Northern Studies and Tibetology Takashi Irimoto

　Tibet is located on the Tibetan Plateau, in the middle of Inner Asia, between the Himalayas in the south and the Kunlun Mountains in the north. It extends to the Karakoram Mountains and the Pamirs in the west and, in the east, unfolds to the upstream of the Yangtze River, situated at the eastern tip of the Tibetan Plateau, and to the upper reaches of the Yellow River.
　The population of Tibetan people is 2.39 million (as of 1995) in the Tibetan Autonomous Region and 3.87 million (as of 1982) in China. In addition, approximately one million ethnic Tibetan people are believed to live in other countries. Furthermore, the number of Tibetan refugees is nearly 100,000, consisting primarily of the Tibetan Government in Exile established in India in 1959. In terms of area, the Tibet Autonomous Region in China has an area of 1.2 million square kilometers, but when the areas of parts of Qinhai, Gansu, Sichuan and Yunnan provinces and Western Tibet, India, are added, the region doubles in size.
　Tibetan people reside primarily on the Tibetan Plateau and in areas around the plateau located at latitudes from 28 to 40 degrees north and from 70 to 104 degrees east, including the southern base of the Himalayas. The Tibetan language belongs to the Tibetan sub-branch of the Tibeto-Burman branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family. As far as dialects are concerned, the language can be further divided into five dialect groups: the central dialect spoken in the Utsang region; the southeastern dialect in the Kham region; the northeastern dialect in the Amdo region; the western dialect in the Ladakh and Baltistan region; and the southern dialect in Nepal, Sikkim, Bhutan and other regions located at the southern foot of the Himalayas.
　Although these populated areas are located in the middle latitudes, the climate is characterized as cold since the plateau and mountainous regions are 3,500 to 4,000 meters in elevation (the altitude of Lhasa is 3,658 meters, the mountain passes are around 5,000 meters in elevation and the mountain ranges are from 6,000 to 8,000 meters or higher). The Tibetan Plateau is dry to the north of the Himalayas, creating alpine deserts or alpine steppes (grassland). On the other hand, monsoon forests exist at the southern foot of the Himalayas due to the rainfall it receives from monsoons that originate in the Indian Ocean. Moreover, it is wet in the eastern end of the Tibetan Plateau because of monsoons from the Pacific Ocean, thus creating the headwaters of the Yellow River and the Yangtze River and developing mixed forests consisting of broad-leaved deciduous trees and conifers at mountain bases (Irimoto 2002a).
　The following rivers flow from the area in the vicinity of Lake Manasarovar (mtsho ma pham (Tb.)) (4,588 m above sea level), located to the south of Mt. Kailash (gangs rin po che, gangs ti se (Tb.)) (6,656 m) in the Ngari region of Western Tibet: the Glang Chen gtsang po (Sutlej River) to the west, the Senge Tsangpo (Indus River) to the north, the Yarlung Tsangpo (Brahmaputra River) to the east and Mapcha Tsangpo (the Ganges River) to the south. Tibetan people consider the headwaters of those rivers to flow out of the mouths of an elephant, lion, horse and peacock, respectively.
　The Indus River runs through the Ladakh region in Western Tibet, India, and then westward between the Himalayas and the Karakoram Mountains in the Trans-Himalayas, turns to the south in Gilgit and converges with the Sutlej River in the Bari Doab in Pakistan before flowing into the Arabian Sea. The Yarlung Zangbo River runs eastward across the Tibetan Plateau, passing through Shigatse and Lhasa, makes a large southward curl in the eastern part of the Tibetan Autonomous Region and turns into the Brahmaputra River. The river then flows westward across Arunachal Pradesh State in India, turns to the south once again and merges with the Ganges River running eastward in Bangladesh before flowing into the Bay of Bengal. At the eastern end of the Tibetan Plateau, the Yellow River headwaters flow northward into the Bohai Sea. The Jinshajiang River, located in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, forms an area where the great mountain ranges and gorges run parallel from north to south, along with the Zhu River in the upper portion of the Salween River and the Lancang River in the upstream of the Mekong River. The river runs southward and then eastward, converges with the Yangtze River and flows into the East China Sea. The Salween River runs southward in Myanmar and then flows into the Andaman Sea. The Mekong River flows into the South China Sea in Vietnam after running between Myanmar, Laos and Thailand demarcating their national boundaries and then longitudinally flowing from Cambodia.
