Tibetan Village Research Articles

Does science replace traditions? Correlates between traditional Tibetan culture and local bird diversity in Southwest China

A positive relationship between traditional cultures and biodiversity exists worldwide, but when traditional and formal conservation institutions coexist, how they interact and affect biodiversity remains poorly studied. From 2005 to 2007, we studied the relationship between Tibetan traditional practices and biodiversity. Specifically, how traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) and scientific ecological knowledge (SEK) affect local biodiversity by affecting people’s attitudes and behaviors towards conservation. We interviewed 331 villagers in nine Tibetan villages in Sichuan Province, China. We used proxy questions to measure the traditional practices, TEK, SEK, conservation attitudes and behaviors of village residents. Meanwhile, we assessed the bird diversity around the villages by stratified sampling and point counts. The results indicate traditional practices exhibited a strong positive correlation with TEK, but a negative correlation with formal education and SEK. The villagers with high traditional practices had more positive attitudes towards conservation and more actively participated in conservation than villagers with low traditional practices, and villagers with medium traditional practices were the least concerned about, or participated in, conservation activities. Bird species richness, abundance, and the Shannon–Wiener diversity index were positively correlated with the traditional practice index of each village. The results of a negative binomial regression showed the traditional practice index was a positive correlative factor of bird species richness, while formal education was not a significant variable, after controlling for other potential sampling and environment factors. Government-sponsored conservation education was somewhat successful in raising people’s environmental awareness, but these efforts have yet to correlate with enhanced biodiversity measures.

Role of dog behaviour and environmental fecal contamination in transmission ofEchinococcus multilocularisin Tibetan communities

On the Eastern Tibetan Plateau region (Sichuan province, China) dogs are regarded as important definitive hosts of Echinococcus multilocularis. We studied dog spatial behaviour in 4 Tibetan villages in order to determine the role of dogs in environmental contamination and their potential interactions with small mammal intermediate hosts. We identified definitive host species and Echinococcus spp. infection status of feces collected in the field by PCR methods and analysed the spatial distribution of canid feces. Nocturnal space utilization of GPS collared dogs in and around villages was also undertaken. E. multilocularis DNA was amplified in 23% of dog feces (n=142) and in 15% of fox feces (n=13) but this difference was not significant. However, dog feces were more frequently observed (78% of collected feces) than fox feces and are therefore assumed to largely contribute to human environment contamination. Feces were mainly distributed around houses of dog owners (0-200 m) where collared dogs spent the majority of their time. Inside villages, the contamination was aggregated in some micro-foci where groups of dogs defecated preferentially. Finally, small mammal densities increased from the dog core areas to grasslands at the periphery of villages occasionally used by dogs; male dogs moving significantly farther than females. This study constitutes a first attempt to quantify in a spatially explicit way the role of dogs in E. multilocularis peri-domestic cycles and to identify behavioural parameters required to model E. multilocularis transmission in this region.

移動牧畜が放牧地に及ぼす負荷の分布状況

移動牧畜が放牧地に及ぼす負荷の分布状況

中国雲南省のチベット族村落における移動牧畜の現代的意義―その乳生産量からの検討―

中国雲南省のチベット族村落における移動牧畜の現代的意義―その乳生産量からの検討―

Genetic variation in walnuts (Juglans regia and J. sigillata; Juglandaceae): Species distinctions, human impacts, and the conservation of agrobiodiversity in Yunnan, China

Walnuts are a major crop of many countries and mostly cultivated in large-scale plantations with few cultivars. Landraces provide important genetic reservoirs; thus, understanding factors influencing the geographic distribution of genetic variation in crop resources is a fundamental goal of agrobiodiversity conservation. Here, we investigated the role of human settlements and kinship on genetic variation and population structure of two walnut species: Juglans regia, an introduced species widely cultivated for its nuts, and J. sigillata, a native species cultivated locally in Yunnan. The objectives of this study were to characterize sympatric populations of J. regia and J. sigillata using 14 molecular markers and evaluate the role of Tibetan villages and kin groups (related households) on genotypic variation and population structure of J. regia and J. sigillata. Our results based on 220 walnut trees from six Tibetan villages show that although J. regia and J. sigillata are morphologically distinct, the two species are indistinguishable based on microsatellite data. Despite the lack of interspecific differences, AMOVAs partitioned among villages (5.41%, P = 0.0068) and kin groups within villages (3.34%, P = 0.0068) showed significant genetic variation. These findings suggest that village environments and familial relationships are factors contributing to the geographic structure of genetic variation in Tibetan walnuts.

