Vitality and Viability of Minority Languages

Professor Sperling is a leading scholar of Tibetan history with a focus on Sino-Tibetan relations. A laureate of the 1984 MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship, his publications include numerous works examining interethnic relations of the Central Asian region from the early 14th century to the present. Among his published works are essays such as “Tibetan Buddhism, Perceived And Imagined, Along The Ming-Era Sino-Tibetan Frontier,” in Buddhism between Tibet and China (2009), The Tibet-China Conflict: History and Polemics (2004), and “‘Orientalism’ and Aspects of Violence in the Tibetan Tradition,” in Imagining Tibet: Perceptions, Projections, and Fantasies (2001).

Professor Jaye Trabu is a renowned scholar of Tibetan grammar, folk culture, and history. He holds degrees from Qinghai Nationalities College and Beijing Normal University. He has numerous publications ranging from literary pieces, classical and contemporary poetry to essays on the relationship between religious folk customs and ecological equilibrium, educational reform, and Tibetan festivals, foods, and dress. His most recent publications include edited books entitled Tibetan Language Textbook for University (སློབ་གྲྭ་ཆེན་མོའི་བོད་ཀྱི་སྐད་ཡིག་སློབ་དེབ།) .

Thubten Phuntsok is a prolific scholar of Tibetan Studies with dozens of books and numerous articles published in the fields of Tibetan history, Tibetan medicine, and Tibetan literature, grammar, and poetry. Originally a Tibetan medicine doctor in his hometown of Derge, he has an academic background in archeology and Tibetology. He is currently a professor and researcher in the department of Tibetan Studies at the Central Nationalities University in Beijing, China. He is also the director of the Tibetan Medical Institute and the president of Tibetan AIDS Prevention Association. He has won many national awards for his publications on language, history, religion, and medicine.