Melvyn Goldstein

Melvyn C. Goldstein (born February 8, 1938) is an American social anthropologist and Tibet scholar. He is a professor of anthropology at Case Western Reserve University and a member of the National Academy of Sciences.

His research focuses on Tibetan society, history and contemporary politics, population studies, polyandry, studies in cultural and development ecology, economic change and cross-cultural gerontology.

Education and career

Goldstein was born in New York City on February 8, 1938. He was elected to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (Section 51, Anthropology) in 2009.

Research Goldstein has conducted research in different parts of Tibet (mainly in the Tibet Autonomous Region of China) on a range of topics including nomadic pastoralism, the impact of reforms on rural Tibet, family planning and fertility, modern Tibetan history, and socio-economic change. He has also conducted research in India (with Tibetan refugees in Bylakuppe), in northwest Nepal (with a Tibetan border community in Limi), in western Mongolia (with a nomadic pastoral community in Khovd Province) and in inland China (with Han Chinese on modernization and the elderly). Part of their research from that trip included 10 months living with a community of Tibetan nomads, which was published in the book Nomads of Western Tibet: The Survival of a Way of Life and described by Per Kvaerne as "the first anthropological survey of a community in present-day Tibet". His work portrays pre-1950 Tibet as "de facto independent" as well as a feudal theocracy. The first volume in the series, A History of Modern Tibet, 1913-1951: The Demise of the Lamaist State, written with the assistance of Gelek Rimpoche, was awarded Honorable Mention for the Joseph Levenson Book Prize in 1989 by the Association for Asian Studies.

Colin Mackerras labeled Goldstein as "well known in the field of Tibetan studies" and described his book On the Cultural Revolution in Tibet: The Nyemo Incident of 1969 with Ben Jiao and Tanzen Lhundrup an "extraordinary book" and "excellent history".

Honours and recognition

The Frank and Dorothy Hummel Hovorka Prize, Case Western Reserve University, in 2012 Elected Member, National Academy of Sciences, Section 51, Anthropology, in 2009

Goldstein collects bonsai trees.

Selected publications Dissertation An Anthropological Study of the Tibetan Political System, University of Washington, Ph.D. in Anthropology, 1968.

Books A History of Modern Tibet, Volume 1: 1913-1951: The Demise of the Lamaist State, assisted by Gelek Rimpoche, University of California Press, 1989, (with Cynthia M. Beall), Nomads of Western Tibet: The Survival of a Way of Life, University of California Press, 1990. (with Cynthia M. Beall), The Changing World of Mongolia's Nomads, University of California Press, 1994. The Snow Lion and the Dragon: China, Tibet and the Dalai Lama, University of California Press, 1997. (with William Siebenschuh, and Tashi Tsering), The Struggle for Modern Tibet: The Autobiography of Tashi Tsering, Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, Inc., 1997. Chinese Edition of The Struggle for a Modern Tibet: the Life of Tashi Tsering, Mirror Books, Carle Place, NY., 2000. A New Tibetan English Dictionary of Modern Tibetan, University of California Press, Pp. 1200, 2001. (with Dawei Sherap, William Siebenschuh), A Tibetan Revolutionary. The Political Life of Bapa Phüntso Wangye, University of California Press, 2004. A History of Modern Tibet, Volume 2: The Calm Before the Storm: 1951-1955, University of California Press, 2007. (with Ben Jiao, Tanzen Lhundrup), On the Cultural Revolution in Tibet: The Nyemo Incident of 1969, University of California Press, 2009. A History of Modern Tibet, Volume 3: The Storm Clouds Descend, 1955–1957, University of California Press, 2013. A History of Modern Tibet, Volume 4: In the Eye of the Storm, 1957-1959, University of California Press, 2019.

Special report Tibet, China and the United States: Reflections on the Tibet Question, Occasional Paper Series, The Atlantic Council of the United States, April 1995.

Editorship (with Matthew Kapstein (eds.)), Buddhism in Contemporary Tibet: Religious Revival and Cultural Identity, University of California Press, 1998.