Dalai Lama and the Emperor of China: A Political History of the Tibetan Institution of Reincarnation. By Peter Schwieger. Columbia University Press, March 31, 2015. 352 pages. ISBN-10: 0231168527 ISBN-13: 978-0231168526
摘要
The Tibetan institution of reincarnation lineages is a singular Tibetan innovation combining Indian Buddhist doctrinal and Tibetan sociopolitical elements. Schwieger's monograph contributes to our understanding of this foundational Tibetan institution and its historical development and political history during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The book follows the historical development of the reincarnate hierarch to the emergence of “Buddhist Government” and on to the Qing emperors’ eventual control over and increasing influencing of the politics of institutional reincarnation. Schwieger uses to great effect archival sources, principally from Central Tibet, and principally diplomatic documents among Tibetan, Mongolian, and Qing polities. The book is, as subtitled, a political history, and subsequently has little to say about the history of the idea of lineal reincarnation; rather, its lens is the development of reincarnation as a political institution. In step with scholarly movement toward a reorienting of the Qing, within world history and the early modern period, Schwieger positions the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism as an active polity in the context of Inner Asia—and in doing, makes clearer Sino‐Tibetan relations’ often obfuscated history. It is worth comment that Schwieger also does so in an accessible, even narrative style both engaging and easy to read. The book is a great addition to any undergraduate or graduate course on the history of Inner Asia, Tibet, and Late Imperial China.
