Andreas Gruschke (April 16, 1960 in Tengen-Blumenfeld – January 30, 2018) was a German author, photographer and

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ), or Greater Tibet, is a region in the western part of East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are other ethnic groups s ...

researcher. His scientific background was that of a

geographer A geographer is a physical scientist, social scientist or humanist whose area of study is geography, the study of Earth's natural environment and human society, including how society and nature interacts. The Greek prefix "geo" means "earth" a ...

Sinologist Sinology, also referred to as China studies, is a subfield of area studies or East Asian studies involved in social sciences and humanities research on China. It is an academic discipline that focuses on the study of the Chinese civilizatio ...

and

ethnologist Ethnology (from the , meaning 'nation') is an academic field and discipline that compares and analyzes the characteristics of different peoples and the relationships between them (compare cultural, social, or sociocultural anthropology). Scien ...

. He received a 1990 M.A. at Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, and a Ph.D. in 2009 at

Leipzig University Leipzig University (), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 December 1409 by Frederick I, Electo ...

. From 1987, Gruschke worked as a free-lance

writer A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles, genres and techniques to communicate ideas, to inspire feelings and emotions, or to entertain. Writers may develop different forms of writing such as novels, short sto ...

and picture-journalist with the main topics

Himalayas The Himalayas, or Himalaya ( ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the Earth's highest peaks, including the highest, Mount Everest. More than list of h ...

Silk Road The Silk Road was a network of Asian trade routes active from the second century BCE until the mid-15th century. Spanning over , it played a central role in facilitating economic, cultural, political, and religious interactions between the ...

and East Asia. He held lectures and seminars at his hometown

Freiburg Freiburg im Breisgau or simply Freiburg is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fourth-largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg after Stuttgart, Mannheim and Karlsruhe. Its built-up area has a population of abou ...

and other places. After finishing his university studies, he went on numerous research trips to

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Mainland Au ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

Korea Korea is a peninsular region in East Asia consisting of the Korean Peninsula, Jeju Island, and smaller islands. Since the end of World War II in 1945, it has been politically Division of Korea, divided at or near the 38th parallel north, 3 ...

Central Asia Central Asia is a region of Asia consisting of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The countries as a group are also colloquially referred to as the "-stans" as all have names ending with the Persian language, Pers ...

, yet most of them led him to the highland of Tibet. From 2004 to 2012 he worked at

, doing research on Tibetan pastoralists in eastern Tibet's Yushu area. From 2012, he was a guest professor at the Institute of Social Development and Western China Development Studies at Sichuan University, Chengdu, China. His main research interest was the livelihood security of the rural population, namely pastoralists, in China's Tibetan areas. Gruschke published numerous books and articles mainly on Tibetan culture, among them pioneering works for

monasteries A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone ( hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer which m ...

in the East Tibetan regions

Amdo Amdo ( �am˥˥.to˥˥ zh , c = 安多 , p = Ānduō ), also known as Domey (), is one of the three traditional Tibetan regions. It encompasses a large area from the Machu (Yellow River) to the Drichu (Yangtze). Amdo is mostly coterminous wi ...

and

Kham Kham (; ) is one of the three traditional Tibet, Tibetan regions, the others being Domey also known as Amdo in the northeast, and Ü-Tsang in central Tibet. The official name of this Tibetan region/province is Dotoe (). The original residents of ...

. Other books and reports deal with

and the Himalayas and China, as well as two picture albums about his homeland: the Hegau and the upper

Rhine The Rhine ( ) is one of the List of rivers of Europe, major rivers in Europe. The river begins in the Swiss canton of Graubünden in the southeastern Swiss Alps. It forms part of the Swiss-Liechtenstein border, then part of the Austria–Swit ...

. His most recent research was about

nomads Nomads are communities without fixed habitation who regularly move to and from areas. Such groups include hunter-gatherers, Nomadic pastoralism, pastoral nomads (owning livestock), tinkers and Merchant, trader nomads. In the twentieth century, ...

in the eastern Tibetan region of Yushu (northern

Works

* ''The Cultural Monuments of Tibet’s Outer Provinces: Amdo'', 2 vols., Bangkok 2001 * ''The Cultural Monuments of Tibet’s Outer Provinces: Kham'', 2 vols., Bangkok 2004 ff. * "Nomads Without Pastures? Globalization, Regionalization, and Livelihood Security of Nomads and Former Nomads in Northern Khams," in: Ken Bauer, Geoff Childs, Andrew Fischer, and Daniel Winkler (eds.), ''In the Shadow of the Leaping Dragon: Demography, Development, and the Environment in Tibetan Areas'', in
JIATS
4 (December 2008)
Download pdf
* ''A Vital Monastic Centre of the Jonang Tradition: The Grand Lamasery of Dzamthang'', in

* "Nomads and their Market Relations in Eastern Tibet’s Yushu Region: The Impact of Caterpillar Fungus." In: Jörg Gertel & Richard LeHeron(eds.): ''Economic Spaces of Pastoral Production and Commodity Systems. Markets and Livelihoods''. Ashgate: Farnham - Burlington 2011, pp. 211–229. *
Yushu Nomads on the Move. How can the Use of Pastoralist Resources be Sustainable?
'. In: 人文视野下的高原生态国际学术研讨会.交流材料 enwenshi Yexia De Gaoyuan Shengtai Guoji Xueshu Yantaohui. Jiaoliu Cailiaobr>The International Symposium on the Human Dimensions of Ecological Conservation on the Tibetan Plateau. Communication Materials of Conference
Xining, Qinghai, China, August 2011. pp. 138–152. * ''From Yak Herders to Yartsa Traders. Tibetan Nomads and New Market Options in Qinghai´s Yushu Region''. In
《China Tibetology》中国藏学(英文版, 2011, No. 3
pp. 95–118. * "Tibetan Pastoralists in Transition. Political Change and State Interventions in Nomad Societies." In: Hermann Kreutzmann (ed.): ''Pastoral Practices in High Asia. Agency of ‘Development’ Effected by Modernisation, Resettlement and Transformation'' (Advances in Asian Human-Environmental Research). Springer: Dordrecht 2012, pp. 273–289.

References

External links

*
A. Gruschke at the THDL/ Tibetan & Himalayan Digital Library

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gruschke, Andreas 1960 births 2018 deaths German orientalists German male non-fiction writers People from Konstanz (district)