Territorial cults as a paradigm of place reclaiming and nature conservation among the Tibetan farmers and nomads of the three main regions (chol-khar gsum) of Tibet.
John Studley Summary Historically territorial cults1 were common among lay Tibetans and epitomised association with a particular locality and formed an important part of religious life and Tibetan identity. They have, however, acquired new significance in contemporary Tibet and “play a role in affirming identity” (Karmay 1998, 447). They are one of the main ways in which place comes to have a direct bearing on the identity of individuals and communities. This appears to be equally true of a single place or as a common reference for all Tibetan people (Buffetrille and Diemberger 2002).
Territorial cults are not protected under Chinese law and would be considered a despised form of “superstition”. However as a spontaneously recovered folk practice they lie outside the scope of state control (Schwartz 1994) and parallel the revival of folk religion in rural China (Lai 2003).
This phenomenon is illustrated in this chapter from cognitive research the author conducted in Eastern Kham which provides evidence that place attachment is not only important to most Tibetans but that territorial cults are an integral part of place reclaiming in the face of the civilizing propensities of outsiders
INTRODUCTION
“Attachment to place is profound, ongoing and dynamic, and an understanding of, cultural landscapes offers an invaluable opportunity to address issues relating to social, spiritual and ecological alienation and disenfranchisement in rural areas, and among local and ethnic people” (PAP undated). Specific qualities of landscape infuse a site with a sense of place (physical and spiritual) that has been forged and maintained out of a very intimate relationship and place-attachment between indigenous people and their “topocosm”. (Norton and Hannon 1997; Gaster 1961, 17) As a complex multidimensional phenomenon sense of place, has not been holistically defined in the literature (Jorgensen and Stedman 2006). There is some agreement, however, that sense of place addresses:-
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“Relations, perceptions, attitudes, values, and a world view that affectively attaches people and place” (Yan Xu 1995)
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“Experiential, toponymic, numinous and narrative” elements (Raffan, 1992, 379)
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“Biophysical, psychological, socio-cultural, political and economic” dimensions. (Ardoin 2006, 112)
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“Cognitive, affective (emotional) and conative (behavioural)” components” (Casakin and Billig 2009, 821)
There is agreement that any loss of sense of place can result in “humiliation, distress, alienation and rootlessness” (Yan Xu 1995).
Place attachment is integral to sense of place (Cajete 1995) and the literature on forestry, post-modernity and environmental psychology places an emphasis on place attachment in the following contexts:•
Where national or group identity is bound to the environment, either specific forests or landscapes or idealized or imagined ones (Gupta and Ferguson 1997).
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As part of a post-modern turn to 'other' forest values that recognizes attachment to place and may be linked to local wisdom (Feld and Basso 1996).
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Where peoples, their cultures or environments are threatened or their identity deterritorialized (Mackenzie 2002).
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In response to research in conservation psychology (Bott, Cantrill and Myers 2003)
In terms of this chapter the focus is primarily on place attachment among Tibetans where natural resources have been expropriated and the importance of place attachment in relation to numinous territories.
The introduction of natural resource interventions and environmental transformation, to say nothing of land occupation, affect not only local attitudes but also levels of place identity and place attachment. This is caused because of strong "territorial" implications when interventions are imposed by "outsiders" and a perceived lack of local "control" and "discontinuity" (Bonaiuto et al 2002, 639). Local people respond in a number of different ways, some will manifest negative attitudes and opposition towards the authorities, especially if there is a perceived political threat to local identity, which may lead to violence or the break down of society (Turnbull 1984). Others, however, are
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able to react, as a coping strategy, by increasing their level of identification with their own group and by increasing group cohesion, sense of place and place attachment
It is important, in the context of this chapter, to understand the distinction between place and location. Despite their mobility, migratory peoples often have a strong sense of place. A Tibetan nomad or Romani camp is a place, which is re-established in many separate locations (Langer 1953). The placement of Tibetan tents in a yul or Romani caravans in an atchin tan can create a sense of constant place-orientation at multiple locations. It would appear that 'place-bonding' (Proshansky 1978) emerges primarily from an interaction of cultural and natural setting and may function 'transpatially' (Feldman 1990) with loyalty to types of place or 'place congruity' (Hull 1992).
