[Buddha-l] Inquisition and untouchability

[Christopher Fynn]

Those old works, with the exception of a few by people like  William
Woodville Rockhill, are pretty well all centred on Lhasa.

South. West and Central Tibet had no more than about one third of the
Tibetan population Kham and Amdo the other two thirds.



On 20/09/2013, Dan Lusthaus <vasubandhu at earthlink.net> wrote:
>  Chris,
>
>>> Tibet, by the way, had similar outcaste treatment for butchers, etc.
>>> Most
>>> butchers in Tibet were muslims.
>>
>> "Most"? - But large areas of Tibet had no Muslim population. This may
>> have been true in Lhasa and a few large settlements - and possibly in
>> some parts of Amdo where there were many Muslims - but not likely
>> anywhere else.
>>
>> Nomads and semi-nomads, who formed a substantial proportion of the
>> population, certainly slaughtered animals. Apparently the usual method
>> employed was suffocation - as it was believed better not to shed
>> blood.
>
> My sources for that tidbit were the old works of H. Harrer, Thubten Jigme
> Norbu, etc. I would expect nomads to do their own slaughtering and not
> require a butcher at all. So you are probably right that Muslim butchers
> were a more urban occurrence, and Harrer, Norbu et al. may have been right
> that as a profession -- as opposed to slaughtering for one's own family or
> small circle -- most butchers were Muslim.
>
> Thanks for the additional information, re: pork, blacksmiths, barren women,
>
> and distant cousin romances.
>
> Dan
>
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