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More About This Textbook
Overview
The contributors explore the circumstances that led to the development of modern Tibetan literature, its continuities and breaks with classical Tibetan literary forms, and the ways that writers use forms such as magical realism, satire, and humor to negotiate literary freedom within the People's Republic of China. They provide crucial information about Tibetan writers' lives in China and abroad, the social and political contexts in which they write, and the literary merits of their oeuvre. Along with deep social, cultural, and political analysis, this wealth of information clarifies the complex circumstances that Tibetan writers face in the PRC and the diaspora. The contributors consider not only poetry, short stories, and novels but also other forms of cultural production-such as literary magazines, films, and Web sites-that provide a public forum in the Tibetan areas of the PRC, where censorship and restrictions on public gatherings remain the norm.
Editorial Reviews
From the Publisher
“Despite the growing interest in contemporary Tibet, there have been few publications in western languages of writings by contemporary Tibetans,besides those written in Chinese by authors such as Tashi Dawa and Alai who know little if any written Tibetan and have complex, difficult relations with their Tibetan heritage. Hartley and Schiaffini-Vedani’s collection of critical studies of modern Tibetan literature makes a major contribution to correcting this imbalance. . . . [H]ere we have rich context and analysis of Tibetan voices and not just those favoured by publishers in Beijing or New York.” - Robert Barnett, Pacific Affairs
“[T]his volume will be remembered as the book that legitimized Tibetan literature.” - Nathan W. Hill, China Review International
“I selected to read Modern Tibetan Literature and Social Change with the desire for a deeper understanding of Tibetan culture, and I certainly received it. This collection is very approachable for such a scholarly work. Some of the language describing the writing of poetry was beautiful - true for any writer, in any language. I appreciated the introduction to writers who I probably would not have encountered on my own, and most of all, I gained a deeper understanding of what happens when a country is taken over, or shall I say ‘liberated’, by another. . . . This book is a rich resource, as the first comprehensive collection of its kind, for any scholarly inquiry into Tibetan literature.” - Jennifer M. Wilson, Feminist Review blog
“Modern Tibetan Literature and Social Change is a pioneering and engaging collection of articles by prominent Tibetan, French and American academics tracing the evolution of Tibetan literature over the past fifty years. Lean and perceptive articles cover a wide range of literary output...With the representations of ‘Tibetanness’ so hotly debated in China and the West, this collection gives a fascinating insight into the parallel debate raging within Tibetan literature itself.” - George Fitzherbert, Times Literary Supplement
“The work’s 14 chapters provide much-needed thematic reflections by Tibetan and non-Tibetan scholars into the subject matter and aesthetics of current Tibetan writing. . . . This important book is scholarly by amazingly readable; thus, it will find a multidisciplinary audience, including enthusiasts of Tibetan culture in general. An exceptional, invaluable acquisition. Essential. All readers, all levels.” - T. Carolan, CHOICE
“This project fills a long necessary gap not only in the study of Tibetan language and literature, but also in modern Tibetan cultural studies. It succeeds admirably in a task that is not attempted nearly often enough: of bringing Tibetan-related topics into meaningful dialogue with other areas and disciplines.” - Amy Holmes-Tagchungdarpa, IIAS Newsletter
“Modern Tibetan Literature and Social Change will instantly become the standard reference for future writing on Tibetan literature. The significance of that literature for Sino-Tibetan relations and for the fate of the Tibetan cultural world is only now being recognized. The list of contributors to this collection is a veritable ‘who’s who’ in the study of Tibetan literature.”—Janet Gyatso, author of Apparitions of the Self: The Secret Autobiographies of a Tibetan Visionary
“This book is a milestone. It is the first to bring together the complex variety of ingredients that have nurtured modern Tibetan literature. It considers several literary genres, written in three languages (Tibetan, Chinese, and English), and gives sensitive attention both to Tibetan literary tradition and to the turmoil of modern politics and social change.”—Perry Link, author of The Uses of Literature: Life in the Socialist Chinese Literary System
Product Details
Meet the Author
Lauran R. Hartley is Tibetan Studies Librarian at the C. V. Starr East Asian Library at Columbia University. The translator of Six Stars with a Crooked Neck: Tibetan Memoirs of the Cultural Revolution, Hartley has a doctorate in Tibetan studies. Patricia Schiaffini-Vedani is part-time Assistant Professor of Chinese at Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas. She is President and Founder of the Tibetan Arts and Literature Initiative, a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting Tibetan publishing initiatives. Schiaffini-Vedani has a doctorate in Chinese language and literature, specializing in Sinophone Tibetan literature.
