The Cultural Representation and Production of Tibetan Carpets

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

The Cultural Representation and Production of Tibetan Carpets CARPET WORLDS: THE CULTURAL REPRESENTATION AND PRODUCTION OF TIBETAN CARPETS by Tracy Ying Zhang B.A., Trent University, 2001 M.A., Dalhouse University, 2002 DISSERTATION SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY In the School of Communication © Tracy Ying Zhang 2009 SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY Fall 2009 All rights reserved. This work may not be reproduced in whole or in part, by photocopy or other means, without permission of the author. Declaration of Partial Copyright Licence The author, whose copyright is declared on the title page of this work, has granted to Simon Fraser University the right to lend this thesis, project or extended essay to users of the Simon Fraser University Library, and to make partial or single copies only for such users or in response to a request from the library of any other university, or other educational institution, on its own behalf or for one of its users. The author has further granted permission to Simon Fraser University to keep or make a digital copy for use in its circulating collection (currently available to the public at the “Institutional Repository” link of the SFU Library website <www.lib.sfu.ca> at: <http://ir.lib.sfu.ca/handle/1892/112>) and, without changing the content, to translate the thesis/project or extended essays, if technically possible, to any medium or format for the purpose of preservation of the digital work. The author has further agreed that permission for multiple copying of this work for scholarly purposes may be granted by either the author or the Dean of Graduate Studies. It is understood that copying or publication of this work for financial gain shall not be allowed without the author’s written permission. Permission for public performance, or limited permission for private scholarly use, of any multimedia materials forming part of this work, may have been granted by the author. This information may be found on the separately catalogued multimedia material and in the signed Partial Copyright Licence. While licensing SFU to permit the above uses, the author retains copyright in the thesis, project or extended essays, including the right to change the work for subsequent purposes, including editing and publishing the work in whole or in part, and licensing other parties, as the author may desire. The original Partial Copyright Licence attesting to these terms, and signed by this author, may be found in the original bound copy of this work, retained in the Simon Fraser University Archive. Simon Fraser University Library Burnaby, BC, Canada Last revision: Spring 09 STATEMENT OF ETHICS APPROVAL The author, whose name appears on the title page of this work, has obtained, for the research described in this work, either: (a) Human research ethics approval from the Simon Fraser University Office of Research Ethics, or (b) Advance approval of the animal care protocol from the University Animal Care Committee of Simon Fraser University; or has conducted the research (c) as a co-investigator, collaborator or research assistant in a research project approved in advance, or (d) as a member of a course approved in advance for minimal risk human research, by the Office of Research Ethics. A copy of the approval letter has been filed at the Theses Office of the University Library at the time of submission of this thesis or project. The original application for approval and letter of approval are filed with the relevant offices. Inquiries may be directed to those authorities. Simon Fraser University Library Simon Fraser University Burnaby, BC, Canada Last update: Spring 2010 ABSTRACT This dissertation investigates the representational politics of Tibetan carpets and the political economy of carpet production from the early twentieth century to the 2000s. I describe how socio-historical practices and processes formed the conditions from which Tibetan weavers invented their subject positions in socialist and post-socialist Lhasa. B y examining the history of a Tibetan carpet factory, I analyze the interplay of patriarchy, ethnicity, and capital accumulation that has marginalized women weavers in Lhasa’s post-socialist carpet industry. The first three chapters consist of an historical analysis of representations of “Tibetan carpets.” I begin by investigating “Western” ideas of Tibetan carpets and the establishment of a carpet production centre in Nepal. I then explore the making of “Tibetan carpets” as commodities and as cultural symbols under the Tibetan government, the socialist Chinese government, and the post-socialist Chinese government. I argue that the making and marketing of Tibetan carpets directly or indirectly turned Tibetan carpets into internationally-celebrated “ethnic folk art,” thus contributing to the emergence and development of an export carpet industry in Lhasa. The second part of the dissertation is a case study of the history of Tibet’s first carpet factory, Lhasa Carpets, from the 1960s to the 2000s. I discuss the changes in meanings of carpet-weaving, weavers’ social-economic status, working conditions, and labour relations. I describe how weaving prestige carpets started as men’s work in pre- socialist Lhasa, became women’s work in socialist Lhasa, and finally became migrant women’s work in post-socialist Lhasa. I show that pro-market policies and Tibetan patriarchal family structure combine to subject women weavers to exploitative and patriarchal working conditions. Finally, I examine the legacy of socialism and Tibetan Buddhist culture that gave these