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Whilst the Tibetan peoples have had a strong sense of national and cultural identity throughout much of their history (Karmay 1996) what bound them together was not an allegiance to one temporal authority, but certain commonalties of culture, religion and identity.
These commonalities were expressed in animistic and shamanistic territorial cults presided over by a yul-lha (territorial divinity). These cults epitomise association with a particular place and form an important part of the religious life of most Tibetan communities.
Tibetan farmers and nomads have had to continually remake place and maintain belonging in the face of exogenous forces that have attempted to assimilate their beliefs and culture. This process began in response to the arrival of Tibetan Buddhism on the Tibetan plateau in the seventh century AD. It was exacerbated by: “Confucianization” (Doniger 1999 259) during the Qing dynasty2 (1644–1912), “Hanification” (Leibold 2005 193) during the Republican era (1912 -1949) and later still by Communism (from 1949), the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) and from 1987 the “Socialist market economy” (Fabbri 2006, 1).
In spite of attempts by Buddhism, Confucianism and Communism to obliterate the yullha cults they have survived to this day among disparate communities who live in the three regions of Tibet, in nomadic camps and among the diaspora3.
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Photo 1: Tibetan nomads living in the Obala valley in Eastern Kham
THE BASIS OF TIBETAN IDENTITY
During the Imperial Period (ca 7th to 9th centuries AD) Tibetans had a strong sense of national and cultural identity. They were proud of Tibet because of the uniqueness of its geographical location, geographical identity and folk customs. These was eulogised in the literature celebrating its topographic location, its natural beauty, purity and wildness, as an abode of the gods and its centrality in relationship to India, Iran, Turkistan, and Han China (Karmay 1994).
The folk customs associated with territorial numina (yul lha) were an essential element in Tibetan life and are place-based. They were fundamental for maintaining “sense of place” and collective identity expressed in cultural, economic and political behaviour (Blondeau et al 2003) and a spiritually based ecological mind-set.
Throughout much of their history what bound the Tibetan peoples was not an allegiance to one temporal authority, but certain commonalties of culture, religion and “Tibetanness” (Anand 2000, 271) which formed the basis of Tibetan “ethnie” (Hutchinson and Smith 1996, 6). Smith (1996) argues that ethnicity is not the same as race or nationality and is usually characterised by
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an ethnonym
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a belief in common descent and historical destiny
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a set of physical and/or cultural features shared historical memories
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a sense of collective solidarity
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an association with a territory (place) or homeland
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a unique genetic profile
All these common identity elements are present today in varying degrees in: the three regions of Tibet, in nomadic camps, and among the Tibetan diaspora.
In terms of commonalities of culture and religion most lay Tibetans participate in territorial (yul-lha) cults. Theses cults epitomise association with a particular place and form an important part of the religious life of most Tibetan communities. The powerful sense of local belonging and identity, engendered by belonging to a “cult” has to be manufactured and maintained on a regular basis (Ramble 1997).
The yul lha are protective deities associated with specific clans, who come under their protection, and who bestow honour and blessing on the territory, people, and political leadership (Diemberger 2002). They are numinous divinities who inhabit biophysical features of the landscape and are 'controlled' by a lha pa or 'shaman/medium'. The lha pa are responsible for maintaining harmony between humanity, the spirit world and nature. If the harmony is broken, the yul lha will allow malevolent numina to harm humankind with illness, floods, or crop failure.
The rites associated with yul lha do not involve Buddhist clergy, and represents a supremely important element underlying Tibetan identity. The yul-lha is worshipped as an ancestral and territorial divinity to ensure personal protection, the security of territory and abundance of resources. Yul lha rituals take place daily at home and during communal mountain rituals which usually take place annually and are in sharp contrast to the Buddhist veneration of specific holy mountains
Yul-lha worship attract Tibetan lay people and are concerned with the immediate or the immanent world through the use of rituals and often with the assistance of a lha pa.