　As described above, Tibet has geographical and ecological characteristics of a transitional zone, that is, from the high elevation of the Tibetan Plateau and mountainous areas, which supply the headwaters of major large rivers in Asia, to their surrounding low-altitude areas.
　The subsistence activities of Tibetan people consist of live stock farming and agriculture. The livestock includes yaks, cattle, dzos (a cross between yak and cow), sheep, goats and horses, while the crops they harvest include buckwheat, millets and other miscellaneous grain crops in addition to barley, ryes and wheat. Rapes, the seeds of which are used to produce rapeseed oil, vegetables, potatoes, beans and other plants are also included in the Tibetan people’s agricultural practices. In low-altitude areas, apricots, apples, pear, grapes, mulberries, walnuts and other fruit trees are planted. The types of livestock raised and crops cultivated vary depending on elevation. Therefore, the modes of subsistence activities also vary depending on the altitudes. On the Changtang Plateau in Western Tibet, which is 4,500 meters or higher above sea level, nomadic grazing of yaks, sheep and goats flourishes year-round. When the altitude decreases to approximately 3,500 meters, the subsistence activities become comprised of barley farming and the transhumance of sheep, goats, cattle and a hybrid of yaks and cattle. Furthermore, when the elevation drops along the Indus River to approximately 2,500 meters, not only live stock farming by transhumance, but also wheat farming and fruit tree cultivation constitute the primary subsistence activities. For farming, Tibetan people depend on brooks that originate from accumulated snow in mountain ranges and flow into the Indus River. Fields are cultivated in alluvial fans spreading in the valleys. On the other hand, farming by direct irrigation, using water from the Indus River’s main stream, is also conducted in some areas.
　In the areas that practice cultivation, sedentary village communities develop and some villagers engage themselves in transhumance whereby they move to alpine areas together with their livestock animals in summer and return to their villages in winter. Butter and cheese produced in high-altitude mountainous areas on the Changtang Plateau and in Zanskar are traded for the flour and dried fruits produced in low-altitude areas in the central to lower Ladakh regions. Consequently, such forms of trade play an important role in the subsistence activities of Tibetan people. In addition, long-distance trade outside of Tibet with neighboring communities in Central Asia and India enabled the establishment and maintenance of the kingdom (Irimoto: 1986a; 1986b; 1986c; 1986d; 1986e).
　Tibetan people practice both Tibetan Buddhism and folk religions. Such folk religions as animism and shamanism sometimes coexist with Buddhism, and occasionally are integrated in and practiced with Buddhism (Irimoto: 1989a; 1989b; Yamada 1993; 1995; 1996; 1999). The foundations of Tibetan medicine practiced by a doctor called an “amchi” is also deeply connected with folk religious beliefs and the traditional concept of the human body (Yamada: 1997; 2002). The religious system in Tibet, where people believe in both Buddha and deities referred to as “lha” (Irimoto 1989b), has commonalities with the Mongolian equivalent where Tengri coexists with Buddha (Irimoto 2002b) and the Japanese religious system under which the Shinto deities exist in harmony with Buddha. Buddhism originated in Magadha, located in the middle sections of the Ganges River, in the 5th century B.C., spread throughout India under the patronage of King Ashoka in the 3rd century B.C. and flourished primarily in Gandhara under the sanctioning of the Kushan Empire in the northwestern part of India from the 1st century B.C. to the 5th century A.D. Buddhism then spread to Central Asia and China and, during the course of its expansion, sects of the religion developed independently by incorporating, coexisting with and integrating local deities, thus allowing the concept to coexist with other deities (Irimoto 1986e:437; 989b).
