Dalai Lama Research Articles

An Ephemeral State on the Enduring Steppe

Abstract Baroun Tala, or the Khoshoud Khanate, was the first of three khanates created by the Oirat Mongols of the seventeenth century (1642), followed by the Jöüngar (1678) and Kalmyk Khanates (1681). It rose at a time when the two most powerful noble Oirat lineages, the Choros and Khoshoud, were close allies. The Khoshoud ruled in Kükünour and Tibet from 1642 to 1720, some 78 years. That history is summarised herein. The Khoshoud alliance with the Jöüngars (ruled by the Choros) ended in 1676 when Choros Galdan Boshugtu defeated the Khoshoud Chechen Khan and scattered his people. The Khoshoud Khanate was tied to the Fifth Dalai Lama and the centralisation of governance that occurred under his newly established political authority. The end of the Khoshoud Khanate is linked to the demise of the Sixth Dalai Lama, their failed alliance with the Jöüngars and ultimate capitulation to the Qing.

Redreaming the nation: Embracing otherness along with the fourteenth Dalai Lama of Tibet’s politico-spiritual vision

Redreaming the nation: Embracing otherness along with the fourteenth Dalai Lama of Tibet’s politico-spiritual vision

Regarding Mao's Alleged Speech about the Dalai Lama on 15 November 1956

AbstractOn 15 November 1956, Mao Zedong 毛泽东 delivered a speech at the Second Plenary Session of the Central Committee of the Eighth CCP Congress. The official written version of this speech was published belatedly, in 1977, in the fifth volume of Mao's Selected Works. In this text, Mao was supposed to be talking about the Dalai Lama's forthcoming stay in India, and he had no difficulty in envisaging the Dalai Lama's eventual departure into exile. This passage, obviously, seems problematic as it contradicts the policy of the CCP leadership towards the Dalai Lama at that time. Tsering Shakya (The Dragon in the Land of Snows, Pimlico, 1999), Li Jianglin 李江琳 (1959 Lhasa, New Century Press, 2010), Melvyn Goldstein (A History of Modern Tibet, Volume 3, University of California Press, 2013), and Liu Xiaoyuan 刘晓原 (To the End of Revolution, Columbia University Press, 2020) have successively sought to understand the reason for this. The probable reason seems to be simply that Mao most likely never made these remarks about the Dalai Lama on the date in question, and that this passage was added later in the written version of the speech, to avoid Mao losing face.

Tracing the legacy of peace leadership from an Asian perspective: Mahatma Gandhi, Dalai Lama, and Thich Nhat Hanh

ABSTRACT This paper narrates the concept of Sustainable Peace Leadership and examines how three prominent Peace Activists from South and Southeast Asia measure up to the concept. The article will consider the works and ideas of Mohandas K. Gandhi (Mahatma Gandhi), Lhamo Thondup (The 14th Dalai Lama), and Nguyen Xuan Bao (Thich Nhat Hanh). Mahatma Gandhi was instrumental in achieving Indian independence from the British Empire. The Dalai Lama is the spiritual leader of the Tibetan people and has managed a difficult relationship with the Chinese government following the occupation of Tibet. Thich Nhat Hanh was a Vietnamese Buddhist monk, peace activist and is known as the ‘father of mindfulness’. The paper identified several characteristics of Peace Leaders. These include being a charismatic leader who motivates their followers to achieve their goals in a non-violent and inclusive manner. Peace leaders meditate and spend time developing inner peace which then leads to outer peace. The paper also asserts that peace leaders are capable of recognizing the humanity in their opponents and seek a mutually beneficial solution. The three chosen individuals are all recognised as being charismatic leaders who were prominent peace leaders. All were deeply spiritual and practiced meditation and other inner work on a regular basis. They stressed the humanity in their opponents, based on their religious beliefs and the concepts of non-duality and interdependence.

