Home Introduction: the transformation of Tibet’s language ecology in the twenty-first century
Article
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

Introduction: the transformation of Tibet’s language ecology in the twenty-first century

  • Gerald Roche EMAIL logo
Published/Copyright: May 2, 2017

Abstract

Tibet’s linguistic diversity is undergoing drastic transformations in the twenty-first century. In this article, I begin my examination of this issue by outlining the extent of Tibet’s linguistic diversity, including not only its numerous Tibetic languages, but also its non-Tibetic minority languages. Using a “language ecology” approach, I examine the mechanisms that have produced and maintained this diversity, as well as the ways this diversity was spatially and socially patterned. I argue that these processes and patterns were largely maintained up until the twenty-first century, when the Chinese state’s program to “Open the West” unleashed an ideologically driven modernization program on Tibet, radically altering its language ecology. I argue that the present trends emerging from this process are likely to continue throughout the twenty-first century, resulting in both language loss and the emergence of new languages, leaving the overall language ecology fundamentally altered by the beginning of the twenty-second century. It is hoped that this article will not only provide a useful framework for future discussions on linguistic diversity in Tibet, but will also focus attention on the challenges facing individual languages in Tibet today.

Acknowledgements

This special issue is based on papers that were given at the workshop “Minority Languages of the Chinese Tibetosphere: Ancient Trends, Contemporary Developments, and Future Prospects”, held on 3 and 4 November 2014, at the Hugo Valentin Centre of Uppsala University, and funded by a Research Initiation Grant from the Riksbankens Jubileumsfond (#F14-1339:1). My introductory essay benefitted greatly from the feedback of two anonymous reviewers and my colleagues at the Hugo Valentin Centre. I also presented sections of this work at the Tibetan Studies Outreach program at SOAS, Oxford University, Le Centre de recherches linguistiques sur l’Asie orientale, Humboldt University (Berlin), and Jagiellonian University, and received much thoughtful feedback from the people who attended those talks. Special thanks go to Lara Maconi and Elena McKinlay for their comments on the draft paper. All remaining errors are my own.

References

Argenter, Joan A. 2008. L’Alguer (Alghero), a Catalan Linguistic enclave in Sardinia. 193/194. 205–217.Search in Google Scholar

Balogh, Mátyás. 2017. Henan Oirat: A shrinking pool of unique linguistic features. International journal of the sociology of language.10.1515/ijsl-2017-0002Search in Google Scholar

Barabantseva, V Elena. 2009. Development as localization: Ethnic minorities in China’s official discourse on the Western Development Project. Critical Asian Studies 41(2). 225–254.10.1080/14672710902809393Search in Google Scholar

Barstow, Geoff. 2013. Buddhism between abstinence and indulgence: Vegetarianism in the life and works of Jigmé Lingpa. Journal of Buddhist Ethics 20. 74–104.Search in Google Scholar

Bass, Catriona. 1998. Education in Tibet: Policy and practice since 1950. London: Zed booksSearch in Google Scholar

Bienier, Hansjörg. 2002. Broadcasting to Tibet. Central Asian Survey 21(4). 417–422.10.1080/0263493032000053235Search in Google Scholar

Bilik, Naran. 2013. Minority education and language ideology. In Gray Tuttle, Kunsang Gya, Karma Dare & Jonathan Wilber (eds.), The third international conference on Tibetan language (volume 1): Proceedings of the panels on domains of use and linguistic interactions. New York: Trace Foundation, 115–188Search in Google Scholar

Bkra shis bzang po. 2012. May all good things gather here: Life, religion, and marriage in a Mi nyag Tibetan village. Asian Highlands Perspectives 14. 1–369.Search in Google Scholar

Blackburn, Stuart H. 2008. Himalayan tribal tales: Oral tradition and culture in the Apatani Valley. Leiden: Brill.10.1163/ej.9789004171336.i-298Search in Google Scholar

Boulnois, Luce. 2013. Gold, wool, and musk: Trade in Lhasa in the seventeenth sentury. In Gray Tuttle & Kurtis Schaeffer (eds.), The Tibetan history reader, 457–476. New York: Columbia University Press.Search in Google Scholar

Bradley, David. 2012a. Standards, writing, and speaking in Tibetan and other Tibeto-Burman languages. In Gunsang Gya, Andrea Snavely & Tsering Shakya (eds.), Minority languages in today’s global society: Volume 2, 52–71. New York: Trace Foundation.Search in Google Scholar

Bradley, David. 2012b. Vitality of minority languages. Author’s preprint proof from The Encyclopedia of Chinese Languages and Linguistics. https://www.academia.edu/1555914/Vitality_of_languages_in_China.Search in Google Scholar

Buffetrille, Katia. 2014. A Controversy on vegetarianism. Revue d’Etudes Tibétaines 31. 113–127.Search in Google Scholar

Cabo, Miguel & Fernando Molina. 2009. The long and winding road of nationalization: Eugen Weber’s Peasants into Frenchmen in modern European history (1976–2006). European History Quarterly 39(2). 264–286.10.1177/0265691408101441Search in Google Scholar

Chamberlain, Bradford Lynn. 2008. Script selection for Tibetan-related languages in multiscriptal environments. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 192. 117–131.10.1515/IJSL.2008.039Search in Google Scholar

