Case Tibet expert interviews the Dalai Lama for book on modern Tibetan history
Melvyn Goldstein granted unusual research audience with ruler-in-exile for book’s preparation
October 22, 2004 | For more information: Jeff Bendix (216)-368-6070
 Melvyn Goldstein, the John R. Harkness Professor of Anthropology and co-director of Case’s internationally prominent Center for Research on Tibet, was recently granted an unusual research audience with His Holiness the Dalai Lama as part of Goldstein’s preparation of a new book on modern Tibetan history.
The interview took place at the seat of the Dalai Lama's government-in-exile in Dharamsala, India, a town in the foothills of the Himalayas in Himachal Pradesh. “I had a series of rather sensitive questions to ask about the Dalai Lama’s role, as ruler, in developing Tibet’s strategy of dealing with the Chinese as well as with other relevant forces such as India and the U.S,” Goldstein explained.
Goldstein said he was surprised at how frank and spontaneous the Dalai Lama's answers were. “I had amassed a large corpus of original documents from this period, but lacked insight as to how the Dalai Lama understood the situation and his options, and how he made decisions during this difficult period that ended with his flight into exile in 1959,” he said.
Goldstein added that in their conversation the Dalai Lama switched seamlessly between English and Tibetan “His Holiness patiently answered my questions, although sometimes he asked his 85-year-old private secretary what he recalled, and sometimes also put me on the spot asking me if I really had an original document supporting something asked. Although half a century had passed and His Holiness was only 16 in 1951, his memory is amazing and he was able to recount important events in very rich detail, particularly aspects of his historic trip to Beijing in 1954-55 when he met Mao Zedong and the other top leaders of China many times. “Oral history research like this can be a powerful tool in modern historical studies and I came away from this interview with a new understanding of His Holiness’ personality and political approach. As a result, my understanding of not just what happened, but why this rather than other paths were chosen, was greatly enhanced,” Goldstein said.
Goldstein is in the final stage of writing the second of what will be a three-volume history of modern Tibet. The first volume was published in 1989 by the University of California Press, and dealt with the period from 1913 when Tibet became de-facto independent to 1951, when it was incorporated into the People's Republic of China.
The current volume takes the narrative from the arrival of the Chinese communists in fall 1951 to the 1959 uprising and flight of the Dalai Lama into exile in India. The third volume will chronicle the events following the uprising when socialist reforms and institutions were implemented and the chaotic years of the Cultural Revolution in Tibet.
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