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Tobdan
Born1944
Tod valley, Lahaul tehsil, Kangra district, Punjab Province, British India
NationalityIndian
Occupation(s)Historian and linguist
Known forWork on the history, traditions, and languages of Lahaul and some neighbouring regions

Tobdan (born 1944) is a historian and linguist from Himachal Pradesh, India. He is noted for his work on the cultural traditions, histories, and languages of the Lahaul and Spiti district, and some neighboring regions.

Personal life

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Tobdan originally belongs to the Tod valley of the Lahaul division of the Lahaul and Spiti district, Himachal Pradesh.[1][2] He is a retired bank official.[3][4] He lives in the Kullu valley, Himachal Pradesh.[5] Tobdan is multilingual. He is fluent in his native sTodpa, Hindi, English, and Punjabi, and is conversant in most of the languages spoken in Himachal Pradesh, Ladakh, and Spiti.[6]

Works

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Tobdan's work as a historian has focused on the western Himalayan regions of Lahaul, Kullu, and Kinnaur, and the trans-Himalayan regions of Spiti and Ladakh. As a linguist he specializes in the Tibetic languages of the Lahaul and Spiti district (see Bibliography).

Tobdan was among the founder-members of the non-governmental organization 'Society for Conservation and Promotion of Culture in Lahaul & Spiti', and the chief editor of its annual, and later bi-annual magazine Kunzom, which was published from 2005 to 2014.[7][8] Kunzom published short stories, poems, folksongs and grammatical sketches in various languages spoken in the Lahaul and Spiti district.

Tobdan writes in English, Hindi, and Tibetan.[9]

Views

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  • Tobdan supports the claim that Buddhism was present in Lahaul before the advent of Tibetan Buddhism, and discusses them in some of his Lahaul-based works.[10][11]
  • In 2010, he opposed diverting water from natural water channels for hydroelectric dams in the Lahaul region.[12]
  • In a 2021 interview, he expressed support for the preservation of the near-extinct Tankri script of the western Himalayas.[13]
  • In another 2021 interview, Tobdan opined that compared to its neighboring valley Spiti in the Lahaul and Spiti district, Lahaul had received very little scholarly attention. He had intended to bridge that knowledge gap through his body of work and particularly his then-recent book Ancient Lahul and Himalaya.[14]

Reception

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Tobdan's works have been cited by many academics and independent scholars as important secondary sources on the histories, languages, and cultures of regions in Himachal Pradesh like Kullu, Lahaul, Spiti, and Kinnaur. These include Moran (2013),[15] Tsering (2014),[16] Bellezza (2015),[17] Rahimzadeh (2016),[18] Bhattacharya (2017),[19] Chamberlain and Chamberlain (2019),[20] and Halperin (2019).[21]

Elizabeth Anne Stutchbury, who conducted her doctoral research in Lahaul in the early 1980s, appreciated Tobdan's early initiative, as a Lahauli local, of studying and documenting his homeland, while decrying the general lack of any in-depth anthropological research on Lahaul at that point of time.[22]

John Bray commends Tobdan and Dorje's book on the Moravian missionaries in western Himalayas (2008) as a valuable contribution that makes information from disparate sources on this subject more readily available.[23]

Recognition

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  • Tobdan was the editor of the Himachal Pradesh volume of the People's Linguistic Survey of India, which was led by G.N. Devy (who was also the series editor).[24][25][4]
  • He has been the member of the Governing Body of the Himachal Pradesh Academy of Arts, Culture, and Languages.[1]
  • He was among the main contributors of the Academy's 2011 volume (in Hindi) on the life and cultures of Lahaul and Spiti district.[26]
  • Some volumes of the Kunzom magazine's have been digitally archived on archive.org.[27][8]

Bibliography

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As of 2021, Tobdan had written the following books:

  1. Tobdan. 1984. History and Religions of Lahul: From The Earliest To Circa A.D. 1950.  Delhi: Books Today.
  2. Tobdan. 1993. The People of the Upper Valley: The Stodpas of Lahul in the Himalayas. Delhi: Book India Publishing.
  3. Tobdan, and Chhering Dorje. 1996. Historical Documents from Western Trans-Himalaya. Lahul, Zanskar and Ladakh. Delhi: Book India Publishing.
  4. Tobdan. 2008. Cultural History of Western Trans-Himalayas: Bashahar Kinnaur. Aryan Books.
  5. Tobdan. 2008. Moravian Missionaries in Western Trans-Himalaya: Lahul Ladakh and Kinnaur. Delhi: Kaveri Books.
  6. Tobdan. 2011. Exploring Malana: An Ancient Culture Hidden in the Himalayas. Indus Publishers.
  7. Tobdan. 2015. Nathapanth in Western Himalaya. Delhi: Kaveri Books.
  8. Tobdan. 2015. Spiti: A Study in Socio-Cultural Traditions. Delhi: Kaveri Books.
  9. Tobdan. 2015. A Grammar of sTodpa (A Language of Lahul in the Western Himalaya). Kaithal: Amrit Books.
  10. Devy, G.N., and Tobdan, eds. 2017. The Languages of Himachal Pradesh: People’s  Linguistic Survey of India. Volume Eleven. Orient Blackswan.
  11. Tobdan. 2019. Zong Gonpa of Village Tinno. New Delhi: Kaveri Books.
  12. Tobdan. 2020. sTodpa Language of Lahul in the Himalaya. Delhi: Kaveri Books.
  13. Tobdan. 2020. Bhoti Parichay: Vyakaran aur Anuvad (in Hindi). Delhi: Kaveri Books.
  14. Tobdan. 2021. Ancient Lahaul and Himalaya. Delhi: Kaveri Books.
  15. Tobdan. 2022. The Brave Soldiers of Lahaul - the Saviours of Ladakh in 1948. Delhi: Kaveri Books.