women the strength to confront the local patriarchy and exploitative labour policies. I conclude by discussing the limitations of women’s collective and individual strategies for social status and economic reward. iii Key Words: patriarchy; gender; ethnicity; work; labour; development; representation; cultural policy; political economy of craft production; arts and crafts; Tibetan carpet iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation is the outcome of support, advice, friendship, and hospitality that I have received from many people in Vancouver, Lhasa, and other places. First of all, I want to express my heartfelt gratitude to Alison Beale and Jacob Eyferth. Their incisive curiosity and friendship taught me things that I could not learn from books. I a m especially grateful to the wisdom and encouragement of Zhao Yuezhi. I thank friends and teachers who contributed to the completion of this manuscript. I thank my editor Lee Gould for her patience, encouragement, and unfailing support. I thank Okawa Kensaku for sharing his knowledge about Tibetan history and language with me. Also, I am very grateful to Robbie Barnett for his friendship, generosity, and guidance. I would like to acknowledge, with thanks, the administrative support of Denise Vanderwolf and Amy Soo. I want to thank the School of Communication for awarding me a timely scholarship in 2006. I own my deepest debts to the people among whom I lived in Lhasa, whose names I have withheld. I am extremely grateful to my partner, Kevin Gould, who sustained me with his love, humor, and intellectual acumen. To my mother and father, as their only child, I want to express my most sincere gratitude for their unconditional love and continued support. v TAB LE OF CONTENTS Approval ............................................................................................................................ ii Abstract ............................................................................................................................. iii Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................v Table of Contents ............................................................................................................. vi List of Illustrations ........................................................................................................... ix A Note on Transliteration .................................................................................................x Introduction: Carpet Worlds ............................................................................................1 The Politics of Value ........................................................................................................4 Feminist Methodology and Political Economy ................................................................6 Putting “Self” in the Field ................................................................................................9 Making a Life in Lhasa...............................................................................................11 Methods and Research Process ..................................................................................13 A Guide for the Reader...............................................................................................15 Oriental Rugs, Spiritual Technology, Ethnic Folk Art ................................................19 The Imperial Trade .........................................................................................................20 The British-Tibet Affair: International Politics, Trade, and Information ...................20 Scholars, Spies, and Imperial Officers .......................................................................23 Discovering Carpets ...................................................................................................25 Carpets of Empire .......................................................................................................27
Recommended publications
  • (“At Variance with Guénon”) of "Frithjof Schuon: Messenger of The
    from: Frithjof Schuon: Messenger of the Perennial Philosophy ISBN: 978-1-935493-08-2 from the free Online Library at http://www.frithjofschuon.com/ 11. At Variance with Guénon In my early youth, my salvation was Shrī Shankara, and with him, spiritual virtue; And so I was able to learn: only inspiration, And not vain thinking, can give Wisdom. Then came the notion of tradition: Only the sacred may carry the sacred. All this Guénon wrote in his works with great diligence And zeal. But much still remained to be said!1 Frithjof Schuon always respected the metaphysical and conceptual frame- work articulated by René Guénon, whose writings were particularly important to him at the time when he was beginning to formulate his own perspective. Starting in 1939 and continuing throughout the rest of his life, Schuon delved into many subjects that Guénon never considered or only touched upon lightly, including Buddhism and American Indian spiritu- ality, sacred art in its diverse forms, and, especially, the operative aspects of spiritual realization—prayer of the heart and the human virtues. Martin Lings, who was Guénon’s personal assistant in Cairo during the 1940s, later expressed an observation that first became apparent in these years: “There is nothing in Guénon that is not to be found in Schuon. There is much in Schuon that is not to be found in Guénon.”2 When, after the war, com- munication could be resumed between Guénon in Cairo and Schuon in Lausanne, Guénon was generally supportive of Schuon’s point of view on these subjects and particularly appreciative of Schuon’s interest in American Indian spirituality.
