Tibetan Border Worlds

The focus of the study is the Tibetan and Tibetanized border populations in the little known Himalayan high-valley of Nyishang in West Central Nepal close to the Tibetan border. There, a group of traders have greatly extended their external relations over the past century in the form of long-distance trade ventures, thereby thoroughly changing the internal conditions of socio-economic organizations in their home district. The object of the study is to establish whether larger geohistorical processes of structural change may be conceptualized in such a way as to link structuration at the level of the localized social group to the dynamics of the wider regional setting.

Wim van Spengen holds a BA and MA in Human Geography from the Free University, Amsterdam, and a PhD in Human Geography from the University of Amsterdam. His main research interests are the political and social geography of Inner Asia, particularly Tibet and the Himalayas. He is currently a member of staff at the Social-Geographical Institute, University of Amsterdam.