Paper short abstract:

This paper discusses how Monpas speak about the environment and how the words reflect their understanding of the geospatial and ecological system of the place. The mixed usage of Tawang Monpa language, Hindi, and Tibetan reflects social change lived by people regarding an environment beyond nature.

Paper long abstract:

The Monpa live in between the Tibetan empire/the People's Republic of China and Assam kingdom/Indian states for centuries, and they accepted the Tibetan Buddhism as the main religion since the 15th century. With communities scattered in the Eastern Himalayas and including migration in their livelihood strategies, this small self-regarded tribe does not have a standardised language, and the population has been divided by the Chinese and Indian territories under a British ex-colonial shadow. The Monpa languages differ from hills to valleys, north to south, unique in some secluded villages. The learning of words regarding natural phenomena and the environment is experiential, involves seasonal migration to different altitudes and terms exchanged between the hill and the valley Monpas. Based on four months ethnographic research and interviews in Mon Tawang, this paper focuses on how Monpa talk about changes in the environment as they define, especially in weather, extreme climatic events and the impacts of such. This paper will discuss two findings and one suggestion: (1) how the words tell about the Tawang Monpa's understandings about the geospatial and ecological system; (2) by articulating words they borrow from Tibetan and Hindi and the emotional expressions, it reflects the lived experiences of this border community through the social changes engaging religious power, ambivalent modernisation, and conflict between two states in the past sixty years; (3) approaching the environment in the local vocabulary and philosophy behind can provide a practical path for sustainability, climate change adaptation and possibly democratise the knowledge production.