    [Show full text]
  • “Little Tibet” with “Little Mecca”: Religion, Ethnicity and Social Change on the Sino-Tibetan Borderland (China)
    “LITTLE TIBET” WITH “LITTLE MECCA”: RELIGION, ETHNICITY AND SOCIAL CHANGE ON THE SINO-TIBETAN BORDERLAND (CHINA) A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Cornell University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Yinong Zhang August 2009 © 2009 Yinong Zhang “LITTLE TIBET” WITH “LITTLE MECCA”: RELIGION, ETHNICITY AND SOCIAL CHANGE ON THE SINO-TIBETAN BORDERLAND (CHINA) Yinong Zhang, Ph. D. Cornell University 2009 This dissertation examines the complexity of religious and ethnic diversity in the context of contemporary China. Based on my two years of ethnographic fieldwork in Taktsang Lhamo (Ch: Langmusi) of southern Gansu province, I investigate the ethnic and religious revival since the Chinese political relaxation in the 1980s in two local communities: one is the salient Tibetan Buddhist revival represented by the rebuilding of the local monastery, the revitalization of religious and folk ceremonies, and the rising attention from the tourists; the other is the almost invisible Islamic revival among the Chinese Muslims (Hui) who have inhabited in this Tibetan land for centuries. Distinctive when compared to their Tibetan counterpart, the most noticeable phenomenon in the local Hui revival is a revitalization of Hui entrepreneurship, which is represented by the dominant Hui restaurants, shops, hotels, and bus lines. As I show in my dissertation both the Tibetan monastic ceremonies and Hui entrepreneurship are the intrinsic part of local ethnoreligious revival. Moreover these seemingly unrelated phenomena are in fact closely related and reflect the modern Chinese nation-building as well as the influences from an increasingly globalized and government directed Chinese market.
    [Show full text]
  • Analysis of Current Provincial Leaders Cheng Li
    Li, China Leadership Monitor, No.7 Analysis of Current Provincial Leaders Cheng Li China has experienced a large-scale turnover in its national leadership, as demonstrated by the recently held 16th Party Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and 10th National People’s Congress (NPC). Less noted, but equally significant, is the rapid change of political elites at the level of provincial leadership. These two national institutions’ equivalents at the provincial level have also selected their top leaders during the past few months. An analysis of the elite change at the provincial level not only sheds valuable light on the relationship between the central and provincial governments, but also provides clues about the characteristics of future top national leaders. China’s provincial-level administrations enjoy more autonomy to advance their local economic interests today than at any other time in the past half century. The dynamic interaction between the need for national integration and the demand for regional autonomy has emerged as a central issue in Chinese politics. Furthermore, provincial leadership posts have become major stepping-stones to positions of national leadership during the past decade. For example, the percentage of 16th Politburo members with previous experience as top provincial leaders (deputy party secretaries, vice governors, or above) rose sharply over the last decade: from 55 percent in 1992 to 68 percent in 1997, and again to 83 percent by 2002.1 Thus, understanding the provincial leaders’ biographical backgrounds, tenure in office, political socialization, career patterns, and rate of reshuffling is essential to the study of Chinese politics. This study focuses on the 412 current top provincial leaders, a cluster of elites that includes all current provincial party secretaries, governors (or mayors of provincial-level administrations in the cities), deputy provincial party secretaries, and vice governors or vice mayors.