Tibet’s response to state nationalism: Utilising China’s fear of secession

AbstractTaking document analysis as its method, this paper examines the Tibetans’ response to the Chinese state nationalism. Due to the fear of political secession, the Chinese government has stayed silent about the Tibetans’ right to self‐determination and subjected regional ethnic autonomy to the centralised political system. The Chinese authorities continue to dismiss the Tibetans’ nationalist struggles as an imported foreign design and warn the international community not to sympathise with the Dalai Lama and his supporters. Amidst an adverse national and international political environment, the Tibetans have managed to sustain their nationalist wishes and obtain substantive international attention. Taking this background into account, this paper explores how the Tibetans have succeeded to resist China's state nationalism and position themselves as a champion of inclusion, justice, and minority rights. It argues that the Tibetans recognise the Chinese government’s fear of secession and utilise that fear to forward their nationalist aspirations. The Tibetans shift their demand from independence to autonomy and highlight their own desire for recognition as a distinct community within the Chinese state. This strategy has helped them to claim that they are against the violations of autonomy but not against the Chinese state’s territorial norms.

Письмо Убаши-хана из монастыря Лабранг в свете данных тибетских источников о связях калмыков с духовными иерархами

Introduction. Recent years have witnessed several publications of Oirat-language (Clear Script) letters by Kalmyk khans and nobility, including ones authored by Viceroy Ubashi. However, the former have included none of Khan Ubashi’s messages written after the Kalmyk Exodus of 1771. So, the paper examines one such Oirat-language letter housed at Labrang Monastery (Gansu, PRC). Goals. The work introduces the mentioned document into scientific circulation, seeks to identify its author, addressee and period of creation, analyze its contents from the perspective of Tibet-based sources on relations between Kalmyk elites and Tibetan hierarchs after the year 1771. Materials. The study investigates an eighteenth-century Clear Script letter stored in the Grand Hall of Labrang Monastery and analyzes some Tibetan-language sources, namely: official biographies of the Sixth Panchen Lama Palden Yeshe and the Eighth Dalai Lama Jamphel Gyatso. Results. Analysis has established authorship of the letter, the time interval when it could have been written, and hypothesizes as to the addressee. So, it is presumed that the letter was submitted by Khan Ubashi to Konchok Jigme Wangpo, the Second Jamyang Zhepa, in 1772. Additional insights into other sources may attest to that the key causes behind the Kalmyk Exodus headed by Khan Ubashi included the people’s concern about retaining traditional faith.

Joyful Defiance: Death Does Not Win the Day by Anna Madsen

Reviewed by: Joyful Defiance: Death Does Not Win the Day by Anna Madsen Phil Ruge-Jones Joyful Defiance: Death Does Not Win the Day. By Anna Madsen. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2022. 174 pp. This book speaks poignantly to the times we live in. Madsen offers a vision that will speak to any time, but with the Black Lives Matter protests of recent years and the effects of the pandemic, this book cries out as a voice that needs to be heard. She shows how a profound, reflective dive into what is personal can contribute to very public issues. Madsen begins by rooting her reflections in a specific moment of loss that shook her family's life at every level. In 2004, her husband was killed in an accident that also left her son with a traumatic brain injury. As she sat in the funeral service, she found herself in a community, singing familiar words that took on new depth in this crisis, "Were they to take our house, goods, honor, child, or spouse, though life be wrenched away, they cannot win the day." In the death of her beloved, Luther's words connected to a very concrete reality. The rest of the book engages in a theological quest to unpack what "win the day" meant as Madsen sought to rediscover the gift of joy. The titles of the five chapters give a good sense of the themes and flow: The Absence of Lamenting the Absence of God, Joy Comes in the Mourning, Finding Hope When You're Losing Your Grip, Justified for Joy, and Holy Saturday Living. Those familiar with Luther's theology of the cross will recognize something of the trajectory she develops. Her theology joins Luther's in naming "a truth that makes every theologian paying attention gulp" (65). [End Page 237] One of the strengths of this book is the conversation partners she has invited around the table. Many are the usual suspects for theologians of the cross: Martin Luther, Walter Brueggemann, Jürgen Moltmann, and Miroslav Volf. But others are also invited to shape the conversation: Cornel West, Soraya Chemaly, the Dalai Lama, Desmond Tutu, and Toni Morrison. Exchanges she has had with co-conspirators throughout her ministry as a public theologian enrich the dialogue. The result is deepened discourse that offers relevance, reverence, and renewal to the church and the world (the three Rs that guide her theological work at the OMG Center (https://omgcenter.com/). The final chapter witnesses to how her own journey has led her to joyful defiance in the face of real death. We see what each of the concepts she has explored more abstractly looks like as she has lived through her struggle for healing and hope. She ends in a joyful place, "But I can write, with full integrity and honesty, that I can now, almost two decades hence, declare that every moment is sacred, every moment is to be savored, every moment is a possibility to plant a tree, to plant a promise, to plant joyful defiance. … Death is real. … But life, on this eve of whatever tomorrow will bring, is real-er" (165). While her theological and cultural conversation partners add depth to her reflections, in the end the courage with which she charts her own journey makes her claims compelling. Her book is a lively testimony to Luther's great confession, "One becomes a theologian by living, by dying, and by being damned, not by understanding, reading, and speculation." Phil Ruge-Jones Grace Lutheran Church Eau Claire, Wisconsin Copyright © 2023 Johns Hopkins University Press and Lutheran Quarterly, Inc.

