Karl Ryavec
Biographic Data
| ID | 5142955 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Karl Ryavec |
| GIVEN NAMES | Karl |
| FAMILY NAME | Ryavec |
| SIGNATURE | RYAVEC K |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of California, Merced |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-5691-2135 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 13 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 17 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 13 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1993 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Monastic Architectural Reconstruction From a 1962 U-2 Air Photo of Nartang in Central Tibet
In the mid-20th century, United States U-2 Spy Planes flew over Central Tibet and captured high-resolution aerial photographs of Tibetan Buddhist monasteries just before they were destroyed en masse during China’s Cultural Revolution ca. 1966-76. This paper presents a cross-disciplinary study that uses Frame 2646R from U-2 Mission G3203 as the foundation for a 3D reconstruction of the Monastery. The methodology combines shadow analysis, satellite…
Viewsheds of cubic mountaintop tombs in Upper Tibet (Zhang Zhung)
Cubic tombs once interred high priests of the ancient, pre-Buddhist Bon religion atop seemingly isolated hills and mountains in Upper Tibet. These tombs were constructed in and around the time of the semi-mythical Zhang Zhung kingdom. While there are good reasons to believe the tombs were intended to primarily serve the interred, the locations of the tombs are conspicuously accessible and potentially visible from afar suggesting broader spatial a…
"Research Report—"Mapping Political Economies Over Time
This study documents an ongoing project compiling and publishing open access Historical GIS manuals, and associated datasets, for teaching the Regional Systems approach to mapping historical world economies to undergraduate and graduate students with no prior knowledge of GIS. Regional Systems Theory was pioneered by the anthropologist G. W. Skinner (lived 1925-2008) to map and measure the effects of economic systems on social and cultural proces…
A Core-Periphery GIS Model of the Historical Growth and Spread of Islam in China
This study presents the methodology and results of a core-periphery GIS model of the historical growth and spread of Islam in China based on a dataset of 1,774 mosques. These sites were organized into data subsets according to their founding dates during five major dynastic periods in Chinese history: Tang/Song, Yuan, Ming, Qing, and Republican. Core areas were identified and mapped based on where mosques clustered during each period. North China…
A Historical Atlas of Tibet
Cradled among the world's highest mountains - and sheltering one of its most devout religious communities - Tibet is, for many of us, an ultimate destination, a place that touches the heavens, a place only barely in our world, at its very end. In recent decades Western fascination with Tibet has soared, from the rise of Tibetan studies in academia to the rock concerts aimed at supporting its independence to the simple fact that most of us know - …
The New Geographical History
This response by Peter Bol to my earlier article ‘Manchu Empire or China Historical GIS?’ presents a welcome admission of the China Historical Geographic Information System’s Sinocentric depiction of Inner Asian polities not part of China during the Qing period, though at times loosely included in a greater Chinese empire or claimed by Manchu rulers.With this clarification, I thank Bol for his forthrightness. Bol’s subsequent critique of my artic…
Manchu Empire or China Historical GIS? Re-mapping the China/Inner Asia Frontier in the Qing Period CHGIS
This study critiques the China Historical Geographic Information System in terms of its failure to distinguish between regions of Chinese civilisation that were directly incorporated into an imperial field administration and Inner Asian regions under indigenous polities. Although the focus of this study is on eastern Tibet, specifically China's southwestern Tibetan Frontier in Sichuan, the general methodological approach employed is relevant to t…
Land use/cover change in central Tibet, c . 1830–1990
In this study, historical Tibetan tax‐related data pertaining to cultivated land in central Tibet are studied by means of GIS and compared with contemporary patterns. A Tibetan land decree from 1830 contains aggregated data on the amount of land‐based tax units for estates in 57 districts of central Tibet. The purpose of this study is to devise a GIS methodology to study the potential utility of these data for historical geographical research, an…
Research Note
Population and rangelands in Central Tibet
Lamas, Princes, and brigands
The Present-day Value of Maps Illustrating the Archaeological Surveys of Sir Aurel Stein in Xinjiang and Gansu
The maps illustrating the archaeological surveys of Sir Aurel Stein's Central Asian expeditions remain to this day the most authoritative map series concerning the location of archaeological monuments in the Tarim Basin and Gansu Corridor of western China. The aim of this article is to evaluate the present-day value of Stein's maps for both relocating known ancient sites and attempting to locate additional sites on more recent maps. Figure i of t…
Award Recipients
The legacy
A Historical Atlas of Tibet
Cradled among the world's highest mountains - and sheltering one of its most devout religious communities - Tibet is, for many of us, an ultimate destination, a place that touches the heavens, a place only barely in our world, at its very end. In recent decades Western fascination with Tibet has soared, from the rise of Tibetan studies in academia to the rock concerts aimed at supporting its independence to the simple fact that most of us know - …
A Core-Periphery GIS Model of the Historical Growth and Spread of Islam in China
This study presents the methodology and results of a core-periphery GIS model of the historical growth and spread of Islam in China based on a dataset of 1,774 mosques. These sites were organized into data subsets according to their founding dates during five major dynastic periods in Chinese history: Tang/Song, Yuan, Ming, Qing, and Republican. Core areas were identified and mapped based on where mosques clustered during each period. North China…
