LONDON: The University of St. Andrews in Scotland has initiated a 10-year project to explore the close relationship between religion and politics in Tibet. The Dalai Lama has extended his support to the project.
The project is considered to be the largest historical project in the world on the subject, and will be led by Mario Aguilar of the university'sSchool of Divinity. The focus will be on developments in Tibetan Buddhism between 1931 and the early years of the 21st century.
?Entitled Religion and Politics in Tibet 1931-2009″, the study will be completed in 2017 with the publication of a series of monographs. The current office of the Dalai Lama, himself an honorary graduate of St. Andrews (1993), has written to express its support of the project.
The multi-disciplinary project would look at aspects of historiography, social anthropology, international relations and comparative religion. It will also look at the challenges facing the next (15th) Dalai Lama.
Aguilar, who is chair of Religion and Politics and director of the Centre for the Study of Religion and Politics (CSRP) at St. Andrews, said: ?The brief period of complete independence of Tibet from China (1931-1950) was marked by the finding of the 14th Dalai Lama in 1935, the reincarnation of the previous Dalai Lama, a very significant moment that was to mark an insider-outsider perspective in the history of religion in Tibet after the Dalai Lama'sself-exile in India of 1959.
?Since then China has annexed Tibet as an autonomous region of China and has even restored some of the Tibetan monasteries destroyed in the hundreds within the period of the Chinese Cultural Revolution.?
He added: ?The question that remains unanswered for the future is how Tibetans are going to manage religion and politics as two geographically separated entities within a Tibetan Buddhist practice that incorporates past histories and a Tibetan region that remains part of contemporary China: both on the path to human enlightenment in different ways.
?This research project aims at covering the historical ground as to help answer such a question that will arise with the ageing of the 14th Dalai Lama and his future reincarnation.?
Over the next 10 years, Aguilar will run a series of events and research projects in St. Andrews. Specific projects will include ?The History of the Lamas 1391-1935?, ?Tibetan Buddhism?, ?Independence of Religion 1931-1950? and ?The Restoration of the Monasteries?.
Aguilar said: ?Our aim is to provide a series which will comprise arguments by several previous studies that deal with single periods of Tibetan history during the 20th century and to provide a more complete series of scholarly work accessible to historians, political scientists and scholars of religion.?
Meanwhile, the University of Aberdeen, also based in Scotland, has taken a significant step towards strengthening its research links in the world'shighest region by forging a pact with the Nepal-based International Centre for Integrated Mountain Research (Icimod).
The Icimod is a unique collaboration between China, Burma, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Afghanistan that looks at problems of biodiversity, sustainability and development in and around the massive mountain ranges of the Himalayan region.
Its aim is to develop and provide innovative solutions to the pressing economic, social and physical vulnerability of mountain people. The university is the lead partner in the Scottish Centre for Himalayan Research (SCHR).
Will Tuladhar-Douglas, director of the SCHR and a lecturer in religious studies at the University of Aberdeen, said: ?This is a significant step forward for the SCHR as it means we now have in-country research partners in every Himalayan nation and far greater capacity to build further research partnerships across the entire region.?
Projects currently underway at the Scottish Centre include work exploring Tibetan divination, Tantric medicine, 17th century Scots in the Himalayas and plant collecting expeditions in the Solu Khumbu region.
Tuladhar-Douglas added: ?There is already a huge amount of fascinating work currently being undertaken by the SCHR team but this new agreement with Icimod will undoubtedly open new doors for further research opportunities for our staff in Aberdeen and across Scotland.?
