The elucidation of the geologic processes that led to the creation of the Tibetan Plateau, a large area of thick crust and high elevation, is a fundamental question in geology. This study provides new data and insight on the geologic history of central Tibet in the Jurassic and Cretaceous, prior to the Indo-Asian collision, as well as the Gondwanan history of the Lhasa and Qiangtang terranes of the plateau. This investigation is centered on the Bangong suture zone near the town of Amdo and I present new geochronology, thermochronology, thermobarometry and structural data of the Amdo basement, an exposure of high-grade gneisses and intrusive granitoids. Using a range of thermochronometers, I show there were two periods of cooling, one in the Middle-Late Jurassic after high-grade metamorphism and a second in the Early Cretaceous. I attribute Middle-Late Jurassic metamorphism, magmatism, and initial cooling of the Amdo basement to arc related tectonism that resulted in tectonic or sedimentary burial of the magmatic arc. I propose that a second period of cooling, nonmarine, clastic sedimment deposition and thrust faulting in the Early Cretaceous is related to the Lhasa-Qiangtang collision. The thermochronology reveals limited denudation between the Cretaceous and the present, indicating the existence of thickened crust when India collided with Asia in the early Tertiary. U-Pb geochronology of the orthogneisses and detrital zircon geochronology of metasedimentary rocks suggests that the Lhasa and Qiangtang terrane were located farther west along Gondwanan's northern margin than most reconstructions depict.

The latitudinal motion of the Tibetan Himalayathe northernmost continental unit of the Indian plateis a key component in testing paleogeographic reconstructions of the Indian plate before the India-Asia collision. Paleomagnetic studies of sedimentary rocks (mostly carbonate rocks) from the Tibetan Himalaya are complicated by potentially pervasive yet cryptic remagnetization. Although traditional paleomagnetic field tests reveal some of this remagnetization, secondary remanence acquired prior to folding or tilting easily escapes detection. Here we describe comprehensive rock magnetic and petrographic investigations of Jurassic to Paleocene carbonate and volcaniclastic rocks from Tibetan Himalayan strata (Tingri and Gamba areas). These units have been the focus of several key paleomagnetic studies for Greater Indian paleogeography. Our results reveal that while the dominant magnetic carrier in both carbonate and volcaniclastic rocks is magnetite, their magnetic and petrographic characteristics are distinctly different. Carbonate rocks have wasp-waisted hysteresis loops, suppressed Verwey transitions, extremely fine grain sizes (superparamagnetic), and strong frequency-dependent magnetic susceptibility. Volcaniclastic rocks exhibit pot-bellied hysteresis loops and distinct Verwey transitions. Electron microscopy reveals that magnetite grains in carbonate rocks are pseudomorphs of early diagenetic pyrite, whereas detrital magnetite is abundant and pyrite is rarely oxidized in the volcaniclastic rocks. We suggest that the volcaniclastic rocks retain a primary remanence, but oxidation of early diagenetic iron sulfide to fine-grained magnetite has likely caused widespread chemical remagnetization of the carbonate units. We recommend that thorough rock magnetic and petrographic investigations are prerequisites for paleomagnetic studies throughout southern Tibet and everywhere in general.

