OK. So today's speaker is not certain.
She is currently in Oxford as a visiting scholar, working on her Pierde Steve project on The Unseen Homelands.
The construction of Tibet and contemporary discourse and belief in the Tibetan diaspora.
And she is enrolled at the University of Tartu in Estonia at the Department of Estonian and Comparative Folklore Studies.
She also M.A. from Delhi University.
And today she's going to talk about the natural oracle and the deconstruction of identity in the Tibetan diaspora pinholes.
On your microphone and take it away. OK.
Good afternoon, everyone. And my topic for today's presentation is the nature of Oracle and the construction of identity in the Tibetan diaspora.
As Daniel has already mentioned, first of all, I want to say that this presentation is based on my work in progress,
and I'll be very happy to get any feedback later.
All scholars have long studied irregular practises of minor as well as high status or records inside and outside Tibet.
Many have also been interested in visit the Tibetan or EKOS, characterised by spirit, possession can be link to the concept of shamanism or not.
From this point of departure,
I will shift the focus of this study to the status of Orozco's amongst Tibetans in the diaspora and what or I guess signifies to them.
I will focus on the nature or I go today, popularly known as the official state Oracle of Tibet.
And the controversy surrounding it in recent years.
I will do this against the background of its historical and religious context,
but in particular I would refer extensively to how Tibetans in exile from different age groups
and walks of life relate to or EKOS based on a survey I have taken in April this year.
As far as I know, this survey is the first of its kind.
In this presentation, I want to show how the natural or accord, besides being part of a religious belief system is also one of this,
one of several cultural elements that contribute to more the identity of Tibetan in the diaspora.
Nowadays, they're very conscious of what they regard as their traditional culture and specific cultural
elements that they regard as particularly significant for the making of their unique ethnic identity.
Amongst these elements is the Natu Oracle. Irregular, irregular trends is characterised by possession.
By a formless being and an orrego is a person who in this state of consciousness can predict he or advice members of the community.
I will use the term or go to refer to the person who at certain moments acts as the medium of the deity.
Being an Auriga is a status which is permanent. Whether the person is in a state of trance or not.
I would also use the word in the sense of the institution.
Off the record as an ongoing tradition. Confusion arises, however, when the word or echo is used to refer to the deity as well as its medium.
These other try to avoid in the following. Although they have many features and functions in common.
One may distinguish two main types of Tibetan or records.
There are high ranking and highly institutionalised spirit mediums cutting physical bases for the duty,
while at a local level there are pole heroes, all hubbub.
On whom? Distance. The differences in the status and function of the Oracle mainly depends on the status of the DHT.
According to him, to God, Dean Bolgar, there were numerous records inside Tibet at the time off of field work at the turn of millennium.
In exile, however, only a few have remained. Mainly the ones that were consulted by the House of government before the uprising in 1959,
especially the need to recall the Gödel or recall and the female oracle of the sitting Chinua goddesses of these three need,
you'll recall, is of particular importance to Tibetans in the diaspora.
Today. Thus, the need to record is the only state or local in the world.
The only remnant of widespread practises that once prevailed in ancient Greece and Rome.
Took them notebook is the current national record and the voting record in the line.
Nowadays, he is the medium of the day, the daughter doctrine.
The emanation or emissary of BEHA, the letter duty's was at least until the 17th century, believed to be the day.
Who spoke to the Oracle? The tradition of Tibetan government in exile,
of consulting the natural record goes back to the 17th century when the fifth the Dalai
Lama became the head of the government based in Haza that was known as got put on.
These close ties between the Dalai Lama and the DTP ha ensure that the major or accord became most prominent of all the Tibetan oracles.
The popular belief is similar to what is written.
What is written in the nature, Katja and oficial inscription still preserve inside the natural monastery in Passa?
The culture was composed partly by the fifth Dalai Lama and partly by the subsequent regent Sanjay Ghetto.
It has been translated by Christopher Bell, who gave a fascinating presentation of it in this forum a few weeks ago.
