A History of Modern Tibet [Volume 2]: Melvyn C. Goldstein

Posted on April 27, 2013 by Tsechu

MELVYN C. GOLDSTEIN. A History of Modern Tibet. Volume 2, The Calm before the Storm: 1951-1955. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. 2007. The claims and counter-claims of Tibet’s sovereignty has captured global attention for the past fifty years as it has fueled Tibetans to protest violently and non-violently for self-determination, and has read more…

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BEP and Vernacularization

Posted on April 25, 2013 by Kalsang Wangdu

BEP and Vernacularization Why mother-tongue based education? In 2004, the ‘‘Basic Education Policy for Tibetans in Exile’‘ (BEP) was promulgated by the Tibetan administration in Dharamsala. This has caused a considerable excitement as well as anxiety in various constituencies of the exile Tibetan community. However, most of the discourses in the public domain revolve around read more…

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BEP Myths Debunked

Posted on April 12, 2013 by MS Journal

- Gyaltsen, Science Education Officer, DoE Most of the issues discussed in exile community, be it in media or any public forum, are political in nature. Discussions on education-related issues are rare, if not nonexistent. While we find popular Tibetan websites and journals flooded with articles on situation inside Tibet and exile Tibetan polity, how read more…

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St. Aquinas’ God – The Prime Mover

Posted on February 27, 2013 by Tenzin Rabga

The question of beginning of the Universe, if at all there is one, has fascinated thinkers and philosophers far and wide since the beginning of any textually or orally transmitted doctrine of philosophy. Certainly for centuries the questions about the beginning of the Universe has been predominantly occupied by theologians and religious doctrines. The West read more…

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Some Thoughts on The Bodhisattva’s Brain: Buddhism Naturalized

Posted on February 4, 2013 by Palden Gyal

The Philosophers Magazine’s reviewers have released a list of the ‘Best Philosophy Books’ published last year by taking into account of the twin virtues of philosophical rigor and readability. The Bodhisattva’s Brain: Buddhism Naturalized by the philosopher, Owen Flanagan*, is one of the ten books selected. Here, I have written a short reflection piece on read more…

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God is Existence Itself

Posted on January 30, 2013 by Palden Gyal

Among many never-ending intellectual battles fought against critics of God’s existence, the ontological argument is probably the most intellectually rigorous as well as the most intriguing one. The pioneer philosopher in this tradition is the theologian St. Anselm whose chief argument against the deniers of God’s existence is that the claim ‘God does not exists’ read more…

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Water Wars – Nine Thirsty Regions where H20 Conflict is Threatening

Posted on January 12, 2013 by MS Journal

By Hank Pellissier* “I’d kill for a drink of water,” could be a military call-to-arms soon, as the planet’s most essential commodity is swallowed, evaporated, polluted, and utilized at unsustainable levels. Earth contains a finite, unchanging amount of H2O. Usage has escalated dangerously, due to human population explosion (1.65 billion – 9 billion from 1900-2025) read more…

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Special Frontier Force

Posted on January 6, 2013 by Kalsang Wangdu

A clandestine Tibetan guerrilla unit in the Indian military In the fiction-based-on-facts novel Dragon Fire, the BBC’s veteran Asia correspondent and author Humphery Hawksley (2001) relates a story of the Third World War, genesis of which lay in the attack on notorious Drapchi Prison in Tibet by the soldiers of India’s clandestine guerilla unit comprising read more…

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The Problem of Identity Through Time

Posted on December 16, 2012 by Tenzin Rabga

  The ship of Theseus provides a classic example of the problem associated with holding on to the notion of an identity that persists through time. The ship gradually undergoes replacement of its constituent planks until by the end none of the original planks remain. Does it then retain the same ‘identity’ as the original read more…

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Tourism Development Compensating for the Effects of Climate Change in Rural Himalayan Communities

Posted on December 12, 2012 by Tsechu

Tourism Development Compensating for the Effects of Climate Change in Rural Himalayan Communities: a Case Study in Upper Mustang Villages (Central vs. Peripheral Villages) While this is just a sociological work in progress, I look forward to supplementing my research by collaborating with climatologists from Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University to measure glacier read more…

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