The Ethnography of Tantra

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Publisher : State University of New York Press
ISBN 13 : 1438494858
Total Pages : 460 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (384 download)

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Book Synopsis The Ethnography of Tantra by : Carola E. Lorea

Download or read book The Ethnography of Tantra written by Carola E. Lorea and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2023-11-01 with total page 460 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first collection of essays to approach the topic of Tantric Studies from the vantage point of ethnography and lived religion, moving beyond the centrality of written texts and giving voice to the everyday life and livelihoods of a multitude of Tantric actors. Bringing together a team of international scholars whose contributions range across diverse communities and traditions in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Himalayan region, the book connects distant shores of Tantric scholarship and lived Tantric practices. The contributors unpack Tantra’s relationship to the body, ritual performance, sexuality, secrecy, power hierarchies, death, magic, and healing, while doing so with vigilant sensitivity to decolonization and the ethics of fieldwork. Through diverse ethnographies of Tantra and attention to lived experiences and life stories, the book challenges normative definitions of Tantra and maps the variety of Tantric traditions, providing comparative perspectives on Tantric societies across regions and religious backgrounds. The accessible tone of the ethnographic case studies makes this an ideal book for undergraduate or graduate audiences working on the topic of Tantra.

The Roots of Tantra

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Publisher : State University of New York Press
ISBN 13 : 079148890X
Total Pages : 281 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (914 download)

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Book Synopsis The Roots of Tantra by : Katherine Anne Harper

Download or read book The Roots of Tantra written by Katherine Anne Harper and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2012-02-01 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Among the many spiritual traditions born and developed in India, Tantra has been the most difficult to define. Almost everything about it its major characteristics, its sources, its relationships to other religions, even its practices are debated among sc

Tantra in Practice

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Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 0691190453
Total Pages : 661 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (911 download)

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Book Synopsis Tantra in Practice by : David Gordon White

Download or read book Tantra in Practice written by David Gordon White and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2018-06-26 with total page 661 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As David White explains in the Introduction to Tantra in Practice, Tantra is an Asian body of beliefs and practices that seeks to channel the divine energy that grounds the universe, in creative and liberating ways. The subsequent chapters reflect the wide geographical and temporal scope of Tantra by examining thirty-six texts from China, India, Japan, Nepal, and Tibet, ranging from the seventh century to the present day, and representing the full range of Tantric experience--Buddhist, Hindu, Jain, and even Islamic. Each text has been chosen and translated, often for the first time, by an international expert in the field who also provides detailed background material. Students of Asian religions and general readers alike will find the book rich and informative. The book includes plays, transcribed interviews, poetry, parodies, inscriptions, instructional texts, scriptures, philosophical conjectures, dreams, and astronomical speculations, each text illustrating one of the diverse traditions and practices of Tantra. Thus, the nineteenth-century Indian Buddhist Garland of Gems, a series of songs, warns against the illusion of appearance by referring to bees, yogurt, and the fire of Malaya Mountain; while fourteenth-century Chinese Buddhist manuscripts detail how to prosper through the Seven Stars of the Northern Dipper by burning incense, making offerings to scriptures, and chanting incantations. In a transcribed conversation, a modern Hindu priest in Bengal candidly explains how he serves the black Goddess Kali and feeds temple skulls lentils, wine, or rice; a seventeenth-century Nepalese Hindu praise-poem hammered into the golden doors to the temple of the Goddess Taleju lists a king's faults and begs her forgiveness and grace. An introduction accompanies each text, identifying its period and genre, discussing the history and influence of the work, and identifying points of particular interest or difficulty. The first book to bring together texts from the entire range of Tantric phenomena, Tantra in Practice continues the Princeton Readings in Religions series. The breadth of work included, geographic areas spanned, and expert scholarship highlighting each piece serve to expand our understanding of what it means to practice Tantra.

Tantra, Ritual Performance, and Politics in Nepal and Kerala

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Publisher : BRILL
ISBN 13 : 9004439021
Total Pages : 308 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (44 download)

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Book Synopsis Tantra, Ritual Performance, and Politics in Nepal and Kerala by : Matthew Martin

Download or read book Tantra, Ritual Performance, and Politics in Nepal and Kerala written by Matthew Martin and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2020-08-10 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For the first time, Tantra, Ritual Performance and Politics in Nepal and Kerala offers a comparative approach to Tantric mediumship as observed in two locales: Navadurgā rituals in Bhaktapur, Nepal, and Teyyāṭṭam in North Kerala.

Tibetan Magic

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

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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.

