Traditional Tibetan elites developed unique concepts of law over thirteen centuries, creating legal texts and formulating ideological accounts of law within their political and religious landscape. This project focuses on a series of important legal texts known as zhé ché, which were foundational to the establishment of the political regime of the Dalai Lamas in the seventeenth century.

The researchers are investigating, collecting, and collating known versions of these texts, to identify the earliest versions, and produce preliminary translations. This work will shed new light on the legal and political thinking of the period and contribute to our understanding of what law meant in wider Tibet.

Tibet formed one of the most uniformly Buddhist civilizations the world has known. However, while aspects of Tibetan law were nominally based on Buddhist principles, they developed in unique ways that are not easily comparable with legal regimes in other Buddhist regions of Asia. The zhé ché texts begin with summaries of Tibetan legal history based on Buddhist virtues and ideals, yet their legal prescriptions are thoroughly secular.

This project will help fill a critical gap in the scholarship on Tibetan law, complementing existing work on earlier periods, monastic codes, and contemporary legal practices. It aims to advance our understanding of a unique legal system whose remnants are fast disappearing in the contemporary world.