Tibetan Visiting Fellow at RMAP

 My name is Pema Tso (Baima Cuo in Chinese Pinyin) which means ‘lotus lake’ in Tibetan. I am a PhD candidate at Charles Sturt University (CSU) and a Visiting Fellow at RMAP, under the supervision of Dr. Andrew Walker. I completed my BA degree in Beijing and MPhil in Norway before arriving in Australia.

I was born into a nomad family in Naqchu, Northeast Tibet and my childhood was spent in this high altitude pastureland area. This period of time cemented my fascination with nomad customs and culture and it has become a great source of academic inspiration for me. 

My research focus looks at the changing aspect of Tibetan pastoralism and gaining an understanding the issues that unite them locally and ethnically. I will examine this theme from three aspects of their world: social institutions, rangeland management systems and economics.

The research site is a pastoral settlement area associated with the Da village close to the expanding Naqchu town. The nomads need to travel to the other side of the mountain to purchase food in town, taking an hour by foot or 15 minutes by motorcycle. The people in Da originated from different tribes of tent-dwelling pastoralists who used to migrate between summer and winter pastures pre-1950. They have raised yaks (Bos grunniens), sheep, goats, horses and yak-cattle hybrids for centuries, and these animals provide subsistence for their material needs. Since 1950s, their contact with the outside world was largely in the form of changes to the political hierarchy in institutions and through the introduction of the cash economy and mass production.  Despite changing social circumstances, raising domestic livestock remains the most important part of their economic livelihood. For centuries, livestock products have been crucial for their survival and are still an important source of protein and cash income. Not only do the livestock provide subsistence requirements but they also afford significant cultural meaning for Tibetan pastoralists. 

I will investigate how locals cope with external change and how these changes impact on institutions, land management and economic activities, as well as the impact on Tibetan pastoral community culture. For instance, they sell yoghurt made from yak milk for cash, but yak milk has an important cultural significance as well: the whiteness of the milk is associated with purity and the yak horn is regarded as symbol of power which deters negative spirits. Their profound cultural respect of such symbolism acts to unite pastoralists and identifies the basis of their ethnicity.