India News: The Army is now fine-tuning a proposal for its officers to study Tibetan history, culture and language on “both sides” of the Line of Actual Control a
What is Tibetology, the Indian Army is eyeing to counter China
India
Updated: Thursday, January 28, 2021, 17:06 [IST]
New Delhi, Jan 28: The Indian Army is fine tuning a proposal for its officers to study Tibetan history, language and culture on both sides of the Line of Actual Control and International Boundary.
This is part of the measures that are being discussed to counter the spread of influence by China.
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Known as Tibetology, this was first proposed in the Army Commanders conference in October and is currently being further analysed by the Shimla based Army Training Command (ARTRAC) on the instructions of Indian Army Chief, General M M Naravane.
ARTRAC has identified seven institutes that offer postgraduate courses in Tibetology where Army officers can go on “study leave”. It has also been recommended that officers can also be sent to these institutes for “small capsules” on Tibetology.
They are Department of Buddhist Studies (Delhi University), Central Institute for Higher Tibetan Studies (Varanasi), Nava Nalanda Mahavihara (Bihar), Visva Bharati (West Bengal), Dalai Lama Institute for Higher Education (Bengaluru), Namgyal Institute of Tibetology (Gangtok) and Central Institute of Himalayan Culture Studies (Dahung, Arunachal Pradesh).
Army officers are generally well-versed with Pakistan. But a similar expertise on China and the Chinese psyche is lacking. Officers who really understand China are very few in number. Tibetology fares even worse. These deficiencies need to be plugged