This thesis presents and analyses Chinese, Tibetan, and British sources relating to the British Mission to Tibet of 1904. It balances accounts provided by the British officers and men with modern Chinese sources. It analyses both polarised sides of the history, whilst remaining critical of all sources. British historical accounts analysed in chapter one are balanced with Chinese narratives that present the Mission as an invasion of the Motherland and its unity. Chapter two examines the role of propaganda in modern China, and how different media are used to guide the Tibetan and Chinese populations’ understanding of their history and nation. Chapters three and four provide an original translation of Bod kyi rig gnas lo rgyus dpyad gzhi’i rgyu cha bdams bsgrigs, a textbook written from a Chinese nationalistic perspective. The introductory chapter providing the Chinese narrative of the build-up to the Mission is studied in chapter three, and chapter four analyses the bloody advance into Tibet. The translation and analysis in chapter five of the letters of the Dalai Lama to the King of Nepal, the Tongsa Pönlop, and the Chögyal of Sikkim place the Mission in pan-Himalayan context, and show how the Tibetan Government sought to counter the Mission. It is the first study to provide a historical Tibetan perspective of events. Chapter six analyses the divisive issue of looting during the Mission. It examines the psychology of those who looted Tibet, and the role the items taken play in shaping the image of Tibet in the West. Modern Chinese propaganda sources from the new media are analysed in chapter seven, and demonstrate how they have been used to compliment and propagate the established narrative. The conclusions analyse the impact of the Mission, and the lessons that may be learnt for those that play the ‘New Great Game.’

The dominant discourse surrounding academic research libraries today is one of change and scholarship in the humanities has seen a similar revolution in practice. Yet, most of the documented changes in either have been ascribed to the availability of online journal materials. Despite the accessibility of millions of rare, digitized primary resources freely available on the web, little has been done to understand the impact of these materials on either the practice of scholarship or on libraries. The research described in this proposal is an investigation into digitization projects involving rare and closely guarded materials and the effects of these projects on humanities scholarship. This thesis uses both qualitative and quantitative measures to: Assess the impact of digitized primary resources on the work of humanities scholars; To construct a model based on the findings that explains current use of digitized primary sources; and, To discuss the implications of these findings for academic research libraries. The research questions are answered through a detailed analysis of the role of digitization in the field of Tibetan and Himalayan studies. The author presents detailed evidence of how digitization is changing the inputs, practice, and outputs of scholarship in this field, as well as the characteristics of digitization that have led to these changes. Importantly, these findings separate out the success of individual projects from the success of digitization across the field as a whole. Support for community and innovation as well as the presence of critical mass across the field are stressed as the three most significant factors. Finally, the implications of these findings are assessed within a newly proposed model of academic libraries. This “scholar-centric” model is intended to provide both a theoretical framework for the research findings as well as a normative provocation for structuring future research and discussions about the role of academic libraries and their presence online.

The past climate in central Asia, and especially on the Tibetan Plateau (TP), is of great importance for an understanding of global climate processes and for predicting the future climate. As a major influence on the climate in this region, the Asian Summer Monsoon (ASM) and its evolutionary history are of vital importance for accurate predictions. However, neither the evolutionary pattern of the summer monsoon nor the driving mechanisms behind it are yet clearly understood. For this research, I first synthesized previously published Late Glacial to Holocene climatic records from monsoonal central Asia in order to extract the general climate signals and the associated summer monsoon intensities. New climate and vegetation sequences were then established using improved quantitative methods, focusing on fossil pollen records recovered from Tibetan lakes and also incorporating new modern datasets. The pollen-vegetation and vegetation-climate relationships on the TP were also evaluated in order to achieve a better understanding of fossil pollen records. The synthesis of previously published moisture-related palaeoclimate records in monsoonal central Asia revealed generally different temporal patterns for the two monsoonal subsystems, i.e. the Indian Summer Monsoon (ISM) and East Asian Summer Monsoon (EASM). The ISM appears to have experienced maximum wet conditions during the early Holocene, while many records from the area affected by the EASM indicate relatively dry conditions at that time, particularly in north-central China where the maximum moisture levels occurred during the middle Holocene. A detailed consideration of possible driving factors affecting the summer monsoon, including summer solar insolation and sea surface temperatures, revealed that the ISM was primarily driven by variations in northern hemisphere solar insolation, and that the EASM may have been constrained by the ISM resulting in asynchronous patterns of evolution for these two subsystems. This hypothesis is further supported by modern monsoon indices estimated using the NCEP/NCAR Reanalysis data from the last 50 years, which indicate a significant negative correlation between the two summer monsoon subsystems. By analogy with the early Holocene, intensification of the ISM during coming decades could lead to increased aridification elsewhere as a result of the asynchronous nature of the monsoon subsystems, as can already be observed in the meteorological data from the last 15 years. A quantitative climate reconstruction using fossil pollen records was achieved through analysis of sediment core recovered from Lake Donggi Cona (in the north-eastern part of the TP) which has been dated back to the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). A new data-set of modern pollen collected from large lakes in arid to semi-arid regions of central Asia is also presented herein. The concept of "pollen source area" was introduced to modern climate calibration based on pollen from large lakes, and was applied to the fossil pollen sequence from Lake Donggi Cona. Extremely dry conditions were found to have dominated the LGM, and a subsequent gradually increasing trend in moisture during the Late Glacial period was terminated by an abrupt reversion to a dry phase that lasted for about 1000 years and coincided with the first Heinrich Event of the northern Atlantic region. Subsequent periods corresponding to the warm Bølling-Allerød period and the Younger Dryas cold event were followed by moist conditions during the early Holocene, with annual precipitation of up to about 400 mm. A slightly drier trend after 9 cal ka BP was then followed by a second wet phase during the middle Holocene that lasted until 4.5 cal ka BP. Relatively steady conditions with only slight fluctuations then dominated the late Holocene, resulting in the present climatic conditions. In order to investigate the relationship between vegetation and climate, temporal variations in the possible driving factors for vegetation change on the northern TP were examined using a high resolution late Holocene pollen record from Lake Kusai. Moving-window Redundancy Analyses (RDAs) were used to evaluate the correlations between pollen assemblages and individual sedimentary proxies. These analyses have revealed frequent fluctuations in the relative abundances of alpine steppe and alpine desert components, and in particular a decrease in the total vegetation cover at around 1500 cal a BP. The climate was found to have had an important influence on vegetation changes when conditions were relatively wet and stable. However, after the 1500 cal a BP threshold in vegetation cover was crossed the vegetation appears to have been affected more by extreme events such as dust storms or fluvial erosion than by the general climatic trends. In addition, pollen spectra over the last 600 years have been revealed by Procrustes analysis to be significantly different from those recovered from older samples, which is attributed to an increased human impact that resulted in unprecedented changes to the composition of the vegetation. Theoretical models that have been developed and widely applied to the European area (i.e. the Extended R-Value (ERV) model and the Regional Estimates of Vegetation Abundance from Large Sites (REVEALS) model) have been applied to the high alpine TP ecosystems in order to investigate the pollen-vegetation relationships, as well as for quantitative reconstructions of vegetation abundance. The modern pollen–vegetation relationships for four common pollen species on the TP have been investigated using Poaceae as the reference taxa. The ERV Submodel 2 yielded relatively high PPEs for the steppe and desert taxa (Artemisia Chenopodiaceae), and low PPEs for the Cyperaceae that are characteristic of the alpine Kobresia meadows. The plant abundances on the central and north-eastern TP were quantified by applying these PPEs to four post-Late Glacial fossil pollen sequences. The reconstructed vegetation assemblages for the four pollen sequences always yielded smaller compositional species turnovers than suggested by the pollen spectra, indicating that the strength of the previously-reported vegetation changes may therefore have been overestimated. In summary, the key findings of this thesis are that (a) the two ASM subsystems show asynchronous patterns during both the Holocene and modern time periods, (b) fossil pollen records from large lakes reflect regional signals for which the pollen