Yuewei Wang

The Nyingma Byang gter tradition provides the crucial piece of information that the mountain god Gnyan chen Thang lha and the Buddhist master Padmasambhava met three times, and that Thang lha took three vows in front of the Master. Each vow is distinct in content and brings a new identity to Thang lha as a Buddhist god. Thang lha’s three vows reveal the gradual consolidation of his Buddhist status.

A number of works criticize the imagined Tibet with orientalism as the norm deconstructing people's self-centralism attitudes behind the Shangri-la myth. But after the deconstruction, how to build a more just and sensible way to understand others? Inter-subjectivity can be seen as an ideal epistemology. And in the process of interaction between Tibetan Buddhism and western psychology, the inter-subjectivity model has been displayed.

Literature had been used as a means of therapy both individually and socially long before the birth of modern psychology with its psychological analysis. Owing to the individual psychological crisis and social conflicts of contemporary world,literature's function of diagnosis and treatment is increasingly important. “New Age Movement” introducing other cultures to be therapy for the west society sets an example for contemporary therapy practice.

The structure of Mandala, the theory about “self”in Tibetan Buddhism, and the methodology of tantric practice, deeply influenced the theories and practices of Jung's Analytical Psychology. While for Transpersonal Psychology, the description about levels of consciousness in Tantric theory, sparked Ken Wilber to build his Spectrum of Consciousness theory and his definition towards “ The Great Spirit”. At the same time, the global development of Tibetan Buddhism and its interaction with modern psychology, generated the modern form of Tibetan Buddhism, which presents three main features: Knowledge Integration, Global Spreading, Healing and Spiritual Practicing Orientation.

This article will use the Gifts Exchange theory and t he Interpretivism approach for the Economics of Religion to argue that the reciprocity between temples and villages is the common relationshi p among the small scale of societies in Tibet. And this reciproci ty system is not only the ethics of Buddhism economics but also offering an abundant knowledge resource for the ways to understand different economics ethics in religious study.

This study delves into the construction of the identity of the deity Gnyan chen Thang lha across three major Tibetan religious systems: Pagan Religion, Tibetan Buddhism, and the Bon tradition. It takes Thang lha as a lens to understand the interconnections and disparities amongst these distinct Tibetan religious entities. In early texts embodying the early Tibetan worldview, Thang lha is portrayed either as a symbolic representation of the local king or as having an agnatic kinship with early Tibetan monarchs. Buddhist scriptures present Thang lha as the Buddhist protector, the sku lha associated with the Dharma Kings, and a treasure guardian. Bonpo texts depict Thang lha as a key member of the Yum sras lnga, a group of significant protectors of Bonpo treasures. This transformation entails the rewriting of the identities of mountain gods, a process marked by the gradual diminishing of local deities’ influence and their eventual subordination to Buddhist deities.