Harkonen/Power & Agency, 3. Doing Research in the Contested Tibetan Field

Due to the sensitive political situation, the “field” in this study is constructed out of various geographical and spatial locations. What connects these different locations is the notion of shared Tibetanness defined principally by Buddhism, Tibetan monasticism, Tibetan culture and, at least to some extent, by a sense of Tibetan nationalism. Applying a multi-sited approach to the study of Tibetan Buddhist nuns proved to be very illuminating. Had I conducted one long, single-sited research, I would not have realized the widely shared notion of this common feeling of Tibetanness and thus would have been unable to witness some dramatic changes that took place in the Tibetan regions.