Association of American Geographers Meeting Conference ... · Consequently, there is a need to better understand climate forcing and the role of alpine glaciation, mass movement,

Himalaya, the Journal of theAssociation for Nepal and

Himalayan StudiesVolume 26Number 1 People and Environment: Conservation andManagement of Natural Resources across the HimalayaNo. 1 & 2

Article 24

2006

Association of American Geographers MeetingConference Abstract

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Association of American Geographer's MeetingsMarch 7-11,2006 Chicago, Illinois

The International K2 Project: Exploration and Assessmentof Surface Processes in the Karakoram Himalaya

Michael P. Bishop, University of Nebraska-OmahaJohn F. Shroder, University of Nebraska-Omaha

The Karakoram Himalaya has topography whose originis not well understood, although the erosion/uplift feedbackmechanism is recognized as a primary controlling factor.Consequently, there is a need to better understand climateforcing and the role of alpine glaciation, mass movement,and other surface processes on denudation and relief pro-duction. As part of the international K2 project, we high-light our summer 2005 field expedition results in the Shigar,Braldu and Baltoro valleys, and discuss these in the contextof erosion and landscape evolution. Fieldwork consisted ofgeomorphological mapping, hazards assessment, rock andsediment sampling for exposure age dating, spectral analysisand erosion modeling. In addition, field and sensor measure-ments were acquired for assessing atmospheric, glacier andglacier surface energy-balance conditions. We have verifiedthe occurrence of gravitational collapse in the Buspur sack-ung failure. Smaller scale mass movements include a multi-tude of rock falls and slides, as well as profuse debris flows.In addition, flood boulder deposits document the occur-rence of numerous catastrophic floods caused by landslidesand glaciers. The Baltoro glacier is rapidly downwasting andits ice thickness is approximately 300 m at Concordia. Ourresults set the stage for assessing erosion and relief produc-tion utilizing landscape evolution modeling.

Re-engineering Rice Farming: Responding to ClimateChange in Nepal

Netra B Chhetri, Arizona State UniversityThe development of technological solutions to minimize

risk from current climate can lead to two possible outcomes:increase in agricultural productivity and insights about ad-aptation to future climate change. I have used the hypoth-esis of induced innovation to assess the relationship betweenclimate and development of innovative technologies in ricebased cropping system of Nepal. Through relevant casestudies and examples, this study also examined the extentto which research establishments have provided farmerswith technological options to alleviate climatic constraintsin rice cultivation. I find that rice productivity has increasedsteadily across the districts of Nepal during the period of 12

years, showing a definitive growth trajectory. However, thisgrowth masks disparities in productivity caused by apparentdifferences in climatic resources across different regions ofthe country. I also find evidence that the research establish-ments in Nepal have developed technological innovations asa buffer against the deleterious effect of climatic risks.

Reconstruction and Modernization Challenges Facing theAfghan Geodesy and Cartography Head Office

Peter George Chirico, United States Geological SurveyThe Afghan Geodesy and Cartography Head Office

(AGCHO) is the national mapping authority of the Tran-sitional Islamic State of Afghanistan. AGCHO, which wasestablished in 1958, has sustained grave damage to its hu-man and physical resources during the past 25 years of po-litical upheaval. Bureaucratic and administrative changes arerequired at AGCHO to overcome the stigma of an agencyformerly controlled by the military during the Soviet and Tal-iban regimes. AGCHO's role as the legal mapping authorityis undermined by uncoordinated and independent mappingactivities performed by other government ministries, NGOs,private sector companies, and foreign governments andby the current lack of National Spatial Data Infrastructure(NSDl) standards. Outdated equipment and methods framthe 1960s and '70s for surveying, photogrammetry, cartog-raphy, and map printing need to be upgraded and standard-ized. Modernization of the highly skilled workforce of over800 men and women will require education and trainingbut may also include staff reductions to ensure financial vi-ability and encourage donor assistance. Research conductedthrough a series of site visits, interviews, and meetings thattook place in 2004 and 2005 reveal the current status andchallenges AGCHO faces in its struggle to transform itselfinto a modern government mapping agency capable of deliv-ering critically needed geospatial data and analysis requiredfor reconstruction planning and implementation. In additionto modernization and training, reorganization around corefunctions, long-term planning, and attracting donor supportwill help ensure AGCHO maintains its status as the Afghanmapping authority.

