Reviews 2017
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Vol 45 2017 ASIAN HIGHLANDS PERSPECTIVES 2017 Vol 45 REVIEWS 2017 Vol 45 2017 ASIAN HIGHLANDS PERSPECTIVES 2017 Vol 45 CITATION: 2017. Reviews 2017. Asian Highlands Perspectives 45. E-MAIL: [email protected] HARD COPY: www.lulu.com/asianhp ONLINE: https://goo.gl/JycnYT ISSN (print): 1835-7741 ISSN (electronic): 1925-6329 Library of Congress Control Number: 2008944256 CALL NUMBER: DS1.A4739 SUBJECTS: Uplands-Asia-Periodicals, Tibet, Plateau of-Periodicals All artwork contained herein is subject to a Creative Commons, Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License. You are free to quote, copy, and distribute these works for non-commercial purposes so long as appropriate attribution is given. See https://goo.gl/nq06vg for more information. đ COVERS: Phyug mtsho Lake (photograph by Mgon po ) གམཚ མགོནཔོ and Gnyan po g.yu rtse Mountain (photograph by 'Jam གཉནཔོགེ dbyangs skyabs ) in Gcig sgril County, Mgo log འཇམདངསབས གཅིགིལ Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Mtsho sngon Province, མགོལོག མཚđོན China are depicted on the front and back covers, respectively. Both photographs were taken in 2015. Vol 45 2017 ASIAN HIGHLANDS PERSPECTIVES 2017 Vol 45 ASIAN HIGHLANDS PERSPECTIVES Asian Highlands Perspectives (AHP) is a trans-disciplinary journal focusing on the Tibetan Plateau and surrounding regions, including the Southeast Asian Massif, Himalayan Massif, the Extended Eastern Himalayas, the Mongolian Plateau, and other contiguous areas. The editors believe that cross-regional commonalities in history, culture, language, and socio-political context invite investigations of an interdisciplinary nature not served by current academic forums. AHP contributes to the regional research agendas of Sinologists, Tibetologists, Mongolists, and South and Southeast Asianists, while also forwarding theoretical discourse on grounded theory, interdisciplinary studies, and collaborative scholarship. AHP publishes occasional monographs and essay collections both in hardcopy (ISSN 1835-7741) and online (ISSN 1925-6329). The online version is an open access source, freely available at https://goo.gl/JOeYnq. The print edition is available to libraries and individuals at-cost through print on demand publisher Lulu.com at https://goo.gl/rIT9lI. The journal currently has a core editorial team of four members and a consultative editorial board of twenty-five experts from a variety of disciplines. All submissions to the journal are peer-reviewed by the editorial board and independent, anonymous assessors. AHP welcomes submissions from a wide range of scholars with an interest in the area. Given the dearth of current knowledge on this culturally complex area, we encourage submissions that contain descriptive accounts of local realities - especially by authors from communities in the Asian Highlands - as well as theory-oriented articles. We publish items of irregular format - long articles, short monographs, photo essays, fiction, auto-ethnography, etc. Authors receive a PDF version of their published work. Potential contributors are encouraged to consult previous issues. Vol 45 2017 ASIAN HIGHLANDS PERSPECTIVES 2017 Vol 45 EDITORS CK Stuart, Tshe dbang rdo rje , Rin chen rdo rje , and ཚđདབངོེ རིནཆེནོེ Susan Dan Su COPY EDITORS Gaye Sargent, Gabriela Samcewicz, Lhun 'grub , and Skal bzang "ནའ#བ tshe brtan $ལབཟངཚđབ&ན EDITORIAL BOARD Barbara Brower Portland State University Bianca Horlemann Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin Bill Bleisch China Exploration & Research Society Charlene Makley Reed College Daniel Berounský Charles University Daniel Miller US AID Emily Yeh University of Colorado Fernanda Pirie University of Oxford Geoffrey Samuel Cardiff University Gray Tuttle Columbia University Hildegard Diemberger University of Cambridge Huadan Zhaxi (Dpal ldan bkra shis ) Humboldt- Universität zu Berlin Jermay Jamsu ('Gyur med rgya mtsho ) Independent Scholar Juha Janhunen University of Helsinki Katherine Morton The University of Sheffield Keith Dede Lewis and Clark College Keith Slater SIL International and University of North Dakota Mark Bender Ohio State University Mark Turin University of British Columbia Paul K Nietupski John Carroll University Sarah E Fraser Universität Heidelberg Sienna Craig Dartmouth College Toni Huber Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin Veronika Zikmundova Charles University Vol 45 2017 ASIAN HIGHLANDS PERSPECTIVES 2017 Vol 45 CONTENTS BOOK REVIEWS 9-15 Yesterday's Tribe Reviewed by Kelsang Norbu 16-38 MY TWO FATHERS Reviewed by Sangs rgyas bkra shis 39-45 Smug pa Reviewed by Konchok Gelek 46-50 Chu mig dgu sgri Reviewed by Konchok Gelek 51-65 Klu 'bum mi rgod Reviewed by Pad+ma rig 'dzin 66-72 Phyur ba Reviewed by 'Brug mo skyid 73-87 Tibet's Beloved Child Reviewed by Rinchenkhar 88-92 The Rise of G önpo Namgyel in Kham Reviewed by Amy Holmes-Tagchungdarpa 93-97 Imag(in)ing the Nagas Reviewed by Mark Bender 98-104 The Dawn of Tibet Reviewed by Ivette M. Vargas-O'Bryan 5 Vol 45 2017 ASIAN HIGHLANDS PERSPECTIVES 2017 Vol 45 105-110 The Dawn of