Childs, Geoff, Melvyn C. Goldstein & Puchung Wangdui. 2011. An entrepreneurial transition? Development and economic mobility in rural Tibet. Himalaya, the Journal of the Association for Nepal and Himalayan Studies 30(1). 13.Search in Google Scholar

Chirkova, Ekaterina. 2012. The Qiangic subgroup from an areal perspective: A case study of languages of Muli. Language and Linguistics 13(1). 133–170.Search in Google Scholar

Chirkova, Ekaterina. 2014. The Duoxu language and the Ersu-Lizu-Duoxu relationship. Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area 37(1). 104–146.10.1075/ltba.37.1.04chiSearch in Google Scholar

Chos bstan rgyal. 2014. Following the herds: Rhythms of pastoral life in Amdo Asian Highlands Perspectives 32, http://www.plateauculture.org/writing/following-herds-rhythms-tibetan-pastoral-life-mdo.Search in Google Scholar

Dai, Yincong. 2010. The Sichuan frontier and Tibet: Imperial strategy in the early Qing. Seattle: University of Washington Press.Search in Google Scholar

Dawa Lodoe. 2012. Discourse on a common spoken Tibetan language. In Gunsang Gya, Andrea Snavely & Tsering Shakya (eds.), Minority languages in today’s global society: Volume 2, 52–71. New York: Trace Foundation.Search in Google Scholar

de Varennes, Fernand. 2012. Language rights and Tibetans in China: A look at international law. In Kunsang Gya, Andrea Snavely & Elliot Sperling (eds.), Minority languages in today’s global society,.New York: Trace Foundation, 2012.Search in Google Scholar

Dede, Keith. 2003. The Chinese language in Qinghai. Studia orientalia 95. 321–346.Search in Google Scholar

Denison, Norman. 1982. A linguistic ecology for Europe? Folia linguistica 16(1–4). 5–16.10.1515/flin.1982.16.1-4.5Search in Google Scholar

Diemberger, Hildegard. 2012. Holy books as ritual objects and vessels of teachings in the ‘era of the further spread of the doctrine’ (bstan pa yang dar). In Katia Buffetrille (ed.), Revisiting rituals in a changing Tibetan world, 9–42. Leiden: Brill.10.1163/9789004235007_003Search in Google Scholar

Dobrin, Lise M., Peter K. Austin & David Nathan. 2007. Dying to be counted: The commodification of endangered languages in documentary linguistics. 2007. Proceedings of the conference on language documentation and linguistic theory. School of Oriental and African Studies.Search in Google Scholar

DuBois, Thomas David. 2005. The sacred village: Social change and religious life in rural north China. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press.Search in Google Scholar

Dwyer, Arienne. 2013. Tibetan as a dominant sprachbund language: Its interactions with neighboring languages. In Gray Tuttle, Kunsang Gya, Karma Dare & Jonathan Wilber (eds.), The third international conference on Tibetan language (volume 1): Proceedings of the panels on domains of use and linguistic interaction, 259–302. New York: Trace Foundation.Search in Google Scholar

Ekvall, Robert. 1964. Religious observances in Tibet: Patterns and function. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Search in Google Scholar

Elliott, Mark. 2015. The case of the missing indigene: Debate over a “second-generation” ethnic policy. China journal 73. 186–213.10.1086/679274Search in Google Scholar

Evans, Nicholas. 2009. Dying words: Endangered languages and what they have to tell us. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.10.1002/9781444310450Search in Google Scholar

Faehndrich, Burgel RM. 2007. Sketch grammar of the Karlong variety of Mongghul, and dialectal survey of Mongghul. University of Hawai’I PhD thesis.Search in Google Scholar

Farrer, Reginald. 1926. On the eaves of the world. London: E. Arnold.Search in Google Scholar

Feng, Min (translated by Mtsho mo skyid and Gerald Roche). 2010. Matrilinieal marriage in Tibetan areas in western Sichuan province. Asian highlands perspectives 6. 251–280. http://www.plateauculture.org/writing/matrilineal-marriage-tibetan-areas-western-sichuan-provinceSearch in Google Scholar

Ferguson, Charles Albert. 1959. Diglossia. Word-Journal of the international linguistic association 15(2). 325–340.10.1080/00437956.1959.11659702Search in Google Scholar

Fischer, Andrew Martin. 2013. The disempowered development of Tibet in China: A study in the economics of marginalization. New York: Lexington Books.Search in Google Scholar

G.yu lha. 2012. Warming your hands with moonlight: Lavrung Tibetan oral traditions and culture. Asian highlands perspectives 12. http://www.plateauculture.org/writing/warming-your-hands-moonlight-lavrung-tibetan-oral-traditions-and-cultureSearch in Google Scholar

Gaerrang (Kabzung). 2012. Alternative development on the Tibetan Plateau: The case of the slaughter renunciation movement. University of Colorado, Boulder Ph.D thesis.Search in Google Scholar

Gayley, Holly. 2011. The ethics of cultural survival: A Buddhist vision of progress in Mkhan po ‘Jigs phun’s Heart advice to Tibetans for the 21st century. In Gray Tuttle (ed.), Mapping the modern in Tibet, 435–502. Halle: IITBS.Search in Google Scholar

Germano, David. 2003. Statement presented to the round table on ‘Teaching and learning Tibetan: The role of the Tibetan language in Tibet’s future’ for the Congressional Executive Commission on Chinahttp://www.cecc.gov/events/roundtables/teaching-and-learning-tibetan-the-role-of-the-tibetan-language-in-tibets-futureSearch in Google Scholar

