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Monk Officials As Military Officers in the Tibetan Ganden Phodrang Army (1895–1959) Alice Travers

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Monk Officials As Military Officers in the Tibetan Ganden Phodrang Army (1895–1959) Alice Travers ”Monk Officials as Military Officers in the Tibetan Ganden Phodrang Army (1895–1959)” Alice Travers To cite this version: Alice Travers. ”Monk Officials as Military Officers in the Tibetan Ganden Phodrang Army (1895– 1959)”. Cahiers d’Extrême-Asie, Ecole française d’Extrême-Orient, 2019, Buddhism and the Military in Tibet during the Ganden Phodrang period (1642-1959), 27, pp.211-242. 10.3406/asie.2018.1512. hal-02511295 HAL Id: hal-02511295 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02511295 Submitted on 6 Jul 2020 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Cahiers d'Extrême-Asie Monk Officials as Military Officers in the Tibetan Ganden Phodrang Army (1895–1959) Alice Travers Résumé De la même façon que l’administration du Ganden Phodrang en général était composée de fonctionnaires laïcs et ecclésiastiques, le secteur militaire du Ganden Phodrang incluait également ces deux types de fonctionnaires. Basé sur des biographies et des autobiographies tibétaines et sur des archives britanniques, cet article analyse le rôle des fonctionnaires ecclésiastiques (rtse drung) dans l’organisation militaire gouvernementale de la première moitié du XXe siècle. Après une présentation des diverses positions militaires qui leur étaient ouvertes, que ce soit dans des fonctions purement administratives ou bien de commandement des troupes, ou encore des fonctions mixtes, l’article se concentre sur les fonctionnaires ecclésiastiques nommés Commandants en chef des troupes et en particulier sur deux d’entre eux qui ont cumulé cette charge la plus élevée dans la hiérarchie militaire tibétaine avec celle de ministre, les Kalön Lama Jampa Tendar (1870–1923) et Tenpa Jamyang (1888–1944). L’article tente d’évaluer la signification et l’implication, sur le plan idéologique, de la participation des fonctionnaires ecclésiastiques aux activités militaires du gouvernement. Citer ce document / Cite this document : Travers Alice. Monk Officials as Military Officers in the Tibetan Ganden Phodrang Army (1895–1959). In: Cahiers d'Extrême-Asie, vol. 27, 2018. Le bouddhisme et l'armée au Tibet pendant la période du Ganden Phodrang (1642-1959) / Buddhism and the Millitary in Tibet during the Ganden Phodrang Period (1642-1959) pp. 211-242; doi : https://doi.org/10.3406/asie.2018.1512 https://www.persee.fr/doc/asie_0766-1177_2018_num_27_1_1512 Fichier pdf généré le 07/01/2020 MONK OFFICIALS AS MILITARY OFFICERS IN THE TIBETAN GANDEN PHODRANG ARMY 211 MONK OFFICIALS AS MILITARY OFFICERS IN THE TIBETAN GANDEN PHODRANG ARMY (1895–1959) Alice Travers* De la même façon que l’administration du Ganden Phodrang en général était composée de fonctionnaires laïcs et ecclésiastiques, le secteur militaire du Ganden Phodrang incluait également ces deux types de fonctionnaires. Basé sur des biographies et des autobiographies tibétaines et sur des archives britanniques, cet article analyse le rôle des fonctionnaires ecclésiastiques (rtse drung) dans l’organisation militaire gouvernementale de la première moitié du XXe siècle. Après une présentation des diverses positions militaires qui leur étaient ouvertes, que ce soit dans des fonctions purement administratives ou bien de commandement des troupes, ou encore des fonctions mixtes, l’article se concentre sur les fonctionnaires ecclésiastiques nommés Commandants en chef des troupes et en particulier sur deux d’entre eux qui ont cumulé cette charge la plus élevée dans la hiérarchie militaire tibétaine avec celle de ministre, les Kalön Lama Jampa Tendar (1870–1923) et Tenpa Jamyang (1888–1944). L’article tente d’évaluer la signifi cation et l’implication, sur le plan idéologique, de la participation des fonctionnaires ecclésiastiques aux activités militaires du gouvernement. Introduction When one thinks of monks taking arms in pre-1959 Tibet, the category of “fi ghting- monks” (ldab ldob / ldob ldob) generally comes to mind.1 Still, one might also consider another category of monks taking arms, in this case, one directly related to Tibetan military history: the sermak (ser dmag), monks who voluntarily fought as soldiers on various occasions during the history of the Ganden Phodrang (Dga’ ldan pho brang), generally under the command of government army offi cers. These monk soldiers, who represent just one of the possible kinds of recruitment in the Tibetan army during times of war, are sometimes presented as the monk