A Newspaper for Tibet: Babu Tharchin and the "Tibet Mirror" (Yul Phyogs So So'i Gsar 'Gyur Me Long, 1925-1963) from Kalimpong
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A Newspaper for Tibet: Babu Tharchin and the "Tibet Mirror" (Yul phyogs so so'i gsar 'gyur me long, 1925-1963) from Kalimpong Inauguraldissertation zur Erlangung der Doktorwürde der Philosophischen Fakultät der Universität Heidelberg vorgelegt von: Anna Sawerthal Erstgutachterin: Prof. Dr. Birgit Kellner Zweitgutachter: Prof. Dr. Roland Wenzlhuemer Stand vom 25.6.2018 Acknowledgements and Thanks I thank the Cluster “Asia and Europe in a Global Context”, particularly its directorate, and the German Research Foundation (DFG) for supporting my project and all the connected field research and conference trips financially. This project would have not been possible without their contributions. I further thank the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for generously financing the final stretch of this work. I want to thank my first supervisor Prof. Birgit Kellner, who always supported my project, my second supervisor Prof. Roland Wenzlhuemer for being available for guidance and motivation, and Prof. Andreas Hepp for his long-distance support. I thank Isrun Engelhardt for her steady presence, her energy and her selfless sharing of source material. Further, I thank Prof. Barbara Mittler for her support, guidance and the inspiration for the title of the present study. I thank Markus Viehbeck for the inspiration, and Paul Hackett for sharing his digital collection of the Melong with me. I thank Franz Xaver Erhard, Lauran Hartley, Sonam Topgyal, Daniel Tharchin, Kushu Tsuldrim Gyatso, Sonam Wangyal, Nicole Willock, Tashi Tsering, Lorraine Parsons, Robbie Barnett, Nicole Willock, Françoise Robin, and Pema Bhum for generously sharing their material, their knowledge and their time with me. I especially thank Spro tshigs chos grags for the enlightening discussions, of which I wish we could have had more. I thank Giulia Pelillo-Heestermayer and Volker Helbig for the discussions, Prof. Frank Bösch, Prof. Nadja Schneider, and Heiko Frese for their competent advice, and Oliver Lamers for more than administrative guidance. I thank Zla ba tshe ring for letting me join his class on journalism at Tibet University, and Nor bu bkra shis for teaching me Tibetan with fervor, discipline and many laughs. I want to thank Bsam gtan dkon mchog for working through the Tibetan newspaper with me time and again and making the reading sessions more pleasure than work. Thank you to Jonathan Samuels and U rgyan dkon mchog for doing the same. I thank Dennis Johnson for proof-editing the draft version of the study. i A doctoral dissertation is not only a scientific challenge, but also an extreme experience in the field of human emotions. I thank everybody I met over the past years who has filled the scientific habitat with humanity, not only but especially in times of doubt and distress. Particularily, I thank Johanna de Schmidt, Emily Graf, Chun Xu, Carolin Matjeka, Frank Grüner and Davide Torri for so much more than coffee breaks. I thank Joona Reepo, Jesper Østergaard, Anne Kukucka and Alexander Grois for taking the time to think it through with me. I thank Champa Lhundrup for his views, Markus Schöller and Laura Scherwitzl for making sure I was not going crazy, and my siblings Maria, Johannes and Elisabeth for keeping things cool. I thank my parents for supporting me all the way. Thanks to all the other numerous people and organisations who have contributed to the project in most helpful ways. Please accept and take up my most heartfelt THANK YOU. ii iii iv Notes on Transliteration, Translation and Authorship Transliteration Concerning transliteration of Tibetan words, I follow the Wylie-transliteration scheme in general, and Françoise Robin’s style of quoting Tibetan-language words, names and works in particular (see Robin 2010). Thus, I use lower-case characters in case of technical terms and quotes. In the case of Tibetan personal names (such as historical figures or scholars) and institutions I capitalize the first character, disregarding root consonants. Names of persons or institutions remain non-italicized, other terms or sentences are italicized. In the following, I specify particularities. Technical Terms: I use the Wylie transliteration as described above (lowercase, italicized), but for more commonly used terms, I introduce for the readers' convenience a phonetic transliteration on its first occurrence (non-italicized) and give the Wylie-transliteration in brackets (such as Ganden Phodrang, pecha, ...). Technical terms in Sanskrit are given in lowercase and not italicized (e.g. karma, dharma, ...). The terms "Kangyur", "Tengyur" and terms which denote a divine being are given in capital letters (e.g. Buddha, Bodhisattva, ...). Place names: Because many Tibetan place names are well established in the English language, they are given in phonetic transliteration close to the English pronunciation (Lhasa, Gyantse, ...). I use vowel mutation ö and ü. For the corresponding Wylie transliteration, see the place index