Tibetan History, Society and Marriage

Find resources related to Tibetan culture, from history and society to marriage and polyandry, found at the Center for Research on Tibet at Case Western Reserve University. 

Papers on Tibetan Marriage and Polyandry

Geoff Childs

• Polyandry And Population Growth in a Historical Tibetan Society
  [The History of the Family Vol. 8: 423-444, 2003.]
• Old-Age Security, Religious Celibacy, And Aggregate Fertility In a Tibetan Population
  [Journal of Population Research Vol. 18: 52-66, 2001.]

Melvyn C. Goldstein

• Pahari and Tibetan Polyandry Revisited
  [Ethnology. 17(3): 325-327, 1978.]
• Stratification, Polyandry, and Family Structure in Central Tibet
  [Southwestern Journal of Anthropology. 27(1): 64-74, 1971.]

Ben Jiao

• Socio-economic and Cultural Factors Underlying the Contemporary Revival of Fraternal Polyandry in Tibet. PhD dissertation, Case Western Reserve University, 2001.

Levine, Nancy E.

• Fathers and Sons: Kinship Value and Validation in Tibetan Polyandry
  [Man, New Series, Vol. 22, No. 2. (Jun., 1987), pp. 267-286.]

Ma, Rong

• Marriages and Spouse Selection in Tibet
  [Development and Society, Vol 30 No.1 (June 2001), pp 79-117]

Tibetan Society and History 

Robert B. Ekvall

• Cultural Relations on the Kansu-Tibetan Border
  [Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1977.]

Surkhang Wangchen Gelek

• Tibet in the early 20th century
  TSIN January 1999

Melvyn C. Goldstein

• 1968 An Anthropological Study Of The Tibetan Political System. 
  [University of Washington: 1968.]
• 1971 The Balance Between Centralization and Decentralization in the Traditional Tibetan Political System 
  [Central Asiatic Journal. 15(3): 170-182. 1971.]
• 1971 Serfdom and Mobility: An Examination of the Institution of "Human Lease" in Traditional Tibetan Society 
  [The Journal of Asian Studies. 30(3): 521-534. 1971.]
• 1971 Taxation and the Structure of a Tibetan Village 
  [Central Asiatic Journal 15(1):1-27. 1971.]
• 1973 The Circulation of Estates in Tibet: Reincarnation, Land and Politics
  [Journal of Asia Studies, Vol. XXXII NO. 3, May 1973, pg. 445-455.]
• 1981 High Altitude Tibetan Populations in the Remote Himalaya: Social Transformations and its Demographic, Economic, and Ecological Consequences
  [Mountain Research and Development. 1(1):5-18. 1981.]
• 1990 The Dragon and the Snow Lion: The Tibet Question in the Twentieth Century
  [China Briefing. A.J. Kane (ed.), Westview Press, pp. 129-168. 1990.]
• 1991 Tibet: After the Fall of Chamdo
  [The Tibet Journal. 26(1): 58-95, 1991.]
• 1992 Tibet: Issues for Americans
  [National Committee on United States-China Relations, Inc. China Policy Series. No. 4, 1992.]
• 1994 What Is Tibet?
  [Resistance and Reform in Tibet. London: Hurst & Co., 1994.]
• 1995 Tibet, China and the United States: Reflections on the Tibet Question
  [Occasional Paper of the Atlantic Council of the United States, pp. 72, 1995.]
• 1998 The Dalai Lama's Dilemma
  [Foreign Affairs. 77(1):83 - 97. 1998.]
• 2003 On Modern Tibetan History: Moving Beyond Stereotypes 
  [In., A. McKay (ed.) [Tibet and Her Neighbors: A History. London: Edition Hansjoerg Mayer. Pp. 217 - 226, 2003.]
• 2004 Sino-Tibetan relations in the Twentieth Century
  [In Governing China's Multiethnic Frontiers, M. Rossabi (ed.), U. of Washington Press, pp. 186-229, 2004]
• 2006 The United States, Tibet, and the Cold War
  [Journal of Cold War Studies, Volume 8, Number 3, 2006: 145-164.
• 2007 Modern Tibetan History, Vol. 2: The Estate System
  [University of California Press; Berkeley, Los Angeles, London. 2007.]
• 2007 Modern Tibetan History, Vol. 2: Conclusions
  [University of California Press; Berkeley, Los Angeles, London. 2007.]
• 2010 A Translation of part of Chapter Five (“The United States Interves") from
  A History of Modern Tibet, Volume 2: The Calm Before the Storm [in Chinese]
  [Journal of China Executive Leadership Academy. Pudong(Shanghai). Xin Hua Wen Zhai, 10: 139-146, 2010.]

Some Thoughts By Professor Goldstein of Mao's Policy in Tibet in the 1950s

• 2018 Melvyn Goldstein, Review of "Tibet in Agony: Lhasa 1959, by Jianglin Li, translated by Susan Wilf," The China Journal, no. 80 (July 2018): 150-155.

The Goldstein and Miller Debate on "Reexamining Choice, Dependency and Command in the Tibetan Social System: 'Tax Appendages' and Other Landless Serfs"

• 1986 Reexamining Choice, Dependency and Command In The Tibetan Social System: 'Tax Appendages' and other landless serfs"
  [The Tibet Journal XI No.4:79-113. 1986.]
• 1987 A Response to Goldstein's "Reexamining Choice, Dependency and Command In The Tibetan Social System" 
  [The Tibet Journal XII No.2:65-67. 1987.]
• 1987 On The Nature Of The Tibetan Peasantry : a rejoinder 
  [The Tibet Journal: 61-65. 1987.]
• 1988 Last Rejoinder to Goldstein on Tibetan Social System 
  [The Tibet Journal XIII No.3:64-67. 1988.]
• 1989 Freedom, Servitude and the "Servant-serf" Nyima: a re-rejoinder to Miller
  [The Tibet Journal Vol. XIV No.2:56-60. 1989.]

Learn More About Melvyn C. Goldstein and Other Staff at the Center for Research on Tibet