source areas need to be taken into account, (c) climate is not always the main driver for vegetation change, and (d) previously reported vegetation changes on the TP may have been overestimated because they ignored inter-species variations in pollen productivity. / Das Paläoklima in Zentralasien, besonders in der Hochebene von Tibet (HT), ist von großer Bedeutung um globale Klimaprozesse zu verstehen und mögliche Voraussagung für die zukunft zu treffen. Als wichtigstes Klimaphänomen nehmen der asiatische Sommermonsun (ASM) und seine Entwicklungsgeschichte eine Schlüsselposition ein. Dennoch sind derzeit weder das Entwicklungsschema noch der antreibende Vorgang ausreichend verstanden. Dies gilt insbesondere für das Holozän, für welches große Kimaschwankungen und regionale Diskrepanzen weithin belegt sind. Deshalb habe ich zuerst holozäne Klimadaten zusammengefasst. Bereits veröffentlichte Publikationen aus den Monsungebieten Zentralasiens dienten als Grundlage, um die wichtigsten Klimasignale und die zugehörigen Intensitäten des Sommermonsuns heraus zu arbeiten. Anhand von Pollensequenzen aus tibetischen Seen erzeugte ich neue Klima- und Vegetationssequenzen, welche auf verbesserten quantitativen Methoden und rezenten Datensätzen beruhen. Außerdem wurden die Verhältnisse Pollen-Vegetation und Vegetation-Klima bewertet, um Schlussfolgerungen fossiler Pollensequenzen zu verbessern. Die Zusammenfassung der zuvor veröffentlichten, niederschlagsbezogenen Paläoklimadaten im Monsungebiet Zentralasiens ergab generell unterschiedliche Muster für die zwei Teilsysteme des ASMs, den Indischen Sommermonsun (ISM) und den Ostasiatischen Sommermonsun (OASM). Der ISM weist maximale feuchte Bedingungen während des frühen Holozöns auf, während viele Datensätze aus dem Gebiet des OASMs einen relativ trockenen Zustand anzeigen, besonders im nördlichen Zentralchina, wo maximale Niederschläge während des mittleren Holozäns registriert wurden. Genaue Betrachtungen der Antriebsfaktoren des Sommermonsuns ergaben, dass der ISM hauptsächlich durch Veränderungen der Sonneneinstrahlung auf der Nordhemisphäre angetrieben wird, während der OASM potentiell durch den ISM beherrscht wird - dies führt zu asynchronen Entwicklungen. Diese Hypothese wird durch rezente Monsunindizes gestützt. Sie weisen eine signifikant negative Korrelation zwischen den beiden Sommermonsun-Teilsystemen auf. Für die quantitative Klimarekonstruktion von Pollensequenzen wurde ein Sedimentkern aus dem See Donggi Cona im Nordosten der HT analysiert, der bis zum letzten glazialen Maximum (LGM) zurückdatiert wurde. Aufgrund der Tatsache, dass Donggi Cona ein relativ großer See ist, wird hiermit ein neuer Pollen-Klima-Kalibrierungsdatensatz auf Grundlage großer Seen in ariden und semiariden Regionen Zentralasiens vorgelegt. Das Konzept des Pollenherkunftsgebietes wurde in diese rezente, pollenbasierte Klimakalibrierung eingebracht und auf die Pollensequenz von Donggi Cona angewendet. Die Auswertung ergab, dass extrem trockene Bedingungen während des LGM (ca. 100 mm/yr) vorherrschten. Ein ansteigender Trend von Niederschlägen während des späten Glazials wurde durch einen abrupten Rückgang zu einer etwa 1000-jährigen Trockenphase beendet, welche mit Heinrich-Ereignis 1 in der Nordatlantik-Region übereinstimmt. Danach entsprechen die Klimaperioden dem warmen Bølling/Allerød und dem Kälteereignis der Jüngeren Dryas. Anschließend herrschten feuchte Bedingungen im frühen Holozän (bis zu 400 mm/yr). Ein etwas trockenerer Trend nach dem Holozänen Klimaoptimum wurde dann von einer zweiten Feuchtphase abgelöst, welche bis 4,5 cal. ka vor heute andauerte. Relativ gleichmäßige Bedingungen dominierten das späte Holozän bis heute. Die Klimadynamik seit dem LGM wurde vor allem durch Entgletscherung und Intensitätsschwankungen des ASM bestimmt. Bei der Betrachtung des Vegetation-Klima-Verhältnisses habe ich die zeitlichen Variationen der bestimmenden Faktoren hinsichtlich der Vegetationsdynamik auf der nördlichen HT untersucht. Dabei wurden hochauflösende holozäne Pollendaten des Kusai-Sees verwendet. Eine Redundanzanalyse (RDA) wurde angewendet um die Korrelation zwischen Pollenvergesellschaftungen und individuellen sedimentären Klimaanzeigern als auch die damit verbundene Signifikanz zu bewerten. Es stellte sich heraus, dass das Klima einen wichtigen Einfluss auf den Veränderungen in der Vegetation besaß, wenn die Bedingungen relativ warm und feucht waren. Trotzdem scheint es, dass, dass die Vegetation bei zu geringer Bedeckung stärker durch Extremereignisse wie Staubstürme oder fluviale Erosion beeinflusst wurde. Pollenspektren der vergangen 600 Jahre erwiesen sich als signifikant unterschiedlich verglichen mit den älterer Proben, was auf verstärkten anthropogenen Einfluss hindeutet. Dieser resultierte in einem beispiellosen Wandel in der Zusammensetzung der Vegetation. In Hinsicht auf das Pollen-Vegetation-Verhältnis und der quantitativen Rekonstruktion der Vegetationshäufigkeit habe ich theoretische Modelle, welche für europäische Regionen entwickelt und weithin angewendet wurden, respektive die Modelle "Extended R-Value" (ERV) sowie "Regional Estimates of Vegetation Abundance