Diana Vreeland was an American fashion columnist and editor. She worked for the fashion magazine Harper's Bazaar and as editor-in-chief at Vogue, later becoming a special consultant to the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She was named on the International Best Dressed List Hall of Fame in 1964. Vreeland coined the term youthquake in 1965.
Kyabje Nawang Gehlek Rimpoche was a Tibetan Buddhist lama born in Lhasa, Tibet on October 26, 1939. His personal name was Gelek; kyabje and rimpoche are titles meaning "teacher" and "precious," respectively; he is known to Tibetans as Nyakre Khentrul Rinpoche. He was a tulku, an incarnate lama of Drepung Monastic University, where he received the highest scholastic degree of Geshe Lharampa, equivalent to a PhD, at the exceptionally young age of 20. His father was the 10th Demo Rinpoche and his uncle was the 13th Dalai Lama, Thubten Gyatso.
Drepung Monastery, located at the foot of Mount Gephel, is one of the "great three" Gelug university gompas (monasteries) of Tibet. The other two are Ganden Monastery and Sera Monastery.
Palden Gyatso was a Tibetan Buddhist monk. Arrested for protesting during the Chinese invasion of Tibet, he spent 33 years in Chinese prisons and labor camps, where he was extensively tortured, and served the longest term of any Tibetan political prisoner. After his release in 1992 he fled to Dharamsala in North India, in exile. He was still a practicing monk and became a political activist, traveling the world publicizing the cause of Tibet up until his death in 2018. His autobiography Fire Under the Snow is also known as The Autobiography of a Tibetan Monk. He was the subject of the 2008 documentary film Fire Under the Snow.
The 2008 Tibetan unrest, also referred to as the 2008 Tibetan uprising in Tibetan media, was a series of protests and demonstrations over the Chinese government's treatment and persecution of Tibetans. Protests in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, by monks and nuns on 10 March have been viewed as the start of the demonstrations. Numerous peaceful protests and demonstrations were held to commemorate the 49th anniversary of the 1959 Tibetan Uprising Day, when the 14th Dalai Lama escaped from Tibet. The protests and demonstrations spread spontaneously to a number of monasteries and throughout the Tibetan plateau, including into counties located outside the designated Tibet Autonomous Region. The arrest of monks at Labrang Monastery increased the tension of the situation. Violence began when Chinese police and People's Liberation Army units used force on non-violent protests by monks and nuns, and spread when protesting Tibetans later clashed with security forces. Clashes also occurred between Tibetans and Chinese Han and Hui residents, resulting in Han and Hui stores and buildings being destroyed and numerous Chinese civilians being injured or killed.
The 1987–1989 Tibetan unrest was a series of protests and demonstrations that called for Tibetan independence. These protests took place between September 1987 and March 1989 in the Tibet Autonomous Region, in the Tibetan regions of Sichuan, and Qinghai, as well as the Tibetan prefectures in Yunnan and Gansu. Protests began shortly after the Dalai Lama, the religious and temporal leader of Tibet exiled in India since the 1959 Tibetan unrest, proposed a Five Point Peace Plan regarding the “status of Tibet” on September 21, 1987, which was subsequently rejected by the Chinese government. The Plan advocated for greater respect and autonomy of the Tibetan people, and claimed that “Tibet was a fully independent state when the People’s Liberation Army invaded the country in 1949-50.” China rejected the idea of Tibetans as an invaded people, stating that “Tibet is an inalienable part of Chinese territory” and has been for hundreds of years. The Tibetan sovereignty debate is longstanding, and the Tibetan assertion that they are a separate and unique people invaded by China has become a central argument for their independence.
Lina Dorado is a contemporary artist and filmmaker based in New York City noted for her multimedia work and travel photography, Lina Dorado has authored two books in bilingual editions: Doble Vista / Second Sight and Drawing Only, Solo Dibujo alongside her long-term collaborator: Luis Cantillo. Their book Doble Vista / Second Sight written by Dorado and photographs by both was acquired by the New York Public Library Museum of Modern Art in New York MOMA and the Whitney Museum for their Artists' Books Collection. In August 2018 her first feature film Pelucas y Rokanrol was theatrically released in Colombia, the film was directed by Mario Duarte and written by Mario Duarte and Lina Dorado.
