This book examines how territorial, civilisational and cultural location determines one’s gaze and attitude while representing a contested space like Tibet. It analyses representations of Tibet in three novels: James Hilton’s Lost Horizon (1933), Jamyang Norbu’s The Mandala of Sherlock Holmes (1999) and Kaushik Barua’s Windhorse (2013). It shows how these novels project different types of gaze — insider, outsider and insider-outsider — and explores them within the context of some contemporary Tibetan activist writers. The book also looks at Tibetan exilic writings and virtual activities of the Tibetan activists whose programmes and rhetoric counter the age-old image of the Tibetans as passive and non-violent people. It shows how activists utilise social networking as an effective platform to counter imperialist occupation of Tibet by China. It includes interviews of eight Anglophone Tibetan writers – Tenzin Tsundue, Thubten Samphel, Tsering Namgyal Khortsa, Tsering Wangmo Dhompa, Jamyang Norbu, Tenzin Dickie, Bhuchung D. Sonam, and an Indian writer who has written on Tibet, Kaushik Barua.
Interdisciplinary, accessible and engaging, this book presents one of the first studies on how Tibet has been represented in English fiction. It will be of interest to scholars and researchers of literature, media and cultural studies, politics, history and China studies.
List of Figures
Acknowledgements
Chapter 1: Introduction: Tibet and the Politics of Representation
Chapter 2: Tibet as Myth: Patterns of Gaze in James Hilton’s Lost Horizon
Chapter 3: Looking at Tibet from India: Tibetan Resistance Movement in Kaushik Barua’s Windhorse
Chapter 4: An Insider’s View of Tibet: Jamyang Norbu’s The Mandala of Sherlock Holmes
Chapter 5: Reconfiguring Tibet: Tibetan Activism in Diaspora
Chapter 6: Conclusion: Emergence of Pan-Tibetan Imagination
Appendices: Interviews
1. Koushik Goswami in Conversation with Kaushik Barua
2. Koushik Goswami in Conversation with Jamyang Norbu
3. Koushik Goswami in Conversation with Tenzin Tsundue
4. Koushik Goswami in Conversation with Bhuchung D. Sonam
5. Koushik Goswami in Conversation with Thubten Samphel
6. Koushik Goswami in Conversation with Tsering Namgyal Khortsa
7. Koushik Goswami in Conversation with Tsering Wangmo Dhompa
8. Koushik Goswami in Conversation with Tenzin Dickie
Select Bibliography
Index
Biography
Koushik Goswami is a doctoral research scholar at the Department of Comparative Literature, Jadavpur University, Kolkata and teaches English at Malda College, West Bengal, India. He was a Humanities Visiting Scholar at the University of Exeter, the United Kingdom.