Editorial

In this year of the Wood Dragon, Yeshe has published two special issues in a row— “Centering the Richness of Tibetan Language in Tibetan Studies” and “A Tribute to Pema Tseden (1969-2023), the Life-tree of Tibetan Cinema”—and added to this fourth annual issue a special feature on ‘Critical Flash Poetics’ from an experimental workshop held at Bard College in 2023. The critical flash poetics resulted from the workshop participants’ positioning of their spontaneous poetic pieces within theoretical reflections on the prompts. Their writings are listed in this Issue under the respective prompts. This Issue also features the winning poems from the International Poetry Competition organized by the London Institute of Tibetan Studies (the Shang Shung Institute). At Yeshe we view these collaborations as essential to the flourishing academic work in Tibetan Studies and the creative pursuits of Tibetans.

The cover image of this fourth annual issue of Yeshe features the digital artwork titled “Do Not Throw Garbage Out Here” by the late Jigme Choedak (1997-2023). This thoughtfully selected image by our art editor, Thupten Kelsang, illustrates the Genyik Studio founded by Jigme Choedak in 2021 and underscores the necessity of a sustainable ecosystem for artists in the community. This studio, as suggested by Bhuchung D Sonam in his eulogy-cum-art statement “Precious Trash” included in this Issue, was the late artist’s response to societal perceptions of artists as nyonpa (crazies) and their works as genyik (trash). Bhuchung D Sonam also elucidates how his late colleague sought to find “infinite possibilities in mundane things” through his paintings.

The many combinations and permutations in Jigme Choedak’s paintings resonate with Chime Lama’s concrete poetry in her debut book, Sphinxlike, which Julie Regan praises in her review for “representing a fresh approach to the liberatory possibilities of Tibetan literature” and “provoking new ways of seeing” that align with the poet’s lived experience as a Tibetan American Buddhist. While there are unavoidable new tangents in the lives of Tibetans in the diaspora and in Tibet, Woeser’s Amnyé Machen, Amnyé Machen: Poèmes illustrates what, Kevin Carrico points out his review of the French translation of the book, the unchangeable spirit of the land of Tibet and its people. He highlights the most evocative moment in Katia Buffetrille’s letter to Woeser— her “narration of the power of Mount Amnye Machen, its people, and their spiritual beliefs, which ‘nothing to date has been able to destroy: neither the convulsions of history, nor globalization, nor global warming’.” In the French version of Tsering Woeser’s book, her poems are in dialogue with stunning photographs from Buffetrille’s four pilgrimages to the mountain and her closing letter to the poet.

In the context of broader changes in the subcontinent from the mid-twentieth century onwards and their impact on the literary landscape of Tibetans in the diaspora, Tsering Namgyal Khortsa offers in his prose essay his portrayal of Tibetan literature in English. He affirms that contemporary Tibetan writers must contend with their community’s “linguistic conservatism [which] hinders the development of contemporary storytelling” while seeking “new ways to communicate the trauma of the defining moment in contemporary Tibetan history.” These new ways are essential because “for the Tibetan nation to exist, her stories must be told and retold.”

Tsering Namgyal Khortsa’s reflections on Tibetan writings in English are complemented by his interview with Priyanka Chakrovarty in which he describes writing as “a contemplative act” that helps him gain deeper insights about himself and his culture. The act of writing also comes as a remedial therapy to Sonam Tsomo Chashutsang, interviewed by Tenzin Dickie, assisting her in coping with the feeling of being stymied after her mother’s passing. During the forty-nine days of bardo, still uncertain on how to cope with her loss, she wrote down her thoughts each day. These pages eventually took the form of her debut poetry book forty-nine days recently published by Blackneck Books.

Interacting with the larger themes of death, transition, grief, and mourning in Sonam Tsomo Chashutsang’s forty-nine days are late Chen Metak’s poems, translated from the Tibetan by Kunbzang and Ruth Gamble. In the poem “Death is Nothing to be Afraid of,” the poet, in Kunbzang’s words, “positions himself in a liminal state, and depicts transcendence in his everyday life.” For instance, the poet ‘talks’ to those who have died: “Amid the leaving and coming, / I should have rested until I was satisfied. // Those who left said the journey was very short, / those who came said it was long.” Time becomes an unbearable agony that binds the senses of the narrator in Dung Ati’s poem “I Miss that Time” translated by Pema Rigzin. A more positive outlook on time and the themes of life and death emerges in Atal Pamo’s praise poem, “Ngarong Aae,” which features the motif of graceful aging. The octogenarian Aae (grandmother in Kham-ke language) who loves road trips, dressing, and dahlias is the epitome of the new age woman, paradoxically in her old age, living her life rejoicing the new blooms instead of lamenting the fading flowers. Like a dahlia, she comes to embody elegance, grace, positivity, and resilience. In the rich tapestry of emotions woven by Kalden Rangdröl Dhatsenpa’s in his three poems, it’s difficult for readers not to become entangled in the imagery of wires and constellations, which symbolize the bonds between people and suggest their intimacy despite distance.

