Multiple modernities and the Tibetan diaspora

Abstract

In response to Chinese claims that Tibet has been liberated from feudal power structures and is undergoing a process of modernization, members of Tibet's Government-in-Exile are developing a discourse of Tibetan modernity to counter China's version. For the Dalai Lama, Director of the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives Geshe Lhakdor, and Prime Minister of Tibet's Government-in-Exile Samdhong Rinpoche, 'modernity' is not just a triumph of innovation over tradition. As the government of Tibet's Government-in-Exile cannot exert itself within the Chinese borders that now contain Tibet, the discourse is intimately linked to the diasporic migration of Tibetans into countries such as India, Nepal and Bhutan. This modernization is part of a broad cultural survival strategy in which the main actors must alter tradition in order to preserve it. © 2011 Taylor & Francis.