Professor Martin Mills

Biography

Prof. Martin A. Mills is Chair in Anthropology at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland and Director of the Scottish Centre for Himalayan Research. He has previously lectured and researched at the universities of Edinburgh, St.Andrews and Sussex. He is a Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute and member of the Association of Social Anthropologists of the UK and Commonwealth, as well as member of the International Association for Tibetan Studies and the International Association of Ladakh Studies. 

Professor Mills' principal research focus is the anthropological study of Tibetan religious and governance institutions. Author of Identity, Ritual and State in Tibetan Buddhism: The Foundations of Authority in Gelukpa Monasticism (Routledge 2003), he has carried out fieldwork in Tibet, Ladakh, China, Northern India and Scotland over nearly forty years. He has also acted as member, research officer and secretary for a variety of parliamentary organisations, most lengthily the Scottish Parliament's Cross-Party Group on Tibet.

Prof. Mills was organiser and primary author of Climate Change on the Third Pole, the Scottish Parliament's Cross-Party Group on Tibet report on the principal causes and processes of climate change on the Tibetan Plateau and its surrounding mountain regions, and the significant consequences of those changes for Asia's water resources, food production and human carrying capacity.

Read the report here or watch the Royal Geographical Society presentation here.  

As part of a combination of comparative ethnographic and historical research and policy-oriented work, Mills also specialises in the study of knowledge economies, not least the vexed nature of the modern university economy and the future role of AI. Mills writes regularly for the Times Higher Education magazine, amongst others. 

Research Overview

Most anthropologists have three specialisations: one theoretical, the next substantive, and the third personal, or we might even say 'human': 

Theoretically, my major research interest lies in the anthropology of the person. This is a multi- and interdisciplinary concern that requires taking on board a wide variety of perspectives, from the legal, religious and cultural to the cognitive and neurological. Since theorising the person stands at the heart of almost all systems of knowledge, from the humanities and social sciences to the natural sciences, understanding how human beings encounter and experience personhood remains one of the fundamental but as yet unanswered puzzles within human understanding. A secondary feature of this theoretical interest is the comparative study of authority in political, religious and medical spheres - as a basis for the understanding of legitimate governance. This is not simply in terms of the imposition of command, but also the creation and organisation of social and theoretical truths within populations, and the formation of consensus. Thematically, this research focus involves a general specialisation in the comparative organisation and structure of governance in religious, state and medical institutions. 

In substantive and ethnographic terms, my primary research interest lies in the ethnography of Tibet and Tibetan-speaking areas, and in particular its religious and state life. Over the last four decades, this has involved a progression of research projects focused on the ceremonial nexuses of Tibetan monastic and state life, with research fieldwork in Ladakh, Zanskar, Tibet and Himachal Pradesh. Such projects have involved the formulation of new ways in which modern ethnographers of Tibetan regions can integrate their work with textual specialists and indigenous scholars to create an historical anthropology of the region.

In personal terms, I carry out research and practical engagement work on the question of climate change. Much of this is related to climate change research in the Tibetan and Himalayan regions, including research briefings for parliamentary organisations both in the UK and beyond. This involves collaboration with climatologists, geologists and glaciologists on the urgent issues facing Asia, most particularly in terms of water resources and disaster relief. More widely, I have a strong interest in the deeper causes of, and responses to, climate change at the human level: What are the deep causes of anthropogenic climate change? Why are we collectively so poor and so conflicted in our response to climate change and environmental degradation? How can we understand a way forward?   

Current Research

Ritual and State in Tibetan History

Since 2003, Mills has engaged in extensive research on the indigenous constitutional history of Tibet. This has involved three main areas of research: the study of the political history of the Ganden Podrang, the Dalai Lama's government at Lhasa from 1642 to 1959, and in exile since 1959; the philological study of medieval and modern manuscripts as they relate to Tibetan understandings of legitimate governance, in particular its own mythology of divine Buddhist kingship; and the ethnographic and historical study of the Ganden Podrang's ceremonial practices of statecraft.

At the heart of these issues is a theoretical concern with four issues:

• The importance of ceremony and ceremonial understandings of statecraft - rather than mere belief - as the basis for the daily functioning and sovereignty of religious states.
• The formation of mythological and constitutional and narratives as the basis for indigenous solidarities and political consciousness, both in the past and the modern day;
• The study of indigenous relations with the land and landscape as an central aspect of ceremonial sovereignty.
• The place of conflict and warfare in religious states such as historical Tibet.

Collaborations

As Director of the Scottish Centre for Himalayan Research, Dr Mills is Secretary of the Scottish Parliament's Cross-Party Group on Tibet, and a member of the Cross-Party Group on China and the Westminster All-Parliamentary Group on Tibet. In his advisory role for these groups, he has authored and co-authored parliamentary briefing papers on public protest, human rights, religious regulation, political sovereignty and international law and environmental change on the Tibetan Plateau (see Publications). He is also Chairman of the Aberdeen Chinese Studies Group.

In doing so, Dr Mills has maintained a wide variety of fruitful collaborations, including amongst others:

• The Scottish Parliament at Hollyrood, Edinburgh.
• The International Association fot Tibet Studies.
• The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD, Nepal)
• The Tibetan Buddhist Resource Center, one of the world's principal sources on indigenous Tibetan historical and religious manuscripts.
• The Edinburgh Buddhist Studies Network.
• The Tibet Society, London.
• The International Campaign for Tibet.
• The Office of Tibet, London.
• The Tibet Policy Institute.
• The Confucius Institute, Scotland.

Teaching Responsibilities

Research Supervision Areas

• Political anthropology and the anthropology of the state
• Medical Anthropology
• Tibetan and Himalayan systems of governance.

• Buddhist monasticism and ritual
• Religion and the state
• Modern religious movements and insurgencies

Postgraduate Taught

• SL5010 Principles of Research Design
• SL5006 Research Skills

Undergraduate

• AT2005 Political Anthropology (groups, nations and movements)
• AT4525 The Constitutional Imagination (anthropology of the state)
• AT3540 Medical Anthropology