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The papers in Tibetan Literary Genres, Texts, and Text Types investigate specific Tibetan genres and texts as well as genre classification, transformation, and reception. The text types examined range from oral trickster narratives to songs, offering-rituals, biographies, and modern literature.
YESTERDAY'S TRIBE Reviewed: Kelsang Norbu; MY TWO FATHERS Reviewed: Sangs rgyas bkra shis; SMUG PA and CHU MIG DGU SGRI Reviewed: Konchok Gelek; KLU 'BUM MI RGOD Reviewed: Pad+ma rig 'dzin; PHYUR BA Reviewed: 'Brug mo skyid; TIBET'S BELOVED CHILD; Reviewed: Rinchenkhar; THE RISE OF GÖNPO NAMGYEL; Reviewed: Amy Holmes-Tagchungdarpa; IMAG(IN)ING THE NAGAS Reviewed: Mark Bender; THE DAWN OF TIBET Reviewed: Ivette M. Vargas-O'Bryan and Chelsea McGill; BRIGHT BLUE HIGHLAND BARLEY Reviewed: Limusishiden; A CACTUS OF TEARS and THE TUYUHUN KINGDOM Reviewed: Wu Jing; A CHANGE IN WORLDS Reviewed: Bill Bleisch; TIBETAN LITERARY GENRES Reviewed: Tricia Kehoe; LANGUAGE IN AN AMDO TIBETAN VILLAGE Reviewed: Zoe Tribur; EARLY CARPETS AND TAPESTRIES Reviewed: Juha Komppa; FOUNDING AN EMPIRE 1790-1840 Reviewed: Hilary Howes; CHINESE MUSLIMS Reviewed: Bianca Horlemann; THARLO and THE SACRED ARROW Reviewed: Khashem Gyal; RIVER Reviewed: Phun tshogs dbang rgyal; and AMNYE MACHEN MOUNTAIN CIRCUMAMBULATION Reviewed: Bill Bleisch. Contents Book Reviews 9-15 Yesterday's Tribe Reviewed by Kelsang Norbu 16-38 My Two Fathers Reviewed by Sangs rgyas bkra shis 39-45 Smug pa Reviewed by Konchok Gelek 46-50 Chu mig dgu sgri Reviewed by Konchok Gelek 51-65 Klu 'bum mi rgod Reviewed by Pad+ma rig 'dzin 66-72 Phyur ba Reviewed by 'Brug mo skyid 73-87 Tibet's Beloved Child Reviewed by Rinchenkhar 88-92 The Rise of Gönpo Namgyel in Kham Reviewed by Amy Holmes-Tagchungdarpa 93-97 Imag(in)ing the Nagas Reviewed by Mark Bender 98-104 The Dawn of Tibet Reviewed by Ivette M. Vargas-O'Bryan 105-110 The Dawn of Tibet Reviewed by Chelsea McGill 111-121 Bright Blue Highland Barley Reviewed by Limusishiden 122-131 A Cactus of Tears and The Tuyuhun Kingdom Reviewed by Wu Jing 132-144 A Change in Worlds on the Sino-Tibetan Borderlands Reviewed by Bill Bleisch 145-149 Tibetan Literary Genres, Texts, and Text Types Reviewed by Tricia Kehoe 150-158 Language Variation and Change in an Amdo Tibetan Village: Gender, Education and Resistance Reviewed by Zoe Tribur 159-171 Early Carpets and Tapestries on the Eastern Silk Road Reviewed by Juha Komppa 172-180 Founding an Empire on India's North-Eastern Frontiers 1790-1840 Reviewed by Hilary Howes 181-185 Chinese Muslims and the Global Ummah Reviewed by Bianca Horlemann Film Reviews 187-209 Tharlo and The Sacred Arrow Reviewed by Khashem Gyal 210-220 River Reviewed by Phun tshogs dbang rgyal 221-224 Amnye Machen Mountain Circumambulation Reviewed by Bill Bleisch
Tibetan Literature addresses the immense variety of Tibet's literary heritage. An introductory essay by the editors attempts to assess the overall nature of 'literature' in Tibet and to understand some of the ways in which it may be analyzed into genres. The remainder of the book contains articles by nearly thirty scholars from America, Europe, and Asia—each of whom addresses an important genre of Tibetan literature. These articles are distributed among eight major rubrics: two on history and biography, six on canonical and quasi-canonical texts, four on philosophical literature, four on literature on the paths, four on ritual, four on literary arts, four on non-literary arts and sciences, and two on guidebooks and reference works.
