Tsering Shakya, University of British Columbia

Profile photo of Tsering Shakya, expert at University of British Columbia

Associate Professor Institute of Asian Research Vancouver, British Columbia tshakya@mail.ubc.ca Office: (604) 822-2968

Bio/Research

Born in Lhasa, he fled to India with his family after the Chinese invasion. He then won a scholarship to study in Britain, and was later to graduate from London University’s School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) with a B.A. Honours in Social Anthropology and South Asian History. He receiv...

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Bio/Research

Born in Lhasa, he fled to India with his family after the Chinese invasion. He then won a scholarship to study in Britain, and was later to graduate from London University’s School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) with a B.A. Honours in Social Anthropology and South Asian History. He received his M.Phil. in Tibetan Studies in 2000 and Ph.D. June 2004.

Today, Tsering is a world renowned and widely published scholar, on both historic and contemporary Tibet. His most expansive work to date The Dragon in the Land of Snows: A History of Modern Tibet Since 1947 (Pimlico, London 1999) was acclaimed as “the definitive history of modern Tibet” by The New York Times, and "a prodigious work of scholarship” by the UK’s Sunday Telegraph. The book is the first comprehensive account of Tibet's recent history. In researching the book Shakya interviewed many leading Tibetan politicians and drawn on numerous unpublished sources. Tsering was able to draw upon his unrivalled network of official and unofficial contacts in government, academia, religious circles and the media throughout Tibet and China, and across Asia, Europe and the U.S, including numerous, previously unpublished sources. The book received wide recognition and is now regarded as a standard text on the history of modern Tibet.

Tsering Shakya’s work relies upon relationships of trust and confidentiality built up over many years. In April 1990, Tsering was the Convenor of the first International Conference on Modern Tibet Studies, held at the University of London and attended by scholars from China, India, Europe and the U.S. He went on to teach at the Centre of Refugee Studies at Oxford University, England, and was later to become a research fellow in Tibetan Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London University (1999-2002).


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