In Central Asia’s Ferghana Valley, where Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan meet, state territoriality has taken on new significance in these states’ second decade of independence, reshaping landscapes and transforming livelihoods in a densely populated, irrigation-dependent region. Through an innovative ethnography of social and spatial practice at the limits of the state, Border Work explores the contested work of producing and policing “territorial integrity” when significant stretches of new international borders remain to be conclusively demarcated or effectively policed. Drawing on extensive ethnographic fieldwork, Madeleine Reeves follows traders, farmers, water engineers, conflict analysts, and border guards as they negotiate the practical responsibilities and social consequences of producing, policing, and deriving a livelihood across new international borders that are often encountered locally as “chessboards” rather than lines. She shows how the negotiation of state spatiality is bound up with concerns about legitimate rule and legitimate movement, and explores how new attempts to secure the border, materially and militarily, serve to generate new sources of lived insecurity in a context of enduring social and economic inter-dependence. A significant contribution to Central Asian studies, border studies, and the contemporary anthropology of the state, Border Work moves beyond traditional ethnographies of the borderland community to foreground the effortful and intensely political work of producing state space.

The Lotus Sutra is one of the central texts of Mahayana Buddhism, both studied and used as a devotional text in virtually all sects and schools of Buddhism throughout East Asia. Its teachings provide a basis for key Buddhist ideas such as Buddha nature, the bodhisattva way, skillful means, and the dharma teacher. Familiarity with it is essential for understanding Zen and other varieties of Buddhism originating in East Asia. Gene Reeves' new translation makes this important text more accessible and fascinating than ever. With over two decades of research and teaching under his belt, Reeves is considered by many the world’s foremost expert on the Lotus Sutra. This translation, a testament to his expertise, provides readers from vastly different backgrounds with the opportunity to understand and utilize the wisdom of this great text.