Tibetan and Himalayan Library - THL

THL Title Text
Title: Are We Prisoners of Shangrila? Orientalism, Nationalism, and the Study of Tibet
Language of title: English
Author/Creator: Georges Dreyfus
One Sentence Summary: A critical examination of Donald Lopez’s Prisoners of Shangrila.

Description: This essay examines the consequences of Said’s critique of orientalism for Tibetan studies, particularly in relation to Lopez’s claim that we are all “prisoners of Shangrila.” The paper takes up this critique in relation to Lopez’s treatment of the present Dalai Lama, arguing that although his critique is useful, it exaggerates the scope and power of orientalism, and in the process ends up de-historicizing and reifying Tibetan culture into a closed totality that either remains unchanged or becomes debased through the intervention of the West. This, the essay argues, leaves little room for alternatives to orientalism, both in the West and among Tibetans, and thus ends up repeating the exclusionary gesture that this critique had sought to debunk. (Than Garson 2005-09-22)

URL: http://www.thlib.org/collections/texts/jiats/#jiats=/01/dreyfus/
Extent: 21 pp.
Classification: Tibetan and Himalayan -- Journals -- Journals Focused on Regions -- Tibet -- JIATS -- Issue 1 (October 2005)
Tibetan and Himalayan -- Journals -- THL-Hosted Online Journals -- JIATS -- Issue 1 (October 2005)
Source URL: http://www.jiats.org/
Source: Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies
Source Type: Journal
Source Number: 1
Start Date: 2005-09
ISBN/ISSN: 1550-6363
Format: Text
Media type: Text
Resource Type: Article
Digital Encoding: xml
Release Flag: OK for viewing
Date Of Record Creation: 2005-09-21 10:36:42
Date Record Checked: 2005-09-21
Date Last Modified: 2006-05-19 13:53:49
Cumulative Rating: this resource has a 1 star rating
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