HIMALAYA - The Journal of the Association for Nepal and Himalayan Studies

Editorial

Michael T. Heneise — 2023-12-20

Writing with Care

Harmandeep Kaur Gill — 2023-12-20

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The Politics and Poetics of Himalayan Lives

Sienna R. Craig — 2023-12-20

Amulets as Infrastructure

Heidi E. Fjeld — 2023-12-20

This article explores the use of amulets on children’s bodies, drawing on empirical examples from Mugum in western Nepal and theoretical insights from anthropology of personhood, kinship and infrastructure. Taking four-year old Tashi and his family in Mugum as a starting point, we show how the status of toddlers and small children is “extraordinary”; they are physically fragile, emotionally uncontrolled, and weakly connected, and in need of special protection. In the complex transition to ordinary personhood, amulets serve as one of many “technologies of protection” for children (Garrett 2013, 189). We suggest that amulets act as a stable infrastructure that enables a hope for children to live ordinary lives, and argue that the significance of these means of protection intersects closely with notions of marginality.

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Tibetan Writing from the Socio-linguistic Margins of Tibet

Theresia Hofer — 2023-12-20

Through the writings of Tashi and Yangzom, two young deaf Tibetans, and my narrative of our encounters during ethnographic fieldwork at the Lhasa Special School (LSS) in 2016-2017, this article explores their lives, the role of and their views on the Tibetan language. While their writings reproduce important state-endorsed categories for disabled people in China (Kohrman 2005) and of the state’s ‘civilizing project’ of deaf Tibetans (Hofer and Sagli 2017), they also creatively challenge, critique and ultimately escape those terms and categories through their writings and through the creation of novel, meaningful social networks. Their use of written Tibetan in WeChat posts and their desires expressed therein for strengthening of Tibetan literacy among deaf Tibetans stand out; they are also in stark contrast to those of most other deaf Tibetans and the trend of literacy in the Tibetan language being increasingly considered “useless”, even by educated, urban-based Tibetan parents under duress of coercive state structures (Leibold and Dorjee 2023). I examine and draw on anthropological, analytical concepts of ‘margins’ and ‘marginality’ (Das and Poole, 2004; Tsing, 1994) to make sense of this phenomenon and to look at the role of Tibetan language in moving in and out of various positions on the socio-linguistic margins of Tibet and China. By using written Tibetan and asking for support and the strengthening of literacy in written Tibetan for young deaf Tibetans, Tashi and Yangzom are able to join a wider Tibetan language-related activism (Robin 2014a, Roche 2021), can “practice hope” (Mattingly 2010) and experience meaningful senses of belonging beyond those envisioned and created by the Chinese state.

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Working Out in “Sunlight Happiness Gym”

Anne Kukuczka — 2023-12-20

What might it mean to strive for well-being and a viable life in Lhasa, the capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR)? What are the temporal rhythms of urban life for government-employed Tibetan women in their mid-twenties? This article engages with these questions by foregrounding seemingly mundane activities related to fitness and sport as they are experienced by Yangkyi and Tselha, two highly educated government workers in their mid-20s. It draws on seven months of ethnographic research, followed up by communication on social media, to examine the everyday routines and concerns of the two women, exploring how “Sunlight Happiness Gym,” a high-end fitness studio catering to the city’s growing middle classes, emerged as significant in their efforts to be well. The article shows how working out created its own temporal rhythms for Yangkyi and Tselha and opened up potentials for self-making that were more difficult to create in other domains of their lives. By demonstrating that, for Yangkyi and Tselha, ideas and practices of well-being, self-care, and fitness get intertwined through going to the gym, I argue that working out plays an important part in their attempts to create joy, meaningful relationships, and a viable life in an environment characterized by often overwhelming structural conditions.

Resistance to Marriage, Family Responsibilities, and Mobility

Geoff Childs — 2023-12-20

Tsering, the eldest of three daughters in a sonless household, was designated to perpetuate the family by marrying a matrilocally resident husband. She did not like the chosen man and thus decided, against her family’s wishes, to remain single. Tsering was subsequently caught up in the destruction of Tibet’s religious institutions and social order during the Cultural Revolution. As border dwellers, her family escaped to Nepal when persecution became too intense, but then returned once the situation stabilized. Because Tsering’s mother decided to remain in Nepal, she accepted her duty of caring for an aging parent and never returned to her natal village. Tsering’s life story sheds light on the nexus of gender, social status, and mobility among Tibetan commoners during the turbulent mid-twentieth century. It underscores how women in Kyidrong had agency, albeit the consequences of resisting marital expectations could be substantial even in a society where female non-marriage was both common and acceptable.

