Rekindling Ashes of the Dharma and the Formation of Modern Tibetan Studies: The Busy Life of Alak Tseten Zhabdrung

Considered one of the three great scholars1 of twentieth century Tibet,2 Alak Tseten Zhabdrung Jigmé Rigpé Lodrö (A lags Tshe tan Zhabs drung \u27Jigs med rig pa\u27i blo gros 1910-1985) is credited with regenerating many aspects of Tibetan culture at a time of unprecedented socio-political change. Despite enduring twelve years in prison, Alak Tseten Zhabdrung energetically reclaimed his classical education to further transmit nearly all the traditional fields of knowledge including language, poetry, history, astronomy, calligraphy, and Buddhist philosophy

The Revival of the Tulku Institution in Modern China: Narratives and Practices

[First paragraph] What child could perform such an impossible feat? Arik Geshé Chenmo Jampa Öser’s (A rig dge bshes chen mo Byams pa ’od zer, 1728-1803) 2 trenchant last testament chided his disciples for imploring him to reincarnate, yet he did not deride the tulku institution itself. In his autobiography, the Sixth Tséten Zhabdrung, Jikmé Rikpai Lodrö (Tshe tan zhabs drung ’Jigs med rigs pa’i blo gros, 1910-1985) retold Arik Geshé’s story with a similar didactic purpose, in order to analytically expound “the Tibetan-Mongol system of reincarnation.”3 Yet when Arik Geshé’s incisive words were re-employed for a twentieth century audience, the socio-political cornerstones of the tulku institution had undergone dramatic restructuring

Dorjé Tarchin, the Mélong, and the Tibet Mirror Press: Negotiating Discourse on the Religious and the Secular

Much scholarly attention has been given to the importance of the Mélong, the first Tibetan newspaper, in the discursive formation of Tibetan nationalism; yet in claiming the Mélong as ‘secular’ and ‘modern,’ previous scholarship has also evaded the press’s Christian and colonial roots. This paper investigates the secularization of the Mélong and the Tibet Mirror Press as an historical project, and as a corollary demonstrates the emergence of a vernacular project of secularism that aligned pan-Tibetan national identity with religious pluralism against the threat of communism. As a Tibetan Christian intellectual, the Mélong’s founder Dorjé Tarchin (1890-1976) creatively responded to divergent and competing processes associated with British colonialism and missionary activity in India which led to the birth of the newspaper in 1925. Based outside of the purview of the xenophobic Lhasa government, Tarchin’s base in the Christian Scottish Mission provided an alternative institution for cultural production outside of Buddhist ones. This contributed to the secularization of Tibetan print culture by moving production away from the Buddhist-monastic elite, introducing a new genre into Tibetan discourse, opening up a public sphere for Tibetans, and supporting vernacular language publications. Despite or because of the press initially being situated in the Scottish Mission Church, the Mélong promoted literacy, religious pluralism, and fostered Tibetan national identity. Over the course of its near forty-year history, the press would undergo processes of institutional secularization with its separation from the Scottish Mission Church in 1946. Parallel to these processes, secularism emerges as a discursive terrain whereby the boundaries of religion, nation, and language are negotiated. I chart Tarchin’s role in negotiating and creating this conceptual terrain, gesturing to how the distinct boundaries between Christianity and Buddhism evident in his early career become more porous against the ‘distinct other’ of communism—the enemy of faith

