Zomia

Zomia is a geographical term coined in 2002 by Dutch social scientist Willem van Schendel of University of Amsterdam to refer to the highlands of Asia in a global, macroscopic, transnational perspective.

Developing the proposition by Clifford Geerz that research fields in history and anthropology should be more thoroughly combined, the term ‘Zomia’ was applied to the geographical space known as Southeast Asian Massif by research James C. Scott in his 2009 reference study (The Art of Not Being Governed) on an area including parts of Northeastern Cambodia and characterized by low population density, historical isolation, political domination by surrounding states and no state formation process whatsoever.

While Zomia's limits have varied amongst authors - encompassing highlands overlapping parts of spme 10 countries (southwest China, Northeast India, eastern Bangladesh, all the highlands of Myanmar (Burma), Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Peninsular Malaysia, and Taiwan), with a total population of around 100 million, the Tibetan world was not included in this area, due to its specific political logics.