New Book by English Professor Tsering Wangmo Reexamines Tibetan Exile and National Identity
Villanova, PA 鈥� Associate Professor Tsering Wangmo, PhD, a scholar of English and Tibetan diasporic studies, has published a new book, The Politics of Sorrow. Focusing on the early years of Tibetan exile life in India and Nepal, this book marks a significant change in the fields of nationalism studies, refugee identity and Tibetan historiography.聽
鈥淢y intention was to center Tibetan experiences and to write about history and exile from the perspective of ordinary Tibetans,鈥� Dr. Wangmo explains鈥攃ontrary to the traditional academic approach of treating displaced peoples as research subjects and instead emphasizing their role as co-creators of knowledge.
In 1959, the Dalai Lama escaped from Tibet, which had been occupied by China, and established a government in exile in India. There, Tibetan leaders aimed to bring together displaced Tibetan refugees from a variety of religious traditions and local loyalties, asking them to shed regional allegiances and embrace a vision of a shared national identity.聽
Focusing on the first two decades of life in Tibetan exile, The Politics of Sorrow examines the internal dynamics of this national identity formation using stories of the Group of Thirteen鈥攁 collective of chieftains and lamas from the regions of Kham and Amdo, who sought to preserve Tibet鈥檚 cultural diversity in exile. 鈥淭here are not many books that study closely the internal struggles for recognition,鈥� Dr. Wangmo notes.
While celebrating the resilience and cohesion of the Tibetan exile community, Dr. Wangmo also reflects critically on the challenges of creating unity without sacrificing inclusion. 鈥淢y aim is not to diminish the extraordinary success of the Tibetan refugee community in establishing itself as a cohesive entity, nor to diminish the leadership of the Dalai Lama,鈥� she says. Rather, her book draws attention to ways displaced communities are politically innovative and the complex negotiations they have about identity.
At its core, The Politics of Sorrow is a meditation on exile as a political and psychological condition. 鈥淓xile is personal and communal; I also wanted to write about the psychological effects of the experience of occupation and dispossession of a people,鈥� Dr. Wangmo says. She calls for embracing a multiplicity of voices, reminding readers that 鈥渦nity does not always translate into meaningful inclusion.鈥�
Dr. Wangmo teaches and writes nonfiction and poetry at Villanova. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from San Francisco University and a doctorate in English from the University of California, Santa Cruz.
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