The westernmost spur of the Tibetan Plateau stretches to Eastern Ladakh in India. It is a region which remains poorly explored because of challenging conditions and long periods of political instability. At the same time, it is one of the highest places on earth supporting angiosperm life, which goes beyond 6000 m a.s.l. here. The whole region, due its remoteness, is practically unaffected by plant invasions and direct human activities. Thus, Ladakh represents a kind of "natural experiment", providing very long gradient of elevation suitable for comparative functional ecology as well as for testing various hypotheses concerning limitations of vascular plants. Arid climate and extreme elevations are the common factors. Our team pursued the goal of systematic botanical and ecological exploration of Ladakh, started by late Leoš Klimeš. This thesis provides insight into the main vegetation types, clonality in plants, plant-plant interactions and soil phototroph communities.

This dissertation analyses movements from and to a contemporary 21st century Indian multi-caste village in the Kumaun Himalayas, where movements have traditionally involved transhumance and border trade with western Tibet. With the closure of the Indo-Tibetan borders after the Indo-China war in 1962, the economy and livelihoods of the people of the region have fundamentally changed and movements now take place in the form of migration for work to the plains of India, both in the private sector and in government services. The dissertation is based on an ethnographic village study and explores all contemporary forms of movement visible in the village: out-migration; return-migration; and in-migration. It examines how these different types of movement tie in with the changing socio-economic lives of the villagers. This explorative study focuses on the patterns, causes and effects of migration on rural lives past and present, and on the multiple interrelated social changes, which are part of these migratory processes. The author uses mixed qualitative-quantitative methods, including a census survey of all 148 households, 45 semi-structured interviews, follow-up in-depth interviews, and innovative methods such as arts-based visual methods. The framework applied is interdisciplinary and multi-theoretical and contributes to the existing empirical body of literature on migration, development and change. The author chooses to employ the framework of the rural left behind when examining the lives of the wives and elderly parents of migrants. However, she argues that those in the village who are in the truest sense ‘left behind’ are not the family members of migrants, but the unemployed men who lack the capabilities to migrate for work and who reside in the village without any gainful economic activity. The thesis structure includes eight chapters in addition to the introduction and conclusion. Chapter 1 reviews the relevant literature on migration and development and is followed by the methodology chapter (chapter 2), a village background chapter (chapter 3) and a chapter covering the historical context (chapter 4). The structure of the main analysis (chapters 5-8) is along the lines of patterns and reasons for out-migration (chapter 6), out-migration types and their impact (chapter 6), return migration types, reasons and impact (chapter 7) and in-migration types, reasons and impact (chapter 8). Each analysis chapter ends with brief conclusions; these are expanded in the final conclusions (chapter 9).

Esta pesquisa integra aspectos do ensinamento budista tibetano no processo de criação cênica, com o objetivo de proporcionar ao ator e o diretor uma ampliação da percepção de si durante o fazer teatral. Para tanto, utiliza a meditação tibetana como prática principal visando possibilitar aos integrantes, através dos seus corpos, um encontro com uma presença plena e as Cinco Sabedorias apresentadas pelos ensinamentos tibetanos. Promove assim, a passividade criadora ressaltada por Jerzy Grotowski. Esta prática é experimentada primeiramente pela própria atriz/pesquisadora e depois compartilhada com um grupo em processo de criação da peça, Canção de Ninar, de Samuel Beckett. O método fenomenológico foi a abordagem utilizada para compreender, na cotidianidade do trabalho, as impressões e relações estabelecidas pelo grupo na experiência desta proposta. / This research integrate aspects of Tibetan Buddhist teaching in the process of scenic creation, with the objective of provide for the actor and the director a enlargement of the person‟s perception by themselves in the theatrical process. For this, uses meditation tibetan as main practice aiming at enble the leading members, through their bodies, a meeting with a full presence and the Five Wisdoms presented by Tibetan teachings. Thus promote the creative passivity underscored by Jerzy Grotowski. This practice is experienced primarily by the actress / researcher and then shared with a group in the process of creating the play, Canção de Ninar, by Samuel Beckett. The phenomenological method was the approach used to understand, in the everyday work, the impressions and relations, established by the group, through this proposal.

