Tibetan frontier families : reflectons of three generations from D'ing -ri.

This is a chronicle of the people of D'ing-ri, a Tibetan people living in the valley north of Mount Everest. Tibetan Frontier Families is an anthropological study. It describes, along with the personalities of these mountain people, their complex household structure, their expanding rural economy, their market centre and long-distance trade networks, their monastic leadership and their itinerant nuns and monks. Out of this there emerges the rhythm of a civilization in continuum.

Numerous personal histories, songs and proverbs, accounts of scandals and disputes, and the genealogies of three generations of D'ing-ri inhabitants are the raw materials for this anthropologist's rich account of modern Tibetan culture. In this volume she explores the early history of the valley as recorded in legends of early Indian siddha. She moves through the turbulent period of the 19th century Nepal-Tibetan wars, into the time of prospering trans himalayan trade, up to the upheavals of the mid-20th century.

This volume, a unique Himalayan record, is the bold attempt to understand a contemporary mountain civilization. Cover: 1971 painting of Gang-gar town in D'ing-ri by Pal-tan P'a-la, a local inhabitant.