Alice Travers

Permanent researcher at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) in premodern and modern Tibetan history, at the East Asian Civilisations Research Centre (CRCAO, UMR 8155)
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Presentation

Permanent researcher at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) in premodern and modern Tibetan history, at the East Asian Civilisations Research Centre (CRCAO, UMR 8155) Co-director of the East Asian Civilisations Research Centre (CRCAO, UMR 8155) Director of the Centre for Tibetan Studies at the Collège de France Associate lecturer (“chargée de cours”) in Tibetan history at the French National Institute for Oriental Languages and Civilisations (INALCO, Paris)

Short CV in English Full updated CV in French Complete list of publications 2025

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Research thematics

History of the Tibetan army under the Dga’ ldan pho drang government (1642-1959): PI of the ERC Starting grant n°677952 (1er October 2016-31 March 2023) "The Tibetan Army of the Dalai Lamas (1642-1959)" (TibArmy) Social history of Tibet (1895-1959): the lay (aristocracy) and religious elites and intermediary elites (merchants and scholars). Member of the ANR-DFG 2016-2020 joint research project (TibStat) History of political institutions: the Dga’ ldan pho drang central government of Tibet and its administration (1642-1959) Connections between history and memory in contemporary Tibet Prosopography

Presentation My research focuses on the social history of Tibet in the 19th and 20th centuries, the history of the political institutions of the Ganden Phodrang government (1642-1959) and the history of its army.

I have worked on the Tibetan nobility (my thesis defended in 2009 was a prosopography of the aristocratic lay officials of the Ganden Phodrang administration alowing the analysis of their marriage strategies and careers, leading to a social history of the Tibetan government) and on the intermediate elites in central Tibet at the beginning of the 20th century, in the framework of two successive French-German (ANR-DFG) research projects (« SHTS » and « TibStat » between 2012 and 2021).

This work led me to the history of the Tibetan army (1642-1959), in which many of these lay aristocratic and intermediate elites served. In the framework of an ERC-funded research project (TibArmy, https://tibarmy.hypotheses.org/, starting grant, 2016-2023), I coordinate various collective thematic axes (influences and interactions of the Tibetan army with neighbouring asian military cultures; the relationship between the army and Buddhism; lexicography; visual history) and study particularly the social history of the Tibetan army.

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Publications

An analysis of the Ganden Phodrang’s state building process with a focus on its final phase of modernization

Alice Travers
Ian MacCormack, Fernanda Pirie, Daniel Wojahn (dir.). Tibetan Rulers: Traditional Practices and Historic Ideologies, Vajra Academics, In press
Book sections hal-04244289 v1

A progressive Tibetan aristocrat’s traditional equestrian equipment: Saddle made for Yuthok Tashi Dhondup

Donald La Rocca , Alice Travers
Karl Debreczeny et Elena Pakhoutova (dir.). Himalayan Art in 108 Objects, , 2023, 978 1 78551 452 4
Book sections hal-03513110 v1

Tibet : un protectorat à géométrie variable (1728-1911)

Alice Travers
Pierre Singaravélou (dir.). Colonisations. Notre histoire, Seuil, pp.832-834, 2023, 2021494152
Book sections hal-04243940 v1

Introduction

Alice Travers , Peter Schwieger , Charles Ramble
Tax, Corvée and Obligation in Tibetan Societies, Brill, pp.1-10, 2023, Brill's Tibetan Studies Library
Book sections hal-03513244 v1

Saddle carpet for the Yabzhi Punkhang ceremonial cavalry: a mundane craft elevated for a commemorative parade

Alice Travers
Karl Debreczeny et Elena Pakhoutova (dir.). Himalayan Art in 108 Objects, 2023, 978 1 78551 452 4
Book sections hal-03513080 v1

“When you count, everything is there, and when everything is there, everything vanishes”: A criticism of tax collecting in Ngamring District (rdzong) during the first half of the 20th century

Alice Travers
Alice Travers; Peter Schwieger; Charles Ramble. Taxation in Tibetan Societies: Rules, Practices and Discourses, Brill, 2023
Book sections hal-03512794 v1

The Production of Collective Memory in the Tibetan-language Materials for the Culture and History of Tibet (1981–2014)

Alice Travers
Robbie Barnett, Françoise Robin and Benno Weiner. Conflicting Memories: Retellings of Tibetan History under Mao, Brill, pp.111-138, 2020
Book sections hal-02511356 v1

Changing emblems of social domination: a brief note on a few aristocratic families’ crests

Alice Travers
Bischoff Jeannine, Maurer Petra and Ramble Charles. On a Day of a Month of the Fire Bird Year: Festschrift for Peter Schwieger on Occasion of his 65th Birthday, Lumbini International Research Institute, pp.809-826, 2020
Book sections hal-01524730 v1

Wool trade on the Himalayan border and social mobility in central Tibet (1907-1947)

Alice Travers
Commerce and Communities: Social and Political Status and the Exchange of Goods in Tibetan Societies, EB-Verlag, pp.161-196, 2018, 978-3868932478
Book sections hal-02986750 v1

« The exchange of goods in Tibetan communities and their social and political implications: an introduction »

Alice Travers , Jeannine Bischoff
Alice Travers; Jeannine Bischoff. Commerce and Communities: Social and Political Status and the Exchange of Goods in Tibetan Societies, pp.13-24, 2018, 978-3868932478
Book sections hal-02986757 v1

The lCags stag dmag khrims (1950): A New Development in Tibetan Legal and Military History?

