Academic research on women’s history and oral history has produced significant studies globally. However, women in many parts of the world, such as Tibet, have made only minimum presence in this field. This research intends to fill this gap through a comparative analysis of Canyon Sam’s Sky Train: Tibetan Women on the Edge of History (2009), and Lily Xiao Hong Lee’s Oral Histories of Tibetan Women: Whispers from the Roof of the World (2021). Combined both books offer valuable resources about Twentieth-century Tibetan women coming from various social, cultural, and economic background. Although Sam’s book is categorized as a lyrical memoir, it originated as an oral history project she started twenty years before its publication. This presentation investigates how these books provide insight into modern Tibet in its struggle to maintain its political independence, sustain its cultural heritage and its spiritual practices, as well as the methodology and the process of interviews employed for the completion of the writing. More than simply seeking to recall memories for preservation these books intersect the memories of the past with the participating of history in the current moment, enabling a vivid sense of urgency. Major themes often foregrounded in women’s life narratives, such as memory, identity and agency, have received much attention in a wide range of academic fields. The same issues prove to be highly central to the life experiences of modern Tibetan women. The relevance of these women’s lives is made visible by these two books.

Authors:
Lisa Li, J. F. Oberlin University, Japan

About the Presenter(s)
Lisa Li is a Professor at J. F. Oberlin University, Tokyo, Japan. She received both her MA and PhD degrees from the Department of East Asian Languages and Literature at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA.

See this presentation on the full schedule – Friday Schedule

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