Changing Tides - a conference on one of Asia's key regions

The conference ‘Changing tides: Small polities and expanding empires in the Eastern Trans-Himalayas at the 20th century turns’ brought together researchers who otherwise do not meet. It focused on the recent past in a region spanning northeast India in the west to Yunnan in the east, and Eastern Himalayas in the north to Thailand in the south. Political realities, Area studies, and singular imperial focuses blocks the view from seeing the profound interconnections in this region. The meeting highlighted interconnections, flows, and frictions. Focus was on the smaller polities that came under pressure from the expanding Chinese and European empires in this Asian key-region in the late 19th to early 20th centuries. The meeting was organised by Gunnel Cederlöf, Christian Daniels, Willem van Schendel, Jianxiong Ma, and Anandaroop Sen who form the research team of the project ‘Trans-Himalayan Flows, Governance and Spaces of Encounter’. The Centre for Concurrences, the Swedish Research Council, and the Royal Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities funded the event.