ALTERNATIVE DEVELOPMENT ON THE TIBETAN PLATEAU: THE CASE OF THE SLAUGHTER RENUNCIATION MOVEMENT by GAERRANG (KABZUNG) B.A., South-West University for Nationalities, China, 1996 M.A., South-West University for Nationalities, China, 2002 A thesis submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Colorado in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Human Geography Department of Geography 2012 This thesis entitled: Alternative Development on the Tibetan Plateau: The Case of the Slaughter Renunciation Movement written by Gaerrang (Kabzung) has been approved for the Department of Geography Emily. T. Yeh Timothy S. Oakes Date: January 11 2012 The final copy of this thesis has been examined by the signatories, and we find that both the content and the form meet acceptable presentation standards of scholarly work in the above mentioned discipline. IRB protocol: 0109.44 iii Gaerrang (Kabzung) (Ph.D., Department of Geography) Alternative Development on the Tibetan Plateau: The Case of the Slaughter Renunciation Movement Thesis directed by Associate Professor Emily. T. Yeh. Since Deng Xiaoping’s economic reforms in the 1980s, the Chinese state has extended and intensified its economic development agenda, trying to shape its citizens to become rational market actors who prioritize commodity production. In Tibetan pastoral areas, this takes the form of efforts to develop the livestock industry by encouraging herders to increase their off-take rate to intensify production. As a result, Tibetan herders have become involved in selling ever-larger numbers of yaks to Han and Chinese Muslim traders. However, reforms also allowed a measure of religious freedom. Since 2000 many lamas (religious leaders) have become concerned about the mass sale of livestock for slaughter, because the Buddhist principle of cause-and-effect suggests that killing is a serious sin to be avoided. Using their tremendous influence and authority, these lamas have initiated a slaughter renunciation movement, persuading people to take oaths to stop selling livestock for slaughter – precisely the opposite of what the state suggests they must do to become materially “developed.” Many Tibetan herders have participated in these movements, even though their livelihoods depend heavily on the sale of animal products. The thesis explores the relationship between Tibetan Buddhist revival, secular neoliberal economic reforms, and the cultural transformation of Tibetan herders in the market economy since the 1980s. The research used mixed methods, including household surveys, in- depth, semi-structured interviews, analysis of texts and visual media, and participant observation, conducted over a period of 12 months in Tibetan areas of China’s Sichuan province. I argue that the slaughter renunciation movement is an effort by Tibetan khenpos to enact a moral correction of Tibetan herders that works as an intervention to the transformation brought by secular-based economic development. This intervention reflects a process in which Tibetan people are creating a Buddhist-informed neo-liberal development, which produces inequality on the one hand, and which is coded by Tibetan Buddhist norms and meanings on the other hand. With this movement we can also see how a Buddhist form of development departs from the dominant secular-based neo-liberalization process in contemporary China, through a process of contestation, incorporation, and rejection among multiple agents with different cultural agendas. Thus, the dissertation demonstrates that what most scholars refer to as neo-liberalism in China is, indeed, a process of secularization and deepening of materialism; it is an uneven and culturally constituted process. Tibetan khenpos and their movements do not entirely reject this process, but rather selectively reject and embrace it by imbuing uneven processes with Tibetan Buddhist meanings, forming a Buddhist-informed neo-liberalization process. iv Acknowledgments It has been a long and hard journey to finish a doctoral degree in a third language. There are many people I need to thank for their assistance and support over my four and a half years of study, particularly during the dissertation writing. The first person that I want to say thank you to is my advisor, Emily T. Yeh. Without her support and encouragement, I would not have been able to finish my studies at CU and my dissertation writing within a short period of time. I will always be indebted to her for what she has done for me. I also want to thank my other committee members, Timothy S. Oakes, Holly Gayley, Terrence McCabe, and Mara Goldman. Using this opportunity, I also want to extend my gratefulness to the herders from Rakhor Village, my family members, and friends; all of them have been very supportive during my field