The Tiger and the Pangolin : Nature, Culture, and Conservation in China

This original and wide-ranging work examines historical perceptions of nature in China and the relationship between insider and outsider, state and village, top-down conservation policy and community autonomy. After an introduction to the history of wildlife conservation and nature reserve management in China, the book places recent tiger conservation efforts in the context of a two-thousand-year gazetteer of tiger attacks--the longest running documentation of human-wildlife encounters for any region in the world. This record offers a unique perspective on the history of the tiger as a dynamic force in the political culture of China. While the tiger has long been identified with political authority, the Chinese pangolin and its earthly magic have exerted a powerful influence in the everyday lives of those working and living in the fields and forests. Today the tiger and the pangolin, government officials and village communities, must work together closely if wildlife habitat conservation programs are to succeed. Extensive fieldwork in the Meihuashan Nature Reserve and other protected areas of western Fujian have led the author to advocate a landscape ecological approach to habitat conservation. By linking economic development to land use practices, he makes a strong case for integrating nature conservation efforts with land tenure and other socio-ecological issues in China and beyond.

For centuries, wherever Thai Buddhists have made their homes, statues of the Buddha have provided striking testament to the role of Buddhism in the lives of the people. The Buddha in Lanna offers the first in-depth historical study of the Thai tradition of donation of Buddha statues. Drawing on palm-leaf manuscripts and inscriptions, many never previously translated into English, the book reveals the key roles that Thai Buddha images have played in the social and economic worlds of their makers and devotees from the fifteenth to twentieth centuries.

Author Angela Chiu introduces stories from chronicles, histories, and legends written by monks in Lanna, a region centered in today's northern Thailand. By examining the stories' themes, structures, and motifs, she illuminates the complex conceptual and material aspects of Buddha images that influenced their functions in Lanna society. Buddha images were depicted as social agents and mediators, the focal points of pan-regional political-religious lineages and rivalries, indeed, as the very generators of history itself. In the chronicles, Buddha images also unified the Buddha with the northern Thai landscape, thereby integrating Buddhist and local conceptions of place. By comparing Thai Buddha statues with other representations of the Buddha, the author underscores the contribution of the Thai evidence to a broader understanding of how different types of Buddha representations were understood to mediate the "presence" of the Buddha.

The Buddha in Lanna focuses on the Thai Buddha image as a part of the wider society and history of its creators and worshippers beyond monastery walls, shedding much needed light on the Buddha image in history. With its impressive range of primary sources, this book will appeal to students and scholars of Buddhism and Buddhist art history, Thai studies, and Southeast Asian religious studies.

Contents Acknowledgments 1. Introduction: A Short History of Nature Conservation in China PART I. The Southeast Uplands: People, Landscapes, and Wildlife 2. A Mountain Mosaic: Biological and Cultural Diversity 3. Lord of the Hundred Beasts: A History of Tigers and People in Southeast China PART II. The Tiger and the Pangolin: An Environmental History of the Plumflower Mountains 4. The Wealth of Mountains: Settlement, Subsistence, and Population Change in Meihuashan before 1949 5. Three Rises, Two Falls: Political Ecology and Socioeconomic Development in Meihuashan after 1949 6. Burning the Mountains: A Historical Landscape Ecology of the Meihuashan Ecosystem PART III. Contemporary Village Resource Management and Nature Conservation Strategies 7. Habitat Conservation in the Post-Reform Landscape 8. White Tigers and Azure Dragons: Fengshui Forests, Sacred Space, and the Preservation of Biodiversity in Village Landscapes 9. Eating from the Mountain: Hunting Traditions, the Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Management 10. Vital Connections: Linking Nature Conservation and Cultural Ecology in Southeast China and Beyond Appendix. Life Histories of the Five Major Wild Ungulates of the Southeast Uplands Notes Glossary References Index