AMNH Hall of Asian Peoples: Tibet
TIBET: LAND AND SOCIETY
The high plateau land of Tibet, in Central Asia, is surrounded by mountain ranges that contain the world's highest peaks. Its severe climate runs to extreme temperatures and arid conditions. Though mostly scattered, people do congregate in the cultivable southern valleys, where barley is the principal crop. They depend on the yak, horse and donkey as draft animals, while goats, sheep and yaks provide hair, hide, meat and milk. Society is divided into five groups: lamas (priests), nobility, traders, pastoral nomads and peasants (see other cases on Tibet). The combination of outside influences and local adaptation to the harsh Tibetan environment has created the unique culture which includes a powerful animism, polyandry, regional variety, high infant mortality and monasticism.
NOBLES OF LHASA
This view shows Lhasa, capital of Tibet, seen from the upper story of a nobleman's house looking across a lake at the Potala hill. Here rises the 17th-century palace of the dalai lamas, traditional rulers of Tibet. The nobleman and his wife belong to a group of some 150 families comprising those families which served Tibet well in the past, those from which a dalai lama was chosen and those having ancient royal lineage. Noble families provided the officials necessary to run the government. Their members could marry only with others of noble descent, in accordance with strict rules.
Tibetan families trace descent through the male line. For the nobility, inheritance of land is also involved. The wealth of the nobility has rested on possession of cultivable land and grazing grounds, most of which belonged to the government, the monasteries or individual noble families. Peasants worked the land granted to them in exchange for taxes paid through labor. The relationship between peasant and landowner hinged on mutual need: subsistence for the peasant, peasant labor for the nobleman.
AMNH Hall of Asian Peoples: Tibet
TIBET: LAND AND SOCIETY
The high plateau land of Tibet, in Central Asia, is surrounded by mountain ranges that contain the world's highest peaks. Its severe climate runs to extreme temperatures and arid conditions. Though mostly scattered, people do congregate in the cultivable southern valleys, where barley is the principal crop. They depend on the yak, horse and donkey as draft animals, while goats, sheep and yaks provide hair, hide, meat and milk. Society is divided into five groups: lamas (priests), nobility, traders, pastoral nomads and peasants (see other cases on Tibet). The combination of outside influences and local adaptation to the harsh Tibetan environment has created the unique culture which includes a powerful animism, polyandry, regional variety, high infant mortality and monasticism.
NOBLES OF LHASA
This view shows Lhasa, capital of Tibet, seen from the upper story of a nobleman's house looking across a lake at the Potala hill. Here rises the 17th-century palace of the dalai lamas, traditional rulers of Tibet. The nobleman and his wife belong to a group of some 150 families comprising those families which served Tibet well in the past, those from which a dalai lama was chosen and those having ancient royal lineage. Noble families provided the officials necessary to run the government. Their members could marry only with others of noble descent, in accordance with strict rules.
Tibetan families trace descent through the male line. For the nobility, inheritance of land is also involved. The wealth of the nobility has rested on possession of cultivable land and grazing grounds, most of which belonged to the government, the monasteries or individual noble families. Peasants worked the land granted to them in exchange for taxes paid through labor. The relationship between peasant and landowner hinged on mutual need: subsistence for the peasant, peasant labor for the nobleman.