The societies in the Himalayan borderlands have undergone wide-ranging transformations, as the territorial reconfiguration of modern nation-states since the mid-twentieth century and the presently increasing trans-Himalayan movements of people, goods and capital, reshape the livelihoods of communities, pulling them into global trends of modernisation and regional discourses of national belonging.This book explores the changes to native senses of place, the conception of border - simultaneously as limitations and opportunities - and what the authors call "affective boundaries," "livelihood reconstruction," and "trans-Himalayan modernities." It addresses changing social, political, and environmental conditions that acknowledge growing external connectivity even as it emphasises the importance of place.

Dan Smyer Yü, Professor and Director of Center for Trans-Himalayan Studies at Yunnan Minzu University, is the author of The Spread of Tibetan Buddhism in China: Charisma, Money, Enlightenment (Routledge 2011) and Mindscaping the Landscape of Tibet: Place, Memorability, Eco-aesthetics (De Gruyter 2015), and co-editor of Religion and Ecological Sustainability in China (Routledge 2014).Jean Michaud , Professor of Social Anthropology at Université Laval, Canada. Is the author of 'Incidental' Ethnographers. French Catholic Missions on the Tonkin-Yunnan Frontier, 1880-1930 (Brill 2007), Historical Dictionary of the Peoples of the Southeast Asian Massif (Scarecrow 2006, 2nd edition in progress); co-authored Frontier Livelihoods: Hmong in the Sino-Vietnamese Borderlands (U. of Washington Press 2015); co-edited Moving Mountains: Ethnicity and Livelihoods in Highland China, Vietnam and Laos (UBC Press 2011) and Hmong/Miao in Asia (Silkworm 2004).

Introduction: Trans-Himalayas as Multi-State MarginsDan Smyer Yü I. TERRITORY, WORLDVIEWS, AND POWER THROUGH TIME1. Livelihood Structure in the Southeast Asian MassifJean Michaud2. The Properties of Territory in Nepal's State of TransformationSara Shneiderman3. Trans-Himalayan Buddhist Secularities: Sino-Indian Geopolitics of Territoriality in Indo-Tibetan InterfaceDan Smyer Yü 4. Buddhist Books on Trans-Himalayan Pathways: Materials and Technologies Connecting People and Ecological Environments in a Transnational LandscapeHildegard Diemberger5. Seeking China's Back Door: On English Handkerchiefs and Global Local Markets in the Early Nineteenth CenturyGunnel CederlöfII. LIVELIHOOD RECONSTRUCTIONS, FLOWS, AND TRANS-HIMALAYAN MODERNITIES6. Contested Modernities: Place, Subjectivity, and Himalayan Dam InfrastructuresGeorgina Drew7. Plurality and Plasticity of Everyday Humanitarianism in the Karen ConflictAlexander Horstmann8. Being Modern: Livelihood Reconstruction among Land-Lost Peasants in Chenggong (Kunming)Yang Cheng9. Tibetan Wine Production, Taste of Place, and Regional Niche Identities in Shangri-La.Brendan A. Galipeau10. Tea and Merit-Landscape Making in the Ritual Lives of De'ang People in Western YunnanLi Quanmin11. In between Poppy and Rubber Fields: Experimenting a Trans-Border Livelihood among the Akha in the Northwestern Frontier of LaosLi Yunxia12. A Fortuitous Frontier Opportunity: Cardamom Livelihoods in the Sino-Vietnamese BorderlandsSarah TurnerCONCLUSIONFrictions of Change in the Trans-HimalayasJean Michaud