Jiarong Jiang (LSE) - 2023-24 Students
j.jiang12@lse.ac.uk

Of Yaks and Tibetans: The Transforming Tibetans-Yaks Relations in the Nomad Settlement Campaigns in Kham Tibet

This research explores the transforming relationship between Tibetans and yaks in state-promoted nomad settlement campaigns in Kham Tibet. These campaigns aim to conserve Tibetan grasslands and industrialise yak production by encouraging Tibetans to transition from nomadic herding to a market-oriented livestock economy. Unlike previous studies that solely focused on the impact of these campaigns on Tibetans, this project examines how yaks and Tibetans co-create their everyday relationships across various settings, including pastures, industrial yak factories, villages, markets and slaughterhouses. It emphasises the recognition of agency in both yaks and Tibetans and underscores the importance of understanding the subjectivity of yaks and the social dynamics of yak herds. By engaging in interdisciplinary dialogue with ethology and utilising research methods such as participant observation, interspecies multisensory participation, interspecies apprentice collaboration and documentary filmmaking, this research aims to develop methodologies for post-human interspecies knowledge production.

In the close entanglement of yaks and Tibetans within the pasture, this project explores the multiple interactive relationships between them. It examines how Tibetans and yaks, each with their unique ways of perception, co-cultivate their mutual recognition developed over a long-term journey of co-becoming. It also studies their daily linguistic, somatic, verbal, and affective communication, which involves effective meaning circulation. Additionally, this research extends beyond the focus on human-animal dyadic interaction by delving into the interactive relationships between humans, animals and the landscape. Specifically, it investigates how Tibetans and yaks engage with the grasslands and contribute to grassland conservation and environmentalism.

Furthermore, this research investigates yak killing within the yak-based economy, going beyond traditional animal welfare perspectives that often depict animals as mere objects exploited by humans. It explores how Tibetans balance Tibetan Buddhist ethics of non-killing with the pursuit of material gain when participating in the commercialisation of yaks, which sometimes involves increased killing. By closely examining the killing process, this project explores how Tibetan slaughterers exercise attuned care, observe the yaks’ reactions, and delve into the cosmological concepts underpinning the act of killing. This approach reveals killing as a negotiated process rather than a simplistic morally reprehensible behaviour.

Primary supervisor: Professor Michael W. Scott

Secondary supervisor: Dr Andrea Pia

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