BULK RATE U.S. POSTAGE PAID ITHACA, NY 14851 Permit No. 746 Address correction requested SNOW LION ORDER FROM OUR TOLL FREE NUMBER NEWSLETTER & CATALOG 1-800-950-0313 SPRING 1993 SNOW LION PUBLICATIONS PO BOX 6483, ITHACA, NY 14851, (607)-273-8506 ISSN 1059-3691 VOLUME 8, NUMBER 2 Tibetan roughly corresponds to two semesters of college-level lan- Conditioning China's Most mm^ guage study. Upon completing n| c in this program, students should be —1 - -L capable of intermediate level Favored Nation Trading Status nr ■h speech as defined by the Univer- sity of Virginia's Tibetan Oral by Rachel Lostumbo, Proficiency Guidelines formulated FLUENT TIBETAN by William Magee. Legislative Director, A Proficiency Oriented Learning System International Campaign for Tibet Novice and Intermediate Levels Fluent Tibetan is the third in Snow Lion's series of language tools, the The Tibet movement is launch- Bush Administration's reluctance first two being The Tibetan Phrase- ing a major initiative to add more to pressure China on human book and Translating Buddhism Wiliam A. Magee and Elizabeth S. Napper stringent conditions on the legis- rights. Since the first attempt in From Tibetan. An excellent Jeffrey Hopkins, General Editor lation to condition Most Favored 1989 to place conditions on MFN, Tibetan- Sanskrit-English diction- Nation (MFN) trading status to a wide range of interest groups, In collaboration with: ary developed by Jeffrey Hopkins China. At the Tibet Conference of from labor to human rights, have Ngawang Thondup Narkyid et al. will be announced later this the Americas, held in Washington attempted to make their issue a Geshe Thupten Jinpa year. ■ from January 30-February 1, par- condition on the bill. Kunsang Y. King ticipants emerged with a new un- Because China relies heavily on Jules B. Levinson NEW FILM SET derstanding of the importance of the US market, it is widely be- Jigme Ngapo conditioning MFN. Energy is now lieved that they would try to meet Daniel E. Perdue TO AIR ON THE focusing on this crucial legislative any conditions placed on MFN. Dolma Tenpa initiative. Otherwise, China would lose this Steven N. Weinberger DALAI LAMA'S The initiative is being carried extremely lucrative market. Chi- BIRTHDAY, out by Tibet supporters and sup- na's desire to become a respected 1025 page textbook port groups throughout the US. member of the international com- 26 hours of tape . JULY6 0NRO.V Newly arrived Tibetan and reset- munity and its need for foreign tlement staff and volunteers have currency to continue its moderni- On July 6, the 58th birthday of c now Lion Publications provided added impetus to the in- zation program also render it par- the Dalai Lama, P.O.V. presents itiative. The first step is to include ticularly susceptible to foreign, I thaca, New York USA COMPASSION IN EXILE the tougher language on Tibet in the and in particular US, pressure to richly textured story of the 14th MFN conditioning bill. The sec- alter its policies. n Dalai Lama of Tibet—spiritual —i ■ - RH ond step is to pass the legislation and political leader, Nobel Laure- Of 3 Id [P in the Congress and have it accept- Tibet's Role in MFN ate and amateur watch repairman. ed by President Clinton. The International Campaign for In COMPASSION IN EXILE, Tibet (ICT) and the US Tibet the Dalai Lama's humble life is What is MFN? Committee (USTQ were among gracefully interwoven with the ur- Most Favored Nation (MFN) is the initial instigators of the move- gent plight the Tibetan people. Now You Can Learn reciprocal trading status which ment to condition MFN. Follow- Offering unprecedented interviews provides a country with the lowest ing the massacre in Tiananmen with the Dalai Lama and his fa- available tariffs on its exports to Square in June 1989, these and To Speak Tibetan! mily, the film chronicles his the US. Under US law, countries other concerned human rights 30-year non-violent struggle with non-market economies, such groups began to search for a way FLUENT TIBETAN method acquaints students with against China's occupation of as the former Soviet Union, Cuba to pressure China on human A Proficiency-Oriented Learning the sounds and patterns of Tibe- Tibet as well as his tireless com- and China, are prohibited from rights. With grassroots help, Tibet System tan speech, through repetitive in- mitment to his people, culture and received MFN privileges. Howev- has been an integral part of the Novice and Intermediate Levels teractive drills, enabling them to religion. er, the President has the power to MFN debate from the beginning. learn increasingly complex struc- Rare footage from Chinese waive these restrictions on a year- Language of the past MFN bills William A. Magee and Elizabeth tures quickly, and, in this way, propaganda films and testimonials ly basis. has changed slightly over the S. Napper promoting