Esta pesquisa integra aspectos do ensinamento budista tibetano no processo de criação cênica, com o objetivo de proporcionar ao ator e o diretor uma ampliação da percepção de si durante o fazer teatral. Para tanto, utiliza a meditação tibetana como prática principal visando possibilitar aos integrantes, através dos seus corpos, um encontro com uma presença plena e as Cinco Sabedorias apresentadas pelos ensinamentos tibetanos. Promove assim, a passividade criadora ressaltada por Jerzy Grotowski. Esta prática é experimentada primeiramente pela própria atriz/pesquisadora e depois compartilhada com um grupo em processo de criação da peça, Canção de Ninar, de Samuel Beckett. O método fenomenológico foi a abordagem utilizada para compreender, na cotidianidade do trabalho, as impressões e relações estabelecidas pelo grupo na experiência desta proposta. / This research integrate aspects of Tibetan Buddhist teaching in the process of scenic creation, with the objective of provide for the actor and the director a enlargement of the person‟s perception by themselves in the theatrical process. For this, uses meditation tibetan as main practice aiming at enble the leading members, through their bodies, a meeting with a full presence and the Five Wisdoms presented by Tibetan teachings. Thus promote the creative passivity underscored by Jerzy Grotowski. This practice is experienced primarily by the actress / researcher and then shared with a group in the process of creating the play, Canção de Ninar, by Samuel Beckett. The phenomenological method was the approach used to understand, in the everyday work, the impressions and relations, established by the group, through this proposal.

Le khroskyabs de Wobzi (rgyalronguique, sino-tibétain), avec environ 350 locuteurs, est parlé au canton de Wobzi, comté de Chuchen, préfecture tibétaine et qiang de Rngaba, au Sichuan, en Chine. Notre thèse, une description linguistique du khroskyabs de Wobzi, est la première grammaire de référence du khroskyabs basée sur un corpus de textes recueillis au cours de neuf terrains depuis 2010. Elle comporte cinq parties principales.D’abord, un chapitre introductif, le chapitre 1, présente la situation sociolinguistique du khroskyabs, et le chapitre 2 la phonétique et la phonologique. Parmi toutes les langues de la famille sino-tibétaine décrites jusqu’à maintenant, le khroskyabs est celle qui a le plus grand nombre de groupes de consonnes initiaux, avec 715 groupes distincts ; par ailleurs, c’est également une langue à deux tons (haut et descendant), qui ne s’assigne qu’à l’une des syllabes dans une unité prosodique. Au chapitre 3, une introduction aux différentes parties de discours en khroskyabs de Wobzi est proposée, suivie de trois chapitres sur la morphologie nominale (le chapitre 4), les adverbes (le chapitre 5) et les autres parties de discours fermées (le chapitre 6).Ensuite, nous consacrons sept chapitres, du chapitre 7 au chapitre 13, aux constructions verbales, qui forment la partie centrale de la langue khroskyabs. Manifestant une morphologie verbale gabaritique, le wobzi est principalement préfixant, avec 11 positions préfixales et 2 positions suffixales. De plus, les affixes, surtout le préfixe causatif s-, subissent des processus morphophonologiques complexes : assimilation, dissimilation et métathèse, etc. Les propriétés de TAME se réalisent avec des opérations morphologiques, des auxiliaires ou des constructions phrastiques spécifiques.Ensuite, nous présentons les constructions phrastiques à travers quatre chapitres, du chapitre 14 au chapitre 17 : les phrases simples, la complémentation propositionnelle, la relativisation et les constructions comparatives, respectivement. Ces constructions présentent des propriétés distinctes des langues rgyalrong, en faisant usage des enclitiques nominalisateurs pour les complétives et les relatives, et possédant une formation du discours semi-direct unique et innovée, impliquant des changements de point de vue spécifiques. Enfin, dans l’annexe de la thèse, nous fournissons deux textes glosés, un index du vocabulaire et un dictionnaire. / Wobzi Khroskyabs (Rgyalrongic, Sino-tibetan), with around 350 speakers, is spoken in the Commune of Wobzi, Chuchen County, Rgnaba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture. This dissertation, a linguistic description of Wobzi Khroskyabs, is the first reference grammar of the Khroskyabs language, based on text corpora collected from nine fieldworks since 2010. It consists of five major parts.Firstly, an introductive chapter (Chapter 1) presents the socio-linguistic situation of Khroskyabs, and secondly, in Chapter 2, the phonetics and the phonology are treated. Khroskyabs is so far the language exhibiting the largest number of initial consonant clusters amongst all Sino-Tibetan languages, with 715 distinctive clusters ; it is also a two-tone language (high and falling) that assigns one single tone to each prosodic unit.In the third place, Chapter 3 is an introduction to different parts of speech in Wobzi khroskyabs, followed by three chapters on nominal morphology (Chapter 4), adverbs (Chapter 5) and other closed parts of speech (Chapter 6).Then, seven chapters, from Chapter 7 to Chapter 13, are dedicated to verbal constructions, forming the main part of the dissertation. Exhibiting a templatic morphology, Wobzi is mainly prefixing, with 11 prefix slots and 2 suffix slots. Moreover, the affixes, especially the causative prefix -s, undergoes complex morphophonological processes: assimilation, dissimilation, metathesis, etc. Wobzi also presents TAME phenomena related to morphological operations, auxiliaries and specific sentential constructions.The chapters on verbs are followed by four chapters on sentential constructions, from Chapter 14 to Chapter 17, in which we will discuss simple sentences, complementation, relativisation and comparative constructions. These constructions present different properties compared to Rgyalrong languages, on the one hand, making use of nominalising enclitics for complementation and relativisation, and on the other, exhibiting a unique and innovated formation of semi-direct speech, with specific point of view changes.In the end, in the appendices, two glossed texts, a vocabulary index and a dictionary are provided.