It state that behind was captured and brought to some a monastery during the reign
of King to song that's in in order to protect the newly founded monastery in Tibet.
The narrative goes on to say that the Indian country must put Muslim Bullah subdued
the subdued BEHA and bound him in an oath to protect the Buddha's teaching in Tibet.
According to the nation, carjack the relationship between the Dalai Lama and the Oracle goes back to the second Dalai Lama.
Genden Guelzo. It is further believed that the J.G was installed in the neutral monastery in Pozole during the reign of the 5th Dalai Lama.
After the 1959 exodus to India,
the nature monastery was re-established in nineteen eighty four in Dharamsala and is and the data is believed to reside there.
Although the nature or record is not mentioned in the charter of the central Tibetan administration seat formerly known as CGA.
It is now known as CGA. It is nevertheless recognised as the official state oracle of central Tibetan administration.
Conforming to this tradition, the need to orrego is consulted twice, once in winter and once in summer.
By by the CTA and the Dalai Lama consortium seven to eight times a year.
The nature of Oregon plays a significant role, both politically and spiritually.
In April 2020, I did an online survey of Tibetans from different walks of life and living in the diaspora in different parts of the world.
Regarding the status of neutral or record and the local records, the letter generally known amongst Tibetans in the diaspora as public.
The question now was returned by 54 men and women aged from 82 to 14.
Out of 54 respondents, 40 responded that they believe in the nature of recall and in practise as an ancient Tibetan tradition.
The most important result of the survey was that it showed that these Tibetan regarding the Oracle as a
protector of Dalai Lama and therefore of Tibet and hence regard regard it as the state oracle of Tibet.
Some of my respondent respondents, as well as three other informants,
we counted the historical narrative in 1959 which in which the Oracle played an important role by saving the life of 14 Dalai Lama.
This and similar similar narratives run deep amongst Tibetans in exile.
Firstly, in 1949, when the present Dalai Lama was 14 years old,
the record was ask about the danger looming from China and responded with an action rather than by speaking looking towards the east.
He bent his neck 15 times, ignoring the weight of the heavy headdress and first leaving no one in doubt that the danger was coming from China.
Secondly, in March 1959,
the record insisted that the Dalai Lama should escape and even drew a map showing the route to India more over the 14th Dalai Lama.
Dalai Lama statement regarding his close relationship with NATU in his autobiography legitimises the importance of the Oracle.
Now, against this historical background and to the disappointment of many during the meeting
on the 21st September 2017 of the Tibetan parliament in exile in Dharamsala Temple,
you been a member of the parliament, then the practise of Tibetan government of consulting the Natu Oracle.
He forcefully expressed the opinion that the institution of Oracle should be abolished.
Maintaining that consulting duties for political reason is not in accordance with true Buddhism.
This was not the first time he had spoken in the Tibetan parliament on this topic.
As a year earlier, he had expressed similar views. I quote from his statement in 2016.
I called Natu is a state or record. I wonder what sort of state does this refer to?
Does it mean the state or local consulted by the garden,
putting in former times implying that it is functioning at present, or does it refer to the government in exile?
Somehow we need to make a clear distinction between these two governments.
The nature Oracle and the DG of Nature are not something that is known to be known by every Tibetan.
I, for instance, have nothing to do with it. Every Buddhist tradition has its own records.
I unquote. However, he is not the first to speak against the practise of record in the diaspora.
Indeed, in 2006, documentary film by David Your Neck, The Record Reflection on Self.
Jamil Norvell, a Tibetan writer in exile. Also openly criticised the practise of mutual recall as a means to evade one's political responsibility.
Moreover, in the contemporary Tibetan community in exile, criticism of Oracle is not limited to verbal communication.
But they also become the object of mockery in social media. That anonymous person post means ridiculing them.
It is not only a 21st century phenomenon amongst youngsters, but also includes second generation Tibetans in the diaspora.
