Measures and Countermeasures

Abstract

The ethnography of kinship and marriage in Tibetan communities demonstrates a broad diversity and flexibility of practices. In examining these variations across both ethnographic Tibet and its borderlands, studies have yet to explore fully the processes through which Tibetan Buddhist polities have played an active role in shaping families through governance structures and state policies. Monk levies (T. grwa khral or btsun khral) are a form of monastic recruitment requiring a taxable unit to provide sons to fill monastery quotas. The practice has obvious consequences for kinship and marriage practices as families choose either to comply with or to evade the levy. The Muli Kingdom was a Tibetan Buddhist polity of the Gelug School that governed an ethnically diverse area in southern Kham. This study takes a historical approach to explore Muli Monastery’s monk levy from the perspective of one non-Tibetan community. In doing so, it highlights the connection between family organisation and state governance structures, revealing kinship practices as one mechanism through which local populations negotiated within limitations set by the state.