The nature of rule and interpolity relations

To address the obstacles caused by conflicting views on parties’ historical relations and the use of historical narratives in peace processes, mediators may want or need to facilitate an understanding among parties of the way their respective perceptions and narratives have emerged. This requires providing insights into the historical context in which events and developments took place, records and histories were written, and narratives were produced. Historical context affords not only a broader geopolitical picture, but also an appreciation of the world views, social positions and work environments of the authors of sources we base our knowledge of history on. It can help explain differences in interpretation and portrayal of historical events and political projects. By uncovering how, by whom and for which purposes records were kept and narratives written, it becomes easier to understand why the resulting bodies of historical writing differed from one community or polity to the next and still differ today. Knowledge of historical context can help bring about the realization that historical narratives ‘are what they are,’ which, in turn, can help loosen the grip they have on peace processes. 

In order to understand how radically differing or even mutually exclusive perceptions of history developed, Kreddha took Inner- and East Asia as its case study and embarked on an extensive program of research, discussion and reflection on the historical nature of polities and their relations in the region from the rise of Genghis Khan in the 13th century to the inclusion of the region in the modern international legal order in the early 20th century. With the cooperation and support of five academic institutions, Kreddha co-hosted five 3-day interdisciplinary roundtables in which a total of 74 scholars—political scientists, anthropologists, Sinologists, Mongolicists, Tibetologists, specialists on Central Asia—from Asia, Europe and North America, discussed their most recent work based on a broad range of Asian sources.

For a short description of the subject matter of each roundtable as well as the participants and the papers they presented, please click below:

Roundtable 1: The Nature of Political and Spiritual Relations among Asian Leaders and Polities from the 14th to the 17th Centuries

Roundtable 2: The Nature of the Mongol Empire and its Legacy with Respect to Political and Spiritual Relations among Asian Leaders and Polities from the Late 12^th Century to the 18^th Century 

Roundtable 3: The Transition from Traditional forms of Political and Spiritual Relations among Asian Polities and their Leaders to Modern Inter-State Relations

Roundtable 4: The Nature of Historical Political and Spiritual Relations among Asian Polities and Leaders within and in Relation to the Tibetan Buddhist World

Roundtable 5: The Nature of the Manchu Qing Empire and of its Relations with Other Polities in Asia 

The first roundtable, held in April 2010 and co-hosted by the Institute of Asian Research of the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Vancouver, examined political and spiritual relations among East and Southeast Asian rulers and polities from the fourteenth to the eighteenth century. Much of the discussion centered on the workings and impact of tributary relations between Ming China and the polities around it. The meeting was co-chaired by Dr. Tsering Shakya, Canada Research Chair in Religion and Contemporary Society in Asia, Institute for Asian Research, University of British Columbia.

The program consisted of the presentation and extensive discussion of the following papers by the named scholars (in the order of presentation):

Yuan-kang Wang, Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology and School of Public Affairs and Administration, Western Michigan University: Power and Hierarchy in the Chinese Tribute System

Kirk Larsen, Associate Professor of History, Department of History, Brigham Young University: Korean Relations with China

Feng Zhang, Assistant Professor, Department of International Relations, Tsinghua University: How Hierarchic Was the Historial East Asian System? East Asian International Relations during the Ming-Qing Period, 1368-1800

Liam Kelley, Associate Professor, Department of History, University of Hawaii: Narrating an Unequal Relationship: How Premodern Viet Literati Explained their Kingdom’s Relationship with the ‘North’

Siddiq Wahid, Vice Chancellor, Islamic University of Kashmir: Kashmir, Ladakh, Tibet, Kashgar relations in Central Asian context

Johan Elverskog, Associate Professor of Religious Studies, Southern Methodist University: Buddhism and Islam on the Silk Road: Jihad

Ji-Young Lee, Visiting Assistant Professor of Politics and East Asian Studies, Oberlin College: Unpacking ‘Hierarchy’ of the Chinese World Order: Investiture Ritual and Power Politics in Early Modern China-Korea Relations

