Taxation in Tibetan Societies: Rules, Practices and Discourses

Erscheinungsjahr 2023
ISBN: 978-90-04-51833-9
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 53, 388 Seiten, Format (B × H): 155 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 791 g

Reihe: Brill's Tibetan Studies Library

The study of taxation is fundamental for understanding the construction of Tibetan polities, the nature of their power – often with a marked religious component – and their relationships with their subjects, as well as the consequences of taxation for social stratification.

This volume takes the analysis of taxation in Tibetan societies (both under the Ganden Phodrang and beyond it) in new directions, using hitherto unexploited Tibetan-language sources. It pursues the dual objective of advancing our understanding of the organisation of taxation from an institutional perspective and of highlighting the ways in which taxpayers themselves experienced and represented these fiscal systems.

Contributors are Saadet Arslan, John Bray, Kalsang Norbu Gurung, Isabelle Henrion-Dourcy, Berthe Jansen, Diana Lange, Nancy E. Levine, Charles Ramble, Isabelle Riaboff, Peter Schwieger, Alice Travers, and Maria M. Turek.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Travers, Alice

Schwieger, Peter

Ramble, Charles

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Systeme Verwaltungswissenschaft, Öffentliche Verwaltung
• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Volkswirtschaftslehre Öffentliche Finanzwirtschaft, Besteuerung
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Asiatische Geschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Contents

Note on the Transliteration and Transcription of Tibetan Names and Terms

List of Figures and Maps

List of Tables

Introduction

1 The Tax System in Central and Far East Tibet Towards the End of the Ganden Phodrang Reign: An Outline of Its Structure and Terminology

Peter Schwieger

2 A Perspective on the Ganden Phodrang’s Administration of Taxation in the 19th and 20th Centuries Based on Archival Sources

Kalsang Norbu Gurung

3 “When You Count, Everything Is There, and When Everything Is There, Everything Vanishes” A Criticism of Tax Collecting in Ngamring District (Rdzong) during the First Half of the 20th Century

Alice Travers

4 Traditional Taxation Systems in Western Tibet: A Comparative Perspective

Nancy E. Levine

5 Lam Yig—An Official Document Granting Travel Privileges in Tibet

Saadet Arslan

6 “My Karma Selected Me to Become A Ferryman”: The Role of Waterways and Watercraft in the Corvée Tax System in Pre-1959 Tibet

Diana Lange

7 Performing Tibetan Opera As Khral in the First Half of the 20th Century: In Principle a “Tax”, in Experience a Pervasive Obligation

Isabelle Henrion-Dourcy

8 A Preliminary Investigation Into Monk-Tax: The Concept of Grwa Khral/Btsun Khral/Ban Khral and Its Meanings

Berthe Jansen

9 Monastic Obligations, Hat Change and Lhasa Encroachment Taxation Rights Among Politico-Religious Shifts in the Kingdom of Nangchen

M. Maria Turek

10 “By Ancient Custom and Engagements”: Trade, Taxes and Diplomacy in Ladakh and Western Tibet between the 17th and 20th Centuries

John Bray

11 Taxes and Corvées in the Manorial and Monastic Estates of Zangskar (Western Himalayas)

Isabelle Riaboff

12 The Fiscal Status of Buddh1ist and Bönpo Institutions in Mustang (Nepal): A Historical Overview

Charles Ramble

Index

Über Autor(innen)

Alice Travers is a researcher at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS, CRCAO, Paris), where she works mainly on the social history of Tibet in the 19th and 20th centuries and on the history of the Ganden Phodrang army, in the framework of the ERC-funded TibArmy Project (“The Tibetan Army of the Dalai Lamas, 1642–1959”).

Peter Schwieger is emeritus professor of Tibetology at the University of Bonn, Germany. His research covers history, literature and language of Tibet. His publications include Handbuch zur Grammatik der klassischen tibetischen Schriftsprache (2009), The Dalai Lama and the Emperor of China (2015) and Conflict in a Buddhist Society: Tibet under the Dalai Lamas (2021).

Charles Ramble is Directeur d’études at the EPHE - PSL University, Paris. His book publications include The Navel of the Demoness: Tibetan Buddhism and Civil Religion in Highland Nepal (2008), as well as three volumes in a series entitled Tibetan Sources for a Social History of Mustang (Nepal) (2008, 2015, 2019).