Copenhagen University shuts down Tibetan studies wing
Denmark has a long tradition of producing good scholarship on Tibetan studies.
Today as the Confucious Institute, a vehicle of the Chinese government purporting to be academic centres on university campuses, mushrooms around the world, the University of Copenhagen is closing its Tibetan studies program. It is sad but it is the sign of the times. Learning about Tibet culture brings no benefit economically to any country. Friendship with the Tibetan leaders is expensive as Western governments have to subsidize them instead of benefiting from mutual trade benefits. With China it is mutual trade benefits. Many private citizens may protest, but the truth of the matter is the trend is heading towards China more and more and away from the corrupt Tibetan government-in-exile in Dharamsala. Their days are numbered. All the problems they have created using religion, regionalism and politics are only giving themselves bigger headaches and losing more support.
Write to the decision makers today and help save Tibetology if you wish, but I don’t think it will do any good.
Tibetan Studies as a subject that has always been vulnerable as it is not referable to ‘a country’, or to a country that Denmark trades with. This applies to other places as well. We should see more of this happening. Once one institution takes this step, it starts a trend. The Tibetan government-in-exile in Dharamsala, India keep defying the Chinese government. They should make friends with the Chinese government and then work towards saving Tibetan culture. Tibet is in China and China controls Tibet – accept this simple truth already. No matter how many Westerners complain about China’s human rights issues, it will not change them or Tibet. China is getting stronger and not weaker. After all, it’s easier to get a powerful party to help you in something if you make friends with them first. Tibetan leaders in exile must make friends with China. It’s been 50 years since Tibet has been under China and the Exile government in Dharamsala can do nothing. They court Western powers for subsidies to pay their bills in Dharamsala but how long will that last? But the Western powers never agree Tibet is independent. How ironic is that? The sympathy will wear off and along with that the free subsidies to support the Tibetan government-in-exile as we are witnessing now. The US was giving US$19 million per year to subsidize them and now it’s reduced to US$6 million. It will further lessen because the US and other countries get nothing from the Tibetan government-in-exile. There is no Tibet to trade with. The Tibetan government-in-exile produces no self-sustaining financial programs at all. It will further reduce as China’s influence grows.
Whether we like China or not, the simple fact is Tibet is in China and the logical step is to be friends with China to achieve preserving Tibetan culture. Tibetans must make friends with China to save their culture. Western governments and people can do nothing for Tibetans in the long run. We must wake from denial already. Tibetan government needs to straighten out their self-created mess. The Dorje Shugden issue is dividing Tibetans and it is an infringement of religious freedom, the two Karmapa issue remains unresolved, and now rangzen (freedom thinkers, Tibetan exiles who want independence from China) and umaylam (Middle Way autonomy under China) are fighting with each other. One set of Tibetans are accepting of autonomy within China. A larger group of Tibetans want full independence of Tibet from China. When you want full freedom, it conflicts with the Dalai Lama’s view of the Middle Way (umaylam). So those Tibetans that want full freedom (rangzen) are considered anti-Dalai Lama and hated by the Dalai Lama camp. When you practise the ‘banned’ deity Shugden, then you are ‘against’ the Dalai Lama and so on because Tibetan leadership wishes to dictate what spiritual path you are allowed to practice. No other civilized democratic country dictates to its citizens what they can and cannot practice. The level of corruption in the Tibetan leadership is reflected by the latest election scandal where the rules of election were changed DURING elections to eliminate their co-candidates. The Tibetan government-in-exile in Dharamsala has created so many problems and yet they have failed to gain any leeway with China for the six million in Tibet, while Tibetans in India do their best and scramble to migrate to the West, where their children’s Tibetan culture and identity further erode.
I want Tibetans to be have happiness as well the Chinese. It starts with dialogue. The West cannot help Tibetans in Tibet. Only China can help. So Tibetan leaders in exile must make friends with China no matter how difficult it is. Western powers are scrambling to please China. Why? Because the Western powers have a responsibility and duty to the betterment of their own citizens. Tibetan leaders must do the same. Then China will help Tibet. In this way the Tibetan leadership will be helping their own people in Tibet.
May Tibetans fulfill their wishes and His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama live long and visit Tibet soon! May China further improve Tibet and have lasting further good relations with the world. May there be world peace and happiness in every nation.
Tsem Rinpoche
Another article of related interest: http://universitypost.dk/article/tibetology-shut-down-university-copenhagen#comment-17123
A meeting of Tibetan scholars at the Musee Guimet, Paris. From front left: Cathy Cantwell (Oxford), Vesna Wallace (Berkeley), Helmut Tauscher (Vienna), Sam Van Schaik (British Library, Dunhuang collection), Jan-Ulrich Sobish (Copenhagen), Matthew Kapstein (Paris and Chicago), Amy Heller (Art History, Center National de la recherche scientifique, Paris), Agnieszka Helman-Wazny (Hamburg), Charles Ramble (EPHE, Sorbonne)
Scholars and students look at ancient Tibetan manuscripts.
