New Issue: Revue d’Études Tibétaines, “The Power of Wealth” by Lucia Galli and Kalzang Norbu Gurung

The Power of Wealth: Economy and Social Status in Pre-Modern Tibetan Communities, edited by Lucia Galli and Kalzang Norbu Gurung

In this special issue of the Revue d’Études Tibétaines, no. 57 (January 2021) investigate the impact of economic factors on indigenous social dynamics, extending their examination to issues of group domination, economic inequality, social resistance and change. It is the second volume in a series of thematic collections produced within the framework of Social Status in the Tibetan
World (TibStat), a research project funded by the French National Research Agency (ANR) and the German Research Council (DFG).

As the table of contents demonstrates (with links to open-access downloadable versions from the Digital Himalaya platform), this special issue offers in-depth explorations of culturally and historically rich practices, experience, and discourses surrounding notions of authority, dominance, and power.

• Introduction    (193 kb, pp. 5-19)
      Lucia Galli and Kalsang Norbu Gurung
• Lenders and Borrowers in Tibetan Society    (214 kb, pp. 20-32)
      Peter Schwieger
• Debt, Dependency and the Moravian Mission in Kinnaur, 1865–1924    (615 kb, pp. 33-65)
      John Bray
• Latent Modernisation in Traditional Tibet: An Essay on the Evolution of Land Lease Systems in Tibetan Rural Society    (228 kb, pp. 66-83)
      Kensaku Okawa
• Timepieces as Gifts: Exploring European Clocks and Watches in Tibet    (310 kb, pp. 84-97)
      Lobsang Yongdan
• Economic Resources to Stabilise Power in Ladakh During the rNam rgyal Dynasty (16th‒19th Centuries)    (1.4 MB, pp. 98-129)
      Teresa Raffelsberger
• Building Trust Within and Without. The Role of Costly Signalling, Ethnic Kinship, and Non-Sectarianism in the Socio-Economic Affirmation of 20th-century Khams pa Trading Firms    (372 kb, pp. 130-161)
      Lucia Galli
• From Sacred Commodity to Religio-Economic Conundrum: Tracing the Tibetan Term dKor    (423 kb, pp. 162-192)
      Berthe Jansen
• Measuring Income Inequality in Tibetan Society: Understanding the Different Amounts of Offerings and the Status of Tibetan Officials    (322 kb, pp. 193-215)
       Kalsang Norbu Gurung
• Rule and Labour in Tibet: Constructing the Red Palace of the Potala    (1.3 MB, pp. 216-240)
      Peter Schwieger
• Crime, Punishment and Socio-Economic Status in Mustang (Nepal) in the Early 19th Century    (256 kb, pp. 241-257)
      Charles Ramble

Stéphane Gros

Stéphane Gros is a social anthropologist at the CNRS (France), Centre for South Asian and Himalayan Studies (CESAH). He is… Read more

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