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The Circulation of Estates in Tibet: Reincarnation, Land and Politics1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2011

Melvyn C. Goldstein
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Abstract

One of the most salient features of traditional political life in Tibet was the intense and pervasive competition for power and prestige that took place within the ranks of the politically relevant, particularly within the aristocratic lay-official segment of the government. Plots, disputes, and confiscations were key elements in the dynamics of the system. Although this competition appears, synchronically, to be part of a stable circular process, when the Tibetan political system is viewed diachronically, the apparent stability is seen to be part of a larger, ongoing process of change. Thus, while it is possible to analyze the “structure” of this competition from a synchronic point of view, a diachronic perspective is necessary to understand the forces which have generated it, as well as the overall nature of the system.

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Articles
Information
The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 32 , Issue 3 , May 1973 , pp. 445 - 455
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1973

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References

2Richardson, Hugh, ‘A Short History of Tibet (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1962) 52.Google Scholar

3 Transcription follows the system described in Wylie, T. V., “A Standard System of Tibetan Transcription,” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, 22, 1959.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

4 The parents of the candidates suspect only that their son is being considered for one of the numerous lesser incarnation lines. The fourteenth Dalai Lama gives an excellent account of this selection procedure in his autobiography Dalai Lama, My Land and My People (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1962, pp. 20–25).Google Scholar

5 The National Assembly was really the platform for the great Gclugpa monasteries.

6 This is, of course, the author's “outsider” point of view. Tibetans consider the selection of the correct child to be a matter of great consequence. It should also be noted with respect to the use of lotteries, that H. E. Richardson (personal communication) contends that even when the Manchu Emperor ordered the use of the lottery method the candidate chosen was invariably the one the Tibetans had already decided upon. In any case, my point is simply that for the system to work it made little difference who was selected so long as he was selected in the “proper” manner.

7Pctech, L., China and Tibet in the Early 18th Century. (Leiden: Brill, 1950).Google Scholar

* The eighth Dalai Lama was very otherwordly and the Regent was kept even though he reached majority age. The Regent actually ruled during his reign.

** Shatra was a Council Minister who, in the confusion of the coup of 1862, was charged with restoring order by the Manchu Amban and confirmed by the Emperor. This was an exceptional situation, and on his death in 1864, a high Lama was again selected.

8 “Lhasa's New Look,” Peking Review, Vol. 41, 1971, p. 12.Google Scholar

9Peter, Prince. The Aristocracy of Central Tibet (Kalimpong, 1954) lists 205 families including about 50 Tashilhunpo aristocratic families.Google Scholar

10 Merger-marriages with other families accounts for the discrepancy.

11Carrasco, Pedro. Land and Polity in Tibet (Seattle; University of Washington Press, 1959). p. 86.Google Scholar

12Goldstein, See M., “Taxation and the Structure of a Tibetan Village,” Central Asiatic Journal, Vol. XV, No. 1, 1971, pp. 1–27, and “Serfdom and Mobility: An Examination of the Institution of ‘Human Lease’ in Traditional Tibetan Society,” journal of Asian Studies, Vol. xxx, No. 3, 1971 pp. 521–534 for a discussion of these serfs.Google Scholar

13Taring, R. D., Daughter of Tibet (London: Murray, John, 1970), p. 6.Google Scholar