Spectacular Compassion

This is the pivotal chapter in the book because it addresses the translocal implications of battles for fortune in the Sino-Tibetan frontier zone, as well as their fundamental relationship to the threat of state violence. The author analyzes forms of state and Buddhist monastic mourning rituals as public displays of “spectacular compassion” in the wake of the military crackdown on Tibetan unrest and the massive Sichuan earthquake that occurred within weeks of each other in the spring of 2008. Here, competing notions of sovereign authority, responsibility, and administrative geography come to a head in the secret theodicies of rumor and grief throughout the Rebgong valley and beyond.