Tibetan Trail of Tears

This theme examines modern Tibetan exile as a case study in stateless governance, cultural preservation, and non-violent political strategy. Through the lived landscape of the Tibetan community in India, participants explore how displacement transforms institutions, identity, and international advocacy.

The program integrates multiple lenses:

20th-century geopolitics and the 1959 uprising
Competing sovereignty narratives and international law debates
Dharamshala as a functioning governance-in-exile hub
Cultural preservation as resilience infrastructure
The philosophical and strategic foundations of non-violent struggle
Historical Tibet–Mongol relations and Buddhist patronage networks

Participants move from historical grounding to institutional observation to analytical synthesis — producing a case study on exile institutions as durable systems of memory and political continuity.

Participants will:

Explain key milestones in modern Tibetan history, including the 1959 turning point and formation of the exile government.
Analyze Dharamshala’s role as the seat of the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) and its institutional architecture.
Evaluate cultural preservation institutions such as archives, libraries, monasteries, and schools as forms of political resilience.
Examine non-violent strategy through the “Middle Way Approach,” assessing both institutional framing and critical perspectives.
Situate Tibet–Mongol–Yuan patronage dynamics within the spread of Tibetan Buddhism and identity formation.
Produce a “memory + institution” case study brief integrating historical evidence, institutional design, and political strategy.