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In Search of Bön,
the
Pre-Buddhist Religion of Tibet and the Himalayas
A
review of Sacred Landscape and Pilgrimage in Tibet: In Search
of the Lost Kingdom of Bön, by Geshe Gelek Jinpa, Charles
Ramble and Carroll Dunham, with photo-graphs by Thomas L. Kelly
(New York & London: Abbeville Press, 2005)
Sacred
Landscape and Pilgrimage in Tibet is a one-of-a-kind modern guidebook
to the Bön religious geography of northwestern Nepal and
western Tibet. It is what is sometimes called a ‘coffee-table’
book—full of magnificent photos and interesting text written
in a very reader-friendly fashion by scholars of Tibetan life,
culture and religion: Geshe Gelek Jinpa, Charles Ramble, and Carroll
Dunham, and photographer Tom Kelly. Together, theirs is the story
of a pilgrimage in search of the roots and remnants of the ancient
Bön religion. It is about discovering some of the early roots
of Bön, and its contemporary practice, that this book is
all about.
To the casual observer, Tibet appears to have one religion–Buddhism,
with its lamas and nuns and reincarnates, and its beautiful monasteries
and reliquaries in towns and cities, and also in remote and isolated
mountain locations. Actually, Tibet and the adjacent Himalayas
have two major religions, the other being Bön. The religious
practices, dress and architecture of both religions look almost
identical.
Tibetan Buddhism has four main schools, or sects: Gelugpa, Kagyupa,
Nyingmapa and Sakyapa. (The Dalai Lama belongs to the Gelugpa
sect.) The Bön religion, often regarded as just another sect
of Buddhism, stands on its own. For example, where the origins
of Buddhism are traced to Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha (born
at Lumbini, in southern Nepal), the origins of Bön are traced
to a founder named Tonpa Shenrab, of whom the Bönpo (followers
of Bön) believe the Buddha was a later incarnation.
In practice, Bön appears almost indistinguishable from Tibetan
Buddhism, quite like the Nyingmapa sect. That term ‘almost
indistinguishable’, however, is crucial, for there are some
outstanding differences. For example, where red is a common color
in Tibetan Buddhism, blue is more prevalent in Bön, and where
Buddhists circumambulate sacred sites (like stupas and monasteries)
in a clockwise fashion, the Bönpo go counterclockwise. (I
remember the first time I trekked with a mix of Bön and Buddhist
companions, watching in awe as some went one way around prayer
walls, while others went opposite.) There are other distinctions
between the two religions especially in doctrine, but in the end
the attainment of Buddhahood is their mutual goal.
To Bönpo and Buddhists alike, the attainment of enlightenment
is sought, in part, by going on a sacred pilgrimage. The authors
of this book did just that, first (at the beginning of the book)
to certain
ancient Bön locations in western Nepal, then on into Western
Tibet to the geographical religious holy-of-holies: Lake Manasarovar
and Mt Kailash. Near the end of the book, the authors describe
their quest to find remnants of the 1500 year old Bön kingdom
of Zhangzhung, one of the highest ancient civilizations ever recorded
(at 14,000 to 18,000 feet above sea level).
All parts of this book are fascinating, starting with the lifestyles
and rituals of the Bön-related shamanic Nyinba people of
far northwest Nepal. There are some intriguing pictures from Humla
of shaman priests and their ritual assistants, dhamis and dangres,
in communication with the gods, as well as views of common village
life in this remote area. Several Nepali priests from Humla accompanied
the authors on the rest of their pilgrimage across the border
into Tibet. Photos of parts of the pilgrimage route through the
mountains reveal an old Nepal unaffected by motor roads, modern
bridges or mechanized farming.
The chapters on Lake Manasarovar and Mt Kailash stand out for
their colorful depiction of the pilgrims’
journey to and around these sacred sites, and for the high relief
geography that they passed through. At one point, the authors
remark on the relationship between geography and culture: “One
of the most obvious features of Tibetan geography... is its strikingly
vertical character. The motif of height is constantly emphasized
in popular celebrations of the landscape, a stock formula in the
earliest literature, and a favorite theme in folksongs and prayers.”
They go on to say that “Perhaps the most fundamental
example is the layering of the world into three levels, with humans
sandwiched between gods and serpent spirits...”
About
the Authors
Thomas
L. Kelly is a well known photographer who resides
in Kathmandu with his wife, Carroll Dunham, and their
children.
Geshe Gelek Jinpa was born into a nomad’s
family in the Kham region of eastern Tibet. Like many
young Tibetans, he eventually found his way across the
Himalayas to South Asia where he earned his doctorate
in Bön theology at the Triten Norbutse Monastery
in Nepal. (A Geshe is the equivalent of a PhD in Divinity,
though to Tibetans it means something more like ‘Spiritual
Friend’.) He lives in Kathmandu where he teaches
and leads pilgrimages.
Charles
Ramble is a Lecturer in Tibetan and Himalayan
Studies at Oxford University in the UK. In Nepal he has
conducted research on Bön religion in Mustang District.
He has authored scholarly articles with such relevant
titles as ‘The creation of the Bön mountain
of Kongpo’, ‘Gaining ground: representations
of territory in Bön and Tibetan popular tradition’
and ‘Zhang-zhung imagined’. He is co-author
of Sacred Landscape in the Himalaya and Anthropology of
Tibet and the Himalaya.
Carroll Dunham is an anthropologist,
documentary film maker and director of Wild Earth, an
herbal products cooperative in Nepal. She is the author
of The Hidden Himalayas (photographs by Tom Kelly) and
co-author of Tibet: Reflections from the Wheel of Life,
with Tom Kelly and Ian Baker
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The
book is as much a geography text as a religious and archaeological
sourcebook, as well as Geshe Gelek Jinpa’s personal story
about seeking the spiritual and historical origins of Bön.
The ‘Afterword’, ‘Bön in the Twenty-first
Century’, is an insightful essay that puts the fate and
future of Bön into modern perspective. It begins with this
observation: “More than a thousand years after its eclipse,
Zhangzhung is rising again. Its silent ruins and mute language
are gradually giving up their secrets to archaeologists and linguists,
while the idea of the forgotten country itself has become the
refuge for a region and a religion that see themselves as distinct
from the Buddhist dominion of central Tibet and the modern imperium
of Communist China.”
Sacred
Landscape and Pilgrimage in Tibet is distributed in Kathmandu
by Vajra Books in Jyatha, near Thamel. Phone: 422.0562.
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