| This dissertation aims to analyze this new identity that is emerging in the Tibetan diaspora. By 'diaspora,' I refer to the era following China's military invasion of Tibet in 1959, which witnessed the flight of the Dalai Lama and approximately 100,000 Tibetans to northern India. Although the new PRC government took control of Tibet circa 1949, after driving the Nationalists from the mainland, brutal military action in Tibet did not occur until 1959. I refer to the community in exile, including Tibetans who have immigrated abroad, as "Diaspora Tibet.";"What is a Tibetan?" During my one-year of fieldwork in the Himalayan region of northern India, I posed this and other questions to over three hundred Tibetans. Their detailed testimonies suggest a complex matrix of identities that have grown up during the last fifty years. Their narratives and stories and reflections show profound changes in the consciousness and identity of Tibetans.;My research focuses on the major forces molding Tibetan identity in diaspora: namely, the shifting political environment of the twentieth century and the rise of Chinese power, the transformations wrought on the very land of Tibet itself, the rise of a national consciousness, the emergence of a distinct Tibetan vocabulary, language, and literature, the advent of competing political voices among Tibetans, and the changing aspirations of young Tibetans living in diaspora. By analyzing national identity and its conceptualization, I aim to articulate the voice of the new generation of Tibetans, especially their doubts, fears and aspirations.;My methodology combines ethnographic interviews in the Himalayas, completed during one-year of fieldwork from January to December 2001. I draw extensively on archival sources garnered from the major collections of the Tibetan disapora. My goal is to articulate a realistic image of Tibetans at a crucial moment when the new generation of Tibetans is expressing distrust and frustration with the current political options offered by the Dalai Lama's exile government. |