from Large Sites" (REVEALS), auf die hochalpinen Ökosysteme der HT überführt. Dafür wurden rezente Pollen-Vegetations-Verhältnisse von vier weit verbreiteten Pollen-Arten der HT überprüft. Poaceae wurden als Referenztaxa verwendet. Bei der Anwendung dieser Verhältnisse auf vier Pollensequenzen, welche die Paläoumweltbedingungen seit dem letzten Glazial widerspiegeln, wurden die Häufigkeiten von Pflanzen auf der zentralen und nordöstlichen HT quantifiziert. Anteile von Artimisia und Chenopodiaceae waren dabei im Vergleich zu ihren ursprünglichen Pollenprozenten deutlich verringert. Cyperaceae hingegen wies eine relative Zunahme in dieser Vegetationsrekonstruktion auf. Die rekonstruierten Vegetationsvergesellschaftungen an den Standorten der vier Pollensequenzen ergaben stets geringere Umwälzungen in der Artenzusammensetzung, als durch die Pollenspektren zu vermuten gewesen wäre. Dies kann ein Hinweis darauf sein, dass die Intensität der bislang angenommenen Vegetationsveränderungen überschätzt worden ist. Zusammengefasst sind die Hauptresultate dieser Dissertation, dass (a) die zwei ASM Teilsysteme asynchrone Muster während des Holozäns und heute aufweisen, dass (b) fossile Pollensequenzen großer Seen regionale Klimasignale widerspiegeln sofern die Herkunftsgebiete der Pollen berücksichtigt werden, dass (c) Klima nicht immer der Haupteinflussfaktor für Vegetationswandel ist und dass (d) das Ausmaß von Vegetationsveränderungen in zuvor veröffentlichten Studien auf der Hochebene von Tibet überschätzt worden sein kann, weil Diskrepanzen der Pollenproduktivität zwischen den Arten nicht einbezogen wurden.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-04-17T15:02:20Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 1806734 bytes, checksum: 17c3c8e044983a785b9f0cd910ae4fc3 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-06-22 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / Religion as an object of study is constituted by providing an endless universe of knowledge, in which the religious phenomenon becomes open to a scientific look. Within this scenario we place the death that comes in its universal aspect. This way, our research is based on a comparative study in which we intend to analyze the structures that comprise the phenomenon of death in two traditions, the Roman Catholicism and the Tibetan Buddhism, both inserted in Christianity and Buddhism, two of the five major religions of the world. We will hold on to expose conceptions and visions of death in the historical development, the ritualization of death and its transformation, the funerary practices that give meaning to death and beliefs in the afterlife in both doctrines. In these two very broad and complex religious systems, we will deal specifically with the topic of death, aiming to analyze them in relation to their distinct and similar elements, from scientific and theological presuppositions, using religious and philosophical conceptions based on reliable sources of both traditions. Concerning to the Roman Catholicism, we will use the Catechism of the Catholic Church and the book of funerals, and referring to the Tibetan Buddhism, we will use as the main source, the Tibetan Book of the Dead. We will use as bibliographic source, the thinking of various scholars about the knowledge of death and its implications for society / A religião enquanto objeto de estudo se constitui por proporcionar um universo inesgotável de conhecimento, onde o fenômeno religioso torna-se passível ao olhar científico. Dentro deste cenário situamos a morte, que surge no seu aspecto universal. Nestes termos, nossa pesquisa se baseia em um estudo comparado, na qual pretendemos analisar as estruturas que comportam o fenômeno da morte em duas tradições, o Catolicismo Romano e o Budismo Tibetano, ambas inseridas no Cristianismo e no Budismo, duas das cinco maiores religiões do mundo. Deter-nos-emos em expor às concepções e visões de morte no devir histórico, a ritualização da morte e sua transformação, as práticas funerárias que conferem sentido à morte e as crenças no pós-morte em ambas as doutrinas. Nestes dois sistemas religiosos tão amplos e complexos, trataremos especificamente da temática da morte, visando analisá-las quanto aos elementos distintos e análogos, a partir de pressupostos científicos e teológicos, utilizando concepções religiosas e filosóficas embasadas em fontes fidedignas de ambas as tradições. Quanto ao Catolicismo Romano, faremos uso do Catecismo da Igreja Católica e do livro das exéquias, e no que se refere ao budismo tibetano, utilizaremos como fonte principal, o Livro Tibetano dos Mortos. Utilizaremos como suporte bibliográfico, o pensamento de vários estudiosos acerca do conhecimento da morte e suas implicações na sociedade