Typically during the communal rituals the yul-lha are honoured and appeased through the building of wooden or stone cairns (Photo 2) on mountain or hillsides which are annually constructed in ceremonies varying according to the lunar calendar. The rituals include fumigation offerings, the scattering of wind horses, the planting of prayer flags or arrows and prayer to the yul-lha. Through invocation geospatially discrete territory is •
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evoked by the geographically ordered naming of land deities
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“renuminized” (Martins 2002, 99) linking sacred and political territory with physical correlates (Bauer 2009)
The aim of the ritual is to restore relationship between the community and the yul lha and consists of both offering and requests. The worshippers call on the yul lha for personal protection, the realization of ambitions and fortune, the subduing of enemies, success in hunting and to ask forgiveness for any environmental degradation (Gross 1997). They regard the yul lha as a provider of blessing, glory, honour, fame, prosperity, power, and progeny for the people and their political and religious leadership. During the year the yul-lha circumnavigates the territory defining the community’s boundaries and resources.
Participation in such a ritual implies total integration into the community, which in turn implies inherited social and political obligations, moral and individual responsibility, and an affirmation of communal solidarity in the face of external aggression. In lay Tibetan culture, community is tied to a definite geospatial territory (Bauer 2009).
Photo 2: A la-btsas where yul-lha are honoured and territory numinized
CULTURAL THREAT AND REVITALIZATION
Throughout the history of Tibet there have been three main “civilizing” projects; Buddhism, Confucianism and Communism which have undermined place attachment and identity and have prompted lay Tibetans to repeatedly reclaim place.
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The emergence of a powerful centralized Tibetan monarchy patronizing Buddhist monasticism dates from the seventh century AD. During the course of two hundred years this monarchy expanded the frontiers of Tibet from western China to Kashmir and northward into Central Asia, but often to the detriment of indigenous culture and folk religion. This ongoing process of “Buddhization” (Buffetrille 1998, 18-34) has resulted in:•
the unseating of nobles and adherents of indigenous animistic beliefs who migrated southward to take refuge in the Himalaya where they established semi-autonomous kingdoms (Ives and Messerli 1989).
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the “taming” (Chan 1994, 297) of indigenous divinities
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the cultural assimilation of animistic peoples
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the transformation of gender constructs (Studley 2010a)
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the cultural transformation of nature (Buffetrille 1998)
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the “denuminization” (Martins 2002, 99) of mountains and forests
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god loss (Humphreys 1954, 79) and soul loss (Gross 1997: Karmay 1998).
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a loss of national identity and any sense of belonging (Karmay 1994)
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the deterritorializing and displacement of yul-lha (Ramble 2008, 192)
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the undermining of Tibetan selfhood (Tsering Shakya 2000, 30)
Buddhization has been augmented by official Han discourse (Confucianism, Communism and Atheistic Socialism) which has further undermined indigenous culture and folk religion, which are addressed elsewhere (Studley 2005).
It was not until the 1980’s, possibly as a result of the failures of assimilation that official discourse providing some space for the recovery of folk practices. This shift was informed by •
new nationality policies of "ethnic pluralism" [1982] and "autonomy" [1984]
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a conference in Shanghai [1984] that announced that there was no contradiction between religion and socialism
As a result many ethnic traditions, clan systems and customs were re-vitalised and celebrated (Harrell 2001) and a profound nativization of culture began to take place. Revitalization became significant not only as cultural and religious expressions, but as a way to contest the atheist ideology of the Chinese Communist Party as well as the technocratic ‘place-making’ strategies of the Chinese state.
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We find evidence (Studley 2005) of cultural revival among the Yao, Dai, Miao, Naxi, Mosuo, Pumi and Yi people and among the Tibetans expressed in Buddhism, Visionary movements, Millennialism, Animism/Shamanism, Territorial Cults and Epic Literature. Yunnan’s Yi peoples responded immediately by changing the status of their bimo priests from "feudal superstitious practitioner" to "ethnic intellectual" and the Tibetans revitalized their territorial cults (Barnett 1994). For the Tibetans the revival of yul-lha took on additional meanings as a way to reclaim places as ‘Tibetan” (Kolas 2004).
