Category Archives: Events

A visual history of the army, Events, Home, Others, Paris

Exposition “L’ armée tibétaine en vues : photographies historiques (1895-1959)”

L’ exposition itinérante “L’ armée tibétaine en vues : photographies historiques (1895-1959)”, organisée par Alice Travers (commissaire scientifique) et Estelle Car (commissaire technique) dans le cadre du projet TibArmy, sera présentée en version bilingue français-anglais (avec un livret de visite en tibétain) dans la salle d’exposition “L’Interface” de l’Humathèque au Campus Condorcet (Aubervilliers – Grand Paris, métro  Front Populaire)  du 15 décembre 2022 au 10 février 2023 (du lundi au vendredi de 8h à 19h).

Le vernissage de l’exposition aura lieu le jeudi 15 décembre 2022 à partir de 18h00, en partenariat avec la Société Française d’Études du Monde Tibétain.

Il sera précédé d’un atelier introductif (programme) qui se tiendra  entre 16h00 et 17h45 à l’Auditorium de l’Humathèque, avec des interventions de la commissaire scientifique (Alice Travers) et des deux conseillers curatoriaux et éditoriaux de l’exposition (Emma Martin et Donald La Rocca).

En marge de l’ exposition, un Cycle de conférences intitulé “Archives photographiques pour la recherche en science humaines sur le monde Tibétain” se tiendra tous les jeudis du mois de janvier (programme).

Des visites guidées de l’exposition par Alice Travers sont proposées les jeudis 12 janvier à 16h00 et 26 janvier à 14h30. RDV dans le hall d’entrée de l’Humathèque.

L’Humathèque, 10 Cours des Humanités, 93322 Aubervilliers
(Ligne de métro : 12 / Station : Front Populaire)

L’ exposition est accompagnée d’une publication :

Alice Travers. 2022. Marching into View: The Tibetan Army in Historic Photographs 1895–1959. Potsdam: edition-tethys, coll. Wissenschaft/Science vol. 5, 209 p.

Plan d’accès

A visual history of the army, Conference, Events, Home, Paris

CYCLE DE CONFERENCES / Archives photographiques du monde tibétain pour la recherche en sciences humaines

Organisé tous les jeudis du mois de janvier 2023, pour accompagner l’exposition “L’armée tibétaine en vues : photographies historiques (1895-1959)”

à l’Auditorium de l’Humathèque

Campus Condorcet – 10 Cours des Humanités – 93322 Aubervilliers (métro : Front Populaire)

Jeudi 5 janvier 2023, 17h30 à 19h00 (CET)

Pr. Clare HARRIS FBA (School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography and the Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford)

Unpacking and Animating the Archive: Some reflections on ways of working with Tibet photographs

Format hybride/ Also on Zoom 

Jeudi 12 janvier 2023, 17h00 à 18h30

Pr. Fernand MEYER (Centre d’Études Himalayennes) et Rémi CHAIX (Centre d’Études Himalayennes)

Fonds perdus ou archives visuelles pour la recherche en anthropologie sur le monde tibétain ?
À travers l’exemple de la documentation photographique produite par C. Jest (1930-2019)

La conférence de Kunsang Namgyal Lama initialement prévue le jeudi 19 janvier est déplacée au 26 janvier à 15h30 en raison du mouvement social annoncé.

Jeudi 26 janvier 2023, 15h30 à 17h00

Kunsang NAMGYAL LAMA (Centre d’Études Himalayennes)

La documentation photographique dans la pratique de l’historien de l’art du monde tibétain

En présentiel

Jeudi 26 janvier 2023, 17h00 à 18h30

Samuel THÉVOZ (THALIM)

« Une infinité d’images » ? Visions du Tibet et usages du médium photographique au début du XXe siècle (à partir des fonds d’archives de Jacques Bacot et d’Alexandra David-Neel)

Format hybride / Also online

Télécharger le programme du cycle de conférences

Des visites guidées de l’exposition d’une durée de 30 mn par Alice Travers sont proposées les jeudis 12 janvier à 16h00 et 26 janvier à 14h30. RDV dans le hall d’entrée de l’Humathèque.

