Over 7,500 miles from Charlottesville, Tibet is not exactly a convenient destination for many students. Those who wish to learn more about the distant and controversial area, however, are closer than they might realize.
According to Prof. David Germano, who teaches Tibetan and Buddhist studies, the University boasts some of the best resources available for those wishing to learn more about Tibet.
"Over the last three decades, we've had the largest Tibetan studies program in North America in terms of numbers of students, graduate students and number of faculty specializing in Tibetan subjects," Germano said.
One of three University professors focusing on Tibet, Germano teaches classes about various aspects of Tibetan culture and history in addition to Buddhist studies. Although his classes are in the Religious Studies department, he said many of his students come from other departments.
In addition to offering classes, for the last five years, Germano has been running the Tibetan and Himalayan Digital Library, one of the largest University humanities projects involving technology and the largest research project in the United States having to do with Tibet and the Himalayas.
"It's a large collaborative project, so Virginia operates as a fulcrum for international resources and scholars working in this area," he said. "In that context, we have a steady stream of exchange with Tibetans, such as faculty, students and librarians going between Lhasa and Charlottesville."
As an extension of the research project, Germano has initiated a study abroad program for University students in Lhasa, Tibet, to begin next fall.
"It would be the first time any student in America would have the chance to do that, so I imagine there will be a broad range of interest," he said. "It would be a general program immersing people in Tibetan language and culture."
Germano said he became interested in Tibetan culture when he studied Buddhism while living in Tibet.
"Over the years, I've probably spent about a third of my adult life in Tibet," he said. "It was Buddhism that pulled me in, but Tibet that sustained my attention as much as Buddhism."
His studies have led him to conclude that the conflict in Tibet is a symptom of a much larger problem.
"There is a broader problem in the world, which is the resources and control over people's lives and so forth is in the hands of relatively few big nation-states which are dominated by specific cultures, and smaller ethnic groups with different cultural traditions and languages are basically dominated by them," he said.
Although he said similar conflicts exist in India and America, certain aspects of the Tibetan conflict are unique.
"The specific problem with Tibetans is that up until 1950, they essentially had their own self-ruling situation in Western and Central Tibet," he said. "You have to keep in mind that political Tibet is not the same as cultural Tibet. China had never asserted direct military rule over cultural Tibet for many centuries, so what probably distinguishes Tibet from some of these other situations is they did have a distinctive government and political identity for a large part of their territory prior to 1950."
Additionally, Tibetans' strong sense of culture has contributed to the passionate responses to the conflict.
"Tibetans in 1950 were highly literate people with a very distinctive body of literature; and for a large part of the cultural territory, they had a sense of living as a political unit," he said. "I think that's why so many people have focused on them so much in contrast to other groups that also have justified complaints against ruling majorities."
After living many years in "the main heartland of Tibetan culture," Germano said he believes universities have a responsibility to support communities with which they interact.
"The Chinese government controls Tibet, and the U.S. government won't do anything about it, so the best we can do is help support constructive solutions to improving the situations for Tibetans," he said.
For Germano, constructive solutions largely focus on cultural education.
"We have no ability to affect a political or military solution, but what we can do is try to work constructively to try to help and buttress Tibetan culture, language, tradition and so forth," he said. "Any kind of political solution is going to emerge from Beijing, and the best we can do to help that is to educate Tibetans and Chinese about the broader international situation, and help give Tibetans the empowerment to work out their own futures."
In addition to promoting education, Germano also said he respects political protestors and believes the University should be supportive of political dissent.
"My feeling is that our students are overly passive and generally accepting of the status quo and that what we need to do is encourage strong student opinions and students standing by their beliefs," he said.
Consequently, he said he supports graduate student Rich Felker's actions in protesting the visit of the Chinese Ambassador last semester by attempting to chain himself to a banister in the Dome Room of the Rotunda.
"Students here are too passive, and we as a University should not be focusing on prosecuting students who are actively demonstrating their political beliefs," he said.
Although Germano was not familiar with the specifics of Felker's trial, in which he was charged with intentional disruption of a University activity and failure to comply with University officials, he disapproved of the decision to try him.
"Why don't we deal with problems with the racists, sexists and the people who just get drunk for four years and waste all of our time?" he said. "Let's focus on that."
He said many faculty members share this position.
"It's very much part of the national political climate right now of trying to enforce agreement rather than focusing on social problems, which many faculty are sick of," he said, mentioning that he believes the trial was a waste of University resources.
Angela Carrico, a fourth-year College student and chair of the University Judiciary Committee that tried Felker, disagreed.
"I don't want to speak for the trial panel, but the entire Judiciary Committee is highly in favor of freedom of speech, and I'm glad to see students who are passionate about their causes," Carrico said. "But in the complainant's mind, it is a violation of the standards of conduct. And there are ways to protest that don't violate the standards."
Furthermore, Carrico said the UJC has no say in which cases are tried.
"Whenever we have a case brought, we don't have any sort of mechanism to determine whether a case has merit or not," she said, contrasting UJC with the Honor Committee. "Our hands are really tied in that every case has to be tried."
Students who are interested in taking a stance or learning more about the issue may find other resources in the Tibetan scholars affiliated with the University.
For example, students taking Tibetan Buddhism this semester have Tsering Wangchuk, a former monk, as their teaching assistant.
Although Wangchuk grew up in India after his parents' arrival there in 1959, he said he was fully immersed in Tibetan society, and, consequently, he sometimes is able to share unique perspectives with his students.
One perspective Wangchuk offers is that of a former Tibetan Buddhist monk.
"It's a common thing for Tibetan kids to join the monastery, or at least it used to be when I was growing up," he said. "My family is very devout and religious-minded, and I personally had this kind of strong intention to become a monk at some point."
Wangchuk said there are many types of Buddhist monasteries in India, and he attended one with minimal emphasis on ritual and prayer.
"The monastery I attended was more like a school or college than a monastery," he said. "It focuses on the philosophical aspects of Buddhism, so I studied Tibetan Buddhism from a doctrinal perspective rather than a historical or anthropological perspective."
Since then, he said he has given up his monastic vows because he had difficulties with attachment and desire.
"It's difficult to be a monk," he said. "Ideally speaking, you're not supposed to have sex, kill or tell lies. I think I'm forgetting some -- it's been a long time, but those bad things you're not supposed to do. Ideally speaking, you're not supposed to drink alcohol, dance and do the stuff that most of us do here at U.Va"
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