Trans-Himalayan Borderlands: Livelihoods, Territorialities, Modernities

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 modernization 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 emphasizes the importance of place. Cover Table of Contents Acknowledgements Introduction Trans-Himalayas as Multistate Margins Dan Smyer Yü I. Territory, Worldviews, and Power Through Time 1. Adjusting 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 Yü 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 Cederlöf 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, China Brendan A. Galipeau 10. Tea and Merit Landscape Making in the Ritual Lives of the De’ang People in Western Yunnan Li Quanmin 11. In-between Poppy and Rubber Fields Experimenting a Transborder 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 in Trans-Himalayan Studies Jean Michaud Index