Hacking the Yak: The Chinese Effort to Improve a Tibetan Animal in the Early Twentieth Century

Frank, Mark E.

doi:10.1163/26669323-04801004

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 10 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…After establishing the value of fodder, two more major victories over indigenous methods -this time farming methods -seemed evident when 15 For more on this experiment and yak improvement at Taining, see Frank (2018).…”

Section: Tainingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Frontier Tibet

2019

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This chronology provides a selection of major events of global and local significance: it foregrounds some key historical events to convey a sense of how eastern Tibet, and Kham in particular, has been shaped by various actors in conjunction with fluctuating political, economic, and cultural forces of different scales and intensity. 1 It focuses on the period from the mid-nineteenth century, during which Kham became a contentious zone, to the present. The first section of the chronology, however, starts in the seventeenth century because of the historical importance of this period and its relevance for later events. 1 This chronology aims to supplement existing chronologies with a focus on eastern Tibet and draws on Blondeau and Buffetrille (2002); Snellgrove and Richardson (1986); Tuttle and Schaeffer (2013); Travers (2009). For a general survey of Kham over history and the sources for such a history, Alexander Gardner's (2003) substantial commentary on the volume edited by Lawrence Epstein (2002) is a vital contribution. The realization of this chronology would not have been possible without Yudru Tsomu's collaboration and the many critical and constructive suggestions offered by David Atwill, Rémi Chaix, Carole McGranahan, and Scott Relyea. I alone am responsible for all remaining approximations, errors, and shortcomings.

show abstract

Section: Tainingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Frontier Tibet

2019

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Frontier atmosphere: observation and regret at Chinese weather stations in Tibet, 1939–1949

Frank

2021

Br J Hist Sci

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Across Tibet during the 1940s, young Han Chinese weather observers became stranded at their weather stations, where they faced illness, poverty and isolation as they pleaded with their superiors for relief. Building on the premise that China exercised ‘imperial nationalism’ in Tibet, and in light of scholarship that emphasizes the desirous ‘gaze’ of imperial observers toward the frontier, this essay considers how the meteorological archive might disrupt our understanding of the relationship between observation and empire. Meteorology presented a new way of viewing the landscape that deliberately disregarded the embodied experience of the observer in favour of instrument-mediated readings. The process produced a bifurcated archive, in which stations disseminated quantitative weather charts as a matter of public interest while privately recording the embodied and often miserable experiences of observational staff on the frontier. Unpublished letters between observers and supervisors offer a rare glimpse into the frontier as experienced by reluctant or unwilling agents of the state.

show abstract

Dietary diversity and niche partitioning of carnivores across the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau of China using DNA metabarcoding

Hacker

Xue

et al. 2022

Journal of Mammalogy

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Understanding predator guild resource use is vital for carnivore species preservation and ecosystem function in high-altitude landscapes. We describe the dietary composition, similarity, and niche overlap for seven carnivore species across three regions of the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau (Qilian Shan, East Burhanbuda Mountain, Yushu) using DNA metabarcoding of 760 scat samples. Analyses found 33 unique prey items representative of the classes Mammalia, Aves, and Actinopterygii. Blue sheep (Pseudois nayaur) and pika (Ochotona sp.) were most frequently detected. Livestock in carnivore diets ranged from 4% to 7% depending on site, but accounted for 21.7% of Tibetan wolf (Canis lupus) diet. Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx), Tibetan fox (Vulpes ferrilata), Pallas’s cat (Otocolobus manul), and snow leopard (Panthera uncia) had highly uneven diets. Intraguild predation of mesocarnivores by apex carnivores was found. Analysis of dietary niche overlap using Pianka’s index showed that overlap was significantly greater than expected among all carnivores examined and between apex and mesocarnivores, though significant correlations between carnivore body mass and prey body mass suggested broad separation in consumed prey. Snow leopard and Tibetan wolf diets were consistently the most similar of any two given species pairs. This study provides evidence of high dietary overlap. Protection for species consumed by a wide variety of carnivores will benefit predator guilds in the area and assist in maintaining the relatively low frequency of livestock predation. This work provides insight into the dynamics of carnivore guilds living in an area that has worldwide impacts, and methods herein could be applied on global scales for conservation efforts.

show abstract

Hacking the Yak: The Chinese Effort to Improve a Tibetan Animal in the Early Twentieth Century

Cited by 3 publications

References 10 publications

Frontier Tibet

Frontier Tibet

Frontier atmosphere: observation and regret at Chinese weather stations in Tibet, 1939–1949

Dietary diversity and niche partitioning of carnivores across the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau of China using DNA metabarcoding

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About