Conference Presentations by Lucia Galli
IATS 2019
Panel 51 - The Relationship Between Economic and Social Status in the Tibetan World unt... more IATS 2019
Panel 51 - The Relationship Between Economic and Social Status in the Tibetan World until the mid-20th Century
དུས་རབས་༢༠ དཀྱིལ་མཚམས་བར་དུ་བོད་པའི་སྤྱི་ཚོགས་ནང་དཔལ་འབྱོར་དང་སྤྱི་ཚོགས་ཀྱི་གནས་བབ་དབར་གྱི་འབྲེལ་བ།།
Frontier territories characterised by intense socioeconomic , political, and cultural interaction... more Frontier territories characterised by intense socioeconomic , political, and cultural interactions, in the mid-19 th century the easternmost fringes of the Tibetan plateau saw the rise of the ris med movement, an influential religious approach fostering inclusiveness and non-sectarianism. Teachings, empowerments, and transmissions of various schools and lineages were actively sought and received, through a constant flow of masters, adepts, and pilgrims from one monastery to the other. Testimony to these thriving interactions was Kha stag ʼDzam yag, a Khams pa trader from a nomadic area in ʼBri zla zal mo gangs and author of a travel account describing his thirteen-year long pilgrimage from eastern Tibet to Lha sa and gZhi ga rtse, and from there to northern India and Nepal. During his travels through the Tibetan plateau, the author visited monasteries and sacred sites belonging to different schools of Tibetan Buddhism, receiving blessings and instructions from masters of various religious lineages. The pious candor of his record reveals the inextricable bond between spiritual and mundane affairs, since the connection between a master and a disciple was based on a mutual giving and receiving. Whereas the first provided teachings and refuge, the latter was expected to repay his guru's kindness through offerings and gifts. Kha stag ʼDzam yag's personal experiences as both a pilgrim and a trade agent for the Khang gsar bla brang of Ngor E wam chos ldan, a monastic community he had actively supported in the years preceding the 1950s, exemplify the intertwining of economics and religion and help to shed some light on the influence exerted by the monasteries of central Tibet on their branches in the sGa pa and sDe dge areas.
Papers by Lucia Galli
Revue d’Etudes Tibétaines, n° 73, 2024
uman mind is wired for categorisations, so much so that our perception of the outside world canno... more uman mind is wired for categorisations, so much so that our perception of the outside world cannot but reflect the innate structure of our brain. This is evident in the way we process our surroundings through spatial and temporal differentiations-this is here, that is there, this is now, that was then. Such mental distinctions are further applied to social relations, as we position ourselves against the other. Yet, no human entity exists in isolation. Regardless of the essential indivisibility of specific places, cultures, and people, each of them is in turn connected to another, to the extent that "the character of a particular region, or the 'regionality' of a place … stands … at the intersection of an interlocking whole of locational-physical, politicaleconomic, and socio-cultural universes." 1 From this perspective, it is easy to grasp the fascination exerted by borderland regions, located as they are "in-between," neither here nor there, but suspended in an everlasting now, seemingly immune to past and future. However, at a closer examination the same concepts of "centre" and "periphery" around which such a discourse on borderlands revolves prove inconsistent, as the frame of references changes with the perspective adopted: who is peripheral to whom when no centre is mutually recognised? In talking about the eastern Tibetan area of Khams-one of such borderland regions-Stéphane Gros (2019) proposes the notion of "frontier dynamics," thus embracing the idea expressed by the anthropologists Lars Rodseth and Bradley Parker of "frontiers (as) the quintessential matrices of change." 2 Far from being immutable places, borderland regions are constantly in fieri, their motion paced by the rhythm of fluxes-of people, commodities, and ideas. These dynamics of exchange and interaction are present in a lesser or greater degree in all those locales 1
Journal of Comparative Literature and Aesthetics, 2021
To narrate a life, one needs to live one, yet the correlation between biographical writing and βί... more To narrate a life, one needs to live one, yet the correlation between biographical writing and βίος is hardly a given one. Otherworld journeys constitute a rich literary corpus that assume a unique character in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition of delok (’das log) literature. These texts offer a precious glimpse of complex narratological, as well as self-making, processes, especially when translated into a different cultural milieu.
