Frontier Tibet: Patterns of Change in the Sino-Tibetan Borderlands
Frontier Tibet: Patterns of Change in the Sino-Tibetan Borderlands
by Willem van Schendel and Tina Harris edited by Stéphane Gros
Amsterdam University Press, 2020 eISBN: 978-90-485-4490-5
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | TOC
ABOUT THIS BOOK
Frontier Tibet: Patterns of Change in the Sino-Tibetan Borderlands addresses a historical sequence that sealed the future of the Sino-Tibetan borderlands. It considers how starting in the late nineteenth century imperial formations and emerging nation-states developed competing schemes of integration and debated about where the border between China and Tibet should be. It also ponders the ways in which this border is internalised today, creating within the People’s Republic of China a space that retains some characteristics of a historical frontier. The region of eastern Tibet called Kham, the focus of this volume, is a productive lens through which processes of place-making and frontier dynamics can be analysed. Using historical records and ethnography, the authors challenge purely externalist approaches to convey a sense of Kham’s own centrality and the agency of the actors involved. They contribute to a history from below that is relevant to the history of China and Tibet, and of comparative value for borderland studies.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Stéphane Gros is an anthropologist at the Centre for Himalayan Studies (CNRS, France). He is the author of La Part Manquante (2012), and he recently guest-edited two special issues of relevance to Southwest China (‘Worlds in the making’, Cahiers d’Extrême-Asie, no. 23) and Eastern Tibet (‘Frontier Tibet’, Cross-Currents, no. 19).
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Foreword and AcknowledgementsList of IllustrationsChronology of EventsPART I: BORDERS INSIDE OUTINTRODUCTION1 Frontier (of) Experience: Introduction and Prolegomenon, by Stéphane Gros2 The Increasing Visibility of the Tibetan 'Borderlands', by Katia Buffetrille3 Boundaries of the Borderlands: Mapping Gyelthang, by Eric MortensenPART II: MODES OF EXPANSION AND FORMS OF CONTROLINTRODUCTION4 Trade, Territory and Missionary Connections in the Sino-Tibetan Borderlands, by John Bray5 Settling Authority: Sichuanese Farmers in Early-Twentieth Century Eastern Tibet, by Scott Relyea6 Wheat Dreams: Scientific Interventions at Chinese Model Farms in Kham, 1937-1949, by Mark Frank7 The Origins of Disempowered Development in the Tibetan Borderlands, by C. Patterson Giersch8 Pastoralists by Choice: Adaptations in Contemporary Pastoralism in Eastern Kham, by Gillian TanPART III: STRATEGIC BELONGINGSINTRODUCTION9 Money, Politics, and Local Identity: An Inside Look at the 'Diary' of a Twentieth Century Khampa Trader, by Lucia Galli10 The Dispute Between Sichuan and Xikang over the Tibetan Kingdom of Trokyap (1930s?1940s), by Fabienne Jagou11 Rise of a Political Strongman in Dergé in the Early-Twentieth Century: A Story of Jagö Topden, by Yudru Tsomu12 Harnessing the Power of the Khampa Elites: Political Persuasion and the Consolidation of Communist Party Rule in Gyelthang, by Dá¿a Mortensen13 Return of the Good King: Kingship and Identity among Yushu Tibetans since 1951, by Maria Turek14 Yachen as Process: Encampments, Nuns, and Spatial Politics in Post-Mao Kham, by Yasmin ChoAFTERWORD, by Carole McGranahanIndex