Frontier Tibet
Patterns of Change in the Sino-Tibetan Borderlands
Published on 17. December 2019
554 pages
978-90-485-4490-5 (ISBN)
Description
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.
Reviews / Votes
"Frontier Tibet: Patterns of Change in the Sino-Tibetan Borderlands is certain to be a captivating read for scholars of Kham history. Those who are interested in Amdo as well as other Tibetan peripheries are also likely to be inspired by the various modes of expansion and bottom-up approaches. I would further recommend the theoretical pieces in the volume for inclusion in any syllabus on frontier studies. Frontier Tibet is positioned to become a model for the field, and I look forward to seeing what this scholarly community produces in the future."- Xiaobai Hu, Nanjing University, Waxing Moon: Journal of Tibetan and Himalayan Studies, Vol. 1 (2021)
"This collection of essays strikes me for its "thickness" in terms of its comprehensive content, heuristic novelty, longitudinal lens (mostly nineteenth to twenty-first century), and interdisciplinary cross-fertilization (mostly between history and anthropology). Largely for that reason, I see this volume as both an encyclopedic handbook and an original monograph on Kham and Sino-Tibetan borderlands, or even as a critical scholarly guidebook for borderlands studies writ large."
- Tenzin Jinba, National University of Singapore, The Journal of Asian Studies, Volume 79 Issue 4 (2020)
"Stephane Gros must be congratulated on editing this volume. Frontier Tibet is a unique survey of borderland-oriented research in the context of Sino-Tibetan (or, if one wishes, "Sino-Kham") studies, a rapidly evolving field of scholarship, and the book is an indispensable basis for further research."
- Per Kvaerne, Asian Ethnology 79/2 (2020)
More details
Series
Edition
Digital original
Language
English
Place of publication
Amsterdam
Netherlands
Target group
Professional and scholarly
US School Grade: College Graduate Student
Edition type
Digital original
Illustrations
29 s/w Abbildungen
29 Illustrations, black and white
File size
4,73 MB
ISBN-13
978-90-485-4490-5 (9789048544905)
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.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Book
12/2019
Amsterdam University Press
€178.20
Shipment within 10-20 days
Persons
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. Stephane 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'Extreme-Asie, no. 23) and Eastern Tibet ('Frontier Tibet', Cross-Currents, no. 19).
Content
Foreword and Acknowledgements List of Illustrations Chronology of Events PART I: BORDERS INSIDE OUT INTRODUCTION 1 Frontier (of) Experience: Introduction and Prolegomenon, by Stephane Gros 2 The Increasing Visibility of the Tibetan 'Borderlands', by Katia Buffetrille 3 Boundaries of the Borderlands: Mapping Gyelthang, by Eric Mortensen PART II: MODES OF EXPANSION AND FORMS OF CONTROL INTRODUCTION 4 Trade, Territory and Missionary Connections in the Sino-Tibetan Borderlands, by John Bray 5 Settling Authority: Sichuanese Farmers in Early-Twentieth Century Eastern Tibet, by Scott Relyea 6 Wheat Dreams: Scientific Interventions at Chinese Model Farms in Kham, 1937-1949, by Mark Frank 7 The Origins of Disempowered Development in the Tibetan Borderlands, by C. Patterson Giersch 8 Pastoralists by Choice: Adaptations in Contemporary Pastoralism in Eastern Kham, by Gillian Tan PART III: STRATEGIC BELONGINGS INTRODUCTION 9 Money, Politics, and Local Identity: An Inside Look at the 'Diary' of a Twentieth Century Khampa Trader, by Lucia Galli 10 The Dispute Between Sichuan and Xikang over the Tibetan Kingdom of Trokyap (1930s?1940s), by Fabienne Jagou 11 Rise of a Political Strongman in Derge in the Early-Twentieth Century: A Story of Jagoe Topden, by Yudru Tsomu 12 Harnessing the Power of the Khampa Elites: Political Persuasion and the Consolidation of Communist Party Rule in Gyelthang, by Da?a Mortensen 13 Return of the Good King: Kingship and Identity among Yushu Tibetans since 1951, by Maria Turek 14 Yachen as Process: Encampments, Nuns, and Spatial Politics in Post-Mao Kham, by Yasmin Cho AFTERWORD, by Carole McGranahan Index
