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Abstract

This dissertation explores the material and ideological conditions that led to the founding of theocratic governments in the Tibetan region during the seventeenth century with a focus on the enunciation of the Drukpa (’brug pa) theocracy of Shabdrung Ngawang Namgyal (Zhabs drung ngag dbang rnam rgyal 1594-1651), known today as the Kingdom of Bhutan. Taking as its point of departure the concept of theocracy and its applicability to the Tibetan context, the dissertation examines the rise of ecclesiastical power in Tibet from the period of Buddhist institutionalization on the plateau to the birth of theocratic regimes in the seventeenth century by making use of Pierre Bourdieu’s notions of symbolic capital, habitus and theory of strategic action fields as a theoretical lens to observe the historical phenomena at stake. The dissertation in turn investigates the theoretical foundations of the Drukpa state of Shabdrung Ngawang Namgyal by studying the works of the political refugee and literary architect of the Bhutanese theocracy, Tsang Khenchen Jamyang Palden Gyatso (Gtsang mkhan chen ’Jam dbyangs dpal ldan rgya mtsho 1610-84). Through a close reading of Tsang Khenchen’s celebrated biography of Bhutan’s founding figure, entitled the Song of the Great Dharma Cloud, this dissertation situates the founding of the Bhutanese theocracy within both the broader social and political developments taking hold of the Tibetan region during the seventeenth century and other factors unique to Bhutan. As a study of the articulation of the ’union of religious and temporal domains’ (chos srid zung ’brel) in the Tibetan Buddhist context, this dissertation seeks to contribute to our broader understanding of the intersection of religion and politics, and of theocracy as a system of government and organizing principle for social and political life.

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