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Book Cover
E-book
Author Sulek, Emilia Roza, author

Title Trading caterpillar fungus in Tibet : when economic boom hits rural area / Emilia Roza Sulek
Published Amsterdam : Amsterdam University Press, [2019]
©2019

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Description 1 online resource (326 pages) : illustrations (chiefly color), maps
Series Global Asia ; 10
Global Asia (Amsterdam, Netherlands) ; 10.
Contents Frontmatter -- Table of Contents -- List of Illustrations, Maps and Tables -- Acknowledgements -- Notes on Transliteration -- List of Abbreviations -- List of Units of Measurement and Currency -- Introduction -- 1. Golok: People and Places -- 2. Digging -- 3. Fungus, Medicine, Commodity -- 4. Market and Traders -- 5. Market Operations -- 6. The Law in Action -- 7. Money -- 8. Pastoral Life and the Market -- 9. Spending the Money -- Conclusions -- Afterword: A Note on Methodology -- Appendix -- Tibetan Word List -- Bibliography -- Index
Summary Caterpillar fungus, often called the Himalayan Viagra, is a subject of the latest commodity boom which changed the economic fates of Tibetan pastoralists in China. This expensive medicinal resource made a spectacular market career in East Asia after the outbreak of avian influenza and SARS. Growing demand for this 'wonder drug' created for people on the Tibetan plateau where this fungus is endemic attractive income opportunities which they never had before. Tibetan pastoralists engaged in this new 'gold rush' and turned from subsistence-oriented yak and sheep breeders living in a cash-poor environment into local economic elite. This book tells a story of successful pastoralists high on the Tibetan plateau who take advantage of the economic boom in the Chinese market to accomplish their own goals. They emerge as far more sophisticated actors than most outsiders would give credit to before reading this book
Analysis China, Tibet, pastoralists, caterpillar fungus
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes In English
Print version record
SUBJECT Boom, ... gnd
Handel, ... gnd
Subject Farmers -- Tibet, Plateau of
Social and cultural anthropology, ethnography.
Political economy.
Commodities.
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS -- Economic History.
Economic history
Farmers
Aphrodisiakum
Pilze
SUBJECT Tibet Autonomous Region (China) -- Economic conditions
Tibet, Plateau of -- Economic conditions
Subject China -- Plateau of Tibet
China -- Tibet Autonomous Region
Ostasien
Tibet
Form Electronic book
ISBN 9789048536290
9048536294