CHAPTER 4 The lCags stag dmag khrims (1950): A New Development in Tibetan Legal and Military History?

Alice Travers

Introduction

The present paper discusses the genesis and content of a Tibetan military law code, the “lCags stag dmag khrims”,1 which was presented by the War Office or Army Headquarters (dmag spyi khang or dmag spyi las khungs) to the Cabinet of ministers (bka’ shag) during the Iron-Tiger year, 1950.2 The text is in dpe cha format, with 42 folios. Besides its own designation as a dmag khrims in the first lines of the text, it shows a number of structural and substantive features that signal its status as a law code: division into sections, list of obligations, list of crimes and offences and discussion of corresponding punishment. This copy very probably comes from an ensemble of documents related to the Tibetan army, kept in the archives of the Security department of the Central Tibetan Administration in Dharamsala (Gyaltse Namgyal Wangdue 2010: 302). Several copies seem to have been in circulation. Rebecca French

1 lCags stag dmag khrims, dpe cha format, 42 folios, in 35 articles, 1950. I would like to sincerely thank Tashi Tsering of the Amnye Machen Institute, who kindly indicated this document to me and gave me a copy of it in 2011. “lCags stag dmag khrims” is only a tentative title, since the title folio is missing. I would also like to thank Tashi Tsering for his useful comments on a first draft of this paper, as well as Jeannine Bischoff and Fernanda Pirie for their insightful suggestions during its editing process. 2 According to two Tibetan sources (Dhingri Ngawang 2011: 226; bShad sgra dGa’ ldan dpal ’jor et al. 1991: 54), the lCags stag dmag khrims appeared in 1949. Its exact date of promulgation still needs to be ascertained, but in any case, the Iron Tiger year started at the end of February 1950 and ended in the beginning of 1951. It does not correspond to 1949 which was the Earth Ox year. On the dpe cha manuscript, the last folio and the place where the date is written are very dark and it is impossible to see if the date and month have or have not been added under zla and tshes; in the transcription of the manuscript made by Namgyal Wangdu in his book (rGyal rtse rNam rgyal dbang ’dus 2003a: 133), he has only written “lcags stag zla tshes la”, but in the transcription made by brgya dpon sKal bzang dgra ’dul in his book, the exact date is mentioned: 1st March 1950 (Grwa bzhi brgya dpon sKal bzang dgra ’dul 2001: 97).

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ���7 | doi ��.��63/9789004331259_006 100 Travers mentions in the source section of her book The Golden Yoke that she has a copy of an army code manuscript acquired in Tibet, a dmag khrims, about which she writes that it “appears to have been produced in the 20th century, perhaps as late as 1950.”3 However, she does not present its content nor does she give any analysis of it. The text of the law code was reproduced twice, in both cases without any word of introduction: first in 2001 in the autobiography of the ex-army officer brgya dpon sKal bzang dgra ’dul,4 and second in a Political and Military History of Tibet (Bod rgyal khab kyi chab srid dang ’brel ba’i dmag don lo rgyus), in two volumes, written by the ex-army officer5 rNam rgyal dbang ’dus, and published in 2003 by the LTWA.6 An English version of this book, trans- lated by Yeshi Dhondup, including the translation of the Iron Tiger Military Law Code, came out in 2012, also published by the LTWA.7 The Iron Tiger Military Law Code comprises, after a preamble justifying its promulgation, 35 articles, and is addressed to “all the people of Tibet and Greater Tibet, who are subjects of the heavenly appointed Ganden Phodrang (dGa’ ldan pho brang) government, especially the army officers and soldiers, leaders and people of all the districts and estates throughout the country” (ITMLC: 81; LSDK: 119). There are a number of unknown elements regarding

3 French 1995b: 371. It seems to be the same as the version presented here for she gives a title “Dmag khrims gsar bzo yong ba zhes”, which corresponds to a quotation of a passage in my copy (folio 1 line 2). French again mentions in another publication (French 1995a: 454 note 22): “In the early 20th century, for example, an Army Code (which I have in my collec- tion) was drafted during the ascendancy of Tsarong”. Tsarong’s “ascendancy” was since long over in 1950: he was dismissed from his post of General in Chief of the Army in 1925 and as Minister in 1930. Although there is no mention of her source of information on the subject, it could mean that the draft she mentions was established years before the code was actually finalised in 1950. 4 Grwa bzhi brgya dpon sKal bzang dgra ’dul 2001: 81–97. At the end of the transcription, the author explains that he made it after a manuscript possessed by the former director of the LTWA library in Dharamsala, rGya mtsho tshe ring (ibid.: 97). 5 He was an officer in the Special Frontier force or “22 Establishment”, a Tibetan special unit created in India in 1962 to conduct covert operations behind Chinese lines in the event of another Sino-Indian War and which fought the Bangladesh war in 1971, hence his title of “mda’ zur” (lit. “ex-General”), and he was a member of the former dGa’ ldan pho brang Tibetan army prior to 1951. 6 rGyal rtse rNam rgyal dbang ’dus 2003a: 119–33. Hereafter, the Tibetan version of the lCags stag dmag khrims, as it is reproduced here will be referred to as LSDK. 7 Gyaltse Namgyal Wangdue 2012: 80–89. Hereafter, this English translation of the lCags stag dmag khrims will be referred to as ITMLC. Unless it is specified (and only when my own translation departs from his), the translations of the code given here are by Gyaltse Namgyal Wangdue.