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Tibetan Muslims: Islam in a Buddhist Land

Thursday, September 19, 2013 at 4:30pm to 6:00pm

McGraw Hall, 101 Mezzanine, American Wing
141 Central Ave, Ithaca, NY 14850

This talk examines the presence of Tibetan Muslims and their role in Tibetan society.  For most outsiders the sheer mention of Muslims in Lhasa, let alone Tibet, comes as a surprise. Most people believe that to be Tibetan is to be Buddhist and, conversely, to be Muslim is broadly understood to mean one was not Tibetan. The supposed irrefutability of such reasoning has deflected attention from the reality that Tibetan Muslims have been for nearly three centuries a prominent and significant dimension of Tibetan society.

Professor David Atwill will explore the roots of Tibetan Muslims in Tibet as well as offer an overview of their central role in the 1959 diplomatic tensions following the Dalai Lama’s departure to India.  Few people realize that in the wake of his departure a heated dispute between China and India erupted over whether or not the Tibetan Muslims living in Lhasa could claim Indian citizenship despite having lived in Tibet for centuries.

Precisely how the Tibetan Muslims emerged as a central diplomatic incident is even more startling when one realizes that their precise history, position in Tibetan society, and transnational identity remained obscure, ambiguous and largely undocumented in Chinese, Tibetan and Western sources.  Exploring archival resources in five languages and carrying out field research in over five countries, Professor Atwill’s research sheds new light on this little known topic.

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Event Type

Lecture

Departments

Comparative Muslim Societies Program

Website

http://www.personal.psu.edu/faculty/d...

Contact E-Mail

et54@cornell.edu

Contact Name

Prof Eric Tagliacozzo

Contact Phone

254-6564

Speaker

David Atwill

Speaker Affiliation

Associate Professor, History Department, Penn State University

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