A Study On The Tibetan Customary Law And Its Transformation

The Tibetan customary law, created gradually by the Tibetan people in their everyday life and production, is a kind of social norm which, passing down from generation to generation, has been developed and kept by the Tibetan people as part of their beliefs and established life style. It adjusts the various social relationships between the individuals as well as between the tribes in the ways of promising and pledging, in hopes of keeping the social order of the Tibetan region. Established on the basis of the tribes, the Tibetan customary law varies because of the differences existing between the different tribes. It consists of not only the religious custom of the Tibetan people but also the laws and rules issued by the native authorities and the dynasties of the central plains. Although founded on the feudal relationships with evident limitation and shortcomings, the Tibetan customary law, systematic and rich in content, has played important role in the Tibetan history and has become an important legal foundation for keeping the political, economical and life order of the Tibetan region.As the Tibetan customary law was initiated originally on the enchanting Snow Plateau, its development and inheritance have a profound religious background. Since all the Tibetan people believe in Tibetan Buddhism, as a useful tool to keep order of the production and life in the Tibetan region as well as to keep the legal right of the citizens, the Tibetan customary law has become an organic part of the life of the Tibetan people. Even until now, the Tibetan customary law is still exerting important influence on the economy, ethic, legal resources and ecological and cultural environment of the Tibetan region. In recent years, the Tibetan customary law has shown the trend of gradual expansion.It is the unique relationship between the Tibetan customary law and the Tibetan people that determines that the Tibetan customary law is playing and will play an important role in the construction of a harmonious Tibetan society, the stable development and the modernization transformation of the traditional society of the Tibetan region. However, the traditional culture of a nation can be the organic part of the contemporary culture and can be accepted and protected only if both of them are compatible in essence, otherwise the former can not take deep root in the latter. In recent years, however, along with the opening-up and strengthening of the democratic and legal construction in the Tibetan region, some norms of the Tibetan customary law are incompatible with the national law in nature. Therefore, to quicken the transformation of the Tibetan customary law has become the key to the construction of a harmonious Tibetan society. Now that law is an organic part of the social superstructure, the national law or the customary law should develop along with the development of the history and the society. The value of the history is not to lead the modern man back into the history but to nourish and motivate the modern man to start a new history.The present dissertation makes a study of the Tibetan customary law in a broad background. It not only explores the definition, the origin, the content, the traditional characteristics and the role in the early stage as well as the practical influence of the Tibetan customary law, but also focuses on the study of the motivation, objectives and means of the transformation of the Tibetan customary law. The following ideas are demonstrated in it: the fundamental means of the transformation of the Tibetan customary law is to model the Tibetan civil society and to develop the market economy of the region; the important means is to carry forward and reconstruct the Tibetan ethic and to pilot the Tibetan Buddhism to be compatible with the socialism; the practical means is to take full advantage of the resources of the Tibetan customary law, to improve the legislation of the national autonomy and to strengthen the intermediation of the people.