imported>SdkbBot: /* Demise (1963) */General fixes, removed erroneous space

2021-06-30T21:34:10Z

Demise (1963): General fixes, removed erroneous space

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{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2018}}
{{Use Indian English|date=November 2018}}
{{Infobox newspaper
| name = Tibet Mirror
| logo =
| image =
| caption =
| type = Monthly newspaper
| format =
| foundation = {{start date and age|df=yes|1925}}
| owners = [[Gergan Dorje Tharchin]]
| political = [[Anti-communist]]
| headquarters = [[Kalimpong]], India
| editor =
| website =
| circulation =
| circulation_date =
| circulation_ref =
| oclc =
}}

The '''''Tibet Mirror''''' ({{Bo|t=ཡུལ་ཕྱོགས་སོ་སོའི་གསར་འགྱུར་མེ་ལོང|w=yul phyogs so so'i gsar 'gyur gyi me long|z=Yulchog Soseu Sargyour Mélong}}) was a Tibetan-language newspaper published in Kalimpong, India, from 1925 to 1963<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/digital/collections/cul/texts/ldpd_6981643_000/index.html|title=Yul phyogs so soʾi gsar ʾgyur me loṅ|website=www.columbia.edu|language=en|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170623035557/http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/digital/collections/cul/texts/ldpd_6981643_000/index.html|archive-date=23 June 2017|url-status=|access-date=2017-08-29}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=http://beinecke.library.yale.edu/collections/highlights/tibet-mirror|title=Tibet Mirror {{!}} Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library|website=beinecke.library.yale.edu|language=en|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150410174008/http://beinecke.library.yale.edu/collections/highlights/tibet-mirror|archive-date=10 April 2015|url-status=|access-date=2017-08-29|quote="Tibet Mirror A digital archive of the [[Tibetan-language]] newspaper, published from 1925 to 1963."}}</ref> and circulated primarily in Tibet but eventually with subscribers worldwide. Its originator was [[Gergan Tharchin]] who was at the same time its [[journalist]], editor, and manager.

== History ==

===Creation (1925)===
In 1925, The ''Tibet Mirror'' ([[Melong]]) was founded at [[Kalimpong]] in [[West Bengal]]. After ''The Ladakh Journal'' (''Ladakh Kyi Akbar''), it is the second [[Standard Tibetan|Tibetan language]] newspaper to have been started. Its founder was one [[Gergan Dorje Tharchin]], a Tibetan of Christian denomination who was a pastor at Kalimpong, at the time a border town that acted as a centre for the wool trade between [[Tibet]] and [[India]]. He was born in 1890 in the village of Poo (Wylie: ''spu'') in [[Himachal Pradesh]], he had been educated by [[Moravian Church|Moravian missionaries]].<ref name="Thubten Samphel">[[Thubten Samphel]], Virtual Tibet: The Media, in [https://books.google.com/books?id=_lLiIvbf9S4C&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_v2_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q=&f=false ''Exile as challenge: the Tibetan diaspora''] (Dagmar Bernstorff, Hubertus von Welck eds), Orient Blackswan, 2003, 488 pages, especially pages 172-175 - {{ISBN|81-250-2555-3}}, {{ISBN|978-81-250-2555-9}}.</ref><ref>[[Lobsang Wangyal]], [http://www.lobsangwangyal.com/reportage/2005/2005.05.10-tibet_mirror.html The Tibet Mirror: The first Tibetan newspaper, now only a memory], ''Lobsang Wangyal's personal site'', 12 May 2005.</ref> Nevertheless, there was no article attempting to proselytise in the newspaper.<ref name="Thubten Samphel" />

===Periodicity and circulation===
Published on a monthly basis, the journal first came out in October 1925 under the title ''Yulchog Sosoi Sargyur Melong'' (''Mirror of News from All Sides of the World'') ).<ref>Lobsang Wangyal, op. cit.: ''Yulchog Sosoi Sargyur Melong (Mirror of News from All Sides of the World) was the original Tibetan name of the Tibet Mirror. The first issue of the newspaper came out in October 1925. The issues came out at irregular intervals''.</ref> All 50 copies that were printed were sent to Gergan Tharchin's friends in [[Lhasa]], including one for the [[13th Dalai Lama]] who sent a letter encouraging him to continue with the publication and became an ardent reader. (The [[14th Dalai Lama]] was to inherit the subscription.)<ref>Lobsang Wangyal, op. cit.: ''Of the fifty initial copies, most were sent to his friends in Lhasa, including one to the 13th Dalai Lama. The 13th Dalai Lama became an ardent reader of the paper and encouraged Tharchin to continue with the publication (...). The current 14th Dalai Lama inherited the subscription of the late 13th''.</ref>

===Gergan Tharchin===
Tharchin was at the same time journalist, chief editor and publisher. He would select the news from the newspapers of which he was a subscriber, and translate them into Tibetan for the journal.<ref>Lobsang Wangyal, op. cit.: ''"It was my grandfather who did all the work of the newspaper. He selected the news from the newspapers he subscribed to and translated them for the paper."''</ref> He had assigned to himself the goals of awakening Tibetans to the modern world and opening up Tibet to the outside world.<ref>Lobsang Wangyal, op. cit.: ''Tharchin (...) made much effort to report on affairs of the world, to educate Tibetans and to encourage the opening up of Tibet to the changing modern world''.</ref> The journal reported on what went on in the world (the [[Xinhai Revolution|Chinese Revolution]], the [[World War II|Second World War]], the [[Indian independence movement|independence of India]], etc.) but also and above all in India, Tibet and Kalimpong itself <ref>Thubten Samphel, op. cit., p. 173: ''The Mirror published articles on world events and especially reported what was taking place in India, Tibet and in the region of Kalimpong''.</ref>

