This book is freely available in an open access edition with funds received from the 2025 Arcadia Open Access Publishing Award, granted to the University of Washington Press by the American Council of Learned Societies with generous support from Arcadia.
Additional support for this publication was provided by the Samuel and Althea Stroum Endowed Book Fund.
Copyright © 2026 by Tomas Cole
Composed in Warnock Pro, typeface designed by Robert Slimbach
The digital edition of this book may be downloaded and shared under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives 4.0 international license (CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0). For information about this license, see https://
Photographs by the author.
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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Names: Cole, Tomas author
Title: Possessed landscapes : experiments in conservation and sovereignty in Southeast Myanmar / Tomas Cole.
Description: Seattle : University of Washington Press, [2025] | Series: Culture, place, and nature | Includes bibliographical references and index
Identifiers: LCCN 2025022975 | ISBN 9780295754192 hardcover | ISBN 9780295754208 paperback | ISBN 9780295754215 ebook
Subjects: LCSH: Indigenous peoples—Land tenure—Burma | Protected areas—Social aspects—Burma | Protected areas—Political aspects—Burma | Land use—Social aspects—Burma | Land use—Political aspects—Burma | Ethnoscience—Social aspects—Burma | Ethnoscience—Political aspects—Burma | Conservation of natural resources—Social aspects—Burma | Conservation of natural resources—Political aspects—Burma
Classification: LCC GN449.3 .C65 2025 | DDC 959.1—dc23/eng/20250615
LC record available at https://
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