The Crown Institute invites you to experience the creation of a Chenrezig Mandala, a symbol of compassion, healing, and impermanence. This sacred ceremony, led by the Jangchub Choeling Nunnery based in Mundgod, South India, will unfold over several days.

The Crown Institute warmly invites you to visit throughout the mandala’s creation and attend both the Opening and Closing ceremonies.

The event begins with a consecration ritual led by Buddhist nuns, invoking the force of goodness through the rhythmic chanting of mantras, accompanied by drums and cymbals. The first steps of the mandala’s creation will commence with the intricate drawing of the design.

Once the Chenrezig Mandala is completed, the Venerables will consecrate and to symbolize the impermanence of all that exists, the Sacred Sand Mandala is swept up. Attendees will be welcome to take a small packet of the sacred sand as a keepsake, while the remaining sand will be poured into Boulder Creek to release its healing energy into the world.

Throughout the week, you will have the unique opportunity to watch millions of colored sand grains meticulously laid in place, gradually bringing the mandala’s breathtaking beauty to life.

You are welcome to stop by and observe anytime during drop-in hours. For classes or groups who wish to visit, please contact Shubham Sapkota via shubham.sapkota@colorado.edu to make arrangements.

Location: Renée Crown Wellness Institute,  1135 Broadway Boulder, CO 80302

For more information about the event, visit the Crown Institute website. 

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            The documentary (2022, Journeyman Pictures) explores the phenomenon of tukdam, in which advanced Tibetan Buddhist meditators display unusual characteristics, such as remaining upright in a meditative posture, warmth around the heart area, and not showing signs of decomposition, after clinical death.  According to the Tibetan understanding the practitioner’s consciousness remains in a state of awareness in deep meditation. The documentary explores both Tibetan analyses of tukdam and follows the work of a team of neuroscientists trying to measure and understand it from a scientific perspective.

            The film screening was part of a two day visit to CU Boulder by Donagh Coleman, who has also directed several other documentaries about the Tibetan cultural world, including A Gesar Bard’s Tale (2013), shot in Jyekundo, about the story of a young nomad who became a bard able to recite the Epic of Gesar, the world’s longest and last living epic, and Stone Pastures (2008), about nomads living in the Changthang of Ladakh, India, who rear pashmina goats.   In addition to the screening, Donagh also participated in the Rene Crown Wellness Institute’s Mindful Campus speaker series on the topic of “a good death,” met with Tibet & Himalaya Initiative graduate students, and visited a graduate documentary lab.  

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On February 24^th, 2023, the University of Colorado Boulder ushered in the new Tibetan year of the Water Hare with Losar celebrations. Losar (ལོ་གསར་) meaning New Year in Tibetan is celebrated widely across the Tibetan Plateau and in the Himalayan regions of Nepal, India, and Bhutan. Taking place on CU Boulder campus for the second time, this year’s Losar cultural program was jointly organized by the Center for Asian Studies (CAS), the Tibet Himalaya Initiative, Department of Anthropology, and the Anderson Language and Technology Center.

The event started with the serving of the ceremonial sweet rice (dresi) – an auspicious food symbolizing prosperity and good fortune— Tibetan butter tea, chai, and Tibetan Losar cookies (khabsey). The khabsey was prepared by the CU Tibetan students with the support and sponsorship of the local Boulder-based Tibetan-owned Cafe, Little Lama Cafe located at Naropa University.

CAS Tibetan Teaching Professor Tenzin Tsepak commenced the Losar celebrations by giving a brief background of Losar and its importance in Tibetan culture. This was followed a simultaneous Tibetan and English reading of a short Tibetan story titled ‘The Hero of the Grassland’ by Gavin Shoew, a first-year Tibetan language student. Aidan Euler, an intermediate Tibetan language student presented on the meaning of the ubiquitous Tibetan mantra Om Mani Padme Hun (ཨོཾ་མ་ཎི་པདྨེ་ཧཱུྃ། ). David Kwei, an intermediate Tibetan language student, presented a short biography of Tibetan writer and poet Gungthang Dawei Lodro, followed by a short poetry reading.

