Revisiting Rituals in a Changing Tibetan World

Download Revisiting Rituals in a Changing Tibetan World PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : BRILL
ISBN 13 : 9004232176
Total Pages : 395 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (42 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Revisiting Rituals in a Changing Tibetan World by : Katia Buffetrille

Download or read book Revisiting Rituals in a Changing Tibetan World written by Katia Buffetrille and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2012-08-03 with total page 395 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Through ten contributions written by specialists, this book examines the changes rituals have undergone in Tibet, Nepal and Mongolia in the wake of political and socio-cultural upheavals.

Revisiting Rituals in a Changing Tibetan World

Download Revisiting Rituals in a Changing Tibetan World PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : BRILL
ISBN 13 : 9004235000
Total Pages : 394 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (42 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Revisiting Rituals in a Changing Tibetan World by :

Download or read book Revisiting Rituals in a Changing Tibetan World written by and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2012-08-03 with total page 394 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tibet, Nepal, Mongolia... This vast area has experienced significant changes following political and socio-cultural upheavals: the Chinese occupation of Tibet since the 1950s; the opening of Nepal to the world in 1951 and the influx of large numbers of Tibetan refugees into its territory; the end of the communist era and the transition to a market economy in Mongolia, and more generally the confrontation with modernity and globalisation. Revisiting Rituals in a Changing Tibetan World examines the changes rituals have undergone and offers the reader the result of recent research based on both fieldwork and textual studies by researchers who have worked in these countries. Contributors include Hildegard Diemberger, Fabienne Jagou, Thierry Dodin, Fernanda Pirie, Nicola Schneider, Mireille Helffer, Alexander von Rospatt, Marie-Dominique Even, Robert Barnett, Katia Buffetrille

ASIAN HIGHLANDS PERSPECTIVES 28

Download ASIAN HIGHLANDS PERSPECTIVES 28 PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : ASIAN HIGHLANDS PERSPECTIVES
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 457 pages
Book Rating : 4./5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis ASIAN HIGHLANDS PERSPECTIVES 28 by : Ian G Baird

Download or read book ASIAN HIGHLANDS PERSPECTIVES 28 written by Ian G Baird and published by ASIAN HIGHLANDS PERSPECTIVES. This book was released on 2013-03-26 with total page 457 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: AHP's 2013 annual collection contains 5 original research articles, 7 new pieces of fiction, & 20 reviews of recent books. ARTICLES Ian G Baird-Shifting Contexts & Performances: The Brao-Kavet & Their Sacred Mountains in Northeast Cambodia Dpa' mo skyid-The 'Descent of Blessings': Ecstasy & Revival among the Tibetan Bon Communities of Reb gong Gerong Pincuo & Henrëtte Daudey-Too Much Loving-kindness to Repay: Funeral Speeches of the Wenquan Pumi Wang Shiyong-Towards a Localized Development Approach for Tibetan Areas in China. William Noseworthy-The Cham's First Highland Sovereign-Po Romé (r. 1627-1651) FICTION Bsod nams 'gyur med-Folktales from Gcig sgril Lhundrom-Longing for Snow-covered Peaks: Deity Possession in the Philippines Thub bstan-Elopement Ba Lobsang Gonbo-Love in Shambala Pad+ma skyabs-The Price of a Thesis Pad ma rin chen-Scattered Memories of a Misspent Youth & Conflict REVIEWS Review - Scripture of the Ten Kings (305-313) Nietupski, Paul Review - Tibet: A History (315-317) Vargas-O'Bryan, Ivette Review - Mongolian Language Scholarship on the Mongols of the Gansu-Qinghai Region (319-327) Balogh, Mátyás Review - China's Environmental Challenges (329-338) Bleisch, Bill Review - Le bergers du Fort Noir (339-341) Buffetrille, Katia Review - Islam and Tibet (343-347) Chaudhry, Faisal Review - The Art of Not Being Governed (349-355) Grant, Andrew Review - Recent Research on Ladakh (357-361) Singh, Binod Review - Revisiting Rituals in a Changing Tibetan World (363-369) Kilby, Christina Review - Japanese-Mongolian Relations (371-373) Reid, Anja Review - China's 'Tibetan' Frontiers (375-380) Weiner, Benno Review - Drokpa (381-385) Beebe, Ligaya Review - Transforming Nomadic Resource Management and Livelihood Strategies (387-392) Winkler, Daniel Review - Explorers and Scientists in China's Borderlands (393-396) Rohlf, Gregory Review - Origins and Migrations in the Extended Eastern Himalayas (397-403) Hayes, Jack Review - The Sherthukpens of Arunachal Pradesh (405-411) Weedall, Christopher Review - Critical Han Studies (413-417) Ye, Zhiguo Review - Trade and Society along the Ancient Silk Road (419-422) Sengar, Bina Review - Emerging Bon (423-449) Zeisler, Bettina Free download of entire volume here http://www.plateauculture.org/writing/ahp-28-entire-volume At-cost hardcover:http://www.lulu.com/shop/various/ahp-28/hardcover/product-21362829.html

