A Propos the Historical Study of Reincarnate Lamas in Tibetan Societies: The Dalai Lama and the Emperor of China by P. Schwieger

The Tibetan practice of recognising an individual as the conscious rebirth of a Buddhist saint has been a puzzling tradition to the outsider. Trülku literally refers to an earthly emanation body of a Buddha who manifests for the welfare of sentient beings. It is even more remarkable that the custom...

Description complète

Enregistré dans:  
Détails bibliographiques
Auteur principal: Rheingans, Jim (Auteur)
Type de support: Électronique Review
Langue:Anglais
Vérifier la disponibilité: HBZ Gateway
Journals Online & Print:
En cours de chargement...
Fernleihe:Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste
Publié: Wiley-Blackwell 2021
Dans: Journal of religious history
Année: 2021, Volume: 45, Numéro: 4, Pages: 659-667
RelBib Classification:BL Bouddhisme
KBM Asie
Sujets non-standardisés:B Compte-rendu de lecture
Accès en ligne: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Description
Résumé:The Tibetan practice of recognising an individual as the conscious rebirth of a Buddhist saint has been a puzzling tradition to the outsider. Trülku literally refers to an earthly emanation body of a Buddha who manifests for the welfare of sentient beings. It is even more remarkable that the custom of recognising trülkus and institutionalising them through monastic estates is an innovation mainly found in the Tibetan cultural sphere. Peter Schwieger's The Dalai Lama and the Emperor of China: A Political History of the Tibetan Institution of Reincarnation (New York: Columbia University Press, 2015) is a substantial and necessary study, providing the first detailed exploration of the trülkü phenomenon as an institution from the perspective of political history. Focussing on the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries and the politics surrounding the institution of reincarnation between the office of the Dalai Lamas, the Chinese Qing emperors, and Mongol chieftains, it employs a vast number of previously underused sources such as legal and administrative documents. Reviewing Schwieger's study, this article discusses some other recent works about the trülku system and briefly reflects on the usage of sources for Tibetan history and the issue of researching the topic of reincarnation as such.
ISSN:1467-9809
Contient:Enthalten in: Journal of religious history
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1111/1467-9809.12801