Gerner, Manfred. 2007. Chakzampa Thangtong Gyalpo: Architect, philosopher and iron chain bridge builder. Thimpu: Centre for Bhutan Studies.Search in Google Scholar

Giersch, C. Patterson. 2010. Across Zomia with merchants, monks, and musk: Process geographies, trade networks and the Inner-East-Southeast Asian borderlands. Journal of Global History 5(2). 215–23910.1017/S1740022810000069Search in Google Scholar

Goldstein, Melvyn C., Geoff Childs & Puchung Wangdui. 2008. “Going for Income” in village Tibet: A longitudinal analysis of change and adaptation, 1997–2007. Asian survey 48(4). 514–534.10.1525/as.2008.48.3.514Search in Google Scholar

Gonier and Rgyal yum sgrol ma. 2012. Pyramid schemes on the Tibetan Plateau. Asian highlands perspectives 21. 113–140, http://www.plateauculture.org/writing/pyramid-schemes-tibetan-plateauSearch in Google Scholar

Goodman, David. 2004. The campaign to ‘Open Up the West’: National, provincial-level, and local perspectives. China quarterly. 178. 317–334.10.1017/S0305741004000190Search in Google Scholar

Green, Jeffrey. 2012. Amdo Tibetan media intelligibility. SIL electronic survey reports, http://www.sil.org/resources/publications/entry/48318Search in Google Scholar

Hagège, Claude (translated by Jody Gladding). 2009. On the death and life of languages. New Haven: Yale University Press.10.2307/j.ctt1npgk7Search in Google Scholar

Harwood, Russell. 2014. China’s new Socialist countryside: Modernity arrives in the Nu River Valley. Seattle: Washington University Press.Search in Google Scholar

Haugen, Einar. 2001. The ecology of language. In Alwin Fill & Peter Mühlhäusler (eds.), The ecolinguistics reader: Language, ecology, and environment, 57–66. London: Continuum.Search in Google Scholar

High Peaks Pure Earth. 2012. The online debate continues: Do we need a common Losar? http://highpeakspureearth.com/2012/the-online-debate-continues-do-we-need-a-common-losar/Search in Google Scholar

High Peaks Pure Earth. 2014a. ‘On unity’: The third chapter of ‘The Restless Himalayas’ by Dolma Kyap. http://highpeakspureearth.com/2014/on-unity-third-chapter-of-the-restless-himalayas-by-dolma-kyab/Search in Google Scholar

High Peaks Pure Earth. 2014b. http://highpeakspureearth.com/2014/an-urgent-call-for-the-protection-and-preservation-of-tibetan-language-by-khenpo-tsultrim-lodoe/Search in Google Scholar

Hirsch, Francine. 2000. Toward an empire of nations: Border‐making and the formation of soviet national identities. The Russian review 59(2). 201–226.10.1111/0036-0341.00117Search in Google Scholar

Hirsch, Francine. 2005. Empire of nations: Ethnographic knowledge and the making of the Soviet Union. New York: Cornell University Press.10.1353/imp.2005.0129Search in Google Scholar

Hofer, Teresia. 2017. Is Lhasa Tibetan Sign Language emerging, endangered, or both? International journal of the sociology of language.10.1515/ijsl-2017-0005Search in Google Scholar

Huber, Toni. 2012. Micro-migrations of hill peoples in northern Arunachal Pradesh: Rethinking methodologies and claims of origins in Tibet. In Toni Huber & Stuart Blackburn (eds.), Origins and migrations in the extended eastern Himalayas, 83–106. Leiden: Brill.10.1163/9789004228368_007Search in Google Scholar

Iselin, Lilian. 2014. Translocal practices on the Tibetan Plateau: Motorised mobility of pastoralists and spatial transformations. Nomadic peoples 18(1). 15–37.10.3197/np.2014.180103Search in Google Scholar

Janhunen, Juha. 2003. Shirongol and Shirongolic. Studia etymologica Cracoviensia 8. 83–89.Search in Google Scholar

Janhunen, Juha, Lionel Ha Mingzong & Joseph Tshe dpag rnam Rgyal. 2007. On the language of the Shaowa Tuzu in the context of the ethnic taxonomy of Amdo Qinghai. Central Asiatic journal 51(2). 177–195.Search in Google Scholar

Jiang, Li. 2015. A grammar of Guiqiong: A language of Sichuan. Leiden: Brill.10.1163/9789004293045Search in Google Scholar

Lama Jabb. Banditry in traditional Amdo: The story of Yidak Kela. In Wim van Spengen & Lama Jabb (eds.), Studies in the history of eastern Tibet. Halle: IITBS, 2009.Search in Google Scholar

Lama Jabb. 2011. Singing the nation: Modern Tibetan music and national identity. Revue d’Etudes Tibétaines 21. 1–29.Search in Google Scholar

Kapstein, Matthew. 1998. A pilgrimage of rebirth reborn: The 1992 celebration of the Drigung Powa Chenmo. In Melvyn Goldstein & Matthew Kapstein (eds.), Buddhism in contemporary Tibet: Religious revival and cultural identity, 95–119. Delhi: Motilal Banrsidass.10.1525/9780520920057-006Search in Google Scholar

Kapstein, Matthew. 2006. The Tibetans. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.Search in Google Scholar

