All the images in this section are digital paintings by Vinod Verma.

Introduction

A language is often seen as the key marker of identity and it is language through which we shape our worldview. Language is fluid and instrumental and shifts in its usage occur all the time. Yet, there is a sentimental attachment to one's own language; the loss of a language is seen as a loss of self-identity. The Tibetan people have a saying, "Every lama has his own Dharma, every valley has its own language". The saying conveys the recognition and acceptance of linguistic diversity. The Tibetans were also exposed to other languages, absorbed influences and appropriated loan words. When the Tibetans were exposed to the great knowledge of Buddhist India, rather than adopting Sanskrit as the language of intellect and learning, the knowledge had to be rendered into the native tongue. The Tibetan scholars set out to translate the vast corpus of Sanskrit Buddhist texts into Tibetan. Despite an immense reverence towards Sanskrit as the language of the Gods, it was the native language that was the language of knowledge and communication. Sanskrit never became the "cosmopolitan language" in Tibet.

For the Tibetans, India represents something more than a physical place; we have for centuries imagined this land as the source of our culture and civilization. The Tibetans expressed no end of gratitude to this legacy. In Tibet, it was customary to begin a book with the phrase "In Indian Language," as it was customary to give a Sanskrit title to a work. When the Dalai Lama announced that he is "a son of India," the Chinese government chose to interpret the statement as an expression of political allegiance to India, whereas the Dalai Lama was enunciating the long held cultural and religious sentiments amongst the Tibetans to the legacy of Indian tradition in Tibet. This is not just political expediency, but homage to Indian Buddhist heritage. The Tibetans' homage to India is not different from Western intellectuals affirming their legacy to Greek civilization. Today, the Tibetans are better informed about the Sanskrit literary tradition than most Indians. For many Tibetans, Dandin's Kavyadarsa is still a living text that is read and studied, while in its land of origin, the text has lost all significance. Similarly, Indian philosophers, Nagarjuna, Dharmakirti, Atisa and many others are alien names or mere vague historical figures to Indians, but for us Tibetans, we encounter these names daily and their images are visible every day.

The depth of learning we Tibetans owe to Indian sages is immeasurable and for hundreds of years, Tibetans left cold and lofty places in the Himalayas to travel to the dusty planes of India to sit at the feet of Indian Gurus. In the second half of the 20th century, a new process of transformation took place among the Tibetans. When the Tibetans came over the Himalayas and began a new life as refugees in the planes of India, the Tibetans' world was forever altered. As a young student in Mussoorie being taught by Indian teachers, I used to imagine this was how, hundreds of years ago, the great Tibetan scholar students studied under Indian Gurus. There was comfort in this historical connection. In the past, the Tibetans referred to Indians as "Panditas". This is because our past contact with Indians was one as the receiver of knowledge and the Indians as teachers. We are following the tradition established by our ancestors. Now, we are not imparted with the wisdom of Indian sages but taught the language of the "modern world". It was Indian teachers who first taught and introduced us to the English language and its literature and the ways of the modern world. Once again India was the mediator between us and the world of knowledge possessed in a language. So, it is fitting to examine Tibetan writing in English in India. English in India is no longer a foreign language. For most middle class Indians, English language is as natural a language as Hindi, Bengali or Tamil. The privileged position of English language in India shaped our Diaspora life in India.

Exile and dispossession always entail the loss of one's home and language and acquisition of the new. The Tibetans are introduced to the marketplace of language, for us it is no longer possible to be monolingual. The condition of colonization and deprivation of our homeland has forced the Tibetans to make meaning through other's language. In Tibet, Tibetan language competes with Chinese, and in exile we have to vie with hegemonic languages like English. The deprivation of one's language does not mean a loss of intellect or meaning making. On one level, language is a mere tool and symbol that can be appropriated and deployed for one's own use. The Tibetans using Chinese or English reflect the present condition of multiple language choices for Tibetans. For many, the acquisition of English or Chinese is a means of adapting to the present condition and one's social advancement. In the face of hegemonic languages like English, every language finds itself under attack. Hard-line nationalists hark of the purity of language and denudation of language is seen as the destruction of identity. The government enacts laws to protect encroachment from other languages, but this is no more sensible than trying to stop technological advancement.

