ABSTRACT
Introduction In this artide I argue that tradition al Tibet can best be regarded as a state/ess society. Early travellers saw the Dalai Lama's realm as a theocratic variant of the centralised autocratic states familiar from elsewhere in Asia. However, the Dalai Lama at Lhasa did not rule over a strongly centralised state, and in any case most Tibetans lived outside the area of the nominal authority of the Lhasa government. The Tibetan-speaking societies of the Himalayas and the Tibetan plateau only occasionally and briefly experienced effective centralised control.
