티베트 貴族의 혼인문화

Abstract

The following three aspects will help in understanding the power and the truth of how Tibetan society has maintained its unity of religion and politics until modern times. The first aspect is the Dalai Lama, the head of the unity of religion and politics, and high-ranking monks who are close to the Dalai Lama. The second aspect is the Buddhist temples that hold strong influence in designing and constructing Tibetan politics and religious culture. The third aspect is the power bloc of Tibetan noble families. However, the Tibetan society before 1951 was formed of the ruling class comprised of three types of lords, including government officials of the feudal local government, the nobles, and the highranking lamas of Buddhist temples. Their population accounted for only 5% of the total population. Among them, the aristocracy was the actual power group that created Tibetan culture and politics, and took the lead in economy. Historically, the Tibetan aristocracy formed four types of classes. The first class was the Yabshi family. They were called “Golden aristocrats” and consisted of the parents of the Dalai Lama and the family of the Panchen Lama. The second class was the Depon family. This family, the most influential group in Tibetan noble society, was traditional and authoritative, and passes power to blood-related descendants. The third class was the midak family. This family used to dominate ministers of the Tibetan local government and actively pushed forward marriage among similar families to maintain families’ stability and status. At the time, this marriage culture affected other noble classes, except for the Yabshi family, and led to the universal sentiment that recognizes the politicization of marriage. Lastly, although they were ordinary nobles, they were small self-made families that accumulated economic wealth by their own efforts and entered into the world of nobles. This article analyzes the noble families’ marriage forms,values, and marriage purposes. The analysis reveals that the marriage of then-noble families was highly political by highlighting the difference from the marriage culture of common peasants and serfs in Tibet, and considers the social background at the time to see reasons for the politicization of the marriage.