TAPSA: Jetsun Deleplanque, Divinity School
This paper focuses on the theoretical foundations of the Bhutanese state founded by Shabdrung Ngawang Namgyel (1594-1651) in the seventeenth century by paying attention to larger political developments taking place on the Tibetan plateau. Taking as its primary source the works of Tsang Khenchen Palden Gyatso (1610-84), the political refugee and famed biographer of Shabdrung Ngawang Namgyel, my paper argues that the theocracy of Ngawang Namgyel was established and further consolidated within the confines of a specific environment which represents the culmination of a number of social and political developments taking place in Tibet during the period. Crucial among these were the momentous events that the led to the toppling of the little-studied Tsangpa hegemony of western Tibet and the establishment of the Ganden Phodrang government of the Dalai Lamas.
Dates:
Thursday, November 29, 2018 – 5:00pm
Foster 103