Since Deng Xiaoping's economic reform 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 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. In the past five years, 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.
Ph.D. student Fnu Gaerrang, under the supervision of doctoral advisor Dr. Emily Yeh at University of Colorado at Boulder will conduct research on how the lamas, using their tremendous influence and authority, have initiated an anti-slaughter 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 "developed." Many Tibetan herders have participated in these movements, even though their livelihoods depend heavily on the sale of animal products. Despite loss of income, many claim that their lives are better off. By examining this paradox of why herders feel better off even though their income has decreased, this research project investigates how Tibetan herders and lamas negotiate the imperatives of state and market to articulate their own understanding of development. It explores the relationship between Tibetan Buddhist revival, new economic reforms, and the cultural transformation of Tibetan herders in the market economy since 1980s. The research will use mixed methods, including household surveys, in-depth, semi-structured interviews, analysis of texts and visual media, and participation observation, over a period of 12 months in Tibetan areas of China's Sichuan province.
The project makes several theoretical and empirical contributions. By examining the role of Tibetan Buddhism in development, first, it will contribute to analyses of the role of religious idioms in the negotiation of development. Second, it will contribute to our understanding of the intersection between globalized free market/free trade, and global religious revival. In addition, through a focus on ethnographic and other field-based research methods rather than analysis of canonical texts, the project develops a geographical approach to the study of Tibetan Buddhism. The research project will also have significant broader impacts. In the context of Chinese assimilative economic development in Tibet that is imposing an increasing threat to Tibetan cultural identity, the examination by this project of the responses of Tibetan lamas and herders to state economic projects has practical implications for how Tibetan culture can be sustained as China continues to grow as an economic power. The co-PI will communicate project findings through publication in Chinese and Tibetan. The analysis of the tension between Chinese state development and Tibetan Buddhism will provide policymakers with a new way of thinking about the integration of the economic development with cultural sustainability.
