Flows and Frictions in Trans-Himalayan Spaces: An Introduction

This volume presents a conversation between historians and anthropologists who work at the crosscurrents of Asian borderland studies and Trans-Himalayan studies. We focus on the evolving relationships of time, space, and place, while combining the ethnographically historical and the historically ethnographic. In line with many recent studies, this volume challenges the conventional foregrounding of nation-states (a short-lived phenomenon in the longer view) without, however, resorting to the fantasy of disembodied flows. Contemporary events require long-term perspectives since past mobilities underlie many of today’s complex conflicts. Anchored in the region’s stunning landscapes (but not determined by them), flows are negotiated in webs of human interaction (but not defined by them).