"Negotiating Identities: The Tibetan’s Experience" by Tenzin Yeka
 

Home Institution

Ashoka University

Publication Date

Fall 2023

Program Name

Nepal: Tibetan and Himalayan Peoples

Abstract

The fundamental aspect of the Tibetan exilic identity and the competing definition of Tibetaness has long been circulating among the community. It’s a question Tibetans are already asking, that they cannot help but ask, and that therefore deserves an answer. For the first generation of Tibetans, their identity is more profound because of their connection with the geographical home itself. However, for the second generation, having lived and raised outside in the ethnically mixed environment, the idea of Tibet exists in the imagination; though the way in which it is to be imagined is contested by a number of parties. All across the generations, Tibetan has taken a keen interest in the construction and deconstruction of their identity. The paper will look into the identity construction of Tibetan living in Exile. I will show that the performance of Tibetan identity in Exile has significant historical and contemporary formations. I have shown that beliefs and viable values from the colonial and precolonial consistently affects the identity formation of the Tibetan people.

Disciplines

Asian Studies | Community Psychology | Migration Studies | Place and Environment

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