Military history is a domain in which nationalist or nation-state historical approaches often prevail. However the military institutions and military culture of any nation are also shaped by encounters with external actors, traditions and technologies. Tibetan military history between the 17th and 20th centuries clearly exemplifies this, reflecting an always unique, though ever-changing synthesis of influences and elements, in which older Tibetan traits, structural features, cultural orientations and nomenclatures, were mixed with those borrowed from foreign cultures. Predominant among the foreign influences in the early modern period were Mongol, Manchu, Chinese and Nepali, and then somewhat later, Japanese, Russian, Indian and British.