Identity, memory, and homeland: in conversation with Tsering Wangmo Dhompa, a Tibetan author and poet in exile

AbstractThe annexation of Tibet into the People's Republic of China in the 1950s led to an exodus of nearly 80,000 Tibetans along with the fourteenth Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso. Since then, thousands of Tibetans have taken refuge in the neighboring countries. Many live as refugees in different parts of the world today. Although the Tibetan refugee community has emerged as a successful model for other displaced communities, the individual struggles of these refugees in foreign lands cannot be underestimated. Dhompa's book A Home in Tibet shines a light on this other side of their exilic existence by raising questions about identity, home, country, and memory. It outlines the hardships, confusion, and contestations that Tibetans face on a daily basis. After a short introduction to provide context, this article reports a conversation with Tsering Wangmo Dhompa, which grippingly addresses these issues.

“生命與歌頌”-於道泉譯本《第六代達賴喇嘛倉央嘉措情歌》詩風與意象研究

In the history of Tibetan literature, Lobsang Rinchen Tsang Yang Gyatso has the same status as his religious leader, that is, the religious leader of Tibet - the sixth Dalai Lama, and is also a well-known poet in Tibet. His love poems have extremely high artistic value. , spread to thousands of households in a three-hundred-year period, and was respected by people. As a practitioner, Tsangyang Gyatso is very different among all the Dalai Lamas in Tibetan Buddhism, because he is a living Buddha himself, but he also advocates love and freedom very much. His poems reflect his dissatisfaction with the rules and regulations, his resistance to and yearning for bondage, and at the same time he hopes to gain freedom and love. His spirit of resistance has a great influence on the Tibetan compatriots. Tsangyang Gyatso's poetry is different from other Tibetan poetry, and his poetry has always been brilliant in the long river of history.
 At the same time, Tsangyang Gyatso also pointedly raised some social issues and reflected many social contradictions in his poems. His poetic works were also expressions of social problems at that time, reflecting the aspirations and demands of the people, that is, their desire to live a free and happy life. It has almost become a household classic and immortal throughout the country. In the 1930s, Professor Yu Daoquan translated Tsangyang Gyatso's works into Chinese and English, and at the same time created an example of full Chinese-English translation of Tsangyang Gyatso's poems. This is like the splitting of a big river into two tributaries, resulting in different landscape characteristics and at the same time making different landscapes appear.
 For Tsangyang Gyatso's research, the more representative ones are: Li Ming “Recent Research Review of Tsangyang Gyatso and Its Love Songs-Also on Tsangyang Gyatso's Works and Others” Tan Shijie “Translation of Tsangyang Gyatso's Love Songs” Review of Publishing and Research Overview The research on Tsangyang Gyatso has never stopped since the founding of New China. Although there were research results of the times during this period, most of these results were based on life stories, gender relations, ethnicity, and translation. In the research on translation, few studies have been done on the style of his poetry.

Первая печать тайши Аюки (1684 г.)