Geoff Wade, Visiting Senior Research Fellow, National University of Singapore: Ming China, the ‘Tribute System’ and the Rhetoric of Imperial China’s Foreign Relations

Timothy Brook, Republic of China Chair in the History at the University of British Columbia: Tribute Diplomacy and Crises of Legitimacy in Early Ming China

Tsering Shakya, Canada Research Chair in Religion and Contemporary Society in Asia, Institute for Asian Research, University of British Columbia: The Fifth Dalai Lama’s view of Tibet’s Neighbors

Gakusho Nakajima, Associate Professor, Department of History, Kyushu University: Structure and Transformation of the Ming Tribute Trade System

Victoria Tin-bor Hui, Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Notre Dame: China’s Long March to The Periphery: How Peripheral Regions Became Parts of China

Ratanaporn Sethakul, Associate Professor, History Department, Payap University: The nature of Southeast Asian polities and relations

The paper of Vladimir Uspenskiy, Professor and Chair of Mongolian and Tibetan Studies, Oriental Department, St. Petersburg State University, China vis-à-vis Inner Asia in the Fourteenth to the Eighteenth Centuries: War and Peace, Religion and State Ritual, and that of Prof. Lhamsuren Munkh-Erdene, Professor, Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, National University of Mongolia, 1640 Great Code: A Failed Inner Asian Parallel to the Treaty of Westphalia? were discussed in their absence, as their flights were cancelled due to a volcano eruption in Iceland.

 

 

The second roundtable, held in November 2010 at the Centre for Studies in Asian Cultures and Social Anthropology and the Institute for Iranian Studies of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (OAW), focused on the Mongol empire and its legacy across Inner and East Asia up until the eighteenth century. Participants examined how power was established, maintained, and administered by the Mongol khans, considered the significance and impact of spiritual and political bonds among Mongol, Tibetan, and, later, Manchu leaders. The program was co-hosted by Prof. Florian Schwarz, Director, Institute of Iranian Studies, Austrian Academy of Sciences, and Dr. Helmut Krasser, Director, Institute for the Cultural and Intellectual History of Asia, Austrian Academy of Sciences.

The program consisted of the presentation and extensive discussion of the following papers by the named scholars:

Lhamsuren Munkh-Erdene, Lise Meitner Fellow, Austrian Academy of Sciences and Professor, Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, National University of Mongolia: Where did the Mongol Empire come from: A Tribal World or an Aristocratic Order or? Medieval Mongol ideas of people, state and empire

David Sneath, Reader in Anthropology, Department of Social Anthropology, University of Cambridge: Conceptualizing power relations in Chinggisid polities: rethinking notions of state and tribe

Koichi Matsuda, Professor at the Faculty of Letters, Osaka International University: The Fief (Appanage) Allotment System of the Mongol Empire after the enthronement of Qubilai. Focusing on the Eastern Domain of Hülegu

Hodong Kim, Professor, Director of the Center for Central Eurasian Studies, Seoul National University: Rash?d al-D?n’s History of China: Mongol Perceptions of China in the 13-14^th Century

Tatiana Skrynnikova, Principal Researcher, Department of Philosophy, Culture and Religion Studies, Institute for Mongolian, Buddhist, and Tibetan Studies, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences: Concept törö as Supreme Law of the Universe in Political Culture of both Mongol Ulus and Yuan Empire

Veronika Veit, Professor, Department of Mongolian and Tibetan Studies, University of Bonn: Shamanism and Buddhism in Mongolia—the politico-religious nature and significance of a native and an imported faith in the history of the Mongols

Weirong Shen, School of Chinese Classics, Renmin University of China: The Political and Religious Legacy of the Mongol Yuan Dynasty in Ming China An Investigation into the Role of Tibetan Buddhism in the Formation of Political and Religious Institution of the Tangut Xia Kingdom, the Mongol Yuan and Ming Dynasty

