1 00:00:08,040 --> 00:00:20,900 Good evening. Good day, everybody. Around the world. I'm very, very, very happy to see so many of you joining in once again for our first day session. 2 00:00:20,900 --> 00:00:27,950 And today we want to talk about the origins of the Tibetans. 3 00:00:27,950 --> 00:00:29,330 The purpose. 4 00:00:29,330 --> 00:00:46,690 And we want to go into the myths, the origins, stories, and compared with various anthropological theories presented by our guest speaker, 5 00:00:46,690 --> 00:00:50,990 who is currently zooming in from Vienna, Austria, 6 00:00:50,990 --> 00:00:59,920 where he's a researcher at the Institute for the Cultural and Intellectual History of Asia at the Austrian Academy of Sciences. 7 00:00:59,920 --> 00:01:07,540 His general research focuses on the historic epigraphy of the Tibetan plateau and his future visitation. 8 00:01:07,540 --> 00:01:13,180 Send us one post Imperial Clan genealogies, especially the Lang clan. 9 00:01:13,180 --> 00:01:20,230 If I'm not mistaken, rhinos, start your squinter and take it away. 10 00:01:20,230 --> 00:01:31,440 All right. So, yeah, thanks to everybody for for joining, I'm happy to see so many familiar and some unfamiliar faces as well. 11 00:01:31,440 --> 00:01:42,090 So today I will reflect a little bit on the role that Buddhism played in formulating and sustaining and promoting notions of Tibetan identity. 12 00:01:42,090 --> 00:01:52,350 So every time I take Tibetan, you can imagine square quotes, scare quotes reflect Tibetan poop, our poo, me, et cetera. 13 00:01:52,350 --> 00:02:00,140 The period I will roughly cover. Start from the later spread of the DA motorcycle cheetah. 14 00:02:00,140 --> 00:02:03,920 And runs on until approximately the beginning of the 20th century. 15 00:02:03,920 --> 00:02:09,670 So when modern Tibet nationalism is considered to have taken off. 16 00:02:09,670 --> 00:02:17,380 Various authors have already and rightly pointed out the relevance of Buddhist ethno genetic myths from especially the 12th, 17 00:02:17,380 --> 00:02:22,890 11th, 12th century onward in shaping this notion of the Tibetans. 18 00:02:22,890 --> 00:02:33,100 But it's social Sabin's. So the traction that it actually had underground and its spread and historical dynamics remain under researched. 19 00:02:33,100 --> 00:02:43,190 These issues form the topic of a research project that my colleague at the ICJ was called and I intend to start the following year. 20 00:02:43,190 --> 00:02:51,010 So although this talk obviously builds on prior research, in some ways, it's also a springboard for what is to come. 21 00:02:51,010 --> 00:02:56,660 So I welcome any and all feedback. Now, 22 00:02:56,660 --> 00:03:05,720 I will start out with a summary review of theoretical approaches concerning interregional collective identities before the rise of the modern age, 23 00:03:05,720 --> 00:03:15,750 think ethnicity, nation and so on. I will then sketch the lay of the land concerning this topic within the pathology. 24 00:03:15,750 --> 00:03:24,300 Next, I will outline how state power and religion both played a pivotal role in the genesis of the notion of the Tibetans and argue how 25 00:03:24,300 --> 00:03:32,850 Buddhism was a pivotal force in sustaining and spreading this idea through a well-known myth concerning the origins of the Tibetans. 26 00:03:32,850 --> 00:03:38,910 I will also discuss some of the variations we find in various permutations of this myth. 27 00:03:38,910 --> 00:03:44,810 Touch on it spread. And I think this to broader debates. 28 00:03:44,810 --> 00:03:57,060 All right. So, as I mentioned, there is a broad interdisciplinary debate on the prevalence of premodern, large scale collective identities. 29 00:03:57,060 --> 00:04:05,010 And these debates cover the fields of anthropology, history, sociology, political and regional studies. 30 00:04:05,010 --> 00:04:14,870 So although enquiries into this cluster of themes of ethnicity and race and nationalism and so on cover a panoply of research perspectives, 31 00:04:14,870 --> 00:04:21,410 the historical field is still dominated by the so-called modernist paradigm. 32 00:04:21,410 --> 00:04:29,950 Now, modernists stressed the recent advent of such into regional forms of collective identity, 33 00:04:29,950 --> 00:04:34,230 and these approaches are primarily associated with the works of Benedek Anderson. 34 00:04:34,230 --> 00:04:38,170 Eric Hobsbawm and Ernest Gellner. 35 00:04:38,170 --> 00:04:47,020 By and large, modern date, the origins of such identities to the late 18th century and the rise of modern nationalism, 36 00:04:47,020 --> 00:04:50,620 and they locate their insipient in recent historical processes, 37 00:04:50,620 --> 00:05:01,420 such as the impact of the French Revolution, state building industrialisation, print capitalism, mass democracy, colonialism, bureaucracy. 38 00:05:01,420 --> 00:05:11,910 A new communication technologies. Although the most influential works such as these depicted here are concerned with nationalism as such. 39 00:05:11,910 --> 00:05:18,060 They, of course, link up with and have affected scholarship's understanding of ethnicity as well. 40 00:05:18,060 --> 00:05:27,400 So ethnicity, too, is regularly considered a modern phenomenon and certainly in its salient forms tied to European colonialism, 41 00:05:27,400 --> 00:05:34,010 a modern state imposed ethnic classifications and other modern dynamics. 42 00:05:34,010 --> 00:05:37,120 Just Martinus viewpoint, obviously, as much going for it, 43 00:05:37,120 --> 00:05:45,380 informed and still forms and important scholarly counterweight to the power of nationalist mythologies. 