References

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  1. ^ a b "Ancient Lahul and Himalaya > Tobdan | Saujanya Books". www.saujanyabooks.com. Retrieved 2022-12-29.
  2. ^ "Shakspa in Shashur". filminglahaul. Retrieved 2022-12-29.
  3. ^ Stutchbury, Elizabeth Anne (1991). Rediscovering Western Tibet: Gonpa, Chorten, and the Continuity of Practice with a Tibetan Buddhist Community in the Indian Himalaya. PhD diss. at the Australian National University. p. 34.
  4. ^ a b "Speak up, India". www.thehindubusinessline.com. 2017-09-22. Retrieved 2022-12-29.
  5. ^ Joshi, Sriniwas. "Need to preserve rare manuscripts of Himachal". www.tribuneindia.com. Retrieved 2022-12-29.
  6. ^ Tobdan, Tobdan, ed. (2017). People's Linguistic Survey of India: The Languages of Himachal Pradesh (Volume 11, Part 2). Delhi: Orient Blackswan.
  7. ^ Kunzom. Kullu: Society for Conservation and Promotion of Culture in Lahaul & Spiti. 2006.
  8. ^ a b Kunzom, Vol. 4 (2009-10). Tobdan. Society for Conservation and Promotion of Culture in Lahaul & Spiti. 2010.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  9. ^ "kaveribooks.com: Ancient Lahul and Himalaya Tobdan Hardbound 9789386463142". www.kaveribooks.com. Retrieved 2022-12-29.
  10. ^ Tobdan (1984). History & Religions of Lahul: From the Earliest to Circa A.D. 1950. Books Today. p. 87.
  11. ^ Berti, Daniela (2001). "Book review of Joshi et al (eds.) 'Himalaya: Past and Present Vol IV, 1993-94". European Bulletin of Himalayan Research. 20 (1): 228–232.
  12. ^ Chauhan, Kuldeep (July 14, 2010). "Tribals up in arms over Jispa Dam". www.tribuneindia.com. Retrieved 2022-12-29.
  13. ^ Sharma, Sarika. "Reviving Takri, Himachal's lost script". Tribuneindia News Service. Retrieved 2022-12-29.
  14. ^ Thakur, Kesang (December 14, 2021). ""Ancient Lahul and Himalaya": In Conversation with Mr. Tobdan – FILMING लाहुल". Retrieved 2022-12-29.
  15. ^ Moran, Arik (2013). "Toward a history of devotional Vaishnavism in the West Himalayas: Kullu and the Ramanandis, c. 1500–1800". The Indian Economic & Social History Review. 50 (1): 1–25. doi:10.1177/0019464612474165. ISSN 0019-4646. S2CID 144329273.
  16. ^ Tsering, Tashi (2014). "On the Unknown History of a Himalayan Buddhist Enclave: Spiti Valley before the 10th Century". Journal of Research Institute: Historical Development of the Tibetan Languages. 51: 523–551.
  17. ^ Bellezza, John Vincent. "June 2015 | Tibet Archaeology". Retrieved 2022-12-29.
  18. ^ Rahimzadeh, Aghaghia (2016). "Mountain Livelihoods in Transition: Constraints and Opportunities in Kinnaur, Western Himalaya" (PDF). UC Berkeley PhD diss.
  19. ^ Bhattacharya, Himika (2017-12-28). Narrating Love and Violence: Women Contesting Caste, Tribe, and State in Lahaul, India. Rutgers University Press. ISBN 978-0-8135-8955-8.
  20. ^ Chamberlain, Brad; Chamberlain, Wendy (2019). A Sociolinguistic Survey of Lahul Valley, Himachal Pradesh (PDF). SIL International.
  21. ^ Halperin, Ehud (2019-10-15). The Many Faces of a Himalayan Goddess: Hadimba, Her Devotees, and Religion in Rapid Change. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-091359-5.
  22. ^ Stutchbury, Elizabeth Anne (1991). Rediscovering Western Tibet: Gonpa, Chorten, and the Continuity of Practice with a Tibetan Buddhist Community in the Indian Himalaya. PhD diss. at the Australian National University. p. 43.
  23. ^ Bray, John (2008). "Review of 'Moravian Missionaries in Western Trans-Himalaya (Lahul, Ladakh and Kinnaur)' by Tobdan and C. Dorje" (PDF). Ladakh Studies. 22: 55–57.
  24. ^ "PLSI Associates". bhasha.frappe.cloud. Retrieved 2022-12-29.
  25. ^ "The complete list of volumes of the People's Linguistic Survey of India" (PDF). orientblackswan. Retrieved December 29, 2022.
  26. ^ Joshi, Sriniwas. "Unfolding the mystical Lahaul-Spiti". www.tribuneindia.com. Retrieved 2022-12-29.
  27. ^ Kunzom, Vol. 1 (2005). Tobdan. Society for Conservation and Promotion of Culture in Lahaul & Spiti. 2005.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
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