Tibet Web Digest

The article is written by one of the prominent contemporary Tibetan writers from Lhasa, who uses the pen name Yumtso (meaning “turquoise colored lake). Yumtso is a common name among Tibetans and also the name of several famous lakes such as Mipam Yumtso and Yamdrok Yumtso. The writer mentions that because of the Tibetan lamas’s dharma teachings in Tibet, the number of smokers and drunks is gradually shrinking, but on the other hand, this medical herb drink called “huo-xiang-zheng-qi water” and contains alcohol, is becoming very popular in the market. Continue reading →

Tsangyang Gyatso is the Sixth Dalai Lama, and one of Tibet’s most famous poets. He was also known as a great lover of liquor and of women. His famous dharma songs, beloved among the Tibetans, are now being translated into Chinese, English and other languages. Continue reading →

Dekyi Thang literally means “happy field” in Tibetan. The author remembers the Dekyi Thang of her childhood and mourns the neglect and commercialization of present-day Dekyi Thang. The author notices the growing number of butter lamp shops inside Dekyi Thang, which seems to be changing from a place of worship to a place of business, and points out that only butter lamps bought from each hall can be offered in the hall. This article was published on March 26th. Continue reading →

This article was published on May 23th. Min-drug is the pen name of Jamyang Kyi, a journalist with Qinghai TV who is also a prominent contemporary writer and a very popular singer. Jamyang Kyi is well known for her essays which touch on many Tibetan issues as well as women’s issues. Her pen name Min-drug comes from a constellation called “Karma mindrug keykyo” (six stars with a crooked neck). Jamyang Kyi expresses her concern over the way in which Tibetans are responsible for the loss of their mother-tongue. Continue reading →

This article was posted in August 28, 2011. This is a journal about a journey from Amdo Xining to Lhasa, on the train which starts from Beijing. The train began running in 2006 and made it much easier for Chinese travelers and migrants to come from the mainland to Tibet. The writer compares the attitude of the present travelers’ versus the attitude of travelers twenty years ago, when the Tibetans took off their hats when they entered Lhasa as a sign of respect for the holy city. Continue reading →

In this blogpost, the writer discusses how he was addicted to smoking, how he tried to quit etc. Many young Tibetan men have a habit of smoking because it had become fashionable to do so. The writer describes how this may finally be changing, with people becoming more conscious of their health and the environment. The writer makes a reference to the famed scholar Gendun Choephel’s public promise to stop drinking. Continue reading →

This article was posted on August 31, 2011 and the following is an excerpt from the piece. In this article, the writer expressed how he was deeply hurt when he saw a local Tibetan girl proudly speaking her broken Chinese at a restaurant instead of speaking Tibetan. Continue reading →

This is a personal blog entry by Zhala, written on March 2, 2008 and posted at http://www.tibetabc.cn/u/zhala/archives/2008/200832202558.html. 

It was submitted by an anonymous translator on March 2, 2008.

From Beijing:

In spite of bad weather in the capital of China yesterday, I walked around the city with my friend; and we chatted with a female driver for a while on a variety of topics.  In the midst of our conversations, she said she cried when she heard the news about the Qinghai-Tibet Railway.  When her mother asked her why she was crying, she responded that she was sad because now the unpolluted blue sky and the good character of the Tibetans will be defiled by dirty pollution and people of bad character.  It gave me a second thought about the issue. Continue reading →

Jamyong Kyid, November 4, 2009 Font [Large, Medium, Small] Read (404) 1. What are your thoughts on the increasing number of Tibetan prostitutes in the cities? Answer: There are some hateful men who use offensive words such as “prostitute, slut, whore” to dishonor the nature of women in general. Even the scholar Gen Sangye Dondrub, whose publications are supposedly rich with “rights” and “equality,” likes to use such types of words. Those people have wounded my heart and the hearts of other women like me. Today, suddenly facing such a question has saddened me. Continue reading →

(PART 1)
When I was small, I was never really beaten in school, but my other classmates were often humiliated, and were sometimes seriously beaten by the teachers. Between classmates, hurting each other a little bit by playing tricks and making jokes on each other is normal, as they are simply naïve children. As the succeeding generations of a people residing on the high plateau, the unique nature of our playfulness is becoming more and more apparent: our sons are fond of playing, fond of jumping, fond of laughing and fond of touching everything they see. Continue reading →