Sources of Tibetan Tradition Schaeffer, Kurtis R; Kapstein, Matthew T; Tuttle, Gray
2012., 20130326, 2013, 2013-03-26
eBook
The most comprehensive collection of Tibetan works in a Western language, this volume illuminates the complex historical, intellectual, and social development of Tibetan civilization from its ...earliest beginnings to the modern period. Including more than 180 representative writings, Sources of Tibetan Tradition spans Tibet's vast geography and long history, presenting for the first time a diversity of works by religious and political leaders; scholastic philosophers and contemplative hermits; monks and nuns; poets and artists; and aristocrats and commoners. The selected readings reflect the profound role of Buddhist sources in shaping Tibetan culture while illustrating other major areas of knowledge. Thematically varied, they address history and historiography; political and social theory; law; medicine; divination; rhetoric; aesthetic theory; narrative; travel and geography; folksong; and philosophical and religious learning, all in relation to the unique trajectories of Tibetan civil and scholarly discourse. The editors begin each chapter with a survey of broader social and cultural contexts and introduce each translated text with a concise explanation. Concluding with writings that extend into the early twentieth century, this volume offers an expansive encounter with Tibet's exceptional intellectual heritage.
Tibetan Plateau is known as the world’s third pole, which is characterized by a low population density with very limited human activities. Tibetan Plateau possesses the greatest numbers of ...high-altitude inland lakes in the world. However, no information is currently available on the characteristic of microplastic pollution in those lakes within this remote area. In this work, lakeshore sediments from four lakes within the Siling Co basin in northern Tibet were sampled and examined for microplastics (<5 mm). Microplastics were detected in six out of seven sampling sites with abundances ranging from 8 ± 14 to 563 ± 1219 items/m2. Riverine input might have contributed to the high abundance of microplastics observed in this remote area. Morphological features suggest that microplastics are derived from the breakdown of daily used plastic products. Polyethylene, polypropylene, polystyrene, polyethylene terephthalate, and polyvinyl chloride were identified from the microplastic samples using laser Raman spectroscopy, and oxidative and mechanical weathering textures were observed on the surface of microplastics using scanning electron microscope. These results demonstrate the presence of microplastics even for inland lakes in remote areas under very low human impact, and microplastic pollution can be a global issue.
•Microplastics were presented in lakeshore sediments from remote lakes in Tibet Plateau.•Microplastics were detected with an average abundance up to 563 items/m2.•PE, PP, PET, PVC and PS were identified from the microplastic samples.•Surface texture of microplastics show mechanical and oxidative weathering features.
Remote lakes in Tibet Plateau were found polluted by microplastics.
Hidden Lands in Himalayan Myth and History showcases recent scholarship, photo essays, maps, and translations about hidden lands (sbas yul) across the Himalaya, from historical and contemporary ...perspectives.
This book deals with the 70-year-old peaceful struggle for autonomy/independence of the Tibetan Buddhist living in the 'Roof of the World', Tibet. In 1950, Tibet, an erstwhile independent entity ...intermittently under the suzerainty of China, was coercively annexed by the People's Republic of China (PRC). It is located in the Himalayan region bordering India and the PRC, the two major players in Asia. The book describes the contemporary history of Tibet and analyzes the implications of autonomy especially in the context of geostrategic significance of Tibet to India and China. The response of the PRC and India towards Tibetan autonomy is very important to understand the undercurrents of international relations in the Himalayas. Concomitantly in the 21st century the international response is also significant in helping the move towards autonomy to erstwhile groups of people that have a common cultural identity. The relative significance of the right of a modern state to territorial integrity and people's right of self-determination are discussed in detail. Though people's right to self-determination has been an internationally recognized principle, its implementation depends on the persistence of the struggle for autonomy/independence, the means adopted, and the international response toward it. The interplay of international politics with national interests of major players in the era of globalization is also dealt with. Thus, in the era of human security and human rights, the Tibetan quest for autonomy has solicited great significance.