La vitesse de surrection du l’Himalaya et du plateau tibétain tout au long du Cénozoïque reste encore aujourd’hui largement débattue. L’analyse des isotopes stables de l’oxygène pour reconstruire les paléo-altitudes est considérée comme une technique très efficace et a été largement utilisée. Néanmoins, cette méthode a deux limites principales: 1) les relations entre δ18O et climat ne sont pas bien établies et 2) le climat Cénozoïque en Asie est mal contraint. Dans le cadre de cette thèse, nous avons étudié le lien entre la surrection des montagnes, les changements climatiques associés et le δ18O dans la paléo-précipitation. Nous utilisons le modèle de circulation générale atmosphérique isotopique LMDZ-iso. Nos simulations climatiques montrent que le retrait de la Paratéthys, le déplacement latitudinal de l’Inde et l’altitude du plateau tibétain contrôlent les précipitations et la variabilité de la mousson en Asie. Afin de comprendre où et comment ces changements climatiques liés à la surrection des montagnes affectent le δ18O, nous avons proposé une expression théorique de la composition isotopique des précipitations fondée sur la distillation de Rayleigh. Nous avons montré que seulement 40 % des sites échantillonnés de l’Himalaya et du plateau tibétain contiennent une signature isotopique représentant la topographie. Les résultats obtenus dans cette étude montrent que l’Himalaya pourrait avoir atteint son altitude actuelle plus tardivement que précédemment proposé. Des conditions aux limites réalistes nous permettent de reconstruire le δ18O des paléo-précipitations pour quatre époques du Cénozoïque (55, 42, 30 et 15 Ma). Dans la mesure où les reconstructions des paléo-altitudes sont particulièrement controversées pour les premières étapes de l’évolution du plateau tibétain, nous avons ensuite approfondi notre étude en nous focalisant sur l’Eocène (en utilisant une paléogéographie qui correspond à 42 Ma). Pour ce cas, nous montrons que le δ18O des précipitations est insensible à l’altitude en Asie, tandis que le δ18O dans les archives naturelles (carbonates) enregistre le signal de la paléo-élévation puisque le fractionnement entre la calcite et l’eau est sensible à la température, qui elle-même dépend en partie de l’altitude. La comparaison du δ18O simulé pour l’Eocène avec les données du δ18O mesuré dans les carbonates suggère que, pendant l’Eocène, l’Himalaya et le plateau tibétain n’avaient pas encore atteint leur élévation actuelle (> 3000 m). / The timing and rate of surface elevations of the Himalayas and the Tibetan Plateau remain controversial and their impact on Asian climate and the onset of monsoon systems in this area is highly debated. Stable oxygen paleoaltimetry is considered to be a very efficient and widely applied technique, but has limitations from two sides: 1) the link between stable oxygen composition of precipitation and climate is not well established, 2) Cenozoic climate over Asia is poorly reconstructed. With a purpose of filling the gap in our knowledge of climate variability over Asia during the Cenozoic, we use the isotope-enabled atmospheric general circulation model LMDZ-iso to understand the links between the growth of mountains, associated climate changes and δ18O in paleo-precipitation. Our results show a significant influence of the Paratethys retreat, the latitudinal displacement of India and the height of the Tibetan Plateau on Asian hydrological cycle. For the purpose of understanding where and how the climatic changes linked with the growth of mountains affect δ18O in precipitation, we develop a theoretical expression for the precipitation composition based on the Rayleigh distillation and show that only 40% of sampled sites for paleoaltimetry depict signal attributed to topography changes. We conclude that the Himalayas may have attained their current elevation later than expected. Realistic Cenozoic boundary conditions allow us reconstructing δ18O in paleoprecipitation for several periods during the Cenozoic (for 55 Ma, 42 Ma, 30 Ma and 15 Ma). The focus has been put on the Eocene (42 Ma), since paleoelevation reconstructions are particularly controversial for this time. We show that Eocene precipitation δ18O is rather insensitive to topographic height in Asia. However, carbonate δ18O still records paleo-elevation because the fractionation between calcite and water is sensitive to temperature, which partly depends on altitude. Comparison of simulated Eocene δ18O patterns with data from the carbonate archives suggest that the Himalayas and the Tibetan Plateau did not reach present-day (> 3000 m) elevations during the Eocene.

