Kham, however, has no administrative unity and is now divided between the provinces of Sichuan to the east, Yunnan to the south and the Tibet Autonomous Region to the west. How, then, does one define this entity called Kham, especially since over the course of history it has never strictly corresponded to any administrative unit or coherent entity ? How does one explain the rationale behind the current administrative division ? And how does one ultimately consider this land of encounters, a place of métissage (cultural blending) where so many particularisms emerge ? These are some of the questions this research project set out answer from a comparative perspective thanks to contributions from the fields of anthropology and history.
This project received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration, European Research Council (ERC), Support for frontier research (SP2-Ideas), Starting grant No. 283870.
Stéphane Gros was principal investigator for this project.
For more information on the Kham ERC Project and on conferences/meetings/panels held on this topic.