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Daisley, Simon Francis Stirling. "Exorcising Luther: Confronting the demon of modernity in Tibetan Buddhism." Thesis, University of Canterbury. Social and Political Sciences, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/10092/7329.
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This study explores the idea that the Western adaptation of Tibetan Buddhism is in fact a continuum of the Protestant Reformation. With its inhospitable terrain and volatile environment, the geography of Tibet has played an important role in its assimilation of Buddhism. Demons, ghosts and gods are a natural part of the Tibetan world. Yet why is it that Tibetan Buddhism often downplays these elements in its self portrayal to the West? Why are Westerners drawn to an idealistic view of Buddhism as being rational and free from belief in the supernatural when the reality is quite different? This thesis will show that in its encounter with Western modernity Tibetan Buddhism has had to reinvent itself in order to survive in a world where rituals and belief in deities are regarded as ignorant superstition. In doing so it will reveal that this reinvention of Buddhism is not a recent activity but one that has its origins in nineteenth century Protestant values. While the notion of Protestant Buddhism has been explored by previous scholars this thesis will show that rather than solving the problems of disenchantment, Buddhist Modernism ignores the human need to find meaning in and to take control over one’s surroundings. In doing so it will argue that rather than adopting a modern, crypto-Protestant form Buddhism, Westerners instead need to find a way to naturally transplant Tibetan Buddhism onto their own surroundings.
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Fernandes, Karen M. "Transforming emotions : the practice of lojong in Tibetan Buddhism." Thesis, McGill University, 2000. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=31105.
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This study concerns the investigation of the mind training method called Lojong, as portrayed by the Gelug branch of Tibetan Buddhism. The emphasis is placed on the practical application of the philosophical tenets underlying this set of routines. Some of the issues to be addressed are: the use of imagery in the process of emotional healing, the ethical concerns that arise in regards to interpreting key concepts pertaining to the Mahayana Buddhist world view, the importance of individuality and the problem of selflessness in practices that deal with alleviating negative emotions, and the suitability of the specific practices for the contemporary western female practitioner. In consideration of the pragmatic nature of this study, conclusions have been drawn towards the possible changes that might be made, when a form of training devised for a distinct group of practitioners, is extended to a more diversified population.
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Troughton, Thomas 1964. "Tibetan mind training : tradition and genre." Thesis, McGill University, 2008. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=116035.
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In response to Tibetan social pressures in the 11th century, Atisa initiated a renewal of Buddhist monasticism that resulted in all Buddhist praxis outside of meditation being strictly framed by attitudes and behaviors informed by love and compassion. Atisa's teachings are exemplified in pithy sayings that point to the heart of bodhisattva practice, and this mind training practice developed into a tradition in the period immediately following his passing. The success of the method, and of the emulation of Atisa as exemplar of a perfect bodhisattva, led to the adoption of mind training throughout Tibetan Buddhism. "Tibetan Mind Training: Tradition and Genre" explains the relation between a native Tibetan literary genre and monastic Buddhist practice found in the 14th century compilation Mind Training: The Great Collection (theg pa chen po blo sbyong rgya tsa). The introduction provides context and presents methodology. Chapter one argues that 'blo sbyong' should be translated as 'mind training.' Chapter two has two broad arguments: a rebuttal of a conception of mind training as an essentially psychological preparation for other practices; and an explanation of its praxis as the interaction of mind and real objects. Chapter three explains the relation of mind training praxis and tradition, with reference to Atisa's reforms. Chapter four explains some characteristics of the literary genre of mind training.
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Stevens, Rachael. "Red Tara : lineages of literature and practice." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2010. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:27381b38-c580-4d0b-b7d5-f87abcc50afd.
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Tārā is arguably the most popular goddess of the Tibetan Buddhist pantheon. She is well known in her Green, White, and Twenty-one forms. However, the numerous red aspects of the divinity have long been overlooked in both popular and academic literature on the goddess. This thesis aims to redress this balance. This thesis presents the various manifestations of Red Tārā in the form of a survey of the literary and practice lineages of this goddess throughout Tibetan Buddhist history. The intention of the thesis is to examine individual forms of Red Tārā, excluding Kurukullā (who has received previous scholarly attention), in order to prove the hypothesis that not all Red Tārās are Kurukullā. The research has identified a preliminary historical order of Red Tārā lineages from the eleventh century works on Pītheśvarī and the Sa-skya-pa Red Tārās, through to the nineteenth and twentieth century forms of the goddess authored by the dGe-lugs-pas and A-paṃ gter-ston in the A-mdo region of Tibet. The red forms of Tārā are more 'worldly' than her Green or White incarnations, and the soteriological component of her worship is not always clear. Accordingly this allows a glimpse into the subjugating/ magnetising ritual process. The thesis comprises three sections. Section One provides a general introduction to Tārā and Kurukullā, followed by a survey of the literature pertaining to Red Tārā identified in the course of this research. Section Two takes four lineages of Red Tārā literature as its focus. Each chapter refers to an individual lineage: Pītheśvarī, Sa-skya-pa, the Twenty-one Tārās, and A-paṃ gter-ton's gter-ma cycle. Section Three deals with modern-day practice of the goddess in the Chagdud Gonpa Foundation and the Flaming Jewel Sangha. The thesis relies on translation of primary sources from the Tibetan language, participant observation, and New Religious Studies methodology, and covers a wide range of areas including subjugation rituals, iconography, body-maṇḍala rituals, the adoption of Buddhism in the West, and New Religious Movements. It adds to current knowledge in a variety of fields including ritual, goddess studies, the Tibetan pantheon and its iconography, and Buddhism in the West.
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Karmay, Samten Gyaltsen. "Origin and early development of the Tibetan religious traditions of the Great Perfection (Rdzogs Chen)." Thesis, SOAS, University of London, 1986. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.368854.
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rDzogs chen, the "Great Perfection", is a philosophical and meditational system of Tibetan Buddhism. It is the counterpart of the Ch'an in Chinese Buddhism and Zen in Japan. Western writers on Tibetan Buddhism have viewed it as a survival of the Ch'an which was once known in Tibet in the eighth century A.D., but declined after the breakup of the Tibetan empire in the mid-ninth century A.D. This view is mainly derived from the attitude of the Tibetan Buddhist orthodox schools who regarded rDzogs chen as a resurrection of Ch'an the practice of which according to the Tibetan historical tradition was officially banned after the famous Sino-Indian Buddhist controversy around 790 A.D. in Tibet. The other interesting aspect of rDzogs chen is that it is a teaching adhered to by the Buddhist school, the rNying ma pa as well as by the Bonpo (followers of the Bon religion in Tibet). Although studies in Tibetan Buddhism have advanced much in recent years, the origin and historical development of rDzogs chen has remained totally unknown. The present Study therefore focuses mainly on the origin of its theories such as "Primordial Purity" which it sees as the basis for spiritual development, and its historical and literary development. The sources for this study are mainly ninth century documents from Central Asia and texts belonging to the tenth and eleventh centuries from Tibet itself. They shed new light on the origins of rDzogs chen and its philosophical conceptions.
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Yogo, Rinako. "Jung and Buddhism : a hermeneutical engagement with the Tibetan and Zen Buddhist traditions." Thesis, University of Kent, 2001. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.365210.
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This thesis examines Jung's relation to Buddhism, in particular the Tibetan and Zen Buddhist traditions from a hermeneutic perspective. It addresses the way Jung attempted to make a dialogue between Analytical Psychology and Buddhism and the extent to which he was successful. Jung's approach to Buddhism is sometimes affected by Eurocentric prejudices, which led him to misunderstand some of the concepts of Buddhism. Moreover, from the standpoint of a psychologist, Jung had a tendency to reduce Buddhist thought to its psychological aspects, and not to pay sufficient attention to its traditional meanings. Jung was also highly selective in his use of Buddhist texts and focussed on those texts which appeared to confirm, or conform to, his psychological thinking, but dismissed other Buddhist materials which had no common base with his psychology. To contrast his approach, this thesis examines the theory of the phenomenology of religion, which emphasises the recognition of the irreducibility of religious phenomena and claims that we must understand religion within its own cultural context. From the perspective of the phenomenology of religion, Jung's methodology lacks objectivity and fails to exercise epoche, which means a suspension of one's own judgement or the exclusion of every possible presupposition. Rather, Jung seems to over-emphasise eidetic vision, which is a form of subjectivity that implies an intuitive grasp of the essentials of a situation in its wholeness. There are important achievements in Jung's engagement with Buddhism and indeed Jung should be regarded as a pioneer in this field of research. Jung's writings on Buddhism had a major influence on later studies of the various Buddhist traditions and meditation in relation to Western psychology and its therapeutic techniques. From this more positive perspective, this thesis explores in detail the strengths and shortcomings of Jung's engagement with the different Buddhist traditions, in order to assess its potential contribution to the contemporary dialogue between East and West.
