Description
Book SynopsisIn the aftermath of the cataclysmic Maoist period, three Tibetan Buddhist scholars living and working in the People’s Republic of China became intellectual heroes. Nicole Willock reveals how they negotiated the political tides of the twentieth century, shedding new light on Sino-Tibetan relations and Buddhism during this turbulent era.
Trade ReviewAn illuminating study of the lives and writings of three highly influential Buddhist figures in modern Tibet: Tseten Zhabdrung, Muge Samten, and Dungkar Lozang Trinle. In
Lineages of the Literary, Nicole Willock masterfully demonstrates how their embodiment of the Geluk scholarly ideal allowed these polymaths to play a prominent role in Sino-Tibetan relations and create a pivotal generational transmission of Tibetan history, language, and culture in secular terms within China’s
minzu (ethnic minority) universities. -- Holly Gayley, author of
Love Letters from Golok: A Tantric Couple in Modern TibetThis book details the careers of three outstanding Tibetan figures during the Cultural Revolution who creatively drew on Buddhist and other traditional resources as forces for good in a troubled society. It also aims to illustrate how such appropriation can be effective in the modern context more generally. Insightful and capacious, the book studies how friendship in particular can serve the negotiation of conflicting pressures. An excellent analysis of Tibetan culture and religion during most challenging times. -- Janet Gyatso, Hershey Professor of Buddhist Studies, Harvard Divinity School
It is often assumed that when the Dalai Lama fled from Tibet to India in 1959, Tibetan Buddhism followed him into exile. In
Lineages of the Literary, a work that is at once highly original and deeply inspiring, Nicole Willock demonstrates that this was emphatically not the case. -- Donald Lopez, Arthur E. Link Distinguished University Professor of Buddhist and Tibetan Studies, University of Michigan
Lineages of the Literary is one of the most important contributions to the history of Sino-Tibetan relations in the second half of the twentieth century to date. Nicole Willock’s exploration of the lives and writings of Tséten Zhabdrung, Mugé Samten, and Dungkar Rinpoché provides a missing link in our understanding of a contested and polarized era of modern Sino-Tibetan history. -- Gray Tuttle, coeditor of
The Tibetan History ReaderTable of ContentsNotes on Transcription, Transliteration, and Naming Practices
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Three Polymaths: Past and Present
2. “Telling What Happened”: Buddhist Recollections of the 1950s
3. Mellifluous Words on the Human Condition: The Maoist Years
4. Dungkar Rinpoché on the Contested Ground of Tibetan History
5. Diverging Lineages
Notes
Bibliography
Index
