Translating Tibet: New Cultural Contexts

UG - Undergraduate

"Translating Tibet: New Cultural Contexts" explores the global spread and reimagining of Tibetan Buddhist practice, art-making, literature and ideas as well as efforts to maintain Tibetan culture in exile. Students will develop an understanding of the teachings of Tibetan Buddhism, the life experiences of the fourteenth Dalai Lama, the cultural and ritual objects and art-making practices of Tibetans living in Dharmshala, India as well as the expanding interest in these artifacts and ideas over the last century well beyond the foothills of the Himalayas. From Timothy Leary and The Beatles to Leslie Rinchen-Wongmo, Carmen Mensink, and Pema Chodron, students will investigate and debate the survival, adaptation and misrepresentation of cultural practices in new contexts.