Background

Shakya was born in Lhasa, Tibet in 1959, the youngest child in his family. He was brought to India in 1967, before immigrating to England.

Education

Shakya 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 Bachelor of Arts Honours in Social Anthropology and South Asian History, in 1982. He received his Master of Philosophy in Tibetan Studies in 2000 and Ph.D. June 2004.

Career

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).

As an independent consultant and widely respected analyst, Tsering has addressed the European parliament and is regularly invited to advise Western governments on Tibet/China policy. As well as fulfilling various public-speaking engagements Tsering has, since the early 1990s, contributed to many television and radio programs, both location documentaries and studio-based discussions. He currently works off-air for Radio Free Asia’s (RFA) Tibet news service and on-air, every fortnight, presenting an international current affairs ‘slot’ on RFA, while also making regular appearances on the BBC and CNN.

Tsering was also co-editor of the first anthology of modern Tibetan short stories and poems, Song of the Snow Lion, New Writings from Tibet (University of Hawaii, 2000). Seeing Lhasa: British Depictions of the Tibetan Capital 1936-1947, edited by Clare Harris and Tsering Shakya, (Serindia Publications, London, 2003) is a study of the relationship between senior British colonial officers and Tibetan elite as depicted in rare, previously unpublished photographs taken by members of the British Mission in Lhasa. Tsering’s feature articles have been published in numerous international journals and magazines, including Time and New Left Review. He also was engaged in a major research project on the shift in the use of the Tibetan language, and how contemporary literature is used as a voice of resistance in present-day Tibet.

In 2006, Shakya came to Canada and currently holds the Canadian Research Chair in Religion and Contemporary Society in Asia at the Institute for Asian Research, University of British Columbia. He is co-lead of the Himalaya Program and currently serves as the President of the International Association of Tibetan Studies.

Achievements

• Tsering is a world renowned and widely published scholar, on both historic and contemporary Tibet. He is also known as the advisor on Tibetan affairs and culture to the Foreign Office in England and the European Parliament, as well as to the BBC and newspapers, including the London Times, the Observer, and the Manchester Guardian. He is also known as the translator and co-author of The Autobiography of a Tibetan Monk, an autobiography of Palden Gyatso, a self-described “simple monk” from Tibet.
  
  Tsering Shakya’s published works include Fire Under the Snow, The Testimony of a Tibetan Prisoner (Harvill Press, 1997), which has sold over 400,000 copies in more than 20 languages.

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Dragon in the Land of Snows: A History of Modern Tibet Since 1947 (Compass)

    (Based entirely on unpublished primary sources, Tsering Sh...)

    1999
  • Song of the Snow Lion: New Writing from Tibet (Manoa 12:2)

    (Since China's invasion of their country in 1950 and the s...)

    2000
  • Tales of Tibet: Sky Burials, Prayer Wheels, and Wind Horses

    (Vivid images of Tibet spring to life in this landmark boo...)

    2001
  • The Autobiography of a Tibetan Monk

    ("My story is not a glamorous one of high lamas and exotic...)

    1997
  • The Struggle for Tibet

    (China’s decades-long repression of Tibetan independence c...)

    2009
  • Fire Under the Snow True Story of a Tibetan Monk 1997

Politics

Tsering's research explores the confluence of politics, ethno-national identity and religious practice in cultural production and social transformation across both historical and contemporary Tibet and the Himalayas. He is also interested in contemporary minority policy and social media in the PRC.