Description:
Abstract: "The
Five
Buddha
Districts
system
prevailed
from
the
1790s
to
the
1880s
on
the
frontier
between
Yunnan, in Southwest China, and the Burmese Kingdom, in the mountainous areas to the west of
the Mekong River.
Through
more
than
a
century
of
political
mobilization,
the
Lahu
communities
in
this
area
became
an
integrated
and
militarized
society,
and
their
culture
was
reconstructed
in
the
historical
context
of
ethnic
conflicts,
competition,
and
cooperation
among
the
Wa,
Dai,
and
Han
Chinese
settlers.
The
political
elites
of
the
Five
Buddha
Districts,
however,
were
monks
who
had
escaped
the
strict
orthodoxy
of
the
Qing
government
to
become
local
chieftains,
or
rebels,
depending on
political
changes
in
southern Yunnan.
As
a
centralized
polity,
the
Five
Buddha
Districts
system
was
attached
to
the
frontier
politics
of
the
Qing
state
before
the
coming
of
European
colonial
powers.
The
Qing
state
provided
a
sociopolitical
space
for
local
groups
to
develop
their
political
ideals
between
various
powerful
Dai-Shan
chieftains.
The
negotiation,
competition,
and
cooperation
between
the
Five
Buddha
leadership
and
the
Qing,
Dai
chieftains,
and
neighboring
political
powers
had
been
thoroughly
integrated
into
the
frontier
politics
of
this
interdependent
society
for more than two hundred years. As t
he
history
of
the
Yunnan-Burma
frontier
formation
shows
that
no
mountain
space
existed
to
allow
the
natives
to
escape
from
the
state
through their shifting agriculture,
and
anarchism
was
not
practiced
by
the
mountain
people
who
were separated from the state, t
he
author
argues
that
a
stateless
region
like
James
Scott?s
?Zomia”
did
not
historically exist in this region..."
Source/publisher:
Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST)
Date of Publication:
2013-09-00
Date of entry:
2015-10-12
Grouping:
- Individual Documents
Category:
Language:
English
Local URL:
Format:
pdf
Size:
949.47 KB