High Peaks Pure Earth

Cover of "A Song for the Horses," Hutchins 2025

I started out writing a book about Mongolian traditional music, but ended up with a bigger question: what do you do with a world that is falling apart? For the musicians and herders I worked with, the answer is in the songs. A Song for the Horses out this October:
uapress.arizona.edu/book/a-song-...

China to restrict Tibetan language in region’s college entrance exam Exclusion of core subject exam stokes fears Beijing is furthering campaign to ‘Sinicise’ region

China to restrict Tibetan language in college entrance exam on.ft.com/4lmJgjb

Opinion: Our devotion to the Dalai Lama – a beacon of humanity – goes beyond blind faith The exiled Tibetan Leader’s declaration that his lineage will continue was an act of defiance against the Chinese state and a rallying cry for our people

Excellent article about Tibet from the Globe & Mail this morning. www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/arti...

China’s forced toponym changes in Xinjiang – Language Log languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=70278

Construction on Tibetan Megadam Fuels Ecological and Social Concerns After Beijing granted authorization in December, construction on what would be the world’s largest hydropower dam has now begun. The site is located along the Yarlung Tsangpo River in southeastern Tib...

Construction on Tibetan Megadam Fuels Ecological and Social Concerns
"Reports show that the construction of almost 200 dams in Tibet is causing 'irreparable damage' to Tibetan communities, downstream countries, and the environment."

Who Will Be the Next Dalai Lama? | China Books Review The Dalai Lama, who just turned 90, writes in his memoir that he will reincarnate in the “free world.” But will his political, religious and moral power transfer with him?

The Dalai Lama, who just turned 90, writes in his memoir that he will reincarnate in the “free world.” But will his political, religious and moral power transfer with him?

Read @tshakya.bsky.social review of "Voice for the Voiceless" by the Dalai Lama: chinabooksreview.com/2025/07/24/d...

Tsering Döndrup’s defiant reckoning with Tibet’s legacy of violence I FIRST MET Tsering Döndrup at his home in Xining – the largest city on the Tibetan Plateau, located in Qinghai province in western China. This was in early 201

"Tibetan nomadic life is the heartbeat of Tsering Döndrup’s fiction, and ‘Black Fox Valley’ charts the forced decline of an entire way of existence that has persisted uninterrupted for centuries."

Christopher Peacock writes:

Three translated novels stand upright against a concrete background. From left to right: 'City of Fiction' by Yu Hua, 'The Red Wind Howls' by Tsering Döndrup, and 'Hunter' by Shuang Xuetao. Each cover features distinct surreal, political, or architectural artwork and muted tones.

"Censored in China, Tsering Döndrup’s vivid and excoriating THE RED WIND HOWLS recounts the decadeslong Communist clampdown in Amdo, a multiethnic region of northeastern Tibet roughly the size of France."-Sam Sacks, @wsj.com. buff.ly/Ww013Sz

#TibetanVoices #BannedBooks #ReadUP #TheRedWindHowls

Crafting a Tibetan Terroir: A Conversation with Brendan Galipeau | Made in China Journal In Crafting a Tibetan Terroir: Winemaking in Shangri-La (University of Washington Press, 2025), Brendan Galipeau takes readers to the Sino-Tibetan border region rebranded as ‘Shangri-La’ by the Chines...

In 'Crafting a Tibetan Terroir', Brendan Galipeau explores how wine is reshaping landscapes and livelihoods in the Sino-Tibetan border region known as Shangri-La. From missionary vines to luxury tourism, it is a story of modernity, identity, and global capitalism. A conversation with Dechen Pemba.

Journal of Tibetan Literature

📚 Publication of Vol. 4.1 of the Journal of Tibetan Literature. The JTL is an open-access academic journal dedicated to publishing research, translations, and criticism on all aspects of Tibetan-language texts.
More details here
www.journaloftibetanliterature.org/index.php/jtl
#tibet
#tibetanstudies

Dalai Lama says there will be search for his successor after his death, ending years of speculation Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader releases video statement in run-up to 90th birthday celebrations The Dalai Lama has said the centuries-old Tibetan Buddhist institution will continue after his death, ending years of speculation that started when he indicated that he might be the last person to hold the role. Speaking at prayer celebrations ahead of his 90th birthday on Sunday, the Nobel peace prize-winning spiritual head of Tibetan Buddhism said in a recorded statement that the next Dalai Lama should be found and recognised as per past Buddhist traditions. Continue reading...

