ABOUT IDENTITY CONFERENCE

The Dalai Institute for Higher Education

The Dalai Lama Institute for Higher Education is the first of its kind. It is the latest educational endeavour, and one of the most significant projects undertaken by the Tibetan Children’s Village, an integrated charitable organization for child care and educational services. True to its initial vision, as set forth by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the mission of TCV is to ensure that all Tibetan children under its care receive a sound modern education and a firm cultural identity, so they can become self-reliant and contributing members of the community and the world at large. Over the years, TCV has grown into the largest autonomous educational body in the Tibetan community in exile. In several significant ways, TCV has set the pace and tempo of school management, and has consistently worked hard to improve the quality and scope of education at the higher level. This conference, also the first of its kind will help ensure that graduate students across the nation develop the presentation literacy skills, academic tools and research techniques necessary to think about and share ideas that expand our thinking and change the world.

Being Tibetan

What does it mean to be Tibetan? Being Tibetan describes those of us with a common origin. Some of us have the direct experience of being involuntarily if not forcibly dispersed from our home country, some of us, not having that personal experience know a “home for now” to be the only home we know. Many of us have made tough decisions to live away from family and friends – to start anew. As Tibetans, we remain united by our shared language and history, by our clothing, our food choices and our traditions. We stay connected the way the rest of the world stays connected through media, news sharing, and storytelling. Being Tibetan, however is not simply a matter of maintaining our cultural heritage. Identity, Tibetan and otherwise is continually constructed through the choices we make. Our identity is shaped. Our identity also shapes.

The Inaugural Conference

The Dalai Lama Institute for Higher Education will host a national bilingual conference on September 15-17 2017. The conference will be the first in a series of scholarly engagements on Tibetan Identity Construction in the Diaspora. By bringing together a range of experienced and emerging scholars, Tibetan and non-Tibetan, we hope to develop a research agenda and scholarly community that addresses meaningfully the challenges and opportunities Tibetans face.

If you have an idea to share, if you are a thinker and a doer, if you are an explorer, an innovator, a performer, we invite you to think about the many issues associated with what it means to be Tibetan join us.