Bien que j’envisage de couvrir une variété de pratiques divinatoires, je me concentre surtout dans ma thèse sur un type particulier de divination par les pierres pratiquée par les Bonpos tibétains. Cette forme de divination, parfois traduite par « Manifestation de Connaissance » (lde’u ’phrul), possède une tradition textuelle presque vierge qui, d’après les histoires Bon, remonte au 11ème siècle. En plus de terrains effectués en divers lieux de l’Himachal Pradesh et de l’Uttaranchal Pradesh, ma présentation du lde’u ’phrul est enrichie de la traduction de plusieurs manuscrits sur la lithomancie encore jamais étudiés. Je me concentre notamment sur le sMra seng rdel mo gsal ba’i me long, composé par Kun grol grags pa, un œcuméniste et historien du 18ème siècle. Certains points de ce texte sont comparés à deux commentaires plus tardifs traitant de la lithomancie : (1) le Ma sangs ’phrul gyi rdel mo mngon shes rno gsal gyi sgron me, écrit par Slob dpon mKhas grub Lung rtogs rgya mtsho, premier précepteur du monastère de Yung drung gLing au Tibet Central ; et le (2) sMra seng ’phrul gyi rdel mo mngon shes gsal ba’i sgron po, version datant du 19ème siècle d’un gter ma censé avoir été découvert au 11ème siècle par le « découvreur de trésors » (gter ston) Khro tshang ’brug lha. Lors de l’utilisation de ces matériaux, j’adopte une approche herméneutique large, qui ne restreint pas la critique au manuscrit étudié mais cherche à incorporer les performances contemporaines de lde’u ’phrul, et en particulier la perspective unique du devin sur sa performance. / Though I intend to survey a variety of divination practices, my thesis focuses upon a particular type of pebble divination performed by Tibetan Bonpos. This form of divination, which is known as "Manifestation of Knowledge" (lde'u 'phrul), possesses a nearly unstudied textual tradition that, according to Bon histories, originates in the eleventh century. In addition to fieldwork conducted in various locations in Himachal Pradesh and Uttaranchal Pradesh, my discussion of lde' u 'phrul is supplemented by the translation of a number of previously unstudied lithomantic manuscripts. Chiefly, I focus upon the sMra seng rdel mo gsal ba'i me long, written by the 18th century ecumenicist and historian Kun grol grags pa. Certain aspects of this work will also be read against two later commentaries on the subject of lithomancy: (1) the Ma sangs 'phrul gyi rdel mo mngon shes rno gsal gyi sgron me, written by Slob dpon mKhas grub Lung rtogs rgya mtsho, the first preceptor of Yung drung gLing Monastery in Central Tibet; and (2) the sMra seng 'phrul gyi rdel mo mngon shes gsal ba'i sgron po, a 19th century witness of an alleged 11th century gter ma discovery attributed to the Bon "treasure revealer" (gter ston) Khro tshang 'brug lha. In using these materials, I adopt a broad view of hermeneutics, which does not restrict criticism to the manuscripts that I study, but also seeks to incorporate the contemporary performance of lDe'u 'phrul and, in particular, the diviner's unique perspective on the performance of divination into my textual critique.

Since the end of the Cold War, the international system has become more cosmopolitan, communicative, and connected. These changes have taken place against a backdrop of intensifying processes of globalization, the unevenness of which has helped redefine possible fields of political action. This dissertation offers an interpretation of how we might go about understanding and representing the intercultural dynamics and forms of politics that constitute the transnational Tibet Movement.

Topography influences climate dynamics by redirecting how the atmosphere transports moisture, and energy. By doing so, topography alters precipitation patterns, circulation of wind, riverine fluxes, and ocean upwelling distributions. This dissertation investigates the linkages between major topographic features and atmospheric dynamics within an Earth System perspective. The studies presented build upon the foundations of theoretical atmospheric thermodynamics and dynamical principles and primarily delves into the interactions between the Indo-Asian Monsoon and the surrounding topographies. First, I explore gaps in the current body of literature, mainly using observational datasets and reanalysis products. I then add in more sophisticated tools, such as general circulation models (GCMs) to investigate how terrain orogen impact the regional climatic regime with an emphasis on the monsoonal environment. To do so I explore drawbacks in using currently available GCMs and demonstrate the necessity of utilizing appropriate model horizontal-grid resolution when studying atmosphere-terrain interactions. I then delve into reexamining previously explored monsoon theories, and develop new concepts and theories for the Indo-Asian Monsoon. Lastly, I apply such model tools to further understand the orogen of the Tibetan Plateau. To do so, I examine the paleoenthalpy methods and determine its viability in measuring the paleoelevation of the Tibetan Plateau. Ultimately, we apply this method to aid the paleoclimate community in deciphering the evolution of Tibet during the Cenozoic era. Constraining the evolution of the regional topography is crucial for understanding the hydrological cycle and the climatic evolution of Eurasia.

The article contains a biography on Theos Bernard, the first western Yogi.