　Tibet itself precedes the establishment of the Tubo Kingdom, dating back to the Pya Tribe, Tong Tribe or Dmu Tribe in Xhang-zhung, Western Tibet, and Jyokoku of Dang with whom they married. Some of these tribes traveled downstream along the Yarlung Zangbo River, moved eastward and arrived in Kham in Eastern Tibet, and eventually led to the Yarlung Dynasty, which later established the Tubo Kingdom (Irimoto 1986: 453; Yamaguchi 1983). Buddhism first took root in Tibet in 761, when the Tubo Kingdom, which was established by King Sroń-btsan-sgam-po in 629, made Buddhism the official religion during the reign of Khri-sroń-lde-brtsan, and Padma Sambhava (Padma-hbyuń-gnas) was invited from India to introduce the Buddhism according to the Middle Way division of Yoga Tantra (Mādhyamaka Yogācāra (Sk.)). However, the reign of the Tubo Kingdom came to a close because of the destruction of Buddhism by Glań-dar-ma and the demise of the dynasty in 843. The second phase of the spread of Buddhism was spearheaded by Rin-chen-bzań-po, who studied Buddhism in Kashmir, in Western Tibet from the 10th to 11th century. In addition, Atiśa, who was invited to Central Tibet, founded bKah-gdams-pa of Aunttarayogatantra Buddhism while Mar-pa also studied Buddhism in India and served as the founder of bKah-brgyud-pa together with Mi-la-ras-pa, his disciple. This school was later divided into hBri-guń-pa, hBrug-pa, Kar-ma-pa, Shańs-pa and other schools, and bKah-gdams-pa later shifted to dGe-lugs-pa because of the reform of Tsoń-kha-pa in the early 15th century (Irimoto 1986e: 439-440; Tucci & Heissig 1970: 51). Tsoń-kha-pa attaches a great deal of importance to the religious laws espoused by orders of monks since Hinayana Buddhism and theorizes, based on the Prasangika division (Prāsaňgika (Sk.)) of the Middle Way thought (Mādhyamaka (Sk.)), that only people who have completed the training of Prajnaparamita (Sk.) in sutra Buddhism are allowed to conduct the Anuttarayogatantra training to reach a spiritual state of the only person of full realization of true knowledge (Buddha) in this world and embody emptiness in order to perfect altruistic practices. Tsoń-kha-pa thus addressed the pending questions during the final period of Indian Buddhism since Atisha, who tried to integrate the Three Vehicles: the Lesser Vehicle (Hinayana), Greater Vehicle (Mahayana) and Diamond Vehicle (Vajrayana) (Kaneko 1989: 300; Yamaguchi 1985a: 421).
　This tradition has been handed down to this date: monks are required to gain the knowledge of the Three Vehicles to earn a degree of Geshe (dge bshes (Tb.) (doctor’s degree). While characterized by Tantra Buddhism, Tibetan Buddhism is based on the broad knowledge and practices of Buddhism in its entirety, including Hinayana and Mahayana. Currently, Tibet has four major religious schools: Dge-lugs-pa, rNiń-ma-pa, Sa-skya-pa and Bkah-rgyud-pa. Furthermore, the Tibetan Government in Exile has granted a representational right to Bon-po, as a religious school, although it has more shamanistic elements and has been antagonistic to Buddhism. Bon-po has a tradition that dates back to even before the first phase of the spread of Buddhism to Tibet, and the tradition of rNiń-ma-pa is equivalent to that of the old school from the first introduction of Indian Buddhism between the 7th and 8th centuries. Bkah-rgyud-pa and Sa-skya-pa have the traditions of the Indian Buddhism of the second phase of its spread after the 11th century, and Dge-lugs-pa is a reformist school established in the early 15th century.