Alice Travers
Jeannine Bischoff; Saul Mullard. Social Regulation: Case Studies from Tibetan History, 41, Brill, pp.99-125, 2016, Brill's Tibetan Studies Library
Book sections hal-01405180 v1

The Tibetan Army of the Ganden Phodrang in Various Legal Documents (17th-20th Centuries)

Alice Travers
Dieter Schuh. Secular Law and Order in the Tibetan Highland. Contributions to a workshop organized by the Tibet Institute in Andiast (Switzerland) on the occasion of the 65th birthday of Christoph Cüppers from the 8th of June to the 12th of June 2014, III (13), IITBS GmbH, pp.249-266, 2015, MONUMENTA TIBETICA HISTORICA
Book sections hal-01405166 v1

How Should we Define Social Status? The Study of "Intermediate Groups" in Central Tibet (1895-1959)

Alice Travers
Tibetans who Escaped the Historian's Net. Studies in the Social History of Tibetan Societies, Vajra Publications, pp.141-160, 2013
Book sections hal-00933961 v1

The Careers of the Ganden Phodrang Officials (1895-1959): Patrimonial Aspects of Public Service

Alice Travers
Roberto Vitali. Studies on the History and Literature of Tibet and the Himalaya, Vajra Publications, pp.157-181, 2012, 9789937506793
Book sections hal-00933942 v1

La présence britannique au Tibet dans la première moitié du XXe siècle (1904-1950) : appropriation, diffusion et opposition à la modernité occidentale

Alice Travers
Contact des cultures. Perspectives pluridisciplinaires et transversales. Actes des journées d'étude des jeunes chercheurs en langues, littératures et sociétés tenues à l'INALCO, à Paris, les 21 et 22 février 2008, INALCO, pp.167-186, 2010
Book sections halshs-00688850 v1

Risk and social mobility among the aristocracy: a study of the demotion and dismissal cases in the careers of the Dga' ldan pho brang officials at the beginning of the 20th century (1885-1952)

Alice Travers
Contemporary visions in Tibetan studies, Proceedings of the first International Seminar of Young Tibetologists, London, 9-13 August 2007, Serindia, pp.363-381, 2009
Book sections halshs-00688848 v1

Taxation in Tibetan Societies: Rules, Practices and Discourses

Alice Travers , Peter Schwieger , Charles Ramble
Brill, Brill's Tibetan Studies Library, Volume: 53, 2023, Taxation in Tibetan Societies: Rules, Practices and Discourses, 978-90-04-52946-5
Books hal-03512804 v1
Image document

Marching into View: The Tibetan Army in Historic Photographs 1895–1959

Alice Travers
Tethys, 5, 2022, Wissenschaft, 978-3-942527-14-9. ⟨10.36201/TETHYS.SCIENCE.5⟩
Books hal-03716900 v1

Asian Influences on Tibetan Military History between the 17th and 20th Centuries

Solomon George Fitzherbert , Alice Travers
Vajra Publications, 2, 2022, Vajra Academic
Books hal-03960214 v1

Commerce and Communities : Social and Political Status and the Exchange of Goods in Tibetan Societies

Jeannine Bischoff , Alice Travers
EB Verlag, pp.283, 2018, Bonner Asianstudien, Stefan Conermann
Books hal-01812872 v1

Tibetans who Escaped the Historian's Net. Studies in the Social History of Tibetan Societies

Charles Ramble , Peter Schwieger , Alice Travers
Vajra Publications, pp.255, 2013
Books hal-00933955 v1
Image document

Revisiting Tibetan Culture and History, Proceedings of the Second International Seminar of Young Tibetologists, Paris, 2009, Part 1

Tim Myatt , Kalsang Norbu Gurung , Nicola Schneider , Alice Travers
Amnye Machen Institute, pp.230, 2012, 818622760-1
Books halshs-00688854 v1

Politique et représentations de la montagne sous Vichy

Alice Travers
L'harmattan, pp.284, 2001, Espaces Et Temps Du Sport, 2747517241
Books hal-01525013 v1
Image document

From Matchlocks to Machine Guns. The Modernisation of the Tibetan Army's Firearms Between Local Production and Import (1895-1950)

