Join us for an event with Zhao Zhong, the Director of Green Camel Bell, on Nature Conservation and Public Participation in the Tibetan Plateau. He will share his work titled "Nature Conservation and Public Participation: Practices of a Grassroots Environmental NGO on the Tibetan Plateau." This event is open to faculty, graduate students, and undergraduate students from CU and THI.

• Date: February 7, 2025
• Location: Gugg 201E
• Time: 12:00 PM - 2:00 PM

Abstract: 

The grasslands of the Tibetan Plateau serve a special function in protecting the ecological function of this region at the headwaters of the Yangtze River and the Yellow River. However, natural grasslands in this region are degraded to various degrees, due to human, socioeconomic, climate change, and threats from overpopulation of some species. Enhancing public participation in ecological conservation can be a feasible bottom-up solution for grassland degradation. The presentation will demonstrate how environmental NGOs work with local herders, government, schools, and enterprises to relieve the stocking pressure on grassland and improve the ecological environment through public participation.

About Zhao Zhong:  

Zhao Zhong is the founder and director of Green Camel Bell, a grass-root environmental NGO in Northwest China. He has done work within environmental education, water pollution monitoring, and community-based eco-agriculture and sustainable development and investment. He was a Yale World Fellow in 2022. From 2015-16, as a Hubert H. Humphrey fellow, Zhong completed a year of course work and professional affiliation at the University of California, Davis on Natural »Æ¹ÏÊÓƵ Management and Climate Change. 

For more information about Zhao Zhong, please visit his profile at and his work through the .

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Date: December 5, 2024
Time: 12:15 PM - 1:45 PM
Location: Gugg 201E

Join us for an event featuring Nepalese scholar Nabraj Lama, who will share his research titled "Indigenous Affairs of Nepal through a Political and Economic Lens." This event is open to faculty, graduate and undergraduate students from CU and THI.

About Nabraj Lama

Nabraj Lama is currently a faculty and research scholar at Lumbini Buddhist University. He is an accomplished research scholar specializing in Himalayan Studies, International Political Economy, Indigenous Affairs, and Sustainable Development. Holding advanced degrees in Economics and Development Studies, he has significantly contributed to academic and public discourse through various publications and op-ed articles.

His career is marked by advocacy for marginalized communities, climate action, and world peace, as well as collaborations with leading organizations and the co-founding of influential think tanks.

Nabraj Lama has extensive experience in the fields of water resources, international affairs, political economy, and indigenous nationalities. His research background includes academic and developmental projects, with collaborations involving: The World Bank Nepal, India China Institute (ICI) at The New School University, Durham University, UK, Helvetas/Swiss Inter-cooperation Nepal, Heifer International Nepal, and Central Department of Anthropology at Tribhuvan University

Having traveled to more than 55 districts of Nepal, Nabraj Lama is deeply passionate about preserving the socio-cultural aspects of indigenous nationalities, various ethnic communities, castes, and other groups.

For more information about Nabraj Lama, please visit his profile at Lumbini Buddhist University: .

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Professor Dan Hirshberg is offering the following courses in the Spring term of 2025:

• ASIA 1700: Introduction to Tibetan Civilization
• ASIA 4700: Enlightened Visionaries, Dirty Tricksters, and Warrior Heroes
• RLST 3550: Tibetan Buddhism

Additionally, a second semester of Tibetan is being offered through the Rangjung Yeshe Institute in Nepal. Please email Professor Daniel A. Hirshberg for more details.

For more information, you can visit his webpage: Dan Hirshberg | Center for Asian Studies.