Keiser, Steve Hartman. 2003. Pennsylvania German and the ‘lunch pail threat’: Language shift and cultural maintenance in two Amish communities. In Brian Jospeh, Johanna DeStefano, Neil Jacobs & Ilse Lehiste (eds.), When languages collide: Perspectives on language conflict, language competition, and language coexistence, 3–20. Columbus: The Ohio State University Press.Search in Google Scholar

Koch, Ulrike. 1997. The saltman of Tibet. New York: Zeitgeist Video.Search in Google Scholar

Konchok Gelek. 2017. Variation, contact, and change in language varieties in Yul shul (northern Khams). International journal of the sociology of language.10.1515/ijsl-2017-0004Search in Google Scholar

Laufer, Berthold. 1916. Loan-words in Tibetan. T’oung pao 17. 403–552.10.1163/156853216X00157Search in Google Scholar

Leibold, James. 2013. Ethnic policy in China: Is reform inevitable? Honolulu: East-West Center.Search in Google Scholar

Leibold, James. 2014. A family divided: The CCP’s Central Ethnic Work Conference. China brief 14(21). http://www.jamestown.org/programs/chinabrief/single/?tx_ttnews[tt_news]=43054&tx_ttnews[backPid]=25&cHash=69cddfb62b8fb63343a35cd4a16652e9&&_ga=1.151815737.1080092196.1429617147#.VTY9-xOUee5Search in Google Scholar

Lewis, M. Paul, Gary F. Simons & Charles D. Fennig (eds.). 2015. Ethnologue: Languages of the world, eighteenth edition. Dallas, Texas: SIL International. Online version: http://www.ethnologue.comSearch in Google Scholar

Li, Tao. 2007. A study of the Tibetan rural urbanization model. China report 43(1). 31–42.10.1177/000944550604300102Search in Google Scholar

Lim, Francis Khek Gee. 2004. Zombie slayers in a ‘hidden valley’(sbas yul): Sacred geography and political organisation in the Nepal-Tibet borderland. European bulletin of Himalayan research 27. 37–66.Search in Google Scholar

Lobsang, Monlam. 2012. The development and application of Monlam Tibetan font. In Gunsang Gya, Andrea Snavely & Tsering Shakya (eds.), Minority languages in today’s global society: Volume 2, 256–296. New York: Trace Foundation.Search in Google Scholar

Ma, Jianzhong & Kevin Stuart. 1996. Stone camels and clear springs: The Salar’s Samarkand origins. Asian folklore studies 55(2). 287–298.10.2307/1178823Search in Google Scholar

Ma, Rong. 2014. Bilingual education and language policy in Tibet. In James Leibold & Chen Yangbin (eds.), Minority education in China: Balancing unity and diversity in an era of critical pluralism, 83–106. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.10.5790/hongkong/9789888208135.003.0005Search in Google Scholar

Mackey, William F. 2001. The ecology of language shift. In Alwin Fill & Peter Mühlhäusler (eds.), The ecolinguistics reader: Language, ecology, and environment, 67–74. London: Continuum.Search in Google Scholar

Maconi, Lara. 2008. One nation, two discourses: Tibetan new era literature and the language debate. In Lauren Hartley & Patricia Schiaffini-Vedani (eds.), Modern Tibetan literature and social change, 173–201. Durham: Duke University Press.10.1215/9780822381433-010Search in Google Scholar

Manderscheid, Angela. 2001. The black tent in its easternmost distribution: The case of the Tibetan Plateau. Mountain research and development 21(2). 154–160.10.1659/0276-4741(2001)021[0154:TBTIIE]2.0.CO;2Search in Google Scholar

Marti, Roland. 2007. Lower Sorbian – Twice a minority language. International journal of the sociology of language 183. 31–51.10.1515/IJSL.2007.003Search in Google Scholar

Martin, Dan. 1987. On the origin and significance of the prayer wheel according to two nineteenth-century Tibetan literary sources. The Journal of the Tibet Society 7. 3–29.Search in Google Scholar

Moore, Robert E., Sari Pietikäinen & Jan Blommaert. 2010. Counting the losses: Numbers as the language of language endangerment. Sociolinguistic Studies 4(1). 1–26.10.1558/sols.v4i1.1Search in Google Scholar

Morcom, Anna. 2006. History, traditions, identities and nationalism: Drawing and redrawing the musical cultural map of Tibet. PIATS 2006, http://s3.amazonaws.com/academia.edu.documents/30733624/Morcom__Histories_traditions_and_identities__PIATS__2011.pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAJ56TQJRTWSMTNPEA&Expires=1430331715&Signature=6V%2FeAsZA8911JfEkx2dnmCkHGPU%3D&response-content-disposition=inlineSearch in Google Scholar

Morcom, Anna. 2007. Modernity, power and the reconstruction of dance in post 1950s Tibet. Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies 3. 1–32.Search in Google Scholar

Morcom, Anna. 2008. Getting heard in Tibet: Music, media and markets. Consumption, Markets and Culture 11(4). 259–285.10.1080/10253860802391284Search in Google Scholar

Moseley, Christopher (ed.). 2010. Atlas of the world’s languages in danger, 3rd edn. Paris: UNESCO Publishing. Online version: http://www.unesco.org/culture/en/endangeredlanguages/atlasSearch in Google Scholar

Mufwene, Salikoko. 2001. The ecology of language evolution. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511612862Search in Google Scholar