Vladimir Uspenskiy, Professor, Chair of Mongolian and Tibetan Studies, Oriental Department, St. Petersburg State University: The Policy of the Mongol Yuan Dynasty Towards Tibetan Lamas and its assessment by the Manchu Qianlong Emperor

Dalizhabu, Director, Research Center of History and Geographical Studies of China’s Frontier Regions and Nationalities, Minzu University: Mongol Pilgrims to Tibet During 16^th to 19^th Centuries

Christopher Atwood, Professor, Chair of Central Eurasian Studies Department and Director of the Center for Languages of the Central Asian Region, Indiana University: Ortoq Equals Tüngshi: Notes on the Commercialization of Public Finance in Pre-Modern Eurasia

Yoshiyuki Funada, Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Humanities, Kyushu University: The Image of the Semu People: Mongols, Chinese, and Various Other Peoples under the Mongol Empire

Ik-Joo Lee, Professor at the Department of Korean History, Seoul National University: Goryeo-Mongol Relationship in the 13-14^th century

Birgitt Hoffmann, Professor of Iranian Studies, Bamberg University: Rituals and symbolic communication in Ilkhanid court life

Timothy Brook, Professor, Republic of China Chair in the History at the University of British Columbia: Unification as a Political Ideal: An Effect of the Mongol Conquest of China

Nicola Di Cosmo, Professor of East Asian History, The Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton: The notion of “tutelage” in relations between Manchus and Mongols before the conquest of China

Karénina Kollmar-Paulenz, Professor and co-Director, Institute for Religious Studies, University of Bern, was a discussant. The paper of Professor Morris Rossabi, Columbia University, Notes on Mongol Influences on the Ming Dynasty was discussed in his absence as he was unable to participate for health reasons.

 

 

The third roundtable, held in April 2011 at the Nalanda-Sriwijaya Centre of the Institute for Southeast Asian Studies at the National University of Singapore (NUS), looked at how inter-polity relations in Inner, East, and Southeast Asia changed between the eighteenth and early twentieth century as a consequence of the transition from multiple Asian systems to the modern single system of relations prescribed by European norms of international law. The roundtable was co-hosted by Tansen Sen, Senior Fellow, the Nalanda-Sriwijaya Centre, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore and Associate Professor of Asian History and Religion, Baruch College, City University of New York and  Geoffrey Wade, Senior Fellow, The Nalanda-Sriwijaya Centre, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore.  

The program consisted of the presentation and extensive discussion of the following papers by the named scholars:

Christopher Beckwith, Professor, Central Eurasian Studies, University of Indiana: From Central Eurasian Hierarchical Feudalism to Extreme Modernism 

Konuralp Ercilasun, Associate Professor at the Maltepe University, Istanbul: Central Asia between Russia and China: Trilateral Relations and Concepts of Sovereignty (18^th-20^th centuries)

Prasenjit Duara, Director, Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore: The Multi-National State in Modern World History: The Chinese Experiment

Thongchai Winichakul, Professor History, University of Wisconsin: Territorial Sovereignty of the Modern Siamese Kingdom: A case of the non-Westphalian territoriality

Goh Geok Yian, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore: Buddhism, Moral Authority, and International Relations between Burma and Buddhist Asia from the Pre- to Post-colonial Periods

Yumiko Ishihama Fukudo, Professor of Asian History, Waseda University: The Development and the Demise of the Buddhist Government

Nikolay Tsyrempilov, Institute of Mongolian, Buddhist and Tibetan Studies, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Ulan Ude: Buddhism Under Pressure: Transformations of the Buriat Buddhist Sangha in Imperial Russia

Sergius Kuzmin, Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow: Collapse of the Qing Empire and the Problem of Mongolian and Tibetan Independence

Lishuang Zhu, Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of History, Peking University: Special Envoys of the Republican Government to Tibet, 1912-49

Uradyn Bulag, Reader, Selwyn College, Department of Social Anthropology, University of Cambridge: Collaborative Nationalism: The Politics of Friendship on China’s Mongolian Frontier

