death penalty; capital punishment; Buddhist ethics; early modern Tibet; Ganden Phodrang; Tibetan Buddhism; history of law
摘要
This article deals with the death penalty in pre-modern Tibet and how both legal works and Tibetan Buddhists displayed an ambiguous stance regarding this sentence. The main sources that speak of this practice examined here are the largely understudied Tibetan legal decrees and law texts, along with traveler’s accounts and other materials. Taking an explicitly historical perspective, this paper does not engage with the question whether capital punishment can ever be justified by Buddhists. It is argued that various sovereigns burdened with both secular and religious rule, have made ambiguous attempts to abolish the death sentence, with limited success. While rare, the death penalty was carried out but remained a problematic issue for a number of Tibetan Buddhist authors. The sources presented here attest to these ambiguities.
目次
Abstract 61 INTRODUCTION 61 THE ABOLISHMENT OF THE DEATH PENALTY IN TIBET 65 THE DEATH PENALTY ACCORDING TO TIBETAN PRIMARY SOURCES 71 THE DEATH PENALTY IN TIBET: A FAMOUS CASE 76 OTHERING THE DEATH PENALTY 78 CONCLUDING REMARKS 80 APPENDIX: A NOTE ON TERMINOLOGY 82 BIBLIOGRAPHY 83