Feminist-Nationalism in Afghanistan

Jennifer L. Fluri, Dartmouth CollegeThe focus on feminism and the nation has largely exam-

ined the various ways in which women as a gendered cat-

egory participate in the nation and nationalist struggles.Additional research points to feminist activism within na-tionalist groups based on specific ideological feminist issues,such as reproductive rights (West et al. 1997; Nelson 2001).However, what is missing from this literature is an exampleof a feminist organization that is both spatially and ideologi-cally independent from masculinist or patriarchal national-ist organizations and posits its sociopolitical resistance andempowerment goals for women as both feminist and na-tionalist. This form of feminist nationalism does not Simplyinclude women as participants in the development and/orrule of nations rather the feminist-nationalism examined inthis article is an active independent political movement thatequates feminist politics with nationalist politics. One is notplaced on the back burner to light the flames of the other.Thereby equating the ideological constructions of feminismwith nationalism, and in the case of this study linking thestruggle for women's rights (through feminism) with nation-alist goals for democracy and secularism in Afghanistan.These linkages between feminism and nationalism are ana-lyzed by way of examining the spatial politics of the onlyin,dependent political (feminist-nationalist) organization inAfghanistan-RAWA.

Temperature Response to Land Cover Changes on theTibetan Plateau

Oliver W. Frauenfeld, University of ColoradoTingjun Zhang, University of Colorado

The Tibetan Plateau, with an average elevation of >4000m and approximately the size of Texas, is a semi-arid envi-ronment, both moisture and temperature limited, and is oc-cupied by montane grass- and shrublands. Over 62% of theplateau is used for agriculture: farmlands, forests, and a ma-jority (80%) is used for livestock grazing. Since the early-late1950s, and accelerated since the 1980s, significant urban ex-pansion and changes in agricultural and industrial practiceshave shaped this part of the world. Originally a mostly rural(pastoral) region, conscious efforts to urbanize the plateauand analogous socio-economic changes have resulted in asubstantially altered landscape. Because of the plateau's rolein the Asian Monsoon system, the water resources of mostof the Asian continent and therefore the livelihoods of over3.7 billion people, the extensive land cover/land use changesin this part of the world are arguably of heightened impor-tance to local-global resources and the climate system. Wehypothesize that as socio-economic changes have caused anet reduction in vegetation, this has resulted in significantlyreduced soil moisture which feeds back to further decreasevegetation, but also increase sensible (versus latent) heat flux-es, and hence increase temperatures. Our related work hasalready demonstrated that, indeed, reported warming on theTibetan Plateau seems to be confined to low-lying populatedregions. In this present analysis we categorize in situ tem-perature observations by both land cover type and disturbedversus undisturbed regions, and quantify the corresponding

warming trends related to land cover changes.

Geomorphic and Human Consequences of theOctober 8, 2005, Kashmir Earthquake

Ulrich Kamp, University of MontanaLewis A. Owen, University of CincinnatiGhazanfar A. Khattak, National Centre of Excellencein Geology, PakistanJennifer Parker, The University of MontanaAfzal Gulzan, University of jammu and Kashmir,PakistanEdwin L. Harp, US Geological SurveyDavid K. Keefer, US Geological SurveyMark A. Bauer, US Geological Survey

