This narrative of subsistence on the Tibetan plateau describes the life-worlds of people in a region traditionally known as Kham who move with their yaks from pasture to pasture, depending on the milk production of their herd for sustenance. Gillian Tan’s story, based on her own experience of living through seasonal cycles with the people of Dora Karmo between 2006 and 2013, examines the community’s powerful relationship with a Buddhist lama and their interactions with external agents of change. In showing how they perceive their environment and dwell in their world, Tan conveys a spare beauty that honors the stillness and rhythms of nomadic life.
Table of Content
Foreword / Stevan Harrell
Preface
Acknowledgments
Transcription, Transliteration, and Names
The People
Timeline
1. Getting to Dora Karmo
2. The House and the Tent
3. Life in the Summer Pasture
4. A World of Impermanence
5. The Lama
6. Leaving and Arriving
Glossary
Suggested Reading
Index
About the author
Stevan Harrell is professor emeritus of anthropology and environmental and forest sciences at the University of Washington. He is the author of Ways of Being Ethnic in Southwest China (University of Washington Press, 2001) and An Ecological History of Modern China (University of Washington Press, 2023); and editor of the University of Washington Press book series Studies on Ethnic Groups in China.More ebooks from the same author(s) / Editor
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