HIMALAYA, the Journal of the Association for Nepal and Himalayan Studies Volume 40 Number 1 Article 17 November 2020 Review of The Great Game in the Buddhist Himalayas: India and China’s Quest for Strategic Dominance by Phunchok Stobdan Noé Dinnerstein City University of New York Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/himalaya Recommended Citation Dinnerstein, Noé. 2020. Review of The Great Game in the Buddhist Himalayas: India and China’s Quest for Strategic Dominance by Phunchok Stobdan. HIMALAYA 40(1). Available at: https://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/himalaya/vol40/iss1/17 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License. This Review is brought to you for free and open access by the DigitalCommons@Macalester College at DigitalCommons@Macalester College. It has been accepted for inclusion in HIMALAYA, the Journal of the Association for Nepal and Himalayan Studies by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@Macalester College. For more information, please contact [email protected]. tegic Studies in Jammu and Arunachal Pradesh, as well as buffer Kashmir. He is the founding states such as Nepal and Bhutan. president of the Ladakh In- This sectarian hegemony, frequently ternational Centre, Leh, and conflated with geo-political has been senior fellow at the struggle, includes Gelug attempts Institute for Defense Studies to exert control of other sects in and Analyses, New Delhi, as the Himalayan region, especially well as distinguished fellow at regarding the incarnation of tulkus as the United Services Institu- heads of monasteries. tion. One major issue is the assertation of The author does not purport Tibetan suzerainty over the Tawang this to be an academic work, but area of Arunachal Pradesh. The rather is intended as a narrative author states that “Tibetan officials The Great Game in the Buddhist and analytical account. He relies are known for repudiation as per Himalayas: India and China’s Quest on official sources, as well as political expediency. The Dalai for Strategic Dominance. vernacular media reporting. Lama’s government initially signed His own years-long experience the Simla Convention on 3 July 1914 Phunchok Stobdan. New Delhi, with conferences, seminars, and to define the border between Chinese Vintage Random House, 2019. 312 discussions in the region has Tibet and British India drawn up by Pages. ISBN 9780670091393 informed his analysis, as well as the Sir Henry McMahon, but in practice fact of his being a native of Buddhist it never ratified the McMahon Line Reviewed by Noé Dinnerstein Ladakh in the region. on the pretext of Beijing’s non- acceptance of it. In fact, at various Sparing no one’s preconceived The author states from the onset points in history, the Tibetans narratives, he very carefully that “[t]his book is an attempt to opted in favor of taking protection chronicles the geo-politics, and provide an overview of the political under Beijing against British India’s how it has been tied into Himalayan and strategic process at work in the efforts to deal with them directly.” Buddhism and the inter-sectarian Buddhist Himalayas. While trying (pp. 113-114). He goes on to point rivalries that have shaped the history to understand the various intricate out that these ambiguities are of the region. He describes nesting issues in the region, an attempt intertwined with issues of Tibetan and conflicting hegemonies—Indian, has been made to trace the Tibetan autonomy versus subjugation. He Tibetan, British, Chinese, American, factors that impinge on India. The further notes of the Dalai Lama that, etc.—and how they have played out in book is mostly about identifying “upon reaching India, he refused to what Stobdan describes as a version critical points that are important recognize India’s sovereignty over of “The Great Game,” to paraphrase for evolving a sound Indian policy Tawang and Arunachal Pradesh. After Rudyard Kipling. In this case the towards this strategic Himalayan four decades of his stay in India, the central theme is Tibetan hegemony in region.” (p. vii). As noted in the Dalai Lama, while touring Tawang the region as exerted by the Gelugpa author profile on the back leaf, in 2003, said, “Arunchal Pradesh Ganden Phodrang administration, was actually part of Tibet” (p. 112). Ambassador Phunchok Stob- bolstered primarily by the Qing However, after losing any hope of dan is a distinguished acade- Dynasty, and subsequently by its mician, diplomat and author, reaching an agreement with China, successor, the People’s Republic of and an expert of foreign the Dalai Lama finally was compelled China. policy and national security. to accept India’s claims (pp. 112-13). He observes that in spite of Tibet’s He is a known authority on The modern Tibetan narrative, conquest and subjugation by the Central and Inner Asian af- cultivated by Buddhist lamas, is PRC, and the subsequent Tibetan fairs. He last served as India’s observed to have shaped policy, Diaspora, the Gelugpa hegemony ambassador to the Kyrgyz. both in India and the United States. has continued, and has been used as He has previously served in The author’s chronicles contradict the proverbial camel’s nose into the the National Security Council this blithely idyllic narrative. He tent of India’s territorial integrity Secretariat and been direc- cites more balanced viewpoints such in Himalayan Buddhist border tor of the Center for Stra- that of Tibetologist Donald S. López, regions such as Ladakh, Sikkim, and HIMALAYA Volume 40, Number 1 | 123 Throughout the book, the ambassador painstakingly constructs a detailed chronicle of interactions throughout the region, constantly searching for a strategic policy by which India might be guided Dinnerstein on The Great Game in the Buddhist Himalayas: India and China’s Quest for Strategic Dominance. Jr. who stated in his 2018 update lack of engagement with Buddhism of Music at John Jay College of Criminal of Prisoners of Shangri-La: Tibetan as a whole, and Himalayan Buddhism Justice, CUNY. His recent research has Buddhism and the West. (Chicago, in particular, has ceded control of focused on traditional songs in Ladakh, Ill.; London : University of Chicago the discourse to China. “But having situating them historically and culturally press) played this game for too long, India in the Himalayan crossroads, noting has failed to grasp the dynamic broader relationships in the region. He Nor was Tibet, in Georges interplay between the Tibetan holds a PhD in ethnomusicology from the Bataille’s phrase, “an un- plateau and the political landscape Graduate Center, City University of New armed society.” Tibet did that is the Indian Himalayas. As York (CUNY). not renounce armed conflict mentioned earlier, understanding when it converted to Bud- the Tibetan polity requires more dhism in the eighth century, than bureaucratic bean-counting!” or in the eleventh century, (p. 267). or under the fifth Dalai Lama. The fifth Dalai Lama assumed His final assessment pulls no punches: temporal power over Tibet Clearly then, India has so far through the intervention of either had no independent his Qoshot Mongol patron, the Tibet policy of its own or been Gushri Khan, whose troops highly dependent on Western defeated the king of Tsang, assessments, or New Delhi had patron of the Karma Kagyu. weighed heavily in the Dalai Tibetan armies fought against Lama’s thinking. Instead of re- Ladakh in 1681, against the lying on knowledge rooted in Dzungar Mongols in 1720, Indian experiences, especially in numerous incursions into on the statecraft carefully Bhutan during the eighteenth evolved during the British century, against invading Ne- period, India’s policy objective pali forces from 1788 to 1792 for the Himalayas and Tibet and again in 1854, against is subservience to US policy Dogra forces invading Ladakh goals. The time has come to from Kashmir in 1842, and change that. (p. 268). against the British in 1904. (pp. 8-9). This book is an arduous read, but is clear in its stated goal, and lays out Throughout the book, the the facts in a cogent manner. For ambassador painstakingly constructs any serious students of Asian geo- a detailed chronicle of interactions politics this is a necessary education, throughout the region, constantly courtesy, not of a theorist, but of searching for a strategic policy by someone seriously involved in the which India might be guided. The hard of work of real-world diplomacy. frustrating complexities are palpable, as he grapples with diplomatic Noé Dinnerstein is an ethnomusicologist, realities. Sadly, he feels that India’s musician, and Adjunct Assistant Professor 124 | HIMALAYA Fall 2020 .