University of Kentucky UKnowledge Theses and Dissertations--Anthropology Anthropology 2019 FLEXIBLE LIMINALITY AMONG THE TIBETAN DIASPORA: TIBETAN EXILES ADJUSTING CULTURAL PRACTICES IN DHARAMSALA, INDIA AND THE UNITED STATES Sneha Thapa University of Kentucky, [email protected] Author ORCID Identifier: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5494-6219 Digital Object Identifier: https://doi.org/10.13023/etd.2019.023 Right click to open a feedback form in a new tab to let us know how this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation Thapa, Sneha, "FLEXIBLE LIMINALITY AMONG THE TIBETAN DIASPORA: TIBETAN EXILES ADJUSTING CULTURAL PRACTICES IN DHARAMSALA, INDIA AND THE UNITED STATES" (2019). Theses and Dissertations--Anthropology. 37. https://uknowledge.uky.edu/anthro_etds/37 This Doctoral Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Anthropology at UKnowledge. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations--Anthropology by an authorized administrator of UKnowledge. 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Whitaker, Major Professor Dr. Sarah Lyon, Director of Graduate Studies FLEXIBLE LIMINALITY AMONG THE TIBETAN DIASPORA: TIBETAN EXILES ADJUSTING CULTURAL PRACTICES IN DHARAMSALA, INDIA AND THE UNITED STATES ____________________________________________ DISSERTATION ____________________________________________ A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Kentucky By Sneha Thapa Lexington, Kentucky Director: Dr. Mark P. Whitaker, Professor of Anthropology Lexington, Kentucky 2019 Copyright © Sneha Thapa, 2019 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5494-6219 ABSTRACT OF DISSERTATION FLEXIBLE LIMINALITY AMONG THE TIBETAN DIASPORA: TIBETAN EXILES ADJUSTING CULTURAL PRACTICES IN DHARAMSALA, INDIA AND THE UNITED STATES In this dissertation, I investigate the characteristics and quality of liminality among the Tibetan exile community in Dharamsala, India, and the United States. I argue that the quality of their liminality defines this exile community’s ability to maneuver and voice their influence to geo-political community of states that surround them, all while within their liminal condition. The Tibetan exile people live as stateless foreigners in India but have a better standard of living and better opportunities to acquire transnational resources than their surrounding host community. In the U.S., Tibetan diaspora people live as asylum-seekers and naturalized Tibetan-Americans but have established a popular political campaign (which enjoys the support of considerably many Americans) addressing the plight of Tibetans imposed by China. I argue that the Tibetan diaspora have achieved this unique social and political success as a marginalized community by adopting a cultural practice that I call “flexible liminality.” Flexible liminality is a Tibetan cultural practice that helps transient people adjust to any situation, people, and geo-politics circumstance. Flexible liminality relies on two factors: first, political interest from various nation-states; second, a group’s ability to adjust their cultural practices to match external influences. In the case of the Tibetan exile community, it is important to note that they are excluded by multiple nation- states (China, India, the Western countries) in different ways simultaneously. Therefore, the world collective of Tibetan refugees are not fixed in one state of liminality but experience a variety of liminalities in relation to different nation-states. Second, the Tibetan exile community has adjusted their cultural practices to assimilate with host communities in whichever countries their exile-hood has landed them. Since Tibetans cannot acquire Indian citizenship, the Tibetan exile community uses India as a space to promote their political activism against China, and form better relationship with Western foreigners. In Dharamsala, the Tibetan community has organized institutions that guides Tibetan individuals to form relationships with foreign tourists, and acquire skills (i.e. language, behavior, education, philosophy) that would help them assimilate better when resettling in Western host countries. In both, Dharamsala and the U.S., the Tibetan diaspora have a cultivated cultural practice to advocate Tibetan political plight against China, and to communicate Tibetan religio-socio traditions with the foreign host community. As a result, Tibetans are able to achieve political popularity, and to socially draw empathy from foreign communities that aids in producing a space for Tibetan cultural preservation in exile. The case study on Tibetan exile community sheds a new light on the study of marginality/liminality. This dissertation showcases that there can be a spectrum for the quality of liminality that goes from flexible at one end to inflexible at the other end. Not all exile groups have the same condition of liminality, being an exile community can be beneficial or crippling somewhere in the spectrum. Tibetan exile community has achieved a flexible end of liminality in exile but there are other exile groups who may not have the same maneuvering ability as the Tibetan exile community. This theory of flexible liminality can be used to better understand the lives of exiles by characterizing and measuring the quality of their liminality. KEYWORDS: Exile population, Diaspora, Strategic Cultural Practice, Tibet, Transnationality, Liminality Sneha Thapa 11th February 2019 Date FLEXIBLE LIMINALITY AMONG THE TIBETAN DIASPORA: TIBETAN EXILES ADJUSTING CULTURAL PRACTICES IN DHARAMSALA, INDIA AND THE UNITED STATES By Sneha Thapa Dr. Mark P. Whitaker Director of Dissertation Dr. Sarah Lyon Director of Graduate Studies 11th February 2019 Date ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my advisor, Dr. Mark P. Whitaker, for his constant support, encouragement, and guidance throughout my graduate studies and the dissertation process. I would extend my gratitude to my entire dissertation committee members (Dr. Hsain Ilahiane, Dr. Diane King, Dr. Monica Udvardy, Dr. Patrick Mooney) who have been great mentors for my doctoral studies. I am thankful to the financial support provided by the University of Kentucky Gatton College’s A.P.J. Kalam India Studies Research Program, and to the Anthropology Department’s Susan Abbott-Jamieson Award, which funded my ethnographic fieldwork in Dharamsala, India and the US. My deepest appreciation goes out to all the participants from India, Nepal, and the United States, without your insights I could not have done this work. I would like to thank two amazing friends and fieldwork assistants Kunsang in Dharamsala, India and Jordan Neumann in Louisville, KY. It is their hard-work and thoughtful counsel that led me to all the ethnographic data. I would like to thank and specially recognition the Tibetan monastery in Louisville, Drepung Gomang Center for Engaging Compassion, for helping me throughout my fieldwork in the U.S. I would also like to thank my family and friends for their emotional and financial support. Simon and Cassius for providing me most-needed company throughout the graduate school; Frank and Lauren for reading and editing all my chapters; my parents, Nigma and Vijendra, for accompanying me to many interviews and fieldwork sites; and many others who have time and again been a shoulder I could lean on. I dedicate my dissertation to you all, thank you! iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................................... iii List of Tables ........................................................................................................................................................ vii List of Figures ........................................................................................................................... viii Chapter 1: Flexible Liminality of