Beside stationary Buddhist monasteries, the Mongols also had itinerant monasteries with felt and wooden temples that periodically moved in the steppes and mountains of Inner Asia. Most of them eventually settled down in the course of the 18th and 19th centuries, but up to the early 20th century, a few mobile monasteries continued to nomadise in western Mongolia. This paper first argues that there is no reason for a Buddhist monastery not to be made up of felt tents and frequently change locations, and that lightweight, demountable architecture is not restricted to the ger (yurt) but includes prestigious large structures. Finally, it examines the mobility patterns of itinerant monasteries and the various reasons for their moves to determine whether their migration was a matter of choice or necessity.
The idea of a greater Tibet has its roots in the Tibetan empire of the 7th-9th centuries. This research demonstrates that even after its collapse, Tibetan writers began to articulate an idea of a broader Tibet including both eastern and western regions of the plateau using various three-region frameworks since at least the 12th or 13th century. However, the various toponyms for its three regions did not remain fixed to specific geographic features throughout the centuries and instead maintained a certain flexibility in their range of usages. Regional toponyms such as Amdo, Kham, and Ü Tsang are directional and context-dependent, enabling a range of usages based on spatial logics specific to the Tibetan geography. This research also contributes to the finding that while the toponyms Ü Tsang, Kham, and Amdo have long histories, their usage together in a tripartite framework emerged as late as the 20th century. However, tracing the precedents for this usage illustrates that even this more recent tripartite formula is based on an idea of Tibet as three regions that has been available and evolved since the 12th or 13th century, which is itself based on a remembering of Tibet from its 7th-9th centuries empire.
Le paysage intellectuel des régions autochtones (non russes) dans les années 1920-1930 est l’un des sujets les moins étudiés de l’histoire intellectuelle de l’URSS. Les changements fondamentaux qui ont eu lieu dans la société russe/soviétique au cours de cette période ont beaucoup marqué la vie intellectuelle non seulement du centre, mais aussi des périphéries. La figure de Gavriil Vassilievich Ksenofontov (1888-1938), ethnographe, folkloriste et historien iakoute, et son œuvre ethnographique méritent une attention particulière à cet égard. Pendant deux décennies, le thème principal des recherches de Ksenofontov a été le chamanisme sibérien. Certes, ses travaux reflètent les tendances caractéristiques de l’époque (marxisme, matérialisme, athéisme), mais ses concepts, dans le domaine des études religieuses, révèlent aussi une forme d’originalité et d’authenticité. Cet article se fonde sur des archives inédites de Ksenofontov, qui permettent d’analyser une strate intellectuelle différente, cachée derrière la rhétorique idéologique officielle.
This article looks at women’s emancipation and feminism in Tibet. It starts by tracing the advent of state feminism in Tibet in the early 1950s, closely linked to the ideology of the Chinese communist regime. Based on ethnographic fieldwork carried out in Tibet and within the Tibetan diaspora in India, as well as research from literary and social media sources, it then presents various feminist practices observed from across all of these areas. Finally, it shows how institutional feminism and projects led individually by women work together, overlap or co-exist.
Through the lens of memory practices and hagiographic representations (not only narrative, but also architectural), the article examines the lives and ongoing deification of three influential women who engaged in religious and healing activities during the Soviet suppression of religion in the Buddhist society of Kalmykia. Addressing questions of women’s empowerment in conservative religions facilitated by the state atheistic policy and persecution of monastics, I theorise the concept of “underground” as a socio-cultural space which allows for the emergence of female religious authority in the historically male-dominated Kalmyk Buddhist milieu, further reinforced by patriarchal social structures. The posthumous recognition of Soviet-era female religious practitioners as divine emanations, while a new, grassroots development for Kalmykia, can also be regarded as evolving into both an empowerment and an appropriation of these women and their memories by the Buddhist institution, or what we might consider an attempt to once again tame the “female underground”.
