Reproducing Identity: Using Images to Promote Pronatalism and Sexual Endogamy among Tibetan Exiles in South Asia

In this paper we analyze images from publications that were produced during the 1990s to educate Tibetan exiles living in Nepal and India about health-related issues. Our purpose is to show how these visual means promote pronatalism and ethnic endogamy, agendas that stem from the exiles’ conviction that they must increase their population and remain ethnically pure to counteract a perceived threat of genocide perpetrated by China. We argue that the aesthetic style in which the images were created effaces the ideological stance of their encoded messages by evoking the form and authority of remedial health education. Data from surveys, in-depth interviews, and published literature emanating from the exile community are used to contextualize the discussion. Shortly after Mao Zedong ascended to power in 1949, China asserted full military and administrative control over Tibet. A failed uprising in 1959 against Chinese rule resulted in the flight of the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s spiritual and political leader, to neighboring India where he sought refuge along with thousands of Tibetans from all strata of society. Today, roughly 100,000 exiles live in refugee settlements in India and Nepal, while another 20,000 are scattered across Europe and North America (Planning Council 2000). Reproducing Identity