Columbia University
Gyal, Palden (EALAC-Hist)
Field: Pre-modern Tibetan Studies; Advisor: Gray Tuttle; Year: 2018
I am a Ph.D. candidate (ABD) in the East Asia-History Program in the Department of East Asian Languages & Cultures at Columbia University. My dissertation project, Shifting Terrains of Authority: Religio-Political Governance in the Sino-Tibetan Borderlands, 1700-1950, conceptualizes the Sino-Tibetan borderlands as dynamic arenas of ideological and political contestation and negotiation, rather than territories shaped solely by imperial ambitions. Through a close examination of multilingual archives and monastic histories, it explores Qing imperial expansion and the transformation of Eastern Tibet's religious and political landscape, positioning the Tibetan princely states of Gyelrong as key actors in shaping their region's political, economic, and religious developments.
Publications
“The Meu Kingdom. Unravelling the history of a Tibetan polity in the Sino-Tibetan borderlands, 1700-1930”, Études mongoles et sibériennes, centrasiatiques et tibétaines, 55 (2024): 125–156. https://doi.org/10.
“The Sociopolitical Impact of a Natural Disaster: The Snow Disaster of the Earth-Rat Year (1828) in Northwestern Tibet.” Climates and Cultures in History, 1 (2024). https://doi.org/10.
Personal website: https://pal-den-gyal.