Thesis Chapters by Varvara Chatzisavva
International Journal of Buddhist Thought & Culture: Buddhist Insights Into the Great Matter of Death, 2023
The continuity and reformulations of archaic Tibetan mortuary practices and postmortem concepts i... more The continuity and reformulations of archaic Tibetan mortuary practices and postmortem concepts in Tibetan Buddhism is attested in Tibetan historical, cultural, and archaeological evidence. With Tibet under the People’s Republic of China (PRC), the present and future of the Tibetan Buddhist funerary tradition cannot be assessed in isolation from the Funeral Reform, the civil governance of death, and the regularization and sinicization of Tibetan Buddhism by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) that directs them in Tibet. These policies increasingly threaten the plurality of the Tibetan funerary tradition with standardization already witnessed in other Buddhist societies. The power over death that Tibetan Buddhism still exemplifies is jeopardized by the systematic dismantling of the networks (linguistic, cultural, social, political, environmental etc.) that traditionally nurtured it. On the other hand, this power over death, as represented by Tibetan adepts and the Rainbow Body, is, firstly, entirely missing in the early Western narratives; secondly, scholars may tend to attribute it to a significant historic Christian influence on Tibetan Buddhism; and, thirdly, remains so far unmanifest and unaccommodated outside Tibet. Eventually, forced into the straitjacket of Western and Chinese secularism, Tibetan Buddhism is at risk of becoming yet another “funeral Buddhism,” an “empty ritual” with no role models keeping the tradition alive and legitimizing enlightenment with their mastery over death—an irretrievable loss not only to Buddhism but to humanity as a whole.
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Papers by Varvara Chatzisavva
Revue d’Etudes Tibétaines, 2024
Biography
https://www.digitalhimalaya.com/collections/journals/ret/index.php?selection=4
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Conference Presentations by Varvara Chatzisavva
International Seminar of Young Tibetologists 2024, 2024
How is Tibetan Buddhist material culture being sinicized and how sinicization impacts the preserv... more How is Tibetan Buddhist material culture being sinicized and how sinicization impacts the preservation of Tibetan Buddhist cultural identity and religious practices? How do Chinese cultural norms and aesthetics modify Tibetan Buddhist material culture?
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Thesis Chapters by Varvara Chatzisavva
Papers by Varvara Chatzisavva
Conference Presentations by Varvara Chatzisavva