Description
‘Rangzen’, is a word any scholar of Tibetan studies would be well acquainted with. For Tibetans, it is their lived reality. Reverberating throughout Tibetan civil society circles between politicians, activists, and artists alike the word both echoes and encapsulates the Tibetan diasporic experience in exile. Rangzen, is a symbol of self-power, a constant reminder embedded in the Tibetan psyche of the importance of their Independence. However, what it means to be Independent and what it means to be Tibetan, are both identities that are seeing an evolution as time passes them by.
Since the annexation of Tibet by the CCP in 1951, the Tibetan Diaspora around the world has worked diligently to keep this spirit of the pursuit of Tibetan independence alive. As such, their strategic and non-strategic, political and social, cultural and communal efforts have aimed towards forging and perpetuating this narrative of longing, and return, of continuity and resilience. However, given that it has been seven decades in exile, the Tibetan dream is facing a reckoning as the milestone of proverbial return keeps shifting away into an indeterminate, unforeseen future.
Border, Frontier, Buffer, are some of the many monikers used to describe the Great Himalayas, as they straddle both India and China, for many Tibetans in exile today, this region is called Home. As a result of the geostrategic nature of the Himalayas as a zone of securitisation for both India and China, the Tibetan experience, past, present, and future, lies on how these states have chosen to and will choose to govern this space. In this light, this research aims to evaluate the evolving nature of the Tibetan national experience in exile in India, because the future of Tibetans and the future of the Himalayas is mutually constitutive and mutually dependent.