44 00:05:45,380 --> 00:05:53,420 Yet the modernist approach has also been criticised for failing to address why such identities could so suddenly take flight. 45 00:05:53,420 --> 00:06:03,610 Appearing almost out of the blue. Therefore, what? 46 00:06:03,610 --> 00:06:10,240 Therefore, what Anthony Smith called Perenyi list approaches. 47 00:06:10,240 --> 00:06:12,570 Argue rather differently. 48 00:06:12,570 --> 00:06:21,790 They say that large collective identities were also a recurring feature of earlier eras as well, although they were by no means standard. 49 00:06:21,790 --> 00:06:32,800 Such scholars argue that these older identity constructs provided antecedents that could be picked up and amplified into modern nationalist age. 50 00:06:32,800 --> 00:06:37,240 The scholarship, therefore, generally tends to highlight the goal of myths, memory, 51 00:06:37,240 --> 00:06:45,510 symbols and religion at large rather than modern states in fostering super regional communities. 52 00:06:45,510 --> 00:06:51,200 Per emulous, authors would embrace, for instance, the assessment forwarded by Richard Jenkins, 53 00:06:51,200 --> 00:06:58,740 who wrote in the context of Northern Ireland that religion can powerfully bear institutional clout with cultural content, 54 00:06:58,740 --> 00:07:08,500 and that is ritual symbolisation of identity constitutes an effective way to make collective identities matter to individuals. 55 00:07:08,500 --> 00:07:16,910 Now, a recurring matter of contention between these two strains of thought modernists and perennial lists. 56 00:07:16,910 --> 00:07:21,140 And this is particularly pertinent to the Tibetan case is the premodern social 57 00:07:21,140 --> 00:07:27,110 relevance of ethnic origin myths that are only invested in written form, 58 00:07:27,110 --> 00:07:33,500 modernist theory, Bartali, see such a test of narratives as literary or political fictions that we're 59 00:07:33,500 --> 00:07:41,040 confined to written sources that circulated largely amongst literate elites. 60 00:07:41,040 --> 00:07:50,100 These athletes, they argue, were quite firmly cordoned off from local communities in general or. 61 00:07:50,100 --> 00:08:00,820 So they tend to see premodern societies as depicted in this in this figure, as comprised of governor's words, quote, small, 62 00:08:00,820 --> 00:08:09,480 self-contained communities, end of quote, that were marked by high degrees of social stratification and cultural and linguistic diversity. 63 00:08:09,480 --> 00:08:12,230 Botanists accordingly argued that such conditions stopped. 64 00:08:12,230 --> 00:08:23,490 Overarching identity constructs from taking hold at a grass roots level prior to modernity and education and states and TV's and phones and. 65 00:08:23,490 --> 00:08:29,800 The Telegraph and so on allow for more connectivity. 66 00:08:29,800 --> 00:08:38,260 Perennial lists, on the other hand, can, of course, such myths far more weight by stressing the fluid boundaries between written works and a remedy, 67 00:08:38,260 --> 00:08:43,400 clergyman's mediating roles between transregional literature and local communities, 68 00:08:43,400 --> 00:08:49,440 and the influence of widespread cultic networks, epic traditions and pilgrimage. 69 00:08:49,440 --> 00:08:59,610 So in the figure displayed here, and I hope everybody can can see it decently, even though it's not quite full size, the lines that separate. 70 00:08:59,610 --> 00:09:12,550 Here at the upper strata from local communities within four perennials not be drawn so firmly. 71 00:09:12,550 --> 00:09:21,390 So. Related issues that still need to be addressed, but they still need to be addressed within to pathology. 72 00:09:21,390 --> 00:09:28,820 Also remain open debates in numerous academic fields with far longer histories than Tibetan studies. 73 00:09:28,820 --> 00:09:36,860 The history of the Arabs, for instance, has been subject to multiple monograph studies in the past two decades. 74 00:09:36,860 --> 00:09:46,400 And in early mediaeval European studies to historical social traction of origin myths is still being debated, sometimes quite hotly. 75 00:09:46,400 --> 00:09:47,540 Across other disciplines, 76 00:09:47,540 --> 00:09:57,950 an area studies to the question as to the extent to which such myths and associated identities held sway amongst local populations poses a, 77 00:09:57,950 --> 00:10:03,820 quote, seemingly insurmountable empirical obstacle. 78 00:10:03,820 --> 00:10:16,270 As our guest recently summarised the issue. Eric Hobsbawm, too, noted that gauging the traction of such super regional identity constructs is, quote, 79 00:10:16,270 --> 00:10:21,070 enormously difficult since it implies discovering the sentiments of the electorate who 80 00:10:21,070 --> 00:10:27,650 form the overwhelming majority of the world's population before the 20th century. 81 00:10:27,650 --> 00:10:34,450 Now, although we may never settle this issue to our content, the breadth and historical depth of Tibetan literature, 82 00:10:34,450 --> 00:10:37,870 which is still largely invisible in interdisciplinary debates, 83 00:10:37,870 --> 00:10:44,530 does extend a promising helping hand and can be expected to be a theoretical value beyond the bounds of Tibetan studies. 84 00:10:44,530 --> 00:10:55,180 To not only are ethno genetic myths copiously attested in Tibetan sources, but various works also provide some insights, 85 00:10:55,180 --> 00:11:09,680 some insight into underground application and usage of ethnic hymns and occasionally even your insight into the oral dimensions of such myths. 86 00:11:09,680 --> 00:11:16,590 Now, as it has been pointed out by several authors in recent years, scholars of Tibetan history have been, 87 00:11:16,590 --> 00:11:23,550 historically speaking anyway largely unconcerned with Tibetan ethnicity and the processes of its formation. 