在1959年約有13,000位西藏人追隨達賴喇嘛流亡到印度，其後仍有許多西藏人陸續翻越喜馬拉雅山，到達印度、尼泊爾、錫金、不丹等西藏鄰國，尋求政治庇護，成爲流亡的政治難民。在流亡印度屆滿50年當中，流亡藏人透過集體的努力找到在印度安身立命所在，建立了一個自給自足的流亡經濟典範，其中季節性的毛衣貿易生意成爲他們在印度維生的重要經濟活動。從事毛衣貿易必須離開藏人定居點到印度人所在的城市長達數月之久，建立市場並必須在個別販賣所在地成立毛衣協會，執行與印度地方政府交涉的任務，提供藏人毛衣商互助的組織，此外更集體發展出價格策略與經營紀律的作用，使得流亡藏人能夠以公平合作的方式維持市場運作，而不會產生因彼此競爭而危及共同利益的結果，所表現出來的是集體實作所展現的「道德經濟」。根據在印度各城市所蒐集的藏人毛衣市場與協會的田野調查與訪談資料，呈現一個族群如何在流離的處境中發展出「社會性」、「道德性」的經濟過程，維持族群的集體生計行動，同時展現了道德經濟的發展機制。

More than 100,000 Tibetans followed the Dalai Lama, who fled Tibet in the 1959, have settled in India where they have been for a half century now. The core of the Tibetan exile economy consists of its informal sector, the sweater-selling business which requires that Tibetan exiles travel with their family members to different Indian cities and towns to sell woolens. The competition between exiles selling similar products may have engendered fatal effects on ethnic solidarity, but sweater sellers have managed to avert this outcome. This study demonstrates how exiled Tibetans in India have developed various measures to deal with the problems of individual self-interests by averaging profits within each market. Thus, Tibetan sweater-sellers have learned to survive while creating a model for a moral economy.