Divine Dyads, Ancient Civilization in Tibet

Divine Dyads, Ancient Civilization in Tibet PDF Author: John Vincent Bellezza
Publisher: Library of Tibetan Works & Archives
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 528

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Book Description

Divine Dyads, Ancient Civilization in Tibet

Divine Dyads, Ancient Civilization in Tibet PDF Author: John Vincent Bellezza
Publisher: Library of Tibetan Works & Archives
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 528

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Book Description


The Dawn of Tibet

The Dawn of Tibet PDF Author: John Vincent Bellezza
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1442234628
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 363

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Book Description
This unique book reveals the existence of an advanced civilization where none was known before, presenting an entirely new perspective on the culture and history of Tibet. In his groundbreaking study of an epic period in Tibet few people even knew existed, John Vincent Bellezza details the discovery of an ancient people on the most desolate reaches of the Tibetan plateau, revolutionizing our ideas about who Tibetans really are. While many associate Tibet with Buddhism, it was also once a land of warriors and chariots, whose burials included megalithic arrays and golden masks. This first Tibetan civilization, known as Zhang Zhung, was a cosmopolitan one with links extending across Eurasia, bringing it in line with many of the major cultural innovations of the Late Bronze Age and Iron Age. Based on decades of research, The Dawn of Tibet draws on a rich trove of archaeological, textual, and ethnographic materials collected and analyzed by the author. Bellezza describes the vast network of castles, temples, megaliths, necropolises, and rock art established on the highest and now depopulated part of the Tibetan plateau. He relates literary tales of priests and priestesses, horned deities, and the celestial afterlife to the actual archaeological evidence, providing a fascinating perspective on the origins and development of civilization. The story builds to the present by following the colorful culture of the herders of Upper Tibet, an ancient people whose way of life is endangered by modern development. Tracing Bellezza’s epic journeys across lands where few Westerners have ventured, this book provides a compelling window into the most inaccessible reaches of Tibet and a civilization that flourished long before Buddhism took root.

The Ancient Tibetan Civilization

The Ancient Tibetan Civilization PDF Author: Tsewang Gyalpo Arya
Publisher: Library of Tibetan Works and Archives
ISBN: 9390752728
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 244

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Book Description
How interesting it is to realize that the lifestyle we live, beliefs and faith we live by and the language we converse in, all has its own distinct history of origination and how it has evolved and progressed over time to become everything present today. The book is a marvellous attempt to understand one’s own civilization enlightening the path to startling revelation on ‘How did Tibetan civilization came about?’. The widely popularized Tibetan origin myth of ‘The Monkey and the Ogress’, is it really true? Did Tibet really had its first king descended from the sky? How is Tibetan scripts so similar to the Gupta Brahmi script? This book leaves no stone unturned to fill this grey area on the dawn of Tibetan civilization and intrigues the readers to deliberate over the subject. ‘The Ancient Tibetan Civilization’ explicitly debunks popular mythologies, misconceptions and misinformation surrounding the origination and evolution of Tibetan civilization. -Tenzin Wangmo

Dreamworlds of Shamanism and Tibetan Buddhism

Dreamworlds of Shamanism and Tibetan Buddhism PDF Author: Angela Sumegi
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 0791478262
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 182

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Book Description
Dreamworlds of Shamanism and Tibetan Buddhism explores the fertile interaction of Buddhism, shamanism, and Tibetan culture with the subject of dreaming. In Tibetan Buddhist literature, there are numerous examples of statements that express the value of dreams as a vehicle of authentic spiritual knowledge and, at the same time, dismiss dreams as the ultra-illusions of an illusory world. Examining the "third place" from the perspective of shamanism and Buddhism, Angela Sumegi provides a fresh look at the contradictory attitudes toward dreams in Tibetan culture. Sumegi questions the longstanding interpretation that views this dichotomy as a difference between popular and elite religion, and theorizes that a better explanation of the ambiguous position of dreams can be gained through attention to the spiritual dynamics at play between Buddhism and an indigenous shamanic presence. By exploring the themes of conflict and resolution that coalesce in the Tibetan experience, and examining dreams as a site of dialogue between shamanism and Buddhism, this book provides an alternate model for understanding dreams in Tibetan Buddhism.

