To: Multiple recipients of list TSG-L
Sea of Inhumanity
TIBET IN THE GREAT PROLETARIAN CULTURAL REVOLUTION
1996 SEMINAR SERIES No:3
Organised by the Amnye Machen Institute: Tibetan Centre for Advanced Studies (From 29-30, Oct 1996, at Dharamsala, INDIA)
Next to the invasion and occupation of Tibet by Red China, the Cultural Revolution was undoubtedly the greatest catastrophe to afflict Tibetan society this century. It swept through the lives of the Tibetan people with the violence of a major war, the chaotic destruction of a cyclone or an earthquake, and the horror, suffering and madness of a medieval pestilence. Yet there has been little study of the Cultural Revolution in Tibet, or any reasoned evaluation of its impact on Tibetan society and history. In China retrospection on the Cultural Revolution has not met with official disapproval and has, consequently, seen discussion not only in academia, but in literature, art and film.
What we know of the effects of the Cultural Revolution in Tibet is largely confined to the physical destruction of monasteries, temples, images and reliquary. Lttle is known of its psychological impact on Tibetan society, or the changes wrought in the everyday life and thinking of ordinary people. Little has also been studied of the actual power play behind the Cultural Revolution in Tibet, and the personalities who rose and fell because of the events.
One of the least examined, and hence, least known consequences of the Cultural Revolution and the factional fighting in Tibet is the growth of a national consciousness among Tibetans which resulted in violent uprisings all over Tibet 'round 1967-69, and which the Chinese in Tibet dubbed the "Second Tibetan Rebellion.""
On the 30th anniversary of the Cultural Revolution, The Amnye Machen Institute: Tibetan Centre for Advanced Studies is holding this conference, TIBET IN THE GREAT PROLETARIAN CULTURAL REVOLUTION. It is hoped that through this forum the voices of those who witnessed and experienced these tragic events can be made public and this can occur within a framework of rational discussion and analysis.
Eighteen papers are being presented at the conference and at least ten more papers are being submitted for inclusion in the published proceedings..
AMI dedicates this seminar to the memory of those countless Tibetans who suffered and perished in the holocaust of the Cultural Revolution.