　Tibetan religions are featured by their close relationships with politics and history. To be more specific, monks formed a new ruling class in the Tubo Kingdom, but, after the collapse of the kingdom, religious communities became affiliated not only with domestic forces, but also with the Mongolian Army, which invaded Tibet and fought against the Yuan Dynasty, the Min Dynasty and so forth. In 1578, Altan Qan in Mongolia bestowed the title of Dalai Lama (tā la’i bla ma: rgyal ba rin po che (Tb.); Dalai in Mongolian means Gyatso in the Tibetan language, meaning the sea of wisdom) upon Sonam Gyatso in Dge-lugs-pa. Furthermore, the transmigration system that had already been initiated in Kar-ma-pa and Bkah-rgyud-pa was introduced. In the wake of conflicts with Kar-ma-pa, Dge-lugs-pa established a government in which the 5th Dalai Lama served as the supreme head of Tibetan Buddhism in 1642 with the backing of Gushri Khan of Oyirad’s military power. During the Ching Dynasty in 1751, the 7th Dalai Lama became the sovereign and the Dalai Lama system of government, an administrative council of four ministers, was inaugurated on the condition of consulting with the resident Commissioners (Amban) (Yamaguchi 1985b: 703-704). In the 17th century, the 5th Dalai Lama conferred the title of Panchen Lama on Panchen Choki Gyaltsen, who was his venerable teacher (guru (Sk.): bla ma (Tb.)). As the Dalai Lama was regarded as the incarnation of the “Bodhisattva of compassion” (Avalokiteshvara (Sk.): spyan ras gzigs dbang phyug (Tb.)), the Panchen Lama was considered as the incarnation of the “Buddha of boundless light” (Amitābha (Sk.): ’od dpag med (Tb)) and has maintained the transmigration system together with the Dalai Lama. That is to say, religious communities established a government through its relationships with various forces at home and abroad, thus creating the Tibetan society.
　In 1876, Britain insisted on its right to enter Tibet in accordance with the Chefoo Convention concluded between Qing and Britain. The 13th Dalai Lama, however, refused Qing’s suzerain because Qing had lost the war to Japan. When the Younghusband sent an armed delegation to Lhasa in 1904, the 13th Dalai Lama defected to Mongolia. He returned to Lhasa en route to Beijing in 1910. However, since Qing sent military forces to Lhasa at the same time, the 13th Dalai Lama then defected to India. In Lhasa, the 6th Panchen Lama cooperated with Qing. When the Qing Dynasty collapsed because of the Chinese Revolution in 1911, the Dalai Lama returned home and declared independence in 1913. Although the Panchen Lama escaped to and passed away in Beijing, the 7th Panchen Lama, the reincarnated persona who was elected by the Nationalist Party and removed from power by the Communist Party, apart from the Lhasa Government, moved to Tibet in 1951 and his title was then made official. Nonetheless, the 14th Dalai Lama, who was the reincarnation of the 13th Dalai Lama, stopped cooperating with the Chinese Communist Party and defected to India in 1959 (Yamaguchi 1985b: 704). Today, the Tibetan Government in Exile, with the 14th Dalai Lama as the spiritual leader, is located in Dharamsala, India, thus creating refugee communities on an international scale.
　The ethnicity and identity of Tibetan people are featured by regional differences. Traditionally, Tibet is divided into three regions: Utsang (dbus gtsang (Tb.)) in the central and western areas, Kham (khams, mdo stod (Tb.)) in the southeastern area and Amdo (a mdo, mdo smad (Tb.)) in the northeastern area. Utsang includes Ngarikorsum (ngari korsum (Tb.)), located in the southwestern area of Tibet. The people of these three regions, referred to as chol kha gsum (Tb.), have different historical backgrounds in addition to variations in dialect and culture. People in different regions have different identities and even Tibetan people say “Utsang has the best religion, Kham has the best men and Amdo has the best horses” (Shakappa 1992: 2).
　If ethnic Tibetan people are to be included, broader regional differences in identity can be pointed out. Tibetan people include those in Zangskar in Western Tibet, India, Lahaul, Spiti, Ladakh, which includes Kinnaur, Baltistan in Kashmir, Pakistan, and areas at the southern foot of Himalayan mountains, such as Nepal, Sikkim and Bhutan. Since they had different historical backgrounds with their respective kingdoms, they do not have a common national identity as Tibetan people despite the fact that they are ethnically Tibetan. The eastern boundaries of the Tibet Autonomous Region in China and Qinhai Province adjoin Dêqên Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Yunnan Province, Muli Tibetan Autonomous County, Kandze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture and Aba Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan Province, Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Pari Tibetan Autonomous County and Uighur Autonomous County in Gansu Province, where Tibetan people live with Han, Hui, Uighur and other peoples.