However, unlike others who have spoken against the Oracle,
despite your bill was condemned by hundreds of Tibetans around the world, mainly older or middle aged women.
One. One could witness a very peculiar way of protesting against him.
When a group of Tibetans. Mainly consisting of women weaving pieces of black cloth at him, shouted slogans such as, We totally opposed you.
Shame on you, shameless man. You are an auspicious man.
And aiming at the people who are with him. Supporting him is like going against the wish of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
Similarly, Tibetans in Toronto organised to protest against them by your bill,
holding a poster sized photo of the Dalai Lama draped in Tibetan traditional white scarf together with a poster saying, I could be by your bill.
We are demanding your resignation from Tibetan parliament, member of parliament.
We are not protesting against ours. Government, CGA.
Stop disrespecting state or local. And stop causing friction in Tibetan community.
I uncle. In my survey, out of 54 respondents, only five were totally opposed to the idea of consulting the Natu Oracle, for instance.
One of them responded.
A student aged 30 wrote that he does not believe in Oracle because I quote, It is simply superstitious and mockery of democracy, unquote.
Another respondent who is 25 years old, working as a teacher, wrote, I quote, I think it's a psychological issue with the people and their brain.
I uncombed.
A man of 60 who did not write why he is opposed to the practise of the NHL, Oracle nevertheless stated that Gambi over his criticism was right.
One of the reason for the controversy concerning the exiled governments consulting the Oracle is the
perceived conflict with the modern democratic system that Tibetans have adopted in the diaspora.
According to my survey, there were 14 Tibetans who who are doubtful of the practise of consulting the record on a political level.
Although some might accept private consultations of the records.
A young man who believes in the reality of oracular possession. And who has witnessed his uncle consulting a local record for medical reasons?
Nevertheless, wrote, I could. It is absolutely ridiculous for a government to consult an oracle.
And if so, what is the use of parliament session? I uncoached.
Until a generation ago, there were a number of local erectors in the Tibetan diaspora.
One of the very few Iraq scholars who have studied local records in the diaspora
before they virtually disappeared is the Swedish anthropologist Bert and Buckley.
Now, the situation has changed, however.
None of the five Tibetans in my survey who were completely against the practise of records has ever consulted an oracle.
However,
it is worth noting that as much as half of the respondents who believe in the nature or recall still feel that it is no longer relevant today.
There were also eleven people who were not clear about their belief in the Oracles using mortifying words like somewhat do not know, a bit sceptical.
It depends. Etc. A woman aged 25 wrote, I got with modernisation.
Many of us have become more rational in making decisions on our own without help of any third party.
Which in traditional practise are mostly based on medical practise.
I unquote. I will now suggest a number of reason why some Tibetans no longer share the belief system underpinning the natural oracle.
Firstly, local records have almost disappeared. And with it with this, ordinary Tibetans have lost touch with their tradition of records.
At least eight of my respondents had heard about local records when they were children or Van Devault still inside Tibet.
Amongst them, for mention the names of local or Iraqis who are old or who had already passed away.
Full fury for for a few Tibetans,
the local oracle are just distant memories from their childhood in the early period of Tibetan settlements in Nepal and India.
Out of 54 respondents, 42 had never consulted any local or record and were not aware of president local Iraqis in their community.
Although the practise of hubbub seems to be disappearing in the Tibetan diaspora,
a few high status or echoes, including the nation recall, have successfully continued till today.
This is the opposite of what Dimbulah debugger describes in her study of female records inside Tibet,
where after the 1959 Exodus and the Cultural Revolution, local records survived, whereas height records disappeared.
Ethnographic studies show that the primary function of Tibetan records was to cure people's illness.
Both Dornberger and Burkley point out that the most frequently posed question to the DG concerned health problems.
This brings me to the second reason for the virtual disappearance of local records.
Namely, a modern health system, health care system, as well as the development of large scale availability of Tibetan traditional medicine.