Tibetan Printing: Comparison, Continuities, and Change

Download Tibetan Printing: Comparison, Continuities, and Change PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : BRILL
ISBN 13 : 9004316256
Total Pages : 610 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (43 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Tibetan Printing: Comparison, Continuities, and Change by :

Download or read book Tibetan Printing: Comparison, Continuities, and Change written by and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2016-05-30 with total page 610 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Tibetan Printing: Comparisons, Continuities and Change the editors publish the results of the workshop “Printing as an Agent of Change in Tibet and beyond” held at Pembroke College, Cambridge, in November 2013. This is the first study of the social and cultural history of Tibetan book technology that takes materials, living traditions and cross-cultural comparisons into consideration. Bringing together leading experts from different disciplines, it discusses the introduction of printing in Tibetan societies in the context of Asian book cultures with an eye to the questions raised by the study of the European history of printing. This title is available online in its entirety in Open Access. Contributors are: Tim Barrett, Alessandro Boesi, Peter Burke, Michela Clemente, Hildegard Diemberger, Dorje Gyeltsen, Franz-Karl Ehrhard, Helmut Eimer, Johan Elverskog, Camillo Formigatti, Imre Galambos, Agnieszka Helman-Wazny, Tomasz Wazny, Sherab Sangpo Kawa, Peter Kornicki, Leonard van der Kuijp, Stefan Larsson, Ben Nourse, Anuradha Pallipurath, Porong Dawa, Paola Ricciardi, Tsering Dawa Sharshon, Sam van Schaik, Cristina Scherrer-Schaub, Marta Sernesi, Pasang Wangdu.

Tibetan Demonology

Download Tibetan Demonology PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1108587097
Total Pages : 121 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (85 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Tibetan Demonology by : Christopher Bell

Download or read book Tibetan Demonology written by Christopher Bell and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2020-07-16 with total page 121 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Spirit Possession around the World

Download Spirit Possession around the World PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 464 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (161 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Spirit Possession around the World by : Joseph P. Laycock

Download or read book Spirit Possession around the World written by Joseph P. Laycock and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2015-05-26 with total page 464 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides a fascinating historical and cultural overview of traditional beliefs about spirit possession and exorcism around the world, from Europe to Asia and the Middle East to the Americas. Possession and exorcism are elements that occur in nearly every culture. Why is belief in spiritual possession so universal? This accessible reference volume offers a broad sample of the traditions and cultures involving possession and exorcism, presenting thoughts on this widely popular topic by experts from the fields of anthropology, sociology, religious studies, history, neuroscience, forensics, and theology. The entries cover the subject of possession and exorcism across all inhabited continents, from the Bronze Age to the 21st century, providing information that is accessible and intriguing as well as scholarly and authoritative. Beyond addressing the Christian tradition of possession and exorcism, Pentecostalism, and "New Age" and less widely known Western concepts about possession and exorcism, this work examines ideas about possession and exorcism from other world religions and the indigenous cultures of Asia, Africa, and the Americas. It also covers historic cases of possession and presents biographies of famous theologians, exorcists, and possessed individuals. High school and undergraduate readers will learn about world history, religious and spiritual traditions, and world cultures through a topic that figures prominently in popular culture and modern entertainment. Bibliographies that accompany each entry as well as a selected, general bibliography serve to help students locate print and electronic sources of additional information.