John Ardussi, Senior Fellow, The Tibet Center, University of Virginia: Considerations of Political Change in the Greater Himalayan World: The cases of Tibet, Bhutan and Sikkim

Tirtha Prasad Mishra, Head, Central Department of History, Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu: Major Trends in Nepal’s Foreign Policy 1769-1951

Jiang Qian, Centre of Asian Studies, University of Hong Kong: Seeking Recognition from the Son of Heaven: King Taksin’s Siam and Qing China during the Late 18^th Century

Geoffrey Wade, Senior Fellow, The Nalanda-Sriwijaya Centre, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore: The Transformation of India-China Relations during the Colonial Period

Tansen Sen, Senior Fellow, the Nalanda-Sriwijaya Centre, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore and Associate Professor of Asian History and Religion, Baruch College, City University of New York: The Transformation of India-China Relations during the Colonial Period

Kirk Larsen, Associate Professor of History, Department of History, Brigham Young University: The promises and perils of Chosôn Korea’s entrance into the “family of nations” in an era of “organized hypocrisy”

Shogo Suzuki, Lecturer, Politics, School of Social Sciences, University of Manchester: The Expansion of ‘Civilised’ European Diplomacy and the Emergence of the Japanese Imperialist State

R. Bin Wong, Professor of History, University of California at Los Angeles and Director of its Asia Institute, and Timothy Brook, Professor and Republic of China Chair at the University of British Columbia, participated as discussants in the meeting.

 

 

The fourth roundtable was hosted by the Asia Institute at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) in May 2012. Discussion at this roundtable focused on the role of Tibet and Tibetan hierarchs in the political and spiritual dimensions of relations among Asian leaders and polities within a greater Tibetan Buddhist world.

The roundtable was co-hosted by Professor R. Bin Wong, Director of The Asia Institute at the University of California at Los Angeles

The program consisted of the presentation and extensive discussion of the following papers by the named scholars:

Thubten Phuntsok, Professor of Tibetology at Central Nationalities University, Beijing: On how Buddhism attained a political status in Tibet in the 12^th Century

Dan Martin, Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem: The Mind of Doctor Riddle: divining the worldview of a 13th-century history writer

Koichi Matsuda, Professor at the Faculty of Business, Osaka International University, Osaka: Tibet and Tibetan Buddhism under Mongol Rule

Agata Bareja-Starzynska, Mongolian and Tibetan Studies, Department of Turkish Studies and Inner Asian Peoples, University of Warsaw: The Emergence of the Tibetan Modeled Hierocratic Rule in Khalkha Mongolia on the Example of the First Jetsundampa: Öndör Gegeen Zanabazar (1635-1723) in Relation to the Rule of the Tibetan Fifth Dalai Lama and the Manchu Emperor Kangxi

Kurtis Schaeffer, Professor of Tibetan and Buddhist Studies, University of Virginia: International Lhasa: Foreigners in the Writings of the Fifth Dalai Lama

Charles Ramble, Professor and Directeur d'études, École pratique des hautes études, Université Sorbonne: Reconciling the Irreconcilable: Buddhism and the Natural Order in Tibetan Theories of Statecraft

Ron Sela, Associate Professor of Central Eurasian Studies, Indiana University, Bloomington: The “Tibetan Buddhist World” in Central Asian Muslim sources, 16^th-18^th centuries: Perceptions and Realities

Saul Mullard, Researcher, École pratique des hautes études, Université Sorbonne, Paris and Visiting Researcher, Namgyal Institute of Tibetology, Gangtok, Sikkim: Religious and Political relations between Tibetan and Sikkim from the late Seventeenth to the early Nineteenth Centuries

Tsering Shakya, Canada Research Chair in Religion and Contemporary Society in Asia, Institute for Asian Research, University of British Columbia: Tibetan Account of Simla Conference: Clear Mirror of Tripartite Conference Between Great Britain, Tibet and China

Alex McKay, Alumnus, International Institute of Asian Studies, Leiden: From Mandala to Modernity: the British imperial construction of the Himalayan Buddhist States

