This course examines the history of global engagement with Tibetan religions, including contemporary adoptions of Tibetan religious identities outside the Tibetan plateau. The course begins in the Buddhist past by examining some of the earliest recorded Tibetan debates on religious identity and authority. It then moves to the modern period to compare non-Tibetan depictions of Tibetan religious traditions with indigenous Tibetan forms of self-representation. The course thus addresses questions regarding the plurality of Tibetan religious identities from Buddhist to Bön to Islamic and the ways that these identities interact with historical romanticizations of Tibet.
This course examines the history of global engagement with Tibetan religions, including contemporary adoptions of Tibetan religious identities outside the Tibetan plateau. The course begins in the Buddhist past by examining some of the earliest recorded Tibetan debates on religious identity and authority. It then moves to the modern period to compare non-Tibetan depictions of Tibetan religious traditions with indigenous Tibetan forms of self-representation. The course thus addresses questions regarding the plurality of Tibetan religious identities from Buddhist to Bön to Islamic and the ways that these identities interact with historical romanticizations of Tibet.