Tantra, Magic, and Vernacular Religions in Monsoon Asia

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Publisher : Taylor & Francis
ISBN 13 : 1000686442
Total Pages : 280 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (6 download)

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Book Synopsis Tantra, Magic, and Vernacular Religions in Monsoon Asia by : Andrea Acri

Download or read book Tantra, Magic, and Vernacular Religions in Monsoon Asia written by Andrea Acri and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2022-11-03 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the cross- and trans-cultural dialectic between Tantra and intersecting ‘magical’ and ‘shamanic’ practices associated with vernacular religions across Monsoon Asia. With a chronological frame going from the mediaeval Indic period up to the present, a wide geographical framework, and through the dialogue between various disciplines, it presents a coherent enquiry shedding light on practices and practitioners that have been frequently alienated in the elitist discourse of mainstream Indic religions and equally overlooked by modern scholarship. The book addresses three desiderata in the field of Tantric Studies: it fills a gap in the historical modelling of Tantra; it extends the geographical parameters of Tantra to the vast, yet culturally interlinked, socio-geographical construct of Monsoon Asia; it explores Tantra as an interface between the Sanskritic elite and the folk, the vernacular, the magical, and the shamanic, thereby revisiting the intellectual and historically fallacious divide between cosmopolitan Sanskritic and vernacular local. The book offers a highly innovative contribution to the field of Tantric Studies and, more generally, South and Southeast Asian religions, by breaking traditional disciplinary boundaries. Its variety of disciplinary approaches makes it attractive to both the textual/diachronic and ethnographic/synchronic dimensions. It will be of interest to specialist and non-specialist academic readers, including scholars and students of South Asian religions, mainly Hinduism and Buddhism, Tantric traditions, and Southeast Asian religions, as well as Asian and global folk religion, shamanism, and magic.

Shamanism and Tantra in the Himalayas

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Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9780500511084
Total Pages : 309 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (11 download)

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Book Synopsis Shamanism and Tantra in the Himalayas by : Claudia Müller-Ebeling

Download or read book Shamanism and Tantra in the Himalayas written by Claudia Müller-Ebeling and published by . This book was released on 2002 with total page 309 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'Shamanism and Tantra in the Himalayas' allows us to travel into the depths of the consciousness and life work of five shamans, who are among the most powerful and respected people in their ethnic groups. It features the first photographic documentation of their esoteric rites, such as the midnight graveyard ritual dedicated to Shiva, and describes a pilgrimage to the most sacred mountain of the Nepalese shamans, Mount Kalinchok. The authors also explore the soma myth and offer valuable insights into the use of this ancient hallucinogen. The book features a wealth of original recipes, smoking mixtures, scientific tables, charts and descriptions of more than twenty plants whose psychoactive properties and uses by shamans have never before been researched or documented.

Death, Materiality and Mediation

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Publisher : Berghahn Books
ISBN 13 : 178533283X
Total Pages : 174 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (853 download)

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Book Synopsis Death, Materiality and Mediation by : Barbara Graham

Download or read book Death, Materiality and Mediation written by Barbara Graham and published by Berghahn Books. This book was released on 2016-11-01 with total page 174 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Death, Materiality and Mediation, Barbara Graham analyzes a diverse range of objects associated with remembrance in both the public and private arenas through ethnography of communities on both sides of the Irish border. In doing so, she explores the materially mediated interactions between the living and the dead, revealing the physical, cognitive, emotional, and spiritual roles of the dead in contemporary communities. Through this study, Graham expands the concept of materiality to include narrative, song, senses, emotions, ephemera and embodied experience. She also examines how modern practices are informed by older beliefs and folk religion.

The Origins of Yoga and Tantra

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Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 9781139470216
Total Pages : pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (72 download)

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Book Synopsis The Origins of Yoga and Tantra by : Geoffrey Samuel

Download or read book The Origins of Yoga and Tantra written by Geoffrey Samuel and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2008-03-27 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Yoga, tantra and other forms of Asian meditation are practised in modernized forms throughout the world today, but most introductions to Hinduism or Buddhism tell only part of the story of how they developed. This book is an interpretation of the history of Indic religions up to around 1200 CE, with particular focus on the development of yogic and tantric traditions. It assesses how much we really know about this period, and asks what sense we can make of the evolution of yogic and tantric practices, which were to become such central and important features of the Indic religious scene. Its originality lies in seeking to understand these traditions in terms of the total social and religious context of South Asian society during this period, including the religious practices of the general population with their close engagement with family, gender, economic life and other pragmatic concerns.

