Download or read book Visions of Community in the Post Roman World written by Walter Pohl and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-03-03 with total page 639 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume looks at 'visions of community' in a comparative perspective, from Late Antiquity to the dawning of the age of crusades. It addresses the question of why and how distinctive new political cultures developed after the disintegration of the Roman World, and to what degree their differences had already emerged in the first post-Roman centuries. The Latin West, Orthodox Byzantium and its Slavic periphery, and the Islamic world each retained different parts of the Graeco-Roman heritage, while introducing new elements. For instance, ethnicity became a legitimizing element of rulership in the West, remained a structural element of the imperial periphery in Byzantium, and contributed to the inner dynamic of Islamic states without becoming a resource of political integration. Similarly, the political role of religion also differed between the emerging post-Roman worlds. It is surprising that little systematic research has been done in these fields so far. The 32 contributions to the volume explore this new line of research and look at different aspects of the process, with leading western Medievalists, Byzantinists and Islamicists covering a wide range of pertinent topics. At a closer look, some of the apparent differences between the West and the Islamic world seem less distinctive, and the inner variety of all post-Roman societies becomes more marked. At the same time, new variations in the discourse of community and the practice of power emerge. Anybody interested in the development of the post-Roman Mediterranean, but also in the relationship between the Islamic World and the West, will gain new insights from these studies on the political role of ethnicity and religion in the post-Roman Mediterranean.
Download or read book Civilization at the Foot of Mount Sham po written by Guntram Hazod and published by Austrian Academy of Sciences Press. This book was released on 2000 with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Tibetan Renaissance written by Ronald M. Davidson and published by Motilal Banarsidass Publishe. This book was released on 2008 with total page 620 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How did a society on the edge of collapse and dominated by wandering bands of armed men give way to a vibrant Buddhist culture, led by yogins and scholars? Ronald M. Davidson explores how the translation and spread of esoteric Buddhist texts dramatically shaped Tibetan society and led to its rise as the center of Buddhist culture throughout Asia, replacing India as the perceived source of religious ideology and tradition. During the Tibetan Renaissance (950-1200 C.E.), monks and yogins translated an enormous number of Indian Buddhist texts. They employed the evolving literature and practices of esoteric Buddhism as the basis to reconstruct Tibetan religious, cultural, and political institutions. Many translators achieved the de facto status of feudal lords and while not always loyal to their Buddhist vows, these figures helped solidify political power in the hands of religious authorities and began a process that led to the Dalai Lama's theocracy. Davidson's vivid portraits of the monks, priests, popular preachers, yogins, and aristocratic clans who changed Tibetan society and culture further enhance his perspectives on the tensions and transformations that characterized medieval Tibet.
Download or read book Spirit mediums Sacred Mountains and Related Bon Textual Traditions in Upper Tibet written by John Bellezza and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2005-07-01 with total page 581 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Unique original material on the phenomenon of the spirit-mediums of Upper Tibet, the men and women who channel the gods. With extensive interviews with members of this living tradition.
Download or read book The Taming of the Demons written by Jacob P. Dalton and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2011-06-28 with total page 325 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Taming of the Demons examines mythic and ritual themes of violence, demon taming, and blood sacrifice in Tibetan Buddhism. Taking as its starting point Tibet's so-called age of fragmentation (842 to 986 C.E.), the book draws on previously unstudied manuscripts discovered in the "library cave" near Dunhuang, on the old Silk Road. These ancient documents, it argues, demonstrate how this purportedly inactive period in Tibetan history was in fact crucial to the Tibetan assimilation of Buddhism, and particularly to the spread of violent themes from tantric Buddhism into Tibet at the local and the popular levels. Having shed light on this "dark age" of Tibetan history, the second half of the book turns to how, from the late tenth century onward, the period came to play a vital symbolic role in Tibet, as a violent historical "other" against which the Tibetan Buddhist tradition defined itself. -- Georges Dreyfus
Download or read book The Yogin and the Madman written by Andrew Quintman and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2013-11-12 with total page 332 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tibetan biographers began writing Jetsun Milarepa’s (1052–1135) life story shortly after his death, initiating a literary tradition that turned the poet and saint into a model of virtuosic Buddhist practice throughout the Himalayan world. Andrew Quintman traces this history and its innovations in narrative and aesthetic representation across four centuries, culminating in a detailed analysis of the genre’s most famous example, composed in 1488 by Tsangnyön Heruka, or the “Madman of Western Tibet.” Quintman imagines these works as a kind of physical body supplanting the yogin’s corporeal relics.