rapid progress in from exiled Tibetans paint a Since 1980, each US President years, but has always included lan- Jeffrey Hopkins, General Editor speaking the language. Fluent haunting portrait of brutal geno- has waived the above restrictions guage on Tibet. The legislation Tibetan is the best course availa- cide and torture since Communist and renewed China's MFN status. has generally been divided into In collaboration with: Ngawang ble anywhere for learning Tibetan China entered Tibet in 1950. Since 1989, President Bush was three categories: human rights, Thondup Narkyid, Geshe Thup- on your own. COMPASSION IN EXILE will pressured by Congress to condi- trade practices, and weapons ten Jinpa, Kunsang Y King, Jules The Fluent Tibetan package con- have its American debut on tion MFN because of China's bla- proliferation. Tibet has always been sists of a textbook and a set of tape B. Levinson, Jigme Ngapo, Daniel P.O.V.—the premiere series of in- tant disregard for human rights. included in the human rights sec- recordings, arranged in fifteen dependent non-fiction films on E. Perdue, Dolma Tenpa and This effort has been spearheaded tion. Because Congress has tried to units. The first three units are PBS—on Tuesday, July 6th at Steven N. Weinberger. by Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi make the legislation palatable to 1010 page 3-vol. text, 18 cassettes devoted to recognition and 10pm (ET, confirm local (D-CA) and Senator George the President, and therefore less (26 hours), $250 pronunciation of the Tibetan al- listings). ■ Mitchell (D-ME). Because of susceptible to a presidential veto, Published by Snow Lion Publications phabet and its combinations in President Bush's policy of "con- the bill has been substantially nar- syllables and words. Beginning ISBN 1-55939-021-2 structive engagement" with Chi- rowed down over the past three with unit four, vocabulary and Available Summer 1993. Snow Lion na, he consistently vetoed years. The last bill only targeted grammatical patterns are in- legislation conditioning MFN. As exports from state-owned indus- The most systematic and exten- troduced in the form of situation- Call To Action a result, China continues to receive tries in China, so as not to harm sive course system available in spo- al dialogues. Each dialogue is this low trade tariff today. any private enterprise in the PRC. ken Tibetan language, Fluent followed by extensive drills which Members of the Snow Lion staff MFN became a symbol of the Continued on page 3 Tibetan was developed by a team repeat the vocabulary and gram- attended a major conference on of language experts working in matical patterns in different con- Tibet in Washington D.C. in Janu- conjunction with indigenous texts. In this way the student ary. Many of the articles that ap- Dzogchen 28 Catalog Contents: Health & Fitness 31 speakers at the University of Vir- learns not merely to mimic the pear in this issue grew out of that History, Politics & ginia under a grant from the In- phrases but to use the language meeting. We urge each of our Adventure & Travel 23 Art & Photography 24 Social Action 29-30 ternational Research and Studies creatively. readers to make this the time that Audio Tapes 20 Kalachakra 27 Program of the Department of All the voices in the dialogues you contact the many influential Language 25 Education in Washington, D.C. and drills are those of indigenous people in these articles and express Biography 29 Book List (Complete) . .40-41 Music & Chants 21 Fluent Tibetan is based upon the Tibetan speakers and the materi- your views on these issues. With Cards 18-19 Ordering Info 44 courses developed by the U.S. al is given by both male and female the new US administration, we are Children 28 Other Traditions 25 State Department's Foreign Serv- voices alternately. The Tibetan hopeful that some changes can be Cookbooks 31 Posters 18 ice Institute (FSI) specifically for voices on the tape are exception- made. The message we received Dalai Lama 26-27 Religion & Philosophy .32-39 diplomats needing to learn a lan- ally clear. The end-of-text glossary from the Congresspeople we met Death & Dying 30 Sale Items 22 guage quickly. The FSI model is both Tibetan-English and with in Washington was that let- Dharma Items 14-17 Videos 22 used for this course is unsurpassed English-Tibetan. ters and telephone calls work. You Dharma List (Complete) .41-42 Women's Studies 43 in its proven effectiveness. The The material covered in Fluent can make a big difference! ■ SNOW LION SPRING 93 NEWSLETTER & CATALOG NEWS world as a hopeless case. With this unique and rich cultural heritage. what the circumstances, no mat- preconception, they thought that Our friends in the Congress of ter what kind of tragedy I am fac- Buddhism made very little contri- the United States have acted ing, I practice compassion.