Following the presentations by the Tibetan language students, Samdup, a CU Tibetan student, gave an emotive performance of the Tibetan song titled ‘Samten Lhundup.’ A jovial group performance by the CU Tibetan students through the unity song ‘Ngatso De La Zom Zom’ recharged much enthusiasm into the audience. The event was emceed energetically by Tsering, another CU Tibetan student.

After the closing remarks from Professor Emily Yeh, who encouraged CU students to continue their pursuit of Tibetan and Himalayan studies, the Losar program concluded with dinner catered from Little Lama Café and gorshey (Tibetan circle dance). In the last thirty minutes of the program, students and faculty alike filled the dance floor to learn and bond through Tibetan dance. The evening ended with footsteps beating to the rhythm of the communal dance, sounds of vibrant laughter, and smiling faces. This cultural event brought together CU students, faculty, and the Tibetan community to celebrate and learn about Tibetan and Himalayan culture. The event was attended by 70-80 people, more than double that of last year.

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The Tibet Himalaya Initiative was honored to host a lunch symposium with Tibetan women writers Tsedron Kyi, Nyima Tso, and Min Nangzey at Koenig Alumni Center on April 22nd. These writers are prominent women's voices in the Tibetan literary scene, both on the plateau and in the diaspora. 

The lunch symposium was an intimate gathering of 20 THI faculty, visiting scholars, local translators, alumni, and graduate students. We had the opportunity to hear about the literary journeys of each writer and engage in informal discussion with them.

This was a follow up to the public event, Emerging Voices: Tibetan Women Writers (attended by approximately 75) on Thursday evening the 21st, in which the writers read from their works, a combination of poetry and short stories, in Tibetan followed by a reading of the translations.

Nicole Willock (Old Dominion University) introduced the event with a lecture on the history of contemporary Tibetan literature from seminal figures such as Tseten Zhabdrung, the topic of her book  (Columbia University Press, 2021), up to emerging publications by Tibetan women writers.

About the Tibetan Writers:

Tsedronkyi (ཚེ་སྒྲོན་སྐྱིད) is a short story writer from Chapcha, Amdo and teacher of Tibetan language and literature. She has published two books of collected short stories, A Melancholy Drama (སྐྱོ་སྣང་གི་ཟློས་གར། 2005) and Clinging (ཞེན།་ 2016).

Nyima Tso (ཉི་མ་འཚོ།) is a poet and short story writer from Labrang, who currently lives in Dharamshala. She has published two books of collected poems and short stories respectively: The First Journey of This Life (མི་ཚེ་འདིའི་འགྲུལ་བཞུད་ཐེངས་དང་པོ། 2003) and A Fragment (ཟུར་ཞིག Zhur zhig 2007).

Min-Nangzey (སྨིན་སྣང་མཛེས།) is an emerging poet and essayist from Golok, who currently lives in Dharamshala. She has published two books of collected poems and lyrics respectively: Princess of the Snow Mountain (གངས་རིའི་སྲས་མོ། 2006) and Songs of Emotions (ཚོར་བའི་གླུ 2015).

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We are grateful to UVA's Tibet Center, who arranged for this group of writers to come on tour to the US with presentations at UVA, Harvard, Columbia, and CU Boulder.

Sponsored by the Tibet Himalaya Initiative with support from the Center for Humanities and the Arts and the Research Innovation Office at CU Boulder.

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In the lecture, Daniel Miller displayed a number of photographs in the exhibition. This was followed by a broad overview of the physical geography of the Tibetan Plateau, including a number of photos taken by astronauts from space.  From here, he discussed the cultural geography of the Tibetan Plateau from ancient times to the present, with a focus on the material culture of pastoralism.  He also included discussed similarities between ranching cultures of the US West and pastoral culture on the Tibetan Plateau, as well as climate change impacts, and why Tibet matters today.  Following the talk, Sanggay Tashi, graduate student in the Department of Anthropology, briefly talked about his own experiences growing up in a herding community in the Tibetan region of Amdo, followed by a Q&A session.  

