Dibyesh Anand - Geopolitical Exotica

[81]Though it is rare for such tensions between Tibetans and local Indians to erupt in full-fledged rioting, the resentment of the locals against Tibetans, who are perceived as wealthier, is evident. I say this from my personal experience of talking to many Indian taxi drivers and shopkeepers. Since for them I was an insider (with Indian nationality), they often expressed their anxiety about the Tibetan "Others."

[82]The Panchen Lama's importance within Tibetan Buddhism is next only to the Dalai Lama's. To undermine the child who was recognized as the reincarnation of the Panchen Lama (and therefore the eleventh in the line) by the Dalai Lama, the Chinese government imprisoned him and recognized another child as the true reincarnation. For an account of this struggle, see Hilton 2000.

[83]The most (in)famous instance of this is the recognition by Penor Rinpoche of the Hollywood actor Steven Segal as a reincarnation of the seventeenth-century hidden treasure revealer Chungdrag Dorje of Palyul Monastery.

[84]The emphasis in "craftsmew" is deliberate in order to highlight the gendered character of traditional cultural practices and their reinforcement by preservation ethos. For instance, in the Norbulingka I was told that statue making is not meant for women. Not surprisingly, most women were concentrated in sections such as tailoring. But I also came across women artists in some other sections, including painting.

[85]One such artist is Penpa Dorje, confirmed as a "master statue maker" in 1973 by the Dalai Lama.

[86]As Thargyal (1997) points out, this process of secularization, which is an epiphenomenon of societal forces, should not be confused with secularism, which is an ideology. He argues that Tibetan Buddhism (chos) has potent democratic principles that are leading to secularization, and therefore any simplistic reading of this process, as indicative of a separation of religion and politics, is wrong. While one can appreciate his anxiety to legitimize changes toward democracy in terms of traditional religion, it does not comport very comfortably with frequent statements of the Dalai Lama himself that he wishes to retire from political life once Tibetans get to exercise their right of self-determination.

[87]As Nowak points out, Tibetan youths in diaspora use three types of ideological strategies: a less devotional, more politically motivated reconsideration of Buddhist traditions; a neopuritanical concern for maintaining the purity of essential Tibetan symbolic forms; and a sometimes conventional, sometimes extended interpretation of the metaphorical concept of rangzen (translated roughly as "self-power, independence") (1984, 139).

[88]This Buddhist stupa (monument) is surrounded by prayer wheels and has a statue of Sakyamuni Buddha enshrined in a small chamber.

[89]For a different view on the ethics of appreciating the claims to essentiality as being integral to Tibetan identity, see Venturino 1997. Unlike Venturino, I do not seek to recognize Tibetan claims to essentiality on their own terms simply because they are at the foundational level of Tibetan identity. I adopt a more processual view of identity with little patience for claims to essentiality.

[90]Performativity is not to be confused with performance. As Butler clarifies, a performative act "is not primarily theatrical; indeed, its apparent theatricality is produced to the extent that its historicity remains dissimulated" (1993, 12).

[91]Apart from Indian banks, the only exception to the prevalence of the Dalai Lama's picture that I came across was a shop selling Desi Sharaab (country alcohol) on the Jogibara Road.