Alice Travers
Annali di Ca' Foscari. Serie orientale, 2021, Defence and Offence: Armour and Weapons in Tibetan Culture. Annali di Ca' Foscari, 57 (Supplement), pp.981-1044. ⟨10.30687/AnnOr/2385-3042/2021/02/006⟩
Journal articles hal-03512922 v1
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Armour and Weapons in Tibetan Culture An Introduction

Alice Travers , Federica Venturi
Annali di Ca' Foscari. Serie orientale, 2021, Annali di Ca' Foscari. Serie Orientale, 57, ⟨10.30687/AnnOr/2385-3042/2021/02/000⟩
Journal articles hal-03512896 v1
Image document

A compiled list of Tibetan districts (rdzong) and government estates of the Ganden Phodrang territory (1830-1959)

Alice Travers
Revue d'Etudes Tibétaines, 2020, 56, pp.5-47
Journal articles hal-02986669 v1
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Introduction: The Ganden Phodrang's Military Institutions and Culture between the 17th and the 20th Centu-ries, at a Crossroads of Influences

Alice Travers , Solomon George Fitzherbert
Revue d'Etudes Tibétaines, 2020, Asian Influences on Tibetan Military History between the 17th and 20th Centuries, 53, pp.7-28
Journal articles hal-02511607 v1
Image document

Meritocracy in the Tibetan Army after the 1793 Manchu Reforms: The Career of General Zurkhang Sichö Tseten

Alice Travers
Revue d'Etudes Tibétaines, 2020, 53, pp.147-177
Journal articles hal-02511187 v1
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Le bouddhisme comme fin et moyens de l’armée du Ganden Phodrang : une introduction aux relations des sphères bouddhique et militaire au Tibet (1642-1959)

Alice Travers , Federica Venturi
Cahiers d'Extrême-Asie, 2019, Le bouddhisme et l'armée au Tibet pendant la période du Ganden Phodrang (1642-1959) / Buddhism and the Millitary in Tibet during the Ganden Phodrang Period (1642-1959), 27 (1), pp.13-22. ⟨10.3406/asie.2018.1504⟩
Journal articles hal-02510644 v1
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Monk Officials as Military Officers in the Tibetan Ganden Phodrang Army (1895–1959)

Alice Travers
Cahiers d'Extrême-Asie, 2019, Buddhism and the Military in Tibet during the Ganden Phodrang period (1642-1959), 27, pp.211-242. ⟨10.3406/asie.2018.1512⟩
Journal articles hal-02511295 v1
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Between Private and Public Initiatives? Private Schools in pre-1951 Tibet

Alice Travers
Himalaya : the journal of the Association for Nepal and Himalayan studies, 2015, 35 (2)
Journal articles hal-01405152 v1

La fabrique de l'histoire au Tibet contemporain : remarques préliminaires sur les contours et articulations d'une mémoire collective dans les Matériaux pour l'histoire et la culture du Tibet

Alice Travers
Journal Asiatique, 2013, 301 (2), pp.481-499
Journal articles hal-00933945 v1
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The Horse-Riding and Target-Shooting Contest for Lay Officials (drung 'khor rtsal rgyugs): Reflections on the Military Identity of the Tibetan Aristocracy at the Beginning of the 20th Century

Alice Travers
Études mongoles et sibériennes, centrasiatiques et tibétaines, 2011, 42, pp.1-15
Journal articles halshs-00688872 v1
Image document

The Careers of the Noble Officials of the Ganden Phodrang (1895-1959): Organisation and Hereditary Divisions within the Service of State

Alice Travers
Revue d'Etudes Tibétaines, 2011, 21, pp.155-174
Journal articles halshs-00688857 v1
Image document

Chronologie de l'histoire du Tibet

Alice Travers
Outre-terre/Geostrategy, 2008, 21, pp.109-128. ⟨10.3917/oute.021.0109⟩
Journal articles halshs-00688844 v1
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Exclusiveness and Openness: A study of Matrimonial Strategies in the Ganden Phodrang Aristocracy (1880-1959)

Alice Travers
Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies, 2008, 4, pp.1-27
Journal articles halshs-00688846 v1
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Réflexions sur l'identité individuelle et lignagère dans la noblesse du Dga' ldan pho brang à partir de l'étude des pratiques d'adoption et de mariage en gendre (1860-1959)

Alice Travers
Hypothèses, 2007, 2007/1, pp.203-214. ⟨10.3917/hyp.061.0203⟩
Journal articles halshs-00688831 v1
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Les femmes dans le jeu diplomatique. Notes préliminaires sur les relations matrimoniales de la famille royale du Sikkim avec le Tibet (19e-20e siècles)

Alice Travers
Bulletin of Tibetology, 2006, 42, pp.93-136
Journal articles halshs-00688839 v1