La traduction de miser par « serf » utilisée par Goldstein est cependant contestée par Heidi Fjeld qui se réfère à la principale source chinoise sur l'histoire sociale du Tibet (la Maison d'édition du peuple du Tibet, 1987), et à des personnes qu'elle a interrogées : (en) Heidi Fjeld, Commoners and nobles: hereditary divisions in Tibet, NIAS Press, 2005, (ISBN8791114179 et 9788791114175) : « Whereas Goldstein translates miser as serfs, both the main Chinese source on Tibet's social history (Xizang Renmin Chubanshe 1987) and the informants I interviewed translate miser as 'commoner' or 'citizen', and we might understand 'commoners' as a translation of miser and see 'serf' as a subdivision of miser. »
(en) Hisao Kimura, Japanese Agent in Tibet: My Ten Years of Travel in Disguise, as Told to Scott Berry, Serindia Publications Inc., 1990, p. 193 : « Gedun Choephel (...) was arrested, put on trial, flogged, and locked away in the damp darkness of Shol Prison below the Potala along with murderers and thieves (...) He was only in prison for a year, but sometime during that year his brilliant but always erratic mind snapped. He took up with a woman prisoner from Kham, and succumbed to both alcohol and opium addiction. »
(en) Mara Matta, Rebel with a cause: debunking the mythical mystical Tibet, ITAS newsletter #47, printemps 2008 : « a freelance writer and researcher, holds a PhD in Southeast Asian Studies from the Università degli Studi di Napoli ‘L’ Orientale’, Naples, Italy. »
People in TH: Toni Huber : « Toni is Professor of Tibetan Studies at Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany, where he pursues research and teaching on the anthropology and cultural history of Tibetan and closely related Himalayan societies. »
