The Cult of Tara: Magic and Ritual in Tibet [Paperback]

Stephan Beyer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 12, 1978

The unique importance of Stephan Beyer's work is that it presents the living ritual of Tibetan Buddhists. The reader is made a witness to cultic proceedings through which the author guides him carefully.(Reprinted)

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 542 pages
• Publisher: University of California Press (June 12, 1978)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0520036352
• ISBN-13: 978-0520036352
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #721,678 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Steve Beyer -- scholar, adventurer, and expert on both jungle survival and plant hallucinogens -- is the author of Singing to the Plants, "the best book on ayahuasca yet" and "the most comprehensive examination of Amazonian shamanism ever written." Steve studied wilderness survival among the indigenous peoples of North and South America, and sacred plant medicine with traditional herbalists in North America and curanderos in the Upper Amazon, where he studied the healing plants with doña María Tuesta Flores and received coronación by banco ayahuasquero don Roberto Acho Jurama.

With doctoral degrees in both religious studies and psychology, Steve lived for a year and a half in a Tibetan monastery in the Himalayas, and has undertaken numerous four-day and four-night solo vision fasts in the desert wildernesses of New Mexico. He has studied the use of ayahuasca and other sacred plants in the Amazon, peyote in ceremonies of the Native American Church, and huachuma in Peruvian mesa rituals.

Steve has been described as a bridge between the modern world and the traditional teachings of Amazonian shamanism; he has been a tireless interpreter of the teachings of ayahuasca and advocate for the sacred plants. "I think the plants love us," he told an interviewer. "I have no idea why. We certainly have done nothing -- at least recently -- to deserve it. I think that they want us to be human beings again." And he adds: "All we can do, I think, is to ask ourselves how the sacred plants want us to live, how we can walk this medicine path in a sacred way, in right relationship."

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

41 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ian Myles Slater on: A Major Contribution, November 23, 2003

By 

Ian M. Slater "aylchanan" (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Cult of Tara: Magic and Ritual in Tibet (Paperback)

This is book is a richly detailed exposition of the major rituals and supporting belief systems of Tibetan Buddhist monastic communities. Beyer uses as his case study the wide-spread devotion to Tara (the Sanskrit form; in Tibetan, Dolma), the (paradoxically) female Bodhisattva who is regarded as one of the special patrons of Tibet. Basic and advanced forms of ritual and meditation are described, and there are attractive line drawings of many of the implements (as well as some not-so-clear, but interesting, black-and-white photographs).

There is an enormous amount of detail about elementary and advanced ritual activities, from those practices known to most lay-people to relatively less-known and complex meditation techniques, very much including the use of permanent objects and material and symbolic offerings. Of course, in a world-view in which the material world is itself an illusion, the differences between the tangible and the symbolic tend to fade away.

Beyer's exposition makes clear that the reported association with magic of Vajrayana Buddhism in particular, and the larger categories of Tantric Buddhism and Hinduism in general, is not a complete misrepresentation, but the natural result of a world-view in which magic is a real possibility. In Tibet, at least, the preferred solution has been to try to make sure that those who develop supernatural powers are also indoctrinated with strong ethical teachings; in other words, the specialists in religion.

This book is not, as a whole, easy reading, although the introductory chapters should present few obstacles. Beyer is enormously respectful of the religion and those who practice it, but his approach is analytical and, to some extent, critical / historical. Those interested mainly in devotional readings, including many of the texts Beyer cites or excerpts, might try Martin Willson's "In Praise of Tara: Songs to the Saviouress: Source Texts from India and Tibet on Buddhism's Great Goddess," which will also be of great interest to those who appreciate Beyer's handling of the material.

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book!, September 24, 2011

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A. Chaney - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Cult of Tara: Magic and Ritual in Tibet (Paperback)

One of the best books for the study and practice of Arya Tara, very few other texts can compare to this, and it was one of the first books translated for use in Tibetan Buddhism.

5.0 out of 5 stars Tara -- a Common Thread of Old Tibet +++, December 12, 2009

By 

Kevin Kiersky "oceaneagle" (Olympia, WA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Cult of Tara: Magic and Ritual in Tibet (Paperback)

The author of "The Cult of Tara", Stephan Beyer, has most cleverly and wisely chosen Tara as a way to unify study of magic and ritual in Tibet across the many Vajrayana, Bon and Shamanic branches of Tantric Yoga. This work is one of the most detailed presentations on circa-Tibetan Tantric practice. Stephan Beyer directly interacted with many actual living circa-Tibetans and thereby gained their trust and some good understanding of their Tantra. One can see that Stephan Beyer put a greatly inspired well-learned effort into "The Cult of Tara". It is so well-learned that one would likely have a good foundation for the cultural anthroplogy of circa-Tibetan shamanic religion -- if one were to add study of "The Cult of Tara" to "Civilized Shamans" by Geoffrey Samuel.

With all the apparent variety of shamanic religious tradition in circa-Tibet it is quite interesting that the very vast majority of circa-Tibetan Vajrayana, Bon and Shamanic folks have an inmost personal shrine to Tara -- the "Goddess" of Tibet. With the various levels of interpetation of the reality and meaning of an Entity such as Tara -- "Goddess" is only an approximate marker for Tara. A few like equivalents to Tara may be Isis of old Egypt, Sungoddess of Japan and Mary, Queen of Heaven. These three Ladies also having wide and deep meanings -- or maybe they are all of one She +++