Culture of Emotions: Uses and Interpretations of Musical Heritage in the Tibetan Refugee Community of Dharamsala

Chloé Lukasiewicz talk on the significance of music in the Tibetan refugee community in Dharamsala, India Little work on emotions in migration exists in anthropology, and ethnomusicology has not yet invested much in this field of research. Nor has such an approach been developed in Tibetan studies either, particularly in the related music-ethnological approaches. Studies of religion and politics have flourished at the expense of a more sensitive approach to the lived experience of people. In this dynamic, within the studies that deal with music practised in exile, I am particularly interested in the notion of nationalism, which takes on particular importance. But my several fieldworks conducted in Dharamsala (1 year in total) made me wonder: Is nationalism as central to the experience of Tibetan refugees in Dharamsala as it is to the field of Tibetan studies? To answer this question, I set up a tool, the systematized listening session, to highlight an axiologic grammar (or value system) on which the individual logic of appreciation is based. For my presentation, I will firstly present the systematized listening session, its content and the synthesis of values that have been assigned by participants to one of the eleven items that are part of the session’s playlist. Secondly, I will present the approaches and developments that this tool enabled me to formulate for my research.