Multispecies placemaking: Tibetan pastoralist perceptions of the <scp>COVID</scp> ‐19 pandemic

Abstract This ethnographic study examines Tibetan pastoralists' perceptions of the COVID‐19 pandemic in Pema Rito, Golok Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province, China, during the initial outbreak in 2020. Framed through the lens of multispecies placemaking, an approach that highlights the dynamic, co‐creative processes by which humans and non‐human beings (animals, plants, microorganisms, and viruses) collectively shape place, the study challenges traditional anthropocentric theories of space. Drawing on remote and in‐person interviews, the research reveals that pastoralists understood the pandemic not merely as a public health crisis but as an ecological and moral reconfiguration of place. For Pema Rito communities, COVID‐19 represented an anthropause that compelled them to renegotiate their relationships with the pastoral landscape, viruses, wildlife, and livestock. They interpreted the pandemic as karmic retribution for human exploitation of nature, reinforcing their commitment to wildlife conservation while advocating for physical distancing from wild species. Amid the crisis, pastoralists positioned their traditional lifeways as an optimal response to zoonotic and ecological disruptions. By analysing the pandemic through multispecies placemaking, this study demonstrates how crises reconfigure human–nonhuman entanglements, offering critical insights into resilience, ecological ethics, and post‐pandemic placemaking.