This well written monograph is a fine ethnographic example of “thick description” of religious revival among the Premi, a small Tibeto-Burman-speaking ethnic group dwelling along the Yunnan-Sichuan border area of Southwest China. Author Wellens' repeat visits to the Premi area from 1999 to 2007 resulted in this balanced and thoughtful piece of scholarship. Wellens focuses on the ethnic and religious revival of the Premi as they attempt to rebuild their ethnic community and identity on the southeastern margins of the Tibetan cultural sphere. The book is well placed in the series of “Studies on Ethnic Groups in China,” edited by Steven Harrell. It gives fascinating insights into the role of certain social actors in several Premi villages and of the social complexities in play between ritual, religion, ethnicity and the power of China's nationality politics.
While the current work certainly provides a valuable new contribution to the slowly increasing scholarship...