The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1888-11-25
POLYANDRY In THIBET.
A Country Where the Women have
from Two to Six Husbands.

The most curious of the many re-
markable customs of the country with
which our latest war has brought Us in
contact is polyardry. When Warren
Hastings sent his first envy to 1hibet,
more than century ago, hs specially
mentioned this custom f ths people
as one on which he desired information.
and since that time il has attracted the
attention of all travellers who hav.
come in contact with Thibetan social
life. One of the most recent writers
on the subjecs is the late Mr.. Andrew
Wilson, who. during his wsnderings
among the Western Himalayss. enter d
Thibet- at Shipki, and who devotes
chapter of his work. The ABODE of
Snow" to Thibetan pol fandry. Poly
andry is that species Of polygamy in
watch the wife has IL ore husbands than
one, and it prevails wherever the
ThiDetsn language is spoken, even 10
districts on the Indian side of the
mountains.
Polyandry is found in many other
places, such as the interior of CeylOn,
dluOuk b1c 1OQhS duu NdlTS VI SOuIu-
ern India, the IrCquois. and the aho-
riginal TasmaniaLs; bit Thbetan
Dolyandry has the eculIarity that the
husbands ale all brothers, or, at least,
very nearly related, so that the woman
becomes the wife OF whole family. 1t
does not appear 10 be any way con-
nected with the Thibetan religion, but
to owe its existence to the poverty of
the country, and the desire to limit the
population 1t is practiced by all
classes OF the population, rich and poor,
and is only superseded by polygamy,
or multiplicity of wives, where the
people ha>e been much in cont CT with
Hindoos or Mohammedans. Turner,
the second of Warren Hastings ENJOYS
to Thibet, says that the number of
husbands is not restricted or defined.
at Teshn Jumbo, the residence of the
Teshu Lama, he has known family of
five brothers living happily with Ole
wife. and he thinks this probably is the
practical limit.
Mr.. Wilson met a case in which one
woman was MARI to sig brothers,
one OF whom was quite a boy; but he
thinks in most cases there are only two
| husbands, not because five or six were
objectionable, but because ia niles with
| more than two brothers are not COM
| mon. He attributes the fact that the
| system works peacefully to the calm
and unimpassioned temperament of the
| people, who subordinate all interests to
| those of the family. The children are
| regarded as scions of the house rather
| than of any indipdual member OF it;
al the husbands are treated as la,
J fathers OF the children, and there is nc
noticeable difference in the relation OF
q child TO the different fathers. The
surplus women left by the system are
! provided for in the Lama nunneries,
where they learn to read and copy TIE
| Thibetan scriptures and to engage In
religious services. The choice OF q
| wife for the family is he right of the
elder brother, and the contract e
makes involves marriage contracts with
all the other brothers
The system is said to have existed in
| Thibet since prehistoric times, SO that
| its origin is LIST in antiquity. 1t has
been suggested that it arose in state [ t
society where men we're forced to be
away from home for long periods, and
where the duty Of protecting the iami y
would fall on the brothers in turn I. g
notable end that it serves is that it TT
stric:s population in regions where emf
grafton is difficult, and where the means
of subsistence can not be easily in
creased. A MoraVian rnissiona? y
settled on the borders of TDibet de-
Tended the system to Mr.. Wilson, not
as good thing in the abstract, or one
to be tolerated among Christians, but
as good for the heather in go sterile a
country, where an increasing popula-
ton would provoke eternal warfare CT
eternal want, and Captain Turner says
that the influence of this custom on
the manners of the people, as far as I
could trace, has not been unfavorable.
70 the privileges of uabounC-
ed liberty the wife here adds the char
acter of mistress of the fam ~ and CON-
panion of her husbands On the
other hand, it struck Mr. Wilson that
so many husbands for the women on y
made so many more masters, and So
machmore toll and trouble.