Kenneth Liberman on Tibetan Debating Practice

Book symposium

Fred Dallmayr

pp. 381-386

in: Human Studies 29 (3), 2006.

Abstract

It is a pleasure for me to serve on this panel and to be able to pay tribute to my colleague and friend, Ken Liberman. Before proceeding any further, let me say at the outset that, in my view, Ken has produced a remarkable and in many ways quite unique piece of work. In a field of study (that of Tibetan culture) previously dominated entirely by philologians and historians, Ken has been able to establish a footheld for sociologists and other social scientists eager to explore the concrete practices of Tibetans in their actual life-world. To do this, Ken had to invest at least 12 years of his life in research and in situ participation in the life of Buddhist monasteries. As he tells us (p. 49), he first invested six years in Tibetan language studies; then he spent three years in residence in monastic universities (especially in Gelug and Sakya universities); the transcription, translation, and analysis of his findings took another three years; and only then did the task of...