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Shearer, Megan Marie. "Tibetan Buddhism and the environment: A case study of environmental sensitivity among Tibetan environmental professionals in Dharamsala, India." CSUSB ScholarWorks, 2005. https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/etd-project/2904.
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The purpose of this study was to investigate environmental sensitivity among environmental professionals in a culture that is assumed to hold an ecocentric perspective. Nine Tibetan Buddhist environmental professionals were surveyed in this study. Based on an Environmental Sensitivity Profile Insytrument, an environmental sensitivity profile for a Tibetan Buddhist environmental professional was created from the participants demographic and interview data. The most frequently defined vaqriables were environmental destruction/development, education and role models.
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Vetturini, Gianpaolo. "The bKa' gdams pa School of Tibetan Buddhism." Thesis, SOAS, University of London, 2007. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.497302.
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Kay, David N. "Tibetan and Zen Buddhism in Britain : transplantation, development and adaptation /." London : RoutledgeCurzon, 2004. http://www.loc.gov/catdir/toc/ecip046/2003014995.html.
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MacDonald, Kathleen Anne. "Sacred healing, health and death in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition." Thesis, McGill University, 2001. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=32927.
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The Tibetan Buddhist approach to healing, health and death is rooted in the sacred. Its teachings and techniques create a road map guiding the practitioner through the process of purification called sacred healing. It encompasses foundational Buddhist teachings, sacred Buddhist medicine, and the esoteric healing pathways found in tantra and yoga, which together constitute a detailed and technical guide to healing. The mind is central to all aspects of Tibetan Buddhism. The ability to focus the mind through meditation during life enables the practitioner to prepare for death by experiencing the subtle aspects of the body and mind through the chakras. Both Tibetan spiritual teachers and doctors practise healing and help practitioners learn to focus their minds in preparation for death. The moment of death presents the greatest opportunity for attaining sacred health, but healing can also occur after death. The objective of this thesis is to present the Tibetan Buddhist understanding of sacred healing in relation to life, death, the bardos and suicide through its texts, teachings and techniques.
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MacPherson, Sonia Seonaigh. "A path of learning, Indo-Tibetan Buddhism as education." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 2000. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk1/tape3/PQDD_0016/NQ48656.pdf.
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Moran, Peter Kevin. "Buddhism observed : western travelers, Tibetan exiles, and the culture of Dharma in Kathmandu /." Thesis, Connect to this title online; UW restricted, 1998. http://hdl.handle.net/1773/6522.
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Dorje, Gyurme. "Guhyagarbhatantra and its XIVth century commentary phyogs-bcu mun-sel." Thesis, Online version, 1987. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?did=1&uin=uk.bl.ethos.283769.
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Fitzgerald, Katherine Elizabeth. "No Pure Lands: The Contemporary Buddhism of Tibetan Lay Women." The Ohio State University, 2020. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1586599037356041.
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JAKUBOWSKI, SUSAN L. "THE GEOGRAPHY OF TIBETAN BUDDHIST PRACTICE CENTERS IN THE UNITED STATES: WHERE CAN I GET SOME ENLIGHTENMENT?" University of Cincinnati / OhioLINK, 2007. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1179428057.
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Bridges, Alex Wallace. "Two Monasteries in Ladakh: Religiosity and the Social Environment in Tibetan Buddhism." Case Western Reserve University School of Graduate Studies / OhioLINK, 2017. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1491502573183253.
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Collins, Dawn. "Presence in Tibetan landscapes : spirited agency and ritual healing in Rebgong." Thesis, Cardiff University, 2014. http://orca.cf.ac.uk/89371/.
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This thesis intends to add to the field a sense of how deities pervade ordinary life in Tibetan cultural regions and what this means for those who live there. The study thus aims to develop understandings of the types of ritual healing which take place in this environment, one wherein landscapes are inhabited and experienced as embodiments of spirited agencies. In the thesis I suggest that, for my fieldwork regions of the Rebgong valley at least, ritual healing can best be understood a process by which beings are brought into right relations, both mutually and in connection with other beings, human and deity. I suggest here that all practices, whether ritual or medical, pertaining to health and well-being in Rebgong are predicated upon this type of epistemology; a cultural matrix of healing. This matrix is one in which healing is by definition is about humans and deities maintaining right relationship. I explore what this sensibility means for those who live in the Rebgong valleys primarily through ethnographic accounts of three particular ritual practices in Rebgong villages: the renewal of the labtsé tributes to the mountain gods, the Leru harvest ritual, and the performance of a tantric ritual cham dance. Forms of ritual healing I discuss in the thesis include circumambulation, medical and tantric practices, those of the trance or spirit mediums, dance and divination. I argue that all these rites and practices connected to health and well-being in a broad sense can be understood under one cultural matrix of healing in which spirited agency is focal. I argue that inherent to understanding this matrix is a focus on how deities, as embodied landscapes, appear within it, and how they are understood to exist and interact with human affairs, particularly those relating to health and well-being. In this regard, themes that I explore throughout the thesis are those of luck, purification, empowerment, embodiment and blessing. The study is intended, in a Bakhtinian sense, as a body of words which do not bring closure but rather seek to engage in a dialogical conversation that simultaneously responds to past scholarship and anticipates response.
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McAra, Sally. "A "stupendous attraction" : materialising a Tibetan Buddhist contact zone in rural Australia /." e-Thesis University of Auckland, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/2292/5234.
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Sonam, Tenzin, and Tenzin Sonam. "Buddhism at Crossroads: A Case Study of Six Tibetan Buddhist Monks Navigating the Intersection of Buddhist Theology and Western Science." Diss., The University of Arizona, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/624305.
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Recent effort to teach Western science in the Tibetan Buddhist monasteries has drawn interest both within and outside the quarters of these monasteries. This novel and historic move of bringing Western science in a traditional monastic community began around year 2000 at the behest of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the spiritual head of Tibetan Buddhism. Despite the novelty of this effort, the literature in science education about learners from non-Western communities suggests various "cognitive conflicts" experienced by these non-Western learners due to fundamental difference in the worldview of the two knowledge traditions. Hence, in this research focuses on how six Tibetan Buddhist monks were situating/reconciling the scientific concepts like the theory of evolution into their traditional Buddhist worldview. The monks who participated in this study were engaged in a further study science at a university in the U.S. for two years. Using case study approach, the participants were interviewed individually and in groups over the two-year period.
The findings revealed that although the monks scored highly on their acceptance of evolution on the Measurement of Acceptance of Theory of Evolution (MATE) survey, however in the follow-up individual and focus group interviews, certain conflicts as well as agreement between the theory of evolution and their Buddhist beliefs were revealed. The monks experienced conflicts over concepts within evolution such as common ancestry, human evolution, and origin of life, and in reconciling the Buddhist and scientific notion of life. The conflicts were analyzed using the theory of collateral learning and was found that the monks engaged in different kinds of collateral learning, which is the degree of interaction and resolution of conflicting schemas. The different collateral learning of the monks was correlated to the concepts within evolution and has no correlation to the monks’ years in secular school, science learning or their proficiency of English language.
This study has indicted that the Tibetan Buddhist monks also experience certain cognitive conflict when situating Western scientific concepts into their Buddhist worldview as suggested by research of science learners from other non-Western societies. By explicating how the monks make sense of scientific theories like the theory of evolution as an exemplar, I hope to inform the current effort to establish science education in the monastery to develop curricula that would result in meaningful science teaching and learning, and also sensitive to needs and the cultural survival of the monastics.