Taking my cue from Samuel Bercholz’s A Guided Tour of Hell (2016), I will examine a delok account that is, in many ways, exceptional. Written in English by an American Buddhist and enriched by illustrations and drawings by a renowned Tibetan artist, the work is a fascinating textual and visual attempt to translate Tibetan Buddhist concepts of death and afterlife into a cultural context that is deeply “other”.
Revue d’Etudes Tibétaines 58, 2021
Études mongoles et sibériennes, centrasiatiques et tibétaines, 2020
This paper discusses the emergence of a modern pilgrimage industry in India as depicted in the au... more This paper discusses the emergence of a modern pilgrimage industry in India as depicted in the autobiographical accounts of Khatag Dzamyag, a 20th-century Khampa trader. The propagandistic activities of modern pan-Buddhist societies, together with the re-opening of ancient sites of Indian Buddhism, contributed to revitalising the concept of India as a “holy land” among Tibetan pilgrims, for most of whom a journey to the Middle Ganges region represented the first encounter with modernity; trains, motorcars, and boats were wonders to be thoroughly enjoyed and appreciated. Leisure appears to be a crucial component in the development of forms of spiritual tourism; the 19th and 20th centuries marked, in their own way, a “leisure revolution” in global terms. Following Dzamyag’s narrative, I will elucidate how new forms of “spiritual tourism”, created and fostered by pan-Buddhist movements like the Maha Bodhi Society, contributed to transforming the experience of pilgrimage into a growing commercialisation of leisure, especially for the representatives of the highest strata of Tibetan society, who had the necessary resources to finance their leisure activities.
Revue d’Etudes Tibétaines , 2021
Trust and credibility are key factors in any form of transaction, yet their influence on the Tibe... more Trust and credibility are key factors in any form of transaction, yet their influence on the Tibetan economy has rarely been acknowledged. Even less consideration has been given to the role played by Tibetan Buddhism and its institutions in the promotion and consolidation of inter- and intra-group trust among different sectors of the indigenous social fabric. The present contribution aims to further our understanding of the economic benefits of ritual participation by examining the emergence of Khams pa trading families in 20th-century Tibet and the mutually advantageous dynamics they developed with Central Tibetan monasteries. Sponsorship, donations, and active involvement in religious activities fostered trust and credibility, thus smoothing the assimilation of the wealthy Eastern Tibetans into the upper strata of dBus-gTsang society. Whereas ritual performance signalled group commitment and expedited the integration of Khams pa trading firms into the urban environment of Central Tibet, the trustworthiness of their members, often employed by monastic establishments and incarnates as personal trade agents (tshong dpon), much relied on the internal structures of such clan-like families, based, as they were, on principles of reciprocal obligations. Scholarship on the socio-economic rise and political influence of Khams pa trading firms abounds, yet no study has to date considered a commonly shared non-sectarian (ris med) attitude as a possible contributory cause to their success. The final section of the present article advances the working hypothesis that such a non-sectarian attitude acted as trade facilitator, allowing Eastern Tibetan traders to profitably dominate economic niches that required considerable trust and credibility.
