This study reconstructs for the first time the development of society in
Spiti and in Upper Kinnaur (Himachal Pradesh, India) over a long
historical period on the basis of one of its central structures, that
is, socio-economic organisation. The focus of this study is the
peasantry of Tabo village in Spiti Valley and the adjacent
Tibetan-speaking areas in the northwestern Himalayas. From a
methodological perspective this book is primarily the result of a
combination of social anthropological fieldwork and the analysis of
historical and contemporary written sources (partly from the holdings of
the over 1,000-year-old Buddhist monastery of Tabo). The theoretical
concepts and perspectives of this work, building at the core on peasant
theory models, are considerably developed further by including and
integrating findings from social anthropological research on Tibet, in
particular the fundamental importance of religious institutions such as
Buddhist monasteries and temples for the structuring of the social
order. The account of the ethnography of the region forms together with
the investigation of the system of land ownership in association with
the system of taxes and dues a central component of the analysis of the
historical and current relations between the power-holders and the
agricultural producers (peasants). It is also in this context that the
delineation of the political history of the region which is undertaken
here for the first time plays an essential role. Moreover, in altogether
12 excursuses selected key topics (such as administrative and taxation
system, corvee labour, regional, supraregional and transnational wool
trade, economy of Buddhist monastic communities and monasteries,
development of population figures) are studied from a strong comparative
perspective.