    [Show full text]
  • "Foreword to 'The Way and the Mountain'" by Harry Oldmeadow
    From the World Wisdom online library: www.worldwisdom.com/public/library/default.aspx Foreword The recent history of Tibet exemplifies the fate of traditional civilizations in the modern world. Behind the snowy ram­ parts of the Himalayas, Tibet had stood as one of the last bastions of a way of life which properly deserved to be called traditional—one directed, in the first place, not to a godless ideal of material “progress” but to the spiritual welfare of its people, a culture which, in T.S. Eliot’s phrase, was an incarna­ tion of the religious outlook which informed it. In a sense, Tibet served as a haven for all those principles and ideals, all those aspirations of the human spirit, which were elsewhere being trampled underfoot by the forces of modernity. That the invasion of Tibet and the destruction of its religious cul­ ture should be carried out by its neighbor in the name of a profane Western ideology is one of the most bitter ironies of recent history. Let us not mince words: the systematic subver­ sion of Tibet’s religious heritage, the slaughter of its monks and nuns, the sacking of the monasteries, the unceasing viola­ tion of human rights, the cynical “population policy” to make Tibetans a minority in their own land, and the desecration of the environment, make the Chinese occupation an imperial vandalism no less appalling than that of the Western powers in so many different parts of the globe in the preceding cen­ tury. There are those who make much of the various social abuses and corruptions which, as the present Dalai Lama has conceded, were to be found in Tibet on the eve of the Chinese invasion, as if these could in any measure justify the monstrous brutalities which were to follow.
    [Show full text]
  • The Art of Non-Violence Winning China Over to Tibet’S Story
    The Art of Non-violence Winning China Over to Tibet’s Story Thubten Samphel The Tibet Policy Institute 2017 The Art of Non-violence Winning China Over to Tibet’s Story Thubten Samphel The Tibet Policy Institute 2017 Published by: Tibetan Policy Centre CTA, Gangchen Kyishong, Dharamshala -176215 Distt. Kangra HP INDIA First Edition : 2107 No. of Copies : 200 Printed at Narthang Press, Central Tibetan Administration Gangchen Kyishong, Dharamshala, HP, INDIA Foreword I am happy that the Tibet Policy Institute has come out with The Art of Non-violence: Winning China Over to Tibet’s Story. The Tibetan outreach to our Chinese brothers and sisters is an important effort on the part of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the Central Ti- betan Administration (CTA) to persuade the Chinese public that the Tibetan people’s non-violent struggle is neither anti-China nor anti-Chinese people. This protracted struggle is waged against the wrong policies the Chinese Communist Party implements in Tibet. As a part of this effort to explain the nature of the Tibetan people’s struggle to the broader Chinese masses, CTA instituted many years ago a China Desk at the Department of Information and Interna- tional Relations (DIIR). The China Desk maintains a web site in the Chinese language, www.xizang-zhiye.org, to educate the Chinese public on the deteriorating conditions in Tibet, the just aspirations of the Tibetan people and a reasonable solution to the vexed issue of Tibet. The solution to this protracted issue is the Middle Way Approach which does not seek independence for Tibet but for all the Tibetan people to enjoy genuine autonomy as enshrined in the constitution of the People’s Republic of China.