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Restrepo, Mariana. "Transmission, Legitimation, and Adaptation: A Study of Western Lamas in the Construction of ‘American Tibetan Buddhism’." FIU Digital Commons, 2013. http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/822.
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This thesis presents a study of the role of western lamas within Tibetan Buddhism in America, arguing that the role of the lama is as an influential and central aspect in the development and transformation of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition in the west. This thesis argues how western lamas holding a position of authority act as a catalyst of change within their group and in the overall process of change and adaptation of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition in America, creating what may become ‘American Tibetan Buddhism.’ Three relevant areas regarding the role of the lama within the transforming tradition are identified: 1) the basis of authority of the lama, or how authority is obtained; 2) the use of such authority as a tool for change; and 3) transmission of the teachings and lineage.
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Kay, David Neil. "The transplantation, development and adaptation of Zen and Tibetan Buddhism in Britain." Thesis, Lancaster University, 2000. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.365845.
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Mori, Masahide. "The Vajravali of Abhayakaragupta : a critical study, Sanskrit edition of select chapters and complete Tibetan version." Thesis, SOAS, University of London, 1997. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.285705.
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Ramos, Danielle Mozena. "O não-teísmo budista: o imaginário do divino dos budistas brasileiros do Templo Odsal Ling." Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo, 2013. https://tede2.pucsp.br/handle/handle/1899.
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This research's objective is to study how Brazilians from the Tibetan Buddhist Tradition (from the Odsal Ling Temple, Nyingma School) conceive the idea of the Absolut, in other words, understood as the "divine" at the Buddhist universe (which is non-teist) − concentrating mainly in philosophical definitions from the Tibetan Buddhism. To do that, it will be presented some conceipts, which are: compassion, bodhichitta and emptiness. These three elements are didatic steps that Tibetan Buddhism uses to work and wake Buddha's Nature, recognizing the same perfect nature in all beings and all things. After this first part, the research will focus in the analysis of how this non-teistic point of view is conceived and seen by the Brazilians from the Tibetan Buddhism (concerning Odsal Ling Temple), identifying languages and sincretisms with Brazilian religiosity and questioning the difficulty of the Brazilian adept in adopting this religious way
O objetivo da pesquisa é estudar como os budistas brasileiros de tradição tibetana concebem o Absoluto, ou em outras palavras, compreendido como o divino , do universo budista (nãoteísta) se concentrando principalmente em definições filosóficas do Budismo Tibetano. Para isso, serão trabalhados três conceitos-chave, que são: a compaixão, a bodhichitta e a vacuidade. Esses três elementos são os passos didáticos que o Budismo Tibetano utiliza para trabalhar e despertar a natureza de buda, reconhecendo a mesma natureza perfeita em tudo e em todos. Depois desta primeira parte, a pesquisa se concentra em analisar como esta visão não-teísta é concebida e reconfigurada em tradições budistas tibetanas brasileiras, identificando suas linguagens e sincretismos com a própria religiosidade brasileira e questionando a dificuldade do brasileiro em adotar tal mentalidade
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Zwisler, Evan. "Tibetan Buddhism and the Chinese Communist Party: Moving Forward in the 21st Century." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2012. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/454.
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I examine the state of Tibetan Buddhism that exists in China in the 21st century and what are the best methods to increase religious freedom and political autonomy. I look at what cause China and Tibet to reach this point, and why do the respective nations do what they do. Man people fundamentally misunderstand the reasons why the Chinese Communist Party oppresses Tibetan Buddhism; they aren't concerned with eradicating religion, they want to simply maintain longterm political legitimacy in Tibet.
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Brasnett, Jonathan. "Tibetan Buddhism and Chinese Communist Party authority : the fundamental problem of Dalai Lama leadership." Thesis, University of British Columbia, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/57774.
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Tibet has been under the administrative control of the People’s Republic of China since 1950. The Seventeen-Point Agreement for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet, signed in 1951, promised autonomy to Tibetans, as well as the freedom to practice their religion, Tibetan Buddhism. In practice, however, the PRC has not allowed this autonomy or freedom of religion to Tibetans within its borders. The identity of the Tibetan people is largely based on their strong religiosity, manifested in their reverence of their leadership institutions: the Dalai Lama and to a lesser extent, the Panchen Lama. As the PRC government has sought to suppress religion and control religious practices, it has exerted a stricter level of control over the religions perceived as ‘foreign,’ of which Tibetan Buddhism is one. This strict control of ‘foreign’ religions (specifically their leadership institutions) has manifested in the defamation and coercive manipulation of the Dalai and Panchen Lama institutions, in order for the Chinese Communist Party to maintain its control over Tibet. This thesis asks why the CCP perceives the control of these leadership institutions as necessary for achieving its broader policy goals. Through an in-depth review and analysis of relevant literature, this thesis will argue that the strong religiosity of Tibetans and the corresponding politico-religious power wielded by the Dalai and Panchen Lama leadership institutions are perceived as threats by the CCP. The power of Tibetan Buddhism and its leadership institution, as well as the identity they instill in Tibetans, threatens not only the CCP’s control over the resource-rich region, but also its legitimacy as the unique governing power over a secular, unified China. To the Chinese government in Beijing, allowing the Dalai and Panchen Lamas the freedom to return to Tibet, whether in body or just through the worship of Tibetan Buddhists, would be tantamount to losing its control over the entire region.Arts, Faculty of
Asian Research, Institute of
Graduate
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Hirshberg, Daniel. "Delivering the Lotus-Born: Historiography in the Tibetan Renaissance." Thesis, Harvard University, 2012. http://dissertations.umi.com/gsas.harvard:10258.
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Traditionally recognized as the first of the great Buddhist treasure revealers, Nyang-rel Nyima Özer (1124-1192) historiographically reconstructed the Imperium into a golden age of Tibetan Buddhism. An analysis of his two early biographies demonstrates that he was among the first to recall an unbroken series of preincarnations in real historical time, which was a crucial link that led to the ascension of concatenated reincarnates like the Karmapas and Dalai Lamas. For Nyang-rel, his past life as emperor Tri Song-détsen (d. 800) provided the teleological karmic basis for his life as a finder of the old texts and relics deemed "treasure." According to his biographies and the two narratives that are attributed to him, Nyang-rel’s treasures were uniformly material objects extracted via quite mundane methods, though the discovery of old manuscripts seems to have been only an initial step in a process of compilation, redaction and composition that resulted in their reintroduction. Allegedly among these treasures was the first complete biography of the eighth-century Tantrika, Padmasambhava, which later became renowned as The Copper Palace. Much of this narrative was incorporated into the history of Buddhism entitled Flower Nectar: The Essence of Honey that is also attributed to Nyang-rel. Based on a comparative analysis of available recensions, however, I propose three hypotheses as equally viable alternatives to what has been asserted concerning the composition of these two texts. First, Nyang-rel did not consider his biography of Padmasambhava to be a treasure, but the tradition later manufactured a recovery narrative and accompanying title that promoted it as such. Second, Nyang-rel did not compile the Flower Nectar history. Third, based on oral, textual and mnemonic fragments, Nyang-rel produced a narrative of Tri Song-détsen and Padmasambhava that others developed into The Copper Palace and Flower Nectar. In sum, Nyang-rel was a progenitor of some of the most definitive aspects of Tibetan Buddhism, yet these very innovations ensured that he would be eclipsed by later adepts who, in adopting his claims and methods, revealed new iterations of his scriptures and narratives. He thus remains one of the most influential yet unsung figures of the Tibetan renaissance.
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Nau, Michael. "Killing for the Dharma: An Analysis of the Shugden Deity and Violence in Tibetan Buddhism." Miami University Honors Theses / OhioLINK, 2007. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=muhonors1178300733.
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Mills, Martin A. "Religious authority and pastoral care in Tibetan Buddhism : the ritual hierarchies of Lingshed Monastery, Ladakh." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 1997. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/21421.