Transformations and Transfer of Tantra in Asia and Beyond

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Author :
Publisher : Walter de Gruyter
ISBN 13 : 3110258110
Total Pages : 545 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (12 download)

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Book Synopsis Transformations and Transfer of Tantra in Asia and Beyond by : István Keul

Download or read book Transformations and Transfer of Tantra in Asia and Beyond written by István Keul and published by Walter de Gruyter. This book was released on 2012-01-27 with total page 545 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The essays in this volume, written by specialists working in the field of tantric studies, attempt to trace processes of transformation and transfer that occurred in the history of tantra from around the seventh century and up to the present. The volume gathers contributions on South Asia, Tibet, China, Mongolia, Japan, North America, and Western Europe by scholars from various academic disciplines, who present ongoing research and encourage discussion on significant themes in the growing field of tantric studies. In addition to the extensive geographical and temporal range, the chapters of the volume cover a wide thematic area, which includes modern Bengali tantric practitioners, tantric ritual in medieval China, the South Asian cults of the mother goddesses, the way of Buddhism into Mongolia, and countercultural echoes of contemporary tantric studies.

Living Mantra

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Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 3319963910
Total Pages : 215 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (199 download)

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Book Synopsis Living Mantra by : Mani Rao

Download or read book Living Mantra written by Mani Rao and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-09-15 with total page 215 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Living Mantra is an anthropology of mantra-experience among Hindu-tantric practitioners. In ancient Indian doctrine and legends, mantras perceived by rishis (seers) invoke deities and have transformative powers. Adopting a methodology that combines scholarship and practice, Mani Rao discovers a continuing tradition of visionaries (rishis/seers) and revelations in south India’s Andhra-Telangana. Both deeply researched and replete with fascinating narratives, the book reformulates the poetics of mantra-practice as it probes practical questions. Can one know if a vision is real or imagined? Is vision visual? Are deity-visions mediated by culture? If mantras are effective, what is the role of devotion? Are mantras language? Living Mantra interrogates not only theoretical questions, but also those a practitioner would ask: how does one choose a deity, for example, or what might bind one to a guru? Rao breaks fresh ground in redirecting attention to the moments that precede systematization and canon-formation, showing how authoritative sources are formed.

Tantra in Practice

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Publisher : Motilal Banarsidass Publ.
ISBN 13 : 9788120817784
Total Pages : 662 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (177 download)

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Book Synopsis Tantra in Practice by : David Gordon White

Download or read book Tantra in Practice written by David Gordon White and published by Motilal Banarsidass Publ.. This book was released on 2000 with total page 662 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tantra in Practice is the eight volume of Princeton Readings in Religions and the first substantial anthology of Tantric works ever to appear in English. The thirty-nine contributors, drawn from around the world, are leading scholars of Tantra. Each contributor has provided a translation of a key work, in most cases translated here for the first time. Each chapter in the volume begins with an introduction in which the translator discusses the history and influence of the work, identifying points of particular difficulty or interest. David White has provided a general introduction to the volume that serves as an ideal guide to the riches contained between the covers of this book. He has organized the volume thematically, providing fascinating juxtapositions of works from different regions, periods, and traditions. Two additional tables of contents are provided, organizing the works by tradition and by country of origin. The range of works represented here is remarkable, spanning the continent of Asia and the traditions of Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Islam over more than a millennium. With the publication this volume, the long disparaged and neglected Tantric traditions of Asia receive the attention they so rightly deserve. This is a groundbreaking work.

Language in the Buddhist Tantra of Japan

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Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1350037281
Total Pages : 254 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (5 download)

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Book Synopsis Language in the Buddhist Tantra of Japan by : Richard K. Payne

Download or read book Language in the Buddhist Tantra of Japan written by Richard K. Payne and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2018-08-09 with total page 254 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Language in the Buddhist Tantra of Japan dismantles the preconception that Buddhism is a religion of mystical silence, arguing that language is in fact central to the Buddhist tradition. By examining the use of 'extraordinary language'-evocations calling on the power of the Buddha-in Japanese Buddhist Tantra, Richard K. Payne shows that such language was not simply cultural baggage carried by Buddhist practitioners from South to East Asia. Rather, such language was a key element in the propagation of new forms of belief and practice. In contrast to Western approaches to the philosophy of language, which are grounded in viewing language as a form of communication, this book argues that it is the Indian and East Asian philosophies of language that shed light on the use of language in meditative and ritual practices in Japan. It also illuminates why language was conceived as an effective means of progress on the path from delusion to awakening.

