Thurman on Tibet: The Podcast
The Center for Buddhist Studies just released the recording of a panel entitled “Tibet’s Future… Does it Have One?” The discussion features prominent Tibet and Buddhism scholars Robert Thurman, John Kenneth Knaus, Amit A. Pandya, and John Tkacik.
The roundtable is a particularly topical one: Last week, for the first time since 1989, ethnic Tibetans publicly demonstrated against Chinese rule. China has since expelled all foreign media from Tibet and shut down access to the internet. Discrepancies in the purported number of Tibetan deaths have also arisen, with the Tibetan government claiming nearly a hundred dead, and the Chinese government saying just seven.
As the semester’s coursework has come to an all-too-brief halt, now is as good a time as any to learn about something you might not have known about before. (And it’s only going to get more press coverage as the Olympics approach.) Plus, Robert Thurman’s voice is hypnotic. Trust us.
Tags: china, robert thurman, tibet
19 March 2008 @ 12:31 PM · 7 comments
on 
white men who think they know what’s best for Asian peoples.
Why don’t you wipe your ass here in USA about the War in Iraq first then tell Asian people what they should do.
Wow. You have managed to spew forth a sentiment that is wrong and stupid on almost every imaginable level. I’m impressed!
This guy is Uma Thurman’s dad! (I’m serious.)
JOHN TKACIK
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hC-KW2bK5Q-Jf3QlGoRMG1hkBO1A
Yeah, I know, why should a guy who dedicated his entire life to studying a group presume to even have any idea about that group.
It’s like a black guy proclaiming he knows what’s best for black people! Just ’cause he’s black! As if that mattered.
Oh, whoops. I think I took the logic too far.
the fact that Thurman was the first Westerner to be ordained a Buddhist monk by the Dalai Lama, with whom he maintains close contact. Or the fact that Thurman is the head of the Tibet House downtown.
…but you’re all right, because Thurman is on the Columbia faculty he’s obviously just another Westerner who thinks he knows shit about nothing. Fuck you.