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Thuenlam

Ulrike Čokl — 2023-12-20

In this article, I introduce selected aspects of the concept and practice of thuenlam (མཐུན་ལམ) in Bhutan, the local term for maintaining ‘harmonious relations’. Most Bhutanese consider thuenlam an important prerequisite for successful co-existence and co-operation within society. I describe the views and experiences of my three Bhutanese fellow travelers on the way from Shingkhar, a village in Bumthang (Central Bhutan), to Zhongmay, a village in Lhuentse (Eastern Bhutan). While trekking along the ancient footpath that connected both valleys, I explore the different ways my companions keep thuenlam with a variety of neypo (གནས་པོ hosts) through the exchange of food and drink, gifts, and services. I furthermore draw on my interviews with Bumthap villagers and my field notes resulting from living and traveling with Bhutanese over many years. This account includes my perspective as a researcher who depends on the hospitality framework to establish thuenlam in the field. Hence, drawing on four years of dissertation research and over 23 years of familiarity with Bhutan, I focus on the informal etiquette, beyzhag (འབད་བཞག) and hosting traditions of day-to-day village life rather than the formalized and codified etiquette of driglam namzhag (སྒྲིག་ལམ་རྣམ་གཞག), the official Bhutanese code of conduct. Both nurture various types of thuenlam in society: the former, informal practices are organic and transmitted within the family and community; the latter, mandatory during official events and settings are taught at schools and in specialized courses.

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Tsering

Cameron David Warner — 2023-12-20

This is an ethnographic portrait of Tsering, a Tibetan refugee who is seeking asylum in France under a false name, age, and marriage. The portrait is assembled and disassembled through employing three successive perspectives: first, second, and third persons. In sum, this multiple portrait challenges the notions of the relationship between selfhood and authenticity as Tsering asserts that her truest self is an inauthentic one, that comes into view when three factors emerge in dependence upon each other: being Tibetan, being a refugee, and being mutable. Tsering's articulation of her selfhood is compared to Buddhist notions of dependent origination in order to question when and how anthropologists of Tibet and the Himalayas utilize culturally derived explanatory frameworks such as “near concepts.” Finally, Tsering and her daughters' concerns for the ethics of their inauthenticity are viewed in light of Buddhist arguments for the relationship between dependent origination and compassion.

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གལ་སྲིད་ང་རང་གཞན་ཡུལ་དུ་ཤི་ན། - "If I were to die in exile" and སུ་ཡིས? - 'Who would?"

Kunchok Rabten — 2023-12-20

The poems offer an intimate meditation on the author`s experience of being seperated from his homeland of Tibet and family members there. Both poems center around the possible scenario of dying in exile and never seeing his beloved homeland and loved ones again.

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Cotton Singers

Tsering Wangmo Dhompa — 2023-12-20

A poem

Old Tibetan Hands

Harmandeep Kaur Gill — 2023-12-20

Hands bear memories, embodying the weight of personal histories. The hands of the first generation of Tibetans escaping into exile carry stories of hardship and struggle. In old age, these hands are finally allowed to rest. However, many of the elderly Tibetans find themselves aging in the absence of love and support from family members. Hands that had once cared for others and the world, have for many, been left to themselves in old age. This photo essay hopes to connect the readers to the stories of my elderly Tibetan friends who are lay women and men, and monastics of a lower rank living in the Tibetan exile capital of Dharamsala, northern India. During my fieldwork, I reached out to them with my hands by massaging their legs and feet on a daily basis for 14 months. Through the act of massaging – touch – physical and emotional, connected us to one another. By combining words and photography on hands and the elderly’s surroundings, I also hope to aid the reader with getting in touch with the silence or loneliness that surrounded the elderly’s everyday lives.

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Stories are Reasons

Sienna R. Craig — 2023-12-20

Review of Anthropological Perspectives on Education in Nepal: Educational Transformations and Avenues of Learning edited by Karen Valentin and Uma Pradhan

Mark Condra — 2023-12-20

Review of Places in Knots: Remoteness and Connectivity in the Himalayas and Beyond by Martin Saxer

Abhimanyu Pandey — 2023-12-20

Review of Himālaya: Exploring the Roof of the World by John Keay

Vineet Gairola — 2023-12-20