The October 8 2005, magnitude 7.6 Kashmir earth-quake, triggered several thousand landslides. Thesecomprise mainly shallow failures of rock avalanche type,although translational and rotational landslides, debrisslides and debris flows also occurred. In addition, asturzstrom comprising> 106 m3 was initiated, that bur-ied 4 villages and blocked streams to create two lakes.Although landsliding occurred throughout a region,stretching» 50 km from earthquake epicenter, the fail-ures were highly concentrated, associated with six maingeomorphic-geologic-anthropogenic settings. These set-tings included natural failures in: 1) highly fracture car-bonate rocks comprising the lowest beds in the hangingwall of the likely earthquake fault (the Main BoundaryThrust; 2) Tertiary mudstones and siliclastic rocks alongantecedent drainages that traverse the main structure(the Hazara Syntaxis); 3) steep (>500) slopes comprisingPrecambrian and Lower Paleozoic rocks; 4) steep (»500)lower slopes of fluvially undercut Quaternary valley fills;and 5) in ridges and spur crests. The sixth setting, oc-curred as consequence of human action, associated withhighway construction. Extensive fissuring is presentalong many of the valley slopes and together with thefreshly mobilized landslide debris constitutes a potentialhazard in the coming snowmelt and monsoon season.This study supports the view that earthquake triggeredlandslides are concentrated in speCific zones associatedwith the bedrock geology, geomorphology, topographyand human factors.

Habermas's Public Sphere and Tibetan SpiritualLandscape

Christopher j Limburg, University of Wisconsin, Cen-ter for South Asia

This paper will examine Tibetan sacred space usingHabermas's category of the public sphere. The abil-ity to perceive and engage with spiritual landscape inHigh Asian Buddhism is related to one's soteriologicalstatus: how karmically advanced are you? This religiousunderstanding of class ties socially constructed rules of

in and out to one's existential status. Thus the private andthe public are intimately interwoven in Buddhist land-scape. To help us understand this relationship, the paperwill turn to ]urgen Habermas's rich notions of the publicsphere in an attempt to interpret karmic status as it relatesto a pilgrim's visionary encounter with gNas or pilgrimagesites. Despite the disparate historical contexts betweenHabermas's context and Tibetan Buddhism, the relation-ship between private experience and public expression isstill central to understanding the way that Tibetan Bud-dhist places are made and the way gNas serve as a nodeof mediation between private pilgrims and private deitiesthrough the representation of public space. The argumentwill tease out the way in which Tibetan culture representsits own public sphere as well as the way its anthropolo-gists have interpreted its variety of notions of what publicand private mean.

Open Field Notes: Autoethnographic transfigurationof fieldwork encounters in Nepal

Tom O'Neill, Brock UniversityOpen Field Notes is a retrospective project that spans ten

years of fieldwork in Nepal from a dialectical, rather thanchronological perspective. Re-interrogating field notesand interview transcripts from an autoethnographic posi-tion is an epistemological strategy of transcending the selfthat constructs knowledge of the "Other", and transfigur-ing ethnography into a dialogical account that stresses the"in-betweeness" and emergent quality of social life. In thispaper, I focus on a series of ethnographic encounters thatoccurred between a small Tamang village in the Himala-yan foothills and the peri-urban ward in Kathmandu thatwas a destination for migrant labour, entrepreurship, anda way of escaping rural hardship. Those encounters wereinstances in which the people I worked with undertook"to represent themselves in ways that engage with thecolonizer's own terms", as Mary Pratt (1992) put it. Eth-nographers are ironic representatives of global hegemony,and often claim to be in opposition to the subjugation of"Others". In the conversations I had in Nepal, however,my own implication in the unequal power structures thatwere transforming their lives was frequently commentedon by ethnographic subjects. People also sought to engageme in their own practices in ways that transgressed thetraditional boundaries between ethnographer and sub-ject. Retrospective and reflexive authoethnography is thusalso a strategy of exposing the ethical ambiguities of thefieldwork relationship, and, through that, to work towardgenuine solidarity.