Tsering Woeser and Wang Lixiong are widely regarded as the most eloquent, insightful writers on contemporary Tibet. Their reportage on the economic exploitation, environmental degradation, cultural ...destruction and political subjugation that plague the increasingly Han Chinese-dominated Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) is as powerful as it is profound, ardent and analytical in equal measure, and not in the least bit ideological. Voices from Tibet is a collection of essays and reportage in translation that captures the many facets of an unprecedented sea change wreaked by a rising China upon a scared land and its defenseless people. With the TAR in a virtual lockdown after the 2008 unrest, this book sheds important light on the simmering frustrations that touched off the unrest and Beijing’s stability über alles control tactics in its wake. The authors also interrogate longstanding assumptions about Tibetans’ political future. Woeser’s and Wang’s writings represent a rare Chinese view sympathetic to Tibetan causes, one that should resonate in many places confronting threats of cultural subjugation and economic domination by a non-indigenous power.
Since the central government of China started major campaigns for western development in the mid-1990s, the economies of the Tibetan areas in Western China have grown rapidly and living standards ...have improved. However, grievances and protests have also intensified, as dramatically evidenced by the protests that spread across most Tibetan areas in spring 2008 and by the more recent wave of self-immolation protests that started in 2011. This book offers a detailed and careful exploration of this synergy between development and conflict in Tibet from the mid-1990s onwards, when rapid economic growth has occurred in tandem with a particularly assimilationist approach of integrating Tibet into China. Fischer argues that the intensified economic integration of Tibet into regional and national development strategies on these assimilationist terms, within a context of continued political disempowerment, and through the massive channeling of subsidies through Han Chinese dominated entities based outside the Tibetan areas, has accentuated various dynamics of subordination and marginalization faced by Tibetans of all social strata. Whether or not these dynamics are intended to be discriminatory, they effectively accentuate the discriminatory, assimilationist and disempowering characteristics of development, even while producing considerable improvements in the material consumption of local Tibetans. In particular, strong cultural, linguistic and political biases intensify ethnically-exclusionary dynamics among middle and upper strata of the Tibetan labor force, which is problematic considering the rapid shift of Tibetans out of agriculture and towards the highly subsidy-dependent sectors of the economy, especially in urban areas. The combination of these disempowering dynamics with the sheer speed of dislocating and disembedding social change provides important insights into recent tensions given that it has accentuated insecurity while restricting the ability of Tibetan communities to adapt in autonomous and self-determined ways. The study represents one of the only macro-level and systemic analyses of its kind in the scholarship on Tibet, based on accessible economic analysis and extensive interdisciplinary fieldwork. It also carries much interest for those interested in China and in the interactions between development, inequality, exclusion and conflict more generally.
Greater tibet Klieger, P. Christiaan
2015., 2015
eBook
The papers in this volume examine the variations of cultural expression within "Greater Tibet," a conceptual framework that considers Tibeto-Burman speakers and their mutual affiliations as a group ...different from the larger nation-states in which they now find themselves.
Over the past 40 years, the climate has been changing and human disturbance has increased in the vast Qinghai–Tibet Plateau (QTP). These 2 factors are expected to affect the distribution of a large ...number of endemic vertebrate species. However, quantitative relationships between range shifts and climate change and human disturbance of these species in the QTP have rarely been evaluated. We used occurrence records of 19 terrestrial vertebrate species (birds, mammals, amphibians, and reptiles) occurring in the QTP from 1980 to 2020 to quantify the effects of climate change and anthropogenic impacts on the distribution of these 4 taxonomic groups and estimated species range changes in each species. The trend in distribution changes differed among the taxonomic groups, although, generally, ranges shifted to central QTP. Climate change contributed more to range variation than human disturbance (the sum of the 4 climatic variables contributed more than the sum of the 4 human disturbance variables for all 4 taxonomic groups). Suitable geographic range increased for most mammals, amphibians, and reptiles (+27.6%, +18.4%, and +27.8% on average, respectively), whereas for birds range decreased on average by 0.9%. Quantitative evidence for climate change and human disturbance associations with range changes for endemic vertebrate species in the QTP can provide useful insights into biodiversity conservation under changing environments.
