This book provides a detailed account of the structure and political strategies of the Tibetan government-in exile, the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA), in northern India. Since its founding in 1959, it has been led by the 14th Dalai Lama who struggles to regain the Tibetan homeland. Based on a theoretical approach on exile organizations – and extensive empirical studies in Asia – this book discusses CTA’s political strategies to gain national loyalty, and international support, in order to secure its own organizational survival and the ultimate goal: the return to Tibet.

The book is organized around the two fundamental questions: firstly, how the CTA fosters its claims to be the sole representative of all Tibetans over the last decades in exile; and, secondly, which policies have been carried out in order to regain the homeland. The book is divided into four substantial chapters:

    * the historical background, providing a review of pre-1959 political Tibet

    * a theoretical section which covers the critical position of exile organizations

    * an examination of the exile Tibetan community and government from the early years

    * an analysis of crucial CTA policies.

Innovative and unique, this book combines a political science approach with Tibetan studies to analyse exile-Tibetan politics in particular, and exile governments in general.


Tibetan Government-in-Exile: Politics at Large, Stephanie Roemer, RoutledgeCurzon, Hardcover, 220 pp., 2008, $160.00

List of illustrations
1 Introduction 1
The literature 3 Research and content 5
2 Modern Tibet: A historical account 8
Definition of the area of Tibet 8
Society and economy 10
Central and local administration 15
Lama stale: the union of politics and religion 19
Tibetan politics: 1900-1959 25
An approach towards a theory of governments-in-exile 36
The struggle from abroad to free the homeland 36
Governments-in-exile and national loyalty 39
Governments-in-exile and international support and recognition 45 Additions to Shain's theory 50 4 Tibetans in exile: A portrait of the CTA 58 Flight: reasons and numbers 58
First years in exile: the role of the newly founded CTA 63
The exile struggle: changing politics 81 The structure of the CTA 87
Exile Tibetan NGOs: their role in exile politics 107
The annual budget of the CTA 115
 5 Theoretical characterization of CTA policies 124
Membership in the exile Tibetan community 125
Educational opportunities 132
Tibetan Buddhist nationalism 140 Universal rights approach 153
Exile Tibetan 'democracy' 161 6 Summary and conclusions 173
Appendices 185
Notes 189
Bibliography 197
Index 215