The purpose of this study was to examine the dynamics between spirituality and development. The point of departure for the study took place in Rishikesh and Dharamsala, in India. Our main object was to examine the role of the Divine Life Society (DLS), in Rishikesh and the Tibetan government in exile, in Dharamsala, in terms of local development. To achieve a solid platform regarding the theoretical framework, relevant studies were made in Hinduism and Buddhism. The study shows that there is a connection between religion and development. Nevertheless, this connection is not unequivocal, hence, in comparison, the results shows differences between the two objects studied. The conclusion of this study is that although there is a connection between spirituality and local development, spirituality in itself doesn’t mean development.

In this research, Lua Nazerian examines the conceptualization of three different statements given by leaders of the Bahá'í, Catholic, and Tibetan Buddhist faiths on the topic of world peace. Moreover, through a comparative analysis, each conceptualization was examined in light of the different degrees they agree or contradict each other and whether a coherent contribution could be made to a common concept of world peace. The research was conducted in two stages, first, through the thematic analysis method some major principles and overarching themes specific to each statement and relevant to the concept of world peace were identified, followed by a comparative analysis with the support of two operative questions. Furthermore, as there are multiple challenges with studying the abstract and complex concepts of peace and religious voices, the study was conducted through the lens of the statements rather than through religions to avoid this pitfall. It was found that while determining the overall coherence of each perspective, some common philosophical premises and core understandings of human nature and interconnectedness appeared to cohere. Meanwhile, some fundamental differences arose on the level of theological starting points that affected the overarching approach to world peace as such. However, these differences did not contradict a coherent contribution of a common conceptualization of world peace. Although the findings of this research are in the emerging stages of the evolution of further research, the contribution of its undertaking is of value to the field of religion in peace and conflict studies.