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The thesis provides an ethnographic and anthropological account of Tibetan Buddhist ritual and monasticism in Lingshed village in Ladakh, North-West India. Two fundamental issues are addressed: firstly, the nature and form of religious and ritual care provided by the monks of Lingshed monastery to those villages in its vicinity which act as its patrons; secondly, the structure and ideology of Tibetan Buddhist notions and practices relating to ritual and religious authority, especially those of the Gelukpa Order of Tibetan Buddhism, of which Lingshed monastery is a part. Addressing the relationship between local understandings of the purposes and methods of Buddhism, the thesis presents a microscopic analysis of the relationship between ritual practice and indigenous notions concerning the person as ritual actor and the nature of divinity in Tantric Buddhism. It therefore includes an in-depth discussion of a series of ritual practices essential to Tibetan Buddhism in general, and to the monastery at Lingshed in particular, including rites to protector divinities and methods for cleansing ritual pollution. The work particularly highlights the practice of sangs-sol, that is offerings to local divinities, as performed by monastic personnel. As part of characterising the nature of religious authority in Tibetan Buddhism, the thesis discusses two dominant modes of religious and spiritual renunciation: clerical and tantric. The first of these two modes characterises the celibate monastic career of most members of the Gelukpa Order, whilst the second, tantric renunciation, refers to the employment of highly complex ritual techniques aimed at consubstantiating the practitioner with certain tantric deities. Since this latter method classically involves the use of sexual yoga, the thesis explores the manner in which such methods have been integrated into the strict celibate monasticism of the Gelukpa Order. The conclusion arising from this is that, the tension between tantric method and monasticism centres real ritual authority within the Gelukpa Order (and other forms of monastic Buddhism in Tibetan areas) onto a select group of 'incarnate lamas', who are therefore essential to the continued survival of the tradition.
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Woodhouse, Emily. "The role of Tibetan Buddhism in environmental conservation under changing socio-economic conditions in China." Thesis, Imperial College London, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/11155.
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The failure of and conflict related to environmental conservation projects can be partly attributed to the lack of attention paid to the social and cultural systems of the people involved. Combining social and ecological methods, and a case study in Daocheng (Tibetan: Dabpa) County, Sichuan Province, this thesis explores how Tibetan Buddhism shapes human relations with the natural environment in the context of social and economic changes under the economically liberalised Chinese state. Using interviews and participant observation, I find Tibetans to be orientating themselves towards the environment by means of local cosmology incorporating gods and spirits in the landscape, ideas of karma, and Buddhist moral precepts. I question the concept of the sacred by highlighting differential ritual attention paid towards local gods, and their uncertain boundaries. Using the concept of authority, I explore how religion, the state, and economic markets are shaping relationships with the environment. Ritual authority lent weight to understandings of local gods, and politicised environmentalist discourse transported through global connections was beginning to give new meaning to the environment. State environmental regulations were reinforced by alignment with religious norms and monastic involvement in forest protection, although there were contested ideas regarding state tree planting policies. The booming trade in caterpillar fungus (Ophiocordyceps sinensis) has exacerbated resource conflict, and changed consumption patterns and norms on sacred land. Using quantitative recall data from households, I explore access to provisioning ecosystem services contrasting subsistence and market based products. Access was structured according to wealth indicating community heterogeneity, although there was high dependence on caterpillar fungus for livelihoods across all households. Direct use surveys of firewood collection show that representations of local gods did not consistently translate into spatially defined areas of non-extraction, and instead illustrate the dynamic nature of sacred sites interacting with social and political systems through history. I set the case study in its wider geographical and policy context to show that sacred sites exist across Daocheng, but have different histories and ecological constitutions. The wider perspective demonstrates the issue of scale in environmental studies, and the need for conservation interventions that span levels of governance. I reflect on the implications of the research on conservation, highlighting the value of anthropological research for nuanced, collaborative and locally appropriate practice, and I lastly explore opportunities for future work in Daocheng.
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Binning, Amy Catherine. "Printing as practice : innovation and imagination in the making of Tibetan Buddhist sacred texts in California." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2019. https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/288619.
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This thesis offers an exploration of how one brings a Tibetan sacred text to being - and to voice - in the unfamiliar, and perhaps unlikely, landscape of Northern California. Through 16 months' fieldwork with a Nyingma Buddhist community based in Berkeley, California I ask how the production of the sacred is undertaken here by American volunteers who are largely neophytes to Tibetan Buddhism. Against a backdrop of the history of Tibetan textual production - largely populated by masters, monastics, and artisans - I explore what kind of work (both physical and imaginative) American volunteers must undertake in order to render themselves effective creators of the sacred in this American industrial setting. Drawing on current research that explores the adaptive capacities of Tibetan Buddhist traditional practices, I will offer a new facet to this flexibility through an investigation of the ways these texts and their surrounding practices are creatively deployed to meet the needs of their American makers. In this work I follow the sacred objects through their entangled physical and social creation in the various branches of this California community, from the construction of spaces ripe for sacred work, through fundraising, printing, and finally to the distribution of texts to the Tibetan monastic community in Bodh Gaya, India. In the conclusion I return to the question of how an American volunteer becomes an effective creator of a Tibetan Buddhist sacred text in Berkeley California, contributing a unique and rich case to the study of diasporic Tibetan text production. Ultimately, I will demonstrate that the very practice of creating and deploying Tibetan sacred texts offers a frame through which volunteers come to re-interpret and re-shape their spatial and temporal landscape. This dissertation seeks to bridge often disparate fields of study, allowing encounters between (and contributions to) such bodies of work as: the anthropological study of making, craft, and innovation; media and religious practice; the affective temporality of sacred relics; and the cross-culturally unique, agentive qualities of books.
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Mascarello, Chiara. "Self-awareness in tibetan buddhism. A study of the philosophical relevance of rang rig and its contribution to the contemporary debates on the nature of consciousness." Doctoral thesis, Università degli studi di Padova, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/11577/3423274.
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This research examines the concept of self-awareness (svasamvedana: rang rig) as it was developed in the Indo-Tibetan Buddhist tradition. Self-cognition, that is, the mind’s knowing of itself, is a highly technical concept in Buddhist philosophy and, since it targets fundamental issues relating to the nature of consciousness, represents a crucial subject of debate among various scholars of the tradition. However, modern scholarship has not yet fully examined this field despite the most recent reflections upon self-awareness in the ongoing philosophical debates on subjective experience calling for a deeper study of the insights the Buddhist contemplative tradition might offer in helping to unravel the conundrum that the nature of consciousness presents. Dwelling upon the different understandings of the Buddhist notion of svasamvedana/rang rig, this dissertation mainly examines its Tibetan developments, in light of the Indian philosophical legacy, and the contribution they may offer to a universal discourse on self-awareness, mainly through dialogue with the potentials and tendencies of contemporary philosophy of mind.
After a few introductory remarks, the first part of the research examines the Indian origins and main developments related to the concept of svasamvedana. I start by exploring the initial emergence of the idea of self-awareness in some pre-Dignaga Buddhist sources before taking a closer look at Dignaga’s epistemological formulation of the concept and, finally, considering the main post-Dignaga Indian developments. As such, the first part of the research is intended as an overview of the Indian Buddhist history of the idea of self-awareness that precedes its Tibetan assimilation, an important background that must be considered for a proper understanding of the Tibetan debates.
The second part of the research focuses on the multidimensional relevance that the idea of rang rig acquires in the Tibetan arena. Selecting a few representative Tibetan accounts, I analyze their most relevant philosophical implications. To begin with, I discuss some aspects of the main categories that have been adopted in modern scholarship for the classification of the various understandings of self-awareness. Then, I investigate how the two main features of the intentionality and luminosity of consciousness are questioned and problematized by Tibetan scholars, analyzing the epistemological issues self-awareness entails, such as memory and the validity of cognition, and examining the role of ontology in interpreting self-awareness, especially in relation to the two truths. Moreover, I investigate the soteriological implications of rang rig in relation to spiritual breakthrough, with special reference to the rDzogs-chen view.
