Professors from the China Tibetology Research Center in Beijing, will share their research on various aspects of Tibetan culture and Buddhism:
Du Yongbin – Tibetan Studies in Contemporary China: The Styles and Characteristics
Tibetan studies is a discipline both about geography and society of Tibetan areas, and about history and today of the Tibetans. China is the hometown of Tibetan studies, and Tibetan studies in China have a long history.
Entered into modern times, particularly, the term Tibetology was created by Hungary Tibetologist Cosma since 1830s,Tibetan studies had been considered as an independent discipline from humane studies, and it become a popular discipline in the world.
Dawa Cairen – Present day Tibetans’ views on reincarnate lamas
Tibetan reincarnate lama has already existed for more than eight hundreds years. The reincarnate lama is the highest religious practitioner in Tibetan Buddhism. An incarnate lama is someone that has gone through the process of reincarnation in order to carry on the religious status and position of the reincarnate lamas.
This article relies on a combination of questionnaires and interviews in an attempt to understand present day Tibetans’ basic opinions of and attitudes towards reincarnate lamas.
This study employs survey and intensive interview as its data collection methods to investigate Tibetan’s general perspective on and attitude to reincarnate lamas. reincarnate lama is a special group among Tibetan religious elite. In fact, there are at least three aspects of reincarnate lamas research: Institutional research, identification research and social impact research. The content I am going to talk to you today is basically an identification or recognition-level research.
Zhou Wei – Tibetan Legislation on Tibetan language and Its Linguistic Rights and Interests Protection – A Comparative Study with European Legislation on Minority Languages China Tibetology Research Centre
The legislation on Tibetan language, as an important part of Chinese legislation on minority languages, is not only closely related to the development of Tibetan society and Tibetan language status, but also to “Constitution of the People’s Republic of China”, “Law of the Peoples Republic of China on Regional National Autonomy”, “Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Standard Spoken and Written Chinese Language” and Chinese policies on minority languages. The policy on Tibetan language has its own ethnic features but also represents the characters of Chinese policy on all of the other minority languages.
Deji Droma – The Practice of Tibetan Buddhist Nuns
In the long course of human history, each area and nation has its own different religious Life-style and their different manifestation in different times. After Buddhism entered Tibet, it had chosen its existence in the process of Tibetanization. As the religious females and women practitioners who acted as one of vehicle spreading and implementing Buddhism, they had set up their optimal value of life and religion behavioral pattern ,with distinctive individuality.
The paper will illustrate the practice of the Tibetan Buddhist nuns from 3 aspects.
Dawa Cairen is an associate professor at China Tibetology Research Center. Prof. Cairen graduated from Northwest Minority University with B.A. in Tibetan language. He entered Hong Kong Baptist University and received his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in political science. Prof. Cairen’s work focused on Tibetan Buddhism, and his books and articles were published in Chinese and Tibetan in China.
Deji Droma was born in the Ado Tibetan area of QingHai province, and is currently an Associate Professor at the Institute of China Tibetology Research Center. She is also a Fellowship Professor at the Buddhism Research Center of Academy of Social Sciences of China, and the Institute of Buddhism Culture Research in Bejing, and
Deji obtained her Bachelor’s degree in Tibetan language and literature, and Master’s Degree in Tibetan ancient classic literature from Northwest Nationality University. She has worked as a reporter, editor and translator at the Qinghai Tibetan News Daily, and as an Associate Professor at the Institute of World Religions, and graduate school at the Academy of Social Sciences of China . She has also served as vice-director of the editorial department at the Tibet Academy of Social Sciences, and associate editor in chief of the "Tibetan Studies" (Chinese edition).
Deji has published 50 pieces of literature works and academic articles in Tibetan and Chinese. In addition, she has translated many ancient codes and records of Tibetan Buddhism. Among many academy treatise got excellent treatise prize and second and third prize and the outstanding research fruit prize. and her monograph (book), "The research of nuns of Tibetan Buddhism ", got second prize of "The First Woman research of China" as a honor in December 2004.
Du Yongbin is currently a research fellow professor at Contemporary Institute of China National Center for Tibetan Studies. Prof. Du graduated from Sichuan University with B.A. in history and M.A. in Tibetan history. In 1998, he received Ph.D. degree in Tibetan history from Graduate School of Chinese Academy of Social Science. Prof. Du is fluent in Chinese, English, Tibetan and French. In addition to Tibetan studies, his researches include Tibetan Buddhism in the West, the American Perceptions of Tibet, the America’s Tibet policy and its implications for the Sino-U.S. Relations, Tibetan Buddhism in contemporary Tibetan areas, fieldwork and study on the harmonious society of Tibet. Prof. Du was the editor of China’s Tibetology Publishing House. Many of his books and articles were published in China, and he also translated several books among Chinese, French, and English.
Zhou Wei was born in Shagong, Qamdo of Tibet in 1958. Prof. Zhou Wei is the Director of the Institute of Social and Economy Studies in China Tibetology Research Center. Both Sichuan University and the Central University for Nationalities invite him as their part-time professor. In 1995, he studied in the Tibetan – Han Chinese Language in Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and got his Doctorial of Arts. From 1997 to 1998, he studied in the National Museum for Ethnic Groups in Japan. In 1998-2000, he engaged in postdoctoral studies in the Sociology and Anthropology Department of Beijing University.
Professor Zhou's main research areas include national linguistics, social linguistics, and Tibetan studies. His publication of " The Individuality of Tibetan Culture " (1997), "Grammatical Features and Comparison Studies on the Biography of Milarepa" (2000), "Tibet's language and society" (2002), "the Tibetan language work in Tibet" (2004), over 20 of the academic works.
