Traditional Neighbors, Different Modernities Bhutan, Sikkim and the Mon Region

Lying in the southeastern Himalayas, Bhutan, Sikkim and the Mon region show a rich and complex development as a contact area of intricate multi-layered cultural tapestries. The area is a fascinating crossroads between, and is therefore influenced by, Central Tibet to its north and Nepal and India to its south. These three regions are not only neighbors that once shared a blurred contact zone but also entities that present both clear sociohistorical similarities and dissimilarities. Even if all three territories developed culturally in multi-ethnic contexts in which Tibetan groups and their Mahayana-Tantric form of Buddhism played a clear central role, their singular identities and political configuration and history are notably divergent, as exemplified by their relationships with the British empire and experience of Nepalese migration. This three-part collective volume, covering Religion and Culture (I), Society and Education (II) and Law and Politics (III), aims to provide a forum for the latest scholarship on the southeast Himalayas, adopting a relational and comparative approach, and exploring how each region deals with a wide range of cultural and identity issues in the pressing context of modernization and globalization.

Anna Balikci-Denjongpa is Research Coordinator at the Namgyal Institute of Tibetology, Sikkim, and editor of the Bulletin of Tibetology. Miguel Á lvarez Ortega has an academic background in law, linguistics and translation studies. After completing his PhD in contemporary Western philosophy of law, he studied Buddhist philosophy and Tibetan language at the Rangjung Yeshe Institute in Kathmandu, and Sanskrit at Kyoto University. Franç oise Pommaret, PhD, is a cultural anthropologist, director of Research Emeritus at the CNRS (France) and associate professor at the College of Language and Culture (CLCS, Bhutan). Seiji Kumagai is a professor at the Institute for the Future of Human Society (IFoHS) and divisional director at Kokoro Research Center.

Introduction PART I – Religion and Culture 1. Tashi Gomang: Preserving a Bhutanese Tradition 2. The Founder and Disciples of the Drukpa Kagyü School: Re-Examination of the Three Sub-Schools of Drukpa Kagyü 3. Lha Bon: Invoking Yultsen, an Ancient Ritual Offering and Cultural Belief of Central Bhutan 4. ‘ Soul Retrieval’ (yung luba): A Shertukpen Healing Ritual 5. Interpretive Shifts, Discourse on Possession and Reified Institutional Truths of Reincarnation Claims in Contemporary Sikkim PART II – Society and Education 6. The Jatsawa Lineage in Trongsa and Their Links to the Religious Noble Families of Central and Eastern Bhutan 7. Bordering between Sikkim and Nepal: The Making of the Limbu as a Borderland People 8. Negotiating Sacred Himalayan Landscape: Contested Knowledge Production on Environment, Dams and the Deities’ Wrath in Sikkim 9. Religious Connections, Economic Obstacles and Personal Fates: Contextualizing the Roles of Bridges in Sikkim (Himalayas) 10. A Manual for Teaching Dzongkha as a Foreign Language 11. What Does ‘ Being Educated’ Mean? Analysis of the Bhutanese Education Discourse PART III – Law and Politics 12. Feudal Tyranny and Democratic Shangri-la: Sikkim’ s and Bhutan’ s Contemporary Public Narratives on Medieval and Pre-Modern Law 13. ‘ Ranked’ Sacrificial Offerings: Reconstructing Bhutan’ s Historical Public Service Through New Textual and Ethnographic Sources 14. Law, Rights and Childhood: United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and Its Implementation in Bhutan 15. Transforming Buddhist Kingship: From Chogyal to Maharaja 16. A Forgotten Extradition Accord Signed between British India and Tibet to Secure the Mon Region Bordering Assam in 1854 Index