
🧵Three by @ChawlaSwati
1/ On Tibetan Buddhist Nuns in Exile:
#OnThisDay @DalaiLama was awarded #NobelPeacePrize, the only #Buddhist religious leader thus honored (#MLK nominated @thichnhathanh in '67).
Many associate #Tibet w/ him+ other monks in red robes--
What about nuns?
1/ On Tibetan Buddhist Nuns in Exile:
#OnThisDay @DalaiLama was awarded #NobelPeacePrize, the only #Buddhist religious leader thus honored (#MLK nominated @thichnhathanh in '67).
Many associate #Tibet w/ him+ other monks in red robes--
What about nuns?
2/ "Some feminists from the West cud accuse me by saying, ‘The #DalaiLama is the authority but he doesn’t help the nuns.’"
Yes, @DalaiLama has often faced the accusation that the #TibetanBuddhist tradition doesn't give nuns the same rights as monks.
info-buddhism.com/Interview_Dala…
~SC
Yes, @DalaiLama has often faced the accusation that the #TibetanBuddhist tradition doesn't give nuns the same rights as monks.
info-buddhism.com/Interview_Dala…
~SC
3/ 🚨🚨🚨 Of the 8 reps of #TibetanBuddhism in the current Parliament in Exile– two each from Gelug, Kagyu, Sakya, Nyigma sects– **all** are monks; so are the two members from pre-Buddhist Bon religion.
(Though ~1/3 of MPs from provinces U-Tsang, Dhotoe+ Dhomey are women.)
~SC
(Though ~1/3 of MPs from provinces U-Tsang, Dhotoe+ Dhomey are women.)
~SC
🧵One by @ChawlaSwati
On the @DalaiLama & India:
1/ Many of us know that the 14th @DalaiLama has been living in #exile in #Himalayan town of #Dharamsala in northern India since 31 Mar 1959.
Why India?
Was he blazing a trail w/ his escape?
#TweetHistorians
Map from @TIME (1959)
On the @DalaiLama & India:
1/ Many of us know that the 14th @DalaiLama has been living in #exile in #Himalayan town of #Dharamsala in northern India since 31 Mar 1959.
Why India?
Was he blazing a trail w/ his escape?
#TweetHistorians
Map from @TIME (1959)
2/ Second question first: No, he wasn't.
In coming to India, the @DalaiLama trod the path of many #Tibetans before him-- traders+ aristocrats, monastics+ laity, and his predecessor, the 13th #DalaiLama, Thupten Gyatso, who had lived in exile in British India from 1910-12.
--SC
In coming to India, the @DalaiLama trod the path of many #Tibetans before him-- traders+ aristocrats, monastics+ laity, and his predecessor, the 13th #DalaiLama, Thupten Gyatso, who had lived in exile in British India from 1910-12.
--SC
3/ Aristocratic families in #Tibet were closely tied in networks of monastic patronage, intermarriage +trade w/ eastern #Himalayan kingdoms of #Bhutan+ #Sikkim. The British Political Officer in Sikkim kept close watch on these alliances. Here he is w/ the 13th #DalaiLama👇.
--SC
--SC