88 00:11:23,550 --> 00:11:25,380 Persistence and adaptation. 89 00:11:25,380 --> 00:11:36,840 So, for instance, Eric Schneiderman and Jerome Rush and Roitman and Donna Bialik as a forthcoming article where they address this issue. 90 00:11:36,840 --> 00:11:45,540 So the label Tibet has therefore often served as a as an under reflected analytic tool, 91 00:11:45,540 --> 00:11:53,970 which is both rooted in and also fuels presumptions often quote on problematically homogeneous Tibetan realm. 92 00:11:53,970 --> 00:12:01,480 To cite Jovic Rush. Now, although some historical outlines of the appearance of Tibetan identity have been published, 93 00:12:01,480 --> 00:12:10,190 no study to date has forward any substantial analysis of the historical records developing notions of who the Tibetans are. 94 00:12:10,190 --> 00:12:17,670 Where they were believed to come from and how this identity was deployed and adapted over time and space. 95 00:12:17,670 --> 00:12:28,480 Such historical research is still marked by a lack of appreciation for ethnicity as a flexible social cognitive process of classification. 96 00:12:28,480 --> 00:12:33,160 Which accordingly can also undergo dramatic shifts over time. 97 00:12:33,160 --> 00:12:41,310 And this, of course, has been shown for the Arabs, the Germans, the Chinese as well. 98 00:12:41,310 --> 00:12:49,320 Now, amongst typical logical publications that broach ethnicity for any of its perspectives are mostly championed in historical work, 99 00:12:49,320 --> 00:12:55,120 which tends to emphasise Buddhist historiography, religious history and mythology. 100 00:12:55,120 --> 00:12:59,560 Here, especially the work by Dreifus, Hot Sauce and Kapstream, 101 00:12:59,560 --> 00:13:07,480 maybe highlight it will stress the historical content contingency of Tibetan identity and the role of Buddhism and early treasured 102 00:13:07,480 --> 00:13:16,510 literature such as such as the Kachin Kakuma and the money come boom in moving it during the first centuries of the second millennium. 103 00:13:16,510 --> 00:13:25,650 No, notably, these authors and many other historians have suggested that Premodern Koopa identity was quite salient by describing 104 00:13:25,650 --> 00:13:33,660 the Tibetans so ways in the historical perspective of problematic singular with terms such as nation or a people. 105 00:13:33,660 --> 00:13:44,970 Political, political, cultural community in the singular or Proteau nationalism, the term originally coined by Hobsbawm. 106 00:13:44,970 --> 00:13:54,150 This is a bit too simplistic. As ethnographers and sociologists have shown in talking to pathologists have also argued. 107 00:13:54,150 --> 00:14:03,210 You know, historians have really sought to address the gap that set separated literary myth 108 00:14:03,210 --> 00:14:10,780 from sociological realities or these myths developments over the centuries. 109 00:14:10,780 --> 00:14:19,150 Oftentimes to theological studies of ethnic origin narratives have presumed the extent sources to preserve some ancient 110 00:14:19,150 --> 00:14:26,290 historical facts and have accordingly mined them for their documentation of older Proteau Tibetan population dynamics. 111 00:14:26,290 --> 00:14:36,930 And this is something that Stein, for instance, did. And I would instead suggest reading such sources as proactive contributors to the construction, 112 00:14:36,930 --> 00:14:51,100 upkeep or transformation of a plastic Tibetan identity, which was subject to quite widely different interpretations by different people. 113 00:14:51,100 --> 00:14:57,460 Recent ethnographic and sociological research on the Tibetan Plateau on the Tibetan Plateau has actually 114 00:14:57,460 --> 00:15:05,760 reigned attention on the topic of ethnicity and is generally far more cognisant of its dynamic nature. 115 00:15:05,760 --> 00:15:11,780 He studies, however, even when including diachronic approaches are largely focussed on the 20th and 116 00:15:11,780 --> 00:15:16,670 21st centuries and tend to stress the influence of institutions and processes. 117 00:15:16,670 --> 00:15:27,960 Typical of the period of the People's Republic of China. Arguably, most extensive review of Tibetan identity was also written by a sociologist, Ben. 118 00:15:27,960 --> 00:15:33,490 And similarly takes a rather modernist, state focussed stance. 119 00:15:33,490 --> 00:15:40,870 He stresses pre-existing local variety on the Tibetan plateau and the, quote, profound impact of Chinese state building. 120 00:15:40,870 --> 00:15:48,560 End of quote, in overcoming these differences. Into 20th and 21st century. 121 00:15:48,560 --> 00:15:58,280 Of course, partly due to Hillman's methodology and also partly due likely to the modern focus of the volume in which we published. 122 00:15:58,280 --> 00:16:02,930 It's notable that this article repeatedly mentions, for instance, the role of social media. 123 00:16:02,930 --> 00:16:08,150 Yet never once mentions the existence of long pedigree, ethnic origin narratives. 124 00:16:08,150 --> 00:16:16,740 So this kind of goes to show the disconnect between some of the historical work and ethnographic work. 125 00:16:16,740 --> 00:16:22,010 That has been done. 126 00:16:22,010 --> 00:16:33,320 And now, historically, both the content and spread of Tibetan ethnic origin narratives were largely tied to the sociological agenda of Buddhism, 127 00:16:33,320 --> 00:16:43,520 as well as to a lesser degree, that if the religion. Seminal renditions of a pivotal origin myth or that the Tibetans were engendered as part 128 00:16:43,520 --> 00:16:50,250 of a sociological scheme devised by the transcendental bodies offer of a taste for the. 129 00:16:50,250 --> 00:16:59,350 In a bid to turn the unsettled Tibetan plateau into a Buddhist haven, UCSF dispatched a biased monkey there. 