Paper Short Abstract:

Thinking with Tibetan pastoralists around the notion of "sabchu" or “essence of the soil”, this presentation explores the entanglements of soil, plant, animal and human vitalities in a context of climate and environmental change.

Paper Abstract:

“Sabchu” (Tibetan for “essence of the soil”) is a life-giving force sustaining the more-than-human pastoral communities of the Tibetan plateau: vegetation nutritiousness, livestock health, and herders livelihoods all depend on it. "Sabchu" can be debilitated or strengthened depending on the ways people interact with the land and its spirit masters. In the past years, mobile pastoralists in the Tibetan plateau have sensed a weakening of their land’s "sabchu", which they link to activities consisting in digging and extracting materials from the soil such as mining, the building of dams or the expansion of the road network. These state-led projects have proliferated in recent years as part of China’s renewed efforts to integrate its Western, resource-rich and minority-populated regions.

Herders think the weakening of "sabchu" influences precipitation and vegetation growth patterns. Because "sabchu" is not directly perceivable through the senses, herders attune themselves to it through observation of livestock health and milk yield. It is thus through the intimate knowledge of their herd animals that pastoralists make sense of a changing climate and environment.

Based on a thirteen-month ethnography of a pastoral community in North-Eastern Tibet, this presentation reflects on the indigenous notion of "sabchu" as a nexus of more-than-human vitalities in a context of climate and environmental change.