Resumen
En los últimos 40 años, el clima ha cambiado y las perturbaciones humanas han aumentado en la vasta meseta Qinghai‐Tíbet (MQT). Se espera que estos dos factores afecten la distribución de un gran número de especies de vertebrados endémicos. Sin embargo, las relaciones cuantitativas entre los cambios del área de distribución y el cambio climático y las perturbaciones humanas en estas especies de la MQT han sido poco evaluadas. Utilizamos los registros de presencia de 19 especies de vertebrados terrestres (aves, mamíferos, anfibios y reptiles) de la MQT tomados entre 1980 y 2020 para cuantificar los efectos del cambio climático y los impactos antropogénicos sobre la distribución de estos cuatro grupos taxonómicos y estimar los cambios en el área de distribución de cada especie. La tendencia en los cambios de distribución difirió entre los grupos taxonómicos, aunque, en general, las áreas de distribución se desplazaron hacia el centro de la MQT. El cambio climático contribuyó más a la variación del área de distribución que las perturbaciones humanas (la suma de las cuatro variables climáticas contribuyó más que la suma de las cuatro variables de perturbaciones humanas para los cuatro grupos taxonómicos). El área de distribución geográfica adecuada aumentó para la mayoría de los mamíferos, anfibios y reptiles (+27.6%, +18.4% y +27.8% en promedio, respectivamente), mientras que para las aves disminuyó en promedio un 0.9%. Las pruebas cuantitativas de la asociación del cambio climático y las perturbaciones humanas con los cambios en el área de distribución de las especies vertebradas endémicas de la MQT pueden aportar información útil para la conservación de la biodiversidad en entornos cambiantes.
【摘要】
青藏高原的广大区域, 在过去的40年里经历了气候变化和不断增加的人类干扰, 这些因素可能会影响大量特有野生脊椎动物物种的分布格局。然而, 青藏高原特有脊椎动物的分布格局与气候变化和人类干扰之间的定量关系研究较少。本研究利用青藏高原地区四个类群(包括鸟类、兽类、两栖类和爬行类)19种陆生脊椎动物近40年以来(1980年‐2020年)的样点数据, 评估了各物种分布范围的变化趋势, 并量化了气候变化和人类干扰对各类群分布格局变化的影响。研究发现各类群具有不同的空间分布变化趋势, 总体来讲, 各类群趋于向青藏高原的中部迁移。与人类活动干扰相比, 气候变化是青藏高原各类群分布范围变化的主要驱动力(四个气候变化因子的贡献之和大于四个人类干扰因子的贡献之和)。另外, 研究还发现, 大多数的兽类、两栖类和爬行类的地理分布范围有所扩张(分别平均增长27.6%, 18.4%和27.8%), 而鸟类的分布范围是收缩的(0.9%)。本研究对气候变化和人类活动干扰与青藏高原特有野生脊椎动物类群分布范围变化之间的关系进行了定量研究, 研究结果对环境变化下青藏高原特有动物多样性的保护具有重要意义。
Tibet Halper, Lezlee Brown; Halper, Stefan
2014, 2014-03-01
eBook
Tibet's enduring myth, animated by the tales of Himalayan adventurers, British military expeditions, and the novel, Lost Horizon, remains an inspirational fantasy, a modern morality play about the ...failure of brutality to subdue the human spirit. Tibet also exercises immense "soft power" as one of the lenses through which the world views China. This book traces the origins and manifestations of the Tibetan myth, as propagated by Younghusband, Madam Blavatsky, Himmler, Acheson and Roosevelt. The authors discuss how, after WW2, Tibet-- isolated, misunderstood and with a tiny elite unschooled in political-military realities --- misread the diplomacy between its two giant neighbours, India and China, forlornly hoping London or Washington might intervene. China's People's Liberation Army sought nothing less than to deconstruct traditional Tibet, unseat the Dalai Lama and "absorb" this vast region into the People's Republic, and Lhasa succumbed to China's invasion in 1950. Drawing on declassified CIA and Chinese documents, the authors reveal Mao's collusion with Stalin to subdue Tibet, double-dealing by Nehru, the brilliant diplomacy of Chou en Lai and how Washington see-sawed between the China lobby, who insisted there be no backing for an independent Tibet, and Presidents Truman and later Eisenhower, who initiated a covert CIA programme to support the Dalai Lama and resist Chinese occupation. It is an ignoble saga with few, if any, heroes, other than ordinary Tibetans.
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