Dalai Lama says there will be search for his successor after his death, ending years of speculation

A Close-up View of a Tibetan Typewriter - Buddhist Digital Resource Center We take for granted that the Tibetan language is well integrated into our digital devices, and we are familiar with the venerable history of hand carved woodblock printing in Tibet. But going back 50 ...

A Close-up View of a #Tibetan Typewriter by Buddhist Digital Resource Center

www.bdrc.io/blog/2025/06...

Tibetan Musical Notation Is Beautiful Religions take the cast and hue of the cultures in which they find root. This was certainly true in Tibet when Buddhism arrived in the 7th century. It transformed and was transformed by the native rel...

Tibetan Musical Notation Is Beautiful

Today marks Saga Dawa Düchen, one of the most sacred days in the Tibetan calendar, honoring the Buddha’s birth, awakening, and parinirvāṇa.’

This year, under the theme “The Power of Wisdom,” we’re celebrating with a special focus on the Perfection of Wisdom (Prajñāpāramitā) teachings.

A History of Uyghur Buddhism: A Conversation with Johan Elverskog In the past decades, the Uyghurs in China have become known as an oppressed ethnic and religious minority in their homeland, today’s Xinjiang. Islam and Islamophobia are central to that story, but vis...

A History of Uyghur Buddhism: A Conversation with Johan Elverskog @madeinchinajournal.com

madeinchinajournal.com/2025/06/10/a...

🧵 𝐀𝐥𝐥 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐓𝐢𝐛𝐞𝐭. These works explore Tibet’s cultural, political, and spiritual shifts—examining Buddhist commodification, literary portrayals, Chinese rule, satire, and meditation. We'd love to feature reviews of these titles in @asiancha.bsky.social. If interested, please email t@asiancha.com.

Excited to have received an advanced copy of Tsering Döndrup’s remarkable novel, The Red Wind Howls, which recounts the Maoist period in the Amdo grasslands.

Truly a must read, thanks to Chris Peacock for the English trans. of this essential story. Highly recommended
@columbiaup.bsky.social

How Images of the Dalai Lama Landed a Tibetan Woman in China’s Dragnet The rare account of the woman who escaped from Tibet sheds new light on China’s harsh policies aimed at bringing the region to heel.

Our profile of Nam Kyi, a young Tibetan activist, who spent 3 years in a Chinese prison. Upon release she found herself in a bigger prison, where she constantly monitored. So she escaped to India, joining a dwindling number of Tibetans who have sought refuge there

🎁link: www.wsj.com/world/china/...

From peach blossom fields to oxygen supplies on trains: What CNN found on visiting tightly guarded Tibet cnn.it/4lXASYW

First page of Ippolito Desideri's treatise Inquiry concerning the Doctrines of Previous Lives and Emptiness, Offered to the Scholars of Tibet by the Star Head Lama called Ippolito (Mgo skar gyi bla ma i po li do zhes bya ba yis phul ba’i bod kyi mkhas pa rnams la skye ba snga ma dang stong pa nyid kyi lta ba’i sgo nas zhu ba). Image published as frontpiece in Lopez & Jinpa's _Dispelling the Darkness : A Jesuit’s Quest for the Soul of Tibet_ (2017). Image reproduced with kind permission of the Archivum Romanum Societatis Iesu (ARSI), Rome. Archivum Romanum Societatus Iesu (ARSI), Goa 75.

#ManuscriptMonday Jesuits in Tibet edition.

First page of Jesuit Missionary and early Tibetologist Ippolito Desideri's fascinating early 18th-c treatise _Inquiry concerning the Doctrines of Previous Lives and Emptiness, Offered to the Scholars of Tibet by the Star Head Lama called Ippolito_

1/

Vietnam and China: Grave concern over reports of Tibetan writer’s suspicious death in custody — PEN International | Promoting Literature & Defending Freedom of Expression Worldwide ‘The circumstances around the death of Tibetan writer and educator, Humkar Dorje Rinpoche are deeply troubling and raise concerns around the growing threat of transnational repression. We call on the ...