Daniel Miller served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Nepal from 1974-78 and earned an MA in range ecology from the University of Montana. His career in development, particularly work on livestock development projects, has spanned projects for the Asian Development Bank in Bhutan, ICIMOD in Nepal, and the World Bank.  He also worked with wildlife biologist George Schaller in the Changtang region of Tibet. He currently lives in Wyoming, and has published numerous articles, book chapters, and photographic books about rangelands and pastoralism in the Himalayas, Tibetan Plateau, and Mongolia.

Photo by Dan Miller.

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Thanks to all who attended the Kayden Translation Symposium on "Buddhist Women and the Literary in Tibet" on Friday, October 22 at the Koenig Alumni Center.

It was a beautiful autumn day to sit together as Tibetan Studies faculty, visiting scholars, graduate students, and area translators to discuss translations of Tibetan literary works by, about, and for Buddhist women. The day involved two main parts: the symposium, which ran for two and a half hours over lunch, and planning sessions with a smaller group before and afterwards for the next Lotsawa Translation Workshop, to be held at Northwestern University in October 2022. The first Lotsawa Translation Workshop was held at CU Boulder in October 2018.

The symposium featured readings of Tibetan literature by the female visionaries Sera Khandro (1892–1940) and Khandro Tare Lhamo (1938–2002), contemporary nuns Dechen Yangkyi and Kalzang Tsomo, the fiction writer Tashi Drönma, and a letter of Buddhist counsel by Terdak Lingpa  (1646–1714) to his sister after the loss of a child. The afternoon included brief presentations and readings by Sarah Jacoby, Padma ’tsho, Holly Gayley, and Dominique Townsend, followed by a discussion comparing the literary merits and gendered dimensions of select passages in the Tibetan original and English translation. See details below.

Abecedarian Advice from Sera Khandro - Sarah Jacoby, Northwestern University
Examining abecedarian verses by the Tibetan female author, Sera Khandro, considering questions of authorship and audience, as well as the challenges of translating Tibetan meter and acrostic form into English.

Writings by Contemporary Tibetan Nuns - Padma ’tsho, Southwest Nationalities University
Exploring nun’s writings on women’s equality and education from the journal Gangkar Lhamo through paragraph-long essays “Our Rare Times” (རྙེད་དཀའ་བའི་ང་ཚོའི་དུས་ཚོད།) and “Women Raised in the Land of Snow Mountains” (ཁ་བ་གངས་ཅན་ལྗོངས་ནས་འཚར་ལོངས་བྱུང་བའི་བུད་མེད་ཚོ།).

On Tantra and Sexuality: Literary Highlights and Lowlights - Holly Gayley, CU Boulder
Reading short passages from the love letters of Khandro Tāre Lhamo and the fictional account “Sister Dechen Tsomo” by Tashi Drönma, contrasting euphoric and dysphoric depictions of tantra and sexuality by contemporary Tibetan women.

Terdak Lingpa’s Letter to a Mourning Mother - Dominque Townsend, Bard College
Reading the poetic and musical verses Terdak Lingpa wrote for his sister after the death of her beloved son, reflecting on how the Tibetan mgur form allows for the expression of grief and consolation in balance with the determination to uproot attachment.

We’re hoping to host a complementary symposium this spring with Tibetan women writers. Stay tuned!

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This symposium is courtesy of the 2021 Kayden Translation Award for Inseparable Across Lifetimes: The Lives and Love Letters of the Visionary Couple Namtrul Rinpoche and Khandro Tāre Lhamo, translated by Holly Gayley. Co-sponsored by the Tibet Himalaya Initiative and with special thanks to the UVA Tibet Center.

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The special inaugural issue on "Contemporary Bhutanese Literature" explores the development of contemporary Bhutanese literature, including works in Dzongkha and English. Research articles discuss key issues, genres, and moments in contemporary Bhutanese literature, delving into the relationship, transformations, and tensions between oral and literary forms, colonial and post-colonial influences, religious and secular themes, and national and international languages in the formation of a multilingual body of contemporary Bhutanese literature.