Globalised forest-products: commodification of the matsutake mushroom in Tibetan villages, Yunnan, Southwest China

Recent economic policies in China demonstrate a growing recognition of the potential of the commercial utilization of Non-timber forest products to contribute to sustainable forest management and improve local However. little attention has been paid to understanding the socio-political contexts or the distributional effects of NTFP commercialization. This commodity chain analysis of the matsutake mushroom market in Yunnan Province, Southwest China, identifies the different actors in in the trade and mechanisms that shape their access to, and benefits from the market. This study rinds that market regulations meant to promote exports have constrained market development and limited participation at the most lucrative node in the chain to a few powerful actors. Also, while economic activities continue to be structured by local cultural, historical and political forces, the interactions between local and global processes significantly shape distributional equity in the matsutake commodity chain.

Local perspectives on a global phenomenon—Climate change in Eastern Tibetan villages

Tibetan villagers’ perceptions of climate change and its impacts are very detailed and can give important insights into local concerns and processes of climate change. Perceived climate changes and impacts differed significantly even within a small geographic area. Furthermore, climate change was seen as a moral and spiritual issue. These interpretations affect how people deal with climate change and its impacts and which solutions are regarded as relevant. In order to effectively address climate change impacts at the local scale and to enable the process of adaptation, it is necessary to address a combination of perceptions, local variations, moral and spiritual interpretations, and locally relevant solutions.

Simplification of Pine Forests Due to Utilization by Tibetan Villages in Southwest China

In China, many rural communities depend upon forests to provide wood, fuel, fertilizer, animal bedding, and valuable non-timber forest products (NTFP). However, the degree to which forest resource extraction is compatible with new conservation aims is unclear because there is little information on the specific ecological effects of traditional forest collecting practices. Therefore, we compared the structure and floristics of Pinus densata forests exposed to three levels of resource extraction by Tibetan villages in northwest Yunnan: (1) a forest site protected from wood and timber removal, (2) moderately utilized forest sites exposed to traditional collecting practices, and (3) patches of highly utilized forest from which timber extraction is high in response to recent development pressures. The results show that understorey and cryptogamic species are reduced in all the utilized forest sites by comparison with the protected forest. However, the moderately utilized pine forests still provide good NTFP habitats by maintaining relatively high canopy covers, litter covers, and understorey structural complexity; this suggests that traditional forest resource use, while simplifying the forest, does not pose an increasing threat to pine forest integrity. By comparison, the highly utilized forests are transformed into open, herb-rich environments in which canopy covers and understorey complexity are depleted, and NTFP habitats are degraded. In the future it may be practical to enhance biodiversity by proscribing forest resource collection, but the immediate priority is to monitor the sustainability of forest utilization using indicators such as understorey development, litter cover, and cryptogamic richness.

