Strategy For Administering Frontier Regions Of Mongolia And Tibet Of The Qing Dynasty From Lamashuo

After defeating Gurkha’s invasion to Tibet twice from 1788 to 1792,Qing Emperor Qianlong found that many problems,old and new,twisted together and being setbacks of the good governance of Mongolia and Tibet.Emperor Qianlong decided to take the chance to rectify the political situation in Tibet and carry out the religious reformation.In 1792,Emperor Qianlong wrote Lamashuo,which clarifies the aim of Tibetan Buddhism in Qing Dynasty,summarizes the Tibetan Buddhism policy and the experience of religious governance,compares the differences between Qing Dynasty’s and Ming Dynasty’s Tibetan Buddhism and explains the reason of religious reformation and the measure,that is,drawing lots from a golden urn.Later,in 1793,the Qing Government enacted the 29-article Authorized Regulations for the Better Government of Tibet,consisting of Tibetan politics,economy,trade,diplomacy,frontier governance,military,administration of officials and management of temples,with the policy of drawing lots from a golden urn as its first article,which shows Emperor Qianlong’s emphasis on religious reformation.Lamashuo combines politics with religion.It is not only the declaration of Tibetan Buddhism in Qing Dynasty,but shows the framework of Qing Dynasty’s governance on Mongolia and Tibet.First,governance by its customs.Second,put emphasis on Tibetan Buddhism and support Yellow Hat Sect mainly.Third,carrot and stick policy,divide and rule policy.Fourth,theocracy and separating politics from religion.Fifth,normalization and legalization of governance.The period of Emperor Qianlong can be seen as a period when the governance of Mongolia and Tibet move towards sophistication.Qing Dynasty made effective governance on Mongolia and Tibet through flexible and diverse strategies with far reaching impact in history,although the Qing Dynasty had the desire both for the public good and the ruling class when it comes to governance on Mongolia and Tibet,which is determined by its nature.With the rising of research on the New Qing History,people nowadays should evaluate the strategies and policies of Qing Dynasty’s Mongolia and Tibet governance objectively.In so doing,the advantage is obvious:people can offer effective response to the research on the New Qing History as well as better reflect on and draw lessons from Qing Dynasty’s experiences.