The final section of the thesis attempts to create a dialogue between the Tibetan tradition and contemporary studies on self-awareness. These days, self-awareness is still a hot topic tightly linked to the problem of the nature of subjective experience as well as other issues such as the hard problem of consciousness, the differences between same-order and higher-order theories, the relationship between intentionality and phenomenality, and the controversial role of subjectivity. I proceed by identifying aspects and dimensions of the discourse on self-cognition where the Tibetan understandings of this concept can fruitfully meet with the problems and strands of the ongoing debates in philosophy of mind. By putting them in dialogue I analyze the resonances and differences between the legacy of the Indo-Tibetan tradition and the modern controversies that arise.
What ensues from this research is an overall examination of the main accounts of the Buddhist notion of svasamvedana/rang rig, with a specific focus on the Tibetan assimilation and developments of the topic in light of the previous Indian thought upon it. These philosophical positions are unpacked, intertwined, interpreted and considered against a wider reflection upon the universal problems of self-awareness by assuming a methodological approach that allows the categorization and analysis of the challenges and nuances of the cross-cultural praxis itself. With this work I intend to follow the suggestion, recently made by a few recent scholars, to deepen and broaden our understanding of svasamvedana by putting it in relation to the contemporary sensitivity to the topic and in dialogue with comparable ongoing reflections upon the nature of consciousness. Even just scratching the surface of such a delicate, vast and complicated philosophical project, I hope to be able to tap into the mutually transformative potentials of such a cross-cultural philosophical enterprise, whose challenges now more than ever are becoming urgent, demanding but also promising.Questa ricerca esamina il concetto di autocoscienza (svasamvedana: rang rig) come è stato sviluppato nella tradizione buddista indo-tibetana. L'autocoscienza, cioè la conoscenza che la mente ha di se stessa, è un concetto che presenta un alto livello di complessità e tecnicità all’interno della filosofia buddista e, poiché interseca questioni fondamentali relative alla natura della coscienza, rappresenta un argomento cruciale di dibattito tra i vari studiosi della tradizione. D’altra parte l'esegesi moderna non ha ancora esaminato completamente questo campo, nonostante la riflessione contemporanea sull'autoconsapevolezza e sulla natura dell’esperienza soggettiva potrebbe senza dubbio giovarsi delle intuizioni che la tradizione contemplativa buddhista offre. Approfondendo le diverse concezioni della nozione buddhista di autocoscienza, questa dissertazione esamina principalmente i suoi sviluppi nella filosofia tibetana, sia alla luce del retaggio filosofico indiano, sia considerando il contributo che essi possono offrire a un discorso universale sull'autocoscienza e sulla natura dell’esperienza, attraverso il dialogo con la filosofia della mente contemporanea.
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Woomer, Amanda S. "Body, Speech and Mind: Negotiating Meaning and Experience at a Tibetan Buddhist Center." Digital Archive @ GSU, 2009. http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/anthro_theses/32.
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Examining an Atlanta area Tibetan Buddhist center as a symbolic and imagined borderland space, I investigate the ways that meaning is created through competing narratives of spirituality and “culture.” Drawing from theories of borderlands, cross-cultural interaction, narratives, authenticity and material culture, I analyze the ways that non-Tibetan community members of the Drepung Loseling center navigate through the interplay of culture and spirituality and how this interaction plays into larger discussions of cultural adaptation, appropriation and representation. Although this particular Tibetan Buddhist center is only a small part of Buddhism’s existence in the United States today, discourses on authenticity, representation and mediated understanding at the Drepung Loseling center provide an example of how ethnic, social, and national boundaries may be negotiated through competing – and overlapping – narratives of culture.
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McClure, Faith M. ""At the Still Point of the Turning World"." Digital Archive @ GSU, 2011. http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/art_design_theses/82.
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The history of landscape painting in the West has dictated and reiterated a phenomenological point-of-view derived from the Cartesian coordinate plane system. After having journeyed to northern India for eight months, I became influenced by other pictorial conceptions of space, namely the radial cosmological mandalas of Tibetan Buddhism and yantras of Hinduism. Unable to fully eliminate the coordinate plane system from the recess of my mind, I embarked upon a creative journey through consciousness in which my own studio practice provided the means to construct a new orientation, not only in terms of the perceivable, external world, but within the realm of my own embodied mind.
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Sumegi, Angela. "Dreams of wonder, dreams of deception: Tension and resolution between Buddhism and shamanism in Tibetan culture." Thesis, University of Ottawa (Canada), 2003. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/28969.
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This study explores the nature of dreams and dreaming in shamanism and Buddhism. It focuses on the specific case of Tibet where the indigenous layer of religious beliefs and practices has been dominated by Buddhism but continues to emerge as a vital presence in the religious world-view of Tibet. The three major divisions in this study are concerned with (1) the shamanic world-view and attitude towards dream, (2) the ancient Indian world-view and the Buddhist approach to dream, and (3) the use and meaning of dreams and dreaming in Tibetan culture.
With regard to Tibetan attitudes to dream, it will be shown that conflicting statements and views expressing, on the one hand, the value of dream as a vehicle of prophecy and knowledge and, on the other, dismissing the world of dream as the ultra-illusions of an illusory world were present in the Indian Buddhist tradition that entered Tibet. However, in the Tibetan context, dream comes to play a heightened role in Buddhist religious life as a method of authenticating spiritual status and as a path to liberation. The Tibetan attitude toward dream is shown to encompass earlier contradictions, but also to involve an additional tension arising out of the Buddhist competition with, and eventual hegemony over, indigenous religious systems that also use dream to transmit and validate knowledge and religious power. These tensions are reflected in conflicting statements over dream that appear in Tibetan literature. Resolution and harmony, however, are possible because of a concept of interdependency and interconnectedness that is fundamental to both shamanism and Buddhism. I have proposed that the conflicting views on dream in Tibetan literature reflect a much more complex situation than is expressed in assigning the differing views to the categories of 'popular' and 'elite', and I have provided an alternate model for understanding the contradictory attitudes to dream in Tibetan Buddhism.
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Mindus, Amanda. "Views on violence in the Tibetan diaspora : On the homeland conflict and the Buddhism-violence nexus." Thesis, Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för samhällsstudier (SS), 2017. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-61069.
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The academic interest in diasporas has mushroomed in recent decades. More specifically, a debate about the role of diasporas in violence/peace and whether these groups should be seen as spurring violence from afar or acting as agents of peace. This thesis contributes to this debate by investigating the Tibetan diaspora in Sweden. The Tibetan diaspora has not yet to featured in this debate, and their role has in general been undertheorized. As this diaspora is traditionally considered a Buddhist diaspora, the work also relates to and draws on a second academic debate, ie. the Buddhism-violence nexus. The research questions addressed were: (1) In what way has the conflict in Tibet had an impact of the lives of the members of the Tibetan diaspora in Sweden, and how, if at all, do they respond to it? and (2) Do members of the Tibetan diaspora in Sweden believe that there is room within Tibetan Buddhism to legitimize violence, and if yes; how and under what circumstances? These questions were answered through semi-structured interviews with fourteen adult members of the Tibetan diaspora in Sweden. Two analytical frames were adopted, one being the Triadic Relationship of diasporas and the second Igor Kopytoff’s Frontier Model. The findings suggest that the conflict in Tibet has influenced the interviewees both practically and emotionally. The interviewees shared a view of Buddhism as utterly non-violent but saw Buddhists as human beings, and as such; capable of violence. Buddhism is perceived as something distant and as posing ideals that cannot be achieved. Besides what the Frontier Model suggests two other potential explanatory models presented themselves. Firstly, that the answers were influenced by the particular-ness of the diaspora setting as detached from the homeland conflict, hence enabling diaspora members to keep an idealized stance. Secondly, that Tibetan Buddhism is a particularly peaceful branch of Buddhism and that a more nuanced understanding of the religion is needed when discussing the Buddhism-violence nexus.
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Oidtmann, Max Gordon. "Between Patron and Priest: Amdo Tibet Under Qing Rule, 1792-1911." Thesis, Harvard University, 2013. http://dissertations.umi.com/gsas.harvard:11276.
