Emanuela Garatti, “Shifting Memories and Changing Allegiances: Tracing the Descendants of the Tibetan Minister mGar through Chinese Funerary Inscriptions”, Revue d’Etudes Tibétaines, no. 33, October 2015, pp. 155-185. Shifting Memories and Changing Allegiances: Tracing the Descendants of the Tibetan Minister mGar through Chinese Funerary Inscriptions * Emanuela Garatti (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich / Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Paris) Introduction he mGar was probably the most influential clan in the histo- ry of the Tibetan Empire (7th-9th centuries CE). Despite the fact that its origins have not been clearly confirmed, the rise and decline of this clan have been relatively well established by Ti- betan and Western historiography; what has not been deeply investi- gated is its legacy. Many works have been dedicated to the most cel- ebrated minister in the whole of Tibetan history, mGar sTong rtsan Yul zung (?-667), in particular to his career at the Tibetan court and his exploits as ambassador in the Chinese capital during the reign of Tang Taizong 唐太宗 (r. 626-649). Among these studies, those of Hugh Richardson (1998) and Thomas Kerihuel (2011) are the most com- plete: the former is an introduction to the mGar clan according to Tibetan and Chinese sources, while the latter is a complete investiga- tion on the clan and its evolution through the 7th century, according to ancient and classical Tibetan sources. Concerning the descendants * A first version of this article was presented in October 2014 at the doctoral day of the Centre de recherche sur les civilisations de l’Asie orientale (CRCAO), in Paris. I would like to thank the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation which, through the "Kingship and Religion in Tibet" research group, has supported my field- works in China in 2013 and 2014 in order to, among other things, survey and transcribe the funerary inscriptions here presented. I would like to thank my su- pervisors, Prof. Pierre Marsone (Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Paris) and PD Dr. Brandon Dotson (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich) for their encour- agement and suggestions. I would also like to express my gratitude to Françoise Wang (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris) and to Prof. Tshe ring (Cairang 才讓) (Xibei Minzu Daxue, Lanzhou) for their valuable comments. I would also like to thank Nathan McGovern and Ruth Gamble who kindly helped to revise my English. All mistakes that might remain are of course my own. The transliterations employ the pinyin system for the Chinese words and names and the Wylie for Tibetan. T