Brief Bio of Professor Dan Hirshberg: 

Dan Hirshberg, Ph.D. is a Visiting Scholar for the Tibet Himalaya Initiative and Lecturer for the Center for Asian Studies and the Religious Studies Department. Much of his research centers on cultural memory, the narrative of Tibet’s 8th ce. conversion to Buddhism, and the apotheosis of its protagonist, Padmasambhava, in both literature and iconography. The former is the focus of his monograph, Remembering the Lotus-Born (Wisdom SITB, 2016). He has repeatedly collaborated on the latter with the Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art in NYC. Dan has held year-long fellowships at UC Santa Barbara, LMU Munich, and UVa’s Contemplative Sciences Center. Before returning to Boulder, he was associate professor of Asian religions at the University of Mary Washington, where he founded one of the first Contemplative Studies programs for undergrads, established a Japanese-style garden, and led study abroad programs to Nepal and Japan. He also serves as Editor and Chair for the Journal of the North American Japanese Garden Association.

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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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When: Thursday, March 2
5:30 Reception, Meet the Author | 6pm Book Reading and Dialogue

Where: Chancellor’s Auditorium
CASE Building 4th Floor 725 Euclid Ave, CU Boulder

Breathtaking in scope and powerfully intimate, We Measure the Earth with Our Bodies is a gorgeously written meditation on colonization, displacement, and the lengths we’ll go to remain connected to our families and ancestral lands. Told through the lives of a family across three generations, this beautifully lyrical debut novel provides a nuanced portrait of the world of Tibetan exiles. We Measure the Earth with Our Bodies, won the 2023 New Writers Award for Fiction from the Great Lakes Colleges Association. A New York Times Summer Reads pick, her novel was shortlisted for The Scotiabank Giller Prize and longlisted for The Center for Fiction First Novel Prize and The Toronto Book Awards.

“We Measure the Earth with Our Bodies showcases a writer of rare talent and uncompromising vision. In these pages that speak of exile and loss, of longing and sorrow, Tsering Lama also manages to remind us–with startling beauty and compassion – how much can still survive. This novel is a testament to a people’s resolve to love, no matter what. A triumph.â€�
—Maaza Mengiste, Booker Prize shortlisted author of The Shadow King

“[A] heartfelt and magical saga of a Tibetan family’s love, sacrifice, and heritage … Lama imbues this mesmerizing tale—informed by her own family fleeing Tibet for Nepal in the 1960s—with a rich sense of history, mysticism, and ritual.â€� â€”Publishers Weekly

Tsering Yangzom Lama holds an MFA in Writing from Columbia University where she was a TOMS Fellow, Writing Fellow, and Teaching Fellow. She earned her BA in Creative Writing and International Relations from the University of British Columbia. A lifelong activist, she is a Storytelling Advisor at Greenpeace International, where she guides and trains people around the world in narrative strategy. A recipient of grants from the Canada Council for the Arts and the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund, Tsering has been a resident at the Jan Michalski Foundation, Banff Center for Arts and Creativity, Hedgebrook, Willapa Bay AiR, Vermont Studio Center, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Lillian E. Smith Center, Art Omi, Catwalk Institute, WildAcres, and Playa Summerlake. She was selected as a 2018 Tin House Novel Scholar. Tsering’s writing has appeared in The Globe and Mail, The Malahat Review, Grain, Kenyon Review, Vela, LaLit, and Himal SouthAsian, as well as the anthologies Old Demons New Deities: 21 Short Stories from Tibet; House of Snow: An Anthology of the Greatest Writing About Nepal; and Brave New Play Rites. Tsering is also a co-founder of , a leading English-language blog among Tibetan youth in exile. Born and raised in Nepal, she currently splits her time between Vancouver, Canada and Sweden. 

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Tukdam: Between Worlds, is a brand new feature documentary that explores the phenomenon of tukdam, where deceased mediators show no signs of death for days and weeks.

