S2 E10 Epic of Gesar གླིང་གེ་སར་རྒྱལ་པོའི་སྒྲུང་།
Discussion on the Epic of Gesar with Khenpo Ju Tenkyong. (Image: Himalayan Art Resources Inc.) Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/khyyl-gtm-khyeltam/donations
Dec 26, 2023•1 hr 20 min
Khyeltam འཁྱལ་གཏམ།
A podcast in Tibetan by two Tibetans, Jamyang Phuntsok and Ugyan Choedup, to discuss some Tibetan and not-so-Tibetan topics. Contact: khyeltam@gmail.com
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Episodes
20th Century China Series: 2 Qing-Tibet relation དུས་རབས་ཉི་ཤུའི་རྒྱ་ནག་ལོ་རྒྱུས། ༢ བོད་དང་མན་ཇུ་དབར་གྱི་འབྲེལ་བ།
A short series on the history of 20th-century China. 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, ...
Sep 28, 2023•1 hr 2 min
20th Century China Series: 1-Introduction དུས་རབས་ཉི་ཤུའི་རྒྱ་ནག་ལོ་རྒྱུས། ༡- སྔོན་འགྲོ།
A short series on the history of 20th-century China. 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 Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/khyyl-gtm-khyeltam/donations...
Aug 27, 2023•53 min
S2 E7 Capital (Marx) - Primitive Accumulation མ་རྩ། (མར་ཁེསི) - གདོད་མའི་ཕུང་གསོག།
An episode on the final chapter of Marx's Capital Vol. 1 where he delves into the origins of capitalist mode of production, giving an alternate picture of the theory of so-called primitive accumulation. (Image: Cover, Capital - Wordsworth Editions) Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/khyyl-gtm-khyeltam/donations
Apr 25, 2023•52 min
S2 E6: Various topics སྣ་ཚོགས་གཏམ།
For this episode we decided to meet and discuss (like Dream and Hob Gadling in The Sandman) at least two new things we had done/learned/found worth thinking about since our last episode. These include questions about language and culture inspired by a trip to Ladakh, digging through the libraries and archives of former imperial powers like England and other European countries for Tibet-related materials (where would Tibet be on the late Queen’s Christmas culture property repatriation gift list?)...
Sep 11, 2022•1 hr 2 min
S2 E5: Gendun Chopel དགེ་འདུན་ཆོས་འཕེལ།
In this episode of Khyeltam, we discuss the life of Gendun Chopel (1903-1951), perhaps, one of the foremost modern Tibetan thinkers. Intro/Outro theme: Karachal - Alash Ensemble (freemusicarchive.org/music/Alash_Ensemble/) Image credit: unknown Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/khyyl-gtm-khyeltam/donations
Feb 15, 2022•1 hr 15 min
S2 E4: On Annapurna Circuit ཧི་མ་ལ་ཡའི་རི་ཀླུང་ཉུལ་བའི་མྱོང་ཚོར།
A 'short' episode on the unexpected cultural and historical sights and sounds I encountered on the Annapurna circuit trail in Nepal. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/khyyl-gtm-khyeltam/donations
Feb 02, 2022•1 hr 1 min
S2 E3: On Democracy དམངས་གཙོ་འམ་མང་གཙོ་གླེང་བ།
In this experimental free-style episode of Khyeltam, I sat down with Palden Sonam to discuss our thoughts on democracy. As will be apparent from the discussion, we began our conversation with no clear sense of how this episode will unfold or if we will decide to upload it. However, given our long, silence our last Khyeltam episode, I have decided to upload this here anyway. Intro/Outro theme: Karachal - Alash Ensemble (freemusicarchive.org/music/Alash_Ensemble/) Image: Tendor Support this podcas...
Jan 14, 2022•1 hr 6 min
S2 E2: What is History? ལོ་རྒྱུས་ཟེར་ན་ཅི་ཞིག་ཡིན།
What is history? How do we know what happened in the past? Can we know the truth of our past? 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 liste...
