Phunchok Stobdan | |
---|---|
Indian ambassador to Kyrgyzstan | |
In office 2010–2012 | |
Preceded by | J.S. Pande |
Personal details | |
Born | 20 December 1958 |
Nationality | Indian |
Occupation | Diplomat,Ambassador |
Phunchok Stobdan (born 20 December 1958) is a former Indian civil servant and served as the Indian ambassador to Kyrgyzstan. [1] [2] He was also a senior fellow at Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses,New Delhi,and was the founding president of the Ladakh International Centre. [3] [4]
Stobdan is an academician,diplomat and author,who has earlier served in the National Security Council Secretariat (NSCS),which reports to National Security Advisor. [3] Stobdan is author of the book The Great Game in the Buddhist Himalayas:India and China’s Quest for Strategic Dominance. [5] [6] [7] The book looks at China–India relations through prism of Buddhist Himalayas. [8] Stobdan also writes columns for The Indian Express and The Tribune (Chandigarh). [3] [9]
Tibet is a region in the central part of East Asia,covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about 2,500,000 km2 (970,000 sq mi). It is the homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as the Monpa,Tamang,Qiang,Sherpa and Lhoba peoples and,since the 20th century,considerable numbers of Han Chinese and Hui settlers. Since the annexation of Tibet by the People's Republic of China in 1951,the entire plateau has been under the administration of the People's Republic of China. Tibet is divided administratively into the Tibet Autonomous Region,and parts of the Qinghai and Sichuan provinces. Tibet is also constitutionally claimed by the Republic of China as the Tibet Area since 1912.
Ladakh is a region administered by India as a union territory and constitutes an eastern portion of the larger Kashmir region that has been the subject of a dispute between India and Pakistan since 1947 and India and China since 1959. Ladakh is bordered by the Tibet Autonomous Region to the east,the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh to the south,both the Indian-administered union territory of Jammu and Kashmir and the Pakistan-administered Gilgit-Baltistan to the west,and the southwest corner of Xinjiang across the Karakoram Pass in the far north. It extends from the Siachen Glacier in the Karakoram range to the north to the main Great Himalayas to the south. The eastern end,consisting of the uninhabited Aksai Chin plains,is claimed by the Indian Government as part of Ladakh,and has been under Chinese control since 1962.
Tibetan Muslims,known in Tibet as the Khache,are Tibetans who adhere to Islam. Many are descendants of Kashmiris,Ladakhis,and Nepalis who arrived in Tibet in the 14th to 17th centuries. There are approximately 5,000 Tibetan Muslims living in China and over 1,500 living in India.
Tibet is a region in East Asia covering much of the Tibetan Plateau that is currently administered by People's Republic of China as the Tibet Autonomous Region and claimed by the Republic of China as the Tibet Area and the Central Tibetan Administration. The CTA uses the snow lion flag of the independent Tibetan state from 1912 to 1951. The snow lion flag is a flag of Tibet before 1959 in Tibet. Thereafter,complete invasion of Tibet took place in 1959 by People's Republic of China. Today PRC consider Tibetan Flag as a pro-independence symbol in Tibet and is outlawed in the People's Republic of China after the 1959 Tibetan uprising against the communist regime. The PRC uses its national flag instead to represent Tibet.
Seven Years in Tibet is a 1997 American biographical war drama film directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud. It is based on Austrian mountaineer and Schutzstaffel (SS) sergeant Heinrich Harrer's 1952 memoir Seven Years in Tibet,about his experiences in Tibet between 1944 and 1951. Seven Years in Tibet stars Brad Pitt and David Thewlis,and has music composed by John Williams with a feature performance by cellist Yo-Yo Ma.
The Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies,formerly called Central University for Tibetan Studies (CUTS),is a Deemed University founded in Sarnath,Varanasi,India,in 1967,as an autonomous organisation under Union Ministry of Culture. The CIHTS was founded by Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru in consultation with Tenzin Gyatso,the 14th Dalai Lama,with the aim of educating Tibetan youths in exile and Himalayan border students as well as with the aim of retranslating lost Indo-Buddhist Sanskrit texts that now existed only in Tibetan,into Sanskrit,to Hindi,and other modern Indian languages.
Khunu Lama Tenzin Gyaltsen,1894–1977,known also as Negi Lama Tenzin Gyaltsen,Tenzin Gyaltsen,and various other names like Kunu Rinpoche,Kunu Lama and Negi Lama,was born in 1894 in the village of Sunam which lies in the Kinnaur district of India in the western Himalayas. He passed away at the age of 82 at Shashur Monastery in the Lahaul and Spiti district of Himachel Pradesh on February 23rd,1977 while teaching the final page of Gampopa's Jewel Ornament of Liberation. Khunu Rinpoche was not officially recognized as a tulku,nor was he an ordained Buddhist monk,but a layman who had taken lay practitioner's vows before becoming a Tibetan Buddhist master.
Sonam is a given name. It is a Tibetan name meaning "merit". Separately,it is also a name in various Indo-Aryan languages.
The 14th Dalai Lama,known to the Tibetan people as Gyalwa Rinpoche,is,as the incumbent Dalai Lama,the highest spiritual leader and head of Tibet. He is considered a living Bodhisattva;specifically,an emanation of Avalokiteśvara in Sanskrit,and Chenrezig in Tibetan. He is also the leader and a monk of the Gelug school,the newest school of Tibetan Buddhism,formally headed by the Ganden Tripa. The central government of Tibet,the Ganden Phodrang,invested the Dalai Lama with temporal duties until his exile in 1959.
