Caring for Home and Homeland: Environmental Placemaking in Dharamshala and Tibet

Tibet is of invaluable ecological significance for the rest of Asia. While Tibetans have stewarded their fragile ancestral lands for millennia, they have experienced occupation, displacement, and statelessness in the last century. This thesis explores how deep-rooted cultural affinities for nature have provided Tibetans with an ingrained environmental ethic that encourages them to care for both their homeland and their home in exile: Tibet and Dharamshala. The main theoretical frameworks that ground this study are place, place attachment, placemaking, and environmental placemaking. Tibetan environmental stewardship is evident both within Tibet, manifested in deity mythology and Tibetan nomadic knowledge, and in exile, where Tibetans are engaged in research and environmental awareness campaigns. While Tibetans have been living in Dharamshala for more than six decades now, there is limited awareness of how and why they care for Dharamshala’s environment. Their involvement in waste management initiatives in Dharamshala demonstrates their engagement in environmental placemaking, which fosters a sense of belonging based on place rather than citizenship. This thesis concludes with an analysis of transboundary environmental placemaking, where Tibetans utilize their attachment to their homeland to care for their home in exile, calling attention to the larger-scale environmental issues linking Tibet and India.