Download Introducing Tibetan Buddhism

Main topics covered
• Introduction
• Tibetan Buddhism in the People’s Republic of China
• Tibetan Buddhism in the Himalayas and the Tibetan diaspora
• Tibetan Buddhism in Mongolia, Buryatia, Tuva and
Kalmykia
• Tibetan Buddhism as a global religion
• Conclusion: Tibetan Buddhism in a new environment
Key points 1
• Tibetan Buddhism is a versatile and adaptable religion, and
despite the traumas of the Cultural Revolution and the
difficulties of Chinese rule more generally, it remains alive
within Chinese-controlled Tibet and is finding new followers
throughout the world.
• Within Chinese-controlled Tibet, the period of liberalization
in the 1980s has been followed by continuing attempts to
subordinate Tibetan Buddhism to state policy and intermittent
suppression where these attempts have failed.
Buddhism in Chinese-controlled Tibet
The new square constructed in front of the Jokhang in central Lhasa, 1987
Buddhism in Chinese-controlled Tibet
Samye Monastery under reconstruction, 1987
Key points 2
• Outside Chinese-controlled Tibet, Buddhist teaching and
practice traditions have continued and flourished among
culturally Tibetan populations in the Himalayas, among the
Tibetan diaspora, and increasingly among non-Tibetan
populations around the world. Tibetan Buddhism has also
undergone a revival among traditionally Buddhist populations
in independent Mongolia and in Mongolian regions of Russia
and China.
Tibetan Buddhism in India and Nepal
Namdrolling Monastery, South India. Photo by Ruth Rickard, 1991
Tibetan Buddhism in the West
Merigar Gompa, Italy. Photo by Helen Williams, 2011
Key points 3
• Tibetan Buddhism is taking on new forms as it becomes an
increasingly global religion and adapts to new languages and
to peoples from very different cultural backgrounds to that of
Tibet. The long-term consequences of this transformation are
difficult to foresee, but the religion as a whole is establishing
itself effectively on a global scale, and increasingly entering
into a dialogue with Western modes of thinking and
knowledge.