Afghanistan's Landmine Problem: An EnduringTragedy

Eugene]. Palka, US Military Academy, West PointMore than 25 years of warfare have littered Afghanistan's

landscape with millions of landmines and unexploded

ordnance (UXO). Despite the efforts of the UN's Mine Ac-tion Program for Afghanistan (MAPA), the InternationalCommittee of the Red Cross (ICRA), several NGOs, theU.S. military, and the Afghans themselves, the challengeof ridding the country of mines and UXOs remains adaunting task. Demining operations, health care for vic-tims, and threat awareness are complicated by continuingwarfare, forced migrations, rugged terrain, educationalshortfalls, and poverty. Moreover, the country's transpor-tation infrastructure and austere health-care system areinadequate for accommodating surviving casualties ofthe past 25 years and new victims each day. Althoughlandmines and UXO contaminate 32 of 34 provinces,this man-made environmental hazard exhibits a distinctgeographic pattern, with areas of greatest concentrationreflecting former military targets, installations and bat-tlefields. Unfortunately, contaminated areas also extendto cities, villages, agricultural fields, grazing lands, andalong principal roads. To better conceptualize this endur-ing tragedy, this paper addresses the following questionsfrom a military geographic perspective. (1) Where arelandmines and UXOs concentrated within the country?(2) Why does this geographiC pattern exist? (3) What hasbeen the impact on the local and regional population? (4)What progress has been made to solve the problem andwhat kinds are programs are still underway? The answersto these questions contribute to a better understandingof the origin and magnitude of the problem and providea current assessment of the country's greatest man-madeenvironmental concern.

Capital City Relocation and the Quest for AlternativeDevelopment

Rajiv Rawat, Department of Geography, York UniversityIn 2000, Uttarakhand was established as the 28th state

of India after a peaceful struggle for local autonomy anddevelopment. At its inception, Dehradun, the region'slargest city, was made provisional capital. However, thedemand for a permanent capital at Gairsain, a tiny hamletat the geographic centre of the state, has persisted, culmi-nating in late 2004 with a series of fast-unto-deaths, relayhunger strikes, and foot marches. The struggle has beenparticularly intense due to the realization that once madepermanent, capitals tend to become fixed in place, thusforeclosing any possibility of fundamentally reorderingthe political geographiC organization of the state. The spa-tial politics of this bid for capital city relocation raises im-portant questions around notions of modernity, politicalintegration, and identity formation. As such, this paperwill explore this controversy both within the context ofstate theory as well as contemporary debates around glo-balization, cosmopolitanism, and transnational identities.In addition, a cultural geographiC lens will be employed toinvestigate the encoded meanings of globality and localityat the heart of the quest for an alternative development

model as embodied by a democratic and decentralized vi-sion of the state as advocated by supporters of Gairsain.

New Towns in Tibet: Findings from China's 1990 and2000 Censuses

Karl E. Ryavec, University of Wisconsin at Stevens PointThis study focuses on the development of new towns in

Tibet between 1990 and 2000, and how these new spatialpatterns relate to the administrative and transportationgeography of the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR). Thetowns, called zhen in Chinese, are offiCially classified asurban places in China. In 1982, there were only 9 suchtowns in the TAR in addition to the city of Lhasa. In 1990,the number of towns increased to 31, and Shigatse becameclassified as a city. By 2000, there were 107 towns. Mapsshowing these new towns will be presented, and analyzedin relation to political and economic factors that led, inpart, to their upgrading to official urban status at the timeof China's latest census in Tibet in 2000.

Multiple glaciations and Landscape evolution ofsemi-arid northwestern Tibet: a test of buzz-sawhypothesis between the glaciation and its impact onlandscape evolution

Yeong Bae Seong, University of CincinnatiLewis Owen, University of CincinnatiRobert Finkel, Lawrence Livermore National LaboratoryChaolu Yi, The Institute of Tibet, ChinaJong-Geun Kim, Arizona State University

