ABSTRACT
If in the previous chapters we have chosen to analyse Tibetan regionality in terms of geopolitical and geohistorical categories, it is because they set the structural stage and provide the analytical means for a discussion of the main theme of this inquiry, that is the role of trade in Tibet and its culturally related border worlds. But as trade is also an activity which gains shape by the social agency of its traders, and the culture from which their 'professional' action springs, there is a need to qualify our analysis of trade and traders in terms of its social and cultural context as well. Was it not already the regretted Van Leur, the young Dutch historian, who defended more than fifty years ago that form of economic history which is more adjusted to the nature and structure of other ages and civilizations (Van Leur 1955:40)?
