Paper short abstract:

This paper examines how the Monpas, an ethnic minority straddling the borders between Tibet, India and Bhutan, narrate Tibetan and Bhutanese origins to articulate transnational belonging.

Paper long abstract:

If common origins or "blood" is the basis for articulating "long-distance nationalism" (Glick Schiller 2005) or nationalism across borders, in some cases they also become negatively marked for the same reasons. Non-national or hybrid origins may be seen as potential threats to the idea of the nation in homogenous constructions of nationalism. How do minorities inhabiting disputed border areas navigate this conflicted terrain of origins in articulating cultural identity?

In this paper, I show how the Monpas, an ethnic minority straddling the borders between Tibet, India and Bhutan, narrate Tibetan and Bhutanese origins to articulate transnational belonging. Yet, given that the Monpas inhabit a disputed territory in an unresolved border dispute between India and China, stories of trans-border and particularly, Tibetan, origins have become a contentious issue, entangled with questions of national belonging. Drawing on oral narratives of origins and migration collected during fieldwork in west Arunachal Pradesh in Northeast India between 2008 and 2010, I look at how people position themselves through narration of origins.

My attempt is not to find a conclusive answer as to the origins of Monpas, but to see how people in a disputed border are aware of the costs of articulating transnational kinship; and use different narrative devices to assert national belonging.