Lord of Men in the Land of Gods: Sketching King and Politics in Eighteenth-Century Tibet

Abstract

This dissertation studies the life and political world of Polhane Sönam Dopgye (r. 1728–1747), Tibet’s penultimate lay king. An upstart from outside the old elite, Polhane’s surprising ascent to the throne coincided with historical changes that resonate still today. It was during his rule that Tibet was first incorporated into Qing empire’s frontier administration, and that the land’s traditional ruler, the Dalai Lama, was forced into exile. This dissertation argues that the biography composed in the early years of the king’s reign does more than just record those events. It sketches a novel vision of politics for a world whose transcendent framework no longer held. Rather than theorize its heterodox ideas outright, the text subtly reworks received religio-political concepts through storytelling. These stories unfold around four relationships, which this dissertation takes up in turn: the king and the Qing emperor, clerical advisors, common subjects, and intimate companions. In this vision, politics was not secured by doctrine or descent, but constructed through materially reproducing the Buddhist teachings, enacting fiscal and administrative reforms, and appealing to popular mores and sentiment. By tracking such a shift across other Tibetan, Qing, and missionary sources, this study also demonstrates that it was not mere literary flourish, but an emergent political episteme that shaped how governance was enacted and understood during this crucial era. Taking that vision seriously revises our understanding of Qing expansion, showing how it developed through a logic that treated sacred authority as something to be interpreted, not obeyed. It also suggests that Tibetan thought belongs in conversation with early modern debates elsewhere in Eurasia about the sources of political order.