Author: Geoffrey Samuel
Publisher: Smithsonian Books (DC)
ISBN:
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 744
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Book Description
Samuel identifies the two main orientations of this religion as clerical (primarily monastic) and shamanic (associated with Tantric yoga). The specific form that Buddhism has taken in Tibet is rooted in the pursuit of enlightenment by a minority of the people - lamas, monks, and yogins - and the desire for shamanic services (in quest of health, long life, and prosperity) by the majority. Shamanic traditions of achieving altered states of consciousness have been incorporated into Tantric Buddhism, which aims to communicate with Tantric deities through yoga. The author contends that this incorporation forms the basis for much of the Tibetan lamas' role in their society and that their subtle scholarship reflects the many ways in which they have reconciled the shamanic and clerical orientations. This book, the first full account of Tibetan Buddhism in two decades, ranges as no other study has over several disciplines and languages, incorporating historical and anthropological discussion.
Author: SAMUEL GEOFFREY
Publisher: Smithsonian
ISBN: 9781560986201
Category : Buddhism
Languages : en
Pages : 725
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Book Description
Civilized Shamans examines the nature and evolution of religion in Tibetan societies from the ninth century up to the Chinese occupation in 1950. Geoffrey Samuel argues that religion in these societies developed as a dynamic amalgam of strands of Indian Buddhism and the indigenous spirit-cults of Tibet. Samuel stresses the diversity of Tibetan societies, demonstrating that central Tibet, the Dalai Lama's government at Lhasa, and the great monastic institutions around Lhasa formed only a part of the context within which Tibetan Buddhism matured. Employing anthropological research, historical inquiry, rich interview material, and a deep understanding of religious texts, the author explores the relationship between Tibet's social and political institutions and the emergence of new modes of consciousness that characterize Tibetan Buddhist spirituality. Samuel identifies the two main orientations of this religion as clerical (primarily monastic) and shamanic (associated with Tantric yoga). The specific form that Buddhism has taken in Tibet is rooted in the pursuit of enlightenment by a minority of the people - lamas, monks, and yogins - and the desire for shamanic services (in quest of health, long life, and prosperity) by the majority. Shamanic traditions of achieving altered states of consciousness have been incorporated into Tantric Buddhism, which aims to communicate with Tantric deities through yoga. The author contends that this incorporation forms the basis for much of the Tibetan lamas' role in their society and that their subtle scholarship reflects the many ways in which they have reconciled the shamanic and clerical orientations. This book, the first full account of Tibetan Buddhism in two decades, ranges as no other study has over several disciplines and languages, incorporating historical and anthropological discussion. Viewing Tibetan Buddhism as one of the great spiritual and psychological achievements of humanity, Samuel analyzes a complex society that combines the literacy and rationality associated with centralized states with the shamanic processes more familiar among tribal peoples.
Author: Jan-Ulrich Sobisch
Publisher: Dr Ludwig Reichert
ISBN:
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 604
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Book Description
English description: Since the 12th century, a central feature of Buddhism in Tibet was its harmonizing of tantric practice with the moral codes of monastic discipline and Bodhisattva altruism. All masters maintained the vajrayana or tantric path to be superior to the two "lower" codes, but they described this superiority differently. In the present study, Jan-Ulrich Sobisch explores for the first time in detail the three main strategies maintained by the oldest Tibetan schools for explaining the relations of the three codes. German description: Ein Kernpunkt des tibetischen Buddhismus ist seine Harmonisierung tantrischer Praxis mit dem Moralkodex klosterlicher Disziplin und dem Altruismus der Bodhisattvas. Alle Gelehrten vertraten die Ansicht, dass Vajrayana bzw. der tantrische Pfad den Regeln der beiden "niederen" Fahrzeuge uberlegen sei, sie beschrieben diese Uberlegenheit jedoch unterschiedlich. In der vorliegenden Studie werden von Jan-Ulrich Sobisch zum ersten Mal die drei hauptsachlichen Strategien im Detail untersucht, die von den altesten tibetischen Schulen vertreten werden, um das Verhaltnis der drei Kodizes zueinander zu erlautern.