Read an Excerpt
Modern Tibetan Literature and Social Change
DUKE UNIVERSITY PRESS
Copyright © 2008 Duke University PressAll right reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-8223-4254-0
Chapter One
Heterodox Views and the New Orthodox Poems: Tibetan Writers in the Early and Mid-Twentieth CenturyLAURAN R. HARTLEY
Any discussion of the so-called modern-whether it be in art, literature, music, or architecture-risks constructing a temporal or aesthetic divide on the basis of political or socioeconomic watersheds, thereby categorizing all preceding forms and phenomena under the heading "tradition." Indeed, critical discourse on modern Tibetan literature often starts with the advent of Communist rule in Tibet (marked by the signing of the Seventeen-Point Agreement in 1951 or the flight of the Dalai Lama in 1959), or more typically with the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Party Congress in 1978, which heralded greater leniency in the post-Mao period. It is my purpose here not to challenge these periodizations per se, but to highlight examples of Tibetan writing in the early twentieth century that in certain ways broke with the classical literary norms prescribed by Indic kavya theory, as discussed in the Introduction. The literary imagination of Tibetan writers in the pre-Communist era dispels the assumption that it was the so-called "liberation of Tibet" which paved the way for intellectual innovation. In particular, we will look at poems by three pre-Communist writers: Gendün Chömpel (1903-51), Giteng Rinpoché (1880/81-1944), and Shelkarlingpa (1876-1913). Their writings are significant as literary expressions of changing times and as models for young poets writing fifty years later under a new political regime.
Western studies also tend to characterize the early Communist era (1949-78) as entailing the cooptation of Tibetan intellectuals, such that "the knowledge and skills of the traditional literary elite could be exploited for the revolutionary cause." In the second half of this chapter we will examine Tibetan verse from the early Communist period which would seem to support this generalization-patriotic poems by scholars whom I have elsewhere described as Tibet's "monastic vanguard." Nevertheless, ambitious initiatives by these same scholars to publish classical texts and draft textbooks for teaching kavya theory point to ideals that transcend party dictates. With the arrest of leading Tibetan figures in the late 1950s and the campaigns of the Cultural Revolution, these projects came to an end. But when these elderly teachers were finally exonerated in the post-Mao period, their tutelage and the (re)publication of their earlier drafts laid the ground for what would be called the "New Tibetan Literature" (Bod kyi rtsom rig gsar rtsom). This chapter thus seeks to enrich our understanding of Tibetan cultural production in the mid-twentieth century and the role of Tibetan scholars in bridging the pre-Communist era with that following the Cultural Revolution.
Gendün chömpel (1903-1951)
The popularity of the Amdo-born scholar and monk Gendün Chömpel has grown to almost cultlike proportions. Though imprisoned by the former Tibetan government, in all probability for his radical views, he has posthumously become a hero for many in Tibet and exile alike. Posters now feature his image next to that of Döndrup Gyel (see chapter 4), who is held as the "father of modern Tibetan literature." In 2005 memorials marking the centennial of Gendün Chömpel's birth were held in Beijing and New York City. His life is the subject of Heather Stoddard's Le Mendicant de l'Amdo (1985) and his philosophy the subject of Don Lopez's The Madman's Middle Way (2006). A three-volume collection of his writings published in Lhasa in 1990 was reprinted in Dharamsala the following year, and the second (1994) and third (2000) printings sold out quickly on the streets of Lhasa. The bulk of his poetry can be found in the third volume, along with his famous Guide to India and The White Annals, an imperial history based on Old Tibetan texts found in the caves of Dunhuang.
