This article introduces one of South Asia's most important border regions into academic discourse, namely, the Central Himalayan mountain rim separating India and the Tibetan Autonomous Region (People's Republ...This article introduces one of South Asia's most important border regions into academic discourse, namely, the Central Himalayan mountain rim separating India and the Tibetan Autonomous Region (People's Republic of China). What makes this border region so interesting is a tangled interplay of changing environmental, cultural, and political forms to which the local populations constantly have to adapt in order to make a living there. We focused on the so-called 'Bhotiyas' of Uttarakhand, former trans-Himalayan traders whose ethnicity and livelihood was traditionally associated with the Indo-Chinese border that was sealed as a result of the India-China war in 1962. Drawing on the work of borderland scholarship, we identified the key processes and developments that changed the perspective of this area. Competing political aspirations as well as the 'Bhotiyas' countervailing strategies were considered equally important for understanding local livelihoods and identities within the dynamics of a 'high mountain border region'. Through an exemplary analysis of historical differences of power in one 'Bhotiya' valley, we further explored the ways in which shifting socio-spatial constellations are creatively re-interpreted by the borderlanders.展开更多
An automatic weather station(AWS) has been installed at the Qomolangma Station of the China Academy of Sciences(QOMS) since 2005, in a northern Himalayan valley near Mount Everest, with an altitude of 4,270 m a.s.l.. ...An automatic weather station(AWS) has been installed at the Qomolangma Station of the China Academy of Sciences(QOMS) since 2005, in a northern Himalayan valley near Mount Everest, with an altitude of 4,270 m a.s.l.. Nine years of meteorological records(2006–2014) from the automatic weather station(AWS) were analyzed in this study, aiming to understand the response of local weather to the seasonal transition on the northern slopes of Mount Everest, with consideration of the movement of the subtropical jet(STJ) and the onset of the Indian Summer Monsoon(ISM). We found:(1) Both the synoptic circulation and the orography have a profound influence on the local weather, especially the local circulation.(2) Southwesterly(SW) and southeasterly(SE) winds prevail alternately at QOMS in the afternoon through the year. The SW wind was driven by the STJ during the non-monsoon months, while the SE was induced by the trans-Himalayan flow through the Arun Valley, a major valley to the east of Mount Everest, under a background of weak westerly winds aloft.(3) The response of air temperature(T) and specific humidity(q) to the monsoon onset is not as marked as that of the nearsurface winds. The q increases gradually and reaches a maximum in July when the rainy period begins.(4) The alternation between the SW wind at QOMS and the afternoon SE wind in the pre-monsoon season signals the northward shift of the STJ and imminent monsoon onset. The average interval between these two events is 14 days.展开更多
文摘This article introduces one of South Asia's most important border regions into academic discourse, namely, the Central Himalayan mountain rim separating India and the Tibetan Autonomous Region (People's Republic of China). What makes this border region so interesting is a tangled interplay of changing environmental, cultural, and political forms to which the local populations constantly have to adapt in order to make a living there. We focused on the so-called 'Bhotiyas' of Uttarakhand, former trans-Himalayan traders whose ethnicity and livelihood was traditionally associated with the Indo-Chinese border that was sealed as a result of the India-China war in 1962. Drawing on the work of borderland scholarship, we identified the key processes and developments that changed the perspective of this area. Competing political aspirations as well as the 'Bhotiyas' countervailing strategies were considered equally important for understanding local livelihoods and identities within the dynamics of a 'high mountain border region'. Through an exemplary analysis of historical differences of power in one 'Bhotiya' valley, we further explored the ways in which shifting socio-spatial constellations are creatively re-interpreted by the borderlanders.
基金funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41661144043, 41005010, 41475010)the Strategic Priority Research Program (A) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant XDA20060101)R & D Special Fund for Public Welfare Industry (meteorology), No. GYHY201406001
文摘An automatic weather station(AWS) has been installed at the Qomolangma Station of the China Academy of Sciences(QOMS) since 2005, in a northern Himalayan valley near Mount Everest, with an altitude of 4,270 m a.s.l.. Nine years of meteorological records(2006–2014) from the automatic weather station(AWS) were analyzed in this study, aiming to understand the response of local weather to the seasonal transition on the northern slopes of Mount Everest, with consideration of the movement of the subtropical jet(STJ) and the onset of the Indian Summer Monsoon(ISM). We found:(1) Both the synoptic circulation and the orography have a profound influence on the local weather, especially the local circulation.(2) Southwesterly(SW) and southeasterly(SE) winds prevail alternately at QOMS in the afternoon through the year. The SW wind was driven by the STJ during the non-monsoon months, while the SE was induced by the trans-Himalayan flow through the Arun Valley, a major valley to the east of Mount Everest, under a background of weak westerly winds aloft.(3) The response of air temperature(T) and specific humidity(q) to the monsoon onset is not as marked as that of the nearsurface winds. The q increases gradually and reaches a maximum in July when the rainy period begins.(4) The alternation between the SW wind at QOMS and the afternoon SE wind in the pre-monsoon season signals the northward shift of the STJ and imminent monsoon onset. The average interval between these two events is 14 days.
