Luce Junior Professor of Anthropology and Asian Studies Chris Vasantkumar delivered a paper titled "Tibet as Incidental to Tibetan Studies?: Views From Various Margins" at a plenary session of the First International Seminar of Yung Tibetologists held at the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies from August 9 to 13. The seminar's participants hailed from China, India, the United States and various European countries.
In his paper, Vasantkumar argued that by focusing not on the cultural uniqueness of Tibetans but on their comparability with other indigenous peoples in settler societies such as the Navajo in the United States, the Maori in New Zealand and various aboriginal populations of Australia, Tibetologists should try to shift the frame of inquiry, away from a sort of Tibetan exceptionalism and towards an attention to the complex social matrices in which Tibetans in the contemporary world are caught up.
In his paper, Vasantkumar argued that by focusing not on the cultural uniqueness of Tibetans but on their comparability with other indigenous peoples in settler societies such as the Navajo in the United States, the Maori in New Zealand and various aboriginal populations of Australia, Tibetologists should try to shift the frame of inquiry, away from a sort of Tibetan exceptionalism and towards an attention to the complex social matrices in which Tibetans in the contemporary world are caught up.