Historical Dictionary of Tibet

Historical Dictionary of Tibet PDF Author: John Powers
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 153813022X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 881

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Book Description
Historical Dictionary of Tibet, Second Edition is a comprehensive resource for Tibetan history, politics, religion, major figures, prehistory and paleontology, with a primary emphasis on the modern period. It also covers the surrounding areas influenced by Tibetan religion and culture, including India, China, Nepal, Bhutan, Central Asia, and Russia. It contains a chronology, a glossary, an introduction, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 500 cross-referenced entries on important personalities as well as aspects of the country’s politics, economy, foreign relations, religion, and culture. This book is an excellent resource for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about Tibet.

Spirit-mediums, Sacred Mountains and Related Bon Textual Traditions in Upper Tibet

Spirit-mediums, Sacred Mountains and Related Bon Textual Traditions in Upper Tibet PDF Author: John Bellezza
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9047407512
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 581

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Book Description
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.

The Double Goddess

The Double Goddess PDF Author: Vicki Noble
Publisher: Inner Traditions / Bear & Co
ISBN: 9781591430117
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 302

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Book Description
A study of the "double goddess" iconography prominent in Neolithic and Bronze Age cultures that expands our understanding of female sovereignty. Celebrates this archetype of sacred female bonding and depicts a vast array of relationships women may form with themselves and each other to explore a sense of self and empowerment, and to share power with each other.

Buddhisms

Buddhisms PDF Author: John S. Strong
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1780745060
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 639

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Book Description
Buddhism or Buddhisms? By the time they move on to Buddhism in Japan, many students who have studied its origins in India ask whether this is in fact the same religion, so different can they appear. In Buddhisms: An Introduction, Professor John S. Strong provides an overview of the Buddhist tradition in all its different forms around the world. Beginning at the modern day temples of Lumbini, where the Buddha was born, Strong takes us through the life of the Buddha and a study of Buddhist Doctrine, revealing how Buddhism has changed just as it has stayed the same. Finally, Strong examines the nature of Buddhist community life and its development today in the very different environments of Thailand, Japan, and Tibet. Enriched by the author’s own insights gathered over forty years, Buddhisms never loses sight of the personal experience amidst the wide-scope of its subject. Clear in its explanations, replete with tables and suggestions for further reading, this is an essential new work that makes original contributions to the study of this 2,500 year-old religion.

The Philosophical View of the Great Perfection in the Tibetan Bon Religion

The Philosophical View of the Great Perfection in the Tibetan Bon Religion PDF Author: Donatella Rossi
Publisher: Shambhala Publications
ISBN: 9781559391290
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
Dzogchen, or the Great Perfection, is considered by both the Bonpos and the followers of the Nyigma school in Tibet to be the culmination of all spiritual teachings. The philosophical view of the Great Perfection introduces the individual to the knowledge of reality, which is one with the enlightened state of all beings. In this book the Dzogchen view is presented in two Bonpo texts belonging to the revered terma (treasure) and oral traditions, here for the first time translated and critically edited in their entirety.

The Hidden History of the Tibetan Book of the Dead

The Hidden History of the Tibetan Book of the Dead PDF Author: Department of Religion Florida State University Bryan J. Cuevas Assistant Professor of Buddhist and Tibetan Studies
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 9780199760442
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 348

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Book Description
In 1927, Oxford University Press published the first western-language translation of a collection of Tibetan funerary texts (the Great Liberation upon Hearing in the Bardo) under the title The Tibetan Book of the Dead. Since that time, the work has established a powerful hold on the western popular imagination, and is now considered a classic of spiritual literature. Over the years, The Tibetan Book of the Dead has inspired numerous commentaries, an illustrated edition, a play, a video series, and even an opera. Translators, scholars, and popular devotees of the book have claimed to explain its esoteric ideas and reveal its hidden meaning. Few, however, have uttered a word about its history. Bryan J. Cuevas seeks to fill this gap in our knowledge by offering the first comprehensive historical study of the Great Liberation upon Hearing in the Bardo, and by grounding it firmly in the context of Tibetan history and culture. He begins by discussing the many ways the texts have been understood (and misunderstood) by westerners, beginning with its first editor, the Oxford-educated anthropologist Walter Y. Evans-Wentz, and continuing through the present day. The remarkable fame of the book in the west, Cuevas argues, is strikingly disproportionate to how the original Tibetan texts were perceived in their own country. Cuevas tells the story of how The Tibetan Book of the Dead was compiled in Tibet, of the lives of those who preserved and transmitted it, and explores the history of the rituals through which the life of the dead is imagined in Tibetan society. This book provides not only a fascinating look at a popular and enduring spiritual work, but also a much-needed corrective to the proliferation of ahistorical scholarship surrounding The Tibetan Book of the Dead.