ABOUT US

The Tibet Oral History Project (TOHP) aims to preserve the true history of the Tibetan people. At the request of His Holiness the Dalai Lama we record the life experiences of Tibetan elders who were forced to flee their homeland following the Chinese invasion. His Holiness has emphasized the urgency of conducting interviews of these elders before they pass away and their stories are lost forever.

MISSION

The goal of the Tibet Oral History Project is to document the life stories of Tibetan elders living in exile, and to disseminate that information through print, broadcast media and the Internet for the purposes of education and preservation of the culture and history of Tibet.

OUR BEGINNING

In 1999, members of the Tibet Justice Center, interviewed Tibetan children who had recently fled their country due to Chinese oppression. They met with His Holiness, the Dalai Lama to present their human rights report on conditions of children in Tibet. At the meeting, Marcella Adamski, a member of the team, asked what more could be done to help the people of Tibet.

His Holiness replied that there was an urgent need to interview the oldest Tibetans before they were gone and their memories lost to future generations. The Dalai Lama wanted these testimonies recorded to show the world the plight of the Tibetan people. He also believed it was critical that these eye witness accounts be put on the Internet to educate the Chinese people. They have no accurate understanding of past or current Tibetan history because of the Chinese government's distortions and media control.

In response to the request of His Holiness, Marcella Adamski, in 2003 initiated the Tibet Oral History Project by organizing a steering committee which developed the goals of the project, researched other oral history endeavors, and identified locations of the largest populations of elderly Tibetans.

Read more about how Marcella Adamski was able to organize the project in an article she wrote for The San Francisco Psychologist - Survival of the Heart: Preserving the Tibetan Culture.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS TO DATE

• Founder and Executive Director, Marcella Adamski, secured Tibetan government approval for the project, raised funds, designed the oral history protocols, and selected a project team consisting of an on-site coordinator, as well as interviewers, videographers and translators.
  
  
• In the summer of 2007, a 12- member team assembled in Bylakuppe, the largest and oldest Tibetan settlement in India, and conducted over 80 interviews. Such interviews could not be conducted inside Tibet because of China's repressive policies, which would punish any participant.
  
  
• Each elder received a DVD copy of their own oral history to share with family and community.
  
  
• A 6- minute film, “Tibet Remembered: Eyewitness Accounts of Tibet's Elders" was produced to give a glimpse into the history and memories of the last generation to have lived in a free Tibet. The film can be viewed on the homepage of our website and on YouTube.
  
  
• Our Tibetan team in India completed the enormous task of translating and transcribing 67 interviews of refugee Tibetan elders that we videotaped in Bylakuppe, India, and in the United States. This work was funded by a Rowell Fund for Tibet award.
  
  
• A generous grant from the President of the Board of Directors allowed us to hire a part-time Project Administrator.
  


• Transcripts for oral histories of Tibetan elders living in exile were posted on our website's Interviews page. Photographs of all interviewees can be also be seen on the Interviews page.
  
  
• In April 2010 a 7-member team traveled to Mundgod, Karnataka, India and conducted another 53 interviews in the Doeguling Tibetan Settlement.
  
  

OUR LEADERSHIP

Marcella Adamski, Ph.D. - Founder and Executive Director
Ms. Adamski is a clinical psychologist who, after a meeting with the Dalai Lama, initiated the project, secured funding, and organized teams to conduct interviews in the U.S. and India.

Tenzin Yangchen - Outreach Director
Tenzin Yangchen coordinates all the interviews conducted in India. She also serves as our translator and organizes a team of Tibetans to translate and transcribe the interviews.

FUNDING

We are very grateful to the many individuals and foundations that have supported our work including:

Firedoll Foundation
The Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation
The Rowell Fund for Tibet/ICT
Ron and Cheryl Howard Family Foundation
Isdell Foundation
Lucasfilm Foundation

INTERNATIONAL SUPPORT FOR OUR WORK

Dennis Cusack, Co-Chair, International Tibet Support Network, San Francisco, USA:

"The Tibet Oral History Project plays a crucial role in the Tibetan struggle for freedom. Hearing these interviews, younger generations of Tibetans can bind themselves even more tightly to the Tibetan identity that they and their elders are fighting to preserve. Equally as important, Chinese citizens who have known only their government's propaganda can begin to learn of the Tibetans' suffering, and understand that their cause is just."

Tashi Wangdu, former Representative, Lugsam Samdupling Settlement, Bylakuppe, India:

"As we all know, it has been almost a half century since Tibetans came into exile in India due to Chinese PLA’s occupation of Tibet and our elders are reducing day by day. To preserve the true story of their life and political situation in those days in Tibet, and when they arrived here in India, from them personally, is very important. I hope that your project succeeds in editing and uploading to your website so that the true story reaches more people in this world."

Jack Kornfield, Founder, Spirit Rock Meditation Center, Woodacre, USA:

"The Tibet Oral History Project is creating one of the most important and vital records of living Tibetan culture and history we will have. These in-depth interviews are priceless, developing a treasury of understanding and a powerful historical record of this remarkable period for the benefit of the Tibetans and for all of humanity in the ages ahead. Please help support this moving and precious work."

Venerable Geshe Lhakdor, Director, Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, Dharamsala, India:

"I appreciate all your work in the Tibetan Oral History [Project] and thank you for your plan to send us the 67 videotaped interviews of Tibetan elders along with copies of the complete transcriptions. It will enrich our oral history work."