Copenhagen University shuts down Tibetan studies wing
[Friday, February 12, 2016 21:39]
By Tenzin Dharpo
DHARAMSHALA, Feb. 12: The Copenhagen University earlier this week shut down its Tibetology or Tibetan studies department citing defunding by the Danish government. The move by the prestigious university in the capital of Denmark is seen as undermining “1,200 years of mind science,” says one axed faculty member.
Associate professor of the department Jan-Ulrich Sobisch, speaking to the Copenhagen University’s University Post said, “What we are going to miss here is scholars and mediators who have studied the conditions of suffering and relief from suffering for 1,200 years. There are few traditions from this time that are still alive in our time, and this, the Tibetan tradition, is one of them,”
The University lost more than 500 staff members, almost half of whom were fired and the rest choosing to leave voluntarily, the establishment’s official website mentioned. The University in a cost cutting measure is set to reduce outlay by 300 million Danish Krone (DKK). The Danish government last year announced budget reduction will have research funding reduced to DKK 1.2 Billion from DKK 22 Billion.
The pronouncement now being put into effect has seen the Tibetan Studies especially susceptible to being axed as the political status of Tibet is “not referable to a country” and Tibet not among the countries Denmark is engaged in trade.
Few sympathetic comments were posted on the University website with one Roisin Elder writing, “This is clearly China leaning on Denmark. It’s a recent development. Axing one and a half jobs at a university is an easy way to appease the totalitarian giant. It’s obviously not an economic decision.”
Another post by Ngawang Lungtok engages in a more realistic political leverage. He writes, “It is neither saddening nor surprising. It was inevitable and bound to happen. No one really cares about some ancient age old related study that gives neither job guarantee nor with a legitimate country to back the study itself.”
The faculties of the Tibetology department are fired and the 12 enrolled student without a course to pursue in the University of Copenhagen.
Source: Phayul
Click to enlarge
Click to enlarge
US Congressman Dana Rohrabacher warns of the corruption of the Tibetan government-in-exile. The Tibetan leaders are increasingly eroding the confidence of their sponsors and supporters around the world with their corruption, self-serving attitude and lack of results. The Tibetan government-in-exile like to blame China for their woes in order to take the spotlight of failure away from themselves. But the truth of the matter is they should be more honest, hard-working, create harmony and not divide their people with religion, regionalism as well as divergent political views. The world gains no benefit from interacting with the Tibetan government-in-exile but there are benefits from interacting with China. More countries are realizing this and therefore departments like the one in Copenhagen University are closing, while Chinese studies like Confucianism is growing. Learning about China will help Denmark, Europe and North America while studying about Tibet does not benefit the countries economy at all. Being friends with Tibetan government-in-exile is proving to be a liability while friendship with China is proving to be beneficial to their citizens. The days for Tibetan government-in-exile are numbered.
For more interesting information:
- The Dorje Shugden category on my blog
- Reuters Investigation on Dorje Shugden Inaccurate?
- China officially supports Dorje Shugden
- China’s official stance on Dorje Shugden
- Malaysia and China friendship
- Panchen Lama meets Chinese President
- Stephon Marbury embraces China
- Why is Buddha Amitabha So Prevalent in China?
- Vajravarahi Caves in China
- China’s HUGE Buddha Statues!!!!
- Dalai Lama, China & Dorje Shugden
- To Sum It Up
- What you must know about China
- The 14th Dalai Lama’s prayer to Dorje Shugden
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Tibet has much to offer the world, having had > 1000 years of uninterrupted presence and influence of buddhism. Their medicine, the scholars and the many holy blessed place for spirituality. Due to the Tibetan Government in Exile, bad example, and all that Tibet has to offer could be stunted in its development in benefitting and pervading the world.
China will not stop in developing and becoming more and more advanced.
I think it is sad that it has come to this. Many cultures and languages have already come to extinction because we failed to preserve them in the favor of development.
They are those of us who believed in doing what is most profitable now, those who believe the future is more important than the past and those who believe we should preserve our history and the wisdom of our ancestors. Unfortunately I think the last group is a minority.
I think we learn very little from our past hence history keeps repeating itself whether on a global scale or on a personal level. Perhaps that is why when it comes down to allocating budget to preserve history or towards development, history is most likely lose out.
Some may argue that this is a political move because of China but in the end it’s still $$$. China is not going to be able to threaten any Western countries except financially. Personally I’m very surprised Scandinavian countries can be “pressured” into any form of decision due to political reason because these countries have been relatively steadfast and neutral in the global political scenes.
I guess if one failed to make a convincing argument on the value of Tibetan Studies, its importance and benefits to the humanity, then it is only a matter of time before this culture becomes extinct.
