The Taming of the Demons : Violence and Liberation in Tibetan Buddhism / Jacob P. Dalton.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Dalton, Jacob Paul.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Tantric Buddhism--China--Tibet Autonomous Region.

Tantric Buddhism.

Violence--Religious aspects.

China--Tibet Autonomous Region.

Violence--Religious aspects--Tantric Buddhism.

Violence.

Physical Description:

x, 311 pages ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

New Haven : Yale University Press, [2011]

Summary:

"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.

Contents:

Evil and Ignorance in Tantric Buddhism

Demons in the Dark

A Buddhist Manual for Human Sacrifice?

Sacrifice and the Law

Foundational Violence

Buddhist warfare

Conclusions: Violence in the Mirror

Appendix A. The Subjugation of Rudra

Appendix B. Dunhuang Liberation Rite (Transcription of PT42/ITJ419)

Appendix C. Dunhuang Liberation Rite II (Translation and Transliteration of PT840/1).

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780300153927

0300153929

OCLC:

669269898