Tibet Reviewed by Chelsea McGill 111-121 Bright Blue Highland Barley Reviewed by Limusishiden 122-131 A Cactus of Tears and The Tuyuhun Kingdom Reviewed by Wu Jing 132-144 A Change in Worlds on the Sino-Tibetan Borderlands Reviewed by Bill Bleisch 145-149 Tibetan Literary Genres, Texts, and Text Types Reviewed by Tricia Kehoe 150-158 Language Variation and Change in an Amdo Tibetan Village: Gender, Education and Resistance Reviewed by Zoe Tribur 159-171 Early Carpets and Tapestries on the Eastern Silk Road Reviewed by Juha Komppa 172-180 Founding an Empire on India's North-Eastern Frontiers 1790-1840 Reviewed by Hilary Howes 181-185 Chinese Muslims and the Global Ummah Reviewed by Bianca Horlemann 6 Vol 45 2017 ASIAN HIGHLANDS PERSPECTIVES 2017 Vol 45 FILM REVIEWS 187-209 Tharlo and The Sacred Arrow Reviewed by Khashem Gyal 210-220 River Reviewed by Phun tshogs dbang rgyal 221-224 Amnye Machen Mountain Circumambulation Reviewed by Bill Bleisch 7 Vol 45 2017 ASIAN HIGHLANDS PERSPECTIVES 2017 Vol 45 BOOK REVIEWS Vol 45 2017 ASIAN HIGHLANDS PERSPECTIVES 2017 Vol 45 REVIEW : YESTERDAY 'S TRIBE Kelsang Norbu (Skal bzang nor bu , Gesang Nuobu 格桑诺布 ) Bstan pa yar rgyas . 2014. Kha sang gi tsho ba !đđ [Yesterday's Tribe] . Zi ling đ : Mtsho ngon mi rigs dpe skrun khang đ"đđ#! [Mtsho ngon Nationalities Press]. 259pp. ISBN 978-7- 5420-2375-9 (paperback 30RMB). Bstan pa yar rgyas (b. 1962) was reared in a pastoral household in Byang thang (Changthang), Nag chu (Naqu) Prefecture, in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR). A member of the China Writers Association and the Association of Ethnographic Photography, Bstan pa yar rgyas is currently employed by the Creation and Research Team of the TAR's Song and Dance Troupe. During his youth, he heard various folk narratives such as the Ge sar Epic from his uncle. He began school at the age of ten and became a teacher in Nag chu in 1981. In 1984, he enrolled in Tibet University where he started the student magazine, Zla zer 'New Moon'. In 1989, he returned to Nag chu as a teacher. In 1990, he shifted his work to the Nag chu Cultural Bureau where he conducted local ethnographic research and collected folklore and songs. In 1995, he became the chief editor of the local magazine Byang thang . In 2003, he moved to his current job. A prolific writer in both Tibetan and Chinese, Bstan pa yar rgyas's first novel, Khrag gi zegs ma mkha' la 'phyo ba'i gangs ri dmar po' 'A Red Snow Mountain Spraying Drops of Blood Towards the Sky', written in Tibetan, was serialized in Tibet Culture and Art from 1988 to 2000. In 2005, an offprint of this novel was republished as Distant Nomad Tent .1 Kelsang Norbu. 2017. Review: Yesterday's Tribe. Asian Highlands Perspectives 45:9-15. 1https://goo.gl/oGsRR9, accessed 27 August 2016. 9 Vol 45 2017 ASIAN HIGHLANDS PERSPECTIVES 2017 Vol 45 Bstan pa yar rgyas's rich experiences and attachment to the local culture serve as his greatest inspirations for writing. Reviews of Bstan pa yar rgyas's earlier writings include Robin (2009-2010: 37-38): The Faraway Tent... narrates the conflict among rival pastoral tribes in an unspecified past (possibly at the turn of the 20th century), through the turbulent destinies of Wangchen (Dbang chen), his second wife Omakyi ('O ma skyid), and his son Dradül (Dgra 'dul). Interspersed with well- rendered ethnological descriptions of nomadic folk culture with a focus on hunting and fighting, proverbs, and songs, it documents very satisfactorily the little-known life of Changthang (Byang thang) tribes before 1950. Its author, himself from a nomadic background in Nag chu, has a thorough inside knowledge of these communities and is a committed writer who regularly publishes realist fiction set in his native region, as well as ethnographic material that has become extremely precious as the nomadic way of life of the Changthang is doomed to undergo drastic changes within the next years. Virtanen provides similar comments (2008: 244): Most writings by Tenpa Yargyé deal with the life of the people of the Byang thang or Northern Plain, the high, cold region north of Lhasa where the vast majority of the population is engaged in nomadism. Foremost is the recently published novel Thag ring gi sbra nag (A distant nomad tent), also set in the Northern Plain and depicting the life of hunters. The main characters, Wangchen and his son Drandül, have left their home village and are wandering in the hostile and cold high plateau. They get their food by hunting. The culture of the hunters, their customs, beliefs, and songs, is described in naturalistic detail. The novel also contains hunting scenes and descriptions of taking revenge on enemies. Neither of these summaries critically review the writer's work. The author's most recent novel, Yesterday's Tribe , won the Junma Award.1 Told in the third person and with striking similarities 1 "One of the four biggest national-level literary awards in China, Junma is 10 Vol 45 2017 ASIAN HIGHLANDS PERSPECTIVES 2017 Vol 45 to A Distant Nomad Tent , Yesterday's Tribe begins with a coming of age ritual for Rdo 'bum, a thirteen-year-old boy.