counterpart of * The research leading to these results has received funding om the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement 677952 “TibArmy”). The content only refl ects the author’s view and the ERC is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains. I would like to thank the co-editor of this volume Federica Venturi, as well as the anonymous reviewers of this paper, for their very useful comments. I am also indebted to Tashi Tsering Josayma (Amnye Machen Institute) and Melvyn Goldstein for comments and additional information kindly provided on this paper. All errors or shortcomings remain mine. 1. On these monks, see Melvyn C. Goldstein, “A Study of the ldab ldob,” Central Asiatic Journal 9, no. 2 (1964): 123–41. Cahiers d’Extrême-Asie 27 (2018) : 211-242 © École ançaise d’Extrême-Orient, Paris, 2011 Do not circulate without permission of the editor / Ne pas diff user sans autorisation de l’éditeur CCEA27EA27 Travers.inddTravers.indd 221111 119/06/139/06/13 111:541:54 212 Alice Travers the militia (yul dmag).2 Contrary to the regular and permanent army regiments, these monk soldiers had received no training and were only recruited in case of emergency and on a voluntary basis. A look at the history of the Ganden Phodrang leads one to observe that there was, in practice, no incompatibility between being a monk and fi ghting for the Ganden Phodrang government. A number of monks and reincarnate fi gures (sprul sku) are mentioned in various war episodes of the Ganden Phodrang’s history, using both their religious skills—performing prayers and rituals3—and taking part in the actual fi ghting, sometimes ensuring the successful outcome of the war through their military skills.4 Monasteries were even sometimes presented as warmongers, if we take the example of the British Younghusband expedition that invaded Tibet in 1904, as described by the historian Shakabpa: The cabinet and the Tibetan National Assembly convened many times in Lhasa. The cabinet sought a peaceful resolution to the problem; seeing that the British army was superior in their territory, army, and weaponry, they knew that Tibet could not triumph over them. However, the representatives of Drepung, Sera, and Ganden monasteries in the Tibetan National Assembly, without understanding the actual circumstances of their enemy, carried their arguments forcefully. Their only concern was for Buddhism; they obstinately said that Tibet should fi ght and not talk with the British.5 However, there was in principle a doctrinal incompatibility between monastic vows and the taking of arms and killing, a reason that apparently led some monks 2. The British sometimes referred to them as the “Golden army,” as the ser of ser dmag meaning “yellow,” i.e. the colour of the monks, can also mean gold (gser), cf. Notes on Tibetan Institutions and Personalities, Confi dential Document Prepared by Mr. Caccia (Peking), Transmitted to the Foreign Offi ce by E. Teichman the 1st July 1935 (British National Archives [herea er BNA]/ FO/371/19254, ex. F5488/12/10), 151. Although the topic of sermak is central to our understand- ing of the relationship that forms the central topic of this volume, Tibetan military history and Buddhism, no research on sermak has been published so far. 3. For a presentation of this kind of religious involvement in war, see George FitzHerbert’s paper in this volume. 4. See for instance the description by Shakabpa of a specifi c episode, when the Tibetan government fi rst sent its army against Gönpo Namgyel (Mgon po rnam rgyal, 1799–1865) and the Nyak (Nyag) army in 1863. According to Shakabpa, the military support of the Géluk (dge lugs) incarnate lama Drakyab Dongkam Trülku Ngawang Damchö Gyatso (Brag g.yab Gdong kam sprul sku Ngag dbang dam chos rgya mtsho), leader of the volunteer militia om Markham and Drakyab (rmar khams dang brag g.yab nas dang blangs yul dmag gi ’go ’dz in), combined with the prayers and services (bsnyen sgrub) off ered by great superior beings, like the non-sectarian (ris med) master Kongtrül Yönten Gyatso (Kong sprul Yon tan rgya mtsho, 1813–99), led to the victory of the Lhasa army in seizing a number of territories. Cf. Dbang phyug bde ldan Zhwa sgab pa, Bod kyi srid don rgyal rabs: An Advanced Political History of Tibet, vol. 2 (Kalimpong: T. Tsepal, Taikhang, 1976), 44; Tsepon Wangchuk Deden Shakabpa, One Hundred Thousand Moons: An Advanced Political History of Tibet, vol. 2, trans. Derek F. Maher (Leiden: Brill, 2010), 607. For a general description of the war between the Lhasa government and Gönpo Namgyel, see Yudru Tsomu, The Rise of Gönpo Namgyel in Kham:
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