Acknowledgments

This book would not exist without the generous support provided by the people of rTse khog and my friends and colleagues from Qinghai and Sichuan, who unfortunately cannot be named here. I would also like to thank Amdo Ronggan and Tashi Dorje for their assistance during the data collection process and for their help in solving some language issues connected to the policy terms in Tibetan. In addition, I owe special thanks to the anonymous reviewers for their constructive criticism and appreciated suggestions, to the editorial team of the University of Washington Press, to Lorri Hagman and Stevan Harrell for their valuable comments and enormous patience during the editing process, to my mentor Toni Huber, and to my dear friend and colleague Ondřej Klimeš, who helped to turn this manuscript into a book.