130 00:16:59,350 --> 00:17:04,820 Who subsequently became the forefather of the region's Juman. 131 00:17:04,820 --> 00:17:10,920 Such narrations, which are preserved in numerous Buddhist works, most composed from the 12th century onward, 132 00:17:10,920 --> 00:17:18,150 detail the subsequent rise of a people held together not just by descent but also by a shared ethnonym history, 133 00:17:18,150 --> 00:17:25,790 religion, territory, livelihood, mental and even dietary predispositions. 134 00:17:25,790 --> 00:17:32,480 Their descent from Bodies Up for Monkey, for instance, supposedly explains the natural inclination for Buddhism. 135 00:17:32,480 --> 00:17:42,620 While his partner, the bloodthirsty rock demon, as the truck's animal explains, in some instances, Tibetans love for meat. 136 00:17:42,620 --> 00:17:44,570 Such descriptions, of course, 137 00:17:44,570 --> 00:17:57,440 subsumed various populations into a single and coherent imagined community and may uncontroversially be called ethnic origin narratives. 138 00:17:57,440 --> 00:18:08,450 Therefore, it early tested notions of the Tibetans were girded to this narrative spread and to the fortunes of Buddhism itself. 139 00:18:08,450 --> 00:18:20,310 Judging by the strong foothold, this narrative and the religion attained over time doesn't seem to have been a key facilitator of Tibetan ethno Gen. 140 00:18:20,310 --> 00:18:36,410 Buddhism was also particularly important to this identity's maintenance and adaptation throughout extended periods of political fragmentation. 141 00:18:36,410 --> 00:18:46,820 Now, state formation and other political developments, of course, also played a pivotal role in this process of ethno genesis, 142 00:18:46,820 --> 00:18:54,020 the rise of the Tibetans, so to say, of the idea of the Tibetans. 143 00:18:54,020 --> 00:19:00,460 The Tibetan Empire much like to contain contemporaneous Arabs on. 144 00:19:00,460 --> 00:19:06,430 Provided the initial impulse for ethanol, Janis's by spreading the old Tibetan language, 145 00:19:06,430 --> 00:19:13,780 boosting transregional ties and contacts and providing large parts of the Tibetan plateau with the shared political legacy, 146 00:19:13,780 --> 00:19:22,300 its rulers engagement with South Asian Buddhists also precipitated one of the first extend origin narratives of the Tibetans. 147 00:19:22,300 --> 00:19:27,760 Written by the missionary Pratts Navarro amongst around the turn of the second millennium. 148 00:19:27,760 --> 00:19:34,180 Of course, Buddhist monasteries and lineages also became political powerhouses in their own right. 149 00:19:34,180 --> 00:19:47,410 And in keeping with Buddha's premise that ethnicity fundamentally revolves around the political and symbolical struggle over how society is divided, 150 00:19:47,410 --> 00:19:55,270 divvied up into different categories. The influence of powerbrokers and political events and social agendas is, of course, 151 00:19:55,270 --> 00:20:03,290 of high relevance when analysing origin myths and developments and changes. 152 00:20:03,290 --> 00:20:09,770 So. Despite political influences. 153 00:20:09,770 --> 00:20:18,530 It was primarily religious remembrance that provided the surface onto which the Tibetans would come to be inscribed over the centuries. 154 00:20:18,530 --> 00:20:21,230 Cultural memory of the imperial state period. 155 00:20:21,230 --> 00:20:30,110 The golden age of later historiography grew to be dominated by Buddhist historians after the empire collapsed in the mid 9th century. 156 00:20:30,110 --> 00:20:38,910 So in the important post, Imperial Buddhist treasure texts as well as in copious later works. 157 00:20:38,910 --> 00:20:49,570 The Tibetans would regularly function as a foil to idealised emperors were now reframed as Buddhist kings of a transcendental nature. 158 00:20:49,570 --> 00:20:54,640 The populace here provided a hierarchical correlate to these different eyes rulers. 159 00:20:54,640 --> 00:21:00,530 They the Tibetans were the field of action of divine rule. 160 00:21:00,530 --> 00:21:07,770 If this is clear from the fact that imperial pedigree's in sources were often prefaced by the genesis of their subjects, 161 00:21:07,770 --> 00:21:12,490 it just happens in the dungeons and in the kitchen cocoa's mine and numerous other histories. 162 00:21:12,490 --> 00:21:16,770 So you get the people and then you get the king's. 163 00:21:16,770 --> 00:21:24,460 Moreover, the status of these emperors as emanations of celestial bodies outfits ensured that their perceived authority, 164 00:21:24,460 --> 00:21:32,140 aspirations and continued engagement with the plateau remained a guiding force. 165 00:21:32,140 --> 00:21:38,340 What quantum hotspot has called a virtual empire. 166 00:21:38,340 --> 00:21:48,150 And it was this empire, his memory of empire, the memory of the state around which Tibetan identity was written. 167 00:21:48,150 --> 00:21:55,890 And this process also has parallels in other cultures and religions, so, for instance, 168 00:21:55,890 --> 00:22:07,560 Adrian Hastings has written about how early Christian nations is the term he uses, develop their identities around a succession of canonised kings. 169 00:22:07,560 --> 00:22:16,260 So religious remembrance of the state and its rulers form the cornerstone of such early identity constructs. 170 00:22:16,260 --> 00:22:21,300 Now, to appraise the role Buddhism played in bolstering the notion of the Tibetans. 