Spoiling Tibet

Download Spoiling Tibet PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1780324375
Total Pages : 218 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (83 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Spoiling Tibet by : Gabriel Lafitte

Download or read book Spoiling Tibet written by Gabriel Lafitte and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2013-09-12 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The mineral-rich mountains of Tibet so far have been largely untouched by China's growing economy. Nor has Beijing been able to settle Tibet with politically reliable peasant Chinese. That is all about to change as China's 12th Five-Year Plan, from 2011 to 2015, calls for massive investment in copper, gold, silver, chromium and lithium mining in the region, with devastating environmental and social outcomes. Despite great interest in Tibet worldwide, Spoiling Tibet is the first book that investigates mining at the roof of the world. A unique, authoritative guide through the torrent of online posts, official propaganda and exile speculation.

Buddhist Modernities

Download Buddhist Modernities PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
ISBN 13 : 1134884753
Total Pages : 317 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (348 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Buddhist Modernities by : Hanna Havnevik

Download or read book Buddhist Modernities written by Hanna Havnevik and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2017-02-17 with total page 317 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The transformations Buddhism has been undergoing in the modern age have inspired much research over the last decade. The main focus of attention has been the phenomenon known as Buddhist modernism, which is defined as a conscious attempt to adjust Buddhist teachings and practices in conformity with the modern norms of rationality, science, or gender equality. This book advances research on Buddhist modernism by attempting to clarify the highly diverse ways in which Buddhist faith, thought, and practice have developed in the modern age, both in Buddhist heartlands in Asia and in the West. It presents a collection of case studies that, taken together, demonstrate how Buddhist traditions interact with modern phenomena such as colonialism and militarism, the market economy, global interconnectedness, the institutionalization of gender equality, and recent historical events such as de-industrialization and the socio-cultural crisis in post-Soviet Buddhist areas. This volume shows how the (re)invention of traditions constitutes an important pathway in the development of Buddhist modernities and emphasizes the pluralistic diversity of these forms in different settings.

The Hegemony of Heritage

Download The Hegemony of Heritage PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Univ of California Press
ISBN 13 : 0520968883
Total Pages : 338 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (29 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Hegemony of Heritage by : Deborah L. Stein

Download or read book The Hegemony of Heritage written by Deborah L. Stein and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2018-05-11 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A free ebook version of this title is available through Luminos, University of California Press’s Open Access publishing program. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more. The Hegemony of Heritage makes an original and significant contribution to our understanding of how the relationship of architectural objects and societies to the built environment changes over time. Studying two surviving medieval monuments in southern Rajasthan—the Ambika Temple in Jagat and the Ékalingji Temple Complex in Kailaspuri—the author looks beyond their divergent sectarian affiliations and patronage structures to underscore many aspects of common practice. This book offers new and extremely valuable insights into these important monuments, illuminating the entangled politics of antiquity and revealing whether a monument’s ritual record is affirmed as continuous and hence hoary or dismissed as discontinuous or reinvented through various strategies. The Hegemony of Heritage enriches theoretical constructs with ethnographic description and asks us to reexamine notions such as archive and text through the filter of sculpture and mantra.

Buddha in the Marketplace

Download Buddha in the Marketplace PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : University of Virginia Press
ISBN 13 : 0813943191
Total Pages : 386 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (139 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Buddha in the Marketplace by : Alex John Catanese

