Many Wars of the Ganden Phodrang (1642–1950)

This open access book brings Tibet into the dynamic academic field of war studies: the contributors provide a new historical approach to the armed conflicts fought by troops of the Ganden Phodrang, a Buddhist government headed by the Dailai Lamas and the largest Tibetan polity in early modern and modern history. The Many Wars of the Ganden Phodrang (1642-1959) sheds light on the ways in which wars, whether won or lost, were fought as well as on the state, composition and organization of the troops when these conflicts occurred. The contributions further reflect on the way wars generated change in the Tibetan military institutions themselves, in the development of the Tibetan government and in society in general, the continuous involvement of civilians in war (notably as members of regional militias) that paralleled the formation of an increasingly professionalized army, the celebration and commemoration of military victories, and last but not least, war’s impact on international politics between Tibet and its neighbors. The volume contains analyses of a number of wars, both internal and external both those fought with external help and those without.The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS).