Tibet

This article deals with an important festival in Tibet dedicated to the future Buddha Maitreya. It was held on three days in summer when three giant thangkas showing Buddhas Amitābha, Śākyamuni and Maitreya were put on public display. Introduced in the seventeenth century, it became a defining feature of the monastic life in the Dge lugs monastery of Bkra shis lhun po, the seat of the Panchen Lamas. It attained a supra-regional importance, which even extended to Mongolia. Based on a number of textual sources, this essay examines various aspects of this festival, how it was funded, who participated, and which rituals and ceremonies were conducted. It also analyses the history and iconography of the three giant textile thangkas by discussing in detail the contributions made during the reign of each respective Panchen Lama from the past to the present. In sum, the article argues that this festival has to be seen in the context of a special bond the Dge lugs school of Tibetan Buddhism maintained to have with the future Buddha Maitreya

The evolutionary divergence of a single species into two has never been directly observed in nature, primarily because speciation can take a long time to occur. A ring species, in which a chain of intergrading populations encircles a barrier and the terminal forms coexist without interbreeding, provides a situation in which variation in space can be used to infer variation in time. Here we reconstruct the pathway to speciation between two reproductively isolated forms of greenish warbler (Phylloscopus trochiloides). These two taxa do not interbreed in central Siberia but are connected by a long chain of intergrading populations encircling the Tibetan Plateau to the south. Molecular data and climatic history imply that the reproductively isolated taxa came into contact following expansions northward around the western and eastern sides of the plateau. Parallel selection pressures for increased song complexity during the northward expansions have been accompanied by divergence in song...

In a collective action to reclaim the label of the Eastern Queendom—a legendary matriarchal kingdom—the villagers in Suopo township, Danba county, Sichuan take advantage of the media and a newly founded tourism association to press their claims by highlighting their political marginality in Danba and condemning the local state for its favoritism and partisanship. In consequence, a struggle over the “ownership” of the queendom has both manifested and generated the reconfiguration of grassroots politics on this part of the Sino-Tibetan border: exacerbated society-state relations, diversified societal and state sectors, and enhanced political participation of both elites and villagers. The locals are simultaneously engaged in an identity politics to define their manifold identities along the lines of Chinese citizenship, inter-ethnic and intra-ethnic sameness and differences, regional/local ties, professional/peasant status, marginality/majority perceptions, and (other) political stances such as loyalty to the party-state.

Источник: https://www.lotsawahouse.org/tibetan-masters/mipham/satirical-advice-four-schools . Перевод с тибетского на английский: Adam Pearcey, Rigpa Translations, 2005, с бесценной помощью Khenpo Dorje. Перевод с английского: Игорь Калиберда.

How does the rampant industrialization, the needs of the growing population in Nepal, and other contributing factors affect the water sources and environments that support these fresh water reserves? What policies and regulations are being made, if any, to mitigate the pollution and deterioration of water reserves in Nepal?

Although anecdotally associated with local bears (Ursus arctos and U. thibetanus), the exact identity of 'hominid'-like creatures important to folklore and mythology in the Tibetan Plateau-Himalaya region is still surrounded by mystery. Recently, two purported yeti samples from the Himalayas showed genetic affinity with an ancient polar bear, suggesting they may be from previously unrecognized, possibly hybrid, bear species, but this preliminary finding has been under question. We conducted a comprehensive genetic survey of field-collected and museum specimens to explore their identity and ultimately infer the evolutionary history of bears in the region. Phylogenetic analyses of mitochondrial DNA sequences determined clade affinities of the purported yeti samples in this study, strongly supporting the biological basis of the yeti legend to be local, extant bears. Complete mitochondrial genomes were assembled for Himalayan brown bear (U. a. isabellinus) and black bear (U. t. ...

"This biography of the Dalai Lama—blessed by His Holiness himself—is the most authentic and intimate profile of the world’s greatest living spiritual figure. Tenzin Geyche Tethong, a close aide of His Holiness for forty years who became family, offers readers unprecedented access to the Dalai Lama in this beautifully illustrated book. The Dalai Lama’s youngest brother, Ngari Rinpoche Tenzin Choegyal, who was only 12 years old when he accompanied His Holiness on his dangerous 1959 escape to India, is a personal friend of Tethong and the mentor for this book project. As “elders” to the Tibetan community in exile, these men have come together to tell the true story of His Holiness—their brother, friend, and leader.

Featuring previously unpublished photographs, as well as interviews and memories of those closest to him, this book renders unparalleled insights into the Dalai Lama’s experiences as the preeminent leader of Tibet, and the wealth of his compassion and gentle humor in the face of the ongoing conflict. This is in no small part due to Tethong and Ngari Rinpoche’s unique perspectives on many sensitive issues.

Richly compelling, His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama: An Illustrated Biography is a stunning visual celebration of the Dalai Lama, sketching a memorable portrait of an icon and a cause that have won the attention and hearts of billions across the world."

This article focuses on a specific iconography of the dGe lugs pa school. This iconography is known by the name of tshogs zhing (a spiritual field for the accumulation of merits), here analyzed in its 18 th century form. The images described here are an essential tool for the religious practice prescribed by the dgGe lugs pa's bla ma mchod pa tantric literature. As an esoteric literature, the bla ma mchod pa is based on an "essential instruction" (man ngag) which gathers teachings on the main tantras of the so called niruttara classes. This paper will discuss the oldest iconography of the bla ma mchod pa tshogs zhing, directly related to the root text of the first Paṇ chen Bla ma Blo bzang Chos kyi rgyal mtshan (1567-1662). Among the many images of tshogs zhing I have analyzed 1-almost identical in the representation of this specific subject-I present here a xylograph (Fig. 2) and a thang ka (Fig. 1). The xylograph, realized in the style of the 18 th century's woodblocks of sNar thang, 2 is an uncatalogued item of the Tucci Tibetan Collection (IsIAO Library, Rome). The thang ka is property of a Tibetan private citizen living now in Bodhgaya, in the Indian state of Bihar. 3 Within the dGe lugs pa order, the bla ma mchod pa literature stems from essential tantric and esoteric instructions (man ngag) related to the guru devotion liturgies and practices prescribed by guruyoga literature. 4 In order to receive these particular man 1 Research has been done in the dGe lugs pa monasteries of Ladakh, McLeod Ganj and the Kathmandu Valley. Further sources of comparison were several catalogues on Tibetan art (see below) and the web site www.himalayanart.org. As primary sources, I also studied and translated two texts, Sangs rgyas ye shes's Bla ma mchod pa'i cho ga dngos grub kun 'byung, and Ye shes rgyal mtshan's Bla ma lha'i rnal 'byor gyi khrid dmigs kyi bsdus don snyan rgyud gter mdzod 'byed pa'i lde mig (see the bibliography for complete references). 2 A monastery located 15 km west of Shigatse, in gTsang (Central Tibet), which is famous as a printery. 3 I wish to thank the former President of IsIAO, the late Professor Gherardo Gnoli, and Mr. Thinlay Nepali for allowing me to study and show the xylograph and the thang ka presented here. 4 Bla ma mchod pa translates the Sanskrit term gurupūjā. Concerning the meaning of mchod pa, see Makransky 1996.

This paper uses Deleuze and Guattari’s concept of ‘minor’ to examine Pema Tseden’s second full-length feature film, The Search. Expanding on Deleuze’s definition of minor cinema, this paper shows how The Search, through various strategies and narrative devices, deconstructs the myth of a pre-existing Tibetan people, and builds upon individual and fragmented narratives to create a new collective subjectivity, thus opening the way for a new understanding of Tibet. This case study demonstrates how Pema Tseden’s in-between position (between languages, cultures and geographical areas) permits him to develop a cinema that gives space for Tibetans to become, giving the viewer a rare insight into contemporary Tibet.

This article analyzes the transformation of Lhasa's Chinese community from the embodiment of an expansionist power in the early eighteenth century to the orphan of a fallen regime after the Qing Empire's demise in 1911. Throughout the imperial era, this remote Chinese enclave represented Qing authority in Tibet and remained under the metropole's strong political and social influence. Its members intermarried with the locals and adopted many Tibetan cultural traits. During the years surrounding the 1911 Xinhai Revolution, this community played a significant role in a series of interconnected political and ethnic confrontations that gave birth to the two antagonistic national bodies of Tibet and China. The community's history and experiences challenge not only the academic assessment that Tibet's Chinese population had fully assimilated into Tibetan society by the twentieth century but also the widespread image of pre-1951 Lhasa as a harmonious town of peaceful ethnic coexistence.

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https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0097700420969923?journalCode=mcxa

https://www.tibshelf.org/theguidebooktothehiddenlandofpemoko
The Guidebook to the Hidden Land of Pemoko is a revealed treasure text included in the Jatson Nyinpo’s Embodiment of the Precious Ones, the Konchok Chidu. It is a prediction text about the future degenerate times and purportedly the first guidebook to the hidden land of Pemoko.

Violence occupies a paradoxical place in Tibetan tantric Buddhism. Although the ethical imperative of not harming beings is absolutely central, there is also a darker face to tantric ritual activity, a face of power and violence: the repelling and destruction of harmful agents. An entire ritual machinery is deployed to ward off or kill hostile demons, or sometimes "enemies" of indeterminate nature — agressive magic is not absent. Wrathful protective deities are summoned to kill, to beat, to reduce to pieces... How can we understand that this violent modality can occupy quite an important place in certain Buddhist contexts?

