The Projects
Phase 1: Legal Ideology in Tibet: Politics, Practice, and Religion
AHRC-funded Project (2016–2018)
The first phase focused primarily on collecting, translating, and summarizing extracts from nearly thirty Tibetan sources that contain references to law and legal practices. These texts range from historical chronicles to religious histories, providing valuable insights into how Tibetans wrote about and understood law throughout different periods. The members of the project examined these texts in detail, in order to trace the different strands of legal thought that emerged during this period. They explored tensions between them and examined attempts by Tibetan writers to reconcile religious, ethical, and jurisprudential ideals. The approach was socio-historical, involving close examination of textual sources, but considering legal, ethical, and religious ideas in their social and political contexts. Legal thought during this period remained largely unsystematic, shaped by multiple intellectual traditions and characterized by tensions between the demands of penal practice and Buddhist ethical principles.
As part of the project, Charles Manson and Fernanda Pirie completed a full translation of The Mirror of the Two Laws (Khrims gnyis gsal ba'i me long), a foundational legal treatise commissioned by the Pakmodru government following the collapse of Mongol Yuan rule in 1368.
Project outputs included:
- Summaries and translations of extracts from key Tibetan texts
- A complete translation of the Mirror of the Two Laws
- For all publications from Phase 1, see Bibliography
Colophon of the legal text, Khrims gnyis lta ba'i me long
Phase 2: Law in Historic Tibet: Translating the Dalai Lamas' Legal Texts
John Fell Fund Project (2024-Present)
The current project examines the Tibetan legal text zhal lce bcu drug (Legal Pronouncements in Sixteen Chapters), which represents an important development in Tibetan legal literature. The text shares many chapter titles with the earlier Mirror of the Two Laws (Khrims gnyis gsal ba'i me long), while introducing new elements that reflect both the changing political circumstances and administrative needs of 17th-century Tibet. The text played a significant role in the formation of the Ganden Phodrang government under the Fifth Dalai Lama and appears to have served as a template for subsequent legal developments, though the exact nature of its influence and practical application remains a subject for future investigation.
The current project aims specifically at:
- Producing a critical edition of the zhal lce bcu drug by comparing available manuscripts and block prints
- Creating an annotated translation of this important legal text
- Analyzing its relationship to earlier legal works
A future Phase 3
will expand this research to include broader socio-historical aspects and investigate the total corpus of zhal lce texts, comprising approximately 28 editions with manuscripts and modern reprints. The ultimate aim is to bring the results of this research into comparison with scholarship on Islamic, Indic, Christian, and Chinese legal traditions. While the relationship between law and religion is one of the great themes of historical legal scholarship, the legal realm of Tibet has barely been considered from a socio-historic perspective. This phase will therefore incorporate anthropological and comparative insights to contribute to this important field.
