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Tibet

A yak stands on a snowy hill
Alexandr Frolov, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The Man Who Can Never Go Home
By Lhashamgyal
There’s a Tibetan saying that an old man’s country is like an old bird’s nest.
Translated from Tibetan by Tenzin Dickie & Pema Tsewang Shastri
The book covers of Animals in Our Days, Brisbane, Flowers of Lhasa, Radio Siga, Linea Nigra, and...
The Watchlist: May/June 2022
By Tobias Carroll
Tobias Carroll recommends noteworthy new books translated from Tibetan, Vietnamese, Arabic, Russian, Spanish, and Croatian.
Unfamiliar Riverbank: Contemporary Chinese Religious Poetry
By Eleanor Goodman
The Tang Dynasty poets translated by the Beat Generation poets are often associated with the totality of “Chinese poetry.”
August-2019-Chinese-Poetry-Interview-with-Tsering-Woeser-Boyden-Woeser
Tibetan poet Tsering Woeser (left) and translator Ian Boyden
The Presence of the Dalai Lama’s Absence: A Conversation with Tibetan Poet Tsering Woeser
By Ian Boyden
At a time when Tibet is largely ignored by the international community, Woeser vividly conveys what it is like to experience the destruction of her culture.
Absent, Or Not Absent
By Tsering Woeser
right in the center, / sat the completely empty dharma throne, / richly decorated, the heart’s dream waiting / like a balloon floating through desire
Translated from Chinese by Ian Boyden
Multilingual
Perhaps: Love Poems
By Xi Wa
I dare not use mortal eyes to contemplate you
Translated from Chinese by Chloe Garcia Roberts
Multilingual
Flight: An International Exquisite Corpse
By Pema Bhum, Claudia Salazar Jiménez, Krys Lee, and Kanako Nishi
Four writer/translator teams work together to create a single story in multiple languages.
Translated by Elizabeth Bryer, Kang Daehoon, Tenzin Dickie, and Allison Markin Powell
Joyful, Painful, Surreal: Life As a Parent
By Karen M. Phillips
The intensity of the parent-child relationship, with its high emotional stakes, life-and-death responsibility, and inescapable physical proximity, makes for powerful stories.
“It’s Us and Them”: Writing from and about Divided Countries
By Susan Harris
In the current environment of relentless political strife . . . debate deteriorates into name-calling; partisans morph into zealots, complex issues are reduced to binary terms, and hostility seethes just beneath the surface.
How Dorje Tsering Saved Tibetan
By Pema Bhum
Everyone knew that the way to become a revolutionary was through the Chinese language and not Tibetan.
Translated from Tibetan by Tenzin Dickie
At the Borders of Homeland and Exile: Tibetan Literature
By Tenzin Dickie
These days, we have Tibetan writers writing poetry, essays, short stories, and novels in Tibetan, English, and Chinese.
Wink
By Pema Bhum
It seemed to them as if the Chairman were sharing with them a playful and secret sign.
Translated from Tibetan by Tenzin Dickie
Multilingual
Two buildings facing each other
Photo by Silas Hao on Unsplash
The Dream of a Wandering Minstrel
By Pema Tseden
Tsering the Wandering Minstrel traveled the road in search of a dream.
Translated from Tibetan by Tenzin Dickie
The Agate and the Singer
By Kyabchen Dedrol
Daughter of Brahma, you have suffered.
Translated from Tibetan by Tenzin Dickie
Multilingual
Over the River
By Tashi Dawa
Water as smooth as brocade flowed with boundless dignity toward somewhere over the horizon.
Translated from Chinese by Li Guoqing