Kumbum And The Kumbum Tsodrug

Kumbum Monastey (sku vbum byams pa gling)is one of the greatest monasteries ofGelugpa school(dge-lugs-pa)of Tibetan Buddhism and Kumbum Tsodrug (sku vbum tsho ba drug)are the six tribes who have lived around Kumbum area in Amdo,northeastern Tibetan plateausince ancient times.The Patronage Ties (mchod-Yon)have been the basic ties between Kumbumand the six tribes,which could be traced back to as early as AD1379.For more than 400 years,the mChod-Yon ties had experienced great evolution.After 1958,the traditional mChod-Yon tieswas abruptly ended by the series of the political campaigns.The interaction between Kumbum andthe Six Tribes has taken on a new outlook since then,in which the Six tribes do not fulfill thetraditional religious and economic duties for the monastery any longer,nor has the monasterybeen able to exercise any demanding religious and economic power over the Six tribes.Thisdissertation will study the evolution of mChod-Yon ties from the viewpoint of the power net,analyze the shift of the power driven by the state,Gonpa(church)and local societies,and discussthe interaction between Kumbum and the Six Tribes at present situation.This dissertation consists of seven chapters.The first chapter introduces the background for choosing the topic and the values of thisstudy.It also involves the present research conditions,the approaches and process of research,andsome definitions on the relevant concepts.The second chapter is a brief introduction to Kumbum and the Six Tribes,which include thegeographical locations,place names,population,power structure,language and dialect use and soon.Lastly this chapter gives some analysis that how the mChod-Yon ties came into being.The third chapter discusses the power network of Kumbum and the Six tribes,brieflyoutlining the Politics games of all the past dynasties and governments in Kumbum and the SixTribes before the Lozang TanDzen (blo bzang bstan vdzin)event of 1721.This chapter alsoanalyzes the measures that Kumbum and the Six tribes took in this event,and what influences theManchu empire's policies had brought to this area after this event.The author takes the years of1911 and 1958 as the watershed and the social changes in Kumbum and the Six Tribes after thetwo eras are studied,and then concerns interactions between the state and the local societies.The fourth chapter focuses on the evolution of the politics-religion relationship betweenKumbum and the Six Tribes and analyzes the political and religious powers of the Monks from theSix Tribes before and after 1958.The monks from this area took certain proportion at Kumbumand many of them became the"living Buddhas"(Reincarnated lamas)or took the key positionssuch as Khrichen,mkhanpo,Nangso,rganpa.With the materials from fieldwork,this chapter alsoshows the changes of the religious beliefs of the Six Tribes,and the influence from Han Chineseculture and folk beliefs.Then the relationship between the Kumbum and Six Tribes in modernsociety is revealed.The fifth chapter concentrates on the evolution of the economic relationship betweenKumbum and the Six Tribes.Firstly,the economy of Kumbum,the subsistence of the Six Tribes, and their economic duties before 1958 are introduced.Secondly,it explains the changing ofeconomic relationship between Kumbum and the Six Tribes.The conclusion is that the traditionalmChod-Yon ties are"bestowal of presents"in which each takes its needs mutually.When thetraditional relationship ended,the Six Tribes no longer fulfilled the monastery's economic duties.Chapter Six does some research on the interaction between Kumbum and the last Nangso,Thuvu Sivm Yul dPon(local chieftains),and the current situation of their descendants with oraland printed materials.The conclusion suggests that Nangso in modem situation is no longer thekey position between the Kumbum and the Six Tribes,and the relation between Thuvu Sivm Yuldpon and Kumbum has ended too.The Six Tribes in the modern society seem to have lost thememories of all the relations with the culture of Kumbum.The seventh chapter is conclusion and reflection.The author analyzes the changes ofmChod-Yon ties and the reasons.Lastly it discusses the confusion and values about WritingEthnography and the historical anthropological approach combining the research experiences andconfusions.