Introduction. Sphragistic sources play an important role in the historical study of the Kalmyk Khanate. Seals of the Kalmyk nobility gain particular importance for further insights into the shaping of the institution of khanship, genesis of Kalmyk nationhood, and religious-political ties between the Khanate and Tibet. Goals. The article introduces into scientific circulation a previously unknown seal of the Kalmyk Taishi (future Khan) Ayuka put by him in early 1684 on a shert manuscript. Materials and methods. The original document has been discovered at the Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts. It rarely attracted the attention of historians who preferred to use its outdated publication of 1830. The study employs a set of research methods inherent to historical science, philology, and linguistics. Results. The paper investigates the circumstances that witnessed Ayuka’s use of the seal when the Kalmyk nobility were taking an oath of allegiance to the Russian Tsar, analyzes its appearances and Sanskrit-language legend. As compared to similar ceremonies in 1673 and 1677, the fact that Ayuka certified his oath with a seal in 1684 was a novelty in the oath taking procedure. Conclusions. The work suggests this seal be the earliest one of Ayuka’s personal seals known to date. The presence of the Indian title ‘rāja’ in the seal’s legend makes it possible to presume that even then Ayuka tended to position himself as supreme ruler of all Kalmyks in the status of Khan, although he received this title from the Dalai Lama over the subsequent years.

Подарки и их смыслы в деятельности Монголо-тибетской экспедиции П. К. Козлова (1923–1926 гг.) (по новым архивным документам)

Introduction. The article examines gift donations practiced during the 1923–1926 expedition to Mongolia and Tibet led by the outstanding Russian explorer of Central Asia Pyotr K. Kozlov. Goals. The paper seeks to analyze items approved by the Soviet Government for P. Kozlov to have selected from the State Depositary, reasons why the traveler did receive the precious artifacts of gold and silver, circumstances of donations, addressees, and the latter’s perceptions. Materials and methods. The work focuses on materials from the State Archive of the Russian Federation and P. Kozlov’s expedition diaries, the objectives set be articulated via individual gift donation stories (occasions) with Mongolian elites and the 13th Dalai Lama, corresponding motives and offering forms. Results. The paper shows the gift-giving practices were viewed by the traveler not only as some homage be paid to local cultures but rather as a means of communication with Mongolian officials and authorities for the latter’s assistance in solving problems faced by the Expedition. No other Russian explorer ever delivered such high-value items to have been used as gifts. Conclusions. This suggests the Bolshevik Government was hoping — with the help of Kozlov’s expedition — to facilitate positive images of Soviet Russia in Mongolia and Tibet (during a scheduled meeting with the Dalai Lama). The Appendix to the article includes several documents from the State Archive of Russia describing the selected gifts and their distribution by individuals.

The Political Geography of International Advocacy

Abstract Through a study of the Indian Central Relief Committee for Tibetans and the American Emergency Committee for Tibetan Refugees, this article maps the multiple dimensions of Indian and American civil society advocacy on behalf of Tibet in the immediate aftermaths of the Dalai Lama’s 1959 flight to India: anticommunism, imperialism, discourses of religious freedom and civilizational solidarity, domestic politics, and regional security interests. These contexts did not operate separately, but rather formed layered interactions, layers that eventually bound Tibetan autonomy. While the Dalai Lama and other Tibetan nationalists worked across the geographic and political spectrum to generate international support as a matter of practicality and necessity, the complex web from which this support came, and through which it operated, functioned as constraints as well as backing. Advocacy from such a disparate set of national, personal, religious, and political interests came with limitations that defined Tibetans as communist victims, an oppressed religious minority, and a humanitarian commodity, but not as nationalist claimants.

Дневник известного бурятского ученого и политического деятеля Базара Барадина «Амдо-Монголия»: источниковедческие аспекты. 1905-1906 гг.