Mühlhäusler, Peter. 1992. Preserving languages or language ecologies? A top-down approach to language survival. Oceanic Linguistics 31(2). 163–180.10.2307/3623012Search in Google Scholar

Mühlhäusler, Peter. 1996. Linguistic ecology: Language change and linguistic imperialism in the Pacific region. London: Routledge.Search in Google Scholar

Mühlhäusler, Peter. 2001. Why one cannot preserve languages (but can preserve language ecologies). In David Bradley & Maya Bradley (eds.) Language Endangerment and Maintenance 34–39. London: Routledge.Search in Google Scholar

Mullaney, Thomas. 2011. Coming to terms with the nation: Ethnic classification in modern China. Berkeley: University of California Press.10.4000/chinaperspectives.5586Search in Google Scholar

Nangsal Tenzin Norbu. 2012. Thoughts on the teaching of natural science in Tibetan. In Gunsang Gya, Andrea Snavely & Elliot Sperling (eds) Minority languages in today’s global society: Volume 1, 107–126. New York: Trace Foundation.Search in Google Scholar

Nichols, Johanna. 1992. Linguistic diversity in space and time. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.10.7208/chicago/9780226580593.001.0001Search in Google Scholar

Nugteren, Hans & Marti Roos. 1996. Common vocabulary of the western and eastern Yugur languages: The Turkic and Mongolic loanwords. Acta Orientalia 49(1). 25–91.Search in Google Scholar

Nugteren, Hans & Marti Roos. 1998. Common vocabulary of the western and eastern Yugur languages: The Tibetan loanwords. Studia etymologica Cracoviensia 3. 45–92.Search in Google Scholar

Odlin, Terence. 2003. Language ecology and the Columbian exchange. In Brian Jospeh, Johanna DeStefano, Neil Jacobs & Ilse Lehiste (eds.), When languages collide: Perspectives on language conflict, language competition, and language coexistence, 71–94. Columbus: The Ohio State University Press.Search in Google Scholar

Oidtman, Max. 2014. Between patron and priest: Amdo Tibet under Qing rule, 1792–1911. Harvard University PhD dissertationSearch in Google Scholar

Olson, James Stuart. 1998. An ethnohistorical dictionary of China. Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood Publishing Group.Search in Google Scholar

Ostler, Nicholas. 2006. Empires of the word: A language history of the world. New York: HarperCollins.Search in Google Scholar

Peters, Simon. 2014. Gyalthang Southern Khams Tibetan: A case study of language attitudes and shift in Shangri-la. Anthós 6(1). 111–136.10.15760/anthos.2014.111Search in Google Scholar

Postiglione, Gerard, Ben Jiao & Sonam Gyatso. 2005. Education in rural Tibet: Development, problems and adaptations. China: An International Journal 3(1). 1–23.10.1353/chn.2005.0004Search in Google Scholar

Postiglione, Gerard, Ben Jiao, Tsamla. 2014. Popularizing basic education in Tibet’s nomadic regions. In James Leibold & Chen Yangbin (eds.), Minority education in China: Balancing unity and diversity in an era of critical pluralism, 107–130. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.10.5790/hongkong/9789888208135.003.0006Search in Google Scholar

Potter, Pitman. 2010. Economy and development on the inner periphery. In Pitman Potter Law, policy, and practice on China’s periphery, 116:141. London: Routledge.10.4324/9780203846735Search in Google Scholar

Prins, Marielle. 2002. Towards a Tibetan common language: A mdo perspectives on attempts at language standardization. In Toni Huber (ed.), Amdo Tibetans in transition: Society and culture in the Post-Mao era, 27–52. Leiden: Brill.10.1163/9789004483095_006Search in Google Scholar

Richardson, Hugh. 1981. Armenians in India and Tibet. Tibet Society Journal 1. 63–67.Search in Google Scholar

Rigthub. 2012. The situation and consideration of Tibetan language in social media. In Gunsang Gya, Andrea Snavely & Tsering Shakya (eds.), Minority Languages in Today’s Global Society: Volume 2, 297–320. New York: Trace Foundation.Search in Google Scholar

Robin, Françoise. 2009. The ‘socialist new villages’ in the Tibetan Autonomous Region: Reshaping the rural landscape and controlling its inhabitants. China Perspectives 3: 55–64, http://chinaperspectives.revues.org/484510.4000/chinaperspectives.4845Search in Google Scholar

Robin, Françoise. 2014. Streets, slogans and screens: New paradigms for the defense of the Tibetan language. In Trine Brox & Ildikó Bellér-Hann (eds.), On the fringes of the harmonious society: Tibetans and Uyghurs in socialist China, 209–234. Copenhagen: NIAS Press.Search in Google Scholar

Roche, Gerald. 2011. Nadun: Ritual and the dynamics of diversity in northwest China’s Hehuang region. Australia: Griffith University PhD diss.Search in Google Scholar

Roche, Gerald. 2014. The vitality of Tibet’s minority languages in the twenty-first century: Preliminary remarks Multiethnica 35. 24–30.Search in Google Scholar

Roche, Gerald. 2016. The Tibetanization of Henan: Ethnicity and assimilation on the Sino-Tibetan frontier. Asian Ethnicity 17(1). 128–149.10.1080/14631369.2015.1049244Search in Google Scholar