Making Sense of Tantric Buddhism

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Publisher : Columbia University Press
ISBN 13 : 0231162413
Total Pages : 338 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (311 download)

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Book Synopsis Making Sense of Tantric Buddhism by : Christian K. Wedemeyer

Download or read book Making Sense of Tantric Buddhism written by Christian K. Wedemeyer and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2014-05-06 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Making Sense of Tantric Buddhism fundamentally rethinks the nature of the transgressive theories and practices of the Buddhist Tantric traditions, challenging the notion that the Tantras were “marginal” or primitive and situating them instead—both ideologically and institutionally—within larger trends in mainstream Buddhist and Indian culture. Critically surveying prior scholarship, Wedemeyer exposes the fallacies of attributing Tantric transgression to either the passions of lusty monks, primitive tribal rites, or slavish imitation of Saiva traditions. Through comparative analysis of modern historical narratives—that depict Tantrism as a degenerate form of Buddhism, a primal religious undercurrent, or medieval ritualism—he likewise demonstrates these to be stock patterns in the European historical imagination. Through close analysis of primary sources, Wedemeyer reveals the lived world of Tantric Buddhism as largely continuous with the Indian religious mainstream and deploys contemporary methods of semiotic and structural analysis to make sense of its seemingly repellent and immoral injunctions. Innovative, semiological readings of the influential Guhyasamaja Tantra underscore the text’s overriding concern with purity, pollution, and transcendent insight—issues shared by all Indic religions—and a large-scale, quantitative study of Tantric literature shows its radical antinomianism to be a highly managed ritual observance restricted to a sacerdotal elite. These insights into Tantric scripture and ritual clarify the continuities between South Asian Tantrism and broader currents in Indian religion, illustrating how thoroughly these “radical” communities were integrated into the intellectual, institutional, and social structures of South Asian Buddhism.

Yoga, Bhoga and Ardhanariswara

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Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1136516484
Total Pages : 259 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (365 download)

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Book Synopsis Yoga, Bhoga and Ardhanariswara by : Prem Saran

Download or read book Yoga, Bhoga and Ardhanariswara written by Prem Saran and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2012-04-27 with total page 259 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a social–scientific interpretation of the 15 centuries-old Hindu and Buddhist traditions of tantra. It is a self-reflexive study, informed by an insider’s empathy and the apprehension of an Indologist-cum-anthropologist who is also a mystic and an initiated practitioner of the cult himself. Using his personal praxis to inform his research, the author examines three core themes tantra: a ‘holonic’ mandalic individuality that conduces to the mystical experience; a positive valorisation of pleasure and play; and cultural attitudes of gender-mutuality and complementarity as neatly encapsulated in the icon of Shiva as Ardhanariswara. This analysis —as captured by the tantric mandalas of deities in intimate union who vividly enact the three themes — leads to his compelling metathesis, that of tantra serving as a permanent counterculture within Indic civilisation. This book should be of interest to those in anthropology, South Asian studies, religious studies, gender studies, psychology, and philosophy, as also the general reader.

The Ashgate Research Companion to Anthropology

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Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1317044118
Total Pages : 441 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (17 download)

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Book Synopsis The Ashgate Research Companion to Anthropology by : Andrew J. Strathern

Download or read book The Ashgate Research Companion to Anthropology written by Andrew J. Strathern and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-03-03 with total page 441 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This companion provides an indispensable overview of contemporary and classical issues in social and cultural anthropology. Although anthropology has expanded greatly over time in terms of the diversity of topics in which its practitioners engage, many of the broad themes and topics at the heart of anthropological thought remain perennially vital, such as understanding order and change, diversity and continuity, and conflict and co-operation in the reproduction of social life. Bringing together leading scholars in the field, the contributors to this volume provide us with thoughtful and fruitful ways of thinking about a number of contemporary and long-standing arenas of work where both established and more recent researchers are engaged. The companion begins by exploring classic topics such as Religion; Rituals; Language and Culture; Violence; and Gender. This is followed by a focus on current developments within the discipline including Human Rights; Globalization; and Diasporas and Cosmopolitanism. It provides an interesting and challenging look at the state of current thinking in anthropology, serving as a rich resource for scholars and students alike.

The Power of Tantra

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Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9788121618540
Total Pages : 167 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (185 download)

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Book Synopsis The Power of Tantra by : Nārāyaṇadatta Śrīmālī

Download or read book The Power of Tantra written by Nārāyaṇadatta Śrīmālī and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 167 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Chiefly letters to and from the author, an astrologer; elucidation of eight tantric sadhanas.