    [Show full text]
  • 2008 UPRISING in TIBET: CHRONOLOGY and ANALYSIS © 2008, Department of Information and International Relations, CTA First Edition, 1000 Copies ISBN: 978-93-80091-15-0
    2008 UPRISING IN TIBET CHRONOLOGY AND ANALYSIS CONTENTS (Full contents here) Foreword List of Abbreviations 2008 Tibet Uprising: A Chronology 2008 Tibet Uprising: An Analysis Introduction Facts and Figures State Response to the Protests Reaction of the International Community Reaction of the Chinese People Causes Behind 2008 Tibet Uprising: Flawed Tibet Policies? Political and Cultural Protests in Tibet: 1950-1996 Conclusion Appendices Maps Glossary of Counties in Tibet 2008 UPRISING IN TIBET CHRONOLOGY AND ANALYSIS UN, EU & Human Rights Desk Department of Information and International Relations Central Tibetan Administration Dharamsala - 176215, HP, INDIA 2010 2008 UPRISING IN TIBET: CHRONOLOGY AND ANALYSIS © 2008, Department of Information and International Relations, CTA First Edition, 1000 copies ISBN: 978-93-80091-15-0 Acknowledgements: Norzin Dolma Editorial Consultants Jane Perkins (Chronology section) JoAnn Dionne (Analysis section) Other Contributions (Chronology section) Gabrielle Lafitte, Rebecca Nowark, Kunsang Dorje, Tsomo, Dhela, Pela, Freeman, Josh, Jean Cover photo courtesy Agence France-Presse (AFP) Published by: UN, EU & Human Rights Desk Department of Information and International Relations (DIIR) Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) Gangchen Kyishong Dharamsala - 176215, HP, INDIA Phone: +91-1892-222457,222510 Fax: +91-1892-224957 Email: [email protected] Website: www.tibet.net; www.tibet.com Printed at: Narthang Press DIIR, CTA Gangchen Kyishong Dharamsala - 176215, HP, INDIA ... for those who lost their lives, for
    [Show full text]
  • Assaulting Identity: China's New Coercive Strategies in Tibet
    Assaulting Identity: China’s new coercive strategies in Tibet ABOUT Tibet Advocacy Coalition is a project established in 2013 by International Tibet Network, Tibet Justice Center and Students for a Free Tibet to develop coordinated strategies, monitoring tools, and reports to highlight the situation in Tibet at the United Nations Human Rights Council. The Coalition members are International Tibet Network Secretariat, Tibet Justice Center, Students for a Free Tibet, Tibetan Youth Association Europe and Tibet Initiative Deutschland, who work together with support and advice from Boston University’s Asylum & Human Rights Program. The Coalition also offers support to other Tibet groups engaging in UN mechanisms and strengthen the global Tibet movement’s advocacy work and lead an on-the-ground team of Tibet advocates. Cover illustration by Urgyen Wangchuk. http://www.urgyen.com 2 CONTENTS 1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY .............................................................4 2. METHODOLOGY...................................................................6 3. BACKGROUND....................................................................8 4. SHAPING A NEW GENERATION FROM INFANCY ..........................................9 4.1. Kindergartens as new hubs for cultural re‑engineering and military‑style training ............10 4.2. Eroding Tibetan language instruction in kindergartens & nurseries........................12 4.3. Residential schools and “pairing” to monitor compliance of Tibetan students................14 4.4. “Patriotic education bases”
    [Show full text]
  • From Logos to Bios: Hellenic Philosophy and Evolutionary Biology
    From Logos to Bios: Hellenic Philosophy and Evolutionary Biology by Wynand Albertus de Beer submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of D Litt et Phil in the subject Religious Studies at the University of South Africa Supervisor: Prof Danie Goosen February 2015 Dedicated with grateful acknowledgements to my supervisor, Professor Danie Goosen, for his wise and patient guidance and encouragement throughout my doctoral research, and to the examiners of my thesis for their helpful comments and suggestions. From Logos to Bios: Hellenic Philosophy and Evolutionary Biology by W.A. de Beer Degree: D Litt et Phil Subject: Religious Studies Supervisor: Prof Danie Goosen Summary: This thesis deals with the relation of Hellenic philosophy to evolutionary biology. The first part entails an explication of Hellenic cosmology and metaphysics in its traditional understanding, as the Western component of classical Indo-European philosophy. It includes an overview of the relevant contributions by the Presocratics, Plato, Aristotle, and the Neoplatonists, focussing on the structure and origin of both the intelligible and sensible worlds. Salient aspects thereof are the movement from the transcendent Principle into the realm of Manifestation by means of the interaction between Essence and Substance; the role of the Logos, being the equivalent of Plato’s Demiurge and Aristotle’s Prime Mover, in the cosmogonic process; the interaction between Intellect and Necessity in the formation of the cosmos; the various kinds of causality contributing to the establishment of physical reality; and the priority of being over becoming, which in the case of living organisms entails the primacy of soul over body.