　A currently important issue is the presence of another Tibetan culture and people. Forty-six years have passed since the Tibetan Government in Exile was established in 1959 and Tibetan refugee communities in India, Nepal and elsewhere now have the third-generation people. With the 14th Dalai Lama as the spiritual leader and with the democratic political system in place, Tibetan refugee communities have handed down the Tibetan culture and an identity as Tibetan people and have striven to achieve freedom for Tibet. This is equivalent to creating a new Tibetan culture based on the traditional Tibetan culture and these refugee communities are populated by those groups, international in breadth, that have emerged from a new Tibetan ethnicity and identity that transcend regional differences in Tibet.
　Research on Tibet was started by Jesuits in the 17th and 18th centuries as well as British, Russian, Swedish and Japanese explorers, geographers, monks and others from the late 18th to the late 19th centuries. For example, Sven Hedin, a geographer, explored the Trans-Himalayas in Tibet in 1900 and between 1906 and 1908. In 1900, Ekai Kawaguchi, a Japanese monk, entered Tibet from Nepal and stayed in Lhasa for 14 months from 1901. From 1913 to 1923, Tokan Tada from the Nishi Hongwanji stayed and studied Tibetan Buddhism in Lhasa. Bunkyo Aoki left behind his records and materials about the lives of the people of Lhasa. Having said that, the subsequent mainstream research affiliated with Tibetology in the fields of the science of Buddhism, history and linguistics in Japan, and anthropological research has been limited.
　To this point, anthropological surveys and research on Ladakh, Tibet and Tibetan refugees include the following: Surveys on Ladakh by Takashi Irimoto were conducted seven times or for 21 months in total and those on Tibet nine times and for six months. The aggregate period of the surveys was 27 months (2 years and 3 months). Surveys on Ladakh and Tibet by Takako Yamada were conducted nine times, covering a total period of 19 months (1 year and 7 months). The surveys in Western Tibet, India, and Ladakh from 1979 to 1991 took place immediately after Ladakh areas in Kashmir first became accessible to foreign visitors in 1974, which enabled the observation of the traditional culture before it changed due to the ensuing boom in tourism. Moreover, surveys on Tibet that began in 2001 were conducted after obtaining special entry permits because the Tibet Autonomous Region in China and other areas became accessible to foreign tourists. The ninth survey on Tibet that was conducted by Takashi Irimoto in 2005 zeroed in on Tibetan refugees and Dard as neighboring people and a special entry permit was also obtained for the survey. The 5th survey on Ladakh and Tibet in 2003 by Takako Yamada highlighted cultural changes in Ladakh due to the flourishing tourism, and a special entry permit was also obtained. The 6th, 7th and 9th surveys on Tibet in 2003, 2004 and 2005 by Takashi Irimoto and the 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th surveys on Ladakh and Tibet in 2004 and 2005 by Takako Yamada were investigative research activities covered by the scientific research funds from fiscal year (FY) 2003 to 2005 for the “Cultural Anthropological Study on the Formation of New Ethnicity among Tibetan Refugees.” Some of the results of these investigative research activities have been presented in papers, orally and so forth.
　Tibet has a farming culture, characteristic of southern regions, a nomadic culture, which prevails in northern regions, and Buddhism, which originated in India, along with animism and shamanism. The history of Tibet has strong connections with Mongolia, China and India. Furthermore, current Tibetan refugees are deeply involved in the formation of the Tibetan ethnicity and identity. When Northern Studies were established as an academic discipline in 1991, the following methodology was already specified: “In Northern Studies, research is promoted through constant comparative reviews of whether cultural characteristics are unique to northern regions or universal to humanity. By doing so, northern culture is seen in the context of human culture as a whole and we will get closer to a more general question of what humanity is” (Irimoto 1992: 11). Later on, the cultural dynamics of the Ainu in Japan and various peoples in Northeast Asia were elucidated within the framework of Northern Studies (Irimoto 2002a; 2004a; Yamada 1994; 2001) and international joint research was conducted in the following areas: circumpolar religion and ecology (Irimoto and Yamada eds. 1994), circumpolar animism and shamanism (Yamada and Irimoto eds. 1997), circumpolar ethnicity and identity (Irimoto and Yamada eds. 2004). Based on the accomplishments of these joint research initiatives, it becomes possible to regard Tibet as an important research subject in search for further human universality (Irimoto 2004; Irimoto 2004b).
References
　See pages 81 to 85 in this Bulletin.
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