Contemporary Western scholars tend to emphasize the "modern" cast in the writing of this "progressive and open-minded scholar" and the foreign exposure that he gained through his travels. Toni Huber (2000), for example, has suggested that certain compositional elements as well as features of "actual physical production" in Gendün Chömpel's Guide to India (1939) make the work "one of the very first examples of modern native Tibetan literature. Some of the features which define it as 'modern' are its synthetic and critical approach to providing an up-to-date Buddhist historical geography of Indian sites; its functional guide for visiting them using modern means of transportation; and its inclusion of some of the first examples of modern Tibetan cartography, which Gendun Chöphel himself drew." As Huber (1997) illustrates, the "new modern, rational set of universal criteria for making authentic identifications of Indian Buddhist sites" promoted by Gendün Chömpel were "borrowed almost entirely ... from the writings of colonial archaeologists and orientalists," that is, from the writings of the Maha Bodhi Society, a Theravda Buddhist missionary organization in India that undertook academic research, the restoration of temples and monasteries, and the publication of journals and books, including the Guide to India. Irmgard Mengele (1999) has referred to Gendün Chömpel as "the first 'modern' scholar of Tibet" for similar reasons: "He was the first who not only completed a traditional Tibetan education, but who also was courageous enough to leave the monastic society, travel abroad, learn several new languages and deepen his knowledge by collaborating with scholars of different nationalities."
From a literary perspective, however, the seeds of this progressive monk's "modern" or vernacular writing style may have been planted before the age of nineteen, when he entered Labrang Monastery. Evaluations of Gendün Chömpel's literary skill by Tibetan critics tend to emphasize the indigenous quality of his poetry and local sources of inspiration. For instance, the now-exiled Tibetan literary scholar Pema Bhum (1999) has argued that a lucid writing style, void of kavya's heavy ornamentation and synonyms, was cause for his popularity in the 1980s. Another scholar suggests that this vernacular quality in Gendün Chömpel's work might be due to the "unusual instruction" he received at the age of fifteen while at Ditsa Trashi Chöding, a monastery in Amdo. Having already studied basic kavya and demonstrated brilliance in rendering even the most challenging poetic forms in Dain's third chapter of the Kavyadarsa, Gendün Chömpel was encouraged by his rather visionary teacher Khenchen Gendün Gyatso to continue writing. According to his biographer Rakra Rinpoché, Gendün Chömpel acknowledged the influence of this early instruction on his literary thought: "My teacher Khenchen had a method for teaching poetry that differed from others. During summer vacations or when we would take walks, he would say, 'Gendün Chömpel, look! Those elephants in the sky are tired from carrying water. They can only move slowly on the road of the gods.' He wouldn't say the real names, such as 'water,' 'tree,' 'flower,' or 'mountain.' Rather, he referred to the action of each object, such as 'goes slowly,' 'drinks with its legs,' 'grows from the water,' and 'holds earth.' At first, it just made me laugh and feel a bit uncomfortable. But, thinking about it later, I realized Khenchen's method is an absolute necessity for teaching poetry (snyan ngag)."
Khenchen Gendün Gyatso was also unique in not exacting too many illustrations from his students. Rather, he encouraged them to write only when they truly felt moved by some scenery, for example. Gendün Chömpel concluded from these experiences that the best snyan ngag was that which "put into writing just what one would say with no extra words."
Eventually Gendün Chömpel applied this close observation and fresh outlook to religious and social ironies, a potent tool when combined with his acerbic humor. In 1927, for example, Gendün Chömpel wrote the poem reproduced below, often referred to as "Bla brang la bskur ba'i ka rtsom" [Acrostic sent to Labrang]. This poem is written in an abecedarian acrostic form, the successive lines beginning with successive letters of the alphabet (ka, kha, ga, nga, etc.). Though not found in the Kavyadarsa, this form of wordplay was popular among Tibetan literati for centuries. Yet Gendün Chömpel's writing style is void of the ornate synonyms that characterized most poetry during his time. Moreover, a strong local flavor and sense of humor are evoked by the use of colloquial terms unique to the Amdo dialect, such as akhu (monk), na ning do tshig (last year, this year), and ba lang (cow).
