Tibetan Ethnobotany

Tibetan Ethnobotany
Jan Salick, Curator of Ethnobotany
Missouri Botanical Garden

Tibetan Ethnobotany
• Background
• Gradient Analyses
• Alpine Ethnobotany
• Landuse
• Change
• Market Study
• Plant Populations
• Sacred Sites
• Capacity Building
• Conservation and SD

Research Site: Eastern Himalayas
“Medicine Mountain”
Meili or Menri
↓

↓

Tibetan Culture

Tibetan People

Khawa Karpo

Tibetan Plants

Traditional medicines

Traditional foods

E
L
E
V
A
T
I
O
N
A
L
2000- 2000
L 7000m
G
R
A
D
I
E
N
T

6
2
1
7
Elevational gradient
1. scree
2. alpine meadow
3. rhododendron
4. conifer
5. mixed
6. oak
7. scrub
5
3
4
6

Local Tibetan Doctors
A Na Sonam Dorje

Tibetan Ethnobotany
& Gradient Analyses
• Elevation is the predominant
vegetation & ethnobotany
gradient; does not follow
Rahbek (1997)
• Useful plants follow
biodiversity patterns
• Alpine meadows & dry scrub
should be a conservation
priority along with conifer
and oak forests
• Entire landscape is important
to Tibetans and should be
sustainably managed.
• Biodiversity conservation is
linked to sustainable natural
resources used by locals

Alpine
Ethnobotany
Project:
GLORIA, NGS,
IBC2005

Traditional Agriculture

Traditional Landuse

C
h
a
n
g
e

Repeat Photography
Village along upper Mekong
Joseph Rock present

Using Joseph Rock’s photos
to interview elders about change.
change

Landuse Changes through PRA
• Roads and electrification
• Agricultural intensification
• Technology
• Aforestation
• Tenure
• NTFP
• Livestock
• Human population
• Sacred sites

Traditional
Markets
National
Globalized

Tibetan Ethnobotany
• Background
• Gradient Analyses
• Alpine Ethnobotany
• Landuse
• Change
• Market Study
• Plant Populations
• Sacred Sites
• Capacity Building
• Conservation and SD

Market Study

Selected Market NTPs from Khawa Karpo
Non-Timber Products Markets and Uses Values $1= 8¥
Mushrooms: Matsutake
(Tricholoma spp.), caterpillar
fungus (Cordyceps sinensis,
Morel (Morchela spp)
Medicines: Fritillaria spp.,
Saussurea spp., Picrorhiza
sp. and many more.
Orchids: Cymbidium spp.,
various other orchids
_______________________
Foods: pinenuts, greens, etc
Mushrooms and fungal
parasites for food/medicine
and exported to Japan
Alpine plants used in
traditional Chinese and
Tibetan medicines;
Horticultural trade; local
markets
_______________________
Local markets
Matsutake: 200-1200¥/kg
(price is extremely volatile)
Caterpillar 10¥/stroma pair
Morel: 600-1100¥/kg dry,
60¥/kg fresh
F. cirrhosa 60¥/kg, S.
laniceps 28¥/kg, S. medusa
14¥/kg, Picrorhiza sp. 25¥/kg
250-1000¥/plant; 5-50¥/
plant
_______________________
Pinenuts 6-10¥/kg; others 1-
5 ¥/kg

Modeling
Medicinal
Plants

Saussurea laniceps
Heavily collected
Tibetan medicine

Sacred Landscapes

GIS vegetation and sites:
sacred (low and high) and random

% Endemic
110
90
70
50
30
Sacred sites differ significantly
from random points
% Endemic by Plot Elevation
y = 0.0273x - 30.625
R 2 = 0.7355
10
2000 2500 3000 3500 4000 4500
Elevation (m)
Species composition:
useful (p=0.03)
endemic (p=0.05)
Lower sacred sites:
< elev (p=0.0001)
near villages (p=0.0001)
> S (p=0.03 )
> H’ (p= 0.04)
Higher sacred sites:
> endemics (p=0.0001)

X
X
Pairing Sacred and Secular Sites
↔

Buddhism
and Bön

Ethnobotany Capacity Building
• Tibetan villagers
– Women
– Men
• Tibetan doctors
• University students
• Resource people
– PRA
– GIS
– Ethnobotanical
collecting
• Translators: Tibetan,
Chinese & English
Ford Foundation

Ethnobotany
Capacity Building
Landuse Study
• PRA: Landuse mapping
• GIS: Landuse mapping
• Ethnobotanical
collecting: NTPs

Ethnobotany Capacity Building
Applied Projects and Theses
Applied Projects:
• Tibetan medicine
– Center
– Training
– Manual
• Sacred trees
• Walnuts
Ethnobotany Theses:
• Tibetan medicinal
• Green manures
• Oak forest
• Sacred plants
• Walnuts

Tibetan Ethnobotany
• Background
• Gradient Analyses
• Alpine Ethnobotany
• Landuse
• Change
• Market Study
• Plant Populations
• Sacred Sites
• Capacity Building
• Conservation and SD
Biodiversity conservation
is linked to sustainable natural resources used by locals

Ethnobotany research, applied research, and
capacity building in Tibetan Yunnan
We gratefully acknowledge:
We gratefully acknowledge: National Science Foundation,
The Nature Conservancy, Ford Foundation

Contributing
Researchers
• Anthony Amend
• Danica Anderson
• Trish Consiglio
• Bee Gunn
• Kurt Hoffmeister
• Wayne Law
• Heidi Schmidt
• Ruth Sherman
• Ben Staver
• Jessica Woo
• George Yatskievych

and the
Tibetan
people of
Menri !!
whose prior informed consent was
enthusiastically, hospitably, & warmly given