    [Show full text]
  • The Betrayal of Tradition: Essays on the Spiritual Crisis of Modernity Appears As One of Our Selections in the Perennial Philosophy Series
    Religion Oldmeadow For millennia humanity has been linked to the Divine through Revelations from which flow rich traditions of wisdom and sacred art. Do these traditions still have significance in the The contemporary world? What consequences follow from the rejection of these traditions? Betrayal “[Rejecting the modern] destruction of knowledge and the darken- ing of consciousness … Harry Oldmeadow has collected in this book twenty-five compelling essays … from key perennialist authors and other eminent thinkers. Divided into five sections, their responses treat the oppositions between Tradition and Modernity, Perennial Truths and Modern Counterfeits, Social Order, the ‘Single Vision’ of Scientism, and lastly the Destruction of Traditional Cultures.… A of work such as The Betrayal of Tradition takes a clear inventory of the times and offers the reader a guide to comprehending the urgency of Tradition rediscovering the eternal.…” —Jean Biès, author, philosopher, and poet Harry Oldmeadow is one of the most authoritative contemporary writers on the Perennial Philosophy. He is the Coordinator of Philosophy and Religious Studies at La Trobe University (at Bendigo) in Australia, and is the author of numerous articles and books, including Traditionalism: Religion in the Light of the Perennial Philosophy and Journeys East: 20th Century Western Encoun- ters with Eastern Religious Traditions. The Betrayal of Tradition World Wisdom Articles by World Karen Armstrong, Titus Burckhardt, A. K. Coomaraswamy, Wisdom René Guénon, S. H. Nasr, Dorothy Sayers, Frithjof Schuon and others $ 21.95 US / $ 29.95 CAN Edited by Harry Oldmeadow BOT_September12.qxd 9/16/2004 10:59 AM Page i World Wisdom The Library of Perennial Philosophy The Library of Perennial Philosophy is dedicated to the exposition of the time- less Truth underlying the diverse religions.
    [Show full text]
  • Bulletin of Tibetology
    Bulletin VOL. II No.2 1 August 1965 NAMGYAL INSTITUTE OF TIBETOLOGY GANGTOK, SIKKfM Bulletin of / VOL. II 1 August 1965 NAMGYAL INSTITUTe OF TlBETOLOGY t GANGTOK, SIKKIM 1 st published 1 August, 1965 Reprinted 1 July. 1991 Printed at Impression Gangtok Sikkim Published by The Director Namgyal Institute of Tibetology Gangtok CONTENTS Page A METRICAL SUMMARY OF THE SADDHARMA'..PUNDARIKA SUTRA IN GOSTANA DESA 5 H. W. BAILEY SMAN-GYI·BLA 9 SIEGBERT HUMMEL CONSIDERATION ON TANTRIC SPIRITUALITY 18 THUBTEN TENDZIN TIBET'S STATUS DURING THE WORLD WAR 31 NIRMAL C. SINHA NOTES & TOPICS 36 CONTRIBUTORS TO THIS ISSUE: (SIR) HAROLD WALTER BAILEY Fellow of British Academy and Professor of Sanskrit. Cambridge University: leading authority on the diverse lan­ guages flourishing in Central Asia in ancient and early medieval times; exponent of the theory of Saka linguistic group; has brought to light many lost texts and obscure features about Buddhism in Central Asia; modestly describes his field of study as Indologv of Chinese Turkestan. SIEGBERT HUMMEL Formerly Curator of Asiatic Collection in Museum of Ethnology in Leipzig and Professor of Eastern Asian History in several universities of Germany; well known scholar of cultural history and ethnology of Northern Buddhist countries: his comparative studies of art forms and religious motifs of different countries are most illuminating. THUBTEN TENDZIN A British scholar of Greek descent and Buddhist faith; visited Sikkim and Central Tibet; was disciple of a sGom-chen (master of meditation) in Sikkim; specializes in mystic tradition in diffe­ rent religions; his name in Samsara is Marco Pallis. NIRMAL C.