The ongoing academic debate on the place of women within broader social dynamics has garnered increasing public attention in recent years, especially in terms of socioeconomic and sociopolitical research. This paper aims at addressing the specific impact that female migrants have had on the process of religious revival, in this particular case based on anthropological research material gathered in the Zanskar Valley in India. Existing anthropological studies (P. Dollfus, I. Riaboff, K. I. Gutschow, H. Osmaston, V. Bhasin, J. Crook, L. Petech, F. Pirie, S. Day, D. Pinault, G. Emmer, Ghani Sheikh, N. Grist, etc.) have failed to adequately reflect the specific dynamics and mechanics involved in the transformation of community identity that result from internal movements within that same community. These studies have focused overwhelmingly on the acceptance of people from outside the community, ignoring the fact that a community’s true resilience comes from within. We now know how significantly gender dynamics impact the way in which a community identifies itself, and also how it behaves – increased gender equality can be considered an economic asset, for instance, where efforts to further women’s empowerment in restricted areas of India have freed women to make carpets which they can sell on the market themselves, and thus directly benefit from the money they generate. These studies have helped to unveil many aspects of Buddhist women’s impact on the local economy network. The mixed Buddhist and Muslim community which resides in the Zanskar Valley had until recently a collective, locality-based identity, as they considered themselves to be Zangskarpas above all else. However, in recent years religious affiliation has become the defining characteristic of community belonging. Understanding the influence of female migration on the identities of the younger generations is also essential. The present article therefore aims to provide an account of the place of women in the process of constructing the everyday practice of relating to religion.
Gangkar Lhamo (Tib. Gangs dkar lha mo, “Snow mountain goddess”) is the first contemporary Tibetan journal which is edited and published by Tibetan nuns at the Larung Gar Monastery. This annual journal exemplifies the improved educational opportunities and levels among Tibetan nuns and Tibetan women’s writing in general. Through the textual analysis of various articles about women’s social status, this fieldwork note explains how nuns are coming to recognise and discuss their growing understanding and awareness of gender inequality. Furthermore, it examines how they seek to challenge the traditional Tibetan notion of “male superiority and female inferiority” (Tib. pho mchog mo dman).
This article presents a portrait of the Nyungne Fasting Ritual held at Khachoe Ghakyil Ling Nunnery. It explores the ritual in light of the nuns’ positioning within Tibetan Buddhism’s gendered socio-religious hierarchy, and the consequences of a swiftly changing demography in Tibetan Buddhist nunneries in exile. It further argues that the male cleric’s disregard for this challenging ritual creates space for the Tibetan nuns to explore their close bonds to food and their emotional relationships with Tantric practices.
In Mongolia, women may not be able to express the same physical, linguistic, or political strength as men, but they nonetheless have many important social roles to play. This context leads us to question the logics and practices of female empowerment in Mongolia. Using geographic, ethnographic and netnographic methods, and data collected between 2015 and 2023, we will answer the following question: is the agency of Mongolian women a form of empowerment?
The “language issue” (Ru. Iazykovaia problema) in the USSR was considered ideologically very significant. The peculiarities of the language policy towards the Mongolic peoples of the USSR in the 1920s-1930s corresponded to the general Soviet trends. There was a competition among four policy frameworks: “Soviet-Ethnic”, “Soviet-Russian”, “Soviet-Non-Russian”, and “All-Mongolian” (Foreign policy). These four factors varied in importance as policy objectives changed during this time. This paper outlines the dynamic political history of these factors over time.
The development of western areas of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) with accentuated urbanisation has had a significant impact on the established livelihood of the Tibetan pastoralists and semi-pastoralists. The middle-aged generation in particular faces enormous challenges to find its place in the changing environment and to adapt and develop new livelihoods that can provide sufficient income to cover increasing household expenses. They find themselves in transition between a vanishing past and an advancing future – a state that can cause severe economic and social insecurity.
This paper traces the political and institutional history of the Meu (Tib. Rme'u) Kingdom, which emerged in the early 18th century and gained regional prominence by the late 19th century. Utilising local Tibetan and Chinese historical sources, oral history, and western missionary accounts, it investigates how the ecumenical stance of Meu rulers fostered the kingdom’s growth in a diverse religious landscape. The study delves into Meu’s political history, examining its connection to the Qing court as well as the development of monastic institutions and the role of influential religious figures like the Kirti lineages. It demonstrates that monastic-lay affiliations (lhade, Tib. lha sde or “divine communities” in Tibetan) were pivotal to Tibetan political power and diplomacy, shedding light on the choyon (Tib. Mchod yon) model of Tibetan political thought. It underscores the significance of lhade in reinterpreting this model and provides insights into the nature of political governance in the Sino-Tibetan borderlands, revealing intricate dynamics in regional and transregional religio-political networks influencing inter-polity relations and diplomacy.
