Imagined Geographies in the Indo-Tibetan Borderlands : Culture, Politics, Place Hardback

Imagined Geographies in the Indo-Tibetan Borderlands: Culture, Politics, Place is an ethnography of culture and politics in Monyul, a Tibetan Buddhist cultural region in west Arunachal Pradesh, Northeast India.

For nearly three centuries, Monyul was part of the Tibetan state, and the Monpas - as the communities inhabiting this region are collectively known - participated in trans-Himalayan trade and pilgrimage.

Following the colonial demarcation of the Indo-Tibetan boundary in 1914, the fall of the Tibetan state in 1951, and the India-China boundary war in 1962, Monyul was gradually integrated into India and the Monpas became a Scheduled Tribe.

In 2003, the Monpas began a demand for autonomy under the leadership of Tsona Gontse Rinpoche.

This book examines the narratives and politics of the autonomy movement regarding language, place-names, and trans-border kinship against the backdrop of the India-China border dispute.

It explores how the Monpas negotiate multiple identities to imagine new forms of community that transcend regional and national borders.