The Middle Highlands of Modern China as a Historical Inter-Asian Zomia: Human-nature Diversity in the Hengduan Mountains (original) (raw)
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Biodiversity Hotspot: China's Hengduan Mountains
2014
I n southwestern China, in the southeastern corner of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, lies one of the world's 35 biodiversity hotspots: the Hengduan Mountains. This hotspot occurs at the juncture of mountain systems where precipitation can vary tremendously due to a combination of topography, climate, and hydrology. The terrain forms topographic channels that funnel seasonal monsoon rains up through the river valleys from the lowland tropics of southern China, India, and Myanmar (Burma) to the southeastern edge of the 5,000-plus-meter-high (16,400-plus-feet) Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. The region also receives vast amounts of water from the five major rivers that drain the plateau: the Yarlung Zangbo Jiang (which becomes the Brahmaputra in India and the Jamuna in Bangladesh); the Ayayerwaddy (Irrawaddy); Nu Jiang (Salween); Lancang Jiang (Mekong); and Jinsha Jiang (known in the West as the Yangtze, and
ASIAN HIGHLANDS PERSPECTIVES #60 (2021)
ASIAN HIGHLANDS PERSPECTIVES, 2021
Kelsang Norbu (guest editor) and Caixiangduojie 才项多杰 & Rinchen Dorje 仁青多杰 (editors). [1] The Fulaan Bulog 'Red Springs' and the Mongol Presence in the Huzhu Tu (Mongghul) Area, Qinghai Province, PR China by Limusishiden, Susan Dan Su, JA Janhunen, Kelsang Norbu, and Chuluu Ujiyediin' [2] An A mdo Smyung gnas: Yo lag Tibetan Community, Thun rin (Reb gong, Tongren) City, Mtsho sngon (Qinghai) Province, PR China by Pad+ma rig 'dzin; [3] Multilingualism and Language Attitudes in Wuji Village, Hainan Province, PR China by Fu Qidu; Review Article: The Amnye Ma-Chhen Range and Adjacent Region by Joseph Rock by Nyangchakja; [5] Photo Essay: Tibetan Women's Ornaments in Rgyab Lung (Jialong) Village, Rta nag ma (Heimahe) Township, Mtsho sngon (Qinghai) Province, PR China by Sgrol ma yag; [6] The Chig bdag Organization of Rkang Tsha Herding Community, Mtsho shar (Haidong) City, Mtsho sngon (Qinghai) Province, PR China by Blo bzang; Tibetan Camel Packing in Chu ring (Qurang) Community, Gser chen (Gonghe) County, Mtsho lho (Hainan) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Mtsho sngon (Qinghai) Province, PR China by Skal bzang tshe brtan; [8] My Uncle's Passing: A Tibetan Funeral in Rig smon (Daotanghe) Town, Gser chen (Gonghe) County, Mtsho lho (Hainan) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Mtsho sngon (Qinghai) Province, PR China by Sangs rgyas tshe ring; [9] Tibetan Mothers of Three Generations: A Hundred-Year-Old Necklace by Tshe dbang rdo rje and 'Brug mo skyid; [10] My Precious 100-year-old Tibetan Turquoise Bead: A Gift from my Great-Grandmother by Mgon thar skyid; [11] Lha sgron (b. 1946): A Tibetan Elder Reflects on Ornaments and Life by Rdo rje dpal 'byor; [12] Tshe ring mtsho's (b. 1920) Flight from Mgo log (Guoluo) in the 1930s by Pad ma don grub; [13] A mdo Tibetan Herders Travel to Thailand, Singapore, and Malaysia for Twelve Days (2016) by Rdo rje dpal 'byor; [14] Mȵewzambəmʂʨət: A Dpa' ris (Huarui) Tibetan Folktale by Song Zhanfeng, Song Zhanhui, and Jiuxijie; [15] Two Mangghuer (Tu, Monguor, Mongghul) Wedding Songs (2008) from Minhe County, Qinghai Province, PR China by Wen Xiangcheng; [16] Seven Namuyi Tibetan Siblings: WeChat Group Conversation by Li Jianfu; [17] A mdo Tibetan Folklore from Mgo mang (Guomaying) Town, Mang ra (Guinan) County, Mtsho lho (Hainan) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Mtsho sngon (Qinghai) Province, PR China by G.yang skyabs rdo rje; [18] The Last Mongghul Plowman in 2019: Huzhu County, Qinghai Province, PR China by Limusishiden; [19] "Soul Emancipation!" WeChat in Rural Mongghul (Tu) Areas of Huzhu County, Qinghai Province, PR China by Limusishiden; [20] The Last Mongghul Herdsman on the Kuushinzhang Alpine Pasture, Huzhu County, Qinghai Province, PR China by Limusishiden; [21] Wushisan: Mongghul (TU) Earrings and Tobacco Pipes in Huzhu County, Qinghai Province, PR China by Limusishiden; [22] Seven Years by Gu ru 'phrin las; [23] The Patron by Gu ru 'phrin las; [24] An Abandoned House by Gu ru 'phrin las; [25] A New Family by Gu ru 'phrin las; [26] Searching Pockets by Blo bzang; [27] Snack by Blo bzang; [28] Review: The Secret Tale of Tesur House by Brag gdong bkras gling dbang rdor - Reviewed by Pad+ma rig 'dzin; [29] Review: Qing Mu Chuan 'Greenwood Riverside' by Ye Guangq - Reviewed by Wu Jing and Ma Xiuhua; and [30] Review: How Far is Chinese Social Science from Science? by Qiao Xiaochun - Reviewed by Lugyal Bum.
