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There were three main social groups in
Tibet
Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa people, ...
prior to 1959, namely ordinary
laypeople (''mi ser'' in Tibetan), lay
nobility
Nobility is a social class found in many societies that have an aristocracy (class), aristocracy. It is normally ranked immediately below Royal family, royalty. Nobility has often been an Estates of the realm, estate of the realm with many e ...
(''sger pa''), and
monk
A monk (, from el, μοναχός, ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a person who practices religious asceticism by monastic living, either alone or with any number of other monks. A monk may be a person who decides to dedica ...
s. The ordinary layperson could be further classified as a
peasant
A peasant is a pre-industrial agricultural laborer or a farmer with limited land-ownership, especially one living in the Middle Ages under feudalism and paying rent, tax, fees, or services to a landlord. In Europe, three classes of peasants ...
farmer (''shing-pa'') or nomadic
pastoralist (''trokpa'').
The
Tsangpa
Tsangpa (; ) was a dynasty that dominated large parts of Tibet from 1565 to 1642. It was the last Tibetan royal dynasty to rule in their own name. The regime was founded by Karma Tseten, a low-born retainer of the prince of the Rinpungpa Dynasty ...
Dynasty (1565-1642) and
Ganden Phodrang
The Ganden Phodrang or Ganden Podrang (; ) was the Tibetan system of government established by the 5th Dalai Lama in 1642; it operated in Tibet until the 1950s. Lhasa became the capital of Tibet again early in this period, after the Oirat lo ...
(1642-1950) law codes distinguished three social divisions: high, medium and low. Each in turn was divided into three classes, to give nine classes in all. Social status was a formal classification, mostly hereditary and had legal consequences: for example the compensation to be paid for the killing of a member of these classes varied from 5 (for the lowest) to 200 'sung' for the second highest, the members of the noble families.
Nobles, government officials and monks of pure conduct were in the high division, only – probably – the
Dalai Lama
Dalai Lama (, ; ) is a title given by the Tibetan people to the foremost spiritual leader of the Gelug or "Yellow Hat" school of Tibetan Buddhism, the newest and most dominant of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism. The 14th and current Dal ...
was in the very highest class. The middle division contained a large portion of the population and ranged from minor government officials, to taxpayer and landholding peasants, to landless peasants.
Social mobility
Social mobility is the movement of individuals, families, households or other categories of people within or between social strata in a society. It is a change in social status relative to one's current social location within a given society ...
was possible in the middle division.
[Goldstein 1986] The lower division contained ragyabpa ('
untouchables') of different types: e.g.
blacksmith
A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects primarily from wrought iron or steel, but sometimes from #Other metals, other metals, by forging the metal, using tools to hammer, bend, and cut (cf. tinsmith). Blacksmiths produce objects such ...
s and
butcher
A butcher is a person who may Animal slaughter, slaughter animals, dress their flesh, sell their meat, or participate within any combination of these three tasks. They may prepare standard cuts of meat and poultry for sale in retail or wholesal ...
s. The very lowest class contained
executioner
An executioner, also known as a hangman or headsman, is an official who executes a sentence of capital punishment on a legally condemned person.
Scope and job
The executioner was usually presented with a warrant authorising or order ...
s, and (in the Tsang code)
bachelor
A bachelor is a man who is not and has never been married.Bachelors are, in Pitt & al.'s phrasing, "men who live independently, outside of their parents' home and other institutional settings, who are neither married nor cohabitating". ().
Etymo ...
s and
hermaphrodite
In reproductive biology, a hermaphrodite () is an organism that has both kinds of reproductive organs and can produce both gametes associated with male and female sexes.
Many Taxonomy (biology), taxonomic groups of animals (mostly invertebrate ...
s.
[French p. 114]
Anthropologist
An anthropologist is a person engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropology is the study of aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms and ...
s have presented different taxonomies for the middle social division, in part because they studied specific regions of Tibet and the terms were not universal.
[Goldstein (May 1971) p.524][Childs (2003) pp.441–442] Both
Melvyn Goldstein
Melvyn C. Goldstein (born February 8, 1938) is an American social anthropologist and Tibet scholar. He is a professor of anthropology at Case Western Reserve University and a member of the National Academy of Sciences.