Plan d’accès

Home, Paris, Years 2020 - 2022

Atelier introductif

Le jeudi 15 décembre 2022, à l’occasion de l’inauguration de l’exposition “L’armée tibétaine en vues : photographies historiques (1895-1959)”, un atelier introductif se tiendra à partir de 16h00 à l’Auditorium de l’Humathèque.

Programme

16h00-16h30
Donald La Rocca (Metropolitan Museum of Arts, New-York) :
Seventeenth-Century Tibetan Warriors in Twentieth-Century Photographs (en anglais)

16h30-17h00
Emma Martin (University of Manchester) :
Methods and approach to colonial photographs: a curator’s perspective (en anglais)

17h00-17h15 Pause

17h15-17h45
Alice Travers (CNRS, CRCAO) :
Les archives photographiques et la culture matérielle de l’armée tibétaine : présentation de l’exposition (en français)

L’atelier sera suivi du vernissage de l’exposition à 18h00 (L’Interface, Humathèque).

A visual history of the army, Dharamsala, Events, Home

“Marching into View: the Tibetan Army in Historic Photographs 1895 – 1959” shown in Dharamsala

Our travelling exhibition, Marching into View :  The Tibetan Army in Historic Photographs (1895 – 1959) on the material culture (uniforms, insignia, flags) of the Tibetan army is being presented at the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives (LTWA) in Dharamsala (India) from 24.10.2022 until 11.11.2022.

The venue of the exhibition is the Sager Science Center (3rd floor).

See also the book published in conjunction with the exhibition:

Alice Travers. 2022. Marching into View: The Tibetan Army in Historic Photographs 1895–1959. Potsdam: edition-tethys, coll. Wissenschaft/Science vol. 5, 209 p.

Pictures taken by Tenzin Kunsang (Library of Tibetan Works and Archives)
Events, Home, Talk

TALK / Martial Symbolic “Arsenal” in a Buddhist Country: Military Flags and Insignia in Tibet in the First Half of the 20th Century

Alice Travers, principal investigator of the TibArmy ERC project gave a talk on Thursday 29  September 2022 at the occasion of the annual business meeting of the Société Asiatique (French Asiatic Society).

The annual business meeting took place at the Institut des Civilisations du Collège de France, 52 rue du Cardinal Lemoine, Paris 5 from 15.30.

Alice Travers presented on the following subject: “Martial Symbolic “Arsenal” in a Buddhist Country: Military Flags and Insignia in Tibet in the First Half of the 20th Century”.

The conference was given in French.

Abstract in French / Résumé :

L’armée permanente du Ganden Phodrang – le gouvernement des Dalaï-lamas basé à Lhasa – a connu pendant la première moitié du XXe siècle des changements fréquents d’uniforme, reflet non seulement de la modernisation et de la professionnalisation des troupes, mais aussi des ruptures importantes survenues dans la vie politique, avec les recours successifs à différents modèles militaires extérieurs (notamment sino-mandchou, japonais et britannique). Dans le même temps, les emblèmes de l’armée tibétaine, autre composante de sa culture matérielle, ont connu au contraire une continuité historique notable. Une symbolique principalement bouddhique, mais aussi séculière puisant ses racines dans la période de l’Empire tibétain, VIIe-IXe siècles, se déploie sur les drapeaux et étendards ainsi que les insignes et médailles des soldats et officiers, manifestant clairement leur fonction de défense d’un gouvernement bouddhique. Ces emblèmes ne sont que peu décrits dans les sources historiques écrites, mais ils sont accessibles grâce à un riche ensemble d’archives photographiques. Cette présentation vise, d’une part, à analyser le répertoire de symboles religieux et séculiers utilisé par l’armée tibétaine dans ses emblèmes sous les règnes des Treizième et Quatorzième Dalaï-lamas (1895-1959) ; d’autre part, à mettre en lumière la façon dont les sources historiques visuelles viennent renouveler notre compréhension de l’histoire de la culture matérielle militaire au Tibet.

A visual history of the army, Events, Home, Prague

Exhibition / Marching into View : The Tibetan Army in Historic Photographs (1895 – 1959)

This exhibition of archival photographs focusses on the material culture (uniforms, insignia, flags) of the Tibetan army from 1895 to 1959, the last historical period of the Buddhist government of the Dalai Lamas known as the Ganden Phodrang. It shows how the Tibetan soldiers (both militia and regular troops) became progressively more visible in photographs during this period of time and how the various changes in the external appearance of the regular troops mirror the evolution of Tibet’s internal and international politics.

