Jamyang Kyentse (1820-1892) Jamyang Kyentsei Wangpo(‘jam-dbangs mkhyen-brtse’I dbang-po), or briefly Jamyang Kyentse, is a nineteenth century treasure-finder(gter-ston) of Tibetan Buddhism. He was born in 1820 near Yaru Chungchen Drak in Derge(sde-dge), eastern Tibet. At the age of twelve he became a novice at Tartse(tar-rtse) monastery and received the monastic name whose … [Read more...]
Chronology of Travel in Asia & Tibet – Shabkar
Shabkar Tsokdruk Rangdröl (Zhabs dkar tshogs drug rang grol, 1781 – 1850) Shabkar has born and grew up in the region of Amdo, near the border between Qinghai and Gansu. He traveled to Central Tibet (U-Tsang region, with Lhasa at its center), Tsari, Mountain Kailash, and Nepal. While he was on his pilgrimage, he gave a lot of teachings and sermons to the people on their … [Read more...]
Chronology of Travel in Asia & Tibet – Gosain
Gosain A Gosain is generally described as a Hindu trading pilgrim. The term Gosain was applied loosely to Shivaite devotees, some of whom were priests, others wandering mendicants, others served as mercenaries in the army of princes and chiefs in the eighteenth century, still others lived in maths (“monasteries”) in principal cities and combined religious and commercial … [Read more...]
Chronology of Travel in Asia & Tibet – Bogle
On the Ground in Tibet: George Bogle’s 1774 Mission As is the nature of the spring hiring season, this week found me interviewing for a position teaching seventh and eighth grade history at a day school in Boston. While my teaching experience thus far has only applied to high-school age students, the middle school history curriculum at this particular institution is very … [Read more...]
Tibetan Human Cranium Prayer Beads
by Victoria Dombronski Michel's Adventures with Tibetan Human Cranium Prayer Beads Mala’s story begins with a traveling student, Michel, who finds a circle of beads on a dirt path while studying abroad in Tibet. Michel began to analyze the beads as he carefully manipulated them in his hands. Are these bone? It certainly looks like it. Did this ritual object really all start … [Read more...]
Tibet in New York
William Chung & Kazuma Costello A daily adventure of New York through a Tibetan Lens by Kaz and Will. Come with us for a wide-ranging and immersive Tibetan experience as we hit different grub spots and museum locations, right here in our very own city. Here is the website: http://tibetinnewyork.tumblr.com/ … [Read more...]
A Beginner’s Guide to Tibetan Art
Creation of the website: A Beginner's Guide to Tibetan Art This website is designed to help students better understand Tibetan Art as they encounter works of art in class and on field trips such as to the Rubin Museum of Art. By understanding what different Tibetan symbols represent and what went into the creation of the work, my hope is for students to gain a better … [Read more...]
Phurba with three faces of Vajrakila Buddha
by Ryan Hudson "Vajrakilaya, or kīla, means something sharp, and something that pierces – a dagger. A dagger that is so sharp it can pierce anything, while at the same time nothing can pierce it. That is the quality. This sharp and piercing energy is what is used to practice and out of the many infinite, endless Vajrayana methods this happens to be one of most important … [Read more...]
Chronology of Travel in Asia & Tibet
11th century Milarepa (1040-1123) "opened" Lapchi (la phyi) and spent years there and at Kailash, see Shabkar p. 443 12th century Drigung Jigten Gonpo (1143-1217) sent hermits to three holy mountains in southern Tibet: Kailash, Lapchi, Tsari with an administrator (Dordzin) as representative of Drigung Monastery to oversee them, see Shabkar 343 13th century 1213-1221 Drukpa … [Read more...]
Our Journey to Punda: Learning a Life through Food
Maxwell C. Hu & Ethan Danial Exploring Tibetan food as a way of exploring local Queens Tibetan communities and experiences of individuals in a website, Here: https://tibetfinal.wordpress.com/ … [Read more...]
Manhattan Meditator
Manhattan-Meditator website I’m a senior at Columbia University, and I’m student in Professor Tuttle’s class Intro to East Asian Civilization: Tibet. As a part of my final project in this class, I decided to explore the modern form of the ancient practice meditation. In this class, we’ve explored much of what has made Tibetan culture distinctive and unique, examining the … [Read more...]
The Headdress: Women’s Status Symbol
by Alexandra Cassutt for INTRO EAST ASIAN CIV: TIBET V2365- 001 While from the outset hundreds of years back Tibet's economy was run by and largely for patriarchal interests, there continues to this day a tradition of female adornment which expresses, through the use of a multitude of precious stones, a woman's status and that of her family. The women of the … [Read more...]
Tiny House Hunting
by Sara Novak Lerner View project in Mediathread My chosen object for this project, the Black Tent is unique because it's been photographed in its natural environment, which gives me the opportunity to discuss its surroundings as well. I also want to take this opportunity to do a bit of research on the Tibetan nomads, who comprise more than three-quarters of the … [Read more...]
Tibetan Ritual Dance
Welcome to my website about Tibetan ritual dance for my final project in Columbia University’s Intro to Tibetan Civilization class! On this main page you will find background information. At the top you will see tabs to other pages that delve into more specific topics! Have fun exploring! Please note that the reason videos are linked rather than embedded is that I would need to … [Read more...]
Mapping Tibetan Culture
The website Mapping Tibetan Culture was created in Fall 2015 as a final project for ASCE V2365: Intro to Tibetan Civilization with Professor Gray Tuttle. Motivation One of the class assignments in our semester required us to work together as a class to locate centers of Tibetan culture around the world. I saw value in assimilating these datasets and attempting to map them to … [Read more...]
Mapping Tibet
Living in Sacred Space
Video by Bekah Mulberg. Description: Intended for Educational Purposes Only. This project began as an exploration. What is sacred space? What did it mean to our ancestors, to indigenous cultures who remain so entwined with their land? Modern, secularized society tends to ignore this idea, and paints most of the world around us as profane space. That which is "sacred" we … [Read more...]
Sacred Space in Perspective
An online essay by Neil Agarwal and Millen Anand, including video with drone footage. Excerpt: For our final project, we decided to look at sacred space from a variety of perspectives. As we’ve learned in Professor Tuttle’s class, sacred space can look different from unique viewpoints. For example, in one of our recent readings titled No Man’s Land: Real and … [Read more...]
Sacred Spaces in Modernity
Experiencing Sacred Space — A Reflection on my Trips to The Cathedral of Saint John the Divine and to the Ground Zero Memorial Essay by Corin I. Bronsther With graduation from college approaching, I returned to two places that have had a meaningful impact on my life. One was the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, the place where my high school graduation took place … [Read more...]