TOHP Founder, Marcella Adamski, presents interviews to Dalai Lama 
"Guns, Monks and Magic"
TOHP Interview Featured in Huffington Post
Rebecca Novick interviewed a 67-year-old Tibetan monk named Yidam Kyap as part of the Tibet Oral History Project's work in the Tibetan settlement of Mundgod, India in April 2010. She recently wrote a narration of this interview titled, Guns, Monks and Magic: Tibet's Greatest Escape, which was published in the Huffington Post. Ms. Novick describes the story as "cinematic, heart-breaking, gripping -- and one that challenges any number of rather precious ideas about Tibet and its people."
Read Yidam Kyap’s amazing life story:
Part 1 in the Huffington Post * * * Part 2 in the Huffington Post
TOHP to Record 50 New Interviews in
Dharamsala, India this May
The Tibet Oral History Project will spend most of May in India videotaping the oral histories of 50 Tibetan elders living in Dharamsala, home of the Tibetan government-in-exile. We are excited to embark on another interview mission and enhance our collection. Our earlier interviews were predominately with farmers, herders, traders, housewives, and monks. Because this collection is also going to be archived at the US Library of Congress in Washington, DC we want to expand our representation of Tibetan society to include elders who were the scholars, renowned lamas, and members of the aristocracy. We also plan to interview elders who are regarded as having a deep understanding of the Buddha dharma.
Please join our efforts to record these incredible eyewitness accounts before it is too late. Your contribution is still needed to support our work in Dharamsala. The total cost for this effort, including the transcription and distribution of these oral histories, is $42,000. With your donation we can record, post on the Internet, and preserve in the US Library of Congress, the eyewitness accounts of 80 and 90 year-old Tibetans. We are grateful for the support we have already received from the International Campaign for Tibet/Rowell Fund, Isdell Foundation, Namaste Foundation and many generous donors.
The Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama wrote:
"We would like to congratulate the Tibet Oral History Project for its beneficial initiative and urge our friends and well-wishers to support this commendable project in whatever way possible."
Please donate today to ensure the voices of the last generation to live in a free Tibet are heard around the world.
PROJECT HIGHLIGHTS
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS REQUESTS TOHP's INTERVIEWS
The United States Library of Congress has requested the Tibet Oral History Project's entire current and future oral history collection. We are honored to have the largest library in the world include our interviews in their prestigious collection. The Library has also offered to serve as the permanent archive for TOHP's materials, ensuring that these precious oral histories will be available worldwide for generations to come.TOHP's oral history collection will be provided in video, print and digital formats. Submission of our first 67 interviews to the Library of Congress has been kindly sponsored by The 100 Friends Project.
Please contact us if you would like to recommend other libraries to receive our interview collection or if you can help with the cost of printing and distributing to libraries and Tibetan communities.
HIS HOLINESS THE DALAI LAMA AND TIBETAN OFFICIALS URGE SUPPORT FOR TOHP
The Tibet Oral History Project (TOHP) is honored to have received letters of endorsement from the Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the Speaker of Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile, and the Kashag (Cabinet).The Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama wrote:
His Holiness is pleased that the Tibet Oral History Project is making good progress. Your recording the life stories of elder Tibetans has much importance in preserving the reality of the situation in Tibet as experienced by these Tibetans.
Penpa Tsering, Speaker, Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile, said:
The Tibet Oral History Project is a very significant undertaking to record actual historical events of Tibet from an individual's perspective at the worst period of Tibetan history. The project needs to be intensified as the older generations are fast disappearing....
Prof. Samdhong Rinpoche, Kalon Tripa (Prime Minister), expressed:
I am particularly impressed with [TOHP's] efforts of translating these interviews in Chinese language so that Chinese citizens who are deprived of correct information can understand the true stories of Tibetan people and appreciate their culture and the cause the Tibetan people are fighting for. Similarly it will also bring benefits to the younger generation of Tibetans, primarily who are born and brought up in exile. Therefore, I welcome and support this project.
120 INTERVIEWS NOW IN OUR COLLECTION
The oral histories of 67 Tibetan elders are posted on the Interviews pages and 22 short videos with interview excerpts are available on the Videos page.
The elders provide eyewitness accounts of early life in Tibet, and of the devastation that followed the Chinese invasion and occupation. They also recount memories of their flight from Tibet to escape oppression and to follow their spiritual leader, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, into exile.
"Tibet Remembered: Eyewitness Accounts
of Tibet's Elders" [Length: 6min 50sec]
"Tibet Remembered: Interviews
with 3 Elders" [Length: 5min 16sec]
INTERVIEWS FEATURED ON RADIO FREE ASIA
Benpa Topgyal, Senior Editor, airs the oral histories because "Each of them is very informative and educational about life in Tibet prior to their escape into freedom to begin life anew as refugees under His Holiness the Dalai Lama's benevolent leadership. I really enjoy playing those stories because they are much like my own story."
INTERNATIONAL SUPPORT FOR OUR WORK
Library of Tibetan Works and Archives * Bureau of His Holiness the Dalai Lama * International Campaign for Tibet * International Tibet Support Network * Tibet Justice Center * Committee of 100 for Tibet * Canada Tibet Committee Ottawa * Tibetan Nuns Project * Tibetan Dickey Larsoe Settlement * Tibetan Youth Congress Bylakuppe * The Tibetan Co-operative Society Ltd., Bylakuppe * Lugsam Samdupling Tibetan Settlement * Doeguling Tibetan Settlement * Regional Tibetan Women's Association Bylakuppe * The Tibetan Service Co-Op Bank, Ltd., Mundgod