Download or read book Buddha in the Marketplace written by Alex John Catanese and published by University of Virginia Press. This book was released on 2020-01-01 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Classical Tibetan Buddhist scriptures forbid the selling of Buddhist objects, and yet there is today a thriving market for Buddhist statues, paintings, and texts. In Buddha in the Marketplace, Alex John Catanese investigates this practice, which continues to be viewed as a form of "wrong livelihood" by modern Tibetan Buddhist scholars. Drawing on textual and historical sources, as well as ethnographic research conducted in the region of Amdo, Tibet, Catanese follows the trajectory of Buddhist objects from their status as noncommodities prior to the Cultural Revolution to their emergence as commodities on the open market in the modern period. The book examines why Tibetans have more recently begun to sell such objects for their personal livelihoods when their religious tradition condemns such business activities in the strongest possible terms. Addressing the various societal and religious ramifications of these commercial practices, Catanese illustrates how such activity is leading to significant cultural and economic changes, transforming the "moral economy" associated with Buddhist objects, and contributing to a reinterpretation of Tibetan Buddhist identity.

Managing Frontiers in Qing China

Download Managing Frontiers in Qing China PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : BRILL
ISBN 13 : 9004335005
Total Pages : 478 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (43 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Managing Frontiers in Qing China by :

Download or read book Managing Frontiers in Qing China written by and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2016-11-14 with total page 478 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Managing Frontiers in Qing China, historians and anthropologists explore China's imperial expansion in Inner Asia, focusing on early Qing empire-building in Mongolia, Xinjiang, Tibet, and beyond – Central Asian perspectives and comparisons to Russia's Asian empire are included. Taking an institutional-historical and historical-anthropological approach, the essays engage with two Qing agencies well-known for their governance of non-Han groups: the Lifanyuan and Libu. This volume offers a comprehensive overview of the Lifanyuan and Libu, revising and assessing the state of affairs in the under-researched field of these two institutions. The contributors explore the imperial policies towards and the shifting classifications of minority groups in the Qing Empire, explicitly pairing and comparing the Lifanyuan and Libu as in some sense cognate agencies. This text offers insight into how China's past has continued to inform its modern policies, as well as the geopolitical make-up of East Asia and beyond. Contributors include: Uradyn E. Bulag, Chia Ning, Pamela Kyle Crossley, Nicola DiCosmo, Dorothea Heuschert-Laage, Laura Hostetler, Fabienne Jagou, Mei-hua Lan, Dittmar Schorkowitz, Song Tong, Michael Weiers,Ye Baichuan, Yuan Jian, Zhang Yongjiang.

Power Objects in Tibetan Buddhism

Download Power Objects in Tibetan Buddhism PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : BRILL
ISBN 13 : 9004335048
Total Pages : 530 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (43 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Power Objects in Tibetan Buddhism by : James Duncan Gentry

Download or read book Power Objects in Tibetan Buddhism written by James Duncan Gentry and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2016-12-05 with total page 530 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Power Objects in Tibetan Buddhism: The Life, Writings, and Legacy of Sokdokpa Lodrö Gyeltsen, James Duncan Gentry explores how objects of power figure in Tibetan religion, society, and polity through a study of the life of the Tibetan Buddhist ritual specialist Sokdokpa Lodrö Gyeltsen (1552–1624) within the broader context of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Tibet. In presenting Sokdokpa’s career and legacy, Gentry traces the theme of power objects across a wide spectrum of genres to show how Tibetan Buddhists themselves have theorized about objects of power and implemented them in practice. This study therefore provides a lens into how power objects serve as points of convergence for elite doctrinal discourses, socio-political dynamics, and popular religious practices in Tibetan Buddhist societies.

Bon and Naxi Manuscripts

Download Bon and Naxi Manuscripts PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN 13 : 3110776472
Total Pages : 432 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (17 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Bon and Naxi Manuscripts by : Agnieszka Helman-Ważny

Download or read book Bon and Naxi Manuscripts written by Agnieszka Helman-Ważny and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2023-01-30 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The present volume offers a dozen studies of manuscripts of the Tibetan Bon and Naxi Dongba traditions across time and space. While some of the contributions focus on particular features of manuscripts from either tradition, others explicitly bridge the two by considering common codicological and material aspects of selected examples or common themes in the content of the texts. This is the first primarily object-based study to deal with the cultural history and technology of books from the two traditions. It discusses collections of Bon and Naxi manuscripts, the concepts and history of both traditions, the science and technology of book studies as it relates to these collections, the relationship between text and image, writing materials, and the historical and archaeological context of the manuscripts' places of origin. The authors are specialists in different fields including philology, anthropology, art history, codicology and archaeometry. The contributions shed light on trade routes, materials and technologies as well as on reading practices and ritual usage of Bon and Naxi manuscripts.

