Khyeltam འཁྱལ་གཏམ།

For this episode we decided to meet and discuss (like Dream and Hob Gadling in The Sandman) at least two new things we had done/learned/found worth thinking about since our last episode. These include questions about language and culture inspired by a trip to Ladakh, digging through the libraries and archives of former imperial powers like England and other European countries for Tibet-related materials (where would Tibet be on the late Queen’s Christmas culture property repatriation gift list?), Iranian filmmaker Kiarostami’s Koker trilogy and the idea of self-reflexivity in cinema and Tibetan politics. Particularly in Tibetan politics, let us reiterate. Overall, a real khichdi of an episode. All under an hour, we’re mighty please to add.Intro/Outro theme: Karachal - Alash Ensemble (freemusicarchive.org/music/Alash_Ensemble/)image: personal

A 'short' episode on the unexpected cultural and historical sights and sounds I encountered on the Annapurna circuit trail in Nepal.

What is history? How do we know what happened in the past? Can we know the truth of our past? In this episode, Jamyang and I discuss these questions based primarily on E.H Carr's classic work "What is history?" In order to make better sense of Carr's work, we have attempted to use some of the examples from the Tibetan context. The question of what is history is inextricably linked with larger question of can we know the truth? Therefore, perhaps, given you have many hours to waste, one can listen to this episode of Khyeltam along with our second episode (from season 1) on "Roshomon." Intro/Outro theme: Karachal - Alash Ensemble (freemusicarchive.org/music/Alash_Ensemble/)Image: E.H. Carr Source: https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/2019/05/history-according-to-eh-carr

ཨ་རོགས་ཚོ་བདེ་མོ། མ་མཇལ་ཡུན་རིང་། ལོ་ཕྱེད་ཙམ་ངེད་གཉིས་སོ་སོའི་ལས་གལ་ཆེ་ཆུང་སྣ་ཚོགས་ལ་བྲེལ་རྐྱེན་ལེ་ཚན་གསར་པ་བཅུག་མ་ཐུབ། ད་ལན་གྱི་བརྙན་ཡོད་ལེ་ཚན་འདི་ནི་འཁྱལ་གཏམ་དུས་ཚན་ནམ season གཉིས་པའི་འགོ་འཛུགས་ཀྱི་རྟེན་འབྲེལ་དུ་ཁྱེད་རྣམ་པའི་སྤྱན་ལམ་དུ་འབུལ། འདིའི་ནང་ད་བར་གྱི་ལེ་ཚན་དང་དེ་ལ་མཆན་དང་བསམ་ཚུལ་གང་བྱུང་བ་ལ་བསྐྱར་ཞིབ་དང་མ་འོངས་པའི་ལེ་ཚན་གང་བཟོ་འཆར་ཡོད་པ་སོགས་ཀྱི་སྐོར་ལ་གླེང་ཡོད།So, we decided our hiatus has stretched long enough (and just long enough to justify calling this resumption the season two of our podcast 😂). We promise you nothing but more of the same old, same old. In this one, we talk a bit about what we have been up to so far, (besides trying to book a slot on the Cowin app), a bit of an overview of season one, and a look ahead to some future episodes. It is in video primarily for the purposes of what we Tibetans call 'temdrel'.

What is public sphere? A dominant liberal answer: a sphere where private individuals, members of a political community, on equal footing engage in reasoned deliberation on matters of public concern to form public opinions on what is public good(s). Such a sphere is fundamental to democracy—a sphere that mediates a relationship between society and state and holds later accountable to the former. What are the problems with this dominant liberal conception of public sphere? Fundamental to democracy is public deliberation but on what and whose terms and conditions are these deliberation taking place? In an actually existing society with unequal distribution of power, who gets heard? Who represents the public? How do subordinate groups reorganize and deliberate their public concerns? We read Jurgen Habermas’s classic work on the public sphere alongside Nancy Fraser’s critical rethinking to discuss these questions and more. Intro/Outro theme: Karachal - Alash Ensemble (freemusicarchive.org/music/Alash_Ensemble/)Image description: Gopal Guru, Dalit social and political theorist, speaking on nationalism in Jawaharlal Nehru University outside the VC's office. Amidst the widespread crackdown on student political activism under the new BJP government in India and the national media proclaiming students in the university as anti-national, the students and professors of the university reorganize themselves outside the University's VC office to debate what is a nation? How should we understand nationalism? In the process, they proclaimed the space as Freedom Square--a site Nancy Fraser might call subaltern public sphere, a site resistance and counter-discourse.Image Credit: still image from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joTTDAOyPLY&feature=emb_title

30. Hum Dekhenge - Faiz ང་ཚོས་བལྟ་ཆོག།༷ ཕེཛ། by Jamyang and Ugyan

Following up on our recent/ongoing heated community debate on the #BlackLivesMatter protest in the aftermath of police murdering of George Floyd (and more since then), we decided to look briefly into the history of racism in the United States, Civil Rights Movement, the emergence of mass incarceration, and most importantly the changing (not evolving) nature of racism in the post-civil right US. Ofcourse, we couldn't have ignored some of the questions that emerged from the recent/ongoing discussions such as appropriateness of the modes of protest (looting/ violence), Obama & "post-racist" US society, and the never-ending, possibly dead-end question of who owns and can certify/distribute the label “Tibetan" Intro/Outro theme: Karachal - Alash Ensemble (freemusicarchive.org/music/Alash_Ensemble/) Image: https://blacklivesmatter.com/

Turning our Instagram live discussion on the infamous and often misunderstood "Seventeen point agreement"* into another khyeltam episode. This history, as Tibet historian Tsering Shakya points out, is often marred in polemics and the reality, needless to say, is in some sense, more complex. *The Agreement between the Central People’s Government and the Local Government of Tibet on Measures for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet Intro/Outro theme: Karachal - Alash Ensemble (freemusicarchive.org/music/Alash_Ensemble/) Image: Photo adapted from Claude Arpi’s exhibition