Download or read book The Telengits of Southern Siberia written by Agnieszka Halemba and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2006-04-18 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a new and engaging study, Halemba explores the religion and world outlook of the Telengits of Altai. The book provides an account of the Altai, its peoples, clans and political structures, focusing particularly on on the Telengits, whilst also considering the different elements of religious belief exhibited among these native peoples. Paradoxically, as the demand for national recognition grows among such people, and with it the need for more formal state structures, built around the nation, religion too begins to become formalized, and loses its natural, all-pervasive character. With the Telengits, whose natural religion includes elements of Buddhism, this takes the form of a debate as to whether the state religion of their polity is to be Buddhism or, contrary to the character of shamanism, a formal, structured, fixed shamanism. This is a comprehensive anthropological account of the contemporary religious life of the Telengits, holding important implications for wider debates in sociology and politics.
Download or read book When a Woman Becomes a Religious Dynasty written by Hildegard Diemberger and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2007 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the fifteenth century, the princess Chokyi Dronma was told by leading spiritual masters that she was the embodiment of the ancient Indian tantric deity Vajravarahi, known in Tibetan as Dorje Phagmo, the Thunderbolt Female Pig. Hildegard Diemberger builds her book around the translation of the first biography of Chokyi Dronma recorded by her disciples in the wake of her death. The account reveals an extraordinary phenomenon: Chokyi Dronma not only persuaded one of the highest spiritual teachers of her era to give her full ordination but was also officially recognized as one of two principal spiritual heirs to her main master--and she went on to establish a long, influential lineage and Buddhist order herself. Diemberger offers a number of theoretical arguments about the importance of reincarnation in Tibetan society and religion; the role of biographies in establishing a lineage; the necessity for religious teachers to navigate complex networks of political and financial patronage; the cultural and social innovation linked to the revival of ancient Buddhist civilizations; and the role of women in Buddhism. Four stage-setting chapters precede the biography, and four concluding chapters discuss the establishment of the reincarnation lineage and the role of the current incarnation under Tibet's peculiarly contradictory communist system.
Download or read book The bKa gdams pa School of Tibetan Buddhism Part 1 written by and published by Gianpaolo Vetturini. This book was released on with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Contributions to the Cultural History of Early Tibet written by Matthew Tom Kapstein and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2007 with total page 325 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Aufsatzsammlung.
Download or read book The Tibetans written by Matthew T. Kapstein and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2013-06-05 with total page 390 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides a clear and comprehensive introduction to Tibet, its culture and history. A clear and comprehensive overview of Tibet, its culture and history. Responds to current interest in Tibet due to continuing publicity about Chinese rule and growing interest in Tibetan Buddhism. Explains recent events within the context of Tibetan history. Situates Tibet in relation to other Asian civilizations through the ages. Draws on the most recent scholarly and archaeological research. Introduces Tibetan culture – particularly social institutions, religious and political traditions, the arts and medical lore. An epilogue considers the fragile position of Tibetan civilization in the modern world.
Download or read book Tibetan Demonology written by Christopher Bell and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2020-07-16 with total page 121 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tibetan Demonology discusses the rich taxonomy of gods and demons encountered in Tibet. These spirits are often the cause of, and exhorted for, diverse violent and wrathful activities. This Element consists of four thematic sections. The first section, 'Spirits and the Body', explores oracular possession and spirit-induced illnesses. The second section, 'Spirits and Time', discusses the role of gods in Tibetan astrology and ritual calendars. The third section, 'Spirits and Space', examines the relationship between divinities and the Tibetan landscape. The final section, 'Spirits and Doctrine', explores how certain deities act as fierce protectors of religious and political institutions.
