ABSTRACT
As a diasporic community, Tibetans in exile have been fighting a two-front war. On the one hand, they are defined by their attempts to preserve traditional culture, which has been attacked by the People's Republic of China (PRC) for being an impediment to modernization. According to Chinese narrative constructions, Tibet has been part of China at least since the eighteenth century, and Tibet's tangled relationship with China can be traced back at least to the meeting of Genghis Khan and Tsangpa Dunkhurwa in 1215. The idea that Tibet was 'feudal' well into the twentieth century is not contested, although there is debate about quality of life of non-landholders before the Chinese invasion and the degree to which the invasion improved living conditions, if at all. On 31 March 1959, the Dalai Lama fled the Chinese clamp-down in Lhasa and crossed the border into India.