Lochen Rinchen Zangpo,also known as Mahaguru,was a principal lotsawa or translator of Sanskrit Buddhist texts into Tibetan during the second diffusion of Buddhism in Tibet,variously called the New Translation School,New Mantra School or New Tantra Tradition School. He was a student of the famous Indian master,Atisha. His associates included (Locheng) Legpai Sherab. Zangpo's disciple Guge Kyithangpa Yeshepal wrote Zangpo's biography. He is said to have built over one hundred monasteries in Western Tibet,including the famous Tabo Monastery in Spiti,Himachal Pradesh,Poo in Kinnaur and Rinchenling monastery in Nepal.
Tabo Monastery is located in the Tabo village of Spiti Valley,Himachal Pradesh,northern India. It was founded in 996 CE in the Tibetan year of the Fire Ape by the Tibetan Buddhist lotsawa (translator) Rinchen Zangpo,on behalf of the king of western Himalayan Kingdom of Guge,Yeshe-Ö. Tabo is noted for being the oldest continuously operating Buddhist enclave in both India and the Himalayas. A large number of frescoes displayed on its walls depict tales from the Buddhist pantheon. There are many priceless collections of thankas,manuscripts,well-preserved statues,frescos and extensive murals which cover almost every wall. The monastery is in need of refurbishing as the wooden structures are aging and the thanka scroll paintings are fading. After the earthquake of 1975,the monastery was rebuilt,and in 1983 a new Du-kang or Assembly Hall was constructed. It is here that the 14th Dalai Lama held the Kalachakra ceremonies in 1983 and 1996. The monastery is protected by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) as a national historic treasure of India.
Buddhism in the Himachal Pradesh state of India of has been a long-recorded practice. The spread of Buddhism in the region has occurred intermediately throughout its history. Starting in the 3rd century BCE,Buddhism was propagated by the Maurya Empire under the reign of Ashoka. The region would remain an important center for Buddhism under the Kushan Empire and its vassals. Over the centuries the following of Buddhism has greatly fluctuated. Yet by experiencing revivals and migrations,Buddhism continued to be rooted in the region,particularly in the Lahaul,Spiti and Kinnaur valleys.
There is a small Mongolian community in India,comprising mostly Buddhist monks and scholars as well as international students from Mongolia.
Chumar or Chumur is a village and the centre of nomadic grazing region located in south-eastern Ladakh,India. It is in Rupshu block,south of the Tso Moriri lake,on the bank of the Parang River,close to Ladakh's border with Tibet. Since 2012,China has disputed the border in this area,though the Chumur village itself is undisputed.
The Ganden Phodrang or Ganden Podrang was the Tibetan system of government established by the 5th Dalai Lama in 1642,after the Oirat lord Güshi Khan who founded the Khoshut Khanate conferred all temporal power on the 5th Dalai Lama in a ceremony in Shigatse in the same year. Lhasa again became the capital of Tibet,and the Ganden Phodrang operated until the 1950s. The Ganden Phodrang accepted China's Qing emperors as overlords after the 1720 expedition,and the Qing became increasingly active in governing Tibet starting in the early 18th century. After the fall of the Qing empire in 1912,the Ganden Phodrang government lasted until the 1950s,when Tibet was annexed by the People's Republic of China. During most of the time from the early Qing period until the end of Ganden Phodrang rule,a governing council known as the Kashag operated as the highest authority in the Ganden Phodrang administration.
The Central Institute of Buddhist Studies,formerly known as the School of Buddhist Philosophy,located in Leh town of Ladakh is a deemed university under Ministry of Culture. It was founded in 1959 and formerly affiliated to the Sampurnanand Sanskrit University in Varanasi.
Demchok,previously called New Demchok,and called Parigas by the Chinese,is a village and military encampment in the Indian-administered Demchok sector that is disputed between India and China. It is administered as part of the Nyoma tehsil in the Leh district of Ladakh by India,and claimed by China as part of the Tibet Autonomous Region.
Tibet–India relations are said to have begun during the spread of Buddhism to Tibet from India during the 6th century AD. In 1959,the Dalai Lama fled to India after the failed 1959 Tibetan uprising. Since then,Tibetans-in-exile have been given asylum in India,with the Indian government accommodating them into 45 residential settlements across 10 states in the country,creating the Tibetan diaspora. From around 150,000 Tibetan refugees in 2011,the number fell to 85,000 in 2018,according to government data. Many Tibetans are now leaving India to go back to Tibet and other countries such as United States or Germany. The Government of India,soon after India's independence in 1947,treated Tibet as a de facto independent country. However,more recently India's policy on Tibet has been mindful of Chinese sensibilities,and has recognized Tibet as a part of China.
Demchok,was described by a British boundary commission in 1847 as a village lying on the border between the Kingdom of Ladakh and the Tibet. It was a "hamlet of half a dozen huts and tents",divided into two parts by a rivulet which formed the boundary between the two states. The rivulet,a tributary of the Indus River variously called the Demchok River,Charding Nullah,or the Lhari stream,was set as the boundary between Ladakh and Tibet in the 1684 Treaty of Tingmosgang. By 1904–05,the Tibetan side of the hamlet was said to have had 8 to 9 huts of zamindars (landholders),while the Ladakhi side had two. The area of the former Demchok now straddles the Line of Actual Control,the effective border of the People's Republic of China's Tibet Autonomous Region and the Republic of India's Ladakh Union Territory.
Zemithang or Pangchen,is a village and the headquarters of an eponymous circle in the Tawang district of Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh. It is on the bank of the Nyamjang Chu river,which originates in Tibet and enters India from the north near the locality called Khinzemane.