Ka ye! After I went elsewhere, a few monks who will say anything claimed, "The Pehar Oracle wouldn't let that one stay because of his great arrogance." Heterodox Views and the New Orthodox Poems If there is a fastidious dharma-protector, then why does he let stay all those good-for-nothings who roam about, selling tea, chang [liquor], livestock, sheep, etc.? They hoist up their robes [to the height of] palmyra leaves. They carry mean knives and wooden batons. Now, they are the ones you should expel. They have grown increasingly numerous in the last few years. Some say, "He was expelled to another place, because he hasn't the [pure] faith of Pasang." Then why aren't the lowest of sentient beings expelled- such as the cows, female yaks, birds, little birds, and bugs? There's no reason for the four-fanged oracle-king to banish in his ignorance those who would endure heat, cold, drowsiness and fatigue, to study the teachings of the Buddha. Though to us it seems there is a big difference between degenerate monks in good hats, clothing, shoes, etc. and degenerate monks who eat poor food, in the eyes of the [dharma] kings above, there is no difference. Rather than banish hither this arrogant one who knows the Rwa dialectics and the Bse dialectics, how much better it would be to banish those arrogant ones who sell meat, chang, and smokes! Ha! Ha! Isn't it true? Just think about it! Closely question the geshés. The one who has spoken here is the Name-Abbot, the Lion of Logic, Samgha dharma [Gendün Chömpel]!
Gendün Chömpel wrote this poem to address rumors about his alleged "expulsion" from Labrang Trashikyil Monastery, where he had scandalized the assembly by debating against the standard curriculum of the monastery's chief hierarch. Shortly after, he left Labrang "encircled by a halo of notoriety." It is said that he wrote this poem en route to Lhasa. Since Gendün Chömpel remained in contact with Jamyang Zhepa, the main hierarch of Labrang Monastery, and several fellow students for the remainder of his life, he likely intended this poem as a hard-hitting but playful joust at the assembly he had left behind, not as a scathing critique. In any case, its content and writing style illustrate the vernacular tendencies of Gendün Chömpel even before his travels abroad.
Gendün Chömpel's travels in India began in 1934, when hewas thirty-two years old, at the invitation of his friend, benefactor, and research colleague Rahul Sankrityayan (1893-1963), with whom he also studied Sanskrit. After two years of pilgrimage he arrived in the northeastern hill station of Kalimpong. This bustling trade town was home to several aristocratic Tibetan families and supported an intellectual exchange less fettered than in Lhasa, where conservative religious elements still held fast. With the publishing opportunity offered by the Tibetan newspaper Yul phyogs so so'i gsar 'gyur me long / Tibet Mirror, founded ten years previously by the progressive Christian convert Tharchin Babu (1890-1976), Gendün Chömpel became a regular contributor and even briefly worked for the newspaper. Here too his poems evince a conscious departure from the embellished language of classical kavya, as seen in his poem posthumously entitled "A Vernacular Acrostic" (1936).
Heather Stoddard (1985) describes how Gendün Chömpel avidly studied both Sanskrit and English during his travels in India and applied these skills to ambitious translation projects. These endeavors offered potential avenues for literary influence, from which we can discern three trends. First was his admiration for Kalidasa's Sakuntala, which he translated and later promoted as a model for students in Lhasa after his return in 1945. One student recalled Gendün Chömpel's advising him and a fellow student: "The author of the Sakuntala, the non-buddhist Kalidasa, was more expert than Dandin.... Therefore, [I] greatly hope you two [students] will accomplish a little with this poetry in the future. Literary works should not be tied up too much with synonyms. The meaning should be succinct as well as clear and easy to understand. It is said that 'The best composition is understood from the first reading.'" Other literary works which he translated from Sanskrit while in India include the Ramayana and the Dhammapada in their entirety, as well as excerpts from the Veda and the Bhagavad Gita. He was also familiar with the Kama sastra, upon which he relied in writing his own expanded 'Dod pa'i bstan bcos [Treatise on desire].