After reading this article, I agree with Pastor Jean Ai’s comment. If Tibetan leadership is serious about preserving the Tibetan culture, the identity of Tibet as well as her only significant heritage (Buddhism), then it is very clear what the means to that end are. Unfortunately, Tibetan leadership has been very preoccupied with their magnified feud with Beijing. I find it truly sad to read the closing of Copenhagen’s Tibetan studies program, because it means that the only valuable export of Tibet is not going to sustain the westerner’s interest and support anymore. I wonder what would CTA’s exit strategy be?
Thank you, Rinpoche, for this article that reminds me not to hold on to personal feud and neglect the bigger picture.
Humbly, bowing down,
Stella Cheang
It is easy to point a finger at the Danish Government and say that they caved-in, to China’s pressure. But why should not the Danish government or indeed any organisation, government or private look after the interest of its own nation and people? For many countries, trade with international partners such as China is a matter of survival, not so much a matter of choice in the longer run.
So why is a government expected to sacrifice itself for the Tibetan-government-in-exile (CTA) when the CTA has not done anything to look after itself, nor add any value to countries that have supported them, hosted them, and even carried the fight for them for over half a century. In fact, looking at the state of the Tibetan people in exile, it doesn’t look like the CTA has done much for them as well, in spite of decades of donations, sponsorships and financial assistance collected from the multitude of ‘Tibet houses’ peppered everywhere in the West.
One may say that helping the CTA is helping to preserve an ancient tradition, culture and religion. However, when we see how the Tibetan leadership itself has subjected its own people, religion and culture to so much abuse and division via the Dorje Shugden ban, the Karmapa controversy and creating discord amongst its people with its China policy, then it becomes clear that it is the Tibetan leadership that is the source of the Tibetan people’s woes, not any foreign nation who had been a friend.
The CTA played a dangerous and self-serving strategy that pitched its host nations and foreign friends against their own self-preservation. When CTA keeps antagonising China as it has for decades and using foreign lands to do so, it turns the countries that has kindly hosted them, into platforms to attack China and this creates hostility between these and China, at a time when China’s economic might cannot be ignored.
Can we accuse these countries such as Denmark of abandoning the Tibetan cause and bartering its integrity and honor for profit with China? Why should any country sacrifice its own people for the CTA who is not helping themselves?
The simple truth is, the CTA has played itself out of any value in the eyes of the world despite half a century of opportunities. The CTA has not provided its own people with a future and in fact have made it culturally difficult for its exiled population to take up citizenship in India or anywhere else, preferring them to be stateless. All this while most if not all CTA officials have already secured citizenship elsewhere. Neither has the CTA added any value to their host nations in any shape or form worth mentioning.
It is sad to hear of the closing down of the Department of Tibetan Studies in the University of Copenhagen. But with an enrollment of only 12 students, I’m not surprised. China, through her Confucius Institutes, is promoting Chinese studies all over the world. After what has happened in Denmark, the Tibetan authorities must do something to save the Tibetan Studies programmes in other countries and not let them die off. Over the years, they have received so much funding from the West but there are no self-sustaining projects to help their own people. With the funding becoming less and less, it is clear that they cannot rely on charity forever.
As an academic subject, Tibetology is worth studying and researching, especially the religious part (predominantly Buddhism) of it. If the Tibetan government-in-exile plays their cards right, the Western institutes like the Copenhagen University probably would have kept the department going and the world would have benefited from the research of Tibetology. However, because the exile government is always opposing China and doing things to irk China, and Western countries like Denmark have important economic relations with China, therefore the only rational and practical thing for Denmark to do is to curry the favor of China, and to reduce issues that will hurt China’s sentiments, therefore the study of Tibetology, which may have brought up embarrassing issues of Chinese occupation of Tibet in 1959 and the subsequent uprisings, is the first one to be cut. It is predicted that many countries will go down similar path of cutting off areas in their own countries that may cause tension with the Chinese in order to maintain a good economic relations with China, which they need badly.
The most important thing to come out of Tibet was Buddhism as it is knowledge that can benefit all sentient beings. Preserving this should be the Tibetan leadership’s priority and main concern, after they have made adequate provisions for the welfare of the Tibetan people.
However, the Tibetan leadership, through their antagonising of China, is causing countries like Denmark to withdraw funding from their Tibetology departments where precious Buddhist texts could have been examined, analysed and preserved along with every other aspect of Tibetan culture.
Will Dharamsala be able to raise the funds necessary to fund the potential work that Copenhagen University could have done, that is now lost because their government funding for this department has been pulled? No, they won’t be able to match this funding.
You have to wonder why the Tibetan leadership causes problems everywhere they go. With the Karmapa, with the Panchen Lama, with their silence over the Gyalwang Drukpa’s monasteries being taken over…
If the Tibetan leadership is serious about preserving Tibetan religion, culture and history, it would probably be wise to stop antagonising China and for them to befriend a very wealthy potential donor and sponsor of their works. After all, it wouldn’t be very different to the past anyway, when Chinese and Mongol emperors were the sponsors of the Dalai Lama and monasteries!