Following the upheavals of the Cultural Revolution, the People's Republic of China gradually permitted the renewal of religious activity. Tibetans, whose traditional religious and cultural institutions had been decimated during the preceding two decades, took advantage of the decisions of 1978 to begin a Buddhist renewal that is one of the most extensive and dramatic examples of religious revitalization in contemporary China. The nature of that revival is the focus of this book.

This book, first published in 1961, examines the old Tibetan Bon religion, the development of Buddhism in India and Tibet, and covers the religious struggles of the eighth and ninth centuries. It also describes the rise of the Lamaist sects and the priest state of the Dalai Lamas, and taken as a whole is a study of the development of the character of Tibet itself.

Incl. illust. and maps - Buddhism, China, Tibet, History

Very little is known in the West about Tibetan Buddhism in comparison with other eastern religions. This is partly because the vast literature which it has produced, and which illuminates its history, is still far from accessible. In addition there exists a deep division between monastic Lamaism and religion as it is lived by the people: the former is fragmented into many schools, while the latter shows numerous regional variations. The first comprehensive account of Tibetan Buddhism to be published in English since Waddell's "Buddhism of Tibet" appeared in 1894, this translation is certain to become the standard reference work on the subject.

The Bon religion claims to be the original and authentic religion of the Tibetan people, and to have been firmly established in the Land of Snows long before Buddhism was introduced in the seventh century AD. Although its adherents were gradually reduced to a minority, Bon has nevertheless continued to flourish in many areas up to the present day in Tibet, especially in the eastern and north-eastern regions where a reconstruction and renaissance is taking place, as well as within the Bon community in exile in India. The iconography of the Bon religion is presented through a series of thangkas, miniatures and bronzes from public and private collections in the West, as well as from communities within Tibet and in exile. With a few exceptions they are hitherto unpublished and date from the late fourteenth to mid-twentieth centuries. The peaceful, tutelary, protector and local deities as well as the Bon siddhas, lamas and dakinis are identified and fully described by means of excerpts from ritual or biographical texts which are translated here for the first time.

This volume forms a sequel to the author`s Tibet: Past and Present and The people of Tibet. Like them, it is in part a historical account, in part a description of conditions in the earlier part of the twentieth century. Sir Charles Bell traces the history of the introduction to Buddhism, of the resistance and general decay of the older magic-worship of Ponism, and of the developments which have taken place within Tibetan Buddhism itself. The latter part of the book deals more particularly with the religious organization, with life in the great monasteries and with the religious customs and beliefs of the people. The illustrations are from the author`s own photographs taken in Tibet, Sikkim and Bhutan.

This book provides the historical background and description of Buddhism in Tibet, clarifying the uniqueness of Tibetan Buddhism.