Left to their own devices: Radio, radiomen and radio stations in the making of Tibet's modern political landscape.

This article examines the role of radio technology in shaping Tibet’s national identity and geopolitical status between 1934 and 1950 through the intertwined histories of Chinese, British, and Tibetan radio stations in Lhasa. It argues that Tibet was not a technological or political backwater but a central arena in the contest between an expansionist British Empire and a nationalistic Republic of China, both of which monopolized radio to advance their ambitions while marginalizing Tibetan technological agency. The Tibetan government eventually broke this monopoly by establishing its own radio network, using it to assert a distinct Tibetan state and national identity, promote its political autonomy, and engage in propaganda against China. The article also highlights the significant influence of individual radio operators—Chinese and British—whose personal agendas sometimes diverged from their governments’, thereby affecting Tibet’s political landscape. Overall, the history of radio in Tibet reveals how technology and its absence were instrumental in constructing competing territorial and national narratives amid imperial and indigenous struggles.