The Tibet Album – British Photography in Central Tibet 1920-50

The Tibet Album presents more than 6000 photographs spanning 30 years of Tibet's history. These extraordinary photographs are a unique record of people long gone and places changed beyond all recognition. They also document the ways that British visitors encountered Tibet and Tibetans. This site provides access to the photograph collections of two important British museums - the Pitt Rivers Museum (Oxford) and the British Museum (London)

A nation in exile : Tibetan diaspora and the dynamics of long-distance nationalism.

This essay is an attempt to explore the dynamics of Tibetan nationalism in diaspora. I do this from three perspectives. First, I examine the techniques of contemporary nationalist uprisings among displaced communities, and I argue that the nature and character of the nationalism-in-exile is determined to a great extent by the cooperation between the community within Tibet and those outside it. Secondly, I analyse the situation where a displaced community keeps the nationalism agenda alive in isolation. Specifically, I argue that beyond whatever situation may be present in the territory with a contested sovereignty, those in the diaspora always pursue a policy to establish links and ties--both clandestine and open--with their counterparts and work in tandem in order to facilitate their cause. Thirdly, I argue that fears of persecution cannot be a basis to non-engagement with those living in the contested territory: nationalist struggle is very much like a war, and it cannot be fought effectively from outside. In addition, the aspirations of the community concerned is likely to be compromised if those in the diaspora are overwhelmingly concentrated in one host country. Further, although traditional-legal or charismatic leadership is a great uniting factor and crucial to the vision of the diasporic community, excessive dependence on it can significantly alter the course of the nationalist aspiration

Charting the Tibet issue in the Sino-Indian border dispute

In official quarters in Beijing and New Delhi, the Tibet issue figures only as a bargaining chip to 'regulate' their bilateral relations, not as an issue that has an independent bearing on the intractability or resolution of the Sino-Indian border dispute. Scholars of the Sino-Indian border dispute either dismiss the relevance of the Tibet issue or treat it as only a prop in their framing of the dispute in terms of security, nationalism and great power rivalry. This article argues that the Tibet issue is more central to the border dispute than official and scholarly circles have recognised so far. The article demonstrates this through an examination of the historical roots of the border row, the centrality of Tibet and Tibetans in the boundary claims of both Beijing and New Delhi and the revelation of concurrent historical developments in the border dispute and the Sino-Tibetan conflict. On the place of Tibet in broader Sino-Indian relations, the article posits that while Tibet was a victim of India's moralistic-idealist policies toward China in the 1950s, it has now become a victim of the new realism pervading India's policy of engaging and emulating China in the post-Cold War era