Trans-Himalayan Borderlands
Livelihoods, Territorialities, Modernities
Published on 2. October 2017
Book
Hardback
310 pages
978-94-6298-192-8 (ISBN)
Description
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.
Reviews / Votes
"[This book] is an important contribution to the literature on Himalayan and borderland studies, which have been overshadowed by the cartographical practices of modern nation-states. [...] Ethnographically, this book enriches our understanding of the social and livelihood changes in the Himalayas. As such, it will be of great interest to scholars engaged in the study of the Himalayas, borderland studies, and development."- Bendi Tso, Asian Ethnology 80, 1 (2021)
"[This book] makes a timely and important contribution to borderland studies in general and, more specifically, supports a better understanding of the ongoing transformations to everyday life, resource governance, state power, modernity, and territoriality at the crossroads of highland Asia."
- Galen Murton, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, USA Pacific Affairs: Volume 91, No. 4 (December 2018)
"This book offers a diverse collection of fascinating case studies that, taken together, present a transboundary approach that challenges the 'trait geographies' upon which much area studies is still based."- Tim Oakes, Professor of Geography, University of Colorado, Boulder
"This is an excellent collection of original works. It makes an important contribution to transboundary studies and a dialogic approach to spatial and social processes in and beyond Asia." - Li Zhang, Professor of Anthropology, University of California, Davis
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Amsterdam
Netherlands
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Academic
Illustrations
Illustrations: 0 black and white; 30 full color.
Dimensions
Height: 240 mm
Width: 161 mm
Thickness: 21 mm
Weight
634 gr
ISBN-13
978-94-6298-192-8 (9789462981928)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
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10/2025
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Persons
Dan Smyer Yue, 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 Universite 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).|Willem van Schendel, Professor of History, University of Amsterdam and International Institute of Social History, the Netherlands. He works with the history, anthropology and sociology of Asia. Recent works include A History of Bangladesh (2020), Embedding Agricultural Commodities (2017, ed.), The Camera as Witness (2015, with J. L. K. Pachuau). See uva.academia.edu/WillemVanSchendel.
Jean Michaud , Professor of Social Anthropology at Universite 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).|Willem van Schendel, Professor of History, University of Amsterdam and International Institute of Social History, the Netherlands. He works with the history, anthropology and sociology of Asia. Recent works include A History of Bangladesh (2020), Embedding Agricultural Commodities (2017, ed.), The Camera as Witness (2015, with J. L. K. Pachuau). See uva.academia.edu/WillemVanSchendel.
Content
Introduction: Trans-Himalayas as Multi-State Margins Dan Smyer Yue I. TERRITORY, WORLDVIEWS, AND POWER THROUGH TIME 1. Livelihood Structure in the Southeast Asian Massif Jean Michaud 2. The Properties of Territory in Nepal's State of Transformation Sara Shneiderman 3. Trans-Himalayan Buddhist Secularities: Sino-Indian Geopolitics of Territoriality in Indo-Tibetan Interface Dan Smyer Yue 4. Buddhist Books on Trans-Himalayan Pathways: Materials and Technologies Connecting People and Ecological Environments in a Transnational Landscape Hildegard Diemberger 5. Seeking China's Back Door: On English Handkerchiefs and Global Local Markets in the Early Nineteenth Century Gunnel Cederloef II. LIVELIHOOD RECONSTRUCTIONS, FLOWS, AND TRANS-HIMALAYAN MODERNITIES 6. Contested Modernities: Place, Subjectivity, and Himalayan Dam Infrastructures Georgina Drew 7. Plurality and Plasticity of Everyday Humanitarianism in the Karen Conflict Alexander Horstmann 8. Being Modern: Livelihood Reconstruction among Land-Lost Peasants in Chenggong (Kunming) Yang Cheng 9. Tibetan Wine Production, Taste of Place, and Regional Niche Identities in Shangri-La. Brendan A. Galipeau 10. Tea and Merit-Landscape Making in the Ritual Lives of De'ang People in Western Yunnan Li Quanmin 11. In between Poppy and Rubber Fields: Experimenting a Trans-Border Livelihood among the Akha in the Northwestern Frontier of Laos Li Yunxia 12. A Fortuitous Frontier Opportunity: Cardamom Livelihoods in the Sino-Vietnamese Borderlands Sarah Turner CONCLUSION Frictions of Change in the Trans-Himalayas Jean Michaud.