Customer Reviews

Magic & Ritual in Tibet

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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.

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.

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 +++

Perhaps incorrectly from a practitioners point of view -- since some of the practices outlined in this scholarly work require a teacher's guidance to practice -- this book is nontheless the most complete book of Tara practices in a scholarly format. For a devotee or practitioner, the better choice would be In Praise of Tara: Songs to the Saviouress (Paperback) by Martin Willson, because Martin approaches Tara with passion rather than a scholarly treatment and is equally as complete, but writes more from the point of view of a Tara devotee. For anyone interested in a complete and balanced scholarly view, I highly recommend The Cult of Tara (only the name particularly bothers me, since by any definition, there's no cult aspect to Tara practice or compassionate Buddhism) -- but the book is complete, learned, referenced and mostly unbiased -- and contains a wealth of information simply not found anywhere else. If I was studying Tibetan Buddhism, I would choose this book, if I was practicing I might chose Martin Wilson's book, or both. Highly recommended, despite the poor choice of title.