The author introduces into scientific use the diary of Bazar Baradievich Baradin (1878–1937), well-known Buryat scholar and politician, member of the Buryat National Committee, first People’s Commissar of Education of the Buryat-Mongolian ASSR, and first chairman of the Buryat-Mongolian Scientific Committee. Despite his popularity and contribution to science, his life and scholarly activities have not been studied enough. In 1905–07 Baradin made a trip to Mongolia and North-Eastern Tibet – Amdo on the assignment of the Russian Committee for the Study of Central and East Asia. His trip was connected with the 13th Dalai Lama Tubden Gyatso sojourn in Urga. The article reviews his diary, titled “Amdo-Mongolia. Travel diary of a Buddhist Buryat pilgrim through Khalkha-Mongolia, Alashan, and the northeastern outskirts of Tibet – Amdo (1905-07),” now kept at the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts of the Russian Academy of Sciences, where the scholar’s fond was formed. The diary covers Baradin’s journeys from September 1905 to June 1906. It is a 301-page manuscript rewritten and edited from original diary, presumably in 1908 while Baradin prepared his report for the Russian Geographical Society. The manuscript describes his stay in the khoshun (headquarters) of the Mongolian prince Khandorj (Kando-van according to the diary) – Vang Khuree (Van-Kuren), where the Dalai Lama was at prince’s invitation. Comparative-historical method, systemic and source analysis have been used to study the document. The value of the diary lies in the fact that it is the only description of the no longer existing khoshun of Prince Khandorj, Vanh Khuree and of daily life of the field court of the 13th Dalai Lama in autumn–winter of 1905/06. Besides, there are many other fascinating things and events mentioned in the diary, for instance, Khorchin Mongols from the Jerim Seim of South-Eastern Mongolia visiting the Dalai Lama; initiation of Semkyi Choga; the Dalai Lama’s divination on the visit of the Panchen Lama to India; acquaintance and friendship with the old Mongolian scholar Dandar-agramba; petition of Baradin and Namdak Dylykov regarding Buddhist ecumenical council; attack of Mongolian monks on Baradin; celebration of the Tibetan New Year, etc. The author is of opinion that Bazar Baradin’s “Amdo-Mongolia” is an extremely valuable historical, ethnographic, and religious studies source, which sheds light on unknown pages of history and culture of Mongolia and Tibet in 1905–06. Publication and further detailed study of this unique source is planned.

ENVISIONING THE POTALA STATE MODELED AFTER THE VATICAN STATE: SEEKING THE GOODWILL OF THE CHINESE GOVERNMENT

The intent of this paper is to present a trifold solution to the tripartite concerns of Tibetans, namely: (1) the exile of His Holiness the Dalai Lama from Potala Palace on March 31, 1959 to India, (2) Tibetans’ aspiration for a self-governing free civil state, and (3) China’s claim of sovereignty over Tibet. Tibetans can achieve these aspirations by seeking the goodwill of the Chinese government and by promoting the following resolutions: (1) the creation of the Potala State modeled after the Vatican State, from the areas adjoining the Potala palace. Here the Dalai Lama — like the Pope, can be both the temporal head and spiritual leader. The Dalai Lama would be the temporal leader of the Potala palace and would be the spiritual leader of the Tibetan people who follow Lamaism; (2) granting Tibetan people a Hong Kong style government where self-government and self-legislative authority lies with the Tibetan people; (3) accepting China’s sovereignty by consigning foreign policy of Tibet to the Chinese Government. This would appeal to the Chinese goodwill to let the Tibetan people have their values preserved by self-governance without bringing Chinese sovereignty into question. To create a religious enclave for the Tibetan people similar to the Vatican State within the confines of a secular state is to envision a secular Tibet which accepts the importance and significance of Lamaism to the international community at large.

Emerging Life Sciences Series: Q&A with the Editor

Emerging Life Sciences Series: Q&A with the Editor

Buddhist Studies in Russia: “Eastern Project” by Stcherbatsky in the light of the 21st Century