The exhibition took place during the 16th IATS Seminar at the Faculty of Arts – Charles University in Prague (Czech Republic) from 3.7.2022 to 9.7.2022.

A few pictures taken during the 16th IATS in Prague. Photos: Hervé Chatel
Emma Martin, Curatorial Advisor and Alice Travers, Curator of the exhibition

See also the book published in conjunction with the exhibition:

Alice Travers. 2022. Marching into View: The Tibetan Army in Historic Photographs 1895–1959. Potsdam: edition-tethys, coll. Wissenschaft/Science vol. 5, 209 p.

Conference, Events, Home, Others, TibArmy Monthly Seminar, TibArmy Seminar Cycle, Years 2020 - 2022

Book presentation: “Conflict in a Buddhist Society: Tibet under the Dalai Lamas”

Thursday 9 December 2021 – 5:30 pm –7:00 pm

Peter Schwieger (University of Bonn) presented his book “Conflict in a Buddhist Society: Tibet under the Dalai Lamas”

The presentation is now available online (see below).

Conflict in a Buddhist Society presents a new way of looking at Tibet under the rule of the Dalai Lamas (1642–1959). Although this era can be clearly delineated as a distinct period in the history of Tibet, many questions remain concerning the specific form of rule established. Author Peter Schwieger attempts to make transparent the complexity and dynamics of the Dalai Lamas’ domination using the work of sociologist Niklas Luhman (1927–1998) as his theoretical starting point. Luhman’s systems theory allows Schwieger to approach Tibetan history and culture as a remarkable effort to create—under times of great conflict and stress and using uncommon means—a stable social and political order. Such a methodology provides the distance needed to move beyond event-based narrative history and understand the structures that made social action possible in Tibet and the operations by which its society as a whole distinguished itself from its environment.

Schwieger begins by asking the crucial question of how Tibet’s society dealt with conflict. The chapters that follow answer this question from various perspectives: history and memory; domination; hierarchy; center and periphery; semantics; morality and ethics; ritual; law; and war. Each reveals a different avenue for cross-cutting discourses in the historical and social sciences. Together, they provide a comprehensive picture of how conflicts were portrayed in Tibet society and how the manner in which they were handled stabilized the country for a considerable time but were ultimately unsuccessful in the face of radical upheavals in its environment.

Situated at the intersection of systems theory, conflict theory, and Tibetan/Inner Asian history and society, Conflict in a Buddhist Society will be of considerable interest to students and scholars in these areas. Its theoretical rather than narrative-descriptive approach to the history of the three centuries of Dalai Lama rule will be welcomed as wide-ranging and insightful.

View the presentation in full screen mode

Conference, Events, Home, Years 2020 - 2022

PANEL CONFERENCE AT UCLA: BUDDHISM AND VIOLENCE IN ASIA

November 1st 2019, 14.00-16.00, conference by Alice Travers, Ryosuke Kobayashi and Federica Venturi, Charles E. Young Research Library Presentation Room UCLA

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”

To read more about the panel conference:
https://www.international.ucla.edu/apc/centralasia/event/13955

Events, Home

IATS 2019 – TibArmy Panel

Wed. 10 July 2019, 8.30-12.40

Venue

Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales – 65 rue des Grands Moulins – 75013 Paris

Room 3.15

Website of the IATS

Download the IATS programme

The Many Wars of the Ganden Phodrang (1642-1959)

Download the panel’s programme and abstracts

Panel organizers:

Dr Ryosuke Kobayashi, Kyushu University, Japan

Dr Alice Travers, CNRS, CRCAO, France

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

10:20 Coffee break

Chair: Ryosuke Kobayashi; Discussant: Tashi Tsering Josayma

10:50 Federica Venturi – Presentation of the TibArmy project: A Timeline of Wars during the Ganden Phodrang Period

11:00 Ryosuke Kobayashi – The Ganden Phodrang Army and the Sino-Tibetan Border Conflict in 1918