During the Quaternary, multiple glacier systems occu-pied the valleys of the tectonically active massifs of Mush-tagata and Mt. Kongur. Glacial landforms in Mushtagataand Mt. Kongur provide evidence for two separate glacia-tions with glaciers advancing more than 20 km down-val-ley from the present snouts. The most extensive glaciationsoccurred during penultimate glacial and early Holocene.In contrast, no glacial landforms indicating extensive gla-ciation during the last glacial maximum are present in theregion. The topography and glacier forms in the Mush-tagata and Mt. Kongar massifs vary across a broadly N-Strending high ridge and watershed. The western portion,situated on the stoss slope has steep high topography andsmall valley glaciers, while on the eastern leeward slopes,gradients are less steep and long debris-covered valley gla-ciers are present. Using glacial geologiC evidence, DEMsand glacier equilibrium line altitude (ELA), we test thebuzz-saw hypothesis, which suggests that glaciers deter-mine hypsometry, to help establish whether the landscapeis a function

Landslide- and glaCier-lake landform evolution, BralduValley and Baltoro Glacier, Karakoram Himalaya

Jack F. Shroder, University of Nebraska at OmahaMichael P. Bishop, University of Nebraska at Omaha

Landslide- and ice-dammed glacier lakes in the Braldu- Baltoro valleys of the Karakoram Himalaya have causedprehistoric and historic floods that strongly affected to-pography. Such lakes are caused by catastrophic slopefailures (Gomboro), past ice advances (Biafo), surging(Liligo), tributary junctions (Yermanadu), and pervasivedownwasting. Many of these lakes grow larger throughtime as meltwaters accumulate until they overtop the ob-struction or find sub- or supra-glacial egress. Anomalousmissing terminal moraines at Baltoro Glacier, massivetruncated alluvial/colluvial fans, huge pendant bars, andlarge imbricated flood-rounded boulders are evidence forpast catastrophic floods. In summer 2005 we observed therapid rise of the large, post-surge Liligo Lake, followed byits abrupt drainage through a crevasse and the rapid fallof lake level at -25 cm/hr, with floods downstream. Suchprocesses play an important role in rapid denudation ofthe region.

Towards a (Post)colonial Protected Area in the Mt.Everest Region of Nepal?

Stan Stevens, University of MassachusettsThis paper examines the 2005 drafting of a new man-

agement plan for Sagarmatha (Chomolungma/Mt. Everest)National Park (SNP), which was establishedlimposed inKhumbu Sharwa (Sherpa) territories in 1976. I analyzethe process and contexts in which the plan was developedand assess whether the institutional and policy changesit proposes meet current "new paradigm" IUCN policiesand guidelines for protected areas in indigenous peoples'homelands. The declaration of SNP thirty years ago re-flected an international effort to catalyze the creation ofan inhabited, indigenously co-managed, (post)colonialprotected area in a kingdom in which discourses of "orien-talism" and nationalism had justified and perpetuated twocenturies of ethnically and raCially-based Nepali "internal"colonialism over indigenous peoples. In the initial parkplanning American and New Zealand advisors advocateda deSign which rejected the exclusionary, Yellowstonemodel which had dispossessed indigenous peoples in theirown countries in favor of an approach based on respectfor Sharwa self-determination and livelihoods and strongSharwa participation in protected area management. Theseintentions, however, were undermined by continuing stateterritorialism, authoritarian and paternalistic governance,and coercive and exclusionary national conservation prac-tices, all of which are common in Fourth World politicalecological contexts. The 2005 plan, while advocating im-portant reforms, continues to be shaped by Nepal socialand political constraints. The result falls short of currentIUCN recommendations for respect for indigenous rightsin protected areas. Nonetheless, if fully implemented, thenew plan may enhance Sharwa authority over commons,access to livelihood resources, and voice in protected areamanagement.

