Tibetan and Himalayan Library - THL

Description: Publisher’s Description: Since the occupation of Tibet by the Peoples Republic of China in 1959, former border principalities and feudatories of the former realm of the Dalai Lama have broken away and have developed sociopolitical and economic bonds with other states. Sikkim, Bhutan, Ladakh, and the Tibeto-Burman speaking regions of Burma, Nepal, and others have all developed strong ethnic identities apart from Tibet. Eleven well-known scholars working in these borderlands of Tibet present in this volume aspects of their current historical, linguistic, and ethnographic research. Originally presented at the Oxford University meeting of the International Association of Tibetan Studies in 2003, the volume provides a unique panoply of cultural diversity within the contemporary Tibeto-Burman speaking world. Illustrated, with introduction.

Table of Contents: Introduction: Tibetan Borderlands / P. Christiaan Klieger -- Barbarians at the Border and Civilising Projects: Analysing Ethnic and National Identities in the Tibetan Context / Sara Shneiderman -- Rethinking Tibeto-Burman: Linguistic Identities and Classifications in the Himalayan Periphery / Mark Turin -- Archive and the Poetics of ‘Exotica Tibet’ / Dibyesh Anand -- Insisting on Agreement: Tibetan Law and its Development in Ladakh / Fernanda Pirie -- Namas (Mna’ ma) and Nyelus (Nyal bu): Marriage, Fertility, and Illegitimacy in Tibetan Societies / Geoff Childs -- From Margin to Centre: ‘Tibet’ as a Feature of Gurung Idenity / Ernestine McHugh -- Ritual in Sikkim: Expressions of Cultural Identity and Change among the Lhopos / Anna Balikci-Denjongpa -- “We are the Lhopo of Sikkim. We do not have Tibetan Origins. The Tibetans are the Refugees”: Changes in the Perception of Bhutia and Tibetan Identities in Sikkim, India / Vibha Arora -- The Rgyal Rong New Year: A case History of Changing Identity / Marielle Prins -- The Baltistan Movement: Tibetan History and Identity in the Northern Areas of Pakistan / Jan Magnusson -- Chone and Thewu: Territoriality, Local Power, and Political Control on the Southern Gansu-Tibetan Frontier, 1880-1940 / Wim Van Spengen -- A Tale of the Tibeto-Burman ‘Pygmies’ / P. Christiaan Klieger -- Notes on Contributors.