Editor's Note

Blood Ties: Writing across Chinese Borders is the latest volume in the Mānoa series of contemporary writing from Asia, the Pacific, and the Americas. For this volume, we have gathered a range of works that are, by one defi-nition or another, Chinese. At the same time, however, each of the works—and the collection as a whole—will cause readers to ponder how useful or accurate a designation such as "Chinese" can be in the modern world. Writing about the novelist Ha Jin in the New York Review of Books, Ian Buruma recently noted the misleading nature of overly broad categories when applied to individuals and their writing. Buruma observed: Chineseness is almost as complex and elusive an identity as, say, Jewishness. What, for example, does a peasant in Shandong have in common with a dentist in San Francisco, whose Canontese ancestors came to the U.S. via Hong Kong a hundred years ago? Certainly not a common language, or even really a common culture. They eat different kinds of food, and follow different faiths and customs….They live under utterly different political systems, and do not share a nationality. Even to claim a common ethnicity would be a stretch; southern and northern Chinese are not physically alike. Yet both would still consider themselves to be "Chinese." As in other countries, identity in the PRC can be complex. Over ninety percent of the population is ethnically Han, while the remaining ten percent are highly diverse. Over four hundred ethnic groups registered as minorities after the civil war ended in 1949. Officially, however, the Communist Party recognizes only fifty-six ethnic groups, including the Han. Some members of these minorities consider themselves not in the least Chinese, but rather ethnically and culturally distinct peoples whose homelands are, for now, controlled by the Han government. Outside of the PRC and Taiwan (which may or may not be China, and which has its own ethnic minorities), there are more than thirty-five million people of Chinese ancestry. They reside on all continents and in over a hundred countries. Many have lived in their adopted homes for centuries. [End Page vii] [Begin Page ix] The largest populations in order of size are in Southeast Asia, the Americas, Europe, Oceania, and Africa. And within each group, social circumstance, economic status, degree of assimilation, and ethnic identification may vary radically. Some may choose—and others may be compelled to identify with—a Chinese ethnicity. Some may embrace a "situational ethnicity" that shifts according to circumstances, and still others may be indifferent to ethnicity as an aspect of their selfhood. Blood Ties takes its title from a story that is written by the Tibetan author Alai and that is published in English for the first time here. Magical and cunningly allegorical, the story describes the effects of political and ethnic transformation on three generations of a family in a Tibetan village. The ancestral home is in Sichuan Province, formerly part of Tibet but now subsumed by the PRC. Depending upon the perspective of the characters, the family is either Han Chinese tainted by Tibetan blood, or Tibetan tainted by Chinese blood. One of the characters is a Chinese man who married into the family decades before and who has lived in the village so long that he speaks and looks like an old Tibetan. Shortly after Mao's victory in the civil war, a young Han woman comes to the village in order to open a Chinese school. Startled by the sudden presence of someone of his own ethnicity, and with the hope that his grandson can now be educated as a Chinese and not as a Tibetan, the old man tries to reclaim his identity. "Comrade Teacher, I'm not a fellow villager. I'm Chinese!" the old man exclaims. Because the man is, by all appearances, Tibetan and not Chinese, the teacher thinks he is simply trying to deny his ethnic inferiority. "Fellow villager," she replies, "don't worry. Party policy doesn't discriminate against minorities." Exasperated, the old man shouts, "I'm not...

The Ethnic Minority‐Majority Income Gap in Rural China during Transition

The Ethnic Minority‐Majority Income Gap in Rural China during Transition

Kyocera PV systems for Tibetan rural telephony

Kyocera Solar is to supply PV generating systems for satellite-connected public payphones in more than 1300 Tibetan villages by the end of 2003. The company is working with Gilat Satellite Networks Ltd, a specialist in rural telephony programs, to provide the systems to China Telecom Tibet. Some 3500 Kyocera KC-80 PV modules are to be used for systems which will vary in size from 240 to 1200 W, depending on individual requirements. This is a short news story only. Visit www.re-focus.net for the latest renewable energy industry news.

Demographic Dimensions of an Intervillage Land Dispute in Nubri, Nepal

The demographic basis for a land dispute between two Tibetan villages in Nubri, Nepal, is examined in relation to family systems. Despite close proximity and sociocultural ties, the villages experience divergent population growth rates resulting from different frequencies of marriage. In one, old‐age security concerns induce parents to retain female labor within the household by designating daughters to be nuns, a practice that has the unintended consequence of limiting aggregate population growth by barring many women from marriage and reproduction. In the other village the slightly different family system results in fewer nuns, faster population growth, and a need for more land. Comparisons with family systems and demographic outcomes in Europe and Asia reveal this to be a case in which preventive checks can exist in a context of early marriage and high marital fertility and demonstrate how concerns for old‐age security can act as a restraint on aggregate fertility. [Tibetans, family systems, demography, religious celibacy]

