The Fleeting Windhorse: Tibetan Cultural Identity and the Challenge of Modernity
2011; Canadian Comparative Literature Association; Volume: 30; Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
1913-9659
Autores Tópico(s)Philippine History and Culture
ResumoCan one speak about Tibet and modernity or globalization with any kind of credibility, may the incredulous reader ask? Is Tibet not this country [that] seemed not to belong to our earth, a society left on the shelf, set in amber, preserved in deep freeze, a land so close to the sky that the natural occupation of her people was to pray? With films such as Seven Years in Tibet and Kundun, Hollywood has presented the world with an image of Tibet that reinforces stereotypes of a land and people so other that they are seen as redeemers of a depraved modern world. Tibet, so the argument is made, has to be sheltered from the attacks of the modern world so that it can save a materialistic world from itself. Tibet and modernity are two antagonistic poles that need to be kept apart unless this fantastic image of the West's unmet desire for purity and spiritual wholeness will collapse. This romanticized image of Tibet has become thoroughly incorporated in the modern popular culture. Beside films, one may refer to the Free Tibet concerts, the Dalai Lamas as a pop group, fragments of Buddhist scriptures as lyrics of pop songs, or Tibetan mantras imprinted on t-shirts to be sold in a sports store. A new Tibet has been created in the media and in parts of modern scholarship: a people solely devoted to the pursuit of spiritual awareness and averse to all materialistic and worldly gains; a country united as a nation under
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