Roche, Gerald. 2015b. Nadun: Ritual and history on the northeast Tibetan plateau. In Mariko Namba Walter & James P. Ito-Adler (eds.), The silk road: Interwoven history. Volume 1: Long-distance trade, culture, and society, 310–347. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge Institutes Press and the Association for Central Asian Civilizations and Silk Road Studies.Search in Google Scholar

Rohlf, Gregory. 2013. A preliminary investigation of the urban morphology of towns on the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau. In Yongtao Du & Jeff Kyong-McClain (eds.), Chinese history in geographical perspective, 159–177. New York: Lexington Books.Search in Google Scholar

Rohsenow, John. 2007. Fifty years of script and written language reform in the PRC: The genesis of the language law of 2001. In Minglang Zhou and Hongkai Sun (eds.), Language policy in the People’s Republic of China: Theory and practice since 1949, 21–44. Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers.10.1007/1-4020-8039-5_2Search in Google Scholar

Rosenberg, Peter. 2005. Dialect convergence in the German language islands (Sprachinseln). In Peter Auer, Frans Hinskens & Paul Kerswill (eds.), Dialect change: Convergence and divergence in European languages, 221–235 Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511486623.010Search in Google Scholar

Saillard, Claire. 2004. On the promotion of Putonghua in China. In Minglang Zhou & Hongkai Sun (eds.), Language policy in the People’s Republic of China: Theory and practice since 1949, 163–176. Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers.10.1007/1-4020-8039-5_9Search in Google Scholar

Sandman, Erika. 2012. Bonan grammatical features in Wutun. Mémoires de la Société Finno-Ougrienne 264. 375–387Search in Google Scholar

Sardar-Afkhami, Hamid. 1996. An account of Padma-bkod: A hidden land in southeastern Tibet. Kailash 18(3–4). 1–21.Search in Google Scholar

Sayül Trowo Gyeltsen. 2012. The realities of China’s minority language laws: A comment on Tibetan language learning in relation to the ‘ten rights’. In Gunsang Gya, Andrea Snavely & Elliot Sperling (eds.), Minority languages in today’s global society: Volume 1, 273–304. New York: Trace Foundation.Search in Google Scholar

Schlepp, Wayne. 2002. Cinderella in Tibet. Asian folklore studies 61(1). 123–147.10.2307/1178680Search in Google Scholar

Schmitt, Edwin A. 2014. The history and development of de-swiddening among the Ersu in Sichuan, China. Himalaya, the journal of the association for Nepal and Himalayan studies 34(2). 12.Search in Google Scholar

Schram, Louis M.J. 2006 [1954, 1957, 1961] The Monguors of the Kansu-Tibetan frontier, Part I: Their origin, history and social organization; Part II: Their religious life; Part III: Records of the Monguor clans: History of the Monguors in Huanchung and the chronicles of the Lu family. Xining City: Plateau Publications.Search in Google Scholar

Scott, James. 1998. Seeing like a state: How certain schemes to improve the human condition have failed. New Haven: Yale University Press.Search in Google Scholar

Skinner, G. William. 1964. Marketing and social structure in rural China, part I. The Journal of Asian Studies 24(1). 3–43.10.2307/2050412Search in Google Scholar

Skinner, G. William. 1965a. Marketing and social structure in rural China, part II. The Journal of Asian Studies 24(2). 195–228.10.2307/2050562Search in Google Scholar

Skinner, G. William. 1965b. Marketing and social structure in rural China, part III. The Journal of Asian Studies 24(3). 363–399.10.2307/2050342Search in Google Scholar

Slater, Keith. 2003. Mangghuer: A Mongolic language of China’s Qinghai-Gansu sprachbund. London & New York: Routledge.Search in Google Scholar

Sperling, Elliot. 2010. Some preliminary remarks on the influx of New World silver into Tibet during China’s ‘silver century’ (1550–1650). In Roberto Vitali (ed.), The earth ox papers. The Tibet journal. 34(3). 299–311.Search in Google Scholar

State Council Information Office of the People’s Republic of China. 2015. White paper: Tibet’s path of development is driven by an irresistible historical tide. http://www.china.org.cn/china/2015-04/15/content_35325433.htmSearch in Google Scholar

Stearns, Cyrus. 2007. King of the empty plain: The Tibetan iron-bridge builder, Tangtong Gyalpo. Boston: Snow Lion PublicationsSearch in Google Scholar

Stevenson, Mark. 2005. Many paths: Searching for old Tibet in new China. Melbourne: Lothian Books.Search in Google Scholar

Stirr, Anna. 2008. Blue Lake: Tibetan popular music, place and fantasies of the nation. Robert Barnett & Robert Schwartz (eds.), Tibetan modernities: Notes from the field on cultural and social change, 305–332. Leiden: Brill.10.1163/ej.9789004155220.i-458.83Search in Google Scholar

Sum bho don grub tshe ring. 2011. Bod skad kyi yul skad rnam shad [A discussion of Tibetan dialects]. Beijing: Krung go’i bod rig pa dpe skrun khang [China Tibetology Press].Search in Google Scholar

Sun, Hongkai. 1992. On nationality and the recognition of Tibeto-Burman languages. Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman area 15(2). 1–19.Search in Google Scholar

Sun, Hongkai. 1999. On the Tibeto-Burman languages of the eastern Himalayan area in China. Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman area 22(2). 61–72.Search in Google Scholar