Gendered Agency in Transcultural Hinduism and Buddhism

Download Gendered Agency in Transcultural Hinduism and Buddhism PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
ISBN 13 : 1040009158
Total Pages : 301 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (4 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Gendered Agency in Transcultural Hinduism and Buddhism by : Ute Hüsken

Download or read book Gendered Agency in Transcultural Hinduism and Buddhism written by Ute Hüsken and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2024-04-01 with total page 301 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Focusing on complex entanglements of religion and gender from a diversity of perspectives, this book explores how women enact agencies in transcultural Hindu and Buddhist settings. The chapters draw on original, in-depth empirical research in various contexts in South Asian religious traditions. Today, in an increasing number of such contexts, women are able to undergo monastic and priestly education, receive ordination/initiation as nuns and priestesses, and are accepted as ascetic religious leaders. They are starting to establish new religious communities within conservative traditions, occupying religious leadership positions on par with men. This volume considers the historical background, contemporary trajectories, and potential impact of the emergence of these new and powerful female agencies in conservative South Asian religious traditions. It will be of particular interest to scholars of religion, women’s and gender studies, and South Asian studies.

Kailas Histories

Download Kailas Histories PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : BRILL
ISBN 13 : 9004306188
Total Pages : 550 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (43 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Kailas Histories by : Alex McKay

Download or read book Kailas Histories written by Alex McKay and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2015-10-27 with total page 550 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

The Dalai Lama and the Emperor of China

Download The Dalai Lama and the Emperor of China PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Columbia University Press
ISBN 13 : 023153860X
Total Pages : 355 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (315 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Dalai Lama and the Emperor of China by : Peter Schwieger

Download or read book The Dalai Lama and the Emperor of China written by Peter Schwieger and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2015-03-31 with total page 355 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A major new work in modern Tibetan history, this book follows the evolution of Tibetan Buddhism's trülku (reincarnation) tradition from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries, along with the Emperor of China's efforts to control its development. By illuminating the political aspects of the trülku institution, Schwieger shapes a broader history of the relationship between the Dalai Lama and the Emperor of China, as well as a richer understanding of the Qing Dynasty as an Inner Asian empire, the modern fate of the Mongols, and current Sino-Tibetan relations. Unlike other pre-twentieth-century Tibetan histories, this volume rejects hagiographic texts in favor of diplomatic, legal, and social sources held in the private, monastic, and bureaucratic archives of old Tibet. This approach draws a unique portrait of Tibet's rule by reincarnation while shading in peripheral tensions in the Himalayas, eastern Tibet, and China. Its perspective fully captures the extent to which the emperors of China controlled the institution of the Dalai Lamas, making a groundbreaking contribution to the past and present history of East Asia.

Tibetan Magic

Download Tibetan Magic PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1350354953
Total Pages : 265 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (53 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Tibetan Magic by : Cameron Bailey

Download or read book Tibetan Magic written by Cameron Bailey and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2024-03-07 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book focuses on the theme of magic in Tibetan contexts, encompassing both pre-modern and modern text-cultures as well as contemporary practices. It offers a new understanding of the identity and role of magical specialists in both historical and contemporary contexts. Combining the theoretical approaches of anthropology, ethnography, religious and textual studies, the book aims to shed light on experiences, practices and practitioners that have been frequently marginalized by the normative mainstream monastic Buddhist traditions and Western Buddhist scholarship, which focuses primarily on meditation and philosophy. The book explores the intersection between magic/folk practices and Tantra, a complex, socio-religious phenomenon associated not only with the religious and political elites who sponsored it, but also with 'marginal' ethnic groups and social milieus, as well as with lay communities at large, who resorted to ritual agents to fulfil their worldly needs.