The Sixth Tseten Zhabdrung, Jigme Rigpai Lodro

(First Paragraph) Jigme Rigpai Lodro (\u27jigs med rigs pa\u27i blo gros), the Sixth Tseten Zhabdrung (tshe tan zhabs drung), was born on May 31, 1910, the twenty-second day of the fourth month of the iron dog year in the fifteenth rab byung cycle. He was the second youngest of eight children born to his father Yang Cai, whose Tibetan name was Lobzang Tashi (blo bzang bkra shis), and his mother, Lhamotar (lha mo thar). His birthplace, Yadzi (ya rdzi), is more commonly known today by its Chinese name, Jishi Town (Jishi zhen 积石镇) in today\u27s Xunhua Salar Autonomous County of Qinghai Province. Although his patrilineal descent was Chinese, in his autobiography, Tseten Zhabdrung stated, “Starting with my father\u27s generation , my ancestry is a mix of Chinese and Tibetan ethnicity; but if I base my own ethnicity on written and spoken language, habits and residence, then I am exclusively Tibetan.” At age two, he was recognized by Amdo Zhamar Paṇḍita Gendun Tendzin Gyatso (a mdo zhwa dmar paNDita dge \u27dun bstan \u27dzin rgya mtsho, 1852-1912) of Ditsa Monastery (lde tsha) as the reincarnation of the Fifth Tseten Zhabdrung (tshe tan zhabs drung 05). He had been called “the grandson of Tsering Dondrub (tshe ring don grub)” until this time, when he was given the name Lobzang Chopel (blo bzang chos \u27phel) by a Rebkong Nyingma lama called Alak Namkha Tshang (a lags nam mkha\u27 tshang)

Timescales of processes controlling water vapour entry to the stratosphere

This thesis assesses the representation of the key processes determining water vapour entry into the stratosphere in reanalysis and two global climate model configurations. This is done by applying the advection-condensation method and comparing alternative formulations. In the region of the atmosphere around 15–50 km altitude known as the stratosphere, water vapour is present in concentrations around ten thousand times lower than at the Earth’s surface. Yet, water vapour still influences surface warming and stratospheric chemistry due to its radiative and chemical properties. Previous studies have identified low temperatures (more accurately, low saturation mixing ratios) and large-scale transport through the tropical tropopause layer to be the key factors that determine stratospheric water vapour. However, their relative importance at different timescales, and the role of the other influences such as detailed ice microphysics, are not yet well known. It is a crucial priority to improve the generally poor representation of stratospheric water vapour in global climate models for both present and future scenarios. In the first chapter of results, the representation of the average annual cycle of lower stratospheric water vapour by temperature and large-scale transport is assessed. Model-specific features are reflected in water vapour predictions by the advection-condensation method. Applying a climate model advection scheme to the advection-condensation method, to test sensitivity to transport formulation, finds more similar temporal variability but also affects vertical attenuation of concentrations in the stratosphere. Expanding on earlier studies, the impact of sub-seasonal temperature variability on stratospheric water vapour is quantified in reanalysis and in one global climate model where it is found to be under-represented. Following on, the next chapter investigates the substantial interannual variability of tropical lower stratospheric water vapour by isolating temperature and transport impacts in reanalysis. The approach asks whether the characteristics of a particular year are obtained by transport through temperatures from another year. Results identify almost total independence from transport variations across years, but important seasonal variability. This agrees with many studies on seasonality of transport, and points squarely to temperatures controlling interannual variability. The subsequent chapter takes advantage of the complete water budget available in a global climate model to assess the impact of additional processes. Results find the phase change of ice to vapour (sublimation) is a substantial component of the water vapour budget above the tropical tropopause, and convective injection of ice occurs above the vertical minimum in saturation mixing ratio. Results also show that the extent to which advection-condensation calculations are rehydrated by different measures of sublimation depend crucially on their vertical extent. The final chapter of results analyses the response of advection-condensation and sublimation to climate change scenarios. Increases in transport efficiency through the tropical tropopause agree with well understood aspects of climate change. Convective ice injection is higher but no more intense, whereas sublimation above the vertical dry point has increased. These changes appears to be controlled solely by the elevated and warmer tropopause. The results show that predictions of a wetter model stratosphere, both with and without sublimation, scale similarly with the higher saturation mixing ratios at the tropical tropopause. Overall, this thesis identifies the relative impact on stratospheric water vapour from temperatures, large-scale transport and ice sublimation in the tropical tropopause on different timescales. Many of the findings are in the context of the global climate models studied, motivating further development to represent more accurately both the present and projections across this century.NERC iCASE sponsorship by the Met Offic