Revue d’Etudes Tibétaines, 2021
Corrigenda to “All the Life We Cannot See: New-Historicist Approach to a Modern Tibetan Novel” (2... more Corrigenda to “All the Life We Cannot See: New-Historicist Approach to a Modern Tibetan Novel” (2019) and “Money, Politics, and Local Identity: An Inside Look at the ‘Diary’ of a Twentieth-century Khampa Trader” (2019)
Frontier Tibet: Patterns of Change in the Sino-Tibetan Borderlands, 2019
This chapter analyses the socio-economic role played by Khampa traders in twentieth-century Tibet... more This chapter analyses the socio-economic role played by Khampa traders in twentieth-century Tibet, focusing in particular on the increasing political and economic power gained in the 1940s and 1950s by members of the most influential eastern Tibetan trading firms. The discussion is enriched by information drawn from the travel journal of Khatag Dzamyag, an otherwise unknown Khampa trader. The author’s recollection, spanning over a period of thirteen years (1944–1956), mainly spent journeying, trading, and pilgrimaging, provides the scholar with an insider’s perspective on events until now known only through the conventional historiographical writing.
Central Asiatic Journal, 2019
PDF available upon request.
The aim of this paper is to reconstruct the genealogy of the royal li... more PDF available upon request.
The aim of this paper is to reconstruct the genealogy of the royal lines who ruled the kingdom of Nang chen (present-day Nangqên County, Qinghai province) from the early fourteenth century up to the Chinese Communist takeover in the 1950s. The chronological reconstruction of these lineages – in itself of historical value, due to the understudied status of Nang chen in Western scholarship – corroborates our understanding of the nineteenth-century phenomenon of non-sectarianism (ris med), presenting it as the re-emergence of earlier tendencies and concepts. From the fourteenth century onwards, the eclectic and inclusive approach adopted by the local royal court gradually turned Nang chen from a ’Ba’ rom bKa’ brgyud stronghold into a lodestone capable of attracting some of the most important spiritual figures of the time, thus successfully integrating the kingdom into a wider geopolitical network and setting the basis for the activities of later ris med masters.
Revue d'Etudes Tibétaines , 2019
Revue d'etudes tibétaines, 2019
Résumés de thèses/ Thesis Abstract published in volume 48 of Études mongoles & sibériennes, centr... more Résumés de thèses/ Thesis Abstract published in volume 48 of Études mongoles & sibériennes, centrasiatiques & tibétaines
Published on The Tibet Journal, Vol. XXXIV, No. 2 SPRING 2009
Book Reviews by Lucia Galli
Buddhist Studies Review, 2019
Buddhist Studies Review , 2018
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Conference Presentations by Lucia Galli
Panel 51 - The Relationship Between Economic and Social Status in the Tibetan World until the mid-20th Century
དུས་རབས་༢༠ དཀྱིལ་མཚམས་བར་དུ་བོད་པའི་སྤྱི་ཚོགས་ནང་དཔལ་འབྱོར་དང་སྤྱི་ཚོགས་ཀྱི་གནས་བབ་དབར་གྱི་འབྲེལ་བ།།
Papers by Lucia Galli
Taking my cue from Samuel Bercholz’s A Guided Tour of Hell (2016), I will examine a delok account that is, in many ways, exceptional. Written in English by an American Buddhist and enriched by illustrations and drawings by a renowned Tibetan artist, the work is a fascinating textual and visual attempt to translate Tibetan Buddhist concepts of death and afterlife into a cultural context that is deeply “other”.
The aim of this paper is to reconstruct the genealogy of the royal lines who ruled the kingdom of Nang chen (present-day Nangqên County, Qinghai province) from the early fourteenth century up to the Chinese Communist takeover in the 1950s. The chronological reconstruction of these lineages – in itself of historical value, due to the understudied status of Nang chen in Western scholarship – corroborates our understanding of the nineteenth-century phenomenon of non-sectarianism (ris med), presenting it as the re-emergence of earlier tendencies and concepts. From the fourteenth century onwards, the eclectic and inclusive approach adopted by the local royal court gradually turned Nang chen from a ’Ba’ rom bKa’ brgyud stronghold into a lodestone capable of attracting some of the most important spiritual figures of the time, thus successfully integrating the kingdom into a wider geopolitical network and setting the basis for the activities of later ris med masters.