The emergence of the Green Tibetan in Tibet: environmentalcollaborations and contingent articulations

Emily T. Yeh, University of ColoradoThe image of Tibetans as inherently eco-friendly has be-

come a globally familiar and integral part of Tibetan exile andWestern representations of Tibetan-ness. The production ofsuch representations links Tibetans with other indigenouspeoples around the world, about whom green tribal fantasieshave been circulated and produced. Scholars have argued,however, that this Green discourse is meaningless for Tibet-ans living within the PRe. In contrast, my paper discussesthe recent emergence of the Green Tibetan within Tibet itself.Using locally produced documents about the relationship be-tween Tibetans and nature, as well as interviews with Tibetanand Chinese environmental activists, I trace the contingentarticulation of the Green Tibetan in Tibet. I suggest thatthe conjuncture of forces that has allowed and conditionedits emergence includes changing Chinese representations ofTibetan-ness, especially the ·phenomenon I call "Tibet love";the new discursive regime of global environmentalism, andin particular transnational environmental NGOs and proj-ects which actively seek to foster civil society. Though suchprojects have been read as part and parcel of a new neolib-eral regime of power, or 'environmental governmentality,'

my paper argues for augmenting this analysis with a textured'view from below' of local agency and creativity. Thus, it asks:What spaces are opened and what possibilities created by theemergence of the Green Tibetan, and what, on the other hand,are its limitations or contradictions, given the conditions of itsemergence?

Gross National Happiness and the Natural Environment inBhutan

David N. Zurick, Eastern Kentucky UniversityThe kingdom of Bhutan is in the midst of transformation as

it emerges from its history of geographical and political isola-tion to a new status as a modern nation-state and participant inthe global community. Bhutan's path to development embracesthe concept of Gross National Happiness, a philosophy and apolicy instrument that seeks to promote social developmentand manage environmental conservation within a sustainabledevelopment strategy guided by Buddhist ethics. This articleexamines Bhutan's unique approach to development and thegovernance and environmental policies stemming from it,and assesses their impacts on environmental conditions inthe country. Environmental trends documented in resourceinventories show positive measures of development. These aresupported by landscape analysis using repeat photography.

Association for Asian Studies Annual MeetingApril 6-9, 2006 San Francisco, California

A Tale of Two Eids: Defining the Boundaries of IslamicCommunity in North India

Jacqueline Fewkes, Honors College, Florida Atlantic UniversityIn December 2000 the Muslim community of Ladakh

celebrated Eid-ul-Fitr twice, an anomalous situation whichevoked dismay and confusion from holiday celebrants. Thispaper presents an ethnographic case study of the bifurcationof the 2000 Eid celebration to examine the causes of contro-versy.

The celebration of Eid-ul-Fitr is an Islamic practice definedby guidelines which are followed widely within the worldMuslim community and promote a sense of a global Muslimidentity for many participants. Yet this ethnographic exampleillustrates that these same rules also emphaSize the impor-tance and centrality of local community. In this particularcase Ladakh's status as a border region in South Asia, bothpolitically and culturally, has complicated the distinction be-tween local and non-local communities. A series of interviewswith the Muslim religious leaders and community members ofLadakh revealed an ongoing debate within the public sphereabout the nature of boundaries within Islamic communities,from both a geographic and chronological perspective.

For participants the political and social context of thesedecisions does not make them less orthodox as Islamic prac-tices; they recognize many aspects of Islamic law and tra-dition which address the complex relationship between theneed for a unified Muslim community and recognition of theparticular social and cultural settings for Islamic practices.

Girls, Leaves and Dignity: Children's Forest Use, Culturesof Friendship and the Micro-geography of Work

Jane P Dyson, University of WashingtonDrawing on ethnographic field research in the Indian Hi-

malayas, this paper explores forest-related work as a site foryoung people to build friendships, individual and collectivereputations of competence, and a sense of self-respect. In theagro-pastoral regime of the high Himalayas, women and girlsspend long periods collecting dry leaves from forest areas.The leaves are collected in woven baskets and are used asbedding for cattle. Villagers monitor girls' leaf collection asthey return from the forest, and taunt those who fail to bringback tall and skillfully packed loads.

Through careful attention to what I call the 'micro-geogra-phy of work', this paper shows that girls energetically sought