The research project on Tibetan Culture in China charted aspects of contemporary Tibetan cultural life outside the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR). The areas under study are situated in four provinces bordering TAR: Qinghai, Gansu, Sichuan and Yunnan. The project primarily investigated Tibetan-language education, the rebuilding of monasteries and revival of religious practice.
PRIO has had an agreement on academic cooperation with the Institute of Nationality Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. During 1998-2000 five fieldtrips were made to the areas under study. Collected materials from these trips include books and publications comprising more than 300 titles in Chinese and Tibetan. A bibliography of collected literary sources has been developed and a summary of main results was presented at a project seminar at PRIO on December 3, 1999. The research results are presented in a book published by University of Washington Press, entitled On the Margins of Tibet. Cultural Survival on the Sino-Tibetan Frontier.
Researchers: Åshild Kolås & Monika P. Thowsen