His research focuses on ...
and Geoff Childs however classified the population into three main types:
[Goldstein (1971) pp.65–66][Childs (2003) pp.427–428]
*
taxpayer
A taxpayer is a person or organization (such as a company) subject to pay a tax. Modern taxpayers may have an Taxpayer Identification Number, identification number, a reference number issued by a government to Citizenship, citizens or Company, f ...
families (''tre-ba''
or ''khral-pa''
)
*
householder Householder may refer to:
*Householder, a person who is the head of a household
*Householder (Buddhism), a Buddhist term most broadly referring to any layperson
* Householder (surname), notable people with the surname
*''The Householder'', a 1963 I ...
s (''du-jong''
or ''dud-chung-ba''
)
* landless peasants (''mi-bo''
)
In the middle group, the taxpaying families could be quite wealthy. Depending upon the district, each category had different responsibilities in terms of tax and labor. Membership to each of these classes was primarily
hereditary
Heredity, also called inheritance or biological inheritance, is the passing on of traits from parents to their offspring; either through asexual reproduction or sexual reproduction, the offspring cells or organisms acquire the genetic inform ...
; the linkage between subjects and their estate and
overlord
An overlord in the English feudal system was a lord of a manor who had subinfeudated a particular manor, estate or fee, to a tenant. The tenant thenceforth owed to the overlord one of a variety of services, usually military service or serje ...
was similarly transmitted through parallel descent. The taxpayer class, although numerically smallest among the three subclasses, occupied a superior position in terms of political and economic status.
The question of whether
serfdom
Serfdom was the status of many peasants under feudalism, specifically relating to manorialism, and similar systems. It was a condition of debt bondage and indentured servitude with similarities to and differences from slavery, which develop ...
prevailed in traditional Tibetan society is controversial; argues for a moderate position, recognizing that serfdom existed but was not universal in
Tibet
Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa people, ...
; a better description of the traditional Tibetan social class system would be a
caste system
Caste is a form of social stratification characterised by endogamy, hereditary transmission of a style of life which often includes an occupation, ritual status in a hierarchy, and customary social interaction and exclusion based on cultura ...
, rather than a comparison to European
feudalism
Feudalism, also known as the feudal system, was the combination of the legal, economic, military, cultural and political customs that flourished in medieval Europe between the 9th and 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a way of structur ...
.
The Higher Division
The highest of the high class was empty, or only contained possibly the Dalai Lama
The Nobility
The middle class of the high division – the highest attainable in practice – was headed by the hereditary nobility. ''Yabshi'' were thought to be descendants of the Dalai Lamas, ''depon'' were descendants of the ancient royal families, ''midak'' were on a slightly lower level.
There were "a small group of about 30 higher status families" and "120 to 170 lower or 'common' aristocratic families".
High Government and Monk Officials
High government officials were appointed from the
aristocracy
Aristocracy (, ) is a form of government that places strength in the hands of a small, privileged ruling class, the aristocracy (class), aristocrats. The term derives from the el, αριστοκρατία (), meaning 'rule of the best'.
At t ...
. Monk officials were usually drawn from Lhasa middle classes, the families of existing monk officials, or were the second sons of the aristocracy. They were usually monks in name only, one night spent in a monastery being sufficient to qualify as a monk for this purpose.
The Middle Division
Taxpayer families
The ''treba'' (also ''tralpa'' or ''khral-pa'') taxpayers lived in "corporate family units" that hereditarily owned estates leased from their district authority, complete with
land titles
Land registration is any of various systems by which matters concerning ownership, possession, or other rights in land are formally recorded (usually with a government agency or department) to provide evidence of title, facilitate transactions, a ...
. In Goldstein's review of the Gyantse district he found that a taxpayer family typically owned from to of land each. Their primary civil responsibility was to pay
tax
A tax is a compulsory financial charge or some other type of levy imposed on a taxpayer (an individual or legal entity) by a governmental organization in order to fund government spending and various public expenditures (regional, local, or n ...
es (''tre-ba'' and ''khral-pa'' means "taxpayer"), and to supply
corvée
Corvée () is a form of unpaid, forced labour, that is intermittent in nature lasting for limited periods of time: typically for only a certain number of days' work each year.