Synopsis 

We tend to think of death as something clear-cut, and that medical science has it neatly figured out. This feature documentary explodes such assumptions through its exploration of a phenomenon that blurs life and death to an unprecedented degree. In what Tibetan Buddhists call tukdam, advanced meditators die in a consciously controlled manner in meditation. Though dead according to our biomedical standards, they often stay sitting upright in meditation posture; remarkably, their bodies remain fresh and lifelike, without signs of decay for days, sometimes weeks after clinical death. The film follows the first ever scientific research into tukdam by neuroscientist Richard Davidson’s team, juxtaposed with intimate death stories of tukdam meditators and Tibetan understandings of the death process – which include ideas about consciousness and the mind-body connection that are very different to those of mainstream science. Unfolding in cinematic dialogue between scientific and Tibetan perspectives, the film unravels our certainties about life and death, and shows how differently death can be construed in different cultural contexts. In this encounter between worlds, the scientists' methods and views are challenged by a civilization where death has been a central preoccupation for centuries.

Biography 

Finnish-Irish-American filmmaker Donagh Coleman holds degrees in Philosophy and Psychology and Music and Media Technologies from Trinity College Dublin, and a MA in Asian Studies from UC Berkeley. Previous award-winning films with wide international festival and TV exposure include A Gesar Bard's Tale (2013) and Stone Pastures (2008). Donagh's films have also been shown at museums such as MoMA and the Rubin Museum of Art in New York, and by the European Commission. Besides films and TV-docs, Donagh directs radio documentaries for the Finnish and Irish national broadcasters. His Radio Feature Gesar! was Finland’s entry for the 2012 Prix Italia competition, and his feature Do I Exist? was Finland’s entry for the 2015 Prix Europa competition. Donagh has also worked as a TV journalist and presenter for the Finnish broadcaster YLE News. He is currently doing a PhD in medical anthropology at UC Berkeley, continuing the research conducted for his 2022 feature documentary on meditative Tibetan Buddhist tukdam deaths.

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This photo essay captures the dreams and realities surrounding artificial glaciers in Ladakh. Informed by three months of preliminary research, it presents some visual evidence to accompany the authors’ reflections while on Fulbright-Nehru Student Research grants in India. 

The authors, Sierra Gladfelter and Eben Yonnetti, are alumni of the Tibet Himalaya Initiative and University of Colorado Boulder in Geography and Religious Studies, respectively.

Visit the full photo essay: "Ladakh’s Artificial Glaciers, Ice Stupas, and Other Attempts to Survive a Warming Planet" here.

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Doctoral student in ethnomusicology, Mason Brown, shares vignettes of his dissertaton fieldwork on Tibetan folk music in Nepal.

Visit the full photo essay, "Folk Songs in Nubri" here.

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THI Visiting Scholar, Andrew Grant, shares his experiences between 2010-2017 at the Tibetan festival of Lurol in the village of Sadjye (Sa dkyel à½¦à¼‹à½‘ཀྱིལ) near to the heart of Rebgong (རེབ་ཀོང་à¼�) in Qinghai Province / Amdo Tibet.

Visit the full photo essay here.

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, PhD student in Geography, was awarded a National Science Foundation - Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement (DDRI) grant by the Geography and Spatial Sciences Program. The award will support his dissertation research project titled "Extra-Territorial Sovereignty, Nationalism, and the Politics of Development".

His doctoral dissertation project will explore emerging questions in geopolitics about interactions among extra-territorial sovereignty (the power nation-states exert over people and places outside their borders), state-building, ethnic nationalism, and multi-ethnic contestations over space, place, and political expression. Through an ethnographic case study of Chinese economic and political influence in Nepal, he will investigate the following set of core questions: (1) How do the seemingly banal, everyday, and gendered practices of Tibetan nationalism and place making in one part of Kathmandu reveal the messy intricacies of Chinese extra-territorial politics of development in Nepal?  (2) How do Chinese extra-territorial sovereignty and Nepali ethnic nationalism produce Tibetan refugee subjectivities in Nepal?  (3) How do place based identity politics and Nepali ethnic nationalism produce contestations between Tibetan refugees and members of other ethnic groups in Nepal?  Rupak will examine how everyday interactions, events, and practices reveal the intricacies of macro-scale geopolitics. In doing so, this dissertation will provide additional linkages between feminist political geography and geographies of sovereignty and territory.

For more information on the grant, see the .

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