Tibetan Graduate Studies Seminar

The Preliminary Practices not only initiate practitioners into a specific tradition, but also more fundamentally, into Vajrayana Buddhism as it is practiced in contemporary Tibet. In this paper, I explore the Preliminary Practices of a specific group of Tibetan Buddhist women in Bongma Mayma a rural area of Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Qinghai Province. I focus specifically on the nuns and lay women who utilize this set of teachings and practices. The Preliminary Practices not only initiate practitioners into a specific tradition (that of the Drikung Kagyu and more specifically the Amitabha practices of this lineage), but also more fundamentally, into Vajrayana Buddhism as it is practiced in contemporary Tibet. Although monks and male lay practitioners in this region also tend to perform the same Preliminary Practices, I focus specifically on women because of their unique relationship with bodily labor.

Christopher Bell's talk about oracles, protector deities, and other mysteries The Dalai Lama has sought and trusted the advice of the Nechung Oracle for centuries. In that time, this powerful office has involved the Tibetan Buddhist protector deity Pehar, or his emanations, to possess a human medium and offer prophetic counsel periodically. But the mechanisms through which the institution of Nechung grew, and the contours of the close relationship between the bodhisattva and the god, have yet to receive sustained attention. The speaker will first outline the growth of the Nechung cult through three lenses - mythical, ritual, and institutional - before discussing the often obscure process of book publication as he makes his way through its final stages with this project.

In the late 12th century Yungdrung Bön text Grags pa gling grags a deity that has a special relationship to the Tibetan ruler plays a prominent part in the narrative of the Tibetan kings. However, it is not called sku bla but gur lha a term that would seem to be unknown in the imperial period Its characteristics and functions partly overlap with those of the sku bla but to a significant extent also those of the post imperial yul lha. My paper will focus on a study of the gur lha and suggest why this otherwise somewhat obscure term was given prominence in the narrative of the Grags pa gling grags.