Death and Reincarnation in Tibetan Buddhism: In-Between Bodies

by Tanya Zivkovic

Contextualising the seemingly esoteric and exotic aspects of Tibetan Buddhist culture within the everyday, embodied and sensual sphere of religious praxis, this book centres on the social and religious lives of deceased Tibetan Buddhist lamas. It explores how posterior forms – corpses, relics, reincarnations and hagiographical representations – extend a lama’s trajectory of lives and manipulate biological imperatives of birth and death. The book looks closely at previously unexamined figures whose history is relevant to a better understanding of how Tibetan culture navigates its own understanding of reincarnation, the veneration of relics and different social roles of different types of practitioners. It analyses both the minutiae of everyday interrelations between lamas and their devotees, specifically noted in ritual performances and the enactment of lived tradition, and the sacred hagiographical conventions that underpin local knowledge. A phenomenology of Tibetan Buddhist life, the book provides an ethnography of the everyday embodiment of Tibetan Buddhism. This unusual approach offers a valuable and a genuine new perspective on Tibetan Buddhist culture and is of interest to researchers in the fields of social/cultural anthropology and religious, Buddhist and Tibetan studies.

168 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2013

Reviews

[Signe Cohen · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent study of the notions of death, reincarnation, memory, and embodiment in Tibetan Buddhism, based on the author's ethnographic resarch among Tibetans in Darjeeling. The ethnography is lively and fun to read, and her theoretical insights compelling. Absolutely worth reading.