The essays collected in The Selfless Ego propose an innovative approach to one of the most fascinating aspects of Tibetan literature: life writing. Departing from past schemes of interpretation, this book addresses issues of literary theory and identity construction, eluding the strictures imposed by the adoption of the hagiographical master narrative as synonymous with the genre. The book is divided into two parts. Ideally conceived as an 'introduction' to traditional forms of life writing as expressed in Buddhist milieus, Part I. Memory and Imagination in Tibetan Hagiographical Writing centres on the inner tensions between literary convention and self-expression that permeate indigenous hagiographies, mystical songs, records of teachings, and autobiographies. Part II: Conjuring Tibetan Lives explores the most unconventional traits of the genre, sifting through the narrative configuration of Tibetan biographical writings as 'liberation stories' to unearth those fragments of life that compose an individual’s multifaceted existence. This volume is the first to approach Tibetan life writing from a literary and narratological perspective, encompassing a wide range of disciplines, themes, media, and historical periods, and thus opening new and vibrant areas of research to future scholarship across the Humanities. The chapters in this book were originally published as two special issues of Life Writing.
Ge bcags (Gebchak) dgon pa, founded in 1892 in Nang chen, Khams (Qinghai Province, PRC), is still active today with around 250 nuns practising intensive Vajrayāna rituals, yogas and meditation. The nuns’ knowledge goal is embodied, nonconceptual awareness, yet they spend many hours daily reading texts as part of their training. By investigating the whole context of the nuns’ lifeworld and ways of learning, this ethnography questions the role of reading in Ge bcags’ tacit knowledge tradition. At a time when Tibetan learning practices are quickly modernising, this book demonstrates a Buddhist tradition whose textual knowledge is not exactly literal, but cultivated through continuous, whole person learning.
Knowledge and Context in Tibetan Medicine is a collection of essays dedicated to the description and interpretation of Tibetan medical knowledge across different historical, cultural, and intellectual contexts.
Winner, 2024 E. Gene Smith Inner Asia Book Prize, Association for Asian Studies Honorable Mention, 2023 Joseph Levenson Prize Post-1900, Association for Asian Studies In the aftermath of the cataclysmic Maoist period, three Tibetan Buddhist scholars living and working in the People’s Republic of China became intellectual heroes. Renowned as the “Three Polymaths,” Tséten Zhabdrung (1910–1985), Mugé Samten (1914–1993), and Dungkar Lozang Trinlé (1927–1997) earned this symbolic title for their efforts to keep the lamp of the Dharma lit even in the darkest hour of Tibetan history. Lineages of the Literary reveals how the Three Polymaths negotiated the political tides of the twentieth century, shedding new light on Sino-Tibetan relations and Buddhism during this turbulent era. Nicole Willock explores their contributions to reviving Tibetan Buddhism, expanding Tibetan literary arts, and pioneering Tibetan studies as an academic discipline. Her sophisticated reading of Tibetan-language sources vivifies the capacious literary world of the Three Polymaths, including autobiography, Buddhist philosophy, poetic theory, and historiography. Whereas prevailing state-centric accounts place Tibetan religious figures in China in one of two roles, collaborator or resistance fighter, Willock shows how the Three Polymaths offer an alternative model of agency. She illuminates how they by turns safeguarded, taught, and celebrated Tibetan Buddhist knowledge, practices, and institutions after their near destruction during the Cultural Revolution. An interdisciplinary work spanning religious studies, history, literary studies, and social theory, Lineages of the Literary offers new insight into the categories of religion and the secular, the role of Tibetan Buddhist leaders in modern China, and the contested ground of Tibet.
With its analytic focus on the cultural production by Tibetans-in-exile, this volume examines contemporary Tibetan fiction, poetry, music, art, cinema, pamphlets, testimony, and memoir. The twelve case studies highlight the themes of Tibetans’ self-representation, politicized national consciousness, religious and cultural heritages, and resistance to the forces of colonization. This book demonstrates how Tibetan cultural narratives adjust to intercultural influences and ongoing social and political struggles in exile.
This book examines the life of the sixteenth Karmapa and his contributions to the preservation and transmission of Tibetan Buddhism in exile. The author analyzes the life and activity of the Karmapa through the lens of cross-cultural interaction between Buddhism and the West with a particular focus on Asian agency.
The BuddhistRoad project has been creating a new framework to understand the dynamics of cultural encounter and religious transfer across premodern Eastern Central Asia. This framework includes a new focus on the complex interactions between Buddhism and non-Buddhist traditions and a deepening of the traditional focus on Buddhist doctrines between the 6th and 14th centuries, as Buddhism continued to spread along an ancient, local political-economic-cultural system of exchange, often referred to as the Silk Roads. This volume brings together world renowned experts to discuss these issues including Buddhism and Christianity, Islam, Daoism, Manichaeism, local indigenous traditions, Tantra etc. Contributors include: Daniel Berounský, Michal Biran, Max Deeg, Lewis Doney, Mélodie Doumy, Meghan Howard Masang, Yukiyo Kasai, Diego Loukota†, Carmen Meinert, Sam van Schaik, Henrik H. Sørensen, and Jens Wilkens.