171 00:22:21,300 --> 00:22:32,000 Several questions arise. So to what extent did individual forces presenting this myth, such as the Kachin Kakuma, attain canonical status? 172 00:22:32,000 --> 00:22:36,890 How flexible and innovative was this narrative in the hands of various narrators? 173 00:22:36,890 --> 00:22:41,940 How and in which context was it used and to what end? 174 00:22:41,940 --> 00:22:47,250 To capture these dynamics in recognition of the narrative nature of much of the available evidence, 175 00:22:47,250 --> 00:22:52,970 we want to talk about ethnicity and the historical context. I will not turn to. 176 00:22:52,970 --> 00:23:02,930 I will not address the variety of these narrations, a variety that has sometimes gone unrecognised. 177 00:23:02,930 --> 00:23:11,120 Now, although this ethno genetic myths myth was already known about in the 18th century. 178 00:23:11,120 --> 00:23:19,100 And quite widely published on in the 19th century. No, Thorold diachronic study of it has ever been undertaken. 179 00:23:19,100 --> 00:23:30,840 In a piece for a general audience packed Fana as very helpfully illustrated the variety of myths, permutations, which he reports to be numerous. 180 00:23:30,840 --> 00:23:38,010 And Pat Stevenson has compared the myth is preserved in certain seminal sources with the rendition in the 14th century. 181 00:23:38,010 --> 00:23:46,750 It got upset when Mannitol. That, of course, this myth was not it was understandably not his primary concern in this translation of that work, 182 00:23:46,750 --> 00:23:57,230 and he concluded that all covert operations are more or less congruous with one retention of the catch him Kakuma being slightly more detailed. 183 00:23:57,230 --> 00:24:06,230 This conclusion, when we look at more sources, this conclusion glosses over substantial differences between individual works and even between 184 00:24:06,230 --> 00:24:19,520 individual receptions of work sites such as the catchin Kakuma actually differ quite considerably. 185 00:24:19,520 --> 00:24:27,880 As might be expected from the white social and geographic divisions of the Tibetan plateau and from the imagined nature of identities in general, 186 00:24:27,880 --> 00:24:37,810 just origin myth was not stable in for. Nor was it the only narrative about the origin of the Tibetans and also other myths. 187 00:24:37,810 --> 00:24:46,970 So there are numerous permutations with stories of the Tibetans migrating from ancient India or sharing ancestry with the Chinese and Mongols. 188 00:24:46,970 --> 00:24:52,640 Likewise, behind the singular renown of what is often simply referred to as the monkey myth. 189 00:24:52,640 --> 00:24:56,540 There, in fact, hides a plethora of variations. 190 00:24:56,540 --> 00:25:05,840 So there is a broad and elastic array of strands and motives that enabled local authors and agents and communities 191 00:25:05,840 --> 00:25:13,850 to project a particular self understanding or concern onto the cognitive template of the population at large. 192 00:25:13,850 --> 00:25:21,810 In the process, the championing or challenging various notions. 193 00:25:21,810 --> 00:25:27,530 So first and foremost, the influential bottom Kakuma, 194 00:25:27,530 --> 00:25:39,300 which was composed in the 11th or 12th century, is a famous source that already contains this myth. 195 00:25:39,300 --> 00:25:43,190 And it is in at least three different ascensions. 196 00:25:43,190 --> 00:25:53,240 The literature has mostly opted for what is in the literary school catchin Kakuma two is the oldest or preferable edition. 197 00:25:53,240 --> 00:26:01,970 But preliminary research suggests that the oldest version of this myth is in fact preserved in Kachin Kakuma three. 198 00:26:01,970 --> 00:26:09,040 For instance, it's unassuming monkey buddies up far in the third. 199 00:26:09,040 --> 00:26:16,010 Catch him cloakroom a three becomes a full blown emanation of overlooking days fire and the other sanctions. 200 00:26:16,010 --> 00:26:20,740 There are also other elements are embellished, an elaborate. 201 00:26:20,740 --> 00:26:32,590 Here, then, even within the textual history of one work, we see the ancestor being identified closer and closer with Divine Buddhists agency. 202 00:26:32,590 --> 00:26:37,960 Though many renderings such as these identify the ancestral monkey as a disciple 203 00:26:37,960 --> 00:26:41,990 or even an emanation of the region's patron DEEDI of look at this fire. 204 00:26:41,990 --> 00:26:46,090 A relatively early, perhaps 12th century reference in the Busha. 205 00:26:46,090 --> 00:26:52,470 This is the subject of Bashir Paines, this ancestor, as a plain monkey and nothing more. 206 00:26:52,470 --> 00:27:00,850 As Capstan already pointed out. This straightforward rendition, of course, leaves little room for Buddhist theology. 207 00:27:00,850 --> 00:27:05,230 And yet it appears to have retained some currency in Buddhist writings. 208 00:27:05,230 --> 00:27:10,760 It appears, for instance, in the book Genealogy and in the Putin Chintu. 209 00:27:10,760 --> 00:27:17,810 In the latter work from 13, 20 to little stock seems to be placed in the narrative. 210 00:27:17,810 --> 00:27:24,670 And there is a brief passage, but there is no mention whatsoever of anybody's US involvement. 211 00:27:24,670 --> 00:27:34,030 Some narrations, as trainers also already pointed out, identify the monkey by name as Hanuman. 212 00:27:34,030 --> 00:27:42,280 So I'm forgetting to click through the slides because I can click through them more that easily. 213 00:27:42,280 --> 00:27:51,810 Yes. Hullermann, of course, is the famous character from the Indian Ramayana epic. 214 00:27:51,810 --> 00:27:57,000 And there are also hybrid myths. 