Tibetan Diary by Geoff Childs

Author:Geoff Childs
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of California Press

TAX, RITUALS, AND SPIRITUAL SECURITY

Although the details vary from place to place, most Tibetan villages have devised some sort of tax system to make sure that public coffers are full enough to support the performance of communal rituals. In Sama, the tax system is directly related to marriage and the formation of new households.

For taxation purposes, each household in Sama is represented by a kyimdag (head of household), generally the senior male, although in some cases a woman can act as kyimdag. When a son first marries yet is still living with his parents, his father is considered the kyimdag. This changes when a child is born and the son moves with his family into a new, separate household. At that point, in addition to the assets they receive through inheritance, the young couple receives a “loan” (bulön) of seventy-five measures of corn and/or barley from Pema Chöling Monastery, which is administrated by the head lama of the village.4 The household is then obligated to repay five measures of barley, five measures of corn, and four measures of rice to the monastery each year until the death of the kyimdag. The repayment is considered “interest” (kyeka) on the loan. By meeting the tax obligation each year, the household retains the right to access all communal resources around the village, most notably the pastures and forests.

Simple arithmetic tells us that a considerable surplus of grain is generated through the tax system, a surplus that is then used to fund four annual communal rituals. In this way, the tax system provides spiritual security for the entire village, since the primary purpose of the communal rites is to ward off potentially malevolent forces, thus ensuring peace, health, and prosperity for the coming year.

One of the highlights of the ritual cycle in Sama is the annual Kanjur Circumambulation Festival (Kanjur Khora). The Kanjur (translations of the words of the Buddha) is a collection of texts that forms the core of Tibetan canonical literature.5 Most major Buddhist institutions in the Tibetan world have a collection of these works, each volume carefully wrapped in cloth and stored within specially constructed alcoves. As a physical manifestation of the Buddha's teachings, the Kanjur is laden with symbolic value that can be harnessed for the purpose of fulfilling mundane goals.

In Sama the Kanjur Circumambulation Festival commences in the middle of the second lunar month (early March) and coincides with the end of the winter retreat period. The timing brings the community together between the bleak winter months of seclusion and the abundant summer months of intensive economic activity. The first part of the festival is marked by the reading of all 108 volumes of the Kanjur. Participation in the reading is restricted to chöpa; lamas and high-ranking monks exclude themselves, whereas nuns are discouraged from participating. A record is kept of who shows up for how many days, so that the readers can be compensated for their efforts. Each individual receives a text and reads at his own pace.

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