Nordic Journal of …, 2009
This paper aimed to explore the division of the southern and northern Hengduan Mountains based on gradients in species similarity and richness, and to analyze species richness in each sub-region. The Hengduan Mountain region was divided into nine latitudinal belts using one degree of latitude to define the belt after which distribution of seed plants within each latitudinal belt was recorded. Latitudinal patterns of species similarity were measured using the Jaccard similarity index for each pair of adjacent latitudinal belts. Non-metric multidimentional scaling (NMDS) was also used to analyze the similarity in species composition among the nine latitudinal belts. The latitudinal pattern of species similarity and the NMDS ordination both showed a great change in species composition across the 298N latitudinal line, essentially dividing the Hengduan Mountain region into southern and northern sub-regions. Species richness, shown by the c-value of the speciesÁarea power function, and speciesÁarea ratio along a latitudinal gradient both showed a sharp decrease across the latitudinal belt from 2980? to 29859?N. The southern sub-region occupied 40% of the total area of the Hengduan Moutain region, but contained more than 80% of all the seed plants in the region. The higher species richness and endemism in the southern sub-region showed it to be the core of the Hengduan biodiversity hotspot, a result not unexpected because of the greater extremes of topography and wider diversity of habitats in the southern portion.
ASIAN HIGHLANDS PERSPECTIVES VOLUME 44.pdf
The Dong World: A Proposal for Analyzing the Highlands Between the Yangzi Valley and the Southeast Asian Lowlands (James A. Anderson and John K. Whitmore); The Tibetan A rig Tribe in Rma lho (Henan) Mongolian Autonomous County (Phun tshogs dbang rgyal and Qi Huimin); Development of Daohua: Social Contexts of a Chinese-Tibetan Creole (Litong Chen); Teaching in the Trenches: What One Can Do in Amdo (Mar me tshe 'bar); Bilingual Education in Amdo - Khri ka Nationalities Boarding School (Tshe dpal rdo rje); A Mongghul Evil Expelling Whip (Limusishiden); The Vitality of Khams Tibetan Varieties in Weixi County (Hiroyuki Suzuki); Two Traditional Stau Stories (Sami Honkasalo); Two Mangghuer Stories (Qi Xiaofang and Keith W Slater); Little Boy With a Walking Stick: Who is Responsible? (Sangs rgyas bkra shis); Mtsho lho Childhood Memories 1995-2010 (Skal bzang tshe brtan); Filmmaker: Khashem gyal; Filmmaker: Gu ru 'phrins las; Dpal rgyal: Artist and Photographer (Klu thar rgyal).
ASIAN HIGHLANDS PERSPECTIVES 63 (2023)
ASIAN HIGHLANDS PERSPECTIVES, 2023
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AHP 35: Asian Highlands Perspectives
Volume 35 of Asian Highlands Perspectives features four articles ranging from studies of yurts, camels and marmots, to Sinophone Tibetan author Alai. It also includes three pieces of short fiction by Nima Gyamtsan, Huatse Gyal, and Limusishiden, as well as seven book reviews.
Do Mountains Kill States? Exploring the diversity of Southeast Asian highland communities
Journal of Global History, 2023
Mountains and highlands are not what scholars have conventionally imagined them to be: environments that limit and constrain their inhabitants in deterministic ways. Rather, mountains and highlands provide unique opportunities for people to engage in creative transformation of their societies. Highland communities are connected to a wider world, and they radically remake and experiment with their landscapes, settlements, and societies. Mountains serve as birthplaces and testing grounds for statecraft, urbanism, irrigation, and monumental landscape engineering. Here we explore the diversity of highland communities by analysing the latest archaeological and historical discoveries from three regions across Southeast Asia: the Kulen mountains (Cambodia), the volcanoes of central Java (Indonesia), and the Ifugao highlands (the Philippines). We find that, far from being a negative image of the 'civilized' lowlands, mountains were creative, diverse, dynamic, and well-connected places. This compels us to change the way we conceive of today's highland communities and their relationships to modern nation-states.
Modern descriptions of Tibetan border regions often construct a simple binary opposition between the Chinese state and Tibetan institutions. Those supporting Beijing's version of history usually sketch a description of the steady and ineluctable expansion of Chinese civilization and sovereignty. Others, critical of Chinese governmental policies in the region, use the same opposition to contrast the modern reality with a romantic vision of a past in which Tibetans lived in harmony with nature. Jack Patrick Hayes has taken a closer look at the history of the Songpan region, and his analysis reveals something entirely different from either of these over-simplistic visions. Relying on provincial archives, local histories, journals written by both Chinese and foreign travelers, technical studies by geographers and scientists, and his own interviews with local state actors, Hayes undertakes "a kind of Geertzian thick description" (xviii) to "analyze the array of local, national, individual, and collective interests that shaped the struggle for control of the land and its resources" (xix).
Habitat Variability and Ethnic Diversity in Northern Tibetan Plateau
Scientific reports, 2017
There are 56 officially-recognized ethnic groups in China. However, the distinct geographic patterns of various ethnic groups in relation to the physical environment in China have rarely been investigated. Based on the geo-referenced physical environmental parameters of 455 Han, Tu, Hui, Salar, Mongolian, and Tibetan communities in Qinghai, we found that the communities could be statistically demarcated by temperature and aridity threshold according to their ethnicity, implying that the geographic distribution of each ethnic group is mediated by the physical environment. We also observed that the habitat of each ethnic group is ecologically compatible with current subsistence strategies. Tibetans settle in cold and humid high-altitude regions owing to the cultivation of highland barley and the breeding of yak, dzo, Tibetan sheep and Tibetan goat. Mongolians survive by animal husbandry in cold and dry grassland areas. Han and Tu people settle in the Huangshui River Valley, which offe...