Together, they have replaced the tradition of consulting or records in case of illness.
And that's been crucial to the demise of the local Oracle oracular practise.
In other words, words, the function, the function as healer was crucial for the for the records to retain their importance.
In the community, in the Tibetan diaspora today, dysfunction is becoming largely irrelevant.
A few Tibetans who still consult local Iraqis responded that they generally do so when they have problems
in choosing the right hospital for medical treatment or sometime for choosing a college for the studies.
All the right country to immigrate to. There therefore seems to be a shift in the function of echoes from curing illness
to the less crucial role of helping people to choose the right hospital.
A third reason is the vill organise modern education system in the exiled communities.
Berkeley writes that I quote, The Heritage Trust transmission of the office was very important.
A long line of Powell in the family was taken as a guarantee of the tourist worthiness of performing eye, unquote.
This is bad. The advent advent of modern education has reduced the practise because it is unlikely
that children of the first generation of adult or EKOS would carry on the tradition.
Two of my informants stated that they had friends whose parents will Pough.
But their friends, not themself, can continue the tradition.
Likewise, two of my respondents. Who are 25 and 30 years old, wrote that their grandfather and great uncle respectively were local oracles.
However, both of them were sceptical about the relevance of records in today's society.
Now, coming back to the controversy, the protest against it by Yarber goes deeper than being simply the expression of religious belief.
There are other cases, as well as of public demonising and ostracising, which have nothing to do with the nature or what concerned the Dalai Lama.
Luke Jim, who stood for the post of Signal in 2016, was demonised because he had posted on all the jury to end its Berling in which he wrote, I quote.
Not out of loyalty. But speaking of your ethical, courageous position, you, Elliot Sperling,
are the one who should have lived for one hundred and thirteen years, I quote.
This statement was taken as directed against the Dalai Lama by many Tibetans
because the letter had many times mentioned in public that he would leave.
One hundred and thirteen years. The reference of the symbolic number by Luke or Jim to walk the Tibetans around
the world in the same way as to imply Yarkas criticism of the nature Marechal.
Moreover, when standing for the election in 2016 of prime minister in the Tibetan government in exile.
Lugar just called for the full independence of Tibet.
Rather than the middle way that was introduced by the Dalai Lama in 1987 calling for autonomy rather than independence.
In other words, Lugo's jumps position contradicted that of most Tibetans who had incorporated the Middle Way approach to the struggle of Tibet.
Just public remark that people believed was directed towards the Dalai Lama provoked an
open letter signed by two thousand two hundred twenty one Tibetans entitled Lugar Jum,
Enemy of Tibetans.
She was not only verbally criticised, but in one case he was turned out of the restaurant in Dharamsala, in another case his car was damaged.
And some people even threatened to kill him and his family. The Tibetan in the diaspora was sunderer into two groups,
one consisting of few who were sympathetic to him on the basis of right to expression and other of the majority who were against him.
Now, in order to analyse such internal conflict, we should look at how culture plays a part in politics.
As mentioned, Tibetan in the diaspora have become highly conscious of what they regard as a traditional culture.
In other words, you believe that there are specific, specific cultural elements that indisputably identify them as people belonging to Tibetans.
Hence, there is no doubt that Tibetans in the diaspora have created a separate ethnic identity that did not exist before 1959.
In my survey, thirty nine out of 54 respondents pointed out that the Natu Oracle is important for the Tibetans.
And Tibet. They've suggested several reasons.
Denature Orrego is an ancient Tibetan tradition. It is a part of Tibetan culture.
It is the state oracle of Tibet and it is important for the well-being of the Dalai Lama and for finding his reincarnation.
This also confirms that what is believed to be important for the Dalai Lama is important for the majority of Tibetans.
This brings me to Frederick Boortz, influential work, ethnic groups and boundaries,
where he deconstructed ethnicity and culture that were once read as inseparable.
According to Bart.
Ethnicity or ethnic identity is an aspect of social organisation characterised by ascription and self ascription of certain characteristics,
creating not culture but cultural difference.