However, there is a question of whether one could write in a language that is not one's own to embody one's sentiment and large emotional world that is alien to this language. This is a larger philosophical debate but through education and appropriation, an alien language can be internalized and adopted as one's language. As noted before, for many educated and middle-class Indians, the English language is not an alien language, it is very much a language of India and home. For the Tibetans, through education in India, we have acquired English, and now for a growing generation of Tibetans growing up in England, Canada and America, English has become their first language. As we see in this collection, it is the Tibetans educated in India who are engaged and have embraced English as their literary language. This is due to the premium and privileged position of English literature in India. The Tibetans in India are more familiar with Wordsworth, Byron, Yates and Milton than Bhartendu Harishchandra, Premchand or Baba Nagarjun. It is exposure, familiarization and formal education that have created a new language and intellectual world for Tibetans.

This collection of writings illustrates the new language world of the Tibetans. Today, the Tibetans live in a multilingual world. The language divide has ushered a fragmented creative world. There are Tibetans who use Chinese as their language of creativity and intellectual discourse, then there are Tibetans who work in their mother language and a growing number adopting English as the medium of their creative and intellectual communication. The process of adoption and internalisation of language has a profound impact on a people and it can render new creativity and a new mode of experiencing the world. Today, writers like Jamyang Norbu, Tsering Wangmo Dhompa and other contributors here have carved a space in the literary field. Jamyang Norbu is perhaps the best-known Tibetan writing in English. I remember, when his novel The Mandala of Sherlock Holmes was published, the English writer and journalist Peter Hopkirk told me that a Tibetan couldn't possibly have written the book. Even after informing him that I knew the author, he simply cast a dismissive nod. It was Norbu's beautiful capture of Edwardian England and Conan Doyle's tone that caused Peter Hopkirk's disbelief. Today, Norbu's acerbic blog in English is where the Tibetan English readers converge, providing a genuine open forum for debate. Similarly, the beautifully named English language website Phayul (Homeland) is where Tibetans go for news. Those who only work in Tibetan language have their own cyberspace, Khabdha, and those using Chinese have created their own cyberworld at TibetCul. What is interesting, the choice of language also creates different subjects of focus and demonstrates differing knowledge and interest exerted by choice of language.

One of the earliest Tibetans to write an autobiography in English was Rinchen Lhamo, a Tibetan woman from Kham, Eastern Tibet, who married a British colonial cadre Louis Magrath King. Her autobiography, " We Tibetans ", published in 1926 is revealing not only about Tibet but the morals of Edwardian England. " We Tibetans ", is a defence in which Rinchen Lhamo tells her story of Tibet, what Shelly Bhoil, whose inspiration brought this special edition, calls "counter check", against what Lhamo saw as misinformed views and accusations of barbarity. In the book she denies the existence of polyandry in Tibet. The denial is not based on a lack of factual knowledge, but deliberate evasion to counter the negative and moral indignation of Edwardians. This sense of defence and evasion has continued in Tibetan writing in English. After coming into exile, there were a rash of Tibetan autobiographies, mostly of aristocrats and lamas. The most notable of Tibetan biographies in English is the Dalai Lama's two autobiographies. Cielo G Festino provides analysis where the Dalai Lama positioned his narrative not as a story of Tibet but as a lived individual life. The Tibetan biographical narratives are written not for the native readers but for a larger audience, as such the authors self-essentialized Tibet as a happy and peaceful people to feed the eroticized image of Tibet. Like Rinchen Lhamo, these biographies are also constructed to counter coloniser depictions of the "backwardness" of Tibet. The Tibetans writing in English situate their narratives within the present political condition of statelessness and see themselves as the voice of the people, speaking for the people rather seeing themselves as individual voices. This inevitably constrains subject matters and gives an overt political tone to their writings. The desire to express a collective sentiment often sullies creative potential.

The loss of linguistic homogeneity has characterised the experience of Tibetan people from the second half of the 20th century. In the past the Tibetan people shared the commonality of the written language; people may have spoken in different dialects that may not be mutually understandable, but the written language was the glue that held all the Tibetan people together as a unified civilization. Today, through globalisation, colonialism and dispossession have created a situation where the Tibetan language has to compete with alternative global languages. For a great number of Tibetans, Mandarin has become the main language of education and engagement with the larger world. For the Tibetan Diaspora and those educated in India, English has replaced Tibetan as their language of education. Even Tibetans who are educated in Tibetan refugee schools in India emerge from school better equipped in English than Tibetan. The choice of language presents a challenge to the Tibetans both in terms of readership and subject matter. The texts produced in English will remain the medium communication for the Diaspora elite and the subject will be determined by their taste and concerns.

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