This paper discuses rivalry for the throne of Dergé between 1890 and 1940. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, internecine feuds created a power vacuum serious enough to invite intervention from Qing and Lhasa authorities. To bolster the royal family’s position, the nobility not only sought alliances with the Qing and later with the nationalist regime in China, they also established close ties with Lhasa. But outside powers eventually undermined the royal family’s authority and lead to its downfall. Feuding created an opportunity for subordinate headmen to vie for power. This phenomenon is well illustrated by the ascendancy of Jagö Topden, who emerged as the charismatic strongman in Dergé in the first half of the twentieth century. He displayed masculine qualities of a leader while Queen Jamyang Pemo was feminized as weak. Jagö Topden proved to be an adept player of politics and was able to gain popular support from the local population, who were tired of the instability. My paper explores the reasons for the crisis in royal succession, the culture of machismo, and the local network of alliances based on kinship and trade that enabled Jagö Topden to emerge as the paramount political figure in Dergé. The ascendancy of Jagö Topden exposes the precarious state of the King’s rule. Jagö Topden may have been aware of the ideological and social changes in China. He effectively adopted the populists’ cause of social reform and thus was able to wrest power away from the Dergé royal family and position himself as the paramount authority in Dergé. Had it not been for the victory of Communists and the establishment of PRC, Jagö Topden might well have become the new ruler of Dergé. International conference “Territories, Communities, and Exchanges in the Sino-Tibetan Kham Borderlands,” Februray 18-20, 2016. This conference is an outcome of a collaborative ERC-funded research project (Starting grant no. 283870). For more information, please visit the project's Website: http://kham.cnrs.fr
Mot(s) clés libre(s) : UPS2259, CEH, Centre d'Etudes Himalayennes, Rise of a Political Strongman in Dergé in the Early Twentieth Century: A Story of Jagö Topden, Yudru Tsomu, Territories, Communities, and Exchanges in the Kham Sino-Tibetan Borderlands, Sichuan University

In this paper, I will begin by considering the concept of “house society” and its applicability to Southwest China. I ask the question of why no scholar, Levi-Strauss included since he originally framed this concept, has successfully used this concept to go beyond the traditional framework of descent and alliance. After making a thorough survey of the history of European views on Tibetan kinship, I argue that the dominance of Ladakh metonymy was responsible for the failure to reconsider both this area and the concept. Based on this dual consideration, I further scrutinize Levi-Strauss’s concept of “house society” in light of the case of Dra-pa Tibetans, who are regarded as the link between two large areas: societies on the Tibetan plateau characterized and demarcated by two kinship-marriage models, and the Ye (house) societies that include ethnic groups such as the Yi, Dra-pa, Na and Naxi. For several reasons, I argue that the house society model was not a social institution that emerged later but that it was one of the earliest. Though the earliest records we obtained were about one thousand and five hundred years ago, it might possibly date back to earlier time. While the mode of sexual relations among Dra-pa is being transformed towards marriage, the matrilineal/local-based visit by males still dominates. I further argue that associating women with the house plays a crucial role in the emergence of this institution. This binding relationship between women (men included) and the house is a form of house fetishism and has contributed to social phenomena we are witnessing today in Dra-pa, as well as other areas westward, such as local competition over building the best house. International conference “Territories, Communities, and Exchanges in the Sino-Tibetan Kham Borderlands,” Februray 18-20, 2016. This conference is an outcome of a collaborative ERC-funded research project (Starting grant no. 283870). For more information, please visit the project's Website: http://kham.cnrs.fr  
Mot(s) clés libre(s) : UPS2259, CEH, Centre d'Etudes Himalayennes, “House Society” Revisited, Chen Bo, Territories, Communities, and Exchanges in the Kham Sino-Tibetan Borderlands, ERC (European Research Council), Sichuan University