Rewriting Shangri-La: Tibetan Youth, Migrations and Literacies in McLeod Ganj, India (Brill's Tibetan Studies Library)

In Rewriting Shangri-La: Migrations and Everyday Literacies among Tibetan Youth in McLeod Ganj, India, Heidi Swank examines differing histories of migration and exile through the lens of everyday literacies. The youth on whom this ethnography focuses live in a community that has long been romanticized by Tibetans and non-Tibetans alike, positioning these youth to see themselves as keepers of a modern day Shangri-la. Through this ethnography - based on a decade of research - Heidi Swank suggests that through seemingly mundane writings (grocery lists, text messages, etc.) these youth are shifting what Shangri-la means by renogotiating important aspects of life in this Tibetan community to better match their lived - not romanticized - experiences as exiles in rural India. Contents......Page 8 Acknowledgments......Page 10 Notes on the Transliteration and Pronunciation of Tibetan......Page 12 Part One Beginnings: Communities and Theories......Page 14 Chapter One ‘Just Let Go of this Dream of Shangri-la’......Page 16 Chapter Two Youth Communities and Methodologies......Page 46 Chapter Three Theories of and in Practice......Page 68 Part Two Histories and Writings of Kyamkyam and Shapshu......Page 86 Chapter Four ‘Come to Learn, Go to Serve’......Page 88 Chapter Five Learning to Serve and to Roam......Page 104 Chapter Six Writing Divisions......Page 123 Part Three You Can Live without a Brother, But not without a Friend......Page 142 Chapter Seven Families In Exile and Across the Himalayas......Page 144 Chapter Eight ‘Friends like you are Really Oscar Winner’......Page 164 Chapter Nine Rewriting Shangri-la......Page 184 References......Page 198 Index......Page 204 In Rewriting Shangri-La, Heidi Swank examines the differing histories of migration and exile through the lens of everyday literacies