CONTEMPORARY VISIONS IN TIBETAN STUDIES

From the early 1980s onward, the field of Tibetan studies has been transformed by the opening of Tibet to foreign researchers. This has ushered in a new era of engagement with Tibet characterized by partnership between Tibetan scholars and their international colleagues, and by an increasing focus on the study of modern Tibet. Concomitant with this trend, the study of traditional Tibetan society and the imperative for cultural preservation has gained a newfound sense of urgency as the older generation of Tibetans, both in Tibet and in the Tibetan diaspora, began to pass away, taking their stories with them. This volume of essays, Contemporary Visions in Tibetan Studies, reflects in many ways a critical phase in the discipline of Tibetan studies. The contributions, from promising young scholars, both Tibetan and non-Tibetan from across the globe, are divided evenly between essays that engage with the various modernities of Tibet, China and the diaspora on the one hand, and more classically oriented studies of history, culture and religion on the other. Here Tibetan tradition is scrutinized from without and within, sometimes upheld and sometimes revised. Reflecting the growth of the field and its movement away from assertions of Tibetan exceptionalism and towards cross-disciplinary and cross-cultural projects, many of the essays are problem-oriented, and their enquiries take them outside of the confines of the Tibetan cultural area and towards engagement with the wider world.