Swank, Heidi. 2014. Rewriting Shangri-La: Tibetan youth, migrations and literacies in McLeod Ganj, India. Leiden: Brill.10.1163/9789004263901Search in Google Scholar

Suzuki, Hiroyuki and Sonam Wangmo. 2017. Language evolution and vitality of Lhagang Tibetan: A Tibetic language as a minority in Minyag Rabgang. International journal of the sociology of language.10.1515/ijsl-2017-0003Search in Google Scholar

Tas, A. Rona. 1966. Tibeto-Mongolica: The Tibetan loanwords of Monguor and the development of the archaic Tibetan dialects. The Hague: Mouton.Search in Google Scholar

Tenzin Jinba. 2013. In the land of the eastern queendom: The politics of gender and ethnicity on the Sino-Tibetan border. Seattle: University of Washington Press.Search in Google Scholar

Theobold, Ulrich. 2013. War finance and logistics in late imperial China: A study of the second Jinchuan campaign (17711776). Leiden: Brill.10.1163/9789004255678Search in Google Scholar

Thomason, Sarah Grey. 2001. Language contact: An introduction. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Search in Google Scholar

Thurston, Timothy. 2012. An Introduction to Tibetan sa bstod speeches in A mdo. Asian Ethnology 71(1). 49–73.Search in Google Scholar

Thurston, Timothy. 2015. Laughter on the grassland: A diachronic study of A mdo Tibetan comedy and the public intellectual in western China. The Ohio State University PhD thesis.Search in Google Scholar

Todal, Jon. 1999. Minorities with a minority: Language and the school in the Sami areas of Norway. Language, culture, and curriculum 11(3). 124–136.10.1080/07908319808666562Search in Google Scholar

Tournadre, Nicolas. 2003. The dynamics of Tibetan-Chinese bilingualism: The current situation and future prospects. China perspectives 45. 1–9. http://chinaperspectives.revues.org/23110.4000/chinaperspectives.231Search in Google Scholar

Tournadre, Nicolas. 2008. Arguments against the concept of ‘conjunct’ /‘disjunct’ in Tibetan. In Brigitte Huber, Marianne Volkart & Paul Widmer (eds.), Chomolangma, demawend und kasbek, festschrift für Roland Bielmeier, 281–308. Halle: International Institute for Tibetan Buddhist Studies.Search in Google Scholar

Tournadre, Nicolas. 2013. The Tibetic languages and their classification. In Thomas Owen-Smith & Nathan Hill (eds.), Trans-Himalayan linguistics: Historical and descriptive linguistics of the Himalayan area. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.10.1515/9783110310832.105Search in Google Scholar

Tournadre, Nicolas. 2015. Le development des langues et les nouvelles technologies de la communication: le miracle tibétain. http://www.senat.fr/ga/ga127/ga12715.html#toc257Search in Google Scholar

Tournadre, Nicolas & Françoise Robin. 2006. Le grand livre des proverbes Tibétains. Montréal: Presses du Châtelet.Search in Google Scholar

Tribur, Zoe. 2017. Social network structure and language change in Amdo Tibetan. International journal of the sociology of language.10.1515/ijsl-2017-0007Search in Google Scholar

Tunzhi. 2017. Language vitality and glottonyms in the Ethnic Corridor: The Rta'u language. International journal of the sociology of language.10.1515/ijsl-2017-0006Search in Google Scholar

Tsering Drolma & Arthur Wilson 2009. Tibetan contemporary songs and music video: Focus and direction 2000–2009. Tibet journal. 34(1). 15–175.Search in Google Scholar

Tsung, Linda. 2009. Minority languages, education, and communities in China. London: Palgrave Macmillan.10.1057/9780230234406Search in Google Scholar

Tuttle, Gray. 2008. The failure of ideologies in China’s relations with Tibetans. In Jacques Bertrand & André Laliberté (eds.), Multination states in Asia: Accommodation or resistance, 219–243. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511750755.010Search in Google Scholar

Tuttle, Gray. 2012. Building up the Dge lugs pa base in A mdo: The role of Lha sa, Beijing, and local agency. Zangxue xuekan [Journal of Tibetology]. 7. 126–140.Search in Google Scholar

Upton, Janet L. 2000. Notes towards a native Tibetan ethnology: An introduction to and annotated translation of dMu dge bSam gtan’s essays on Dwags po (Baima Zangzu). Tibet journal 25(1). 3–26.Search in Google Scholar

van Spengen, Wim. 2000. Tibetan border worlds: A geo-historical analysis of trade and traders. London: Routledge.Search in Google Scholar

Voegelin, Carl F., Florence M. Voegelin & Noel W. Schutz Jr. 1967. The language situation in Arizona as part of the southwest culture area. In Dell Hymes & William Bittle (eds.), Studies in southwestern ethnolinguistics: Meaning and history in the languages of the American southwest, 403–451. The Hague: Mouton.Search in Google Scholar

Warner, Cameron David. 2013. Hope and sorrow: Uncivil religion, Tibetan music videos, and YouTube. Ethnos: Journal of Anthropology 78(4). 543–568.10.1080/00141844.2012.724433Search in Google Scholar

Weber, Eugen. 1976. Peasants into Frenchmen: The modernization of rural France 1870–1914. Stanford: Stanford University Press.10.1515/9780804766036Search in Google Scholar