Download or read book The Old Tibetan Annals written by Brandon Dotson and published by Austrian Academy of Sciences Press. This book was released on 2009 with total page 332 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An annotated translation of Tibet's first history with annotated cartographical documentation by Guntram Hazod.
Download or read book History As Propaganda written by John Powers and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2004-10-14 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Despite Chinese efforts to stop foreign countries from granting him visas, the Dalai Lama has become one of the most recognizable and best loved people on the planet, drawing enormous crowds wherever he goes. By contrast, China's charismatically-challenged leaders attract crowds of protestors waving Tibetan flags and shouting "Free Tibet!" whenever they visit foreign countries. By now most Westerners probably think they understand the political situation in Tibet. But, John Powers argues, most Western scholars of Tibet evince a bias in favor of one side or the other in this continuing struggle. Some of the most emotionally charged rhetoric, says Powers, is found in studies of Tibetan history. narratives.
Download or read book The Gathering of Intentions written by Jacob P. Dalton and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2016-03-29 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Gathering of Intentions reads a single Tibetan Buddhist ritual system through the movements of Tibetan history, revealing the social and material dimensions of an ostensibly timeless tradition. By subjecting tantric practice to historical analysis, the book offers new insight into the origins of Tibetan Buddhism, the formation of its canons, the emergence of new lineages and ceremonies, and modern efforts to revitalize the religion by returning to its mythic origins. The ritual system explored in this volume is based on the Gathering of Intentions Sutra, the fundamental "root tantra" of the Anuyoga class of teachings belonging to the Nyingma ("Ancient") school of Tibetan Buddhism. Proceeding chronologically from the ninth century to the present, each chapter features a Tibetan author negotiating a perceived gap between the original root text—the Gathering of Intentions—and the lived religious or political concerns of his day. These ongoing tensions underscore the significance of Tibet's elaborate esoteric ritual systems, which have persisted for centuries, evolving in response to historical conditions. Rather than overlook practice in favor of philosophical concerns, this volume prioritizes Tibetan Buddhism's ritual systems for a richer portrait of the tradition.
Download or read book Proceedings of the Tenth Seminar of the IATS 2003 Volume 14 Old Tibetan Studies written by Cristina Scherrer-Schaub and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2012-08-17 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An enquiry into secular and religious Old Tibetan documents from Central Asia and Tibet. The material is critically examined from different perspectives, focussing on classical disciplines (history, linguistics, lexicography, philology, codicology and diplomacy).
Download or read book A Historical Atlas of Tibet written by Karl E. Ryavec and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2015-05-08 with total page 221 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This pioneering work documents cultural and religious sites across the Tibetan Plateau and its bordering regions from the Paleolithic Era to today. Western fascination with Tibet has soared in recent decades, yet this historic and globally celebrated region has barely been mapped. With this groundbreaking atlas, Karl E. Ryavec sweeps aside the image of Tibet as Shangri-La, offering a comprehensive vision of the region as it really is. The product of twelve years of research and eight more of mapmaking, the results are absolutely stunning. A Historical Atlas of Tibet ranges through the five main periods in Tibetan history, offering introductory maps of each followed by details of western, central, and eastern regions. It beautifully visualizes the history of Tibetan Buddhism, tracing its spread throughout Asia, with thousands of temples mapped, both within Tibet and across North China and Mongolia, all the way to Beijing. There are maps of major polities and their territorial administrations, as well as of the kingdoms of Guge and Purang in western Tibet, and of Derge and Nangchen in Kham. There are town plans of Lhasa and maps that focus on history and language, on population, natural resources, and contemporary politics. Extraordinarily comprehensive and absolutely gorgeous, this volume makes a major contribution in the realms of cartography, Asian studies, and Buddhist studies.