Statute labour is a corvée imposed by a state for the purposes of ...
services that included both human and animal labor to their district authority.
They had a comfortable standard of living. They also frequently practiced
polyandry
Polyandry (; ) is a form of polygamy in which a woman takes two or more husbands at the same time. Polyandry is contrasted with polygyny, involving one male and two or more females. If a marriage involves a plural number of "husbands and wives" ...
in marriage and other practices to maintain a single marriage per generation and avoid parceling land holdings.
Householders
The householder class (''du-jung'', ''dud-chung-ba''
''duiqoin'', ''duiqion, düchung, dudchhung, duigoin'' or ''dujung'') comprised peasants who held only small plots of land that were legally and literally "individual" possessions. This was different from the taxpayer families who owned land as a familial corporation. Land inheritance rules for the householders were quite different from taxpayer family rules, in that there was no certainty as to whether a plot of land would be inherited by his son. The district authority — either governmental, monastic, or aristocratic — was the ultimate
landowner and decided inheritance. Compared to the taxpayer families the householders, however, had lighter tax obligations and only human labor
corvée
Corvée () is a form of unpaid, forced labour, that is intermittent in nature lasting for limited periods of time: typically for only a certain number of days' work each year.
Statute labour is a corvée imposed by a state for the purposes of ...
obligations to their district authorities. These obligations, unlike the taxpayer family obligations, fell only on the individual and not on his family.
Landless peasants
Landless peasants (''mi-bo'') did not have heritable rights to land. They were still obligated to their 'owning' estate under their status as ''mi-ser''. In contrast with the taxpayer families and householders, they had the freedom to go wherever they wanted and could engage in trade or crafts. When farming, they might
lease
A lease is a contractual arrangement calling for the user (referred to as the ''lessee'') to pay the owner (referred to as the ''lessor'') for the use of an asset. Property, buildings and vehicles are common assets that are leased. Industrial ...
land from taxpayer families and as payment take on work for those families. Like the householders the landless peasants also used resources in their own individual capacity which were non-heritable.
The relative freedom of the mi-bo status was usually purchased by an annual fee to the estate to which the mi-bo belonged. The fee could be raised if the mi-bo prospered, and the lord could still exact special corvée labor, e.g. for a special event.
The status could be revoked at the will of the estate owner. The offspring of the mi-bo did not automatically inherit the status of 'mi-bo', they did inherit the status of 'mi-ser', and could be indentured to service in their earlier teens, or would have to pay their own mi-bo fee.
The Lower Division
Ragyabpa – Untouchables
The ''ragyabpa'' or untouchable caste were the lowest level, and they performed the 'unclean' work. This included fishermen, butchers, executioners, corpse disposers, blacksmiths, goldsmiths and prostitutes. ''Ragyabpa'' were also divided into three divisions: for instance a
goldsmith
A goldsmith is a Metalworking, metalworker who specializes in working with gold and other precious metals. Nowadays they mainly specialize in jewelry-making but historically, goldsmiths have also made cutlery, silverware, platter (dishware), pl ...
was in the highest untouchable class, and was not regarded as being as defiled as an executioner, who was in the lowest.
They were regarded as both polluted and polluting, membership of the caste was hereditary, and escape from the untouchable status was not possible.
Nangzan – Household servants
According to Chinese government sources, ''Nangzan'' (also ''nangzen, nangzan, nangsen'') were hereditary household servants comprising 5% of the population.
[Learn Chinese]
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Slavery
According to American sinologist A. Tom Grunfeld
A. Tom Grunfeld (born 22 May 1946) is an American academic who is SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor at Empire State College of the State University of New York, who specializes in the modern history of East Asia, particularly of China and Tib ...
there were a few slaves in Tibet. Grunfeld quotes Sir Charles Bell
Sir Charles Bell (12 November 177428 April 1842) was a Scotland, Scottish surgeon, anatomist, physiologist, neurologist, artist, and philosophical theologian. He is noted for discovering the difference between sensory nerves and motor nerves in ...