Old-age security, religious celibacy, and aggregate fertility in a Tibetan population

Using the family system as a framework, this study investigates the connection between old-age security concerns and aggregate fertility in Sama and Lho, two ethnically Tibetan villages of highland Nepal. The microdemographic approach reveals a difference in family systems between the two villages that results in Sama having a significantly lower level of fertility than Lho. The key difference lies in the practice of Sama’s (but not Lho’s) householders of designating a daughter to be a nun, a strategy meant to retain female labour within the household and thereby guarantee a caretaker in old age. Although the effect of this practice on individual fertility is unclear, the comparison with Lho reveals how it sharply curtails aggregate fertility by preventing nearly one in five women from marrying. In this case the motivation to ensure old-age security acts as an unintentional preventive check on population growth. Comparisons with other societies illustrate how the population of Sama combines elements of both the historical European and Asian demographic experiences.

The Struggle for Modern Tibet: The Autobiography of Tashi Tsering. By Melvyn Goldstein, William Siebenschuh, and Tashi Tsering. Armonk, N.Y.: M. E. Sharpe, 1997. xi, 207 pp. $27.95.

This captivating autobiography by a Tibetan educator and former political prisoner is full of twists and turns. Born in 1929 in a Tibetan village, Tsering developed a strong dislike of his country's theocratic ruling elite. As a 13-year-old member of the Dalai Lama's personal dance troupe, he was frequently whipped or beaten by teachers for minor infractions. A heterosexual, he escaped by becoming a drombo, or homosexual passive partner and sex-toy, for a well-connected monk. After studying at the University of Washington, he returned to Chinese-occupied Tibet in 1964, convinced that Tibet could become a modernized society based on socialist, egalitarian principles only through cooperation with the Chinese. Denounced as a 'counterrevolutionary' during Mao's Cultural Revolution, he was arrested in 1967 and spent six years in prison or doing forced labor in China. Officially exonerated in 1978, Tsering became a professor of English at Tibet University in Lhasa. He now raises funds to build schools in Tibet's villages, emphasizing Tibetan language and culture.

Buzz: the science and lore of alcohol and caffeine

Alcohol and caffeine are deeply woven into the fabric of life for most of the world's population, as close and as comfortable as a cup of coffee or a can of beer. Yet for most people they remain as mysterious and unpredictable as the spirits they were once thought to be. Now, in Buzz, Stephen Braun takes us on a myth-shattering tour of these two popular substances, one that blends fascinating science with colorful lore, and that includes cameo appearances by Shakespeare and Balzac, Buddhist monks and Arabian goat herders, even Mikhail Gorbachev and David Letterman (who once quipped, 'If it weren't for the coffee, I'd have no identifiable personality whatsoever'). Much of what Braun reveals directly contradicts conventional wisdom about alcohol and caffeine. Braun shows, for instance, that alcohol is not simply a depressant as popularly believed, but is instead 'a pharmacy in a bottle' - mimicking the action of drugs such as cocaine, amphetamine, valium, and opium. At low doses, it increases electrical activity in the same brain systems affected by stimulants, influences the same circuits targeted by valium, and causes the release of morphine-like compounds known as endorphins - all at the same time. This explains why alcohol can produce a range of reactions, from boisterous euphoria to dark, brooding hopelessness. Braun also shatters the myth that alcohol kills brain cells, reveals why wood alcohol or methanol causes blindness, and explains the biological reason behind the one-drink-per-hour sobriety rule (that's how long it takes the liver, working full tilt, to disable the 200 quintillion ethanol molecules found in a typical drink). The author then turns to caffeine and shows it to be no less remarkable. We discover that more than 100 plant species produce caffeine molecules in their seeds, leaves, or bark, a truly amazing distribution throughout nature (nicotine, in comparison, is found only in tobacco; opium only in the poppy). It's not surprising then that caffeine is far and away the most widely used mind altering substance on the planet, found in tea, coffee, cocoa, chocolate, soft drinks, and more than 2,000 non-prescription drugs. (Tea is the most popular drink on earth, with coffee a close second.) Braun also explores the role of caffeine in creativity: Johann Sebastian Bach, for one, loved coffee so much he wrote a Coffee Cantata (as Braun notes, no music captures the caffeinated experience better than one of Bach's frenetic fugues); Balzac would work for 12 hours non-stop, drinking coffee all the while; and Kant, Rousseau, and Voltaire all loved coffee. And throughout the book, Braun takes us on many engaging factual sidetrips - we learn, for instance, that Theodore Roosevelt coined the phrase 'Good to the last drop' used by Maxwell House ever since; that distances between Tibetan villages are sometimes reckoned by the number of cups of tea needed to sustain a person (three cups being roughly 8 kilometres); and that John Pemberton's original recipe for Coca-Cola included not only kola extract, but also cocaine. Whether you are a sophisticated consumer of cabernet sauvignon and Kenya AA or just someone who needs a cup of coffee in the morning and a cold one after work, you will find Buzz to be an eye-opening, informative, and often amusing look at two substances at once utterly familiar and deeply mysterious.