research and writing process. The field research for this dissertation was made possible through generous grants from the National Science Foundation - Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grants (NSF- DDRI), the Social Science Research Council- International Dissertation Research Fellowship (SSRC-IDRF), and the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research. Finally, I want to say thank you to James S Glasscock, who works as a writing consultant at CU Services for Non-Native Speakers of English. He helped me a lot with my writings over the course of my studies at CU. Garrett Clark has also been very supportive with the editing of my papers. v CONTENTS Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………...1 The Slaughter Renunciation Movement and Khenpo Jigme Phuntsok…………………...7 Study Site: Rakhor Village, Hongyuan County………………………………………….11 Methods and Field Experience…………………………………………………………...15 Tibetan herders…………………………………………………………………...15 Khenpos ………………………………………………………………………...18 Other informants……………………………………………………………...…19 Chapter One: Theoretical Framework and Structure of Dissertation………...……………22 Development as an entangled “knot” of cultural contestation…………………………...22 Neoliberal governmentality, Chinese market economy and religious forces………..…..34 Political economic approaches to neo-liberalism………………………………37 Neoliberal governmentality and religious movements…………………………..45 Human Geography Approach to Tibetan Buddhism…………………………………….52 Structure of Dissertation…………………………………………………………………56 Chapter Two: The Chinese State and Tibetan Pastoralism………………………………....59 Slaughter rate changes in three socioeconomic systems……………………………….. 63 Slaughter rate pre-1958…………………………………………………………..64 Commune system………………………………………………………………...66 The early phases of economic reform in pastoral areas on the Tibetan plateau: Livestock privatization and pasture contract system…………………….69 Open up the West Campaign…………………………………………………………….72 Open up the West campaign……………………………………………………..73 Open up the West Campaign and neo-liberal social arrangement……………….75 Two cases of state projects in Pastoral Areas on the Tibetan Plateau...…………81 Housing Project for Herders……………………………………………..81 Housing Projects as a condition for change……………………...85 The cultivation of loyalty………………………………………...88 Neo-liberalization as materialism and secularization……..……..90 Yak Economic Development…………………………………………….93 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………….96 Chapter Three: Tibetan Buddhist Teachings in a New Social Context: Tibetan Buddhism and Neo-liberal China……………………………………………99 Tibetan Buddhism and Authorities of Inner China: Changes and Continuity in Chinese Religious Policies……………………………………………………..104 From Yuan to Qing Dynasties………………………………………………… 104 Republican Period……………………………………………………………... 107 Eastern Tibet……………………………………………………………………109 Religion and the Communist State……………………………………………..111 Religion across the PRC………………………………………………..111 Religion policies in Tibetan populated areas…………………………...114 Larung Gar…………………………………………………...…………118 vi Religious movements from Larung Gar……...……………………………………..…120 Slaughter Renunciation Movement …………………………………………….120 First religious teaching on the slaughter renunciation movement…...…120 Secular neo-liberal social transformation and the slaughter Renunciation Movement…..……………………….…………..123 Slaughter renunciation and sin distribution…………………………….128 Three Related Movements: Fur Renunciation, Vegetarianism and Humanitarian Killing…………………………………………………...133 Vegetarian movement and humanitarian killing movement……………133 Fur renunciation movement…………………………………………….137 Interrelations among the three movements……………………………..140 Convergence of Tibetan Buddhism with Tibetan identity and Khenpos’ Social Engagements……………………………………………………143 Ten Virtuous Rules……………………………………………………..144 Illiteracy Eradication Movement……………………………………….152 Purification of Tibetan Spoken Language……………………………...154 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………...156 Chapter Four: The Slaughter Renunciation Movement and Neoliberal Economic Force: Competing Subject Formation in a Tibetan Village…………….160 The Slaughter Renunciation Movement in Rakhor Village………………………….…165 Khenpo Tsullo (Khenpo Tsultrim Lodroe)……………………………………..165 The First Slaughter Renunciation Movement in Hongyuan County…………...167 Religious Teaching in Rakhor Village…………………………………………171 Impacts and Interpretations: The Failure of the Second Term of the Pledge…..174 Income reduction: Better off or worse? ………………………………..176 Households that took vows for the second term………………..177 Households whose members did not take vows for the second term……………………………………..180 Pressure on pastures: unintended impact of the movement………….…181 Competing Forces of Subject Formation