ABSTRACT
Tibetans in Tibet live with the ideology of multiculturalism but also, simultaneously, repeated state denunciations of “national splittism”. Tibetan claims and representations about environmental stewardship and ecological wisdom resonate strongly with other indigenous formations. The “tribal allegory” of Tibetan ecological wisdom and deep connection to nature has been an available narrative for Tibetans in exile since the 1980s, and has more recently emerged in China as well. Assertions of Tibetans’ natural ecofriendliness are an indispensable element of both the Tibetan government in exile and the transnational Tibet Movement’s representations of Tibetanness. Toni Huber’s genealogy of the Green Tibetan in exile shows that representations of Tibetans as naturally ecofriendly only began to be produced after 1985. China’s political isolation severely curtailed contact between Tibetans inside Tibet and the refugee community for more than two decades after 1959. The burgeoning popularity of Tibetan religion among the Han is also of particular state concern.