The question is all the more intriguing that there exists a type of Tibetan religious specialist that (beyond a substantial overlap with the monk in terms of religious profile and activity) is quite strongly associated with this ethically problematic side of ritual activity: the ngakpa (sngags-pa), or tantrist. As opposed to the monk, this specialist of tantric rituals does not take monastic vows, and lives as a householder. Tantrists typically constitute patrilineal family lineages, with descent, not renunciation, as a key structuring feature of their socioreligious universe. How are we to understand that a Buddhist religious specialist is associated with a specialization in violent rituals? In order to answer this question, this book takes us to a village community of tantrists situated in the Himalayan borderlands of the Tibetan cultural area, in a high valley of northern Nepal. The anthropological examination of these specialists and their society, of their rituals and their moral dilemmas, and of the contrasts between tantrists and their monastic counterparts, enables to identify elements of larger (social, religious, moral) coherence underlying the association of tantrists with rituals of violence. This substantial contribution to the anthropology of Tibetan Buddhism brings new insights to our thinking on ritual violence and exorcism. Through the analysis of the duality of the monk and the tantrist, and of the associated polarity of moral purity vs. ritual power, it also contributes to the anthropology of complex religious fields marked by the coexistence of different forms of religious specialization. Finally, it also engages in a sustained reflection on a properly anthropological approach to the textual component (such as the ritual manuals) of this local religious sphere.

Note:
- The attached PDF contains the front matter, Introduction, Index and Table of Contents.
- The book's illustrations are in black and white, but the color plates can be downloaded here: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/320225/Sihle_Rituels_Color-Plates.pdf
- The publisher's webpage for book orders is here: http://www.brepols.net/Pages/ShowProduct.aspx?prod_id=IS-9782503544700-1

Wushu ed arte rupestre cinese.
Appunti di studio delle evidenze artistico-rupestri cinesi relazionabili alla storia ed alle iconografie del Wushu.

Questa raccolta di appunti è inerente allo studio delle evidenze rupestri dei siti della Cina che possono essere messe in relazione con la storia antica del 武术Wushu – arti marziali, in particolare con alcune iconografie e pratiche associabili alle arti marziali cinesi, alla storia ed alla cultura del Wushu.
Dopo acluni appunti focalizzati sullo studio delle nozioni, della terminologia e degli aspetti fondamentali del Wushu, il focus della ricerca verte sull'analisi dei principali aspetti e della bibliografia dedicata alla sconfinata materia di ricerca quale l’arte rupestre cinese, dove per “cinese” s'intende un vasto sistema ecologico-culturale caratterizzato da open e globular clusters  di nicchie culturali ed ambientali diffuso nei territori coincidenti e limitrofi alle regioni ed alle provincie della Cina attuale, che sono anche il criterio di organizzazione del materiale di studio presentato come excursus dei maggiori siti di arte rupestre soffermandosi sulle raffigurazioni che posso essere ritenute pertinenti all'ambito dell’analisi storica del Wushu.
A queste evidenze è talvolta associata un’ulteriore documentazione ed in alcuni casi l’approfondimento di peculiari aspetti di manufatti e cultura materiale proveniente dagli scavi archeologici.
Altra peculiarità ivi annottata e presentata è l’analisi nelle sue pertinenze al Wushu della tradizione manoscritta 东巴Dongba propria della minoranza etnica 纳西Naxi (regione di 丽江Lijiang, provincia dello 云南Yunnan) interpretata come ramo espressivo di un filone della pittografia direttamente relazionabile con l’arte rupestre.
Nelle conclusioni si tenta di sketchare un quadro riassuntivo di quanto sembra possibile evincere dalle fonti analizzate.

Until relatively recently, research into minority languages and translation has been “largely invisible” in translation studies (Cronin 2003: 153). Of the studies that have been made, emphasis has been mainly on Western and European countries, with very little work done in Asian contexts such as China. And although there are 55 different minority languages in China, studies of translation in minority communities there are thus far non-existent. This paper examines the situation of Tibet, a colony of the People’s Republic of China for more than 50 years. The paper first defines Tibetan as a minor language using a number of critical approaches, then discusses the ways in which the Tibetan language has been altered by the Chinese authorities. The subsequent impoverishment of the language due to its minority status, as well as the fact that many Tibetans are abandoning their mother tongue, are presented. Three areas of translation activity in Tibet – pragmatic translation, literature, and the Internet – are analyzed to determine what is translated, by whom, and in what direction translations are made. This study aims to contribute to our understanding of minority communities and the pressures placed on them to translate for, or be translated by, the dominant power.

