Kailas histories : renunciate traditions and the construction of Himalayan sacred geography / by Alex McKay.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

McKay, Alex, author.

Contributor:

Rosengarten Family Fund.

Series:

Brill's Tibetan studies library ; 1568-6183 v. 38.

Brill's Tibetan studies library, 1568-6183 ; volume 38

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Hindu pilgrims and pilgrimages--China--Kailas, Mount.

Hindu pilgrims and pilgrimages.

Tibet Autonomous Region (China)--History.

Tibet Autonomous Region (China).

Tibet Region--Religious life and customs.

Tibet Region.

Kailas, Mount (China).

China.

Physical Description:

xx, 530 pages : illustrations (some color), maps (some color) ; 25 cm.

Place of Publication:

Leiden ; Boston : Brill, [2015]

Summary:

Tibet's Mount Kailas is one of the world's great pilgrimage centres, renowned as an ancient sacred site that embodies a universal sacrality. But 'Kailas histories: Renunciate traditions and the construction of Himalayan sacred geography' demonstrates that this understanding is a recent construction by British colonial, Hindu modernist, and New Age interests. Using multiple sources, including fieldwork, Alex McKay describes how the early Indic vision of a heavenly mountain named Kailas became identified with actual mountains. He emphasises renunciate agency in demonstrating how local beliefs were subsumed as Kailas developed within Hindu, Buddhist, and Bön traditions, how five mountains in the Indian Himalayan are also named Kailas, and how Kailas sacred geography constructions and a sacred Ganges source region were related.

Contents:

Section 1 Indic Histories

1 Mountains and Renunciates: The Early Pan-Asian Cultural Landscape 25

2 "The Play Garden of the Gods... Beyond the Course of Humans" 45

3 Recreating the Divine Order: The Puranic Kailas 65

4 A Tantric Kailas: The Alchemical Trail 92

5 An Early Buddhist Kelasa 114

6 Kailas on the Edge of Modernity 132

Section 2 The Kailas Mountains of India

7 Above the Naga Lakes: Kaplas Kailas and Manimahesh Kailas 149

8 The Kinnaur and the Adhi Kailas 174

9 Sri Kailas: The Mountain at the Source 200

10 Sri Kailas: The Epic Prototype? 224

Illustrations 248

Section 3 Tibetan Histories

11 Tibet's Tise 273

12 Buddhacising the Mountain 304

13 Zhang-zhung, Bon, and the Mountain 339

14 The Tise (Kailas) Deities 364

Section 4 Modern Histories

15 The European Construction of Kailas-Manasarovar 375

16 From Theosophy's Mahatmas to a Globalised Kailas 410.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 453-511) and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Rosengarten Family Fund.

ISBN:

9789004304581

9004304584

OCLC:

920944449

Publisher Number:

99967281676