Present Condition of the Tibetan Areas and Social
Development
The research in this direction pays
close attention to the present social and economic development and
major realistic issues of the Tibetan areas, studies realistic problems
and social characteristics of the areas from the point of development
and stability, provides guiding ideology and strategic foundation
for our country to solve problems and make policy for the Tibetan
areas. This research is extremely compound and crisscross, deals
with theories and methods in numerous fields of nationality, society,
economy, religion, education, history, culture and the like, specializes
in the comprehensive and applied projects. As the most important
western comprehensive university which is a gateway to Tibet for
its forward location, Sichuan University receives more attention
of academic circles and the state department concerned for it has
kept an age-old tradition of making investigation and engaging in
study in Tibetan areas, taken on a quite number of national tasks
in this field for many years, finished many correlated reports and
treatises of high quality, crowned with remarkable achievements.
In addition, South Asia Research Institute, Population Research
Institute, Religion Research Institute, and Environmental Engineering
College of our university have all looked on this direction as an
important research field and gotten quite good fruits, which has
not only given effective support to our study, but also helped the
whole university to form comparatively strong comprehensive strength
in the research direction.
Ge Le, the academic leader in this research direction, has taken
charge of many correlated significant projects and accomplished
it, come out some great fruits that arouse wide interest at home
and abroad, such as Herdsmen of Northern Tibet: Social and Historical
Investigation in The Naqu Area of Tibet, Forty-year Vicissitudes
of Tibetan Families: Investigative Reporting of One Hundred Tibetan
Families. In recent years, Tibetan Traditional Culture and Modernization,
the national major research project directed by him, is the most
important one with the largest scale in this field. History, Tradition,
and Modernization of Tibet Changdu and The Social Formation of Tibetan
Feudal Serfdom have been published and other serial ones will be
put out, which will become the newest systematic outcomes. Moreover,
other workers’ publications are all related to this research in
different fields from different angles, which is beneficial to knowing
the present social situation, accelerating the development of the
Tibetan areas. And meanwhile it marks the leading position of our
institute in this research field. And these results are as follows:
Ran Guangrong’s Chinese Tibetan Buddhist Monastery, Historical and
Cultural Study of the Upper Reaches of the Minjiang River, Investigative
Reporting of Bai Ma Zang Ren, Selected material of Tibetan Buddhist
Monastery, and The Way of Developing Sichuan Tibetan Areas. Yang
Jiaming’s How to Train Qualified Junior Middle School Teachers for
Tibetan Areas, To Probe and Practise the higher normal Education
for nationalities of the Tibetan Areas, Bilanguage Education and
Teaching Research of The Tibetan Areas, and Study of Stability and
Development of Ganzi Tibetan Areas. Xu Ping’s Life of Tibetan Peasants
and Tibetan Peasants: A Investigative Report written by Ban Jue
Bu Lun Chun. Li Tao’s Study of Rural Urbanization of Two Tributaries’
Valleys of Ya Lu Zang Bu Jiang River and Rural Urbanization of Tibet,
the Inland and Coastal.
The said research direction has gotten close attention of international
Tibetology circles for its very important academic position in the
field of Tibetology. Because of the current international situation
and Tibet issues which may be more complicated and sharper in the
21th Century, the research has realistic significance for accelerating
economic development and social progress of the Tibetan areas, defending
the national unity, strengthening southwestern frontier, and making
state policy concerning Tibetan problems as well.
Backbone of this research:
Ran Guangrong (professor, tutor of Doctor candidates)
Xu Jun (lecturer, Doctor)
History of the Tibetan and The Tibet-Hans Relations
The history of Tibetans has a close
tie with the central state power of successive dynasties. Strictly
speaking, with its historical development the Tibetan nationality
gradually came within the jurisdiction of central state power and
became one kind of Chinese multi-nationality. This research is decided
on the basis of the premise. It emphasizes the exploration of inner
link between Tibetan history and the Tibet-Hans relations and internal
relation between Tibet region and central state power in order to
develop further into the study of the relation of past ages between
Tibet region and central state power. It deals with numerous fields
of Tibetan history, religion, the Tibet-Hans relations and the relation
between Tibet region and central state power. And it also refers
to some theories and methods of the study on history, religion,
nationality and archaeology. Since Sichuan University is the largest
comprehensive university in western areas and distinguished for
its traditional subjects of religion, archaeology, nationality etc.,
our research is naturally with abound advantages. The university
has engaged in the study for many years, taken on a number of national
projects, and published some influential monographs and more than
seventy treatises, so in China it has unique advantage and leading
standing in the research field. The achievements of the research
of the Tibet-Hans relations and the relation between Tibet region
and central state power have been approved by scholars of the same
occupation all over the country.
History of the eastward development of Tibetan Civilization, written
by Shi Shuo who is one member of our institute, is thought highly
by Chinese academic circles, awarded national good prizes many times,
and recently considered as one of the most influential and important
achievements in this research direction for its important academic
breakthrough in the field of the relation between Tibet region and
central state power. And it firstly proves the deep intrinsic certainty
from a brand-new perspective that Tibet is a part of Chinese territory
which cannot be separated. Some of his other correlated treatises
have also been published on Chinese Social Science and other publications.
Moreover, Study of the Administrative System of the Yuan Dynasty,
Tubo’s Culture of the Silk Road and Culture of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau
are also highly appraised by scholars of the same trade. These books,
written by Zhang Xun, respectively elaborate the relation between
Tibet region and central state power from various aspects of system,
traffic, culture, communication and so forth, broaden the vision
of researchers and enlarge the field of research. Wang Qilong’s
A Critical Biography of Ba Siba brings to light the deep connotation
of the said relation of the Yuan Dynasty by studying the Tibetan
monk Ba Siba who actively carried the relations between Tibet and
Central Plains in his time. The scholars of Tibet University which
is our cooperative are so good at the research of the Tibetan history
and Tibetan traditional culture that they often gives strong backing
to our study of this field. Our researchers are younger in average
and most of them have gotten doctorate and Master degree. They can
read Tibetan language and master at least a kind of foreign language,
and have scored great success in Tibetology circles. For the promising
young researchers, the study in this research direction has great
potentialities and bright future and is expected to have the most
authoritative academic position in China during two to three years.
The Tibetological research in this direction remains to be enriched
and developed, it has a vast range of prospects.
Backbone of this research: Shi Shuo
(Professor, Doctor candidate)
Zhang Yun (Associate professor, Doctor)