Tibet har givet næring til mange fantasier om et afsidesliggende, fredeligt og ophøjet Shangri-la. Det er især den kultur og filosofi (og i dag livsstil), som associeres med den tibetanske buddhisme, der har haft magnetisk tiltrækningskraft på eventyrere, missionærer, skattejægere, dharma bums – og videnskabsfolk. I hendes undersøgelse af de historiske dansk-tibetanske forbindelser, har Tibetolog Trine Brox gennemgået Nationalmuseets Tibet-arkiver og talt med både tibetanske og danske fagfæller for at genfortælle Tibetologistudiet ”skabelsesberetning.” Tibetologistudiets historie er fyldt med fantastiske beretninger og blandt disse er H.K.H. Prins Peter af Grækenland og til Danmark’s store arbejde for at hjemskaffe tibetanske manuskripter og etnografika.

https://www.tibshelf.org/rigpai-reltri
Rigpai Reltri was the younger son of Do Khyentse Yeshe Dorje. He was recognized as the reincarnation of Jigme Lingpa's son, Jigme Nyinche Wozer, and became a well-respected guru in Minyak during his time. Rigpai Reltri was a lineage holder of his father's treasure cycle of The Heart Essence of the Exceeding Secret Ḍākinī, or the Yangsang Khandro Tugtik, containing The Self-Liberation of Fixation, or Dzinpa Rangdrol. He entrusted this lineage to his younger son Do Rinpoche Gyepa Dorje.

This article, part of a special issue on pedagogy and performance in Tibetan Buddhism, explores two closely-related yet apparently opposite Tibetan repertoires of virtuoso Buddhist mastery as sites of performative pedagogy. One of these modes of Buddhist mastery is connected with the ideal virtuoso figure of the yogic siddha, or druptop (Tib. grub thob), and with remarkable manifestations of yogic prowess (what are sometimes called yogic " miracles " in English). The other mode is connected with the ideal of renunciation, and the Tibetan Buddhist virtuoso figure of the renunciant hermit-wanderer, or chatralwa (Tib. bya bral ba). In Indic and Tibetan literature, both of these repertoires of Buddhist mastery are classically associated with a bodhisattva's teaching activity in the world, and with a bodhisattva's use of many kinds of skillful means (Skt. up¯ aya; Tib. thabs) to develop individuals on the Buddhist path. (A bodhisattva, in Mahayana Buddhist terms, is someone who has vowed to achieve Buddhahood to benefit others.) I explore how these related modes of virtuoso pedagogical performance emerge in oral and textual life stories of two notable twentieth-century Tibetan masters. These modes of virtuoso Buddhist pedagogy and Tibetan ways of talking about them challenge our understandings of what it means to " perform " and what it means to " renounce, " with renunciation emerging as a guarantor of the genuineness of someone's altruism.

At the end of the 19th century, Western medicine was introduced into Tibet, Sikkim and Bhutan by British imperial medical officers and Christian medical missionaries. Their Footprints Remain: Biomedical Beginnings Across the Indo-Tibetan Frontier uses archival sources, personal letters, diaries, and oral sources to tell the fascinating story of how the new medical system became imbedded in the Himalayas. It identifies the individuals involved, including the local employees of the British, describes how the new system spread, and discusses how it was received by the local people of this region, whose own medical practices were based on an entirely different understanding of the world. It will appeal to everyone with an interest in medical history and anthropology, or the Himalayan world.

Alex McKay has a PhD in South Asian History from the School of Oriental and African Studies (London University). A former research fellow at SOAS and the Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine at University College London, he is an affiliated fellow at the International Institute for Asian Studies in Leiden. His research centres the history and culture of Tibet and the Indian Himalayas, particularly during the British colonial period.

An analysis based on "Harmonizing the Statements on Empowerment by the Accomplished Masters Nāropa and Maitrīpa" (Mkhas grub nā ro mai tri dbang gi bzhed pa mthun par grub pa) by the Tibetan master of the Kagyü (Bka’ brgyud) School Shamar Chökyi Drakpa Yeshé (Zhwa dmar 04 chos kyi grags pa ye shes, 1453–1524)

This collective volume is the fourth in an ongoing series on key concepts in the archaeology and anthropology of religion. It offers a summary introduction about the history and current state of pilgrimage studies in anthropological and archaeological research, with a view to offering an updated set of critical insights to a broad international audience. Having said that, the main object of this series is to serve as a critical update on current trends and debates in relation to a Spanish-speaking readership of students and scholars dedicated to anthropology and archaeology. However the case studies that we offer are based on original (i.e. not previously published) research by Mexico-based colleagues working across a wide spectrum of global culture regions, and should therefore be of interest to other international readers. The studies in this tome range across North America (Mexico and the USA), Melanesia, East Asia (China and Tibet), the Berber regions of Morocco, and Southern Africa.