The Ethnography Of Tantra

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The Ethnography of Tantra

Carola E. Lorea,Rohit Singh
The Ethnography of Tantra Book PDF

Author : Carola E. Lorea,Rohit Singh
Publisher : State University of New York Press
Page : 460 pages
File Size : 50,6 Mb
Release : 2023-11-01
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781438494852

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The Ethnography of Tantra by Carola E. Lorea,Rohit Singh Pdf

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

Katherine Anne Harper,Robert L. Brown
The Roots of Tantra Book PDF

Author : Katherine Anne Harper,Robert L. Brown
Publisher : State University of New York Press
Page : 281 pages
File Size : 48,5 Mb
Release : 2012-02-01
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780791488904

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The Roots of Tantra by Katherine Anne Harper,Robert L. Brown Pdf

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 scholars. In addition, Tantrism is not confined to any particular religion, but is a set of beliefs and practices that appears in a variety of religions, including Hinduism and Buddhism. This book explores one of the most controversial aspects of Tantra, its sources or roots, specifically in regard to Hinduism. The essays focus on the history and development of Tantra, the art history and archaeology of Tantra, the Vedas and Tantra, and texts and Tantra. Using various disciplinary and methodological approaches, from history to art history and religious studies to textual studies, scholars provide both broad overviews of the beginnings of Tantra and detailed analyses of specific texts, authors, art works, and rituals.

Tibetan Magic

Cameron Bailey,Aleksandra Wenta
Tibetan Magic Book PDF

Author : Cameron Bailey,Aleksandra Wenta
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
Page : 265 pages
File Size : 46,5 Mb
Release : 2024-03-07
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781350354951

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Tibetan Magic by Cameron Bailey,Aleksandra Wenta Pdf

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, Ritual Performance, and Politics in Nepal and Kerala

Matthew Martin
Tantra Ritual Performance and Politics in Nepal and Kerala Book PDF

Author : Matthew Martin
Publisher : BRILL
Page : 308 pages
File Size : 46,6 Mb
Release : 2020-08-10
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9789004439023

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Tantra, Ritual Performance, and Politics in Nepal and Kerala by Matthew Martin Pdf

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.

Tantra in Practice

David Gordon White
Tantra in Practice Book PDF

Author : David Gordon White
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Page : 661 pages
File Size : 48,7 Mb
Release : 2018-06-26
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780691190457

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Tantra in Practice by David Gordon White Pdf

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.

The Origins of Yoga and Tantra

Geoffrey Samuel
The Origins of Yoga and Tantra Book PDF

Author : Geoffrey Samuel
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 429 pages
File Size : 48,6 Mb
Release : 2008-03-27
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781139470216

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The Origins of Yoga and Tantra by Geoffrey Samuel Pdf

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.

Tantra, Magic, and Vernacular Religions in Monsoon Asia

Andrea Acri,Paolo E. Rosati
Tantra Magic and Vernacular Religions in Monsoon Asia Book PDF

Author : Andrea Acri,Paolo E. Rosati
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
Page : 280 pages
File Size : 49,5 Mb
Release : 2022-11-03
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781000686449

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Tantra, Magic, and Vernacular Religions in Monsoon Asia by Andrea Acri,Paolo E. Rosati Pdf

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.

Yoga, Bhoga and Ardhanariswara

Prem Saran
Yoga Bhoga and Ardhanariswara Book PDF

Author : Prem Saran
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 259 pages
File Size : 54,8 Mb
Release : 2012-04-27
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781136516481

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Yoga, Bhoga and Ardhanariswara by Prem Saran Pdf

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.

Transformations and Transfer of Tantra in Asia and Beyond

István Keul
Transformations and Transfer of Tantra in Asia and Beyond Book PDF

Author : István Keul
Publisher : Walter de Gruyter
Page : 545 pages
File Size : 43,5 Mb
Release : 2012-01-27
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9783110258110

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Transformations and Transfer of Tantra in Asia and Beyond by István Keul Pdf

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

Mani Rao
Living Mantra Book PDF

Author : Mani Rao
Publisher : Springer
Page : 215 pages
File Size : 42,6 Mb
Release : 2018-09-15
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9783319963914

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Living Mantra by Mani Rao Pdf

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.

The Roots of Tantra

Katherine Anne Harper,Robert L. Brown
The Roots of Tantra Book PDF

Author : Katherine Anne Harper,Robert L. Brown
Publisher : SUNY Press
Page : 284 pages
File Size : 47,5 Mb
Release : 2002-05-17
Category : Religion
ISBN : 0791453065

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The Roots of Tantra by Katherine Anne Harper,Robert L. Brown Pdf

An exploration of the sources of Tantra.

Death, Materiality and Mediation

Barbara Graham
Death Materiality and Mediation Book PDF

Author : Barbara Graham
Publisher : Berghahn Books
Page : 174 pages
File Size : 51,8 Mb
Release : 2016-11-01
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781785332838

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Death, Materiality and Mediation by Barbara Graham Pdf

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.

Making Sense of Tantric Buddhism

Christian K. Wedemeyer
Making Sense of Tantric Buddhism Book PDF

Author : Christian K. Wedemeyer
Publisher : Columbia University Press
Page : 338 pages
File Size : 45,7 Mb
Release : 2014-05-06
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780231162418

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Making Sense of Tantric Buddhism by Christian K. Wedemeyer Pdf

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.

The Ashgate Research Companion to Anthropology

Andrew J. Strathern
The Ashgate Research Companion to Anthropology Book PDF

Author : Andrew J. Strathern
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 440 pages
File Size : 43,5 Mb
Release : 2016-03-03
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781317044109

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The Ashgate Research Companion to Anthropology by Andrew J. Strathern Pdf

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.

Religious Experience in the Hindu Tradition

June McDaniel
Religious Experience in the Hindu Tradition Book PDF

Author : June McDaniel
Publisher : MDPI
Page : 198 pages
File Size : 44,7 Mb
Release : 2019-07-31
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9783039210503

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Religious Experience in the Hindu Tradition by June McDaniel Pdf

This book is a printed edition of the Special Issue Religious Experience in the Hindu Tradition that was published in Religions