A Contemporary Story of "Diaspora": The Tibetan Version

Until the last two decades of the twentieth century, Tibetan studies suffered from an overemphasis on Buddhism and pre-1950s Tibetan history. Since the late 1980s, however, the situation has gradually changed. One increasingly comes across works related to Tibet that draw upon new ideas culled from various social, literary, and cultural theories. One such concept that is gaining currency is Diaspora.1 Taking their cue from the changing discourses of other dispersions, Tibetanists2working with Tibetan exile/refugee communities have adopted the term. While this development brings Tibetan studies in line with similar disciplines and reflects the self-confidence of the field itself, often the term is used in an undertheorized manner, as a mere synonym or substitute for 'refugee' or 'exile'. This is problematic, since Diaspora is not just another word for exiles or refugees but a concept with its own history. And this history is necessarily messy and contested.