Despite Kipling's deep imperial sympathies, 'Kim' still remains an eminently readable novel today. I got the urge to pick up this book again after seeing an old Buddhist monk and his young charge in Bodhgaya recently. As a Tibetan, I do have several complaints about Kipling's description of Teshoo Lama who gives his blessings in 'ornate Chinese' and his predeliction for pointing out 'Oriental/Asiatic' tendencies in his native characters. Yet, as Edward Said notes in his essay on the novel, 'Kim' is not a political tract but a master work of imperialism, 'a rich and absolutely fascinating, but nevertheless profoundly embarrassing novel.' I discuss the novel and the essay in this new (short) episode.

As a sort of continuation of our previous episode, this time we discuss Albert Camus’s famous novel ‘The Outsider’ and try to explore the ideas behind the philosophy of Existentialism/Absurdism which Camus highlighted through the novel’s anti-hero. We also briefly discuss literary critic Harold Bloom’s take on Camus and close with some thoughts on ‘One Thousand And One Nights'.

We discuss one of the most famous short stories of modern Western literature with our episode guest Thinley Wangchuk

It is said that nations are 'objectively recent but subjectively ancient', or even eternal. So, then, how do we define a nation? For Anderson, nations come about through an act of imagining a political community, and it was first made possible in the 18th century by the advent of print capitalism. This is the gist of his seminal book (or at least its first three chapters). To hear us struggle to render accurately the term 'imagined communities' in Tibetan, also struggle to explain Anderson's unique take on how novels brought about a new way of apprehending time and thereby made it possible to imagine a nation, tune it to the latest Khyeltam episode.

ཐེངས་འདིར་ང་ཚོས་བསྟན་འཛིན་ཆོས་འཕེལ་ལགས་དང་ལྷན་དུ་བཙན་བྱོལ་དུ་བོད་ཀྱི་སྐད་ཡིག་གི་གནས་བབས་དང་། དེ་བཞིན་བོད་རིག་པའི་ཞུབ་འཇུག་ཁོངས་སུ་བོད་དང་བོད་རིགས་མང་དུ་འཇུག་དགོས་པ་སོགས་ཀྱི་སྐོར་ཁ་བརྡ་བྱས་ཡོད། ཆོས་འཕེལ་ནི་བོད་ནང་སྐྱེས་བཞིན་ཨིན་ཇིའི་གཙུག་ལག་སློབ་གྲྭ་ཆེན་མོ་ཨོགསི་ཕོཌ་ནས་བོད་དང་ཧི་མ་ལ་ཡའི་རིག་པའི་ཐོག་ཉེ་བའི་འབུམ་རམས་པའི་སློབ་གཉེར་གནང་། ཁོང་གིས་དྲ་ཐོག་ནས་བོད་ཡིག་སློབ་པའི་༼སློབ་སླའོ།༽སོགས་ཀྱང་གསར་འཛུགས་གནང་ཡོད།

Intro/Outro theme: Karachal - Alash Ensemble (freemusicarchive.org/music/Alash_Ensemble/)

(Image: Himalayan Art Resources Inc.)

Intro/Outro theme: Karachal - Alash Ensemble (freemusicarchive.org/music/Alash_Ensemble/)

Image: Anonymous. The Qianlong Emperor as an Emanation of the Bodhisattva Manjusri. Thangka, ink, and colors on silk. Palace Museum, Beijing. Presented entirely in keeping with Tibetan Buddhist iconography, this religious painting and others like it reinforced Qianlong's claim to rule as a righteous "wheel-turning king," or chakravartin. © Palace Museum, Beijing.

Intro/Outro theme: Karachal - Alash Ensemble (freemusicarchive.org/music/Alash_Ensemble/)

Image: A Propaganda poster for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, with Red Army and Red Guard members charging forward holding Mao Zedong’s Little Red Book. Photograph: GraphicaArtis/Getty Images

Intro/Outro theme: Karachal - Alash Ensemble (freemusicarchive.org/music/Alash_Ensemble/)

image: personal

Intro/Outro theme: Karachal - Alash Ensemble (freemusicarchive.org/music/Alash_Ensemble/)

Image credit: unknown

Intro/Outro theme: Karachal - Alash Ensemble (freemusicarchive.org/music/Alash_Ensemble/)

Image: Tendor

In this episode, Jamyang and I discuss these questions based primarily on E.H Carr's classic work "What is history?" In order to make better sense of Carr's work, we have attempted to use some of the examples from the Tibetan context. The question of what is history is inextricably linked with larger question of can we know the truth? Therefore, perhaps, given you have many hours to waste, one can listen to this episode of Khyeltam along with our second episode (from season 1) on "Roshomon."

Intro/Outro theme: Karachal - Alash Ensemble (freemusicarchive.org/music/Alash_Ensemble/)

Image: E.H. Carr

Source: https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/2019/05/history-according-to-eh-carr

So, we decided our hiatus has stretched long enough (and just long enough to justify calling this resumption the season two of our podcast 😂). We promise you nothing but more of the same old, same old. In this one, we talk a bit about what we have been up to so far, (besides trying to book a slot on the Cowin app), a bit of an overview of season one, and a look ahead to some future episodes. It is in video primarily for the purposes of what we Tibetans call 'temdrel'.

I discuss these questions and more in this khyeltam short episode on Thomas Mullaney’s book “Coming to terms with the Nation.”

Intro/Outro theme: Karachal - Alash Ensemble (freemusicarchive.org/music/Alash_Ensemble/)

Image: University of California Press

What are the problems with this dominant liberal conception of public sphere? Fundamental to democracy is public deliberation but on what and whose terms and conditions are these deliberation taking place? In an actually existing society with unequal distribution of power, who gets heard? Who represents the public? How do subordinate groups reorganize and deliberate their public concerns? We read Jurgen Habermas’s classic work on the public sphere alongside Nancy Fraser’s critical rethinking to discuss these questions and more. 

Intro/Outro theme: Karachal - Alash Ensemble (freemusicarchive.org/music/Alash_Ensemble/)

Image description: Gopal Guru, Dalit social and political theorist, speaking on nationalism in Jawaharlal Nehru University outside the VC's office. Amidst the widespread crackdown on student political activism under the new BJP government in India and the national media proclaiming students in the university as anti-national, the students and professors of the university reorganize themselves outside the University's VC office to debate what is a nation? How should we understand nationalism? In the process, they proclaimed the space as Freedom Square--a site Nancy Fraser might call subaltern public sphere, a site resistance and counter-discourse.

Image Credit: still image from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joTTDAOyPLY&feature=emb_title

Intro/Outro theme: Karachal - Alash Ensemble (freemusicarchive.org/music/Alash_Ensemble/)

Image: Ruins of Gonpo Namgyal's Caste in Nyarong

Source: http://m.zangdiyg.com/article/detail/id/14863.html