Sacred Arts of Tibet (.pdf) - Asian Art Museum | Education

Sacred Arts of Tibet
for advanced training in Tibet. The Tibetan monastic universities, such as Drepung, Sera, Ganden, Tashi
Lhunpo, Kumbum and Lhabrang Trashi Kyil each housed and taught many thousands of students, scholars
and artisans. There they could learn the fine arts, medicine, natural sciences, literature, philosophy
and every aspect of the ancient religious lore of Tibet. Having completed their education, many would
return to their homelands and become the principle teachers in their own schools and universities. Over
six thousand such monastic universities, with their great libraries and teaching facilities, existed in Tibet
in 1959. Within seven years, the invading Chinese armies had destroyed all but sixteen. Those sixteen
were converted by the Chinese into government facilities and museums for tourists.
All of these diverse social roles, except for perhaps the nomad, have changed or disappeared within Tibet
since 1959.
Nomads
Nomads of northern Tibet constitute one of the last great nomadic pastoral societies once found in the
world today. This lifestyle has survived in northern Tibet because no one has discovered an alternative
means of survival. There are no competitors for the land, since it cannot be farmed. The Chinese use
some of it as a dumping ground for nuclear waste, mine it for minerals, but find the life there too harsh.
In the north, nomads convert the energy of the wild grasses into food, clothing, and shelter by means
of the large herds they tend. They are dependent on their animals for survival in the way that American
plains Indians were dependent upon the buffalo. Like Buffalo Bill and his henchmen in the American Far
West during the nineteenth century, the Chinese have sought to demoralize and economically destroy the
nomads of Tibet by confiscating or killing their herds of yak.
Nomads value their freedom and self-sufficiency above all else. They live in collapsible yak-hair tents,
which they can pack on the strong backs of their yaks and move to their next seasonal pasture. A complicated
system of rotation often causes families to wander for extended periods of time, since different families
tend different animals in the widely scattered feeding grounds. Often alone with their animals, the life
a nomad is a solitary but free one. The landscapes of the northern part of Tibet provide some of the most
spectacular scenery on earth.
As in most other Asian cultures, the family is the basic economic unit. Nomad women, however, hold a
much higher role in their society than their counterparts in other cultures. The children start to work as
shepherds from a very early age, steering the groups of animals with pebble slings and sheep dogs. This is
a great responsibility, for the nomads eke out a living almost entirely from their herds; the family’s survival
depends on the survival of their animals, which they must protect from wolves and other calamities. Most
chores have to be done outside regardless of the weather, so the nomadic lifestyle is often looked upon as
harsh. Compared to the farmer, however, the nomads say their life is easy. The grass is already there.
A family will always have its investments distributed among different animals to ensure that all their
needs are met. The staples of the nomads are meat, milk, butter, cheese, yogurt, and salt, which they collect
from the brackish lakes that dot the north. The harsh environment demands that the nomads eat
some meat to survive, but because there is such a strong Buddhist taboo against killing, nomads depend
upon animals who have died a natural death. To obtain what herds cannot produce directly they trade
with farmers and merchants. In exchange for salt and wool, they receive agricultural products like barley,
the major staple of the Tibetan diet, and imported goods such as tea.
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