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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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…
Wednesday 17 October 2018 (18.00 – 19.30 PM), INALCO (room 3.04): Hanna Schneider (Erwin Schneider Archive Lech a/A), “Tibetan Primary Sources for the Study of the Ganden Phodrang’s Military History. The State Library of Berlin (Staatsbibliothek Preußischer Kulturbesitz zu Berlin)’s Collection of Legal Documents from South-Western Tibet”
Thursday 15 November 2018 (16.30 – 18.00 PM), Maison de l’Asie (room on the 4th floor): Alice Travers (CNRS, CRCAO), “The Bodyguard Regiment (Ka dang sku srung dmag sgar) of the Ganden Phodrang Army”
Wednesday 12 December 2018 (18.00 – 19.30 PM), INALCO (room 3.04): George FitzHerbert (CNRS, CRCAO), “The Rise and Fall of Guandi, the Chinese God of War, in Tibetan Buddhism”
The conference “Military Culture in Tibet during the Ganden Phodrang Period (1642-1959): The Interaction between Tibetan and Other Asian Military Traditions” is the second conference organised in the context of the TibArmy project.
You can download the programme and the abstracts here.
The conference is open but registration is mandatory. You have until Wednesday 13th, June to register via our online platform. Seats are limited and will be attributed on a first come first serve basis.
In the Earth-Tiger year of 1938, as Tibetans in Lhasa awaited the arrival of the young Fourteenth Dalai Lama, the Mentsikhang (Institute of Medicine and Astrology, founded in 1916) welcomed its third batch of students. At the request of the Kashak ministers, these young students were recruited mainly from ten regiments of the Tibetan army – unlike the first two batches who had come from monastic and medical family-lineage backgrounds. The formation of a Tibetan army medical corps represents the culmination of a long historical relationship between medical and military institutions in Tibetan Buddhist regions. This relationship predated British and other foreign models, and developed particularly within Gelukpa monastic medical colleges (sman pa grwa tshang) during the period of Qing Empire (1644-1911). This talk will situate the training and service of the Tibetan army’s medical corps within the politics of early twentieth-century Lhasa. It will consider the broad scope of physicians’ military duties, from treatments for wounds and broken bones to alchemical precious pills to divination aiding the course of a battle. It will argue that medical technologies supported Tibetan Buddhist governance not just through benevolent care for the populace, but also to aid in its empowerment and defense.
Les sources textuelles tibétaines pré-modernes font rarement, si ce n’est jamais, mention de la présence de médecins accompagnant les corps d’armée tibétains. Les biographies de médecins tibétains célèbres parvenues jusqu’à nous semblent également ignorer cette activité. Toutefois le Quadruple Traité comprend plusieurs chapitres consacrés à l’examen et au traitement de traumatismes dont certains ne peuvent avoir été causés que par des armes et non par un banal accident.
Ces chapitres très mal connus et compris des médecins tibétains actuels et de la recherche en tibétologie, présentent toutefois un grand intérêt dans la mesure où ils exposent des connaissances anatomiques spécifiques, ainsi que des pratiques diagnostiques et thérapeutiques très sophistiquées qui ne sont pas évoquées dans l’exposé général de l’anatomie, de la séméiologie, ou du traitement qui constitue l’essentiel du Quadruple Traité.
Ces connaissances et pratiques relatives à la traumatologie n’ont que peu d’équivalents dans les traditions médicales indienne et chinoise dont on sait l’influence qu’elles ont eu, par ailleurs, sur le développement de la médecine tibétaine savante. Il est difficile de dire à quel moment de l’histoire de cette dernière elles ont été abandonnées. Cet abandon pourrait avoir un lien avec celui, également attesté, d’un certain nombre de pratiques chirurgicales évoquées dans le Quadruple Traité.
In the period between the death of the Fifth Dalai Lama (1682) and the assumption of political power of the Thirteen Dalai Lama (1895) a number of military conflicts were fought in Tibetan territory. Some of these were internal, including a civil war and attempts to quell rebellious chieftains at the periphery of the plateau. Others, instead, were clashes with foreign powers that had attempted to encroach upon territories the dGa’ ldan pho brang considered in its political sphere.
This presentation aims to offer an overview of the military engagements that occurred in this period, and particularly to examine in which way religious hierarchs of the dGa’ ldan pho brang became involved with these military affairs. Several sources, including the lives (rnam mthar) and autobiographies (rang rnam) of religious hierarchs, as well as the life stories of laymen, such as the biography of Pho lha nas bSod nams stobs rgyal (1689-1747), and the autobiography of rDo ring bsTan ’dzin dpal ’byor (b. 1760), can be used to trace the role of some of the dGe lugs pa hierarchs with respect to the employment of armed forces. In addition, the multiple viewpoints shown in these sources also allow the investigation of more general questions concerning the army of the dGa’ ldan pho brang, such as when it originated, how it operated, and how it developed and was shaped by contemporary historical events.
George FitzHerbert is participating in the conference in the Chinese Military Society on April 5th, 2018, which is taking place in Louisville, Kentucky, USA.
Tantric Rituals as War Propaganda in 17th-18th Century Tibet, China and Mongolia
The Water-Horse year of 1642 is a watershed year in Tibetan history, when the Tibetan plateau was united for the first time since the period of the old Tibetan empire (7th-9th centuries CE) under the charismatic authority of the 5th Dalai Lama Ngawang Lobsang Gyatso and his military backer, the Qoshot Mongol chief Gushri Khan. Though this unification was achieved through force of arms, the new status quo was maintained by the charismatic authority of the new rulership as symbolised by the Potala Palace built a few years later. In this presentation, based partly on ritual texts authored by the 5th Dalai Lama himself, George FitzHerbert will show that a key part of this charisma was the Dalai lama’s perceived expertise in ‘war magic’ – tantric rituals to repel and annihilate enemies (Tib: dmag zlog). The paper will show the lengths to which the 5th Dalai Lama went to nurture this reputation, and harness the charisma of such war magic to his new Ganden Phodrang Tibetan government. The paper will also show how the politics of war magic remained central to the dynamics of Tibetan-Mongol-Qing relations for the rest of the 17th and 18th centuries.