Frontier Tibet: Patterns of Change in the Sino-Tibetan Borderlands addresses a historical sequence that sealed the future of the Sino-Tibetan borderlands. It considers how starting in the late nineteenth century imperial formations and emerging nation-states developed competing schemes of integration and debated about where the border between China and Tibet should be. It also ponders the ways in which this border is internalised today, creating within the People’s Republic of China a space that retains some characteristics of a historical frontier. The region of eastern Tibet called Kham, the focus of this volume, is a productive lens through which processes of place-making and frontier dynamics can be analysed. Using historical records and ethnography, the authors challenge purely externalist approaches to convey a sense of Kham’s own centrality and the agency of the actors involved. They contribute to a history from below that is relevant to the history of China and Tibet, and of comparative value for borderland studies.

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Table of Contents
Foreword and Acknowledgements
Chronology of Major Events, Stéphane Gros

Part I Borders inside out
Introduction
1 Frontier (of) Experience Introduction and Prolegomenon, Stéphane Gros
2 The Increasing Visibility of the Tibetan ‘Borderlands’, Katia Bufffetrille
3 Boundaries of the Borderlands Mapping Gyelthang, Eric D. Mortensen

Part II Modes of Expansion and Forms of Control
Introduction
4 Trade, Territory, and Missionary Connections in the Sino-Tibetan Borderlands, John Bray
5 Settling Authority Sichuanese Farmers in Early Twentieth-Century Eastern Tibet, Scott Relyea
6 Wheat Dreams Scientifij ic Interventions at Chinese Model Farms in Kham, 1937-1949, Mark E. Frank
7 The Origins of Disempowered Development in the Tibetan Borderlands, C. Patterson Giersch
8 Pastoralists by Choice Adaptations in Contemporary Pastoralism in Eastern Kham, Gillian G. Tan

Part III Strategic Belongings
Introduction
9 Money, Politics, and Local Identity An Inside Look at the ‘Diary’ of a Twentieth-Century Khampa Trader, Lucia Galli
10 The Dispute between Sichuan and Xikang over the Tibetan Kingdom of Trokyap (1930s-1940s), Fabienne Jagou
11 The Rise of a Political Strongman in Dergé in the Early Twentieth Century The Story of Jagö Topden, Yudru Tsomu
12 Harnessing the Power of the Khampa Elites Political Persuasion and the Consolidation of Communist Party Rule in Gyelthang, Dáša Pejchar Mortensen
13 Return of the Good King Kingship and Identity among Yushu Tibetans since 1951, Maria Turek
14 Yachen as Process Encampments, Nuns, and Spatial Politics in Post-Mao Kham, Yasmin Cho

Afterword Chinese Settler Colonialism: Empire and Life in the Tibetan Borderlands, Carole McGranahan