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In the late eighteenth century, a Qing-centered, pluralistic legal order emerged in the Tibetan regions of the Qing empire. In the Gansu borderlands known to Tibetans as "Amdo," the Qing state established subprefectures to administer indigenous populations and prepare them for integration into the empire. In the 1790s, the Qianlong emperor asserted the dynasty's sovereignty in central Tibet and embarked on a program to reform the Tibetan government. This dissertation examines the nineteenth-century legacy of these policies from the twin perspectives of the indigenous people of the region and the officials dispatched to manage them. On the basis of Manchu and Tibetan-language sources, Part One argues that the exercise of Qing sovereignty in central Tibet was connected to the Qianlong court's desire to monopolize indigenous arts of divination, especially as they related to the identification of prominent reincarnations. The Qing court exported a Ming-era bureaucratic technology--a lottery, and repurposed it as a divination technology--the Golden Urn. The successful implementation of this new ritual, however, hinged on the astute use of legal cases and the intervention of Tibetan Buddhist elites, who found a home for the Urn within indigenous traditions.East Asian Languages and Civilizations
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Chiu, Man-yee Angela. "Striking the buddhist chord in snowy regions contemporary Chinese poetry on Tibetan culture = Qiao xiang xue yu de fan yin : Zhongguo dang dai Zang wen hua Han yu xin shi yan jiu /." Click to view the E-thesis via HKUTO, 2008. http://sunzi.lib.hku.hk/hkuto/record/B41385251.
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Barnes, Britany Anne. "Educational Services for Tibetan Students with Disabilities in India: A Case Study." BYU ScholarsArchive, 2013. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/4040.
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This case study describes services for students with disabilities at Karuna Home in Bylakuppe, Karnataka, India. Karuna Home is a residential rehabilitation center for students with cognitive or physical disabilities whose parents are Tibetan refugees. The study triangulated data from interviews, observations, and school documents to describe educational policies and procedures, and cultural attitudes toward disability. Results show that the Karuna Home program is undergirded by Buddhist thought and theology regarding care and concern for those in difficult circumstances. The school serves students with a range of mild to severe disabilities and is fully staffed, but teachers and other service providers generally lack training in assessment, curriculum, and instruction for students with disabilities. The most pressing needs were administrators' and teachers' lack of understanding about how to create data-based learning and behavioral objectives to meet students' individual needs, and how to monitor student progress.
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Schapiro, Joshua. "Patrul Rinpoche on Self-Cultivation: The Rhetoric of Nineteenth-Century Tibetan Buddhist Life-Advice." Thesis, Harvard University, 2012. http://dissertations.umi.com/gsas.harvard:10424.
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Buddhist forms of “ethical advice”—instructions that address life’s problems and offer methods for alleviating them—are widespread in Buddhist literary history. This dissertation studies four such works, all written by the nineteenth-century Tibetan teacher Dza Patrul Rinpoche (Rdza dpal sprul O rgyan 'jigs med chos kyi dbang po, 1808-1877). I provide a rhetorical analysis of these compositions and endeavor to show how each aspires to reach outside of itself to act on its respective audience. The compositions do so, I argue, by deploying special literary devices that encourage their audiences to invest themselves, emotionally and imaginatively, in the practices of self-development that the works themselves advocate. The aim of the project is to use Patrul’s writing as a case study to suggest modes of analysis that can offer us insight into the ways in which specially designed modes of writing enable moral self-cultivation. The dissertation specifically addresses the relationship between the recurring themes of singularity, performativity and reflexivity as they appear in Patrul’s advice writings. I argue that these compositions employ discursive devices that play on their audience’s feelings and expectations, aspiring to generate affective responses that range from utter hopelessness to profound relief. They employ expositional strategies designed to compel their audiences to imagine familiar practices anew. Finally, their performative character calls attention to the status of Patrul, the model author, as a singularly capable and skillful teacher. The reflexive nature of Patrul’s works thereby serves to provoke the implied audience’s imagination about “Patrul” the heroically talented teacher. These self-reflexive writings also act as devices for Patrul’s own self-transformation. They are sites of imagination, opportunities for Patrul to enact a self-creation via the medium of advice writing. Patrul’s compositions not only aspire to work on their audience. They, in and of themselves, constitute transformative work for Patrul.
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Miller, Willa Blythe. "Secrets of the Vajra Body| Dngos po'i gnas lugs and the Apotheosis of the Body in the work of Rgyal ba Yang dgon pa." Thesis, Harvard University, 2013. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=3567003.
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This dissertation looks at an attempt in Buddhist history to theorize the role and status of the body as the prime focus of soteriological discourse. It studies a text titled Explanation of the Hidden Vajra Body (Rdo rje lus kyi sbas bshad), composed by Yang dgon pa Rgyal mtshan dpal (1213-1258). This work, drawing on a wide range of canonical tantric Buddhist scriptures and Indic and Tibetan commentaries, lays out in detail a Buddhist theory of embodiment that brings together the worldly realities of the body with their enlightened transformation. This dissertation analyzes the ways Yang dgon pa theorizes the body as the essential ground of the salvific path, and endeavors to provide a thematic guide to his rich and complex discussion of what the body is and does, from a tantric perspective. The thesis parses a key term, dngos po'i gnas lugs, that Yang dgon pa uses as an organizing principle in Explanation of the Hidden. If taken literally, the term means something like "the nature of things" or "the nature of material substance," but Yang dgon pa deployed the term specifically to refer to the nature of the human psychophysical organism, in its ordinary state. By way of this term, Yang dgon pa argues that the body itself makes enlightenment possible. In the course of this thesis, I consider the prior history of this category as it was gradually developed by a series of Bka' brgyud writers until it reached Yang dgon pa. Then, in light of this category, I explore Yang dgon pa's own vision of embodiment. This vision, I argue, reflects an attempt to refocus soteriological attention on the power of the body, over and above the mind, as the salient basis for non-dual knowing. Finally, I reflect upon the lasting contributions of Yang dgon pa's conception of the body to the ongoing exploration of such topics in the history of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist soteriology, as well as upon why some of the more radical elements of his thinking seem to have been eliminated in subsequent generations of his lineage.
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Manevskaia, Ilona. "Blue Buddha : Tibetan medicine in contemporary Russia (St Petersburg and Moscow)." Thesis, University of Manchester, 2012. https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/blue-buddha-tibetan-medicine-in-contemporary-russia-st-petersburg-and-moscow(98d3d4b1-ee53-4ae2-a033-2ff8eefda142).html.
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This thesis focuses on the socio-cultural and anthropological aspects of Tibetan medicine in contemporary Russia and investigates how Tibetan medicine is practised, consumed and represented in two major Russian cities, Moscow and St Petersburg. It is the first case-study of such kind in the context of Russian culture, as the anthropological aspects of Tibetan medicine in contemporary Russia have not yet been the subject of a systematic research. Up till now, scholarly publications on Tibetan medicine in Russia have dealt either with the translation and textual analysis of ancient Tibetan medical treatises or with the history of the first appearance of Tibetan medicine in Buriatia, the traditionally Buddhist region of Russia, and St Petersburg / Petrograd, paying little attention to contemporary developments and, most importantly, ignoring how Tibetan practitioners and their patients are making sense of Tibetan medicine. Based on twenty four interviews with practitioners and consumers of Tibetan medicine in the two Russian capitals, my research fills in this lacuna by looking at personal experiences, perceptions and accounts of my interviewees and exploring how they adapt Tibetan medicine to their skills, beliefs and ideas. My approach to sources is informed by Iurii Lotman's theory of intercultural communication. Although this theory was developed by Lotman for the analyses of the processes of cultural reception of literary texts, it is also relevant, with some modifications, for the analysis of the process of reception of non-textual cultural forms. The analysis of data collected from interviews with doctors and patients and the textual analysis of media, cinematic and literary sources has revealed two dominant trends and representational techniques. The first trend amounts to representing Tibetan medicine as unique and exotic, while the second trend amounts to the conceiving of Tibetan medicine as Russia's indigenous tradition, a part of Russian history, which had been subverted and suppressed in the Soviet period, yet rediscovered post-1991. Thus, we see here a co-existence of the inter-cultural dialogue between Russian culture and an exotic 'other' and the intra-cultural dialogue with a recently rediscovered part of 'self'. Both trends, which, at first glance, might appear to stand in contradiction to each other, sometimes coexist within a single explanatory narrative. The thesis also focuses on inter-cultural interactions between doctors and patients. It is argued that these interactions take place in the context of a noteworthy sociological and cultural phenomenon that the thesis calls 'mutual counter-adaptation'. Mutual counter-adaptation is the key mechanism used, consciously or spontaneously, by Tibetan doctors and their patients in order to facilitate the process of understanding between the parties involved in an inter-cultural dialogue around Tibetan medicine. The thesis finally reveals how this mutual counter-adaption takes place within a wider Russian cultural and media environment which exploits a set of specific symbols and images in order to make Tibetan medicine comprehensible and attractive to the wider Russian public.
