Yungdrung A Ramble in Tibetan Studies A Festschrift for Charles Ramble

One has to start somewhere: let me begin by reminding you that one long evening Charles translated Freddie Mercury’s operatic prog-rock ballad Bohemian Rhapsody into Tibetan—now, where do we go from there? Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? Charles was, until his Oxford retirement, the founder, heart, and animating genius of the Tibetan & Himalayan Studies programme. This was founded within Oxford’s Oriental Institute (as was), and was turned, by Charles’ sheer force of personality and will, into an impossible and unlikely success. The central point is Wolfson College, where Charles’ centripetal force spun an extraordinary collection of interested people harmoniously into the orbit of his proto-faculty. From the first DPhil student, then two MPhil students (myself included), that cyclonic force attracted others, gathering in strength and numbers. There was a retired Army General and Gurkha commander; there were hippies, no longer in the first flush of youth, who had spent decades in Kathmandu; there were ferocious, fit and focused Americans who arrived with a smattering of Tibetan. There were quasi-aristocratic Central Europeans already well versed in Sanskrit with the odd spot of Pali; historians, linguists, anthropologists, archaeologists, and those interested in the religions of the roof of the world. And spooks, yes of course there were early-career spooks, and the occasional mid-career spook on a refresher: in moderation spooks can add distinction to any gathering. If this sounds like the formation of an idiosyncratic élite, it was tempered by Charles’ wholly unconventional take on students with potential—his genius for identifying people who’d benefit from an albeit small, but deep, subject and from personal attention. And he never confused potential with conventional educational attainment. Nor did he care in the slightest if his students were billionaires or from more modest backgrounds. He called on them in their chateaus, and kept a kindly eye