３地域におけるチベット系住民の口腔状態の比較Ｉ 智歯の萌出について

In the countries where dentistry is developed, the number and quality of dentists, the economic conditions of the people, dental education and many other factors influence the oral condition of the people: food style and the natural environment no longer have much effect on oral conditions. On the other hand, in areas where no dentist exists and where people live on natural foods, food style and the natural environment are the most important factors which influence the oral condition.We made an oral survey of the Tibetans in three quite different areas and got interesting results. With the eruption of wisdom teeth, it is very important to know whether the jaw develops well or not. People whose jaw develops well can grow four normal wisdom teeth. Japanese can not have four normal wisdom teeth any more because of lack of space for wisdom teeth. Only a few modern Japanese can have four normal teeth.On the other hand, Tibetans have many normal wisdom teeth. The results were as follows: 1) 80% of the 20-years-old villagers in Karakoram (Goma village, 1974) had four normal wisdom teeth. No horizontal or half impacted wisdom teeth were found there. Old people lost many teeth including wisdom teeth because of a high degree of abrasion and the lack of oral hygiene. 2) In northwest Nepal (a very poor village, 1983), many wisdom teeth could not erupt at 20 years of age, but after 25 years 50% of the villagers had four normal wisdom teeth. Even old people still had wisdom teeth probably because of the very low amount and poor quality of the food. 3) In Yunnan (at a Tibetan village, 1989), where villagers can eat a rather large amount of refined and well cooked food, about 40% of the villagers had four well erupted wisdom teeth. Old people lost wisdom teeth because of a high incidence of tooth caries. The causes of tooth caries were lack of oral hygiene and the consumption of rich food.

Tibetan Village Communities – Structure and Change

Tibetan Village Communities – Structure and Change

Eva K. Dargyay: Tibetan village communities: structure and change. x, 110 pp. 5 maps and plans. Warminster Wilts.: Aris and Philips Ltd., [1982]. £12.50.

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Tibetan village communities: structure and change. By Eva K. Dargyay. pp. ix, 117. Warminster, Aris and Phillips Ltd., [1983]. £12.50. (Distributors: La Haule Books Ltd., La Haule, Jersey, C.I.; Humanities Press, Inc., Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey 07716, U.S.A.)

Tibetan village communities: structure and change. By Eva K. Dargyay. pp. ix, 117. Warminster, Aris and Phillips Ltd., [1983]. £12.50. (Distributors: La Haule Books Ltd., La Haule, Jersey, C.I.; Humanities Press, Inc., Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey 07716, U.S.A.)

Tibetan Village Communities. Structure and Change.

Tibetan Village Communities. Structure and Change.