    [Show full text]
  • Contents Ramana Ashtottaram 2
    contents Ramana ashtottaRam 2 EditoRial Justice 3 akshaRamanamalai Nochur Venkataraman 9 PoEm: knowlEdgE spellbound N.A. Mohan Rao 20 thE PaRamount imPoRtancE of sElf attEntion Sadhu Om 21 thE navnath samPRadaya and sRi nisaRgadatta mahaRaj C.W. Boucher 29 kEywoRd : saRanagati John Grimes 39 vERsE : thE namEs of lalitha Ramesh Menon 44 ulladu naRPadu anubandham: vERsEs six to Eight S. Ram Mohan 45 discERning thE REal thRough thE wRitings of Paul bRunton Jeff Cox 49 PoEm: nightwatch Upahar 60 my sPiRitual jouRnEy with bhagavan R. Ravindran 61 hiddEn dooR to hEaling Philip Pegler 69 going back thE way wE camE Sriram Ananthanarayanan 75 sPiRitual ExperiEncEs and collEctions of concEPts James Charlton 81 why am i haPPy? I.S. Madugula 87 REné guénon and sRi Ramana mahaRshi : PaRt thREE Samuel B. Sotillos 93 PoEm: thE ciRcumambulation Ashok 102 maha bhakta vijayam : thE loRd as a guaRd in tulasidas’s ashRam Nabaji Siddha 103 PoEm: solitudE Patrick Roberts 110 ozhivil odukkam Kannudaiya Vallalar 111 book REviEws 121 ashRam bullEtin 125 Ramana Ashtottaram 95. Aae< hadRiv*aàkazkay nm> oà härdavidyäprakäçakäya namaù Prostration to the Revealer of the light of the Heart, Revealer of Inner Awareness. From very ancient times, the inner light, Purusha or Person, the ‘I-I’ shining in and as the Heart, had been identified as Sat-Chit-Ananda, Being-Awareness-Bliss. But the teaching was not precisely understood, nor was it widely taught or applied in practice. In the Ramana Gita, Supplement to the Forty Verses, and in many sections of Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi, Bhagavan has clarified, simplified and driven home the teaching that the Heart, Being-Awareness-Bliss and the ‘I’ are three concepts standing for one sole Reality.
    [Show full text]
  • Glossary of Chinese and English Terms
    Glossary of Chinese and enGlish Terms The main Chinese and English terms, slogans, and names used in the book are listed here with their equivalents in Chinese characters and in pinyin, the standard form of romanization used in the PrC. An asterisk indicates a personal name. achieving a basically well- off society成就小康社会 chengjiu xiaokang shehui. A slogan developed by Hu Jintao, ccp Secretary from 2002 to 2012, and declared by Xi Jinping to be an objective that China should achieve by 2021. agricultural production mutual aid groups 农业生产互助组 nongye shengchan huzhuzu. Mutual aid groups (also called mutual aid teams) were created by the ccp during the first stage of land reform in the 1950, prior to the creation of communes. The groups shared labor and some capital but individual households remained the basic unit of ownership and production. By 1960, eight thousand mutual aid teams had been established in Tibet. amban 安办 anban. The Manchu term for the imperial commissioners posted to Tibet and other areas during the Qing dynasty to oversee and liaise with local rulers. anti- splittism 反分裂主义 fan fenlie zhuyi. A term used by regime critics and dissidents from the late 1990s onward to mock officials who exaggerate reports of “splittism” (see below) in order to enhance their positions or to increase their access to government funding. April 1 Directive 四‧一指示 siyi zhishi. Instructions issued by Mao and the Central Cultural Revolution Small Group in April 1967 ordering the military to stop suppressing rebels and Red Guards. The April 1 Directive praised leftist students and others who had earlier attacked the military.
    [Show full text]