Wehrli, Eugen. 1992. The Tibetan local self-defense organizations in Amdo from 1900 to 1950. China Tibetology. Special Issue 1. 315–321.Search in Google Scholar

Weiner, Benno. 2012. The Chinese revolution on the Tibetan frontier: State building, national integration, and socialist ransformation, Zeku (Tsekok) county, 1953–1958. Columbia University PhD dissertation.Search in Google Scholar

Wendel, John. 2005. Notes on the ecology of language. Bunkyo gakuin university academic journal 5. 51–76.Search in Google Scholar

Wendel, John & Patrick Heinrich. 2012. A framework for language endangerment dynamics: The effects of contact and social change on language ecologies and language diversity. International journal for the sociology of language 218. 145–166.10.1515/ijsl-2012-0062Search in Google Scholar

Wildau, Gabriel. 2015. China backs up silk road ambitions with $62bn capital injection. Financial times, http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/0e73c028-e754-11e4-8e3f-00144feab7de.htmlSearch in Google Scholar

Williams, Glynn. 2005. Sustaining language diversity in Europe: Evidence from the Euromosaic project. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.10.1057/9780230514683Search in Google Scholar

Winkler, Daniel. 2008. Yartsa gunbu (Cordyceps sinensis) and the fungal commodification of Tibet’s rural economy. Economic botany 62(3). 291–305.10.1007/s12231-008-9038-3Search in Google Scholar

Wolf, Eric. 2010. Europe and the people without history. Berkely: University of California Press.Search in Google Scholar

Wright, Stuart. 2014. Standard policy or a model for inequality? School consolidation and centralised boarding schools in Amdo, Tibet. Dynamics of change: Agents, mechanisms and economics of transformation in Amdo, Conference of the Amdo Research Network, Humboldt University Berlin. 13–15 December 2014Search in Google Scholar

Xinhua. 2015. Vision and actions on jointly building belt and road. http://english.qstheory.cn/2015-03/30/c_1114807064.htmSearch in Google Scholar

Yang, Yangming. 2005. For the illumination of Tibet. China Tibet magazine, http://info.tibet.cn/en/news/tin/t20050906_53259.htmSearch in Google Scholar

Yangdon Dhondup. 2008. Dancing to the beat of modernity: The rise and development of Tibetan pop music. In Robert Barnett & Robert Schwarts (eds.), Tibetan modernities: Notes from the field on cultural and social change, 285–304. Leiden: Brill.Search in Google Scholar

Yeh, Emily T. 2000. Forest claims, conflicts and commodification: The political ecology of Tibetan mushroom-harvesting villages in Yunnan Province, China. The China quarterly 161. 264–278.10.1017/S0305741000004021Search in Google Scholar

Yeh, Emily T. 2013a. Blazing pelts and burning passions: Nationalism, cultural politics, and spectacular decommodification in Tibet. The Journal of Asian Studies 72(2). 319–344.10.1017/S0021911812002227Search in Google Scholar

Yeh, Emily T. 2013b. Taming Tibet: Landscape transformation and the gift of Chinese development. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press.10.7591/9780801469787Search in Google Scholar

Yeh, Emily T. & Mark Henderson. 2008. Interpreting urbanization in Tibet: Administrative scales and discourses of modernization. Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies 4. 1–44.Search in Google Scholar

Yeshe, Kalsang. 2012. A preliminary note on Chinese codeswitching in modern Lhasa Tibetan. In Robert Barnett & Ronald David Schwartz (eds.), Tibetan modernities: Notes from the field on cultural and social change, 213–248. Leiden: Brill.Search in Google Scholar

Yi, Lin. 2007. Ethnicization through schooling: The mainstream discursive repertoires of ethnic minorities. The China Quarterly 192. 933–948.10.1017/S030574100700210XSearch in Google Scholar

Yudru Tsomu. 2015. The rise of Gönpo Namgyel in Khams: The blind warrior of Nyarong. New York: Lexington Books.Search in Google Scholar

Zenz, Adrian. 2010. Beyond assimilation: The Tibetanisation of Tibetan education in Qinghai. Inner Asia 12(2). 293–315.10.1163/9789004257979_005Search in Google Scholar

Zenz, Adrian. 2014. ‘Tibetanness’ under threat? Neo-Integrationism, minority education and career strategies in Qinghai, P.R. China. Leiden: Brill.10.1163/9789004257979Search in Google Scholar

Zhang, Guobao. 2010. Journal notes on development of electricity infrastructure in Tibet. Qiushi Journal (English edition), http://english.qstheory.cn/magazine/201002/201109/t20110920_111410.htmSearch in Google Scholar

Zhou, Maocao. 2007. The use and development of Tibetan in China. In Minglang Zhou & Hongkai Sun (eds.), Language policy in the People’s Republic of China: Theory and practice since 1949, 221–238. Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers.Search in Google Scholar

Zhou, Minglang. 2004. Minority language policy in China: Equality in theory and inequality in practice. In Minglang Zhou & Hongkai Sun (eds.), Language policy in the People’s Republic of China: Theory and practice since 1949, 71–96. Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers.Search in Google Scholar

Zhu, Zhiyong. 2007. State schooling and ethnic identity: The politics of a Tibetan neidi secondary school in China. New York: Lexington Books.Search in Google Scholar

Published Online: 2017-5-2
Published in Print: 2017-5-24

© 2017 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Downloaded on 24.9.2025 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/ijsl-2017-0001/html
Scroll to top button