Nov 11, 2021•1 hr 2 min
S2 E1: On Conspiracy Theory ཇུས་ངན་གྱི་འདོད་ཚུལ།
This episode is on Conspiracy Theory. It may or may not have been sponsored by the CIA. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/khyyl-gtm-khyeltam/donations
Oct 25, 2021•58 min
Khyeltam 2.0 Intro འཁྱལ་གཏམ་དུས་ཚན་གཉིས་པ།
ཨ་རོགས་ཚོ་བདེ་མོ། མ་མཇལ་ཡུན་རིང་། ལོ་ཕྱེད་ཙམ་ངེད་གཉིས་སོ་སོའི་ལས་གལ་ཆེ་ཆུང་སྣ་ཚོགས་ལ་བྲེལ་རྐྱེན་ལེ་ཚན་གསར་པ་བཅུག་མ་ཐུབ། ད་ལན་གྱི་བརྙན་ཡོད་ལེ་ཚན་འདི་ནི་འཁྱལ་གཏམ་དུས་ཚན་ནམ season གཉིས་པའི་འགོ་འཛུགས་ཀྱི་རྟེན་འབྲེལ་དུ་ཁྱེད་རྣམ་པའི་སྤྱན་ལམ་དུ་འབུལ། འདིའི་ནང་ད་བར་གྱི་ལེ་ཚན་དང་དེ་ལ་མཆན་དང་བསམ་ཚུལ་གང་བྱུང་བ་ལ་བསྐྱར་ཞིབ་དང་མ་འོངས་པའི་ལེ་ཚན་གང་བཟོ་འཆར་ཡོད་པ་སོགས་ཀྱི་སྐོར་ལ་གླེང་ཡོད། So, we decided our hiatus has stretched long enough (and just long enough to justify calling this resumption the season two ...
Oct 06, 2021•1 hr 10 min
34. History of Ethnic Classification in Modern China དེང་རབས་རྒྱ་ནག་གི་མི་རིགས་སྡེ་ཚན་འབྱེད་སྟངས་ཀྱི་ལོ་རྒྱུས།
The modern Chinese empire (PRC) hides its colonial set-up by camouflaging itself as a multi-minzu (nationality/ethnic) nation-state. Central to this discourse is the idea of minzu. However, historically, this is a new concept. What is the origin of the term Minzu? How did the contemporary 56 minzu in China come into being? 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 (fr...
Feb 15, 2021•40 min
33. On Public Sphere སྤྱི་དམངས་ཀྱི་སྡིངས་ཆ།
What is public sphere? A dominant liberal answer: a sphere where private individuals, members of a political community, on equal footing engage in reasoned deliberation on matters of public concern to form public opinions on what is public good(s). Such a sphere is fundamental to democracy—a sphere that mediates a relationship between society and state and holds later accountable to the former. What are the problems with this dominant liberal conception of public sphere? Fundamental to democracy...
Nov 27, 2020•53 min
32. The Blind Warrior of Nyarong ཉག་རོང་བུ་ལོང་མ།
In the mid-19th century, Gonpo Namgyel, a relatively unknown chief from Nyarong in Kham, rose to power and went on to conquer most of Kham and cause problems for both the Lhasa government and the Qing court. He has been usually depicted as a villain or a bandit in the Tibetan written and oral sources, sometimes called ten-dra (enemy of the faith) but later inducted into the pantheon of Buddhist protectors, and as 'a leader of serf uprising' by Chinese Marxist historians. Yudru Tsomu's book, the ...
Sep 28, 2020•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 32
30. Hum Dekhenge - Faiz ང་ཚོས་བལྟ་ཆོག།༷ ཕེཛ།
30. Hum Dekhenge - Faiz ང་ཚོས་བལྟ་ཆོག།༷ ཕེཛ། by Jamyang and Ugyan Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/khyyl-gtm-khyeltam/donations
Jul 27, 2020•52 min
30. On Antifa (Anti-fascist) ཨན་ཊི་ཕ་ (ཕ་ཤི་སི་ལ་འགོག་རྒོལ་)
Is it okay to punch fascists? To deny them a platform to speak? Many liberals and free speech absolutist, I think, would categorically say ‘NO.’ Directly or otherwise, I think, our attitude towards ‘freedom of speech’ and more are shaped by a liberal ideology that takes, often by abstracting from the concrete setting of the relations of power, all political opinions as equally valid or at least “right in their own way” (whatever that means). On freedom of speech, our conventional liberal wisdom ...