Furthermore, but emphasised that I quote, The critical focus of investigation becomes the ethnic boundary that defines the group,
not the cultural stuff that it encloses, I unquote.
I will argue that.
That it is to show the cultural difference from the Chinese that Tibetans have created an ethnic boundary distinguishing Tibet from China.
In doing so, they have moulded clearly demarcated ethnic identity.
But emphasise, emphasised, emphasise on ascription,
emphasis on ascription and self ascription is crucial to understanding the ethnic Tibetan identity in the diaspora.
Today. As it has developed through, they're embracing certain cultural elements over the decades.
Sitting Shuka has argued against his identity construction by observing that with regard to the word paper,
traditionally, I quote, There is no indigenous term which encompasses the population denoted by the VESTINE usage.
A local term paper can be used only restrictively. Even today.
The nomads of Chang don't use it for the people of the Hudson Valley, why,
for the people who come and undo it means exclusively the inhabitants of Central Tibet.
Significantly, the person using the word people never identifies himself as part of the group.
Both statements regarding boundaries is relevant in the case of the construction of gridded Tibet,
consisting of Come Ondo and Rusholme, sometimes referred to as the three provinces.
Talk us from. Regarding this, Shuggie argues that I could.
Unification of entire Tibetan speaking area under virtual classroom has become deeply embedded in the political culture of the Tibetan diaspora.
Where the core of the refugees political identity lay in the conception of Tibet as the unity of come on, though, and some I unquote.
The Tibetan ethnic identity in the diaspora today places the Tibetans within these boundaries.
In spite of the fact that they share many cultural similarities with Bhutan and with
Indian regions such as the Doc and Sicking and the Sherpas and others in Nepal.
These cultural sharing is cut across by the imagined as well as political voters, so that in spite of similarities in culture,
religion, script and language, inhabitants of these regions are not counted as Tibetans.
When Tibetans call them so Poupart today,
it signifies Tibetans from the Tibetan regions that are under Chinese occupation and Tibetan in the diaspora,
implying a population having a common history, tradition and sharing, Worldview admits.
Having been placed into one single ethnic category, Tibetans in the diaspora, although originating from different regions,
are now striving to define a shared culture, thereby create a unified Tibetan community.
Richard Jenkins referring to Bart States. I could.
Shared culture is best understood as generated in and by processes of ethnic boundary maintainance rather than other way around.
I uncoached. In this connexion,
the national record is one of the cultural tradition that is being promoted as an element of shared culture in the Tibetan diaspora,
irrespective of religious schools. There is no doubt that consulting the natural recall is an ancient Tibetan tradition.
But it does not seem that it was known as it is today in the diaspora nowadays as the state or as the oracle of Tibet.
The tradition of consulting the Natu Oracle by HUSA based Tibetan government is indisputable.
But whether this tradition apply to all parts of 1959, Tibet is questionable.
Hence. Rather, we seem to see a shift of regional symbol, the you or recall to was becoming a pan Tibetan one.
This is a part of a broader process.
The Tibetan community in exile, namely a process of unification of Tibetan identity under a homogeneous culture and tradition.
Another related element of what is regarded as constituting Tibetan culture is the Dalai Lama.
As the supreme spiritual and traditionally also politically political leader of all Tibetans.
This idea has been constructed or at least vigorously promoted in exile after the Chinese occupation of Tibet.
Shuka argues that the supreme leadership of the Dalai Lama has been constructed in the diaspora.
And that's the Dalai Lama's political authority, never extended beyond central Tibet.
Invention of tradition are not unknown in the Tibetan diaspora today.
For instance,
Claire Harris states that the construction of a shrine are Chambal for the Dalai Lama that is now found in every sizeable monastery in the diaspora,
irrespective of their religious affiliations. Affiliation was a practise limited to the Gilks School in Tibet prior to 1959.
