From: gagrawal@cs.tamu.edu (Gopal Agrawal)
Subject: Polyandry in Tibet and Islamic prohibition.
Organization: Computer Science Department, Texas A&M University
Date: Fri, 14 Aug 1992 07:27:55 GMT

Since there was a debate that the Islamic injunction, that only polygamy 
be allowed (under extreme conditions of course) and NOT polyandry, is 
best for all societies, I am posting here a brief account of polyandry 
in Tibet. I leave it to the readers to decide if such Islamic injunctions 
are valid in these regions too. 

Apart from the polyandry in Africa and Pacific Islands, polyandry is also
practised among many (not all) Tibetians and Ladhakis. I recall reading 
an article (National Geographic) a long time back about some of the 
plausible reasons why these cultures were forced into polyandry. 
I'll try summarizing them here:



1) Immigration to plains is hard for Tibetians:
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	The mountainous terrain makes it very difficult for the Tibetians 
to cross more than a few ranges.  Ladhakis, having become accustomed to 
high altitude air, are known to get bilious fever if they travel to the 
plains. Further, a stong sense of cultural ethnicity prevents them from 
encouraging the mingling with foreign cultures. Thus, the Tibetian society
is a land locked society. 

2) Resources are very scarce in Tibet: 
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	This pertains to both the agricultural and animal resources. While 
the Tibetians have for centuries tried to exploit every acre of mountain 
soil for farming, the yields are typically very low as compared to the yields
in the plains. Mountain goats are their main source of animal products. 
Goats, with their ravenous apetites but low meat/milk output, have resulted 
in massive deforestation.

3) Sex ratio is very skewed: males >> females:
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	The exact reasons for this phenomena have not been studied properly.
Though tibetian society is patriarchal just like most other societies, the 
males lack a sense of pride in ownership of their own women. It is normally 
brothers who share a single wife and strangely, there is never any feeling 
of jealousy among them. That is, the pressure on men to own their own wives 
does not exist.  Analogical to economics, demand for an equal number 
of females (to males) does not exist. But why the supply of females should 
reduce (as this is not in contol of the society) is not known. Further, for 
some strange reason, many Tibetian women choose to remain unmarried if she 
cannot find the right set of brothers. 

4) The pressure to reduce population is immense: 
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	Reasons (1) and (2) account for this immense pressure on Tibetian 
society to keep birth rate as low as possible. It is evident that polyandry 
provides a mechanism which keeps birth rate low. Had polyandry not been 
practised, the males would be forced to search for females from the other 
societies (with greater number of females) thereby increasing the number 
of females and thus increasing the population in the resource scarce region;
which can only work towards their detriment. The land locked nature and their 
strong sense of cultural ethnicity however forces them not to seek females 
from the female-rich societies in the foothills. 

From all the reasons above, it is pretty evident that dynamics of polyandry 
is their means of survival. (Lately, many of the Tibetians have given up 
polyandry (foreign influence). These Tibetians are much poorer in comparison 
to those Tibetian socities that still practise polyandry). When interviewed
for the reasons behind polyandry, most Tibetians give very simplistic answers
like "It is our tradition" or "My parents arranged this marriage". While they
are not scientifically aware of the reasons behind their polyandrous nature,
they are intuitively aware that this is what best works for their society. 

regards,
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