1What happens when a people so closely associated with pastoralism – as those of Tibetan culture are – have to give up their pastoral way of life? This thesis argues that pastoralism has shaped and continues to shape the way that the Limey, a borderland community of Tibetan culture and language in Nepal, conceive of and relate to the world and its multiple inhabitants.

2This work primarily contributes to multispecies scholarship from the angle of political ecology, religious studies and gender analysis. It is the result of five years of research, of which fourteen months were spent doing fieldwork in Nepal, including eight months in Limi, north-western Nepal.

3Pastoralism still plays a constitutive role in the Limey’s imaginary, identity and sense of homeland. It also contributes to the Limey’s feeling of being a people ‘apart’ from the rest of Nepal as well as from Tibet, in a ‘land in between’ (both geographically and culturally) that is simultaneously autonomous and interconnected. Pastoralism’s initially central socio-economic role contributed to establishing regional and international networks that have lived on to this day through various social institutions. These have fostered peace in the villages and the region, as well as a certain wealth, the benefits of both of which are still being reaped today.

4Beyond solely anthropic relationships, Limey semi-nomadic pastoralism also enables intimate human-animal relationships, which is the very fabric of pastoralism on a day-to-day level. Animals are embedded in a human community: they are considered part of a household and are referred to as kin, albeit of another species. In fact, pastoralism allows the creation of a form of symbiosis where the boundaries between species are loosely drawn, where species communicate and relate to each other in the ambivalent coexistence of affection, care and violence.

5These relationships take place within Limi’s vast mountainscape, thereby putting humans in contact with a landscape conceived of primarily in terms of the spiritual entities that inhabit it. Humans’ co-inhabitation in the mountains with wildlife, spiritual entities and domestic animals is governed by a locally carved religious framework. In this context, pastoralism integrates a religious dimension, while religion prompts herders to develop a particular ecological ethics of care.

6Limey pastoralism unfolds in Limi’s pasturelands, themselves part and parcel of a broader geopolitical context, notably Sino-Nepali border politics. The Limey find themselves in a tug-of-war between two states in which pastoralism sometimes plays a strategic role either as a potential asset or as a challenge in the context of the nation-building and unification project.

7Exploring yet another approach to the landscape and its multiple human and non-human inhabitants, this dissertation discusses the role of Limey pastoralism in the Anthropocene. This role challenges both Western and Chinese understandings of nature and wildlife conservation or exploitation. The Limey pastoralists case study provides useful insights into rethinking human relationship with the world and its multiple non-human inhabitants beyond the protect vs exploit dichotomy.

8Pastoralists may well be a shrinking population in Limi, with retirees not being replaced by the younger generation. Yet pastoralism continues to thrive in neighbouring communities and still permeates every aspect of the Limey’s social life and cosmology. At a time when some are reflecting on ways to repair anthropogenic damage to ecosystems, this study of Limey pastoralism offers insights into ways of co-inhabiting mountain areas so that humans, animals (both domestic and wild), spiritual entities and their shared habitat respect each other’s presence and needs.