Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- Notes on contributors
- Introduction
- 1 Scientology, scripture, and sacred tradition
- 2 “He may be lying but what he says is true”: the sacred tradition of don Juan as reported by Carlos Castaneda, anthropologist, trickster, guru, allegorist
- 3 The invention of sacred tradition: Mormonism
- 4 Antisemitism, conspiracy culture, Christianity, and Islam: the history and contemporary religious significance of the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion
- 5 The invention of a counter-tradition: the case of the North American anti-cult movement
- 6 “Heavenly deception”? Sun Myung Moon and Divine Principle
- 7 “Forgery” in the New Testament
- 8 Three phases of inventing Rosicrucian tradition in the seventeenth century
- 9 A name for all and no one: Zoroaster as a figure of authorization and a screen of ascription
- 10 The peculiar sleep: receiving The Urantia Book
- 11 Ontology of the past and its materialization in Tibetan treasures
- 12 Pseudo-Dionysius: the mediation of sacred traditions
- 13 Spurious attribution in the Hebrew Bible
- 14 Inventing Paganisms: making nature
- Index
- References
11 - Ontology of the past and its materialization in Tibetan treasures
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 September 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- Notes on contributors
- Introduction
- 1 Scientology, scripture, and sacred tradition
- 2 “He may be lying but what he says is true”: the sacred tradition of don Juan as reported by Carlos Castaneda, anthropologist, trickster, guru, allegorist
- 3 The invention of sacred tradition: Mormonism
- 4 Antisemitism, conspiracy culture, Christianity, and Islam: the history and contemporary religious significance of the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion
- 5 The invention of a counter-tradition: the case of the North American anti-cult movement
- 6 “Heavenly deception”? Sun Myung Moon and Divine Principle
- 7 “Forgery” in the New Testament
- 8 Three phases of inventing Rosicrucian tradition in the seventeenth century
- 9 A name for all and no one: Zoroaster as a figure of authorization and a screen of ascription
- 10 The peculiar sleep: receiving The Urantia Book
- 11 Ontology of the past and its materialization in Tibetan treasures
- 12 Pseudo-Dionysius: the mediation of sacred traditions
- 13 Spurious attribution in the Hebrew Bible
- 14 Inventing Paganisms: making nature
- Index
- References
Summary
In a mode of revelation particular to Tibetan and Himalayan regions, traces of the past are reportedly embedded in the landscape as terma or “treasures” (gter ma). Hidden away for future generations, these treasures may be esoteric texts, relics, images, sacred dances, ritual implements, medicinal substances, jewels, natural resources, and even whole valleys. The Tibetan propensity for burying valuables during periods of political uncertainty is an indigenous antecedent for the treasure phenomenon cited by scholars. There are also well-known Indian antecedents in stories of the concealment and retrieval of Buddhist scriptures and relics, most famously the Prajñāpāramitā sūtras. Beyond these antecedents, treasure revelation relies on what I will be analyzing as an ontological conception of the past, whereby an idealized historical period is rooted in timelessness and continues to be accessed in the present. Treasure revelation can be described as a process of recovering such a past, believed to be concealed in the Tibetan and Himalayan landscape as esoteric teachings and sacred objects, intended for the people of particular times and places.
Treasure revelation draws on the authority of the past associated with the “early propagation” (snga dar) of Buddhism in Tibet under the stewardship of kings during the seventh to ninth centuries. In later renderings of this period, three kings in particular – Songtsen Gampo, Trisong Detsen, and Ralpacan – are hailed as devout sponsors of Buddhism and identified as dharmarājas (religious kings) and bodhisattvas (awakened beings).
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Invention of Sacred Tradition , pp. 213 - 240Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2007
References
- 1
- Cited by