215 00:27:57,000 --> 00:28:04,620 Such as? Into Hemming's manuscript, which combined the monkey with elements from different traditions. 216 00:28:04,620 --> 00:28:08,800 So in just permutation, the emanation of a poet is up far. 217 00:28:08,800 --> 00:28:15,170 And the rock demoness copulate it. And then miraculously, six eggs appear rather than six. 218 00:28:15,170 --> 00:28:26,150 Proteau beings, Proteau Doolan's or Proteau Tibetans? There from these six eggs come the six classes of beings or animals, hungry ghosts and so on, 219 00:28:26,150 --> 00:28:36,110 with one egg giving rise to superhuman gobal, who's best known as the ancestor of man from human to boot rather than Buddhist traditions. 220 00:28:36,110 --> 00:28:44,610 So in this. Work credit is given to duties from separate pantheons. 221 00:28:44,610 --> 00:28:53,950 This permutation, therefore, already illustrates the sometimes porous boundaries between Buddhist and non Buddhist narratives. 222 00:28:53,950 --> 00:29:00,010 Ancestors from separate myths could also be mentioned and even ritually invoked. 223 00:29:00,010 --> 00:29:03,640 Side by side in an inclusive spirit, including by devoted Buddhists. 224 00:29:03,640 --> 00:29:16,360 So, for instance, and knocked him Battuta. This happens, but also an ancestor called Manual's from come into passage displayed here. 225 00:29:16,360 --> 00:29:29,670 I hope you can you can read it. In this passage here, which is drawn from the 17th century manual, we first find a reference to, quote, 226 00:29:29,670 --> 00:29:38,320 all the paternal or patrilineal ancestors pattern of poor, such as the monkey and the rocks, the emulous. 227 00:29:38,320 --> 00:29:42,440 Now, this is an obvious reference to the myth. We are focussing on. 228 00:29:42,440 --> 00:29:46,030 On the following Foleo, however, we find mention of, quote, 229 00:29:46,030 --> 00:29:54,150 the patrilineal ancestors of the six original tribes of Tibet militant group Putzing and DePrince Tinga. 230 00:29:54,150 --> 00:30:01,120 And don't logon to Slushing and send Lipin as well as the ancestor three to our temple. 231 00:30:01,120 --> 00:30:04,570 That is Prince Tinga, and I've written on this elsewhere, 232 00:30:04,570 --> 00:30:15,580 as well as part of a completely different narrative tradition of Tibetan ethnic origins in the three figures mentioned directly after him. 233 00:30:15,580 --> 00:30:20,770 Are the direct ancestors in this tradition of the Tibetans, the Chinese and the Mongols? 234 00:30:20,770 --> 00:30:26,960 Well, the last one she Chen should be ready to shoot with a. 235 00:30:26,960 --> 00:30:39,530 Was the father of the six original plans of the Tibetan Plateau. Then there are also works at MIT, the saintly monkey altogether. 236 00:30:39,530 --> 00:30:48,450 Yet still include his spouse, a red faced rock diminish, and pair her with different figures to create alternative ancestral couples. 237 00:30:48,450 --> 00:30:57,230 This happens, for instance, in the land people settle where she appears as the ancestors of only two of the six original clans. 238 00:30:57,230 --> 00:31:06,290 In other renditions, the couple remains unchanged. Now their offspring suddenly includes various animals or even other ethnic groups. 239 00:31:06,290 --> 00:31:10,040 Get further variety can be found in the topographical setting. 240 00:31:10,040 --> 00:31:15,590 Sign has already pointed out the identity of the ancestress and your significance of some. 241 00:31:15,590 --> 00:31:24,230 Sometimes she's identified explicitly as emanation of the beauty of theta. 242 00:31:24,230 --> 00:31:35,290 And we find differences also in the nature and number of initial offspring, the names, a number of descending lineages, 243 00:31:35,290 --> 00:31:42,100 the presence of elements from the Ramayana and other plot twists and emphases that touch on various other topics, 244 00:31:42,100 --> 00:31:51,720 such as the history of mining the highlands, the geographic divisions and so on. 245 00:31:51,720 --> 00:32:02,910 Furthermore, authors used the myth and recorded and transmitted and perceive them in quite different ways. 246 00:32:02,910 --> 00:32:10,530 So they made the vote. Very long passages to the myth, for instance, in the young tingeing or the cuts in trachoma, 247 00:32:10,530 --> 00:32:17,820 they may ignore it entirely or swiftly gloss over it without personal commitment, as we saw Hootin do. 248 00:32:17,820 --> 00:32:25,200 Explicitly attack, it happens in a 15th century boom, port history doomed to bring history, 249 00:32:25,200 --> 00:32:35,340 genealogies can use it to shore up political hierarchy hierarchies, to contrast the Tibetans at large and to set them apart from the rulers. 250 00:32:35,340 --> 00:32:42,540 And they may also authors may also seek to academically sift historical truth from comparative readings. 251 00:32:42,540 --> 00:32:46,620 So the buxom Genzyme, for instance, dedicates a modern book edition, 252 00:32:46,620 --> 00:32:53,550 five full pages to listing the various theories current about the origins of the Tibetans. 253 00:32:53,550 --> 00:32:58,530 Some forces actively share a narrative of the monk in a humanist with a community. 254 00:32:58,530 --> 00:33:05,520 In a speech. Or they may subordinate to ethno genetic episode two bodies up for some clarification. 255 00:33:05,520 --> 00:33:13,470 They may ritually employ it for a patrol baic purposes, as we saw in the ancestor code manual just now. 256 00:33:13,470 --> 00:33:20,540 And in one instance, it may even elusively be used to snub Eastern Tibetan language speakers. 