The evidence of cultural revival is not only documented in the literature but the following case study demonstrates that when manifest through territorial cults it: exhibits historic continuity of ritual performance, provides a platform for reinventing place and enhancing identity, provides an exemplar of explicit bio-cultural sustainability and it provides a means of defiance and ritual protest against oppression (Studley 2005)
THE CASE OF EASTERN KHAM
Kham is one of the most unique biological regions on earth. It is situated at the eastern end of the Himalaya between Qinghai-Tibetan plateau and China, comprising one of the three major regions of Tibet. The region constitutes about 4% of China’s land area, includes seven mountain ranges and comprises Western and Eastern Kham (Map 1).
Map 1: Regional map of Tibet showing Eastern Kham crosshatched and Tibetan regional (and sub-regional) toponyms in italics
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Kham’s spectacular north-south mountain ridges sandwiched between deep river gorges contain the most diverse vascular plant flora of any region of comparable size in the temperate zone, and almost half of China’s flowering plant species. Identified as one of 25 biodiversity hotspots on earth4, this vast region, covering 414,400 sq km, contains over 12,000 species of vascular plants, including 3,500 species which are found nowhere else. Although some botanical exploration has been conducted, the region has never been fully inventoried because of the sensitive political environment and the rugged terrain, which makes much of the area difficult to traverse.
Elevations range from 1000m to over 7556m with a mean elevation of 3500m. Four of Asia’s largest rivers5 flow through the region, which originate on the 5000m high Qinghai-Tibetan plateau and are of great economic importance. However, external impact on the region is increasing and poses a threat to Tibetan culture and religion, threatening not only the diversity of flora and fauna, but also the survival of indigenous cultures that define the area.
The region bears the strong imprint of Tibetan Buddhism and folk religion, evident in the large temple complexes, prayer flags, festivals, shaman (Photo 3) and numina associated with sacred landscape features. Sacred mountains punctuate the landscape and they are unique in that their forests have not been logged.
Photo 3: A Mosuo daba near Lugu Lake in SE Kham
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Peoples of eastern Kham Of the nearly 5 million “Tibetans” living in China, approximately 2 million speak Kham, which is quite distinct from the Kham spoken in mid-western Nepal. The Khambas inhabit a vast area but are primarily concentrated for political and historic reasons in western Sichuan Province, a large portion of eastern Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), parts of southern Qinghai Province and parts of Northern Yunnan. The eastern Kham language is by far the largest of the Kham varieties with possibly 1.2 million speakers. It is reported to have eight dialects and 80% of it is lexically similar to central Tibetan.
There are also about 250,000 Qiangic speaking peoples and 400,000 Nosu (Yi) peoples in Eastern Kham. The Qiangic speaking peoples are classified by the state as “Tibetan” because of their culture, customs and beliefs6. In common with the Khamba they are animistic/ shamanistic as well as Tibetan Buddhist, and burn incense and honour mountain gods at yearly festivals. They may speak Khamba as a second or third language, and are often matrilineal7.
The Khamba have a fearsome reputation as the most hostile and violent of Tibetans. They have been described as tall and well-built men, fearless and open of countenance. They resemble Apache Indians, with plaited hair hanging from each side of well-modelled heads. The region’s inhospitable topography, altitude, weather and aggressive population have always united to deny entry to foreigners. Even today, there are few accurate maps that define its contours, record its villages and the secret routes of its nomads. To the Europeans, Chinese and Lhasa Tibetans, Kham has always been a vast no-man’s-land. To the south, it is bounded by the Himalaya and the Bramaputra, to the north the Amne Machin range and the Tibetan region of Amdo, and to the east the Sichuan Basin.
Throughout their history there is evidence of a nascent sense of unique identity and place attachment among the Khamba peoples (Epstein, 2002; Samuel, 1993) which continues to this day and is illustrated below. Methodology The significance of place attachment and identity is presented below against the background of a much larger study of ethno-forestry paradigms addressing knowledge structures, forest perception, paradigms and folk models. The only research methods that appeared to be germane were from the fields of cognitive anthropology typified by Colby (1996) and based on quantitative data collection. Cognitive anthropologists study
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how people understand and organize the material objects, events, and experiences that make up their world, as the people they study, perceive it. Their techniques (Weller and Romney 1988) can be divided into three groups that produce different sorts of data: (dis/similarity, ordered, and test performance). In this study dissimilarity data has been used for cognitive mapping and ordered data for constant sum scaling.
