Lunch Keynote
An Engineer in Tibet: Conservation of Historical Temples and Homes
Pam Logan
Pamela Logan never dreamed her career path would take her to the farthest corners of Asia. Her professional training was in aerospace science, in which she received a doctorate degree from Stanford University, having obtained a BS and MS from Caltech. Subsequently she was employed at the University of California at Los Angeles as a lecturer and research scientist in laser diagnostics applied to combustion. She also holds a fourth-degree black belt in Shotokan karate, a Japanese martial art.
Inspired by her martial arts training, in 1990 she applied for and won a travel grant from the Durfee Foundation to investigate the warrior tribes of eastern Tibet, people known as Khampas. The journey lasted over a year and led to her book Among Warriors, now published in hardcover (Overlook Press, 1996) and softcover (Random House, 1998) editions as well as in Polish translation (Ravi, 1998).
In the spring of 1993, again funded by the Durfee Foundation, she returned to China to explore Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang. That year she also began working with the China Exploration & Research Society (CERS). Based in Hong Kong, CERS conducts a variety of interdisciplinary field projects in China. From 1993 to ‘96 she lent her scientific expertise to analyzing their Space Shuttle remote sensing images in search of Silk Road ruins under the sands of the Taklamakan.
In 1994 she was named director of a CERS project whose aim is architectural conservation of Tibetan monasteries in western Sichuan province. In the four years following, she led five expeditions composed of international conservation specialists to Pewar Monastery where they saved wall paintings threatened by collapse of the building that housed them. This epic project is the subject of her second book Tibetan Rescue (Tuttle, 2002).
In 1996 Dr. Logan was named "Woman Explorer of the Year," an international prize awarded by the Scientific Exploration Society of Great Britain and sponsored by Mr. Eric Hotung of Hong Kong.
In 1997 Dr. Logan established Kham Aid Foundation in California to bring assistance to the people of the eastern Tibetan plateau. Kham Aid’s current programs include preservation of ancient buildings and art, assistance for schools and students, vocational skills training in construction and handicrafts, giving wheelchairs to the disabled and medical equipment to rural clinics, disaster relief, and development of sustainable and culturally sensitive tourism. In this effort she makes frequent use of her reading and writing fluency in Mandarin Chinese and working knowledge of Tibetan.
Logan has contributed invited articles to Harvard Asia Quarterly and a groundbreaking 2004 book on Tibetan furniture. She has contributed many stories about Kham to popular publications such as Hemispheres. Her photography has appeared in National Geographic, Newsweek, and the New York Times. She has given invited lectures for the Royal Geographical Society, Young Presidents Organization, Asia Society, Explorer’s Club, Foreign Correspondents Club, and other organizations. In 2005 she was hired by IESAbroad to develop and lead a university-level travel-study program on Tibetan development. She lives in Washington State where, in her spare time, she still teaches martial arts.
For more information, please see www.khamaid.org