Gray Tuttle, Assistant Professor of Modern Tibetan Studies, Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, Columbia University, New York: Mass monastic higher education in early modern Amdo: Central Tibetan inspiration, Qing Dynasty support

Scott Relyea, Assistant Professor of Chinese History at Hamline University, Minnesota

Investigating Kham: the struggle for political and spiritual authority in the early 20^th century

Hsiao-ting Lin, Curator, East Asia Collection and Research Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University: Rethinking the Nationalist Chinese Ethnopolitics in the early 20^th Century

Tsering Wangyal Shawa, Geographic Information Systems and Head, Digital Map and Geospatial Information Center, Peter B. Lewis Library, Princeton University: Mapping of Tibet; its history and impact

Johan Elverskog, Fellow, Center for Advanced Study in Behavioral Sciences of Stanford University and Timothy Brook, professor and Republic of China Chair at the University of British Columbia participated as discussants in the rountable.

 

 

The fifth roundtable, hosted by the School of Historical Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) at Princeton, addressed the nature of the Manchu Qing empire and its relations with polities within and beyond its reach. It was co-hosted by Michael van Walt van Praag in his capacity as Visiting Professor of Modern International Relations and International Law, School of Historical Studies of the IAS.

The program consisted of the presentation and extensive discussion of the following papers by the named scholars:

Nicola Di Cosmo, Professor of East Asian Studies, The Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton: Political Cultures in the Early Manchu State

Lhamsuren Munk-Erdene, Professor of History, National University of Mongolia: Imperial Incorporation and the Political Order in Pre-Modern Eurasia: the Chinggisid and the Qing incorporations in Comparison

Hiroki Oka, Professor at the Center for Northeast Asian Studies, Tohoku University: The ‘Wai fan’ (Outer Mongol) as a successor system of the Northern Yuan polity

Guanjie Niu, Associate Professor, Department of History, Renmin University of China, Beijing: Historical Writing and the Formation of Qing Empire’s Political Influence

Pamela Crossley, Collis Professor of History, Dartmouth College: The Early Qing-Joseon Relationship in the Context of Qing Pluralities of Ruler and State

Yongling Jiang, Associate Professor, East Asian Languages and Cultures, Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, PA: Mapping the Empire, Ming Qing Comparisons

Yochimichi Kusunoki, Professor of Asian History, University of Tsukuba: Perceptions of the Manchu Qing Dynasty during the Edo Period Japan

Peter C. Perdue, Professor of History, Yale University: Qing China As Viewed by Its Neighbors

Matthew Kapstein, Numata Visiting Professor of Buddhist Studies Philosophy of Religions and History of Religions, The Divinity School, University of Chicago: Seeing the Qing: Tibetan perspectives on China’s rulers during the early eighteenth century

Nobuaki Murakami, Associate Professor, Faculty of Literature, Soka University: Two Emperors’ understandings of the relationship between Qing officials and Tibetan Buddhism leaders ‘in the middle period’of the ‘Qing’Dynasty

Zvi Ben-Dor Benite, Professor of History, Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, New York University: Mirror for the Emperor: Muslim images of China's ruler during Manchu times

Brantly Womack, Professor of Foreign Affairs and C. K. Yen Chair, Miller Center, University of Virginia: Layers and Varieties of Asymmetry in Qing Asia

Tong Lam, Associate Professor of History, University of Toronto: The Empire’s New Clothes: The Recolonization of the Frontier in Late Qing China

Scott Relyea, Assistant Professor of Chinese History at Hamline University, Minnesota: A fence on which we can rely’: Sovereignty, territoriality, and the Tibetan Plateau in the early Twentieth Century

Ron Sela, Associate Professor of Central Asian History, Department of Central Eurasian Studies, Indiana University; and Weirong Shen, Professor, Institute for China Studies, Renmin University; and Timothy Brook, Professor and Republic of China Chair at the University of British Columbia participated in the roundtable as discussants.