Almost two hundred years ago Buddhist studies were began by Russian missionaries (Iakinf Bichurin (1777–1853), Palladiy Kafarov (1817–1868) and academic scientists (J.I. Schmidt (1779–1847), V.P. Vasiliev (1818–1900), I.P. Minaev (1840–1890). At the beginning of the 20th century, in the Silver Age of Russian culture, the intellectual elite was so embraced by Buddhist ideas and charmed by East that it’s able to convince the government to build a Buddhist temple in St. Petersburg, to plan the rapprochement of the Russian Empire with Tibet, which was claimed by England, and to negotiate with the Dalai Lama XIII, who was forced to hide in Mongolia at that time. Methodology by Stcherbatsky at the Institute of Buddhist Culture consisted in combining the academic rigor of publications with the study of the living tradition of Buddhism in the regions of Russia. In total, there were three institutions of Buddhist Studies in Russian history. Their activity was emphasized on a fundamental approach to Buddhism as a world teaching. In 1967, the Sector of Buddhology was created by Gerasimova in Buryatia, and in the 80s – a group of Buddhist studies by Rudoy in Leningrad. Now we are again on an epochal break crest, searching the best world order’s paradigms. In recent decades, Buddhist studies have overflowed from academic community to the general public, and the East again became more relevant for Russia. So, the problems posed by Stcherbatsky are regaining their sharpness and require a modern approach.

Tibetan Buddhism in Kangra Valley: History and Modernity. Part I

The first part of the article dwells upon the history of Dalai Lama’s, spiritual leader of Tibet, forcible migration to India, which served as a powerful impetus providing to the wide spread of Tibetan Buddhism in Kangra Valley starting from 60th of the last century. The author maintains that the emergence of Tibetan Buddhism in Kangra marked a new phase in the history of Buddhism in Himalayan region. The article also contains a brief review of rich and multifaceted palette of the Valley’s ancient and medieval religious life. Basing on competent research of Indian scholars, the author analyses the influence of Tantra prehistoric ritual cult practices on the formation of Vajrayana Buddhism. Interesting parallels between the essence of this teaching and its development in Kangra and bordering districts are also drawn. The narration is based on personal experience of the author, gained during several trips to this region in the late 90s — beginning of 2000 and supplemented by personal photos.

Love or Perish: A Holocaust Survivor’s Vision for Interfaith Peace by Harold Kasimow

Reviewed by: Love or Perish: A Holocaust Survivor’s Vision for Interfaith Peace by Harold Kasimow Peter A. Huff Harold Kasimow,Love or Perish: A Holocaust Survivor’s Vision for Interfaith Peace. Mesa, AZ: iPub Global Connection, 2021. Pp. 175. $19.99, paper. Kasimow’s has long been an important voice in the dialogue about dialogue—especially the dialogue about engaged dialogue, the intersection of contemplation and action. This book puts on full display the sources of that distinctive voice. Shaped by the desperate silence of survival and the elected silence of disciplined meditation, as well as the challenges of global displacement and the blessings of transformative study with great souls from one of history’s most troubled ages, Kasimow speaks the language of prophecy—that is, the language of hope mixed with anguish and the sort of spiritual audacity made famous by his teacher Abraham Joshua Heschel. Now professor emeritus at Grinnell (IA) College, Kasimow is one of the world’s most articulate and trustworthy apologists for interfaith friendship. This is the book his readers have long awaited. A collection of many of Kasimow’s best previously published essays, woven together with strikingly original autobiographical material, the book takes its title from Heschel’s discerning observation about interreligious and intercultural existence in the wake of Auschwitz and Hiroshima: “The choice is to love together or to perish together” (p. 20). In many ways, this stark alternative is the crucible from which the full range of Kasimow’s works have been generated. His books on Heschel, on the adventure of the spiritual search, and especially his [End Page 129] edited volumes on John Paul II, Pope Francis, and life-changing Jewish and Christian encounters with Buddhist traditions have all set forth the urgency of a decision for empathy and mutuality. Love or Perish does the same but takes a crucial step further. Here, for the first time, Kasimow views the “cosmic choice” (p. 6) of compassionate co-existence through the lens of his experience as a Holocaust survivor. The eleven chapters cover topics such as Jewish approaches to the Holocaust, Heschel’s view of religious diversity, Muslim perceptions of Judaism and Christianity, and Jewish and Christian reflections on Buddhism—all demonstrating Kasimow’s use of theologically skillful means as he ponders the intricate relationship among seemingly contradictory perspectives and savors the wisdom of even troubling positions. Kasimow possesses a special genius for theological portraiture. In his penetrating treatments of figures such as Moses Hayyim Luzzatto, Israel Salanter, Vivekananda, Martin Luther King, Jr., Maurice Friedman, and John Paul II, he exercises an interpretive virtuosity that reveals the same interreligious artistry he attributes to his master Heschel. Arguably, Kasimow is at his best detecting signals of sanctity and sainthood despite difference. He finds spiritual heroes populating all dimensions of life—from the Baal Shem Tov and the Dalai Lama to his teachers in Japan and the U.S. and his revered father, whose desperate quests for food in the Eastern European winter nights of wartime 1942–43 kept his family alive in the bleakest of circumstances. A sober realism permeates Kasimow’s work and worldview, as does a sense of chronic unease laced with existential doubt, but nihilism and cynicism find no home in his capacious thought. The supreme value of the book is Kasimow’s remarkable gift of self-portraiture. In recent years, he has shared with an increasing number of in-person and virtual audiences around the world the harrowing tale of how his Lithuanian family resisted genocidal Antisemitism and successfully eluded the Nazis and their accomplices by hiding in a hand-dug pit under a barn for over nineteen months. Here he breaks his long literary silence and joins the ranks of Shoah witnesses in print. His unforgettable account of nearly five years of stolen childhood—in the grub or kever (Yiddish for grave), in forest hideouts, and in a displaced persons camp—now takes its honored place in the canon of Holocaust survival. Sadly, the production of the book itself does not match the exquisite quality of Kasimow’s personal and scholarly generosity or meet the highest standards of the industry. Typographical errors mar the text, and copyediting...