CU Associate Professor of Buddhism, Holly Gayley, served as the guest editor, based on a panel organized for the the annual conference of the Association of Asian Studies held in March 2019 in Denver, Colorado, USA.

Download a PDF of the IJBHR Inaugural Issue. Table of contents is below.

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The Center for Asian Studies has received a grant from the U. S. Department of Education's Undergraduate International Studies and Foreign Languages (UISFL) program for AYs 20-23, which will allow the center to further develop offerings in Tibetan and Himalayan studies at the University of Colorado Boulder. 

The grant has three main components:

1) Tibetan and Himalayan area studies: The center plans to hire a half-time instructor who will develop and teach introductory courses on Tibetan and Himalayan civilization from traditional to contemporary times, offer course development grants to encourage CU Boulder faculty members to add Tibetan and Himalayan content to existing courses or create new courses focusing on the region, and work with partners at the Tibet Himalaya Initiative to plan a series of events on the region. The first event, “The Chinese Revolution on the Tibetan Frontier: Rebellion, Repression, and Remembrance on a Tibetan Borderland of Early-Maoist China,” a lecture by Benno Weiner, associate professor of history at Carnegie Mellon University, was held remotely this month.

2) Tibetan and Nepali language courses: Beginning in Fall 2021, the center plans to offer credit-bearing Directed Independent Language Studies courses in both Tibetan and Nepali languages, in partnership with the Anderson Language Technology Center (ALTEC).

3) Language study scholarships: The center will offer scholarships to students who will pursue summer language programs in Tibetan and Nepali, either through study abroad or domestically, to help them build their language skills beyond the introductory level available at CU Boulder.

For the Press Release in the Colorado Arts and Sciences Magazine, please click here.

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Congrats to Selma ("Sam") Sonntag on this new volume, co-edited with Mark Turin! The book is open access and is available for free .

This highly original and timely collection brings together case studies from salient areas of the Himalayan region to explore the politics of language contact. Promoting a linguistically and historically grounded perspective, The Politics of Language Contact in the Himalaya offers nuanced insights into language and its relation to power in this geopolitically complex region.

Edited by respected scholars in the field, the collection comprises five new research contributions by established and early-career researchers who have been significantly engaged in the Himalayan region. Grounded in a commitment to theoretically informed area studies, and covering Tibet (China), Assam (India), and Nepal, each case study is situated within contemporary debates in sociolinguistics, political science, and language policy and planning. Bridging disciplines and transcending nation-states, the volume offers a unique contribution to the study of language contact and its political implications.

The Politics of Language Contact in the Himalaya is essential reading for researchers in the fields of language policy and planning, applied linguistics, and language and literary education. The detailed introduction and concluding commentary make the collection accessible to all social scientists concerned with questions of language, and the volume as a whole will be of interest to scholars in anthropology, sociolinguistics, political science and Asian studies.

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, a new book of translations by Holly Gayley, faculty in Religious Studies, has just been released by Snow Lion Publications. This is first translation into English of a unique literary archive, namely the biographies and correspondence of the Tibetan visionaries Namtrul Rinpoche and Khandro Tāre Lhamo, who helped revitalize Buddhism in the wake of the Cultural Revolution. This archive served as source materials for Gayley's 2016 monograph, Love Letters from Golok: A Tantric Couple in Modern Tibet. Her translations capture a turning point in modern Tibetan history as well as the affection of a contemporary tantric partnership.

“In a love relationship that was not just based on ordinary passions, but rather the union of incisive knowledge and skillful means, Namtrul Rinpoche and Khandro Tāre Lhamo came to know the pure essence of wisdom exaltation as the sacred union of male and female. They used this unobstructed power to work for the welfare of others through their enlightened deeds. I am grateful to Holly Gayley for bringing their exemplary life stories and songs of profound union into the English language so that readers can glimpse the best of our Tibetan Vajrayana tradition.”

—Lama Chonam, teacher and translator, Light of Berotsana Translation Group

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