Co-edited by Alice Travers and Federica Venturi, the volume is now available in open access on Persée.
Alice Travers and Federica Venturi (eds), Buddhism and the Military in Tibet during the Ganden Phodrang period (1642-1959), Special issue of the Cahiers d’Extrême Asie, EFEO, vol. 27, 2018, 244 p.
The second collective volume of the TibArmy project has come out:
S.G. FitzHerbert and Alice Travers (eds), Asian Influences on Tibetan Military History between the 17th and 20th Centuries, Special Issue of the Revue d’Etudes Tibetaines, n°53, mars 2020, 367 p.
Revue d’Etudes Tibétaines
Numéro cinquante-trois – Mars 2020
Asian Influences on Tibetan Military History between the 17th and 20th Centuries
Schigatse, tibetisches Militär mit Dzong, Truppenparade (Shigatse, Tibetan Army with castle, military parade).
Alice Travers (CNRS, France), Ryosuke Kobayashi (Kyushu University, Japan), Federica Venturi (CNRS, France/ USA) are invited by UCLA Asia Pacific Center to a panel presentation which tackles the question of Buddhism and Violence in Asia through “The Case of the Military in Tibet during the Ganden Phodrang Period (1642 – 1959)”. The panel aims to examine the rapport between the Buddhist government of the Dalai Lama and its army from multiple viewpoints:
Alice Travers, CNRS, CRCAO: “TibArmy’s Recent Research Developments on the Theme of Buddhism and the Military in Tibet”
Ryosuke Kobayashi, Kyushu University: “Militarization of Dargyé Monastery: Contested Borders on the Sino-Tibetan Frontier during the Early Twentieth Century”
Federica Venturi, CNRS, CRCAO / UCLA: “His Holiness’ Army: Some examples from the Documents of the Fifth and Thirteenth Dalai Lamas”
The first collective volume of the TibArmy project has been published as a special issue of the Cahiers d’Extrême-Asie (EFEO, Paris) in July 2019. It is now available in open access on Persée.
Note on Transliteration and Transcription of Tibetan Terms
Introduction
Alice TRAVERS & Federica VENTURI
Le bouddhisme comme fin et moyens de l’armée du Ganden Phodrang : une introduction aux relations des sphères bouddhique et militaire au Tibet (1642-1959)
Buddhism, Both the Means and the End of the Ganden Phodrang Army: An Introduction to Buddhism vis-à-vis the Military in Tibet (1642–1959)
Contributions
Federica VENTURI: To Protect and to Serve: The Military in Tibet as Described by the Fifth Dalai Lama
Solomon G. FITZHERBERT: Rituals as War Propaganda in the Establishment of the Tibetan Ganden Phodrang State in the Mid-17th Century
Marlene ERSCHBAMER: Tibetan Troops Fighting the “Enemy of Buddhist Doctrine” (bstan dgra): The Invasions of the Gorkhas as Witnessed by Two Tibetan Masters of the Barawa (’Ba’ ra ba) Tradition
KOBAYASHI Ryōsuke 小林亮介: Militarisation of Dargyé Monastery: Contested Borders on the Sino-Tibetan Frontier during the Early Twentieth Century
Stacey VAN VLEET: Strength, Defence, and Victory in Battle: Tibetan Medical Institutions and the Ganden Phodrang Army, 1897–1938
Alice TRAVERS: Monk Officials as Military Officers in the Tibetan Ganden Phodrang Army (1895–1959)
Organised in the framework of the TibArmy project with the core team and invited participants, this panel studies the numerous wars fought by the Tibetan armies both in internal and international contexts during the Ganden Phodrang period. It seeks to document less-known armed conflicts and shed light on other better-known events through new sources, depicting how battles were then fought; it also analyses the role of wars, be they won or lost, as generating change on four levels: in the development of the Tibetan military institutions themselves; in the development of the Tibetan government; in the links between army and society; in international politics.
Chair: Alice Travers; Discussant: Tashi Tsering Josayma
8:30 Ryosuke Kobayashi, Alice Travers – Panel Introduction
8:40 Federica Venturi – The Fifth Dalai Lama and the Conflict with Bhutan in 1668
9:05 Yuri Komatsubara – Tibetan Policies during the First Sino-Gurkha War (1788-1789)
9:30 Dai Yingcong – The Gurkha Wars and the Shift of the Qing Tibetan Policy during the Qianlong-JiaqingTransition, 1780-1820
9:55 Jeannine Bischoff – Rewarding a Paid Sword – A 1904 Letter of Honour by the bka’ shag for Soldiers Who Fought the British Invaders
View of the Fortress of Anley, one of the main residences of Sengge Namgyal (1616-1623 / 1624-1642), on the border between Ladakh and Guge (photo by Quentin Devers, 2018)
Ladakh extends over a territory previously divided between the Tibetan and Central-Asian spheres. Because of this particular situation, a wide diversity of groups have inhabited the region: Dards, “Mons”, Turks, Tibetans, Mongols, etc. have left a rich array of archaeological remains for us to study all over the country. Its important mineral resources (gold, iron, copper, chrome) as well as international trade routes have attracted since times immemorial hordes of bandits and armies of all kinds, leading to the development of the densest defensive infrastructure of the Tibetan plateau. This seminar aims at covering the evolution of military architecture in the region, the differences between the fortresses of the numerous cultures represented , and how this diversity enabled the emergence of the famous fortified palaces of Ladakh – the architectural precursors of a number of the great palaces of the Ganden Phodrang such as the Potala.