Jul 18, 2020•55 min
29. On #BlackLivesMatter མི་རིགས་ནག་པོའི་ཚེ་སྲོག་གཅེས་པར་འཛིན་པའི་ལས་འགུལ་སྐོར།
Following up on our recent/ongoing heated community debate on the #BlackLivesMatter protest in the aftermath of police murdering of George Floyd (and more since then), we decided to look briefly into the history of racism in the United States, Civil Rights Movement, the emergence of mass incarceration, and most importantly the changing (not evolving) nature of racism in the post-civil right US. Ofcourse, we couldn't have ignored some of the questions that emerged from the recent/ongoing discussi...
Jun 22, 2020•1 hr 27 min
28. History of Hindi Cinema ཧིན་དཱི་གློག་བརྙན་གྱི་ལོ་རྒྱུས།
Tibet's cultural engagement with India stretches back to the ancient past. If it was not for them, we'd be unlettered, uncouth barbarians terrorizing the plains of Central Asia (though Chogyal Namkha'i Norbu would vehemently dispute this extravagant claim.) This trans-Himalayan tryst lasts to this day but instead of Buddhism, we now have Bollywood without which Tibetan weddings would be even duller affairs. So I sat down with our somewhat regular guest Thinley Wangchuk to talk about the history ...
Jun 10, 2020•1 hr 24 min
27. On Seventeen Point Agreement གྲོས་མཐུན་དོན་ཚན་བཅུ་བདུན་གླེང་བ།
Turning our Instagram live discussion on the infamous and often misunderstood "Seventeen point agreement"* into another khyeltam episode. This history, as Tibet historian Tsering Shakya points out, is often marred in polemics and the reality, needless to say, is in some sense, more complex. *The Agreement between the Central People’s Government and the Local Government of Tibet on Measures for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet Intro/Outro theme: Karachal - Alash Ensemble (freemusicarchive.org/mus...
May 23, 2020•1 hr 2 min
26. On Birds and Birding བྱ་བྱིའུ་དང་དེ་དག་ཞིབ་རྟོགས་ཀྱི་སྐོར།
A rather whimsical episode in which I begin with the origin of birds, a bit of palaeontology and taxonomy, then birds in the Tibetan oral tradition, and finally end with a pseudo-apologia for birding. Intro/Outro theme: Karachal - Alash Ensemble (freemusicarchive.org/music/Alash_Ensemble/) Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/khyyl-gtm-khyeltam/donations
May 10, 2020•50 min
25. Hind Swaraj by Gandhi གཱན་དྷི་ རྒྱ་གར་རང་སྲིད་རང་སྐྱོང་། (ཧིནྡ་སྭཱ་རཱཛ་)
For this long-planned episode, Ugyan and I finally pick up Gandhi's short but important work Hind Swaraj. Written in 1909, the booklet lays out Gandhi's trenchant critique of Western civilization and a unique blueprint for India's struggle against British rule. Although the white man has (or has been) long relieved off his burden, has India managed to achieve the 'self-rule' that Gandhi envisioned? (If not, is it even achievable?) What about his principles of non-violence and Satyagraha? What re...
Apr 25, 2020•1 hr 21 min
24. A Tibetan Revolutionary བོད་མི་གསར་བརྗེ་བ་ཞིག
Bapa Phuntso Wangye, for some, is a great patriot, a revolutionary leader while for others, he is traitor, that also, to paraphrase Jamyang Norbu, a self-delusional and arrogant one. Known popularly for his early conversion to marxism, role in establishing Tibetan Communist Party in 1939, later assisting PLA’s invasion of Tibet, and suffering for 18 years in solitary imprisonment for “local nationalism.” In this episode, Jamyang and I try to dig into his (kind of) autobiographical book to unders...