#Vietnam: We are gravely concerned over reports of the death in custody of Tibetan writer and educator, Humkar Dorje Rinpoche. PEN International joins PEN #Tibet and PEN Vietnam in calling for a transparent investigation.

Read our joint statement⬇️
www.pen-international.org/news/vietnam...

‘Voice for the Voiceless’ The Dalai Lama’s new book offers a searing political account of Tibet’s fate—and a vision of compassion-based resistance.

‘Voice for the Voiceless’ Review by Bhuchung D. Sonam @tricyclemag.bsky.social

tricycle.org/article/dala...

1-page manuscript with writing in Sanskrit, Tibetan, and Mongolian scripts, black letters on a yellowing paper background.

#ManuscriptMonday support multilingualism edition.

A famous prayer to the Tibetan Buddhist luminary Tsongkhapa, known as the Miktsema, in a trilingual edition with Sanskrit, Tibetan, and Mongolian.

From the archives of the Buddhist Digital Resource Center: purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW1...

1/

The image shows a black and white photograpic postcard of a person standing and holding a long conical horn taller than their height, and a hand-held Buddhist prayer wheel. The individual is dressed in a long robe and a head covering. The person stands on grass with a neutral, slightly dappled backdrop that suggests a studio setting. The individual is barefoot, and their expression is calm. The caption says, "Native of Thibet."

The first photographs of Tibet were not actually taken in Tibet, but were staged in British colonial India.

To meet consumer demand, enterprising commercial photographers outfitted their subjects with stereotypical objects to create an easily identifiable “Tibetan” type. 🧵
🗃️ 📜 #Tibet

Radio Free Asia taken off air: millions of people deprived of access to reliable information Reporters Without Borders (RSF) is alarmed by the halt of Radio Free Asia’s shortwave services in Mandarin, Tibetan, and Lao – it is the only reliable source of news in regions where authoritarian reg...

At @rsf.org we are alarmed by the halt of #RFA’s shortwave services in Mandarin, Tibetan, and Lao, and reduction of programming in Burmese, Korean, Khmer and Uyghur– as the media is one of the last reliable source of news in regions where authoritarian regimes strictly control access to information.

China/Vietnam: Suspicious Death of Tibetan High Lama The Vietnamese government should investigate the death under suspicious circumstances of a senior Tibetan lama, Humkar Dorje Rinpoche, in Ho Chi Minh City on March 29, 2025.

#China/#Vietnam: Suspicious Death of Tibetan High Lama - Alleged Chinese Role in Arrest of Humkar Dorje Rinpoche Following Flight from #Tibet www.hrw.org/news/2025/04...

Former Tibet Party Chief Pleads Guilty to Bribery Charges Last week, Chinese state media reported that Wu Yingjie, the former Party chief of the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR), pleaded guilty to bribery charges during a trial in Beijing. Wu joins a long and...

Former Tibet Party Chief Pleads Guilty to Bribery Charges
"Wu played a key role in carrying out the government’s hardline policies in Tibet, but his conviction is unlikely to improve the human rights situation in the region."

Tibetans' voices will be silenced if RFA, VOA are shut down
The services have been a lifeline to Tibetans stuck behind China’s ‘Great Firewall.’ By @woeser.bsky.social

rfa.org/english/opin...

Image shows a chromolithograph trade card based on a black and white photo taken of the Thirteenth Dalai Lama. He is dressed in ceremonial attire, including a pointed yellow hat, and sits behind an ornate dais on a platform decorated with devotional paintings and flowers.

The first photograph of a Dalai Lama was taken in 1921; it depicts “the Great Thirteenth,” Tubten Gyatso (1876–1933).

The image was published in various Western media, even making its way on to a multicolor lithograph trade card for the German company Liebig in 1935.
🗃️ 📜 #Tibet

🙏🏾