Doctoral Dissertation Research: Alternative (to) Development on the Tibetan Plateau: The Case of the Anti-Slaughter Movement

自20世纪80年代邓小平的经济改革以来，中国政府一直在扩大和加强其经济发展议程，试图将其公民塑造成理性的市场参与者，将商品生产放在首位。在西藏牧区，主要是发展畜牧业，鼓励牧民加强生产。因此，藏族牧民开始向汉族和中国穆斯林商人出售越来越多的牦牛。然而，改革也允许一定程度的宗教自由。在过去的五年里，许多喇嘛（宗教领袖）开始关注大规模销售牲畜供屠宰的问题，因为佛教的因果原则表明，杀戮是一种严重的罪孽，应该避免。 博士学生Fnu Gaerrang在博士生导师艾米丽叶博士的指导下，将在博尔德的科罗拉多大学进行研究，研究喇嘛如何利用他们巨大的影响力和权威，发起了一场反屠宰运动，说服人们发誓停止出售牲畜屠宰-恰恰与国家建议他们必须做的相反，以成为“发达”。“许多西藏牧民参加了这些运动，尽管他们的生计严重依赖于动物产品的销售。尽管收入减少，但许多人声称他们的生活有所改善。通过研究为什么牧民在收入减少的情况下感觉更好的矛盾，这个研究项目调查了西藏牧民和喇嘛如何谈判国家和市场的必要性，以表达他们对发展的理解。探讨了20世纪80年代以来藏传佛教的复兴、新经济改革与藏族牧民在市场经济条件下的文化转型之间的关系。该研究将采用混合方法，包括入户调查、深度半结构化访谈、文本和视觉媒体分析以及参与观察，在中国四川省藏族地区进行为期12个月的研究。通过考察藏传佛教在发展中的作用，首先，它将有助于分析宗教习语在发展谈判中的作用。 其次，它将有助于我们理解全球化的自由市场/自由贸易与全球宗教复兴之间的交叉点。此外，通过注重民族志和其他基于实地的研究方法，而不是对经典文本的分析，该项目开发了一种研究藏传佛教的地理方法。该研究项目还将产生重大的广泛影响。在中国同化西藏经济发展的背景下，西藏的文化认同正面临越来越大的威胁，本项目对西藏喇嘛和牧民对国家经济项目的反应的研究，对西藏文化如何在中国继续发展为经济强国的过程中得以持续具有实际意义。联合主要研究者将通过中文和藏文出版物交流项目成果。分析中国国家发展与藏传佛教之间的张力，将为政策制定者提供一种新的思路，即经济发展与文化可持续性的整合。

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.