The rise of the Five Hor States of Northern Kham. Religion and politics in the Sino-Tibetan borderlands

Abstract

The article analyses the merging of religion and politics in Tibet by taking the example of the Five Hor States of Northern Kham, a traditional polity of Eastern Tibet. The article presents the phenomenon of Hor in historical perspective in the context of the Mongol-Tibetan and Manchu-Tibetan relationships in Kham. Using the example of the Five Hor States, the author focuses on the bifurcated system of secular and religious authority, which is considered to be the main factor of the Kham political systems’ persistence. The paper shows how this system facilitated the rise of the Hor States to a very strong polity and ensured them a high level of autonomy for more than two-and-a-half centuries up to the collapse of the Qing Empire in 1911.