Book
The golden yoke: the legal cosmology of Buddhist Tibet
Cornell University Press • Ithaca • Published In 1995 • Pages:
By: French, Rebecca Redwood.
Abstract
A masterful work on Tibetan law based on interviews and case studies from court archives. The author shows how law codes and practice is embedded in Buddhist cosmological and moral system, in which, for example, beliefs in Karma factor into a judge's decision making. The author discusses the history of the Tibetan law codes, the cosmology of law, the practice and process of law, the legal bureaucracy, law in the countryside, and Tibetan reasoning about crime and punishment. The author concludes that a world view based on cosmological integration, radical particularity and moral self-regulation profoundly shapes and affects legal practice in Tibet. FOr example, the legal code is used more as a guide to decision making, the arm of the law is short, and there is a lack of finality and closure in cases.
- HRAF PubDate
- 2010
- Region
- Asia
- Sub Region
- Central Asia
- Document Type
- Book
- Evaluation
- Creator Type
- Ethnologist
- Document Rating
- 4: Excellent Secondary Data
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- Analyst
- Ian Skoggard; 2009
- Field Date
- 1981-1994
- Coverage Date
- 1940-1959
- Coverage Place
- central Tibet
- Notes
- Rebecca Redwood French
- Includes bibliographical references (p. [371]-388) and index
- LCCN
- 95019360
- LCSH
- Law--China--Tibet
- Customary law--China--Tibet
- Ethnological jurisprudence
- Tibet (China)--Social life and customs