Tantric Revisionings: New Understandings of Tibetan Buddhism and Indian Religion

395 Pages·2005·18.289 MB·English

by  Geoffrey Samuel

T ANTRIC REVISIONINGS
Tantrie ReVlsionings presents stimulating new perspeetives on Hindu
and Buddhist religion, partieularly their Tantrie versions, in India, Tibet
or in modern Western soeieties. Geoffrey Samuel adopts an historically
and textually informed anthropologieal approach, seeking to loeate and
understand religion in its social and eultural context. The question of the
relation between 'popular' (folk, domestic, village, 'shamanic') religion
and elite (Iiterary, textual, monastic) religion forms a recurring theme
through these studies. Six ehapters have not been previously published;
the previously published studie.s included are in publieations whieh are
diffieult to loeate in major speeialist libraries.

Tantric Revisionings
New Understandings ofTibetan
Buddhism and Indian Religion
GEOFFREY SAMUEL
University 0/ Newcastle, Australia
I~ ~~o~1~;n~~~up
LONDON AND NEW YORK
First published 2005 by Ashgate Publishing
Published 2017 by Routledge
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Copyright © Gcoffrcy Samucl 2005
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known
or hereafter invented, inc1uding photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the
publishers.
Notice:
Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are
used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Samuel, Geoffrey
Tantric Revisionings: new understandings of Tibetan Buddhism and Indian
Religion 1. Tantrie Buddhism - China - Tibet 2. Tantrie Buddhism - Asia
3. Tantrism - Asia 4. Buddhism - Relations - Hinduism 5. Hinduism - Relations
- Buddhism 6. Tibet (China) - Religion 7. India - Religion I. Title 294.3'923
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Samuel, Geoffrey.
Tantrie Revisionings : new undcrstandings ofTibetan Buddhism and Indian
religion/Geoffrey Samuel.
p.em.
Inc1udes bibliographieal referenees and index.
ISBN 0-7546-5280-7 (hardcover: alk. paper)
I. Tantrie Buddhism - China - Tibet - History. 2. Tantrie Buddhism - India
History . I. Titlc.
BQ8912.9.C52 T557 2004
294.3'925-de22 2004021359
ISBN 0 7546 5280 7
ISBN 13: 978-0-7546-5280-9 (hbk)
Ta my wife
Santi Rozario

Contents
•••
•
Preface and Acknowledgements ix
PARTI
ST ARTING POINTS
1. Introduction 1.
2. Tibet as a Stateless Society and Some Islamic Paralleis 27
PART 11
HISTORICAL
3. . The Dissenting Tradition of Indian Tantra and its
Partial Hegemonisation in Tibet 52
4. Tibetan Tantra as a Form of Shamanism: Some Reflections
on the Vajrayäna and its Sharnanic Origins 72
5. Buddhism and the State in Eighth Century Tibet 94
6. Sharnanism, Bon and Tibetan Religion 116
7. The Indus Valley Civilisation and Early Tibet 138
8. Ge-sar of gLing: The Origins and Meanings of the East
Tibetan Epic 165
PARTIII
RELIGION IN CONTEMPORARY ASIA
9. Tibet and the Southeast Asian Highlands: Rethinking
the Intellectual Context of Tibetan Studies 192
10. The Vajrayäna in the Context of Himalayan Folk Religion 215
11. The Effectiveness ofGoddesses, or, How Ritual Works 229
12. Wornen, Goddesses and Auspiciousness in South Asia 256
VIlI • TANTRIC REVlSIONINGS
PARTIV
BUDDHISM AND OTHER WESTERN RELIGIONS
13. Tibetan Buddhism as a World Religion: Global
Networking and its Consequences 288
14. The Westernisation of Tibetan Buddhism 317
15. The Attractions ofTantra: Two Historical Moments 345
Index 367
Preface and Acknowledgements
•••
•
Tant/·ie Revisionings is a collection of articles relating to Tibetan
Buddhism and Indian religion. Five of these (Chapters One, Three, and
Thirteen to Fifteen) appear here for the first time. The remainder have
been published previously, though many of the publications are not
easily accessible. I have taken the opportunity to make some minor
corrections to these chapters and to restore some short passages omitted
in original publications for reasons of space.
The articles presented here are Iinked by their subject-matter. They
are also Iinked by a common approach to 'religion' as something that can
be understood in at least two ways. In the first perspective, religion is a
central expression of human creativity, linked to the core of what we are
as human beings. In the second, it is a vital aspect ofhow we live together
in society. I have argued, explicitly and implicitly, throughout these
chapters that both these perspectives need to be combined to achieve an
adequate understanding.
The Buddhist and Hindu traditions in their many manifestations are
part of humanity's common heritage. In these articIes, I have tried to
move towards a fuller and more incIusive understanding of these traditions
and their social context, from a position which is not committed to any
single tradition but is sympathetic to all.the people, past and present,
who have been connected with them. I hope in this way that this book
can contribute a little to keeping the Hindu and Buddhist traditions, as
they should be, part of what unites us, not of what divides us.
I would like here to thank those organisations that have given
permission for the reprinting of material published elsewhere. These
incIude the Association for Asian Studies (Chapter Two); the Societe
d'Ethnologie, Nanterre (Chapter Four); EJ. BriH (Chapter Five); the
Museum für Völkerkunde, Zürich (Chapter Six); the National Museum
tor Ethnology, Osaka (Chapter Seven); Naritasan Shinshöji (Chapter
Eight); the Institute for Comparative Research in Human Culture, Oslo
(Chapter Nine); Ernst Stein kellner of the Österreichische Akademie der