Author: Déborah Danowski
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 150950401X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 159
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Book Description
The end of the world is a seemingly interminable topic Ð at least, of course, until it happens. Environmental catastrophe and planetary apocalypse are subjects of enduring fascination and, as ethnographic studies show, human cultures have approached them in very different ways. Indeed, in the face of the growing perception of the dire effects of global warming, some of these visions have been given a new lease on life. Information and analyses concerning the human causes and the catastrophic consequences of the planetary ‘crisis’ have been accumulating at an ever-increasing rate, mobilising popular opinion as well as academic reflection. In this book, philosopher Déborah Danowski and anthropologist Eduardo Viveiros de Castro offer a bold overview and interpretation of these current discourses on ‘the end of the world’, reading them as thought experiments on the decline of the West’s anthropological adventure Ð that is, as attempts, though not necessarily intentional ones, at inventing a mythology that is adequate to the present. This work has important implications for the future development of ecological practices and it will appeal to a broad audience interested in contemporary anthropology, philosophy, and environmentalism.
Author: Sir Herbert Hope Risley
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Anthropometry
Languages : en
Pages : 486
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Book Description
Author: Christopher Bell
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108587097
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 123
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Book Description
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.
Author: Neil L. Whitehead
Publisher: Duke University Press
ISBN: 0822384302
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 325
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Book Description
On the little-known and darker side of shamanism there exists an ancient form of sorcery called kanaimà, a practice still observed among the Amerindians of the highlands of Guyana, Venezuela, and Brazil that involves the ritual stalking, mutilation, lingering death, and consumption of human victims. At once a memoir of cultural encounter and an ethnographic and historical investigation, this book offers a sustained, intimate look at kanaimà, its practitioners, their victims, and the reasons they give for their actions. Neil L. Whitehead tells of his own involvement with kanaimà—including an attempt to kill him with poison—and relates the personal testimonies of kanaimà shamans, their potential victims, and the victims’ families. He then goes on to discuss the historical emergence of kanaimà, describing how, in the face of successive modern colonizing forces—missionaries, rubber gatherers, miners, and development agencies—the practice has become an assertion of native autonomy. His analysis explores the ways in which kanaimà mediates both national and international impacts on native peoples in the region and considers the significance of kanaimà for current accounts of shamanism and religious belief and for theories of war and violence. Kanaimà appears here as part of the wider lexicon of rebellious terror and exotic horror—alongside the cannibal, vampire, and zombie—that haunts the western imagination. Dark Shamans broadens discussions of violence and of the representation of primitive savagery by recasting both in the light of current debates on modernity and globalization.
Author: Wayland Drew
Publisher: House of Anansi
ISBN: 9780887846632
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 292
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Book Description
"When an environmental disaster destroys Toronto, four childhood friends are forced to abandon their urban middle-class lives and choose the extremes by which they will survive. One man, Paul Henry, returns to the northern Ontario land of his youth, seeking to escape and endure deep within the wilderness, away from all contact with others. Paul's quest is an echo of the journey of another man, Drummond MacKay, an 18th-century fur trader whose diary Paul reads and burns as he travels further and further into a landscape that knows nothing of time or man. The Wabeno Feast was first published by Anansi in 1973. It belongs next to Temptations of Big Bear, Surfacing, and The Diviners in the Canadian literary canon."
Author: Eva Ibbotson
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
ISBN: 1447265688
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 321
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Book Description
Maia, orphaned at 13, is unhappy to be staying with relatives hundreds of miles up the Amazon. She becomes friends with an English boy who lives with the locals. They are forced to flee upriver, pursued by an assortment of eccentric characters.
Author: Robert C. Scharff
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1118722728
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 1533
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Book Description
The new edition of this authoritative introduction to the philosophy of technology includes recent developments in the subject, while retaining the range and depth of its selection of seminal contributions and its much-admired editorial commentary. Remains the most comprehensive anthology on the philosophy of technology available Includes editors’ insightful section introductions and critical summaries for each selection Revised and updated to reflect the latest developments in the field Combines difficult to find seminal essays with a judicious selection of contemporary material Examines the relationship between technology and the understanding of the nature of science that underlies technology studies