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Kosman, Hanna Caspi, and Admiel Kosman. "המסע הרוחני של תֵאוֹס בֵּרנארד: הלאמה המערבי הראשון שפרץ דרך אל הבודהיזם הטיבטי." Universität Potsdam, 2011. http://opus.kobv.de/ubp/volltexte/2011/5319/.
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Clay, Gemma. "Purity, embodiment and the immaterial body : an exploration of Buddhism at a Tibetan monastery in Karnataka, South India." Thesis, Brunel University, 2016. http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/12911.
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This thesis examines the ritual worship within a monastery from the Dzogchen lineage of Tibetan Buddhism situated in Karnataka, South India. During the Cultural Revolution in Tibet, many monasteries were destroyed and the monks fled to re-establish their religious practices in exile in India. As a result, Tibetan Buddhism now has a much wider international participation group. My research looks specifically at the Dzogchen Buddhist doctrinal understanding of purity and its embodiment in the trikaya; the three pure bodies. I consider the rituals practised in the pursuit of the trikaya, and the associated social processes that are thought to enable the embodiment of purity. I explore folk notions of purity and how they shape bodily experience for the multi-national community that congregate together at the monastery. Practitioners of Dzogchen Buddhism believe that the embodiment of purity results in a dissolution of the body and leads to an “immaterial body”. The achievement of the immaterial, however, is wholly dependent on a very physical, material set of rituals. Drawing upon doctrinal and folk notions of purity, I propose a four-part analytical understanding of purity; that purity exits on a continuum, that the Dzogchen lama is both a symbolic and literally pure, that purity is able to be transmitted, and that purity is situational but dependent on the presence of the lama. I support my argument with ethnographic data from the rituals of the khatag exchange [offering of ceremonial scarves], rabnye [the sanctification of statues], and two types of embodied worship: prostrations [full length bows] and kora [circumambulation of sacred sites].
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Peng, J. "An exploration of Tibetan Tantric Buddhism and its art : a potential resource for contemporary spiritual and art practice." Thesis, University College London (University of London), 2013. http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1417088/.
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Tibetan Tantric Buddhism is today considered one of the most important and controversial forms of Asian culture, using a rich and somewhat complicated range of methods and materials. The perception of the ‘mystical’ nature of Tibetan Tantric Buddhist art in the world beyond Tibet has changed and evolved significantly and profoundly over the last three decades. However, contemporary Tibetan artists feel confused about how to develop a Tibetan art tradition within the context of a globalised world. Against this background I am interested in exploring the mysterious nature of Tibetan Tantric Buddhism and its art through grasping its religious values, historical context, and artistic qualities. In so doing I try to investigate questions concerning the cross-cultural analysis and utility of images in Tibetan Tantric Buddhist art, as opposed to political conflicts that often arise in the media now. As an exploration of Tibetan Tantric Buddhist art and its contemporary significance, this research seeks to fulfill three important goals: first, to introduce Tibet’s mystical and magnificent art within its historical and religious contexts to those unfamiliar with either Tibet Buddhism or Tibetan Buddhist art and its cultural background; second, to examine the influences of Tibetan Tantric Buddhist art tradition on some contemporary Tibetan and non-Tibetan artists’ art practice; and third, to embark on combining theoretical research, methods of meditation and my own art practice as a way of exploring the trans-cultural translation of Tibetan Buddhist art in Chinese and Western contexts. The aim is to explore the potential of Tibetan Tantric Buddhist art as elucidating common ground between the meditative mind and the creative mind for engaging in an open conversation of faith, spirituality, religion, and aesthetic experiences in the contemporary period.
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Shajahan, Naomi Sharin. "Tibetan Buddhism and Feminism in an In-between Space: A Creative-Critical Autoethnography in a Non-Western Woman’s Voice." Thesis, Shajahan Naomi, Sharin (2017) Tibetan Buddhism and Feminism in an In-between Space: A Creative-Critical Autoethnography in a Non-Western Woman’s Voice. PhD thesis, Murdoch University, 2017. https://researchrepository.murdoch.edu.au/id/eprint/40739/.
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As a religion and spiritual practice, Tibetan Buddhism is focused on training the mind to achieve inner tranquility, peace, and compassion. On the other hand, the feminist goal is to liberate women from patriarchal oppression. The possibility for exploring new feminist experiences through Tibetan Buddhist practice calls for a deeper conversation between feminism and Tibetan Buddhism on the basis of real life experiences, heterogeneity, particularity, differences and human conditions. The existing scholarly conversation between feminism and Tibetan Buddhism tends to be grounded in the perspective of Western women. Non-Western women like me have remained almost silent in expressing their reality through feminist-Buddhist lenses. My thesis presents the voice, representations, and experience of a non-Western woman through a creative-critical autoethnography. As a non-Western woman I found that without an epistemic disobedience to colonial aspects of knowledge I cannot speak in the academic area where Eurocentric and masculine approaches dominate in producing knowledge. Taking an arts-based and bricolage approach, I have expressed an epistemic disobedience to this hegemony through performative uses of images, story telling, archetypes, “fictocriticism”, and performative writing. Through this alternative paths, I explored how Tibetan Buddhism and feminism interact in an in-between space where the categories, binaries, cultural dichotomy and identities become fluid and non-dual. This is a space of multiplicity and ambivalence, a space that cannot be completely captured or defined; but can be demonstrated, articulated and interpreted. This in-between space gives birth to more open-ended questions, thoughts and possibilities for an enriched ongoing conversation between feminism and Tibetan Buddhism.
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Asplund, Leif. "The Textual History of Kavikumārāvadāna : The relations between the main texts, editions and translations." Doctoral thesis, Stockholms universitet, Institutionen för orientaliska språk, 2013. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-94803.
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This study consists of three main parts. Part I contains introductory matter and a presentation of the manuscript material which contains stories about Kavikumāra, one of the Buddha’s earlier lives, and a rough classification of the material. Part II contains editions and translations of some of the texts containing this story and in addition one text which is the source of a part of one text. Part III contains summaries and analyses of the main texts. Part I begins with a characterization of the avadāna literature genre followed by definitions of some terms used and a characterization of the texts treated in this study. All the known texts containing a story about Kavikumāra and their manuscript sources are enumerated. In Part II editions of some of the texts mentioned in Part I are found. Different types of editions and the relations of those types with my editions are treated. The characteristics of some of the manuscripts are described. The edition of the Tibetan translation of a part of the Sanghabhedavastu of the Mūlasarvāstivādavinaya is used as a check on Gnoli’s edition of the Sanskrit text, which is translated. The central part of this study is the synoptic editions of chapter 26 of Kalpadrumāvadānamālā and a prose paraphrase of the text and their translations. Critical editions of two more Tibetan texts and a diplomatic edition of two Sanskrit texts are also given. In Part III summaries of and comparisons between three of the main texts containing stories about Kavikumāra are made. The structure of the text in Kalpadrumāvadānamālā is described and the sources for the different parts are indicated. This text has been chosen for analysis because it is the earliest text which incorporates all the parts which are found in later texts containing the story. The relations of an extremely fragmentary text with the other texts are treated. A comparison of the stories about Kavikumāra and the Hero Story is made. The conclusion summarizes the main findings.
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Henriques, Ana Cândida Vieira. "Sobre a morte e o morrer: concepções e paralelismos entre o catolicismo romano e o budismo tibetano." Universidade Federal da Paraíba, 2014. http://tede.biblioteca.ufpb.br:8080/handle/tede/4243.
