Presenter: Riley Roche, LRCCS MA
Faculty Discussant: David Rolston, Asian Languages & Cultures

Abstract:
“The Doring Men and their Times: A Study of Qing Attempts to reform the Tibetan Government During the 18th Century”

This thesis seeks to better elucidate the impetus for and tumultuous process of Tibetan government reform during eighteenth century. During the eighteenth century, the fundamental structure of the Tibetan government was altered at least once under Kangxi, once under Yongzheng, and twice under Qianlong. From the perspective of the Qing, each round of reform sought to create a centralized Tibetan government that was empowered enough to cooperatively keep the far reaches of the empire at peace. This thesis reviews these reforms comparatively. It also considers the consequences of these institutional alterations and process of  negation of these reforms by the contemporary Tibetan elite.

BIO: 

Riley Roche grew up in the Bay Area. She attended Kenyon College and then moved to Beijing. Riley lived in Beijing from 2011-2013 and then moved to Ann Arbor to begin her masters at the University of Michigan. Her research interests include: Sino-Tibetan relations, frontier studies, Sino-Indian relations, and political theory.