Changing Relations 45
These facts imply that a polarisation of the society took place.107 Is there a
connection to the increase of the founding of worship clubs? Was this form of
organising religious duties also used to coordinate economic actions?
4 Summary and Conclusion
The Tibetans had established an administrative system which was well organ-
ised. Every person had his place within a system of units and subunits. Thus
it was easy to organise tasks and control the population. As tasks were evenly
distributed no misgivings due to unequal treatment should have occurred
between members of the society. Monks were also included and did not seem
to have had special status. The temples were under strict control as well. Lists
of monks and temple peasants were commissioned and at certain intervals
an inventory of their possessions was required. Especially during the reign of
Ralpacan (r. 815–c. 838), the Tibetans had to rely on the monks of Dunhuang
to proofread copies of the sūtras, which were written nominally for his benefit.
Overall, the population was only to a certain extent dependent on the grain
provisions of the temples, since a government granary existed and the amount
borrowed was small. The benefit resulting from offering donations to temples
seems to have been present in everybody’s mind, as people from all walks of
life made donations. But despite monasteries conducting religious ceremonies,
groups started to emerge who celebrated these festivities privately. Thus festiv-
ities became fixed points in the rhythm of people’s lives. The Tibetan Emperors
who promoted Buddhism had the population work for their benefit by letting
them copy scriptures and organised religious mass events.108 Nonetheless,
from the respective manuscripts it is unclear whether the founding of worship
clubs was a local reaction to this.
107 In Tibetan times each family of commoners was assigned fields according to the size of
the family. They were not allowed to sell them. Under local rule some sold their fields and
consequently had to work as farm-hands. Some even sold their offspring in order to pay
their debts. Hori gives a vivid description of this process using contemporary material,
but was not aware that this development did not start under the Tibetans but was a devel-
opment commencing under the rule of the Return-to-Allegiance Army (Hori, Toshikazu,
“Social Change in Tun-huang from the Latter Half of the T’ang Dynasty,” Acta Asiatica
(1988): 48–74.
108 This was alluded to in the above-mentioned manuscript P. tib. 999.