Also featured in the poetry section are verses related to the theme of the Year of the Wood Dragon by Choekyi Lhamo, Shedup Tenzin, and Daring Thokmay, who won first, second, and third places, respectively, in the Shang Shung Institute’s international poetry competition. Choekyi Lhamo’s English poem “Dragon is Home” reflects on family dynamics and generational connections at the intersection of love and sorrow, as well as the emotional weight that comes with aging. Daring Thokmay’s protest poem urges his fellow refugees never to forsake their cause while hoping the new year will heal “the epidemic of (internal) strife.” Shedup Tenzin’s Tibetan alphabetical acrostic poem, a popular style in Tibet, extols the virtues of dharma.

Bringing another popular Tibetan cultural form to Yeshe is Skal bzang tshe brtan’s translation and introduction to layi, love song dialogues with improvisation of scripted elements to “serve as a means of private communication between two people, while onlookers are privy only to enjoyment of the musical scene.” With only a few folk singers left in Tibet, Skal bzang tshe brtan’s curation of several classic songs he learned from the elders of Nor mgo Village (in Zeku county of Qinghai province) is of paramount importance in the preservation of this genre.

The theme of intergenerational links and filial bonds, which emerges in several literary pieces in this issue of Yeshe, receives a psychological portrayal in Tsering Tsomo Gurung’s short fiction, “Mr. Pasang.” The story features relatable characters: a widowed, aging father who feels out of place in an urban environment and his overworked daughter, who juggles the demanding roles of wife and mother while feeling guilty for not caring enough for her frail father. While Tsering Tsomo Gurung’s “Mr. Pasang” is a reflective narrative that blends realism with emotional depth, Choyang Ponsar’s “Piercing Indentations” is a surreal piece infused with elements of magical realism and psychological exploration. In this lyrical and fragmented narrative, readers are guided into the protagonist’s inner thoughts through abstract imagery, highlighting his existential crisis—the feeling of being a stranger in a familiar world—until his interaction with Metok, symbolizing the desire for understanding and connection.

As though in sync with one another, the existential crisis of the unnamed protagonist in “Piercing Indentations” and the urban estrangement of Mr. Passang in Tsering Tsomo Gurung’s story is also experienced by Pelha, the protagonist in Lhashamgyal’s novella “I Am a Fish in Yamdrok Yumtso.” Pelha navigates the societal pressures and alienation of cultural dislocation as she oscillates between memories of her homeland and her struggles in the urban environment of Beijing. Lhashamgyal’s masterful use of imagery in his lyrical prose contrasts the rural purity of Yamdrok Yumtso with the urban smog of Beijing. Translated from Tibetan by Lucia Galli, we have published a novella for the first time in Yeshe, and we hope it will encourage more translations and publications in the genre.

Lhashamgyal’s novella, along with sections from his prose work My Loneliness and Your Literature, is studied by Lucia Galli in her article “God’s Laughter: Lhashamgyal and the Kundera Effect.” Galli contends that “the depth of the ‘Kundera Effect’ best transpires in its being dissonant to rather than harmonic with Lhashamgyal’s oeuvre, especially in their respective understandings of the connection between language and identity.” Julie Fletcher’s paratextual analysis of Tsewang Pemba’s Young Days in Tibet also examines the larger framework of language and identity, presenting this first full-length English-language Tibetan autobiography as not only a border-crossing narrative that responds to imperialist accounts of Tibet but also as a border-crossing commodity, “illuminating tensions between authorial purpose and the framing of the narrative for a global readership.” Fast-forwarding to the age of Instagram, Melissa Kerin uses Foucault’s concept of heterotopia to explore the connotations of the contemporary Tibetan artist Gonkar Gyatso’s newly coined term “Instashrine” in reference to his installation titled “Buddha’s Picnic” and the unconventional space created within it.

In conclusion, the larger themes that run throughout this issue of Yeshe—cultural dislocation, tradition and innovation, intergenerational connections, loss and grief—underscore the richness and complexity of Tibetan cultural expressions, as well as the ongoing dialogues within the community and with non-Tibetan scholars regarding Tibetan identity, art, and literature.

We would like to thank our collaborators and contributors who find value in publishing with us, our anonymous peer-reviewers, and our team of volunteer editors for helping us put together the fourth annual issue of Yeshe.

Patricia Schiaffini-Vedani and Shelly Bhoil

Founding Editors