Steve Lehman is an American-born conceptual artist whose oeuvre consists of photographs, videos, collages, drawings, writings, sculpture, objects, paintings and installations. He is also the founder of WillyNilly™, a digital lifestyle company. He is most famous for his book The Tibetans: A Struggle to Survive. Lehman’s work is distinct because of his ability to “sample” other artists, weave together many types of art and merge different disciplines.
Rato Dratsang, also known as Rato Monastery, Rato Dratsang is a Tibetan Buddhist monastery of the Gelug or "Yellow Hat" order. For many centuries, Rato Dratsang was an important monastic center of Buddhist studies in Central Tibet.
Chone Monastery, also Chone Gonchen Ganden Shedrubling, or Choni Monastery was originally a Sakya monastery. It is situated adjacent to Liulin, Jonê County, Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Gansu Province, China, at an altitude of about 2,610 m (8,563 ft).
Protests and uprisings in Tibet against the government of the People's Republic of China have occurred since 1950, and include the 1959 uprising, the 2008 uprising, and the subsequent self-immolation protests.
Dhondup Wangchen is a Tibetan filmmaker imprisoned by the Chinese government in 2008 on charges related to his documentary Leaving Fear Behind. Made with senior Tibetan monk Jigme Gyatso, the documentary consists of interviews with ordinary Tibetan people discussing the 14th Dalai Lama, the Chinese government, the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and Han Chinese migrants to the region. After smuggling the tapes of the interviews out of Tibet, however, Dhondup Wangchen and Jigme Gyatso were detained during the 2008 Tibetan unrest.
Khyongla Rato, also known as Khyongla Rato Rinpoche, Rato Khyongla Rinpoche, Khyongla Rinpoche, Ngawang Lobsang Shedrub Tenpai Dronme, and also as Nawang Losang, his monk's name, was a scholar and teacher in the Gelugpa tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. He was born in Dagyab county in Kham province in southeastern Tibet, and was recognized as an incarnate lama at an early age. He spent over thirty years of his life as a monk studying in the monasteries of Tibet and receiving teachings from many highly qualified lamas.
The Tibet Center, also known as Kunkhyab Thardo Ling, is a dharma center for the study of Tibetan Buddhism. Founded by Venerable Khyongla Rato Rinpoche in 1975, it is one of the oldest Tibetan Buddhist centers in New York City. The current director is Khen Rinpoche Nicholas Vreeland, the abbot of Rato Dratsang monastery. Philip Glass assisted with the founding of The Tibet Center. Since 1991 TTC has invited and hosted the 14th Dalai Lama for teaching events in New York in partnership with the Gere Foundation.
Nicholas Vreeland, also known as Rato Khen Rinpoche, Geshe Thupten Lhundup, is a fully ordained Tibetan Buddhist monk who is the abbot of Rato Dratsang Monastery, a 10th-century Tibetan Buddhist monastery reestablished in India. Vreeland is also a photographer. He is the son of Ambassador Frederick Vreeland and grandson of Diana Vreeland, the fashion editor.
Guido Santi was a filmmaker, director and producer who was born in Genoa, Italy, on May 9, 1962. He lived and worked in Los Angeles, where he also taught at the College of the Canyons.
Tina Mascara is an American director, producer and writer. She is best known for her documentary films, especially the two biographical documentaries which were made with her husband Guido Santi.
My Life and Lives: Khyongla Rato, The Story of a Tibetan Incarnation is the autobiography of Khyongla Rato Rinpoche, a Tibetan Buddhist scholar and teacher. Rato was an incarnate lama who was born in the Kham district of Tibet in 1923. The introduction to the book was written by the mythologist Joseph Campbell, who also edited the book. My Life and Lives was first published in 1977, and a second edition was published in 1991.
Yeshi Dhonden was a Tibetan doctor of traditional Tibetan medicine, and served the 14th Dalai Lama from 1961 to 1980. In 2018, the Indian government honoured him with the Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award in India.