For cognitive mapping a candidate list of pertinent forest-related variables was developed with the stakeholders and a psychometric survey was conducted among local nomads and farmers. The resulting scaled data were input into a multidimensional scaling program for analysis and each variable was represented as a point on a cognitive "map". Variables which are clustered together on this map are close, and those that don't go together are far apart.
For constant sum scaling a typology of forest values was developed with the assistance of local focus groups that subsequently scaled them on the basis of their relative importance to the local community. Results Cognitive Mapping Seventeen forest-related variables (Table 1) were identified as most apposite for the psychometric scaling survey, which was conducted at 57 sites throughout Eastern Kham.
Table 1: Forest-related Variables Local Values Conservation, Blessing, Tibetan Buddhism, Yul-lha, Natural Environmental Function, Forest Products, Natural Hydrological Function Objects of Forest, Wildlife Value Actors Men, Women, Self Interventions Conservation, Hunting, Industrial Forestation, Socialism Other This Place, Ganzi8 The people of Kham (Figure 1), in common with Forest visitors in UK (Studley 2005), configure forest perception on the basis of four cognitive domains 1 socio-economic, 2 psycho-cultural, 3 bio-physical 4 environmental and subsistence services and one singleton (hunting)
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Domain 4 has some resonance with Bird-David’s concept of a “giving environment” and domain 2 and 4 (together) of his concept of “cosmic economies of sharing” (1990 1992) although I think that ‘cosmic cycles of reciprocity’ better describes the interface of the two domains.
In terms of this chapter it should be noted that the nexus of variables coalescing around ‘this place’ and “Self” includes ‘Tibetan Buddhism’, ‘‘yul lha’, ‘Blessing’ and ‘Conservation’. This highlights the importance of spiritual belief in general and the yul-lha cults, in particular, as a foundational element for Khamba “self-hood” (Anand 2000, 282) or identity, place attachment and conservation9. Figure 1 Cognitive map of forest-related variables in Eastern Kham.
During fieldwork it was noted that young people with some education appeared to be alienated from place and local culture. This is a fairly common phenomenon among indigenous people and is supported by the data. Young people (Figure 2) appear to identify more closely with “socialism” than “place” and appear to be alienated from ‘yullha’, ‘Tibetan Buddhism’ and ‘Blessing’. Given the “colonising” propensities of the State (under the rubric of Sinicization or Hanification, Socialism or Modernization) this result was anticipated.
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Figure 2 Cognitive map of young respondents in Eastern Kham
Figure 3 Cognitive map old respondents in Eastern Kham
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In comparison old people (Figure 3) identify strongly with ‘place’ and traditional values (‘yul lha’, ‘Tibetan Buddhism, Blessing’) and closely associate ‘place’ with ‘yul-lha’ and ‘Tibetan Buddhism’.
Interestingly although Ganzi town was only included in the study to provide comparison with ‘this place’ it is considered important for young and old. It was once an important city in the now defunct region of Kham but it has a long history of pro-independence sentiment and loyalty to the Dalai Lama. In the recent period of political activism, since 1987, there have been more political detentions in Ganzi than in any other county outside the TAR. This may suggest that although young respondents identify with proindependent sentiments they do not consider traditional values to be a wellspring of political action or defiance.
The people of Kham do not appear to identify with “the forest” because it is culturally and socially constructed as a place and as a category (Lye 2005; Nightingale 2006). It is not the physical or material aspects of the forest or wildlife that are important to the Khambas but their ‘cycles of cosmic reciprocity’ are important and render the resource apparent. This is reflected in the close proximity and overlap between the psychocultural and environmental and subsistence service domains (Figure 1)
Constant sum scaling Cognitive mapping was augmented by two studies, predicated on constant sum scaling, at four sites in Kham (Rowcroft, Studley and Ward 2006) and two sites in Manchuria (Studley 2009). Unfortunately because both studies were bilateral they were subjected to a political agenda; which did not recognize the spiritual, suppressed local identity and place attachment and conflated ethnicity. This rendered the Kham results of limited use in this chapter and the Manchurian results are presented with some qualification.
