|
Tibetan Buddhism's
Encounter With the West:
Before embarking on my
search for female identity in Tibetan Buddhism, it is necessary to present
to the reader the context of this work, together with the theoretical
approaches which I have used in writing it. On the face of it, a study of
a particular aspect of any religion may seem straightforward enough, but
in this case, the complexities are many. First of all, despite the fact
that Buddhism has become popular as a religious practice in the west, the
teachings of Tibetan Buddhism are little known generally, and are often
the subject of much imaginative speculation and misunderstanding, because
of what hasw been written about Tibet, its landscape, religion and people,
in the past. Secondly, although the major focus of the book is a search
for female identity in Tibetan Buddhism, this does not mean that the book
is purely about specific female symbols, or indeed about the lives of
specific women, but rather it examines the historical and institutional
context of the religion, as a means of analysing and understanding the
Tibetan religious philosophy of the female. As part of my analysis I have
had to take into account the contemporary encounter of Tibetan Buddhism
with the west, and the implications of that encounter, particularly in the
light of the importance placed by Tibetan Buddhists on the centrality of
sexual imagery in their religious icons and texts.
There can be few
people in the west who, on hearing the name of Tibet, do not conjure up
pictures in their minds of vast mountainous landscapes, mysterious
Buddhist monasteries and magical rituals. I was certainly one of them, and
at the early age of ten decided that one day I would travel to Tibet and
become a Buddhist. As it turned out, only one of my wishes came true, for
in 1959 the Chinese Government annexed Tibet and it became virtually
closed to outside visitors, and the Tibetan religious traditios were
severely repressed by the communist regime which replaced the ancient
theocracy. At the outset, however, the heads of the four main schools of
Tibetan Buddhism (the Nyingma, Kagyu, Sakya and gelug) fled into exile in
India with about 80,000 followers, and there they established new
monasteries in their refugee communities which kept alive the spirit and
traditions of their homeland. Two young Tibetan lamas of the Kagyu lineage
eventually found their way to the United Kingdom, and in 1967 opened the
first Tibetan religious centre in the west, in the borders of Scotland,
where I met them the following year, and became a Buddhist by 'taking
refuge'. Shortly afterwards, I set out for the foothills of the Himalayas
to a nunnery run by a small community of Tibetans in exile and it was
there that I began my studies of the Tibetan language and the philosophy
of Buddhism, known as the dharma. Much later, in the 1970s, I traveled
throughout Europe and North America as a Tibetan interpreter, providing
the link, through language, between my lama-guru and his many students.
Subsequently he requested that I become his sexual consort, and take part
in secret activities with him, despite the fact that to outsiders he was a
very high-ranking yogi-lama of the Kagyu lineage who, as abbot of his own
monastery, had taken vows of celibacy. Given that he was one of the oldest
lamas in exile at that time, had personally spent fourteen years in
solitary retreat, and counted amongst his students the highest ranking
lamas in Tibet, his own status was unquestioned in the Tibetan community,
and his holiness attested to by all. As I describe in Chapter 6, these
events took place under unusual conditions, and were to have a profound
effect on my whole relationship with the Tibetan Buddhist religion.
(to be cont'd)
Return to Table of Contents
|