Ocult Books

THIS paper represents a first attempt to formulate the processes
and presuppositions of Tibetan Buddhist ritual, a field
that has been left relatively untouched by Western scholars.
One finds oneself almost immediately intimidated by the vast
amount of material to be covered, even though there remains only
a decimated literary debris carried from Tibet by refugees of the
Chinese occupation. Here the problem of organization becomes
acute. Ferdinand Lessing, in his often neglected classic Yung-hokung,
1 attempted to deal with the unwieldy mass of material at his
disposal by discussing the rituals that took place in the various
halls of this large temple complex, but the promise of this projected
multivolume series remained unfulfilled at his death. David Snellgrove,
taking a similarly localized approach in his Buddhist Himalaya,
2 discussed the ceremonies he had seen performed at Chiwang
Monastery. Rene de Nebesky-Wojkowitz, on the other hand, in
his brilliant compendium Oracles and Demons of Tibet,3 organized
his material around the cult and iconography of the Tibetan protective
deities, approaching the problem through the rituals of a class
of deities rather than of a particular place.
These works together constitute a standard of presentation which
is difficult to meet. All three authors clearly felt deep bonds of
affection for and sympathy with the Tibetans, and their works are
important in their attempt to capture the spirit of a living tradition
and to describe a practice of Buddhism which is still a vital force
among aiv entire people.
The present work is an extension of their approach, for Snellgrove's
concern for the history of Buddhism, and Lessing's and
Nebesky-Wojkowitz's concern for its iconography, limited the space
they had available in their books for detailed analyses of the complexities
of Tibetan ritual. As Lessing himself said, "A book could
well be written describing in detail these rites alone, with the ritual
books translated, annotated and illustrated by sketches, draw-
ings and photographs."4 This is, in essence, what I have tried to
do, and I have further attempted to throw light on the basic ritual
structures that underlie the relatively few rituals with which I deal,
hoping that these patterns may be extended and used as formulas
in the interpretation of other Tibetan rituals.

579 pages | 20.6 MB