Rinchen Khando Choegyal, Director, Tibetan Nuns Project, Dharamsala, India:

"The Tibetan nuns will truly benefit from having these valuable oral histories available at the nunneries in their own libraries. They will be able to learn about the suffering endured by the elders and the Buddhist beliefs that gave them courage to survive. We would be very pleased if the Tibet Oral History Project can conduct interviews of our oldest nuns who were forced to flee Tibet and whose stories will serve to inspire the next generation of nuns and lay people."

Professor Robert D. Sloane, Chair, Tibet Justice Center, Boston, USA:

"By recording the experiences of those who lived in Tibet before and during China’s occupation, TOHP is establishing a critical, and irrefutable, historical record...Beyond the terrible suffering and chronic international human rights violations that the Tibetan people have bravely endured throughout some sixty years of Chinese occupation, TOHP shows—as every independent international lawyer and historian, without exception, has already concluded—that Tibetans are, and always have been, a distinct people in the eyes of contemporary international law."

Sonam Tsering, former Welfare Officer, Bureau Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, New Delhi:

"You have done a great job. A job nobody has done so far. This oral history will definitely play a very important role to reveal the feelings of elder Tibetan refugees who suffered the impact of the Chinese invasion of Tibet. This project has created a space for vanishing elderly Tibetans to leave their untold stories for future generations. These facts will become important eye-witness [accounts]. I would like to thank you whole heartedly for executing this vital project and completing it with great success."

Jigme Yugay. Secretary, Committee of 100 for Tibet, San Francisco, USA:

"Recording and preserving the values and deeds of our elder generations is a great idea. Needless to say, our culture faces a great danger with the physical occupation of our country. To make matters worse, the occupation has also thrown us "naked" into a materialistic world. I am not against modernization and appropriate technology, but the way we are being introduced to it has great dangers. I strongly believe that this is where the wisdom and experiences and advice of our elders would be so helpful for our future generations."

Tsering Lhakyap Janyeal, President, Tibetan Youth Congress, Bylakuppe, India:

"This is to convey our deep appreciation of your kind endeavor in preserving the history, culture and religious tradition of Tibet through the Tibet Oral History Project. It is truly heartening to note that the project has contributed greatly in enriching and reliving the experience, strength and beliefs of Tibetan elders. The project has contributed immensely over the reach of Tibetan values globally. Tibetans all over India send their deepest gratitude and kudos for your genuine effort."

Leslie Butterfield, Program Associate, International Campaign for Tibet, Washington, DC, USA:

"Congratulations to the Tibet Oral History Project for their indispensable contribution to the creation and preservation of Tibetan history. By recording this history, they help secure a future for Tibet."

Pasang Thankchoe, Secretary, The Tibetan Co-operative Society Ltd., Bylakuppe, India:

"I, on behalf of the members of Tibetan Co-operative Society, Ltd., would like to extend a very big thank you to you and your team for carrying out the request of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. The interviews you and your team conducted among the elderly population in Bylakuppe are exceedingly invaluable records and a wealth of genuine information in regard to Tibet and her unique past. We are losing the elders, who are now in their eighties and nineties, to old age so the project is timely and your regarding it as urgent is indeed admirable."

Alys Muckart, former President, Canada Tibet Committee Ottawa, Montreal, Canada:

"I absolutely endorse this project. What a momentous undertaking and very important for the new generation of Tibetans born in exile to hear their history from the people who lived it."

Tsona Lhakpa, former Representative, Lugsam Samdupling Tibetan Settlement, Bylakuppe, India:

"I was very much impressed by the report [from the Tibet Oral History Project] and congratulate your team for the successful endeavor, and wish you the same success in future implementation of the project. We look forward to the videotapes of the project, for the interviews seem exciting and also our elders (interviewees) are eager to see the tapes."

Joshua Levenberg, Board Of Directors, Tibet Justice Center, San Francisco, USA:

"You have done the world, and particularly the Tibetans, a great service by preserving history in a way that allows future generations (ideally, not just Tibetans) to learn about so many things: perseverance, preserving culture, the impact of repression/oppression on a people, family ties, etc. Moreover, without physical preservation of these stories, many of them would have disappeared forever."

Palden Dhondup, Representative, Tibetan Settlement Office, Doeguling Tibetan Settlement, India:

"This project will be an eye-opener to our future generations wherein we can educate our future seeds of Tibet about the history and memories of the last generation to have lived in a free Tibet. As a matter of fact, elders born before 1959 will die and their stories will be unheard if ever your project was not introduced and it will probably be the saddest situation. This project is also evidence to the point that Tibet was never part of China and these interviewees are the living proof of our free Tibet and that Tibet does survive with its unique culture and tradition."

Karma Dhondup, Chief Executive Officer, The Tibetan Service Co-Op Bank, Ltd., Mundgod, India:

"We pray that these interviews will be compiled and broadcast through media all over the world, which will be a very informative history of Tibet for the younger generation of Tibetans as well as people of the world."

Samten Chodon, President, Regional Tibetan Women’s Association, Bylakuppe, India:

"We really appreciate the fact that you and your team have fulfilled the request of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama to record the experiences of elder Tibetan people [born] before 1959 from Bylakuppe settlement in India. We are highly obliged for the Tibet Oral History Project’s effort to preserve the history, culture and religious tradition of Tibet. We express our gratitude towards the hard work and precious time that you and your team have put in towards making the Tibet Oral History Project."