A better understanding of the water and energy cycles at climate scale in the Third Pole Environment is essential for assessing and understanding the causes of changes in the cryosphere and hydrosphere in relation to changes of plateau atmosphere in the Asian monsoon system and for predicting the possible changes in water resources in South and East Asia. This paper reports the following results: (1) A platform of in situ observation stations is briefly described for quantifying the interactions in hydrosphere-pedosphere-atmosphere-cryosphere-biosphere over the Tibetan Plateau. (2) A multiyear in situ L-Band microwave radiometry of land surface processes is used to develop a new microwave radiative transfer modeling system. This new system improves the modeling of brightness temperature in both horizontal and vertical polarization. (3) A multiyear (2001–2018) monthly terrestrial actual evapotranspiration and its spatial distribution on the Tibetan Plateau is generated using the surface energy balance system (SEBS) forced by a combination of meteorological and satellite data. (4) A comparison of four large scale soil moisture products to in situ measurements is presented. (5) The trajectory of water vapor transport in the canyon area of Southeast Tibet in different seasons is analyzed, and (6) the vertical water vapor exchange between the upper troposphere and the lower stratosphere in different seasons is presented.

L'introgression est un processus fréquent et qui a d'importantes conséquences évolutives. L'objectif de ce travail était de tester un modèle neutre d'introgression chez des épicéas du Plateau tibétain et des régions voisines. Le travail a permis de mettre en évidence que la direction de l'introgression pouvait être prédite par la dynamique passée des populations d'arbres, et que l'importance de cette introgression était inversement proportionnelle à l'intensité des échanges génétiques au sein de l'espèce invasive, grâce à la comparaison de la structure génétique basée sur des marqueurs chloroplastiques (à hérédité paternelle) et mitochondriaux (à hérédité maternelle). / Introgression is a widespread phenomenon with potentially profound evolutionaryconsequences. Recently, significant progress in our understanding of introgression hasbeen made with the development of a neutral model. This model predicts that, whenone species invades an area already occupied by a related species, introgression ofneutral genes takes place mainly from the local species towards the invading ones. Inaddition, following a contact between two hybridizing species, the model predicts thatintrogression should be particularly frequent for genome components experiencinglittle gene flow. However, to date, there was no empirical example available, in whichone species expanded into the range of a closely related one and two markers withcontrasted rates of gene flow had been studied for both species. Only in such a casecould the two predictions outlined above be tested simultaneously. In addition, basedon these two predictions, species delimitation should be more efficient when usingmolecular markers experiencing high rates of gene flow. The present thesis was designed to test the hypotheses of this model. The biologicalmodel used was conifers, a group in which introgression and hybridization arecommon because of incomplete reproductive isolation. The species investigatedbelong to the genus Picea (spruce). We focused on two species complexes,represented by monographic clades in a phylogenetic study using the chloroplast genematK. All species studied occur in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (QTP) and adjacenthighlands. The phylogeography of these species complexes was reconstructed usingorganelle markers (mitochondrial DNA, mtDNA and chloroplast DNA, cpDNA). Inconifers, mtDNA and cpDNA have contrasted modes of inheritance. The former ismaternally inherited, transmitted by seeds experiencing little gene flow while thelatter is paternally inherited, transmitted by both pollen and seeds experiencing highlevels of gene flow. Therefore, uniparentally inherited mtDNA and cpDNA markersexperience different rates of gene flow in such a group, providing an ideal model to test the relationship between rates of gene flow, introgression and species delimitation.Two mtDNA fragments (nad1intron b/c; nad5 intron1) and three cpDNA fragments(ndhK-C；trnL-trnF；trnS-trnG) were sequenced for nine species belonging to thePicea asperata and P. likiangensis species complex.(1) Nine mtDNA and nine cpDNA haplotypes were detected in 459 individualsfrom 46 natural populations in five species of P. asperata complex. As found in mostconifer species studied so far, low variation is present in the two mtDNA intronsalong with a high level of differentiation among populations (GST = 0.90). In contrast,higher variation and lower differentiation among populations was found at cpDNAmarkers (GST = 0.56). The cpDNA, although far from being fully diagnostic, is morespecies-specific than mtDNA: four groups of populations were identified usingcpDNA markers, all of them related to species or groups of species, whereas formtDNA, geographical variation prevails over species differentiation. A literaturereview shows that mtDNA variants are often shared among related conifer species,whereas cpDNA variants are more species-specific. Hence, increased intraspecificgene flow appears to decrease differentiation within species but not among species.[...]