Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-skm99 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-28T05:15:59.264Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Identity, memory, and homeland: in conversation with Tsering Wangmo Dhompa, a Tibetan author and poet in exile

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2023

Priyanka D'Rozario Open the ORCID record for Priyanka D'Rozario [Opens in a new window]
Priyanka D'Rozario*
Affiliation:
Department of English, School of Liberal Arts and Management, DIT University, Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India
*
Author for correspondence: Priyanka D'Rozario, dannypriyanka@gmail.com
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The annexation of Tibet into the People's Republic of China in the 1950s led to an exodus of nearly 80,000 Tibetans along with the fourteenth Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso. Since then, thousands of Tibetans have taken refuge in the neighboring countries. Many live as refugees in different parts of the world today. Although the Tibetan refugee community has emerged as a successful model for other displaced communities, the individual struggles of these refugees in foreign lands cannot be underestimated. Dhompa's book A Home in Tibet shines a light on this other side of their exilic existence by raising questions about identity, home, country, and memory. It outlines the hardships, confusion, and contestations that Tibetans face on a daily basis. After a short introduction to provide context, this article reports a conversation with Tsering Wangmo Dhompa, which grippingly addresses these issues.

Keywords

ExilehomelandidentitymemoryTibet
Type
Perspectives on Asia
Information
International Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 20 , Issue 2 , July 2023 , pp. 913 - 927
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Basu, S. (2012). “Interrogating Tibetan Exilic Culture: Issues and Concerns.” Sociological Bulletin 61:2, pp. 232–55. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038022920120202.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Batarseh, R. C. (2016). “Inside/Outside the Circle: From the Indochinese Designated Class to Contemporary Group Processing.” Refuge: Canada's Journal on Refugees 32:2, pp. 54–66. https://doi.org/10.25071/1920-7336.40254.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bhabha, H. (1994). The Location of Culture. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Bhoil, S. (2011). “Rules of Language in Rules of the House: Study of Tsering Wangmo Dhompa's Tibetan English Poetry.” Rupkatha Journal on Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities 3:2, pp. 251–57.Google Scholar
Bhoil, S. (2013). “Of Exile and Writing: An Interview with the Tibetan Poet Tsering Wangmo Dhompa.” Journal of Postcolonial Writing 49:1, pp. 40–46. https://doi.org/10.1080/17449855.2011.633013.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bhoil, S. (2014). “The Challenge of Exile and Writing.” Interventions 17:5, pp. 759–68. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369801x.2014.950308.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brah, A. (1996). Cartographies of Diaspora: Contesting Identities. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Brinkerhoff, J. M. (2011). “‘Digital Diasporas’ Challenge to Traditional Power: The Case of Tibetboard.” Review of International Studies 38:1, pp. 77–95. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0260210510001737.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dhompa, T. W. (2013). A Home in Tibet. India, Penguin Random House India.Google Scholar
D'Rozario, P. (2022). “Fragmented in Exile: Postmodern Consciousness in Tsering Wangmo Dhompa's in the Absent Everyday.” Literary Voice 18:2, pp. 156–62.Google Scholar
Gupta, S. (2019). “Enduring Liminality: Voting Rights and Tibetan Exiles in India.” Asian Ethnicity 20:3, pp. 330–47. https://doi.org/10.1080/14631369.2019.1579635.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hall, S. (1990). “Culture Identity and Diaspora.” In Identity: Community, Culture, Difference, ed. Rutherford, J., pp. 222–37. London: Lawrence & Wishart.Google Scholar
John, A. J. (2016). Resistance in Exile: A Study of Tibetan Poetry in English. India, Authorspress.Google Scholar
Kolås, Å. and Thowsen, M. P. (2005). “Tibetan Culture on the Margins: Destruction or Reconstruction?” In On the Margins of Tibet: Cultural Survival on the Sino-Tibetan Frontier, edited by Thowsen M.P. and Kolas A. pp. 172–82. Seattle: University of Washington Press. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvcwn73b.12.Google Scholar
Lahiri, H. (2017). “Diaspora from the Himalayan Region: Nation and Modernity in Select Literary Works.” Asiatic 11:1, pp. 69–85.Google Scholar
Makley, C. (1997). “The Meaning of Liberation: Representations of Tibetan Women.” The Tibet Journal 22:2, pp. 4–29. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43302342.Google Scholar
Menard-Warwick, J., Bybee, E. R., Degollado, E. D., Jin, S., Kehoe, S. and Masters, K. (2019). “Same Language, Different Histories: Developing a ‘Critical’ English Teacher Identity.” Journal of Language, Identity & Education 18:6, pp. 364–76. https://doi.org/10.1080/15348458.2019.1671195.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Michael, F. (1985). “Survival of a Culture: Tibetan Refugees in India.” Asian Survey 25:7, pp. 737–44. https://doi.org/10.2307/2644241.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ofner, I. (2019). “Family Matters: Women's Spaces and Quiet Truths in House of the Turquoise Roof and Dalai Lama, My Son.” Life Writing 17:3, pp. 367–86. https://doi.org/10.1080/14484528.2019.1694595.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Píchová, H. (2002). The Art of Memory in Exile: Vladimir Nabokov & Milan Kundera. Carbondale & Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press.Google Scholar
Rajan, P. K. (1990). “Humanistic Ambivalence in the Novels of Mulk Raj Anand a Dialectical Approach.” 10 January 1990. Shodhganga. Thesis. 14 January 2020. https://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/handle/10603/143853.Google Scholar
Ramanathan, P. and Singh, P. (2021). “‘Searching for Roots’: Exploring the Idea of Home in Tibetan Refugee Youth Living in Delhi, India.” Psychology and Developing Societies 33:2, pp. 324–46. https://doi.org/10.1177/09713336211040710.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rushdie, Salman (1991). Imaginary Homelands: Essays and Criticism 1981–1991. London: Granta Books.Google Scholar
Safran, W. (1991). “Diasporas in Modern Societies: Myths of Homeland and Return.” Diaspora: A Journal of Transnational Studies 1:1, pp. 83–99. https://doi.org/10.1353/dsp.1991.0004.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Said, E. (2000). Reflections on Exile and Other Essays. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Siganporia, H. (2015). “The Curious Case of the Dancing Monks: Negotiating Tibetan Identity in Exile.” The International Journal of Religion and Spirituality in Society 6:1, pp. 53–60. https://doi.org/10.18848/2154-8633/cgp/v06i01/59261.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Siganporia, H. (2016). “Seeking Dhasa; Finding Lhasa: Liminality and Narrative in the Tibetan Refugee Capital of Dharamsala.” Culture Unbound 8:1, pp. 62–73. https://doi.org/10.3384/cu.2000.1525.168162.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vasantkumar, C. (2016). “Tibetan Diaspora, Mobility and Place: ‘Exiles in their Own Homeland’.” Theory, Culture & Society 34:1, pp. 115–36. https://doi.org/10.1177/0263276416658103.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wangchuk, T. (2018). “Verses of Praise and Denigration: Finding Poetic Creativity in the Tibetan Election in Exile.” Himalaya 38:1, pp. 177–88.Google Scholar
Yu, H. S. (2008). “Memory, Nostalgia, and the Filipino Diaspora in the Works of Two Filipina Writers.” Philippine Quarterly of Culture and Society 36:3, pp. 103–23. http://www.jstor.org/stable/29792648.Google Scholar