This thesis investigates the nature of gender bias in Tibetan Buddhism and the specific role Western Tibetan Buddhist nuns have played in transforming such prejudice. The afore-mentioned gender bias pertains particularly to the unavailability of full ordination (bhikshuni ordination) for nuns in the Tibetan tradition. The research highlights the specific contribution made by Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo, a British woman and currently the most senior Tibetan Buddhist nun. Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo attained fame for spending twelve years meditating in a cave in the Himalayas, and for her statement that she intends to attain enlightenment in a female body. She is also the founder and abbess of a Tibetan Buddhist nunnery Dongyu Gatsal Ling in India. Tenzin Palmo is particularly outspoken in her efforts to transform gender bias within the ranks of Tibetan Buddhism, and serves as an inspiration to countless lay and monastic Buddhist women worldwide. The researcher postulates that gender equality has not yet been attained within Tibetan Buddhism. Androcentric record keeping, certain misogynistic meditation practices, and cumbersome decision making processes within the Tibetan ecclesiastic system have maintained gender bias within its institution, despite His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama’s efforts to assist in the transformation of monastic attitudes. The Dalai Lama, spiritual head of Tibetan Buddhism and one of its most learned scholars, has made his position clear as far back as 2007 when he expressed his full support for the establishment of the Bhikshuni Sangha in the Tibetan tradition. Two years earlier, in 2005, he had already urged Western bhikshunis to become more involved in the issue of full ordination in Tibetan Buddhism. Western nuns in particular have therefore played a leading role in their attempts to transform gender bias in a true Buddhist spirit of patience and compassion. His Holiness the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa has been equally outspoken on the issue. In 2010 in Bodhgaya, India, he made a commitment in front of an international audience to ordaining women as bhikshunis, and stated unequivocally that he was prepared to ordain these women himself. However, he did caution against expecting quick results, asking the audience to have patience. In conclusion the thesis suggests that despite a favourable doctrinal attitude to women, ambiguity still characterises the Tibetan Buddhist approach towards females. There is tension between an underground tradition of highly accomplished female practitioners and the institutional preference for male practitioners. Institutionalised gender bias in Tibetan Buddhism therefore has no sound doctrinal basis in view of the fact that the Tibetan Buddhist pantheon is rife with female Buddhas, goddesses, dakinis, and other highly spiritual and enlightened women. Present times are characterised, especially in the West, by accomplished female academics and Tibetan Buddhist teachers, as well as prominent nuns. The yogini-tantras furthermore attest to the reverence and honour the male should afford to the female. Gender hierarchy and male dominance cause untold suffering and pain, especially devastating for female monastics, and is therefore both contradictory to Buddhist principles and to the norms of a progressive society. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / Biblical and Religious Studies / unrestricted

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京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(理学) / 甲第21577号 / 理博第4484号 / 新制||理||1644(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院理学研究科地球惑星科学専攻 / (主査)教授 千木良 雅弘, 教授 釜井 俊孝, 准教授 松四 雄騎 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Science / Kyoto University / DGAM

This thesis is based and developed on the ambiguous and open conception, iconic species, which reveals the relationship between human society and non-human species that goes be- yond its biological status. From the case of the giant panda, I attempt to deconstruct the shap- ing process of an iconic species from multiple perspectives, which includes how a specific cultural context, or a specific historical period contributes to the shaping process and how the government and the public diverge or even clash around the shaping process. Then, I introduce my fieldwork where I through observing both giant pandas and red pandas in the exhibition centres called panda bases to analyse the encountering an iconic species in reality and their different influences on public awareness of the wildlife conservation. I also attempt to explore the various representative forms of an iconic species such as the Tibetan antelope ranging from the mascot to the film and follow the changes of its symbolic meanings in different forms. In conclusion, the thesis is aimed to reflect the hybrid features of the iconic species and pro- vide in-depth interpretation of the endless interactions between the human beings and other species.

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This book reveals that the roots of modern Tibetan literature grow in the rich and fertile soil of Tibet's oral and literary traditions, rather than in the 1980s as current scholarship presents. Embracing a multidisciplinary approach drawing on theoretical insights in Western literary theory and criticism, political studies, sociology, and anthropology, this book shows that the Tibetan nation's development is inextricably linked to modern Tibetan literature