Tibet Theocracy

The theocratic system by which religion and politics were combined in Tibet, could be described as a dictatorship by the monks and aristocrats. A similar dictatorship used to exist in many parts of the world. But in the 15th century, the European countries began abandoning the system. Eventually, in most countries and regions of the world, politics would be separated from religion.

But the theocratic system did not end in China's Tibet region until the end of the 1950s.

Under the old system, religion would be a tool with which the rulers consolidated their political power. The influence of religion would grow, as the religious and political leaders worked more closely together.

In the old Tibet, senior monks and aristocrats were at the top of a collective dictatorship. Eventually, they formed the so-called Gaxag government. Up until 1959, the Gaxag government was the supreme organ of political power in Tibet. Through it, the aristocrats and high-ranking monks maintained tight control over the population.

In the 1950s, there were around 120 thousand monks in Tibet. Four per cent of them were senior figures. The high-ranking living Buddhas had manors, monasteries and administrative offices at their disposal. They had estate managers to collect rents, extend credit and manage their serfs on their behalf. They enjoyed a lifestyle of great privilege. Even the middle and low-ranking living Buddhas lived in comfort in their monasteries. The high-level monks were not only in charge of religious affairs, but also held control over secular matters at all levels.

In 1959, Tibet had nearly 200 hereditary aristocrats. Most of the officials in the Tibetan government were from these families. Power was wielded mainly by 20 of the most prominent aristocrat families. Political power in old Tibet rested in the hands of monks and secular officials. In practice, however, it was the monks who had the greater power. As for the serfs, they were excluded from holding any position in government.

Under old Tibet's theocratic system, religious power equaled secular power. In the 17th century, supreme power came to rest with the Dalai Lama, a living Buddha and the leading figure in Tibetan politics.

When a Dalai Lama died, a caretaker living Buddha would take charge until the reincarnated Dalai Lama could be identified. His family would immediately become part of the ruling establishment.

Beneath the Dalai Lama was the local administration, called the Gaxag – a word that in Tibetan means ‘agent that gives orders’. All important matters decided by the Gaxag would be presented to the Dalai Lama for approval. For matters that could not be decided by the Gaxag, the Dalai Lama would be asked to convene a so-called "people's congress". Despite the name, the congress was in fact made up exclusively of representatives of the big monasteries, senior Gaxag officials, and a few powerful aristocrats.

Under this system, religious power was the supreme power. This was reflected in laws promulgated during different periods. But the Gaxag government was never able to exercise executive power over the monasteries and mansions of the aristocrats. As a result, extralegal punishments were common.

Even the official laws were vicious and inhumane. Inherited from the slave society of the past, the laws gave precedence to religion, and were designed to protect the rigid class system of old Tibet.

Punishment was a key element in the system of administration and control. The ruling clique, made up of serf-owners, protected their vested interests by enforcing penalties that were brutal and cruel. The clique regularly tortured individuals who they considered to pose a threat to their interests. The Sixteen Article Code introduced in the early 14th century, stipulated severe punishments for a number of specific crimes: Killing either a parent or an arhat; harming a monk; spraying blood on a Buddhist; robbing an official, monk or king; violating the reputation of the authorities; poisoning; sowing dissent; killing a horse-thief; robbing a private home; injuring another person; and treason. For such crimes, so-called flesh torture was often prescribed, which included gouging out the eyes, cutting off the knee-caps, tongue or limbs, throwing the guilty off a cliff, or killing them. In essence, the Code protected the monks, officials and their families.

Moreover, all the legal codes enforced under the feudal serf system in old Tibet explicitly stipulated that human beings were not all equal, and that the division into social classes was the will of god or the Buddha. Thus, the brutal and evil social system was masked by a cloak of religion.

Prior to the 1950s, Tibetan society was classified into three distinct classes, each with nine levels. A person's social status played the decisive role in any lawsuit or trial. It could be said that while the life of someone of the first level and first class was valued as highly as gold, that of someone of the ninth level of the third class – the most inferior group – was worth nothing more than a piece of straw. In practice, this meant that it was a punishable crime for a serf to injure his master, but if an aristocrat killed a serf, all that was needed was for the aristocrat to offer a small token of compensation to the serf's family.

However, even this unjust feudal code was not implemented across the whole Tibet region.

Many landowners took it upon themselves to enact their own extralegal punishments. There was a popular saying among the serf owners: "There is no Tibetan bull that does not fear the bow, and there is no serf that does not fear the stick." In practice, the landowners regularly beat their serfs on a whim, often lashing out at them simply to inflict pain. At times, they even killed their serfs, out of hand. Many serfs, unable to bear the suffering and oppression, escaped. But this left them wandering from place to place, begging for food and other essentials. In short, the theocracy practiced in old Tibet left millions of serfs to live in abject misery.

This system of theocracy was characterized by rigid religious discipline and laws. Thanks to the privileges granted to the ruling class, the temples were given the judicial right to collect taxes from the serfs. They could also enforce the same laws as the Gaxag government.

A renowned Tibetan scholar and a living Buddha explains that under the theocratic system, the discipline inside the monasteries changed. Those monasteries that owned manors and serfs gained control over both political and religious law.

Austrian scholar Stefan Zweig wrote in his book -- The Right to Heresy -- that the seeds of fascism are bred when religion and political power are intertwined. This comment is an apt description of old Tibet.

In old Tibet, society and the economy were backward, and progress was slow.

In order to protect their special position in the theocratic system, the cliques of monks and aristocrats took control of culture and monopolized educational resources. Even natural science was deemed a part of the religious culture. The result was that Tibetan culture developed at an extremely slow pace.

Under the theocratic system, considerable wealth flowed into the monasteries. This left Tibet's economy to stagnate. Meanwhile, the ordinary people continued to live in extreme poverty.

The system encouraged the young able-bodied men to join the monasteries, and they did so in overwhelming numbers. They were thus removed from social and economic production. And their absence also affected the growth of the population.

Several centuries ago, the savage, dark and backward theocratic system was abolished in medieval Europe. However, in Tibet, this anachronistic system lasted until the middle of the 20th century.

In 1959, under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party, the preparatory committee for Tibet Autonomous Region initiated democratic reforms, under which politics and religion were separated and the theocracy was abolished. Since then, both Tibet’s economy and its society have witnessed significant development.

The theocracy of old Tibet has been abolished for half a century now. But the Tibetan separatist forces are attempting to return the region to that dark, backward, medieval time.

The so-called Constitution of exiled Tibetans endows the Dalai Lama with supreme power over politics and religion. The new structure of the so-called government in exile, with its so-called high degree of autonomy, is only a variety of the theocracy practised in old Tibet.

The Dalai Lama's attempts to restore the social system of old Tibet goes against the trend of historical development. And the people of various nationalities in Tibet will not, by any means, allow his daydream to come true.

A 366.6-metre long scroll, probably the longest document housed in the Xizhang Archive, records the numerous items of taxation levied in old Tibet. Ten characters in this document, taking up 7 centimetres, record one person’s ownership of another.