Published in March 2015 by Columbia University Press, “The Dalai Lama and Emperor of China” by Peter Schwieger is a book which follows the evolution of Tibetan Buddhism’s trülku (reincarnation) tradition from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries, along with the Emperor of China’s efforts to control its development.
From the Columbia University Press website:
By illuminating the political aspects of the trülku institution, Schwieger shapes a broader history of the relationship between the Dalai Lama and the Emperor of China, as well as a richer understanding of the Qing Dynasty as an Inner Asian empire, the modern fate of the Mongols, and current Sino-Tibetan relations. Unlike other pre-twentieth-century Tibetan histories, this volume rejects hagiographic texts in favor of diplomatic, legal, and social sources held in the private, monastic, and bureaucratic archives of old Tibet. This approach draws a unique portrait of Tibet’s rule by reincarnation while shading in peripheral tensions in the Himalayas, eastern Tibet, and China. Its perspective fully captures the extent to which the emperors of China controlled the institution of the Dalai Lamas, making a groundbreaking contribution to the past and present history of East Asia.
Peter Schwieger is professor of Tibetology and the head of the Department of Mongolian and Tibetan Studies at the University of Bonn, Germany. His current research focuses on the political and social history of Tibet based on archival material.
Buy the book on Amazon here: http://amzn.to/1Hs1Q25
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