Land use/cover change in central Tibet, c . 1830–1990
In this study, historical Tibetan tax‐related data pertaining to cultivated land in central Tibet are studied by means of GIS and compared with contemporary patterns. A Tibetan land decree from 1830 contains aggregated data on the amount of land‐based tax units for estates in 57 districts of central Tibet. The purpose of this study is to devise a GIS methodology to study the potential utility of these data for historical geographical research, an…
Research Note
"Research Report—"Mapping Political Economies Over Time
This study documents an ongoing project compiling and publishing open access Historical GIS manuals, and associated datasets, for teaching the Regional Systems approach to mapping historical world economies to undergraduate and graduate students with no prior knowledge of GIS. Regional Systems Theory was pioneered by the anthropologist G. W. Skinner (lived 1925-2008) to map and measure the effects of economic systems on social and cultural proces…
Lamas, Princes, and brigands
The Present-day Value of Maps Illustrating the Archaeological Surveys of Sir Aurel Stein in Xinjiang and Gansu
The maps illustrating the archaeological surveys of Sir Aurel Stein's Central Asian expeditions remain to this day the most authoritative map series concerning the location of archaeological monuments in the Tarim Basin and Gansu Corridor of western China. The aim of this article is to evaluate the present-day value of Stein's maps for both relocating known ancient sites and attempting to locate additional sites on more recent maps. Figure i of t…
Award Recipients
The legacy
Population and rangelands in Central Tibet
Research Note
Land use/cover change in central Tibet, c . 1830–1990
In this study, historical Tibetan tax‐related data pertaining to cultivated land in central Tibet are studied by means of GIS and compared with contemporary patterns. A Tibetan land decree from 1830 contains aggregated data on the amount of land‐based tax units for estates in 57 districts of central Tibet. The purpose of this study is to devise a GIS methodology to study the potential utility of these data for historical geographical research, an…
Manchu Empire or China Historical GIS? Re-mapping the China/Inner Asia Frontier in the Qing Period CHGIS
This study critiques the China Historical Geographic Information System in terms of its failure to distinguish between regions of Chinese civilisation that were directly incorporated into an imperial field administration and Inner Asian regions under indigenous polities. Although the focus of this study is on eastern Tibet, specifically China's southwestern Tibetan Frontier in Sichuan, the general methodological approach employed is relevant to t…
The New Geographical History
This response by Peter Bol to my earlier article ‘Manchu Empire or China Historical GIS?’ presents a welcome admission of the China Historical Geographic Information System’s Sinocentric depiction of Inner Asian polities not part of China during the Qing period, though at times loosely included in a greater Chinese empire or claimed by Manchu rulers.With this clarification, I thank Bol for his forthrightness. Bol’s subsequent critique of my artic…
A Core-Periphery GIS Model of the Historical Growth and Spread of Islam in China
This study presents the methodology and results of a core-periphery GIS model of the historical growth and spread of Islam in China based on a dataset of 1,774 mosques. These sites were organized into data subsets according to their founding dates during five major dynastic periods in Chinese history: Tang/Song, Yuan, Ming, Qing, and Republican. Core areas were identified and mapped based on where mosques clustered during each period. North China…
A Historical Atlas of Tibet
Cradled among the world's highest mountains - and sheltering one of its most devout religious communities - Tibet is, for many of us, an ultimate destination, a place that touches the heavens, a place only barely in our world, at its very end. In recent decades Western fascination with Tibet has soared, from the rise of Tibetan studies in academia to the rock concerts aimed at supporting its independence to the simple fact that most of us know - …
"Research Report—"Mapping Political Economies Over Time
This study documents an ongoing project compiling and publishing open access Historical GIS manuals, and associated datasets, for teaching the Regional Systems approach to mapping historical world economies to undergraduate and graduate students with no prior knowledge of GIS. Regional Systems Theory was pioneered by the anthropologist G. W. Skinner (lived 1925-2008) to map and measure the effects of economic systems on social and cultural proces…
Viewsheds of cubic mountaintop tombs in Upper Tibet (Zhang Zhung)
Cubic tombs once interred high priests of the ancient, pre-Buddhist Bon religion atop seemingly isolated hills and mountains in Upper Tibet. These tombs were constructed in and around the time of the semi-mythical Zhang Zhung kingdom. While there are good reasons to believe the tombs were intended to primarily serve the interred, the locations of the tombs are conspicuously accessible and potentially visible from afar suggesting broader spatial a…
Monastic Architectural Reconstruction From a 1962 U-2 Air Photo of Nartang in Central Tibet
In the mid-20th century, United States U-2 Spy Planes flew over Central Tibet and captured high-resolution aerial photographs of Tibetan Buddhist monasteries just before they were destroyed en masse during China’s Cultural Revolution ca. 1966-76. This paper presents a cross-disciplinary study that uses Frame 2646R from U-2 Mission G3203 as the foundation for a 3D reconstruction of the Monastery. The methodology combines shadow analysis, satellite…
Geography (11 works) · Archaeology (9 works) · China (8 works) · History (7 works) · Ancient history (6 works) · History (6 works) · Art (4 works) · Cartography (4 works) · Chinese history and philosophy (4 works) · Buddhism (3 works)