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The Tibet Himalaya Initiative (THI) at CU Boulder celebrated the success of its inaugural semester with a graduate colloquium and reception in the Koenig Alumni Center on November 11, 2015. More than twenty-five graduate students, faculty, and supporters of THI from CU, Naropa University, and the Boulder community gathered for this celebration.

THI is a new interdisciplinary hub for research, teaching, and public engagement on Tibet and the Himalayas. Our mission is to promote educational opportunities, cultural exchange, and public understandings about Tibet and the Himalayas as the region undergoes rapid social, cultural, political, and environmental transformations.  

CU Boulder has unique strengths among institutions of higher education in North America in the study of contemporary Tibet and the Himalayas, with faculty expertise in Anthropology, Art History, Geography, and Religious Studies, strong graduate student interest in Tibet and Himalayas in these and other disciplines, and a significant location in the history of the spread of Tibetan Buddhism in the West.

THI would like to express its thanks to all of our partners and friends for a wonderful first semester. We are especially grateful to the Chancellor who contributed special funds to inaugurate the Initiative, the Center for Asian Studies for their ongoing partnership in events, Naropa University for their collaboration on an annual Buddhist Studies lecture series, and the Department of Religious Studies who sponsored several of our major events this fall.

We encourage you to spread the word as we prepare for events in the spring semester. April 4-10, 2016 is Tibetan Arts Week featuring Gonkar Gyatso, the widely-acknowledged founding father of modern Tibetan art and Jangbu/Dorje Tsering Chenaktsang, a prominent Tibetan poet and filmmaker. During Tibetan Arts Week, we will host lectures, a film screening, an art installment, poetry reading and more.