<i>Sixth Dalai Lama-Tsangyang Gyatso</i>: A Brief Look at His Love Stories and Love Poems

Sixth Dalai Lama-Tsangyang Gyatso is a full-length novel written by Gao Ping that vividly describes the short life of the great Tibetan poet and Sixth Dalai Lama, Tsangyang Gyatso, and his poems. It sets against the political, military and religious background of Tibetan during the Qing Dynasty. This paper briefly analyses Tsangyang Gyatso’s love poems based on his love stories. The study finds that the words used in Tsangyang Gyatso’s love poems are plain, simple, natural and easy to understand, which has a highly empathetic effect to his readers and expresses the poet’s sincere feelings.

The Mongolian National Factor in the PRC and Sino-Mongolian Relations

The article examines the influence of the Mongolian national factor on Sino-Mongolian relations, as well as its repercussion in PRC domestic policy, primarily in the Autonomous Region of Inner Mongolia. Particular attention is paid to ethno-cultural reasons and conditions that hinder the stable development of bilateral relations between China and Mongolia: the existence of world pan-Mongolian and nationalist movements, the dispute over the status of the XIV Dalai Lama, China's actions to appropriate the symbols of traditional Mongolian culture and the commercialization of Genghis Khan's personality. In the study of Beijing's national policy in Inner Mongolia, the historical prerequisites that served to complicate the Mongolian issue in the modern PRC were identified, and the features of the policy of forming the "consciousness of the community of the Chinese nation" in relation to the IMAR were discovered. Special attention is paid to Beijing's attempts to acculturate the Mongols living in the PRC by translating educational programs from Mongolian into Chinese, regulating the rituals of Buddhism, and appropriating common Mongolian intangible cultural heritage sites to China.Separately, the growing economic interaction between China and Mongolia, which results in China's leading position in the foreign trade turnover of Mongolia and in foreign investment in the country's enterprises, is considered. The Beijing's sanctions pressure on Ulaanbaatar is analyzed in connection with disagreements on national and religious grounds, as a result of which the Mongolian leadership made concessions to the PRC. The study concludes that, from a rational viewpoint, it is beneficial for China and Mongolia to maintain a stable and predictable bilateral political and economic interaction. At the same time, the Mongolian national factor forces both states to treat each other with a certain degree of apprehension. Beijing sees Mongolia as a country bearing the threat of pan-Mongolian separatism, and Ulaanbaatar, based on the historically established Sinophobic mentality of the Mongols, is afraid of falling into total economic and cultural dependence on the PRC.