Tibetan and Himalayan Library - THL

Description:

Publisher's Description: As an indispensable introduction to local history of the Khams region of Eastern Tibet/Western China (with due attention for contemporary thinking about frontier regions), this volume contains seven papers on Khams pa (Eastern Tibet) local history, representing politics, and agency and their historiographical representations on the Khams frontiers.

The articles have been arranged to reflect common themes. Wim van Spengen, William Coleman and Peng Wenbin locate Khams in a broader political history, exploring the fluidity of the frontier and its turbulent dislocations, as Khampas encountered and responded to Tibetan and Chinese national projects in the early part of the twentieth century. Fabienne Jagou and Carole McGranahan shift their gaze to individual figures and their engagement with Chinese and Tibetan social politics. Peter Schwieger’s analysis of history as oral narrative positions Khams in relation to Central Tibet, as does the subject of Tsering Thar’s paper, which concerns the influence of a Bonpo lama in religious innovation.

Table of Contents: Introduction / Lawrence Epstein -- Frontier History of Southern Kham: Banditry and War in the Multi-ethnic Fringe Lands of Chatring, Mili, and Gyethang, 1890-1940 / Wim van Spengen -- The Uprising at Batang: Khams and its Significance in Chinese and Tibetan History / William M. Coleman, IV -- Frontier Process, Provincial Politics and Movements for Khampa Autonomy During the Republican Period / Peng Wenbin -- The Sixth Panchen Lama's Chinese Titles / Fabienne Jagou -- Sa spang mda' gnam spang mda': Murder, History, and Social Politics in 1920s Lhasa / Carole McGranahan -- History as Oral Tradition: The Construction of Collective Identity in Brag g.yab (Khams) / Peter Schwieger -- Shar rdza Hermitage: A New Bonpo Center in Khams / Tsering Thar (tshe ring thar) -- List of Contributors.