Tibetan Renaissance

Tibetan Renaissance PDF Author: Ronald M. Davidson
Publisher: Motilal Banarsidass Publishe
ISBN: 9788120832787
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 620

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Book Description
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.

Tibetan Renaissance

Tibetan Renaissance PDF Author: Ronald M. Davidson
Publisher: Motilal Banarsidass Publishe
ISBN: 9788120832787
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 620

Get Book Here

Book Description
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.

Tibetan Renaissance

Tibetan Renaissance PDF Author: Ronald M. Davidson
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231508891
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 640

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Book Description
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.

The Renaissance of Tibetan Civilization

The Renaissance of Tibetan Civilization PDF Author: Christoph von Fürer-Haimendorf
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780907791218
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 121

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Book Description
The young ruler of Tibet donned the traditional garb of a Tibetan tribesman and fled on horesback to India to escape the Chinese occupation of his homeland. The 14th Dalai Lama arrived in Indiain the spring of 1959, the first and most illustrious refugee of the waves soon to pour out from the ancient 'Forbidden Kingdom'. "The Renaissance of Tibetan Civilization" is an inspiring story of the power of courage and hope - the story of refugees who arrived destitute at the frontiers of India and Nepal, yet a mere forty years later have managed to rebuild the essential patterns of Tibetan culture in exile as a legacy for the future. The book documents the struggle for survival and the emerging way of life of individual refugees and families, as well as there construction of religious and artistic traditions. Per Kvaerne appends an essay on the Bon religion which augments the background material necessary for understanding the ingredients of the diaspora. The forced exodus of Tibetan culture is one of the most remarkable stories of our time: how an enclosed and highly conservative community assumed global significance, in the realm of politics as well as in the realm of culture. The tragedy of Tibet has enriched the world by giving it access to the high intellectual and artistic values which gave Tibetans their sense of meaning.

Tibetan Book of the Dead

Tibetan Book of the Dead PDF Author: W. Y. Evans-Wentz
Publisher: Courier Dover Publications
ISBN: 0486845370
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 303

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Book Description
Derived from a Buddhist funerary text, this famous volume's timeless wisdom includes instructions for attaining enlightenment, preparing for the process of dying, and moving through the various stages of rebirth.

Vision and Violence

Vision and Violence PDF Author: Carl Yamamoto
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 900421240X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 407

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Book Description
This book examines the life of Lama Zhang, key figure in the "Tibetan renaissance"—a tantric master and literary innovator who forged a new model of rulership and community that would set the standard for later religious rulers of Lhasa.

Naked Seeing

Naked Seeing PDF Author: Christopher Hatchell
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199982902
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 497

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Book Description
Buddhism is in many ways a visual tradition, with its well-known practices of visualization, its visual arts, its epistemological writings that discuss the act of seeing, and its literature filled with images and metaphors of light. Some Buddhist traditions are also visionary, advocating practices by which meditators seek visions that arise before their eyes. Naked Seeing investigates such practices in the context of two major esoteric traditions, the Wheel of Time (Kalacakra) and the Great Perfection (Dzogchen). Both of these experimented with sensory deprivation, and developed yogas involving long periods of dwelling in dark rooms or gazing at the open sky. These produced unusual experiences of seeing, which were used to pursue some of the classic Buddhist questions about appearances, emptiness, and the nature of reality. Along the way, these practices gave rise to provocative ideas and suggested that, rather than being apprehended through internal insight, religious truths might also be seen in the exterior world-realized through the gateway of the eyes. Christopher Hatchell presents the intellectual and literary histories of these practices, and also explores the meditative techniques and physiology that underlie their distinctive visionary experiences. The book also offers for the first time complete English translations of three major Tibetan texts on visionary practice: a Kalacakra treatise by Yumo Mikyo Dorj , The Lamp Illuminating Emptiness, a Nyingma Great Perfection work called The Tantra of the Blazing Lamps, and a B n Great Perfection work called Advice on the Six Lamps, along with a detailed commentary on this by Drugom Gyalwa Yungdrung.

Tibet in Agony

Tibet in Agony PDF Author: Jianglin Li
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674088891
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 465

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Book Description
In 1959 the Dalai Lama emerged in India, where he set up his government in exile. Soon after he left Lhasa the Chinese People's Liberation Army pummeled the city in the "Battle of Lhasa." The Tibetans were forced to capitulate, putting Mao in a position to impose Communist rule over Tibet

The Tibetans

The Tibetans PDF Author: Matthew T. Kapstein
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1118725379
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 390

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Book Description
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.

Tibetan Art

Tibetan Art PDF Author: Amy Heller
Publisher: Acc Us Distribution Book Title
ISBN:
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 248

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Book Description
A complete introduction to Tibetan art presented in the context of Tibetan Buddhism. Amy Heller places the artwork within its historical social and religious context utilizing in situ photographs from Tibet. It spans 1400 years of art history.

Reincarnation in Tibetan Buddhism

Reincarnation in Tibetan Buddhism PDF Author: Ruth Gamble
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190690798
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 323

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Book Description
Reincarnation in Tibetan Buddhism examines how the third Karmapa hierarch, Rangjung Dorjé (1284-1339) transformed reincarnation from a belief into a lasting Tibetan institution. Born the son of an itinerant, low-caste potter, Rangjung Dorjé went on to become a foundational figure in Tibetan Buddhism and a teacher of the last Mongolian emperor. He became renowned for his contributions to Buddhist philosophy, literature, astrology, medicine, architecture, sacred geography and manuscript production. But, as Ruth Gamble demonstrates, his most important legacy was the transformation of the Karmapa reincarnation lineage to ensure that, after his death, subsequent Karmapas were able to assume power in the religious institutions he had led. The inheritance model of reincarnation instituted by Rangjung Dorjé changed the Tibetan Plateau's power relations, which until that time had been based on family associations, and created a precedent for later reincarnate institutions, including that of the Dalai Lamas. Drawing on Rangjung Dorjé's hitherto un-translated autobiographies and autobiographical songs, this book shows that his reinvention of reincarnation was a self-conscious and multi-faceted project, made possible by Rangjung Dorjé's cultural, social, and political standing and specific historical and geographical circumstances. Exploring this combination of agency and historical coincidence, this is the first full-length study of the development of the reincarnation institution.