===Influence===
Despite its minuscule circulation, the journal exerted a huge influence on a small circle of Tibetan aristocrats, as well as on a smaller circle of reformists.<ref>Thubten Samphel, op. cit., p. 173: ''Despite its minuscule circulation, the impact of Tibbet Mirror, though confined to a small circle of Tibetan aristocrats and an even smaller circle of Tibetan reformists (...) was enormous''.</ref> As the journal was an advocate of Tibet's independence, Tharchin's place became a meeting place for Tibetan nationalists and reformists anxious to modernise their country facing China's imminent return.<ref>Thubten Samphel, op. cit., pages 173 and 175: ''Tibetan nationalists, scholars and dissidents held regular conclaves at Babu Tharchin's place to discuss how Tibet could best avoid the gathering political storm'', ''Tharchin Babu and the office of Tibet Mirror became the meeting point of intellectuals and reformists who wanted to modernize Tibet so that it would effectively counter the challenges posed by a resurgent China''.</ref>

Tharchin was in close touch with the British intelligence agents operating out of Kalimpong, a town that was a nest of political intrigue involving spies from India and China, refugees from Tibet, China, India and [[Burma]], plus Buddhist scholars, monks, and lamas. He was acquainted with [[Hisao Kimura]], a Japanese secret agent who had visited [[Mongolia]] on an undercover mission for the Japanese government, then travelled across Tibet to gather intelligence for the [[United Kingdom]]<ref>Barun Roy, op. cit. : ''In the late 1940s, Kalimpong (...) could be rightly described as a nest of political intrigue, involving British, Indian and Chinese spies, refugees from Tibet, China, India and Burma, with a sprinkling of Buddhist scholars, monks and lamas.''</ref>

In the 1950s, the Chinese Communists attempted to woo Tharchin through a Tibetan aristocrat who requested him not to publish anymore "anti-Chinese" article, and to concentrate instead on the "progress" made by China in Tibet, against the promise of a Chinese order of 500 copies of the newspaper, and the assurance not to go bankrupt. Tharchin refused.<ref name="Thubten Samphel" />

===Demise (1963)===
The Tibet Mirror ceased publication in 1963<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /> after the exiled Tibetans brought out their first newspaper – ''Tibetan Freedom'' – started by [[Gyalo Thondup]]<ref name="Thubten Samphel" /> from [[Darjeeling]]<ref>Thubten Samphel, op. cit., p. 175: ''Tibet Mirror ceased publication in 1962 when the Tibetan refugees brought out their own newspaper called Tibetan Freedom from neighbouring Darjeeling''.</ref> Besides, Tharchin was too old to continue publication. He died in 1976 <ref>Lobsang Wangyal, op. cit.: ''the paper came to an end in 1962, and Tharchin died in 1976. "My grandfather was getting too old to continue the paper" ''.</ref>

In 2005, the small house where The Tibet Mirror was based is still standing on the Giri road, with a sign board reading "The Tibet Mirror Press, Kalimpong, Estd. 1925" in English, Tibetan and Hindi <ref>Lobsang Wangyal, op. cit.: ''"The Tibet Mirror Press; Established 1925", reads the sign board on the crumbling tinned house (...) on Giri road''.</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* Paul G. Hackett, [https://library.columbia.edu/content/dam/libraryweb/locations/eastasian/Mirror_Hackett.pdf Kalimpong, Gergan Dorje Tharchin, and his Mirror newspaper], Columbia University, retrieved 24 March 2021.
*[[Tashi Tsering (tibetologist)|Tashi Tsering]], ''The Life of Rev. G. Tharchin: Missionary and Pioneer'', Amnye Machen Institute, Dharamsala, 1998
*H. (Herbert) Louis Fader, ''Called from Obscurity: The Life and Times of a True Son of Tibet - Gergan Dorje Tharchin'', Tibet Mirror Press, Kalimpong, Vol. 1, 2002 ; Vol. 2, 2004 ; Himalayan Ecosphere Publisher, Vol. 3, 2009 (Long Title: ''Called from Obscurity: The Life and Times of a True Son of Tibet, God's Humble Servant from Poo, Gergan Dorje Tharchin, with Particular Attention Given to His Good Friend and Illustrious Co-Laborer in the Gospel Sadhu Sundar Singh of India, with a foreword by His Holiness Dalai Lama XIV of Tibet and an introduction by Dawa Norbu'')

== External links ==
* [http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/digital/collections/cul/texts/ldpd_6981643_000/ Digitized access to 224 issues of the ''Tibet Mirror''], archival holdings published between the years 1927–1963, through Columbia University Libraries, including collections at the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Yale University.
* [https://brbl-dl.library.yale.edu/vufind/Record/3558737 Digitized access to seventy-one issues of the ''Tibet Mirror''], published between the years 1927–1963, through the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Yale University.

[[Category:Kalimpong]]
[[Category:Newspapers published in India]]
[[Category:Tibetan-language newspapers]]
[[Category:Tibetan independence movement]]
[[Category:Publications established in 1925]]
[[Category:Indigenous rights publications]]
[[Category:1925 establishments in India]]
[[Category:1963 disestablishments in India]]
[[Category:Publications disestablished in 1963]]

Tibet Mirror - Revision history

imported>SdkbBot: /* Demise (1963) */General fixes, removed erroneous space