, a British colonial official in the Chumbi Valley in the early 20th century and a Tibet scholar who wrote of slaves in the form of small children being stolen or bought from their parents, too poor to support them, to be brought up and kept or sold as slaves. These children came mostly from south-eastern Tibet and the territories of the tribes that dwelt between Tibet and Assam.[Charles Bell, ''Tibet Past and Present'', Motilal Banarsidass Publ., 1992, 376 pages, pp. xviii and 78–79: "Slavery was not unknown in the Chumbi Valley during our occupation, but proximity to British India had greatly lessened the numbers of the slaves, so that only a dozen or two remained. Across the frontier in Bhutan there were a great many. / Slaves were sometimes stolen, when small children, from their parents. Or the father and mother being too poor to support their child, would sell it to a man, who paid them sho-ring, 'price of mother's milk', brought up the child and kept it, or sold it, as a slave. These children come mostly from south-eastern Tibet and the territories of the wild tribes who dwell between Tibet and Assam. / Two slaves whom I saw both appeared to have come from this tribal territory. They had been stolen from their parents when five years old, and sold in Lhasa for about seven pounds each. ../ Slaves received food and clothing from their masters on the same scale as servants, but no pay. ../ The slavery in the Chumpi valley was of a very mild type. If a slave was not well treated, it was easy for him to escape into Sikkim and British India."] Grunfeld omits Bell's elaboration that in 1905, there were "a dozen or two" of these, and that it was "a very mild form of slavery". According to exile Tibetan writer Jamyang Norbu
Jamyang Norbu ( Tibetan: འཇམ་དབྱངས་ནོར་བུ་, Wylie: 'jam-dbyangs nor-bu) is a Tibetan political activist and writer, currently living in the United States, having previously lived for over 40 years as a Tibetan exi ...
, later accounts from Westerners who visited Tibet and even long-term foreign residents such as Heinrich Harrer
Heinrich Harrer (; 6 July 1912 – 7 January 2006) was an Austrian mountaineer, sportsman, geographer, ''Oberscharführer'' in the ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS), and author. He was a member of the four-man climbing team that made the first ascent of th ...
, Peter Aufschnaiter
Peter Aufschnaiter (2 November 1899 – 12 October 1973) was an Austrian mountaineer, agricultural scientist, geographer and cartographer. His experiences with fellow climber Heinrich Harrer during World War II were depicted in the 1997 film ''S ...
, Hugh Richardson and David Macdonald make no mention of any such practice, which suggests that the 13th Dalai Lama must have eliminated this practice altogether in his reforms.
Notes
References
*Childs, Geoff. 2003
"Polyandry and population growth in a Historical Tibetan Society"
''History of the Family'', 8:423–444.
*French, Rebecca (2002) ''The Golden Yoke'',
*Goldstein, Melvyn C. (1971
''Southwestern Journal of Anthropology'', 27(1): 64–74.
*Goldstein, Melvyn C. (1971) ''Serfdom and Mobility: An Examination of the Institution of "Human Lease" in Traditional Tibetan Society The Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 30, No. 3, (May, 1971), pp. 521–534
*Goldstein, Melvyn C. (1987)
* Goldstein, Melvyn C. ''A History of Modern Tibet, 1913–1951: The Demise of the Lamaist State'' (1989) University of California Press.
** Goldstein, Melvyn C. ''A History of Modern Tibet, 1913–1951: The Demise of the Lamaist State'' (1989), first Indian edition (1993) Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers, New Delhi, Pagination is identical to University of California edition.
* Grunfeld, A. Tom (1996) ''The making of Modern Tibet'', Revised Edition, Armonk, New York: M. E. Sharpe, xvi + 352 p.
**Grunfield's work, which generally mirrors the Chinese government viewpoint, has been severely criticized by Tibetan critics, se
"Acme of Obscenity: Tom Grunfeld and The Making of Modern Tibet"
by Jamyang Norbu, 18 August 2008,
*Laird, Thomas (2006) ''The Story of Tibet''
*
{{Tibet topics