For those who have a Shibboleth/OpenAthens sign-in, please visit: //www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14484528.2019.1669427
Book Reviews by Lucia Galli
Panel 51 - The Relationship Between Economic and Social Status in the Tibetan World until the mid-20th Century
དུས་རབས་༢༠ དཀྱིལ་མཚམས་བར་དུ་བོད་པའི་སྤྱི་ཚོགས་ནང་དཔལ་འབྱོར་དང་སྤྱི་ཚོགས་ཀྱི་གནས་བབ་དབར་གྱི་འབྲེལ་བ།།
Taking my cue from Samuel Bercholz’s A Guided Tour of Hell (2016), I will examine a delok account that is, in many ways, exceptional. Written in English by an American Buddhist and enriched by illustrations and drawings by a renowned Tibetan artist, the work is a fascinating textual and visual attempt to translate Tibetan Buddhist concepts of death and afterlife into a cultural context that is deeply “other”.
The aim of this paper is to reconstruct the genealogy of the royal lines who ruled the kingdom of Nang chen (present-day Nangqên County, Qinghai province) from the early fourteenth century up to the Chinese Communist takeover in the 1950s. The chronological reconstruction of these lineages – in itself of historical value, due to the understudied status of Nang chen in Western scholarship – corroborates our understanding of the nineteenth-century phenomenon of non-sectarianism (ris med), presenting it as the re-emergence of earlier tendencies and concepts. From the fourteenth century onwards, the eclectic and inclusive approach adopted by the local royal court gradually turned Nang chen from a ’Ba’ rom bKa’ brgyud stronghold into a lodestone capable of attracting some of the most important spiritual figures of the time, thus successfully integrating the kingdom into a wider geopolitical network and setting the basis for the activities of later ris med masters.
For those who have a Shibboleth/OpenAthens sign-in, please visit: //www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14484528.2019.1669427
"The Selfless Ego I. Memory and Imagination in Tibetan Hagiographical Writing" Lucia Galli & Franz Xaver Erhard, Pages: 153-159
"Between Self-Expression and Convention: Tibetan Reflections on Autobiographical Writing" Ulrike Roesler, Pages: 163-186
"Nested Autobiography: Life Writing Within Larger Works
David Templeman" Pages: 187-203
"From Song to Biography and from Biography to Song: The Use of gur in Marpa’s namthar" Cécile Ducher, Pages: 205-219
"The namthar in Khalkha Dzaya Paṇḍita Lobsang Trinle (1642–1715)'s Clear Mirror" Sangseraima Ujeed, Pages: 221-238
"Reincarnation and Personal Identity in The Lives of Tibetan Masters: Linking the Revelations of Three Lamas of the Dudjom Tradition" Cathy Cantwell, Pages: 239-257
"Traces of Female Voices and Women’s Lives in Tibetan Male Sacred Biography" Hanna Havnevik, Pages: 259-276
"Forest Walking, Meditation and Sore Feet: The Southern Buddhist Biographical Tradition of Ajahn Mun and His Followers" Sarah Shaw
Pages: 277-296
ISBN : 9780253063403
The electronic versions of this work are freely available online under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license. Please visit the following site: https://publish.iupress.indiana.edu/projects/papers-on-inner-asia.
The book is divided into two parts. Ideally conceived as an 'introduction' to traditional forms of life writing as expressed in Buddhist milieus, Part I. Memory and Imagination in Tibetan Hagiographical Writing centres on the inner tensions between literary convention and self-expression that permeate indigenous hagiographies, mystical songs, records of teachings, and autobiographies. Part II: Conjuring Tibetan Lives explores the most unconventional traits of the genre, sifting through the narrative configuration of Tibetan biographical writings as 'liberation stories' to unearth those fragments of life that compose an individual’s multifaceted existence.
This volume is the first to approach Tibetan life writing from a literary and narratological perspective, encompassing a wide range of disciplines, themes, media, and historical periods, and thus opening new and vibrant areas of research to future scholarship across the Humanities.
The chapters in this book were originally published as two special issues of Life Writing.