Battle for Fortune

Charlene Makley

Description

In a deeply ethnographic appraisal, based on years of in situ research, The Battle for Fortune looks at the rising stakes of Tibetans' encounters with Chinese state-led development projects in the early 2000s. The book builds upon anthropology's qualitative approach to personhood, power and space to rethink the premises and consequences of economic development campaigns in China's multiethnic northwestern province of Qinghai.Charlene Makley considers Tibetans' encounters with development projects as first and foremost a historically situated interpretive politics, in which people negotiate the presence or absence of moral and authoritative persons and their associated jurisdictions and powers. Because most Tibetans believe the active presence of deities and other invisible beings has been the ground of power, causation, and fertile or fortunate landscapes, Makley also takes divine beings seriously, refusing to relegate them to a separate, less consequential, "religious" or "premodern" world. The Battle for Fortune, therefore challenges readers to grasp the unique reality of Tibetans' values and fears in the face of their marginalization in China. Makley uses this approach to encourage a more multidimensional and dynamic understanding of state-local relations than mainstream accounts of development and unrest that portray Tibet and China as a kind of yin-and-yang pair for models of statehood and development in a new global order.

Sujets

• Histoire
• Tíbet
• Tibetan Buddhism
• History of Asia
• Tibet

Informations

• Publié par: Cornell University Press
• Date de parution: 15 mai 2018
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781501719653
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 14 Mo

Extrait

THE BATTLE FOR FORTUNE

Studies of the Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University

The Studies of the Weatherhead East Asian Institute of Columbia University were inaugurated in 1962 to bring to a wider public the results of significant new research on modern and contemporary East Asia.

THEBATTLE FOR FORTUNE

STATE-LED DE VE LOPME NT, PE RSONHOOD, AND POWE R AMONG T I BE TANS I N CHI NA

Charlene M a k l e y

CORNELLUNIVERSITYPRESS Ithaca and London

Copyright © 2018 by Cornell University

All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, address Cornell University Press, Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850.Visit our website at cornellpress.cornell.edu.

First published 2018 by Cornell University Press

Printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Makley, Charlene E., 1964– author. Title: The battle for fortune: state-led development, personhood, and power among Tibetans in China / Charlene Makley. Description: Ithaca : Cornell University Press, 2018. | Series: Studies of the Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2017039231 (print) | LCCN 2017040967 (ebook) | ISBN 9781501719653 (pdf ) | ISBN 9781501719660 (epub/mobi) | ISBN 9781501719646 (cloth : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781501719677 (pbk. : alk. paper) Subjects: LCSH: Tibetans—China—Reb-gong Gser-mo- ljongs—Social conditions—21st century. | Tibetans— China—Reb-gong Gser-mo-ljongs—Economic conditions—21st century. | Reb-gong Gser-mo-ljongs (China)—Ethnic relations. | Reb-gong Gser-mo-ljongs (China)—Politics and government—21st century. Classification: LCC DS797.82.R43 (ebook) | LCC DS797.82.R43 M34 2018 (print) | DDC 951/.5—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017039231

Cover image: A mountain deity inhabiting a human medium dances at a village harvest festival, July 2008. Photograph by Charlene Makley.

in the words of

For the Rebgong Tibetan community, the song I heard often at the close of festive gatherings:

the great Tibetan people of this coolTo the native lands of snow mountain region, And especially to Rebgong, the origin of wisdom, May the auspiciousness of timely rain and excellent harvests come, Toallthesnowlandregionsmaytheauspiciousnessof increase in wealth come, Mayallhaveabundantprosperityandhappiness!

And for Cain, my partner in all things

Co nte nts

List of Illustrationsix Acknowledgmentsxi List of Abbreviationsxv Note on Languagexvii

 Introduction: Olympic Time and Dilemmas of Development in China’s Tibet 1. The Dangers of the Gift Master 2. The Mountain Deity and the State: Voice, Deity Mediumship, and Land Expropriation in Jima Village 3. Othering Spaces, Cementing Treasure: Concrete, Money, and the Politics of Value in Kharnak Village School 4. The Melodious Sound of the Right- Turning Conch: Historiography and Buddhist Counterdevelopment in Langmo Village 5. Spectacular Compassion: “Natural” Disasters, National Mourning, and the Unquiet Dead  Epilogue: The Kindly Solemn Face of the Female Buddha

Notes253 References287 Index313

1 27

67

105

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236

Illustrations

 1. Olympics countdown clock, Tianamen Square, Beijing, 2005  2. Map of Tibetan regions in the PRC  3.Rebgong Culturemagazine cover with Palden Lhamo, 2007  4. Rongbo Monastery and Shartshang Palace, 2007  5. Foreign donors at Tibetan school opening, Rebgong, 2005  6. Shachong painting, Jima temple, 2007  7. Longwu town and abandoned fields, 2007  8. Tshering’s voice shifts  9. Rebgong main valley floor and fields, 1990 10. Deity medium personas 11. Dorje and the lama Shartshang, 2007 12. View of Upper Narrows and villages, 2008 13. Kharnak school wall 1990s quality slogan 14. Xining billboard, 2005 15. Artist’s fantasy of ideal Tibetan boarding school 16. Donor money lovingly displayed with offering scarves, Kharnak school meeting, 2008 17. Treasure bundle prepped for placing in gate concrete, 2008 18. Painted walls slogan, 2011 19. Billboard artist’s fantasy of ideal urban settlement, 2011 20. Dorje Gyap contemplates former communal lands, 2008 21. Photo of the third Arol Tshang, Lobzang Longdok, displayed in elder’s home, 2007 22. Abandoned peak village, 2008 23. Location of Tibetan protests relative to Sichuan earthquake, 2008 24. Premier Wen Jiabao comforts crying orphan girl, 2008 25.BenettonColorsmagazine centerfold ad, 2008

2 6 28 42 63 68 73 82 92 94 101 107 109 128 130

141 144 151 161 179

182 193

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