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Religion as an object of study is constituted by providing an endless universe of knowledge, in which the religious phenomenon becomes open to a scientific look. Within this scenario we place the death that comes in its universal aspect. This way, our research is based on a comparative study in which we intend to analyze the structures that comprise the phenomenon of death in two traditions, the Roman Catholicism and the Tibetan Buddhism, both inserted in Christianity and Buddhism, two of the five major religions of the world. We will hold on to expose conceptions and visions of death in the historical development, the ritualization of death and its transformation, the funerary practices that give meaning to death and beliefs in the afterlife in both doctrines. In these two very broad and complex religious systems, we will deal specifically with the topic of death, aiming to analyze them in relation to their distinct and similar elements, from scientific and theological presuppositions, using religious and philosophical conceptions based on reliable sources of both traditions. Concerning to the Roman Catholicism, we will use the Catechism of the Catholic Church and the book of funerals, and referring to the Tibetan Buddhism, we will use as the main source, the Tibetan Book of the Dead. We will use as bibliographic source, the thinking of various scholars about the knowledge of death and its implications for society
A religião enquanto objeto de estudo se constitui por proporcionar um universo inesgotável de conhecimento, onde o fenômeno religioso torna-se passível ao olhar científico. Dentro deste cenário situamos a morte, que surge no seu aspecto universal. Nestes termos, nossa pesquisa se baseia em um estudo comparado, na qual pretendemos analisar as estruturas que comportam o fenômeno da morte em duas tradições, o Catolicismo Romano e o Budismo Tibetano, ambas inseridas no Cristianismo e no Budismo, duas das cinco maiores religiões do mundo. Deter-nos-emos em expor às concepções e visões de morte no devir histórico, a ritualização da morte e sua transformação, as práticas funerárias que conferem sentido à morte e as crenças no pós-morte em ambas as doutrinas. Nestes dois sistemas religiosos tão amplos e complexos, trataremos especificamente da temática da morte, visando analisá-las quanto aos elementos distintos e análogos, a partir de pressupostos científicos e teológicos, utilizando concepções religiosas e filosóficas embasadas em fontes fidedignas de ambas as tradições. Quanto ao Catolicismo Romano, faremos uso do Catecismo da Igreja Católica e do livro das exéquias, e no que se refere ao budismo tibetano, utilizaremos como fonte principal, o Livro Tibetano dos Mortos. Utilizaremos como suporte bibliográfico, o pensamento de vários estudiosos acerca do conhecimento da morte e suas implicações na sociedade
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Brennand, Igorh Gusmão de Goes. "O caminho do dzogchen na tradição bön: uma análise histórica e filosófica." Universidade Federal da Paraíba, 2016. http://tede.biblioteca.ufpb.br:8080/handle/tede/8841.
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This study aims from a hermeneutic point of analysis, a comprehensive aproach about the development of the Bön religion, its interaction with Buddhism through Tibet, and from this meeting, its historical and philosophical developments, centered on the practice of Dzogchen as a possible bridge between Bön and the Nyingma tradition. A survey on the first studies focusing on the Bön religion in the Western academies shows a particular importance, in order to understand the nature of the first historical and philosophical conceptions regarding Bön. The classification of the historical development of Bön in three phases aims at a more pedagogical approach to the understanding of its history. A study of the first centuries from the spreading of Buddhism to Tibet, between VIII and XI centuries A.D., is thought to be particularly important for the understanding of the characteristics that Buddhism would acquire in Tibetan soil, due to the particular nature in which this process was taken. A synthesis of the teachings of the philosophical schools of Mahayana, together with a series of tantric practices, brought from India and Central Asia formed the basis of Tibetan Buddhism. During the first two centuries of the transmission of Buddhism in Tibet, two great masters had a decisive importance in this process, the monk Shantaraksita would be responsible for philosophical synthesis that would be adopted during this period as the basis for the monastic teachings and ordination of monks in Tibet. Next to this philosophical basis, tantric practices were brought, developed and disseminated by the master Padmasambhava, which formed the religious and philosophical basis of Tibetan Buddhism. During this process, the practice of Dzogchen appears as a bridge between the two traditions, Nyingma and Bön, and through a study of its central elements as the mind-base concepts, rigpa and nature-of-mind, we seek to understand the possible similarities and differences between the two traditions.
O presente estudo objetiva uma análise de natureza hermenêutica acerca do desenvolvimento da religião Bön, sua interação com o Budismo através do Tibete, e, a partir deste encontro, seus desdobramentos históricos e filosóficos, centrado na prática do Dzogchen como uma possível ponte entre o Bön e a escola Nyingma. Um levantamento acerca dos primeiros estudos tendo como foco as religiões Bön dentro das academias ocidentais se mostra importante, para podermos compreender a natureza das primeiras concepções históricas e filosóficas à respeito do Bön. A classificação do desenvolvimento histórico do Bön em três fases visa uma abordagem mais pedagógica para a compreensão do mesmo. Um estudo dos primeiros séculos da chegada do Budismo ao Tibete, entre os séculos VIII e XI d.C., se mostra particularmente importante para a compreensão das características próprias que o Budismo iria adquirir em solo tibetano, devido à particular natureza na qual se deu este processo. Uma síntese entre os ensinamentos das escolas filosóficas do Mahayana, aliada à uma série de práticas tântricas, trazidas da Índia e da Ásia Central formaram a base do Budismo tibetano. Durante os dois primeiros séculos da transmissão do Budismo no Tibete, dois grandes mestres tiveram importância decisiva no processo, o monge Shantaraksita seria o responsável pela síntese filosófica que seria adotada durante este período como a base para os ensinamentos monásticos e ordenação dos monges no Tibete. Junto à esta base filosófica, as práticas tântricas trazidas, desenvolvidas e difundidas pelo mestre Padmasambhava formam a base religiosa, e filosófica do Budismo no Tibete. Durante este processo, a prática do Dzogchen aparece como uma ponte entre as duas tradições, Nyingma e Bön, e através de um estudo de seus elementos centrais como os conceitos de mente-base, rigpa e natureza-da-mente, buscamos compreender as possíveis semelhanças e diferenças entre ambas as tradições.
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Terrana, Alec M. "(De)psychologizing Shangri-La: Recognizing and Reconsidering C.G. Jung's Role in the Construction of Tibetan Buddhism in the Western Imagination." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2014. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/pomona_theses/117.
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Popular literature on Tibetan Buddhism often overemphasizes the psychological dimension of the religion's beliefs and practices. This misrepresentative portrayal is largely traceable to the writings of the psychoanalyst C.G. Jung. By employing distinctly psychological terminology and interpretive strategies in his analyses of the Tibetan Book of the Dead and mandala symbolism, Jung helped to establish precedents that were adopted in subsequent analyses of the religion. Imposing a psychological lens on Tibetan Buddhism obscures other essential elements of the tradition, such as cosmology, physiology, and ritualism, thereby silencing the voices of Tibetans in analyses of their own practices. Jung's imposition of his own voice in place of that of Tibetans has commonly been criticized as an act of intellectually imperializing Orientalism that furthers Jung's personal aims of solidifying his system of analytical psychology. This thesis supports and demonstrates the validity of that critique through close analyses of Jung's commentaries on Tibetan Buddhism.
However, Jung’s psychoanalytic perspective and qualifying comments found elsewhere in his corpus ultimately contextualize his commentaries and reveal that his writings on Tibetan Buddhism should not be treated as shedding light on the religion. Rather, they offer an additional lens for understanding analytical psychology. Furthermore, Jung's perspective as a psychoanalyst demonstrates the inherent instability of Orientalist epistemology that attempts to make sense of Eastern cultures on Western terms. Derridean deconstruction of Jung's commentaries reveals that the laws of psychoanalysis subvert those of Orientalism, thus allowing us to undermine the Orientalist episteme in which Jung writes and creates the possibility for appropriating foreign cultural content differently
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Liu, Tannie Carleton University Dissertation Religion. "Ritual and the symbolic function: a biogenetic structural comparison of techniques used in Tibetan Buddhism and the Sun Dance religion." Ottawa, 1995.
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