11:25 Alice Travers – Borders’ Defence at Wartime: the Role of Local Militia (yul dmag) and Border Guards (sa srung) in the Early 20th Century

11:50 Alex Raymond – The Battle of Chamdo (October 1950)

12:15 Discussion

12:40 Lunch

—

Around 60 people came to the TibArmy panel on 10 July 2019:

  • Ryosuke Kobayashi, Kyushu University, Japan & Alice Travers, CNRS, CRCAO, France
  • Federica Venturi, CNRS, CRCAO, France
  • Ryosuke Kobayashi, Kyushu University, Japan
  • Yuri Komatsubara, Meiji University, Japan
  • During the panel
  • Yingcong Dai, William Paterson University, USA
  • Alice Travers, CNRS, CRCAO
  • During the panel
Events, Home, TibArmy Monthly Seminar, TibArmy Seminar Cycle

Seminar cycle: The fortresses of Ladakh: evolution of a defensive infrastructure at the interface between the Tibetan and Central-Asian spheres

Conference by Quentin Devers, Wednesday 19 June 2019, 5.30- 7.00 PM, INALCO (room 3.11)

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.

To see more about the archaeology of Ladakh: instagram.com/ladakharchaeology

Events, Home, TibArmy Monthly Seminar, TibArmy Seminar Cycle

SEMINAR CYCLE: Une étude historiographique de la reddition de l’armée chinoise du Tibet en 1912

Conference by Fabienne Jagou, Wednesday 20 March 2019, 5.30- 7.00 PM, INALCO (room 3.11)



“Chinese troops”, Photography by Henry Martin, copyright Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford (1998.293.129)

Les sources tibétaines, britanniques et chinoises donnent à voir les différentes étapes de la capitulation des troupes chinoises stationnées au Tibet. Elles permettent de suivre le déroulement des événements : la mutinerie à Lhasa, les négociations entre les gouvernements britannique et chinois et la narration des difficultés rencontrées tout au long du trajet de retour vers la Chine. De registres différents, elles invitent à réfléchir sur les interprétations et les priorités que chacune des parties privilégie et à discuter de la potentialité d’écrire une histoire à parts égales de la reddition des troupes chinoises du Tibet.

Events, Home, TibArmy Seminar Cycle

SEMINAR CYCLE: The Rise and Fall of Guandi, the Chinese God of War, in Tibetan Buddhism

December 12th, 18.00-19.30, conference by George FitzHerbert, INALCO (Room 3.04).

“A late 18th century thangka of Tibetanised Guanyu (Kwan lo ye/ Sprin ring rgyal po)” Credit: Himalyan Art Resources item no. 88591

Under the Dalai Lamas’ government of Tibet (1642-1959) the avowed aim of politics was to serve religion. But sometimes it was religion that served politics. Based on a voluminous Tibetan-language literature (much of it ritual texts), this talk will look at the manner in which Guandi, the Chinese god of war, was incorporated into the pantheon of Tibetan Buddhist protectors during the 18th and 19th century. It will show how this development in the religious/literary sphere, which was led by (mostly Mongolian) Geluk lamas with links to the imperial court, closely mirrored the various stages in the establishment and consolidation of a Qing Protectorate in Tibet and the presence of Chinese military garrisons there. The talk will also try to show that as Qing military power weakened during the second half of the 19th century, the identity of Guandi and the temples devoted to him in Inner Asia, became increasingly overgrown and obscured by his superscription as a completely different figure, namely Gesar Gyalpo/ Geser Khan, the eponymous hero of Tibetan and Mongolian epic traditions.  By the time of Tibet’s independence (1913-1951), the identity of Guandi and the temples originally devoted to him in Tibet, had been all but forgotten.

Events, Home

Defense and Offense: A Workshop on Armour and Weapons in Tibetan Culture

November 29th, 09.30-17.00

Download the updated programme as of November 27th.

Download the abstracts

Venue (changed as of November 26th): 

Ecole normale supérieure, Bâtiment Jaurès – Room 236 – 2nd floor Access from 24 rue Lhomond, 75005 Paris. Download the map of the premises.

Registration:

The conference is open but registration is mandatory. Registration deadline is extended to Wednesday 28 November 14.00: register via our online platform.