Likewise, cultural elements such as the national flag, the national anthem, and, above all, the Dalai Lama as a spiritual lead,
spiritual and political leader of all Tibetans, including the natural Oracle, have become markers of Tibetan identity.
However, by your bill and or Jim have transgressed the norms of the exiled community and are therefore
perceived as being against their shared political goal of the majority of diasporic Tibetans.
Catrin Verdery, an American anthropologist, links the body and idea of ethnicity to that of state making threats to nationalism.
She states that. Ethnic identities are flexible, changeable and situationally adaptive.
Which she called situation realism.
She then Ling's situation realism to start making because it is in the process of state making that ethnic identities take shape.
We can see the same development towards an ethno national identity here.
Absolving the dominant narrative in Tibetan communities around the world.
The cultural trait, which are regarded by Tibetans as crucial for their identity, appear to have a political rather than a cultural origin.
Well, homogenised Tibetan identity is constructed to advance the political struggle against the Chinese occupation of Tibetan areas.
Rather than having a timeless inherent cultural origin or essence, as it is widely believed, even by non Tibetan supporters of Tibet.
I for aggrieved, Valerie's argument that culture is politics rather than something inherent in ethnicity.
Another American anthropologist, racket, F. Williams,
also argues that the state uses myth of homogeneity to stabilise the notion of culture, tradition,
authenticity and common cheered for its administrative task and that the nationalism and ethnicity results from the
various construction of myths of homogeneity out of the realities of heterogeneity that characterise all nation building.
For instance, Claire Harris maintains that the culture of having the Dalai Lama's icon prominently displayed in public and private is good.
A result of ideological battle that is fought in visual field during the 1960s and 1970s in Chinese controlled Tibet eye, unquote.
These indicates that such cultural practises in the diaspora have developed for political reasons.
Hence, I argue that the Dalai Lama functions to consolidate political rather than cultural solidarity.
But this function is hidden under cultural elements, including a belief system that are highly politicised.
I'd further argue that Tibetans in the diaspora have used ethnic identity.
But above all their culture for the political purpose of campaigning for the freedom of Tibet.
Although votaries theory of culture as politics can be applied to the Tibetan diasporic situation.
The government in exile is not simply a region where the power flows from the centre outward.
The general Tibetan population in the diaspora also plays an important role in politicising their culture.
In the case of the Dalai Lama, Martin, a muse, maintains that I quote,
It is not so much a century food century for good power that extends outward, but as a centripetal or inward ascription of authority by others.
Likewise, one cannot deny the fact that Tibetans in the diaspora fear losing what they consider their true culture.
Regarding such phenomena. Hence, their Meulen and Kaura Goober's argue that I quote.
We're interaction is increasing and where people are losing Off-Air, David lose their cultural distinctiveness.
They become aware of their culture, may start to repair their culture and demand cultural dwights, I unquote.
Regular Bendix, a Swiss folklorist,
offers an apposite remark concerning national uniqueness when she when she argues that I got the notion of national uniqueness.
Harbaugh's a conservative, echoes of the past.
The notion of authenticity, ultimate ultimately undermines the liberating and humanitarian tendency from which it grew.
My own code. Does the idea of having to preserve what they believe is being destroyed by Chinese inside Tibet,
sometimes referred to as cultural genocide and having to leave as a minority in an alien
multi polity may have let the Tibetans to embrace cuonzo conservatism and essentialism.
Concerning such essentialist phenomenon. The British political scientist and Philipsz states that I quote.
The policing of this collective category, the treatment of a supposedly shared characteristic as the defining ones that cannot be
questioned or modified without undermining an individual's claim to belong to the group.
I uncoached. In moving forward with this unified responsibility to attain greater autonomy for Tibet,
some Tibetans have taken to policing what they regard as the basis of the Tibetan identity.
This process of creating a pan Tibetan culture results in an essentialism as defined by an Philipsz.
In adopting their own brand of essentialism, Tibetans may unwittingly be participating in a broader global trend.