Tibetan Vows

The oaths occupied a significant position in social activities and political operations in Tubo period. As an ancient cultural convention, the oaths were devoutly respected in cultural notions and legal judgments. The oaths in its original form played important role in term of relation mediation and order stability in society. As a distinctive political activity, the oaths were constructively used in political system of Tubo kingdom. With the stability of throne and the unification of decree, the system contents of the oaths gradually developed and became a factor of the polity. With the changes in state-church relations and the progress of inter-ethnic relations, the types and functions of oaths expanded and showed distinct characteristics of nation and times. The vows and ceremony were the concentrated expression of the Tubo Oaths System. The types of vows became a microcosm of the text on the development of the Tubo Oaths, and the techniques of vows reflected the horizontal contact and vertical transmission about this text. The program of ceremony was a combination of vividness and solemnity, and the ritual of ceremony contained strong cultural strength in communication with god-man and connection with Tibetan-Chinese. The Tubo Oaths evolved in a broad historical time and space, left permanent marks in Tibet, Dun-huang and other regions, impacted profoundly in political and social fields.Based on the achievements of previous studies, this dissertation does not concentrate on the literature study, but on the historical study, and not on the individual study, but on the overall study. By comprehensively collecting and arranging the Tibetan historical materials related to the oaths in Tubo period, including the Tibetan manuscripts from Dun-huang, the old Tibetan inscriptions and the traditional Tibetan records, and verifying the Chinese historical data at the same era, the author tries to systematically show the basic principles and dynamic scenes of the Tubo Oaths, and unearth its political and cultural significance which can be clarified only through the historical facts. Specially, the integrity and richness of the vows would become the solid basis for the in-depth studies in future. The overall research and the case studies would be combined in this dissertation which consists of six chapters as follows:Chapter one emphasizes on the original form of the Tubo Oaths, Chapter two on the establishment of the Tubo Oaths system, Chapter three on the field expansion of the Tubo Oaths system, Chapter four on the text content of the vows of the Tubo Oaths, Chapter five on the cultural significance of the ceremony of the Tubo Oaths, Chapter six on the space-time response of the Tubo Oaths. Furthermore, Tubo Oaths' sanction and relativity will be discussed in the chapters'case studies.