A second literary influence to which Gendün Chömpel gained access while in India was English literature and English translations of foreign writers such as Pushkin. He even wrote a few poems and essays in English which were published by the Maha Bodhi Society from 1939 to 1941. Yet his Tibetan writings reveal no evidence of direct borrowing. On the contrary, Gendün Chömpel was self-deprecatory about his ability to appreciate English literature. Arguing that one must understand the spoken language to appreciate the flavor of a nationality's poem, he admitted that he himself did not have a taste for English poetry: "I tried to experience the flavor of poetry written in English, but the understanding such as they experience it never came. Moreover, even when someone else explained it, I never truly got their way of thinking. I thought maybe it would make a difference if I were to try writing in English. But, when I finished writing, the result was strange. Thus, it seems to me that if you have not been accustomed [to using] your own language since childhood, [writing in that language] will be impossible. Thus, [the issue is] whether or not one is familiar with one's own spoken language." By the time he returned to Lhasa, Gendün Chömpel had firm opinions about the need to vernacularize the literary language. He recommended to his students: "If one has also been instructed in the three chapters of the Me long, some lines of verse will undoubtedly come, regardless of how little experience or skill one has. However, one will not [necessarily] be able to produce the affective state (nyams 'gyur) or flavor such as is required for snyan ngag. Specifically speaking, in order to write rich literature (rtsom) or poetry (snyan ngag), if one isn't deeply familiar with the spoken language of ones own region, it will be difficult to combine meaning and sound in a sonorous and profound way." His prescription was not the "socialist realism" dictated by Mao in 1942, and he did not reject the whole of kavya theory. Rather, this progressive scholar's concept of the vernacular was rooted in his "selected tradition" from Tibetan literary predecessors. In particular, Gendün Chömpel favored the relatively late commentary by Ju Mipam Gyatso (1846-1912), which he felt was "the clearest, most concise and most complete" understanding of the Kavyadarsa. Upon his deathbed in 1951, Gendün Chömpel requested that his student read two poems: one by Tsongkhapa and the other by Ju Mipam.
(Continues...)
Table of Contents
Foreword Matthew T. Kapstein Kapstein, Matthew T.
Note on Transliteration
Introduction Lauran R. Hartley Hartley, Lauran R. Patricia Schiaffini-Vedani Schiaffini-Vedani, Patricia
Pt. 1 Engaging Traditions
1 Heterodox Views and the New Orthodox Poems: Tibetan Writers in the Early and Mid-Twentieth Century Lauran R. Hartley Hartley, Lauran R. 3
2 Roar of the Snow Lion: Tibetan Poetry in Chinese Yangdon Dhondup Dhondup, Yangdon 32
3 The Development of Modern Tibetan Literature in the People's Republic of China in the 1980s Tsering Shakya Shakya, Tsering 61
4 Dondrup Gyel and the Remaking of the Tibetan Ramayana Nancy G. Lin Lin, Nancy G. 86
5 "Heartbeat of a New Generation": A Discussion of the New Poetry Pema Bhum Bhum, Pema 112
6 "Heartbeat of a New Generation" Revisited Pema Bhum Bhum, Pema 135
7 "Oracles and Demons" in Tibetan Literature Today: Representations of Religion in Tibetan-Medium Fiction Francoise Robin Robin, Francoise 148
Pt. 2 Negotiating Modernities
8 One Nation, Two Discourses: Tibetan New Era Literature and the Language Debate Lara Maconi Maconi, Lara 173
9 The "Condor" Flies over Tibet: Zhaxi Dawa and the Significance of Tibetan Magical Realism Patricia Schiaffini-Vedani Schiaffini-Vedani, Patricia 202
10 In Quest(ion) of an "I": Identity and Idiocy in Alai's Red Poppies Howard Y. F. Choy Choy, Howard Y. F. 225
11 Development and Urban Space in Contemporary Tibetan Literature Riika J. Virtanen Virtanen, Riika J. 236
12 Modern Tibetan Literature and the Rise of Writer Coteries Sangye Gyatso (Gangzhun) Gyatso, Sangye (Gangzhun) 263
13 Tibetan Literature in the Diaspora Hortsang Jigme Jigme, Hortsang 281
14Placing Tibetan Fiction in a World of Literary Studies: Jamyang Norbu's The Mandala of Sherlock Holmes Steven J. Venturino Venturino, Steven J. 301
App. 1 Glossary of Tibetan Spellings 327
App. 2 Glossary of Chinese Terms 338
App. 3 Contemporary Tibetan Literary Works in Translation 340
Bibliography 345
Index 373