in the end. Proper names: As mentioned above, proper names are not italicized and their first letter is capitalized, disregarding any root consonants. If a name includes a mix of both Tibetan and Sanskrit, the transliteration is also mixed (e.g. Sa skya Paṇḍita Kun dga’ rgyal mtshan). Personal names of Tibetan authors who have widely published in English are given in their established English rendering (such as Tsering Shakya, Tashi Tsering, ...). Furthermore, Babu Tharchin is always spelled out in this form. If an author's name is provided in English in a v primary source and the proper Tibetan spelling remains unknown, the English rendering is given. Borderland personalities, whose mixed names are documented in English sources are given in their English rendering (e.g. Peter Thubten Rabgay, Father Gyen Tsering Sitling, ...). Concerning bibliographic contents, I present the Wyle transliteration of the author's name, if the respective work is written in Tibetan. If it was composed in or translated into English, the author's English rendering is given as presented in the publication. In the case of authors of Tibetan works, I do not seperate the first and family names, because this fabricated division would cause confusion. Work Titles: Titles of literary works are generally presented in italic. As mentioned above, titles of Tibetan works are given with a capitalized initial character, disregarding root consonants. If the respective title carries an additional English title, it is provided in brackets and italics. If the Tibetan work has no English title, a translation is provided in brackets and quotation marks. For Tibetan translations of Sanskrit originals, upon first occurrence their title is provided, followed by an English translation. The main object of the present study, the "Tibet Mirror" (Yul phyogs so so'i gsar 'gyur me long) is always referred to as Melong. Miscellanea: I quote Melong-issues as "Volume-Issue-Page" (e.g. 2-5-1). In brackets, I provide the date in the format "month year" (e.g. January 1926). For when the Melong was published on a weekly basis, I also provide the day of publication (e.g. September 1, 1954). All year dates signify AD. Translation Even though I have been studying the Melong (and other Tibetan-language newspapers) for more than five years, at times I still find myself lost in unfamiliar linguistic complexities. A newspaper incorporates "universal content", and therefore the range of texts found in the Melong covers anything from news, religious texts, modern neologisms, Tibetan classics to tantric texts. At times, the composed texts operate at a peculiar juncture of classical and vi colloquial Tibetan and of established phrases and new coinages. Many compositional structures represented in the Melong cannot be found in grammar books, but incorporate specifities practiced in the Kalimpong hills or possibly even initiated by Tharchin. Acquiring a sense for the language of the Melong therefore is of crucial importance. For that purpose, I studied articles together with Tibetan mother-tongue speakers, mainly with the Darjeeling- born Bsam gtan dkon mchog and O rgyan dkon mchog from Nyemo. I apologize that my translations sound clumsy at times, however I have aimed at transporting some of the Tibetan flavors into the English, unfortunately often losing the original elegance and lightness on the way. Thus, the translations do not do justice – not even the tip of a needle, as the Tibetans say – to the delicacies of the original language. Further note that all quotations from original German, French and Tibetan texts have been translated by myself if not otherwise noted. Authorship in the Melong Reflecting production practices at the editorial office of the Melong, printed texts in the Melong are not undersigned by an author, except in a few cases. As we will learn in Chapter 3, the Melong's main editor and driving force continuously was the person of Babu Tharchin. Sometimes he invited guest authors to contribute articles, and especially in later years, it is likely that he often left the composition of text to one of his coworkers. Unfortunately, none of this is documented and thus it may only be conjectured through stylistic discontinuities, which remains speculative. It should be kept in mind, that for most of the published texts in the Melong, it cannot be said with certainty that it was Tharchin who composed the item. Nevertheless, unless Tharchin was away from Kalimpong, it was himself who had the last say on what was or was not published in the Melong. Therefore, while actual authorship of texts may remain speculative at times, editorial control was always in the hands of Tharchin. In my formulations, I have attempted to remain sensitive to the possibility that one of Tharchin's coworkers had composed the item. vii viii List of Abbreviations ed. ....... edition or editor est. ...... established et al. .... et alii, and others n.a. ....... not available Institution Names: GoI ...... Government of India KMT .... Kuomintang MTAC.. Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs Commission PLA...... People’s Liberation Army POS ....