Events, Home, TibArmy Seminar Cycle

SEMINAR CYCLE: The Bodyguard regiment (Ka dang sku srung dmag sgar) of the Ganden Phodrang army

November 15th, 16.30-18.00, conference by Alice Travers, La Maison de l’Asie (4th floor).

Photo caption: The Bodyguard / Ka dang sku srung regiment (between 1948 and 1950). © Ethnographic Museum at the University of Zurich. Inv.no. VMZ 400.07.50.012 / Photo: Heinrich Harrer, “Soldaten bei der Truppenrekrutierung”

The Bodyguard regiment (Tib. Ka dang sku srung dmag sgar) was created by the 13th Dalai lama around 1913-1914 and dissolved, with the rest of the remaining Tibetan troops, in 1959 after the 14th Dalai Lama’s flight into exile. When started, it was the first regiment (regiments were named in alphabetical order, hence “Ka”) in the newly organised and numerically increased army. It complemented the former Ganden Phodrang force of 3000 Tibetan soldiers, called “rgya sbyong” (lit. “trained by the Chinese”) at least since the end of the 18th century.

This paper will present a first attempt at a historical study of the Bodyguard regiment, based on an ensemble of Tibetan oral and written autobiographical accounts (notably some thirty-five interviews with Tibetan soldiers who served before 1959 in the Bodyguard regiment, and five book-length and article-length accounts of the Tibetan Bodyguard regiment’s officers published in the Tibet Autonomous Region and in India), as well as on British archival sources. Beyond the study of its organisation, its social composition and development over its period of existence, the presentation will particularly underline how this regiment was conceived as a showcase of the project of military modernisation launched by the 13th Dalai lama, functioning as a “model regiment” for the other permanent Tibetan troops, while retaining certain specificities related to its primary – and highly prestigious – role as the personal bodyguard to the Ganden Phodrang government’s ruler.

Events, Home, TibArmy Seminar Cycle

Seminar cycle: Tibetan Sources for the Study of the Ganden Phodrang’s Military History – the State Library of Berlin’s Collection of Legal Documents from South-Western Tibet

detail of Hs.or.6697, a public proclamation concerning the renovation of the military headquarter-cum-court of Dingri (Ding-ri sPyi-mda’ ya-mon)

October 17th, 18.00-19.30, conference by Hanna Schneider, INALCO (room 3.04).

The state library of Berlin (Staatsbibliothek Preußischer Kulturbesitz zu Berlin) is in possession of a collection of 320 legal documents from south-western Tibet, primary sources for the study of the region‘s cultural, religious, social and military history that cover the time range between the beginning of the 18th century and the early aftermath of the Ganden Phobrang era, i.e., the early sixties of the 20th century.

Given the longstanding strategic importance of Tibet‘s border with Nepal, it comes without surprise that a considerable part of these documents directly relate to issues of military purport, with a clear focus on the three aspects of military administration, maintenance and defence.

Above all, these documents deal with and respond to the changing tides of Tibet‘s history during  and after the two Gorkha wars (1788-1792; 1855-1856) in the first place. Both events triggered far reaching consequences that e.g. led to the reinforcement of troops, the upgrading of the military prefecture of south-western Tibet with its headquarters at Ding-ri, and the systematic development of new settlements and arable lands in order to strenghten the human and agricultural resources in times of war and peace.

This collection grants valuable first hand insights into the various aspects of Tibetan military history of the time and place: the role of the key players – the Tibetan government with its central and provincial branches, e.g., the Khashag or council of ministers, the military prefecture of Dingri (Ding-ri sPyi-mda‘ khang) and the monastery and rDzong of Shel-dkar; the role and involvement of Ch‘ing authority within these levels of Tibetan bureaucracy and within the borderland defence, the administration and maintenance of the troops and their garrisons, the role of the local people within the military administration as well as within the service and tax system; documents such as a certified copy of the 10 points Nepal-Tibet treaty of 1856, sources covering the border security at the strategically important border crossing at Rong-shar, and documents dealing with reconnaissance-cum-security issues across the high ranges of the highest mountains of our planet, down to an undertaking for the restoration of and a receipt for the timely delivery of fire wood to the military headquarter at Ding-ri in the height of winter…