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Notes on Water Utilization and Rule in the Sakya Domain–Tibet

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2011

Robert B. Ekvall  and
James F. Downs
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Extract

Since the Communist Chinese take-over of Tibet, climaxed by the Tibetan revolt and the subsequent flight of the Dalai Lama, increased interest in that land and its culture has called attention to the meagerness of information concerning details of Tibetan daily life, economy, and politics. In a series of interviews widi members of the Sakya ruling house undertaken by the authors, it has been possible to secure considerable data concerning die administration of what is perhaps Tibet's most ambitious irrigation project, and the role the Sakya government played in that administration.

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Articles
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The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 22 , Issue 3 , May 1963 , pp. 293 - 303
Copyright
Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1963

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References

1 In large measure, the information on which this paper is based has been developed in a series of group interviews, or round-table discussions, with a number of Tibetans who have been brought to the University of Washington by a Rockefeller Foundation grant to participate in a Tibetan Research Project. The following members of the Sakya ruling house have participated as collaborators and informants: Dachen Rinpoche who, until he fled from Tibet in 1959, had been the ruler of the Sakya religious and secular domain since the death of his father in 1950; Trinlay Rinpoche, the younger brother of Dachen Rinpoche, who from time to time acted as his elder brother's representative in religious and secular affairs; Dezhung Rinpoche, an erudite lama from Khams, who is the official man of learning and tutor in the Sakya family; and Damo, his niece, who is the wife of Dachen Rinpoche and who as a keen and intelligent woman brought to discussion of conditions in the Sakya seat of power the fresh and precise recollections of one who had seen those conditions as a newcomer. The discussion of matters among the Tibetans was surprisingly free and candid, including differences of opinion at times. Ekvall, with his background of eight years among the Tibetans and command of the language, was able to stimulate and direct this discussion and note it for the record.

The authors are well aware of the limitations of information elicited under such conditions and of the ever-present danger of bias. Nevertheless, considering the extreme paucity of information about Tibet, it is felt that the material merits presentation in its present form. The authors gratefully acknowledge the arrangements made by Dr. George E. Taylor, Director of the Far Eastern Institute, University of Washington, which made this research possible. Downs would like to acknowledge further the financial aid given him by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences which facilitated certain phases of the research.

2 Tacci, G., Tibetan Painted Scrolls (Roma: Is. M. E. O., 1949), p. 10.Google Scholar

3 Carrasco, P., Land and Polity in Tibet (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1959), pp. 4, 8.Google Scholar

4 Das, S. C., Journey to Lhasa and Central Tibet (London: John Murray, 1902), pp. 237–242Google Scholar; Desideri, I., ed. De Fillipi, , An Account of Tibet (London: George Routledge and Sons, 1935), pp. 129, 131Google Scholar; Kawaguchi, E., Three Years in Tibet (Adyar: Theosophist Office, 1909), pp. 239–245.Google Scholar

5 Ferrari, A., ed. Petech, , Mk'yen-brtse's Guide to the Holy Placet of Central Tibet (Roma: Is. M. E. O., 1958), pp. 63, 64, 148–152.Google Scholar

6 Direct quote from Dachen Rinpoche.

7 The uniqueness in Tibet of this pond irrigation system, although firmly asserted by the informants, is not, of course, indisputable. However, the authors know of no reference in the many books about Tibet which invalidates the claim. Two other Tibetans, who are from the Lhasa district of central Tibet, were also consulted on this point. Tashi Tsehring, a student in political science, stated that he had never seen or heard of a pond system of irrigation. Nawang Nornang, a monk working in the Tibetan Language Project, who had travelled widely as a business representative of his monastery, has no knowledge of any pond system of irrigation other than the Sakya one, although he had heard of a single pond three days' journey west of Lhasa. Harrer (Seven Years in Tibet, London: Rupert Hart-Davis, 1953, pp. 150, 210–213Google Scholar) did a lot of work in the environs of Lhasa with regard to control and use of water, but never mentions ponds as part of an irrigation system.

8 As statistics by recall, all the measurements are quite naturally approximations. They were given in an odd medley of measurement units which included the pace, the fathom, the English mile and “earshot,” in Tibetan rGyang Grags (distance cry), which has been standardized by the Tibetans as five hundred fathoms. All measurement citations have been reduced to fathoms as the most frequently used unit of measure. They were further checked by taking the Tibetans to a beach where they built a model of the irrigation system in the sand and rechecked all their estimates by much argument among themselves and by reference to points along the beach. These distances were then paced. There was a remarkable consistency between the measurements first cited and the measurements derived from this cross check. The map which accompanies this paper is based largely on this beach model. With this explanation, the measurements are given in the text without the repetitious use of the word “approximate.”

9 Direct quote from Dachen Rinpoche.

10 Richardson, Hugh, A Short History of Tibet (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1962), p. 16.Google Scholar

11 Winnington, Alan, Tibet (New York: International Publishers, 1957), pp. 166–169.Google Scholar

12 Direct quote from Dachen Rinpoche.