Tashi Dawa

Tashi Dawa (born February 1959) or Zhaxi Dawa is a Chinese novelist of half-Tibetan half-Han ethnic background. He is a distinguished Tibetan writer in China, and one of the most controversial figures associated with modern Tibet.[2][3] He is best known for his novel The Fury Shambhala and short stories "Souls Tied to the Knots on a Leather Cord" and "On the Road to Lhasa", which were adapted into a film Soul on a String in 2017. He is a member of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles (CFLAC). He is a guest professor at Tibet Minzu University and Tibet University. His works have been translated into English, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Czech, Russian, and Swedish.[4][5]

Tashi Dawa
Native name	扎西达娃
Born	February 1959 (age 61) Batang County, Sichuan, China
Occupation	Novelist
Language	Chinese, Tibetan
Education	Lhasa Middle School
Period	1979-present
Genre	Novel, short story
Literary movement	Avant-garde[1]
Notable works	"Souls Tied to the Knots on a Leather Cord" "On the Road to Lhasa" The Fury Shambhala
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese	扎西達娃
Simplified Chinese	扎西达娃
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Zhāxī Dáwá
Tibetan name
Tibetan	བཀྲ་ཤིས་ཟླ་བ་
Transcriptions Wylie bkra-shis zla-ba

Biography

Tashi Dawa was born in Batang County, Sichuan, China, in February 1959. He attended the Lhasa Middle School.[6]

In December 1974, at the end of the Cultural Revolution, he worked in Tibetan Opera Troupe.

He started to publish works in January 1979. In October 1989, he became executive vice president of Tibet Writers Association, an affiliate of China Writers Association. Three years later, he was elected vice president of the 4th Youth Federation of Tibet Autonomous Region. He rose to become president of Tibet Writers Association in August 1995.

He entered politics in December 1992, when he was appointed a Standing Committee member of the 6th Committee of the Tibet Autonomous Region of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.

In November 1999 he served as vice president of Tibet Film and Television Artists Association. He became vice president of Tibet Federation of Literary and Art Circles in August 2003, a position he held for almost eight years until he was elevated to the President position.[7] In December 2016 he was elected a member of the 9th National Committee of the China Writers Association.

Works

Novels

• The Fury Shambhala (1993) (《骚动的香巴拉》)

Short stories

• "Souls Tied to the Knots on a Leather Cord"
• "On the Road to Lhasa" (《去拉萨的路上》)

Book of travels

• The Blue Buddhist Stone Pillar (《古海蓝经幢》)

Screenplay

Year	English title	Chinese title	Director	Notes
2000	Song of Tibet	《益西卓玛》	Xie Fei
2008	Ganglamedo	《冈拉梅朵》	Dai Wei
2010	Once Upon a Time in Tibet	《西藏往事》	Dai Wei
2016	Soul on a String	《皮绳上的魂》	Zhang Yang

Filmography

Film

Year	English title	Chinese title	Role	Notes
2017	Paths of the Soul	《冈仁波齐》	Himself

Awards

Date	Award	Category	Result	Notes
1994	Zhuang Zhongwen Literary Prize		Won
2000	20th Golden Rooster Awards	Best Writing	Nominated
2017	53rd Golden Horse Award	Best Adapted Screenplay	Nominated

References

1. 西藏作协主席扎西达娃：不事张扬的先锋作家. Huaxia (in Chinese). 2009-07-01.
2. Patricia Schiaffini-Vedani, University of Pennsylvania (2002). "Tashi Dawa: Magical realism and contested identity in modern Tibet". upenn.edu.
3. Stephany Tighe (2013-01-29). "Tashi Dawa". prezi.
4. 扎西达娃 [Tashi Dawa]. chinawriter.com.cn (in Chinese). 2015-05-01.
5. 西藏作协主席扎西达娃：重庆是我的第二故乡(图). 163 (in Chinese). 2010-03-29.
6. Wei Yi (2017). 《扎西达娃：魔幻与现实》 [Tashi Dawa: Magic Realism]. Southern People Weekly (in Chinese). ISSN 1672-8335.
7. 扎西达娃当选西藏文联主席 引用论语名句自勉. 163 (in Chinese). 2011-12-23.

External links

• Tashi Dawa Mtime (in Chinese)