Although the Han immigrants surveyed in Manchuria only arrived in 1941 it is evident that place attachment is important to them as is the spiritual dimension of place (re)making (Table 2) and spiritscape auditing. (Byrne 2010).
The spiritual dimension is not evident in Ya Cha village because a senior cadre announced before the focus group that “the villagers had no religion”. This may have been politically and semantically correct but it failed to reflect spontaneously recovered
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folk practices which lie outside the scope of state control (Schwartz 1994) which were exemplified by the presence of a shrine in a logging area, close to the village (Photo 4).
In Long Cai He village, there was no senior cadre present and local examples of forest values (such as the shrine) were given at the beginning of the survey
Table 2 Forest Value Ranking in Manchuria (n=18)
The constant sum scaling studies did allow for data comparison and the measurement of concordance (agreement) between studies, although these did not include place attachment or identity. There is evidence of concordance between studies in China and a similar study in Alaska (Brown and Reed 2000) which suggests that disparate communities with similar worldviews and livelihood strategies scale forest values on a similar basis. There is no reason why place attachment and identity cannot be included in constant sum scaling studies. DISCUSSION
Reference is deliberately made to the Tibetan toponym of chol-khar gsum to describe the three main regions10 of Tibet because China only recognizes one (i.e. The Tibetan Autonomous Region), and Tibetans do not use “Greater Tibet�. The ongoing process of
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Photo 4: A pig was sacrificed at this shrine in a logging area to placate a mountain divinity, protect the loggers, and maintain topocosmic harmony.
Hanification has either rendered Tibetan place names as defunct or replaced them with Han Chinese ones that on occasion speak of conquest.
The Khambas did not volunteer 'place attachment' or 'identity', as forest values, during fieldwork. They were included, in this research, given their importance in the literature (Epstein 2002), although it proved difficult to find a precedent in similar studies. Forest researchers (Brown 2003) did not think it was “forestry-specific” enough to warrant inclusion and Chinese researchers were not prepared to include either “place” or “identity”. On the basis of the evidence (Buffertille and Diemberger 2002) that the yullha cults embrace territory and provide the basis for place attachment and identity, the
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author considered that “place attachment” and “identity” deserves inclusion in ethnoforestry research in Kham.
It is evident from the research and literature that the indigenous peoples of Tibet have become emotionally attached to places and place features (especially to yul-lha locales) and these attachments have become integral to their sense of place. In this respect they are typical of indigenous11 people in that they have become so completely identified with a place that they reflect “its very entrails, its insides, its soul” (LaChapelle 1992, 1). Their sense of place and “ensoulment” (Cajete 1994, 83) have been established as a result of long term ties and intensity of experience over multiple life times and generations and has become a “reflection of their very souls” (Cajete 2000, 187).
It is important to understand, however, that “sense of place” for rural Tibetans is predicated on indigenous epistemologies or native science (Cajete 2000) and ethno-economics (Cavalcanti 2002). Their ‘ways of knowing’ and economies of reciprocity may not resonate with the worldview or epistemology of non-indigenous people, earth care professionals or the Chinese State (Infield 2001; Posey 1999, Williams and Stewart 1998).
