Abstract EN:

This dissertation is a socio-historical investigation into the aristocracy (tib. Sku drag) of the Ganden phodrang (tib. Dga’ ldan pho brang), the central government of Tibet, from 1895 to 1959, through a prosopographical study. The aim is to understand how this hereditary administrative elite could perpetuate its domination in a period of massive changes. Oral and written sources (interviews with noble men and women, British archives and autobiographies by noble men and women) made it possible to draw up several lists (noble families, offices of the administration, and officials’ posts and titles) and to build up a database. This database provides a basis from which one can analyze the two pillars of noble identity  being of a noble lineage and in the government’s service , and the means (education, sociability, trade and privileged access to the western modernity) by which the aristocracy maintained its social capital. The study of a large sample confirms a number of known facts (relevance of the homogamy principle and strong division between high and small families), and refutes others (supremacy of polyandry and patrilineality, and strict endogamy, as a certain amount of renewal of the nobility through marriage outside of the group was brought to the fore). Regarding careers, this study confirms the absence of specialization of Tibetan noble officials but puts the domination of the high aristocrats over the higher offices into perspective, by the evidencing of a certain degree of social mobility within the aristocracy. Finally, it brings to light a fast expanding administration which is partly patrimonial, with a certain intermingling of private and public spheres.