Despite the upheavals of collectivisation and reform, the nomadic pastoralists of Amdo, in the north eastern part of the Tibetan plateau, maintain that they substantially retain historic forms of tribal organisation. The governmental structures of the modern Chinese state have replaced the hereditary rulers, kings and monastic leaders, who formerly exercised leadership over the nomads' tribes. However, ideologies of revenge and practices of feuding still characterise relations between tribal groups. Moreover, the nomads continue to turn to senior Buddhist lamas as mediators, despite the criminal sanctions imposed by the police. It is suggested that these elements represent a continuity in tribal forms within the framework of control now exercised by the modern state. An uneasy relationship between tribes and state has long characterised this region and continues to do so in the modern world.
Although China's Tibetans profoundly mistrust the ideologies of the party-state, associating them with illegitimate practices of domination, protest and revolt are rare and effectively suppressed. This might be seen as quasi-colonial domination, the state securing subjection through the performance of paramount power, demonstrated by its suppression of the 2008 protests, or it could be attributed to a form of indirect rule, by which local officials engage with local leaders to generate hegemonic consent. While both dynamics are present on the Tibetan plateau, ethnographic fieldwork among the Tibetan populations of Qinghai and Gansu Provinces reveals that consent is primarily generated by local officials who negotiate a form of local order with religious and tribal leaders. Ignoring the ideological demands of their superiors, they engage constructively with the expectations of the Tibetans about how order should be maintained and, in doing so, subvert the state's ideal of uniform and unitary sovereignty.
No abstract
Local systems of law are constantly forced to adapt to powerful external legal orders. As well as employing tactics of resistance and accommodation, some communities respond by maintaining boundaries around their legal sphere, safeguarding a measure of judicial autonomy. This article examines one such instance, from the Indian Himalayas. It argues that, much more complex than a case of domination and resistance, this autonomy represents a long history of deference and distance toward external forces. The maintenance of legal autonomy ultimately represents community ontology, but it is also a means of engaging with wider forces within the modern world.
Contrary to assumptions frequently made about Buddhist societies and to models promoted by Tibetan elites, not all Tibetans understand their religion in an ethical way. This article demonstrates that, for a community of villagers in Ladakh, Buddhism is not a source of moral guidance nor is it regarded by them as providing authority for the exercise of political or judicial power. Comparing the findings of ethnographers elsewhere in the Tibetan region, it is apparent that many Tibetans regard the cosmos and its inhabitants as having little relevance for the moral order of their community or its political organization. It is suggested that such understandings have a profound effect on local understandings of the ambit and significance of Buddhism and on the course of its assimilation in the region.As a mountainous part of the high Tibetan plateau, Ladakh has always supported a sparse population (now around ,) grouped into relatively small villages separated by acres of pasture and waste-land. Before the construction of motor roads in the twentieth century, Photoksar, the village in which I carried out fieldwork, was a week's journey from the capital, Leh. 4 After the collapse of the early Tibetan empire members of a powerful Tibetan family established a political base and, ultimately, a kingdom in Ladakh. This remained largely independent until the s, despite incursions from both Kashmir and Tibet. The kings established a small endogamous upper class whose members acted as their Fernanda Pirie 175 J. Roy. Anthrop. Inst. (N.S.) , - © Royal Anthropological Institute Fernanda Pirie 177 J. Roy. Anthrop. Inst. (N.S.) , - © Royal Anthropological Institute Fernanda Pirie 185
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