This study concerns the palaeoglaciation of the northeastern Tibetan Plateau, with emphasis on the Bayan Har Shan (Shan = Mountain) in the headwaters of Huang He (Yellow River). To reconstruct past glacier development multiple techniques, including remote sensing, field investigations, cosmogenic exposure dating, and numerical modelling have been employed. Analysis of the large-scale geomorphology indicates that glacial erosion has been dominant in the elevated mountain areas on the low-relief plateau, whereas fluvial erosion outpaces glacial erosion along the plateau margin. Landform and sediment records yield evidence for multiple local glaciations, restricted to the highest mountain areas, and a maximum glaciation beyond the mountain front. Absence of data supporting the former presence of proposed ice sheets, plateau-wide or regional, tentatively indicates that no ice sheet glaciation occurred on the northeastern Tibetan Plateau. Cosmogenic exposure dating of boulders, surface pebbles, and sediment sections in central Bayan Har Shan indicates that its record of past glaciations predates the global Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). Based on a world-wide analysis, yielding that wide age disparity within apparent exposure age datasets is most likely caused by post-glacial shielding processes, the Bayan Har Shan exposure ages constrain four periods of glaciation with minimum ages of 40-65 ka, 60-100 ka, 95-165 ka, and undetermined oldest stage. Similar to Bayan Har Shan, the plateau-wide distribution of boulders with pre-LGM exposure ages close to present-day glaciers shows that its LGM glaciers were generally not much larger than today. The results of a high resolution glacier model applied to nine regions across the plateau indicates that temperature depressions of 2-4 K are enough to expand glaciers beyond their global LGM extent, implying that during periods of Northern Hemisphere glaciation the Tibetan Plateau was not much colder than today or became exceedingly dry. / At the time of doctoral defence the following publications were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 4: Manuscript. Paper 5: Manuscript.

Examining an Atlanta area Tibetan Buddhist center as a symbolic and imagined borderland space, I investigate the ways that meaning is created through competing narratives of spirituality and “culture.” Drawing from theories of borderlands, cross-cultural interaction, narratives, authenticity and material culture, I analyze the ways that non-Tibetan community members of the Drepung Loseling center navigate through the interplay of culture and spirituality and how this interaction plays into larger discussions of cultural adaptation, appropriation and representation. Although this particular Tibetan Buddhist center is only a small part of Buddhism’s existence in the United States today, discourses on authenticity, representation and mediated understanding at the Drepung Loseling center provide an example of how ethnic, social, and national boundaries may be negotiated through competing – and overlapping – narratives of culture.

The history of landscape painting in the West has dictated and reiterated a phenomenological point-of-view derived from the Cartesian coordinate plane system. After having journeyed to northern India for eight months, I became influenced by other pictorial conceptions of space, namely the radial cosmological mandalas of Tibetan Buddhism and yantras of Hinduism. Unable to fully eliminate the coordinate plane system from the recess of my mind, I embarked upon a creative journey through consciousness in which my own studio practice provided the means to construct a new orientation, not only in terms of the perceivable, external world, but within the realm of my own embodied mind.

This dissertation examines the relationship between human societies and natural landscape in the Songpan region of northern Sichuan, China from 1800 to 2005. It seeks to achieve three goals. First, it seeks to complicate our understanding of China's modern political transformation from dynastic state to republic and socialist state by adding an environmental perspective to these changes. Second, it seeks to complicate existing understanding of China's environmental history, which is largely concerned with developments in "China proper," by focusing on an isolated and historically autonomous locality in western China. Finally, this dissertation seeks to understand the historical processes that led to the region's gradual incorporation into the Chinese state in terms of changing patterns of land use, resource management, and how a variety of local actors interacted with one another to produce these changes. To achieve these goals, the dissertation explores and analyzes the various ways that indigenous communities, largely Tibetan, and successive Chinese states have inhabited the eastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau and how their socio-economic structures, land use strategies, political ideologies, and technologies combined with environmental factors to shape the world around them. This program of research contributes a local environmental and socio-economic dimension to existing political and religious histories of the Sino-Tibetan borderlands. No separate study has analyzed the social, political, economic and environmental encounters in the late imperial, Republican, and modern periods as a whole in western China. In order to analyze the dynamics of local socio-economic and environmental change, this dissertation de-centers China geographically and socially in order to look at an "exceptional typical" periphery. In the process, it challenges common and ideological historical chronologies of social and political development in western China. By analyzing Tibetan-Chinese political, social and market relations, it also adds to the literature of local elite and state patterns of dominance in twentieth century China. Finally, it contributes to a growing literature on Chinese environmental history by analyzing the role of changing systems of resource use and development in western China while revealing the often complex and dialectical ways that human societies and environmental factors have interacted in western China.