Apr 08, 2020•1 hr 10 min
23. Pedagogy of the Oppressed བཙན་གནོན་མྱོང་མཁན་གྱི་སློབ་གསོ་རིག་པ་འམ་སློབ་ཁྲིད་རིག་པ།
Discussion on Paulo Freire's "Pedagogy of the Oppressed" with Tenzin Pelyoun and Thinley Wangchuk Intro/Outro theme: Karachal - Alash Ensemble (freemusicarchive.org/music/Alash_Ensemble/) Image: Revolution and Ideology https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmA4sk2mf88 Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/khyyl-gtm-khyeltam/donations
Mar 30, 2020•1 hr 35 min
22. Brexit བི་རེཁ་ཟིཊ།
Discussing the ins and outs of Brexit with our new guest discussant Apa Lhamo (JNU). Intro/Outro theme: Karachal - Alash Ensemble (freemusicarchive.org/music/Alash_Ensemble/) Image: AFP Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/khyyl-gtm-khyeltam/donations
Feb 20, 2020•1 hr 4 min
21. Liberalism and Empire གུ་ཡངས་རིང་ལུགས་དང་རྒྱལ་ཁམས།
What is liberalism? Historically what did the giants of (British) liberal thought has to say on their imperial project? No prize for guessing—most supported the imperial project! Is this simply the case of liberal hypocrisy, and therefore the problem lies in the selective application of the otherwise perfect and universal ideals? Or is there more to the liberal ideology that requires fundamental rethinking? For more such discussion, tune in to this episode of Khyeltam on “Liberalism and Empire.”...
Feb 14, 2020•48 min
20. CAA and NRC in India རྒྱ་གར་རྒྱལ་ཡོངས་མི་སེར་ཐོ་འགོད་དང་མི་སེར་ཐོབ་ཐང་བསྐྱར་བཅོས་ཁྲིམས།
Jamyang and I discuss the ongoing issue of Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC) Image: The New Indian Express Intro/Outro theme: Karachal - Alash Ensemble (freemusicarchive.org/music/Alash_Ensemble/) Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/khyyl-gtm-khyeltam/donations
Jan 08, 2020•1 hr 3 min
19. The Mughal Empire མུ་གལ་གྱི་རྒྱལ་ཁམས།
With our new guest discussant Thinley Wangchuk. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/khyyl-gtm-khyeltam/donations
Dec 09, 2019•1 hr 7 min
18. Approach to Justice by Amartya Sen དྲང་བདེན་གྱི་ཐབས་ལམ། ཨ་མར་ཏི་ཡ་སེན།
A not-so-short introduction to Amartya Sen's theory of Justice: A Capability Approach Intro/Outro theme: Karachal - Alash Ensemble (freemusicarchive.org/music/Alash_Ensemble/) Illustration: Unnikrishnan Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/khyyl-gtm-khyeltam/donations
Nov 20, 2019•49 min
17. Susan Sontag - On Photography པར་ལས་ཀྱི་སྐོར། སུ་སན་སོན་ཀྲེག།
Ugyan and I discuss Sontag's famous essay 'In Plato's cave' from her book On Photography. Link to the essay: http://sites.uci.edu/01807w14/files/2014/02/SontagSusan_InPlatosCave.pdf Link to Teju Cole's essay: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/03/magazine/a-too-perfect-picture.html Image: Gen. Nguyen Ngoc Loan, South Vietnamese chief of the national police, fires his pistol into the head of suspected Viet Cong official Nguyen Van Lem on a Saigon street early in the Tet Offensive, February 1, 1968. ...
Nov 03, 2019•45 min
16. Quantum physics (Khyeltam Shorts) ཀོན་ཊམ་གྱི་རྣམ་བཞག། (འཁྱལ་གཏམ་བསྡུས་པ།)
A short episode on the strange world of quantum physics where light and matter sometimes behave like waves, sometimes like particles and where experimental cats are described as being both dead and alive at the same time! ལེ་ཚན་འདིའི་ནང་དངོས་ཁམས་ཚན་རིག་གི་ཡ་མཚན་དགོས་པའི་གནད་འགའ་ཞིག་ག྄ླེང་ཡོད། དཔེར་ན། འོད་དེ་སྐབས་རེ་ར྄ླབས་ཀ྄ྱི་རང་བཞིན་དང་སྐབས་རེ་ཟེགས་མའི་རང་བཞིན་ཡིན་པ། ད་དུང་ཡང་ཤི་གསོན་གཉིས་ཀར་ཡིན་པའི་ཞི་མི་སོགས་ཡོད། Intro/Outro theme: Karachal - Alash Ensemble (freemusicarchive.org/music/Alash_E...
Oct 19, 2019•37 min
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