Tuan (1977, 6) provides a succinct definition of sense of place comprising a “collection of meanings, beliefs, symbols, values and feelings that individuals or groups associate with a particular locality” but I would agree with Williams and Stewart (1998) that this definition tends to diminish the holistic, emotive, and contextual nature of the phenomenon and any associated epistemologies
Indigenous epistemology is grounded in the self, the spirit, and the unknown and understanding of place and place-making assumes there is a “spirit of place”, which for lay Tibetans is embodied by a divinity (a yul-lha) with human personality (Blondeau et al 1998). Knowledge and sense of place and its re-making is audited through “the stream of the inner space in unison with all instruments of knowing” (Ermine 1999, 108) including •
multi-phase or “polyphasic” consciousness12 (Lumpkin 2001, 3),
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“external and internal senses” (Reagan 2004, 172)
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the interpretation of omens, signs, stories, and climatic stimuli (Lye 2005)
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monitoring the spirit-world’s response to human activities (Lye 2005) and external interventions such as peat mining (Bjork 1993), the introduction of electricity (Studley 2002) and check-dams (Studley 1994)
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“Shamanistic salutogenesis” (Buch 2006, 1)
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Shamanic interpreting (Laughlin 1997) and prophecy (Tanaka 2003)
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all “methods of knowing” (Reagan 2004, 187).
Many of these trans-rational altered states of consciousness are not considered valid processes for accessing knowledge by western science
Sense of place and place attachment are maintained not only through auditing and rituals but subsistence activities. These activities connect indigenous people to their own spirits, the spirits of the land, the animals, plants and other entities. Through hunting and tracking, for example, indigenous people learn13 (from the animals) the virtues of patience, courage, fortitude, humility and honesty (Cajete 1994 2000) under the aegis of “economies of reciprocity” (Delgardo, Martin and Torrico 1998, 28)
Economies of reciprocity is just one way of describing the complex network of reciprocal interdependent relationships (Ingold 2000) animistic people maintain in order to ensure “topocosmic” harmony (Gaster 1961, 17). Other authors have described the phenomenon as “ethno-economics” (Cavalcanti 2002),“moral reciprocity” (Delgardo and Ponce 1999), “cosmic economies of sharing” (Bird-David 1990), “cycles of reciprocity” (Cousins 1996), “environmental accounting” (Reichel 1992) or “spiritscape auditing” (Byrne 2010) and I have gone into more detail elsewhere (Studley 2010b Forthcoming)
Tibetan epistemologies and ethno-economies are a challenge for the Chinese State, paradigmically and semantically. The religious paradigm it has adopted fails to address the validity of indigenous religious practice or folk beliefs. Semantically:•
The term for “religion” is zongjiao which is applied to foreign or foreign influenced religious.
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There is no word to describe the ubiquitous cultural practices of ancestor and local god worship, geomancy, divination, witchcraft and taboos.
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Animism and shamanism are pejoratively labelled mixin or superstitious and not worthy of academic research (Lai 2003).
As a result it is not unusual to be told that the Chinese do not have a “religion”
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The alienation of youth from place and culture is a fairly typical phenomenon among indigenous people. Given the Han Chinese disparaging depiction of minority culture and local place (Studley 2005) it is not surprising that young Khambas who have received some state education have limited 'place attachment' and “despise” traditional values (Edwards and Kelpie; Goering 1990; Jucker 2004; Otiso 2006). This might be an indicator of the impact of Sinicization or Hanification, Socialism or modernity although any attribution would require more research.
As a phenomenon it is a typical response to the negative influences of 'formal' education, development, agriculture, building, tourism, films and TV and resonates with similar processes of alienation among young Tibetans in Ladakh (Norberg-Hodge 1992). Paradoxically this process appears to be counterbalanced, among traditionally educated Khambas, by a cultural revival that provides a platform for defiance and protest against the Chinese (Barnett 1994; Schwartz 1994)
CONCLUSIONS There is cognitive evidence of the importance of place attachment to the rural peoples of China and that the yul-lha cults and the placation of mountain divinities constitutes a spontaneously recovered folk practice for place remaking and ensuring “topocosmic” harmony (Gaster 1961, 17). Cognitive mapping and constant sum scaling provide statistically robust instruments to elicit the relative importance of place attachment and identity, not withstanding the political high jacking of the research process. There is no good reason why they should not be included in forest value typologies.