257 00:33:20,540 --> 00:33:25,930 Passage by Long Tempah associates, the compound with demonic beings, 258 00:33:25,930 --> 00:33:39,030 simple violence and the lust for flesh traits that are often explained in origin myths by reason of their descent from the rock demoness symbol. 259 00:33:39,030 --> 00:33:48,060 For the more 20th and 21st century, sources often line the narrative descend from a monkey with Darwin's theory of evolution. 260 00:33:48,060 --> 00:33:54,930 So just a variety, both in usage and narrative form, already illustrates the plastic nature of this origin narrative. 261 00:33:54,930 --> 00:34:01,060 And the picture of who the Tibetans were and how this was made relevant to the author's time. 262 00:34:01,060 --> 00:34:19,110 A particular community, an agenda. Now, despite the fact that there are numerous recorded ethnic origin narratives in the historical literature, 263 00:34:19,110 --> 00:34:27,730 this is, of course, not to say that the group identity was necessarily very sabien in everyday life. 264 00:34:27,730 --> 00:34:30,040 It was not so first of all. 265 00:34:30,040 --> 00:34:42,620 Many sources detail inter ethnic encounters amongst what we might note is called Tibetans that confirm the Imake separation of, say, Compa from Cuba. 266 00:34:42,620 --> 00:34:48,490 Suzanne Bensinger, for instance, in her translation of So No Agent's biography records. 267 00:34:48,490 --> 00:34:53,460 How come by were looked down upon by the protagonist family? 268 00:34:53,460 --> 00:34:59,660 In other sources, figures from the east are regularly addressed as child of come come to. 269 00:34:59,660 --> 00:35:07,660 Stressing the difference from Koopa. The aforementioned poem By Going Jinpa is another example. 270 00:35:07,660 --> 00:35:15,400 He seems to have seemed comprise uncultured people, something that has actually continued. 271 00:35:15,400 --> 00:35:25,060 Into recent times, in many in some circles, other inhabitance of people, too, are regularly separated from the Bhupinder forces and a Glock of Amdo, 272 00:35:25,060 --> 00:35:34,510 for instance, also a proud, independent self perception genealogies from the predominantly Quintal unit from brimful region of Coupal intention. 273 00:35:34,510 --> 00:35:40,660 Some go forward, completely different origin narratives. 274 00:35:40,660 --> 00:35:48,550 Then there are also passages that separate pulled apart from. Some of them are passed through this Nomad's. 275 00:35:48,550 --> 00:35:53,480 So then suddenly tying her back to a specific livelihood. 276 00:35:53,480 --> 00:35:58,860 So these instances make very clear that modernist theoretical approaches make a strong point. 277 00:35:58,860 --> 00:36:09,900 The notion of Tibetans regularly excluded many populations that we may now where that may now be considered to be Tibetan Luketic or some, too. 278 00:36:09,900 --> 00:36:16,160 And to a degree, these regional differences continue to persist to this day. 279 00:36:16,160 --> 00:36:26,720 So here's for instance. This is one point where Dreyfus's article Proteau Nationalism in Tibet likely saw too much homogeneity. 280 00:36:26,720 --> 00:36:32,990 Judging just by the literature that he had read historical literature. 281 00:36:32,990 --> 00:36:43,370 It's still the modern tendency towards a broader geographic geographic inclusion of other Tibetan language speaking populations in contemporary Tibet, 282 00:36:43,370 --> 00:36:49,950 nationalism, for instance, did not come out of the. 283 00:36:49,950 --> 00:37:00,640 First of all, to the best of my knowledge, genealogical traditions never included combat or underwear as separate populations from the Pooka. 284 00:37:00,640 --> 00:37:04,450 Literate folk, therefore, seemed to have considered them part of one. 285 00:37:04,450 --> 00:37:11,020 The same population, at least amongst lines of descent. Many community origin stories from the east. 286 00:37:11,020 --> 00:37:16,090 Moreover, also trace back vocals to send to Central Tibet. 287 00:37:16,090 --> 00:37:21,460 One biographical introduction from the 17th century, written by a company Buddhist, 288 00:37:21,460 --> 00:37:30,330 implies that populations along the river income where the author himself is from where Tibetan or kooky music. 289 00:37:30,330 --> 00:37:36,670 The genealogy contained in the autobiography of modern Turkey from Amdo written in 1742, 290 00:37:36,670 --> 00:37:42,700 ties in the village groups or his village groups pedigree to the monkey centred myth. 291 00:37:42,700 --> 00:37:50,400 Notably, just work starts out with invocations of the divine protectors of the six Tibetan Kyoto plants and many more such 292 00:37:50,400 --> 00:38:00,810 Eastern narrative's claim and ancestry from imperial imperial armed forces or from central Tibetan religious figures. 293 00:38:00,810 --> 00:38:04,110 Now, the mother's argument could, of course, 294 00:38:04,110 --> 00:38:14,780 be made that these are all necessarily literary resources written by literate elites, literati with Buddhist agendas to push. 295 00:38:14,780 --> 00:38:22,460 But, of course, on the Tibetan plateau, literacy was comparatively widespread and monasteries famously numerous, 296 00:38:22,460 --> 00:38:28,190 what is more, both in primary sources and into the secondary literature, 297 00:38:28,190 --> 00:38:34,280 we can actually find interesting references on matters of morality to the ties between 298 00:38:34,280 --> 00:38:45,580 genealogical literature and oral performance have also been illustrated by Jackson. 299 00:38:45,580 --> 00:38:50,540 So one 17th century autobiography from Crum, for example, 300 00:38:50,540 --> 00:38:58,800 a test that a work centred on ethnic genealogies was actively memorised and recited to interested audiences. 