Robert Mayer's analysis of Guru Chowang's enduring connection between territorial deity cosmologies and the preservation of hidden teachings in Tibetan Buddhism Academic scholars are accustomed to understanding gter as sacred texts often associated with Padmasambhava, within a cult deriving historically from ancient imperial burials. Yet the great 13th-century Padmasambhava devotee Guru Chowang primarily understood gter, by definition, within a mundane framework, barely mentioning Padmasambhava at first, and with not a word about ancient tombs. Even more striking about Chowang’s understandings of gter are their widespread and continuing persistence, as suggested by recent ethnographies of Tibet’s territorial deity cosmologies. For rather than place ancient tombs at the centre of his analysis, Chowang looked to popular terrestrial deity cosmologies to provide a vehicle for Padmasambhava’s hidden teachings. This graft of Indian Buddhist notions of transcendent, spiritual, transmission onto mundane Tibetan territorial deity cosmologies still thrives to this day. Indeed, Tibetan scholars understood Indian Buddhism previously to have made a similar use of India’s nāga and yakṣa territorial deity cosmologies for the concealment and rediscovery of Buddhist teachings.
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Robert Mayer's analysis of Guru Chowang's enduring connection between territorial deity cosmologies and the preservation of hidden teachings in Tibetan Buddhism Academic scholars are accustomed to understanding gter as sacred texts often associated with Padmasambhava, within a cult deriving historically from ancient imperial burials. Yet the great 13th-century Padmasambhava devotee Guru Chowang primarily understood gter, by definition, within a mundane framework, barely mentioning Padmasambhava at first, and with not a word about ancient tombs. Even more striking about Chowang’s understandings of gter are their widespread and continuing persistence, as suggested by recent ethnographies of Tibet’s territorial deity cosmologies. For rather than place ancient tombs at the centre of his analysis, Chowang looked to popular terrestrial deity cosmologies to provide a vehicle for Padmasambhava’s hidden teachings. This graft of Indian Buddhist notions of transcendent, spiritual, transmission onto mundane Tibetan territorial deity cosmologies still thrives to this day. Indeed, Tibetan scholars understood Indian Buddhism previously to have made a similar use of India’s nāga and yakṣa territorial deity cosmologies for the concealment and rediscovery of Buddhist teachings.
The Transformation of Nyingma Identity: Some Key Developments in Contemporary Nyingma Monastic Education
Tibetan Graduate Studies Seminar
45 minutes
2 years ago
The Transformation of Nyingma Identity: Some Key Developments in Contemporary Nyingma Monastic Education
Nicholas Hobhouse on Developments in Contemporary Nyingma Monastic Education This presentation, which draws upon the speaker’s ongoing PhD research, will examine some of the key developments that have taken place in Nyingma monastic education, both in ‘exile’ and inside Eastern Tibet, since the ruptures brought about by the Maoist invasion of the 1950s. Although the terms ‘traditional’ and ‘modern’ must themselves be chronologically defined and carefully nuanced, the elements seen in contemporary Nyingma monastic education might provisionally be grouped into these two categories. ‘Traditional’ elements, whose origins trace to before the 1950s, would include: the leading role played in monastic education by institutions such as Dzogchen Śrī Siṃha, the fact of the bshad grwa more generally being the key institution, the use of curricular texts by Nyingma luminaries such as Mipham (1846-1912), the emphasis on distinctive Nyingma philosophical interpretations, the employment of pedagogies such as bshad pa, and so on. ‘Modern’ elements, whose origins postdate the 1950s, would include: the tightly formalised systems of examination and certification, the extracurricular engagement with subjects like English and science, the expansion of education to nuns, and so on. One might expect a discussion of the key developments in the contemporary period only to relate to those elements categorised as ‘modern’. However, while those elements will indeed be addressed, this presentation will in fact argue that important developments have taken place even in relation to those elements categorised as ‘traditional.’ Noting especially that there is marked conformity among Nyingma approaches to monastic education across the ‘exile’ space but comparative diversity among Nyingma approaches inside Eastern Tibet, and thus that the world of Nyingma monastic education has bifurcated into two tracks that mainly run in parallel, this presentation will draw upon both Tibetan primary sources and interviews conducted during fieldwork in India, Nepal and Eastern Tibet to trace how this has occurred, and what its implications might be. This presentation will conclude by reflecting on how these developments, and the discourses around them, challenge the idea of a singular Nyingma identity - especially in relation to institutional and scholastic identity – just as much as they challenge rigid categorisations of ‘tradition’ and ‘modernity.’ Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales; http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/uk/
Tibetan Graduate Studies Seminar
Robert Mayer's analysis of Guru Chowang's enduring connection between territorial deity cosmologies and the preservation of hidden teachings in Tibetan Buddhism Academic scholars are accustomed to understanding gter as sacred texts often associated with Padmasambhava, within a cult deriving historically from ancient imperial burials. Yet the great 13th-century Padmasambhava devotee Guru Chowang primarily understood gter, by definition, within a mundane framework, barely mentioning Padmasambhava at first, and with not a word about ancient tombs. Even more striking about Chowang’s understandings of gter are their widespread and continuing persistence, as suggested by recent ethnographies of Tibet’s territorial deity cosmologies. For rather than place ancient tombs at the centre of his analysis, Chowang looked to popular terrestrial deity cosmologies to provide a vehicle for Padmasambhava’s hidden teachings. This graft of Indian Buddhist notions of transcendent, spiritual, transmission onto mundane Tibetan territorial deity cosmologies still thrives to this day. Indeed, Tibetan scholars understood Indian Buddhism previously to have made a similar use of India’s nāga and yakṣa territorial deity cosmologies for the concealment and rediscovery of Buddhist teachings.