The peoples of Tibet, in spite of external pressure, are continuing to reclaim place through:- prayer, the building of cairns, fumigation offerings, throwing of wind horses, planting arrows, invocation of land deities, the renuminization of territory and by going to the lha pa to make restitution and ensure topocosmic harmony. This ensures •
honour and blessing on territory, people and political leadership
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personal protection, security of territory and abundance of resources
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that the extents of sacred and political territory have the same physical correlates
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that boundaries and resources are geospatially defined
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that personal requests are addressed
It does appear that for the Tibetan peoples territorial cults do provide •
a coping strategy (Bonaiuto et al 2002), for increasing; their level of identification with their own group, social cohesion, and place attachment
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a ritual means of protest and defiance against their oppressors (Barnett 1994; Schwartz 1994)
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an exemplar of explicit bio-cultural sustainability and nature conservation (Studley 2005)
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a continuity of ritual performance impacting social, economic and political life that pre-dates the Imperial Period, the arrival of Buddhism in Tibet, and any territorial claims of their oppressors
In common with other indigenous peoples in China (Oakes 1993) the Khambas are continually reconstructing localized identity and place from the space made available by the broader systems of political economy and in common with indigenous peoples globally.
Researchers (Mazumdar and Mazumdar 1993) studying place attachment determined that emotional connectedness to place is forged through the creation of sacred settings, and provides insights into new management philosophies that recognize spiritual values. They assert that these dimensions of the person have become so important that they can no longer be overlooked; indeed, the convergence of disciplines in the study of place typically recognizes the societal need to reconnect with nature
Conservation psychologists (Bott, Cantrill and Myers 2003) argue that scientific and spiritual concepts intersect in empirical research on place-based meanings and this justifies their inclusion in environmental policies.
Although place attachment does not appear to be recognized in forestry or development policy in China they are beginning to gain currency in occidental natural resource management and policy (Norton and Hannon 1997).
There is recognition that the inclusion of place attachment in forestry or natural resource policies represents an about-face and it will take time in order to educate and to re-work laws and institutions and build local responsibility. This, however appears to be the only
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Turnbull, C, 1984 The Mountain People: The Classic Account of a People Too Poor for Morality, Triad, London Weller, S, and Romney, AK, 1988 Systematic Data Collection, Newbury Park, CA: Sage University Press Williams, DR and Stewart, SI, 1998 'Sense of Place: An Elusive Concept That Is Finding a Home in Ecosystem Management', Journal of Forestry 96, 18-24 Yan Xu, 1995 Sense of Place and Identity [Online], Available from: http://www.eslarp.uiuc.edu/la/LA437-F95/reports/yards/main.html (accessed on 27 Oct 2010) Footnotes 1
“The term cult identifies a pattern of ritual behavior in connection with specific objects, within a framework of spatial and temporal coordinates. Ritual behavior would include (but not necessarily be limited to) prayer, sacrifice, votive offerings, competitions, processions and construction of monuments. Some degree of recurrence in place and repetition over time of ritual action is necessary for cult to be enacted, to be practiced” (Antonaccio 1994, 398) 2 Eastern Tibet was “controlled” by the Qing dynasty from 1728 3 These include Tibetans who migrated south and west from the 7th century AD to Bhutan, Sikkim, Ladakh, Nepal (Dolpo, Humla, Mustang, Sherpas), Yunnan (Mosuo and Naxi) and more recent migrations since 1959 4 http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v403/n6772/abs/403853a0.html (26/4/2010) 5 The Yangtze, Mekong, Salween and Brahmaputra 6 Based on Stalin’s (1951) definition of nationality 7 http://www.answers.com/topic/qiang-1 (26/4/2010) 8 Ganzi is an important town in Kham and was added to provide comparison with “this place”. 9 The people of Kham differentiate between anthropogenic conservation and conservation by the state. 10 It could be argued that on the basis of Augustus Mitchell’s map of 1860 that Maryul (Ladakh) should be included. Maryul was nominally a dependency of Tibet and by 1860 had been annexed by the Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir 11 From the Greek endina meaning entrails 12 In these cultures, experiences had in dreams, in visions, under the influence of various psychotropic drugs and herbs, and under various ritual conditions inform the society's general system of knowledge. 13 The learning values of the forest ranked 7th out of 13 values in Kham and 9th out of 15 in Manchuria
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