301 00:38:58,800 --> 00:39:09,890 This is in the autobiography of my segment. The passage in question details the arrival of two leading figures from Perry and Martin in come 302 00:39:09,890 --> 00:39:16,580 along with a servant who request of the young protagonist that he explained to them the meal gacek. 303 00:39:16,580 --> 00:39:26,530 Now, this is a reference to the chemical treacher, which is still still extant and contains detailed genealogical accounts of the Tibetans Popa. 304 00:39:26,530 --> 00:39:31,150 The author, the notes, he knew this material by heart. Lola. 305 00:39:31,150 --> 00:39:36,680 And he continued to expound it for the guests throughout the night. 306 00:39:36,680 --> 00:39:47,420 Now, the following morning, he was rewarded with meat, gifts of meat by his by the satisfied visitors. 307 00:39:47,420 --> 00:39:50,750 Similarly, a mid 19th, 308 00:39:50,750 --> 00:40:03,770 a mid 19th century report to buy from a window near Sheening documents how an unlettered nomad related origin myths of an origin myth of the Tibetans, 309 00:40:03,770 --> 00:40:12,710 which he had heard from Allama. A written attestation of a speech from Quoddy and under which Matyas Hammon's believed to be. 310 00:40:12,710 --> 00:40:17,480 Although, unfortunately, we don't know where the original document is. 311 00:40:17,480 --> 00:40:23,710 But he also notes it has archaic spellings, he suggests. 312 00:40:23,710 --> 00:40:29,780 And that also contains an origin myth of the Tibetans and is as explicitly formulated. 313 00:40:29,780 --> 00:40:32,500 Britain is a speech. 314 00:40:32,500 --> 00:40:43,710 Now, the new truck truck, which we already encountered just now, which perhaps dates to the late 14th or 15th century, claims to be composed of songs. 315 00:40:43,710 --> 00:40:49,880 Luke. And also contains Sixsmith. 316 00:40:49,880 --> 00:40:51,860 Ancestor called Manual's says, 317 00:40:51,860 --> 00:41:03,450 as we have seen also regularly include Tibetan ethnic ancestors providing such traditions with a degree of ritual affirmation, too. 318 00:41:03,450 --> 00:41:10,260 And these appear in Buddhist ancestor called Manual's, as well as a neutral bone and testicle manual. 319 00:41:10,260 --> 00:41:20,080 So Tibetans. So such references illustrate that genealogical literature had an important aural dimension in this relativise is the 320 00:41:20,080 --> 00:41:31,080 modernist contention that a cultural chasm separated local communities from the notions pushed in literary works. 321 00:41:31,080 --> 00:41:36,390 Pilgrimage networks would have further contributed to the circulation of such narratives, 322 00:41:36,390 --> 00:41:45,180 so notably the cave where the monkey ancestor is supposed to have lived is a pilgrimage site in its own right. 323 00:41:45,180 --> 00:41:49,620 In the cave in question contains war paintings of the ethno genetic episode. 324 00:41:49,620 --> 00:42:01,300 I don't know how old these are. So such exposure would have given would have even given electric folk visual exposure to the story. 325 00:42:01,300 --> 00:42:06,650 And here, maybe it's also interesting to note that the current Dalai Lama told Thomas Laird that 326 00:42:06,650 --> 00:42:12,820 he himself had first come across the narrative through exactly such a wall painting. 327 00:42:12,820 --> 00:42:17,980 So in just your art, historical research will shortly have more to say on this. 328 00:42:17,980 --> 00:42:29,130 And I intend to follow up on that in the future. All in all, then, 329 00:42:29,130 --> 00:42:36,000 the material that I've shared with you just now provides an important counterweight to existing reports 330 00:42:36,000 --> 00:42:45,820 that firmly separate premodern Compa and Unda identities from that of the central plateau's Cooper. 331 00:42:45,820 --> 00:42:48,400 Recently, for instance, has been argued that, quote, 332 00:42:48,400 --> 00:42:56,650 income and under there is little evidence from the PRC period that peoples had a sense of belonging to a wider Tibetan community. 333 00:42:56,650 --> 00:43:04,740 End of quote. This impression, which surely has its justifications, is also a little too simplistic. 334 00:43:04,740 --> 00:43:11,430 I certainly do not wish to say that these populations necessarily always felt very close or had huge 335 00:43:11,430 --> 00:43:17,000 levels of affinity or let alone that these conceptions would have risen to the level of nationalisms. 336 00:43:17,000 --> 00:43:19,560 It certainly was not the case. 337 00:43:19,560 --> 00:43:33,440 But the modern, more regionally inclusive notion of Tibetan ethnicity and nationalism certainly did have antecedents in genealogical traditions. 338 00:43:33,440 --> 00:43:39,380 So if my current knowledge of the Tibetan historical literature is any indication, 339 00:43:39,380 --> 00:43:51,860 then the modernist approach may oversell the innovative nature of a geographically more wide ranging ethnic category of the Tibetans. 340 00:43:51,860 --> 00:43:58,260 On the other hand, published historical work on the topic tends to underestimate. 341 00:43:58,260 --> 00:44:09,540 Although most research, although much research must still be done and I plan to do that, it is clear, as Dreyfuss already argued, 342 00:44:09,540 --> 00:44:20,590 that modern Tibetan nationalism and ethnic notions do not solely rely on inventive tradition in the sense of Hobsbawm. 343 00:44:20,590 --> 00:44:27,130 Cultural memory of common descent and shared political history was widespread and certainly 344 00:44:27,130 --> 00:44:39,540 spilt beyond the bounds of central Tibet and beyond the bounds of just written literature. 345 00:44:39,540 --> 00:44:59,676 That's it. Thanks for your attention.