Subtle Bodies, Wrathful Deities and Men in Buddhist Tantric Traditions

Authors

  • Louise Child Author

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/rosa.v1i1.29

Keywords:

Buddhism, Durkheim, gender, magic, Mauss, ‘subtle body’, Tantra

Abstract

Combining fearsome images, ‘magical’ rites of subjugation and challenging portrayals of sexuality, wrathful deities appear to epitomize all that makes tantric Buddhism distant from early Buddhism’s traditional orientations. On one level, this distance can be attributed to processes of incorporation of ‘demonic’ elements from other indigenous religious traditions. Drawing from the theoretical perspectives of Durkheim and Mauss, however, I will argue that it is precisely this motif of ‘incorporation’ that not only gives wrathful deities their distinctive potency, but also positions them at the centre of the ambivalence that is tantric Buddhism. While the tantric Siddha, in common with Mauss’s magician, incorporates bodily leavings and peripheral rites, he also, I suggest, absorbs and negotiates potentially poisonous emotional states such as terror and anger through the medium of the subtle body, thereby forming a model of masculinity that is both a defining force within tantric Buddhism and suggestive of further investigation within anthropological studies of male cultures more broadly.

References

Aris, M. 1989. Hidden Treasures and Secret Lives: A Study of Permalingpa (1450–1521) and the Sixth Dalai Lama (1683–1706). London and New York: Kegan Paul.

Bloss, L. W. 1978. ‘The Taming of Mara: Witnessing to the Buddha’s Virtues.’ History of Religion 18: 158-76.

Boord, M. J. 1993. The Cult of the Deity Vajrakila. Tring: Institute of Buddhist Studies.

Caillois, R. 1959. Man and the Sacred. Illinois: The Free Press of Gencoe.

Cantwell, C. 1997. ‘To Meditate upon Consciousness as Vajra: Ritual “Killing and Liberation” in the Rhying-Ma-Pa Tradition.’ In Krasser, Helmut, et al., Tibetan Studies: Proceedings of the 7th Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies: I,107-18. General ed. Steinkeller, E.; 2 vols.; Vienna: Verlag der Osterreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften.

Child, L. 2003. ‘Mantras and Spells: Durkheim and Mauss, Religious Speech and Tantric Buddhism.’ Durkheimian Studies 9: 58-67.

—2007 (forthcoming). Tantric Buddhism and Altered States of Consciousness: Durkheim, Emotional Energy and Visions of the Consort. Aldershot: Ashgate.

Davidson, R. M. 2002. Indian Esoteric Buddhism: A Social History of the Tantric Movement. New York: Columbia University Press.

Dowman, K. 1996. Sky Dancer: The Secret Life and Songs of the Lady Yeshe Tsogyel. New York: Snow Lion.

Durkheim, E. 1968 [1897]. Incest: The Nature and Origins of the Taboo. Trans. Sagarin, E.; New York: Lyle Stuart.

—1995 [1912]. The Elementary Forms of Religious Life. Trans. Fields, Karen E.; New York: The Free Press.

Edou, J. 1996. Machig Labdron and the Foundation of Chod. Ithaca: New York.

George, C. S. (trans.). 1974. The Candamaharonsana Tantra, Chapters 1-8: A Critical Edition and English Translation. New Haven, CT: America Oriental Society.

Guenther, H. V. 1995 [1963]. The Life and Teachings of Naropa. Boston and London: Shambhala Publications.

Gyatso, J. 2006. ‘A Partial Genealogy of the Lifestory of Ye shes mtsho rgyal.’ Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies 2: 1-27.

Hertz, R. 1960 [1909]. Death and the Right Hand. Trans. Needham, R. and C.; Aberdeen: Cohen & West.

Hubert, H., and Mauss. M., 1964 [1898]. Sacrifice: Its Nature and Function. Trans. Halls, W. D.; London: Cohen & West.

Jackson, R. R. 1992. ‘Ambiguous Sexuality: Imagery and Interpretation in Tantric Buddhism.’ Religion 22: 85-100.

Kapstein, M. T. 2000. The Tibetan Assimilation of Buddhism: Conversion, Contestation, and Memory. Oxford: Oxford University Press

Karmay, S. G. 1988. Secret Visions of the Fifth Dalai Lama. London: Serinda Press.

Ling, T. 1962. Buddhism and the Mythology of Evil: A Study in Theravada Buddhism. London: George Allen & Unwin.

Linrothe, R. 1999. Ruthless Compassion: Wrathful Deities in Early Indo-Tibetan Esoteric Art. London: Serinda Publications.

Marko, A. 2003 [1990]. ‘Civilizing Woman the Demon: A Tibetan Myth of State.’ In McKay, A., (ed.), The History of Tibet. I. The Early Period to AD 850, the Yarlung Dynasty: 322-35. Richmond: Routledge Curzon.

Mauss, M., with Hubert, H. 1972 [1904]. A General Theory of Magic. Trans. Brain, R.; London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

Mayer, R. 1990. ‘Tibetan Phu.pas and Indian Kilas.’ Tibet Journal 15: 3-14

—1998. ‘The Figure of Mahesvara/Rudra in the rNin-ma-pa Tantric Tradition.’ Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 21: 271-310.

Mullin, G. 1988. Path of the Bodhisattva Warrior: The Life and Teachings of the Thirteenth Dalai Lama. Trans. Mullin, Glen H.; Ithaca, New York: Show Lion Publications.

Samuel, G. 1989. ‘The Body in Hindu and Buddhist Tantra: Some Notes.’ Religion 19: 197-210. doi:10.1016/0048-721X(89)90019-5

—1990. Mind, Body and Culture: Anthropology and the Biological Interface. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

—1993. Civilized Shamans: Buddhism in Tibetan Societies. Washington and London: Smithsonian Institution Press.

Sanderson, A. 1994. ‘Vajrayana: Origin and Function.’ In Proceedings: Buddhism into the Year 2000: 87-102. Bangkok and Los Angeles: Dhammakaya Foundation.

Schopen, G. 1997. Bones, Stones, and Buddhist Monks: Collected Papers on the Archaeology, Epigraphy, and Texts of Monastic Buddhism in India. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.

Shaw, M. 1994. Passionate Enlightenment: Women in Tantric Buddhism. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Snellgrove, D. L. 1987. Indo-Tibetan Buddhism: Indian Buddhists and their Tibetan Successors. London: Serinda Publications.

Stott. D. 1989. ‘Offering the Body: The Practice of Chod in Tibetan Buddhism.’ Religion 19: 221-25.

Sutherland, G. H. 1991. Disguises of the Demon: the Development of the Yaksa in Hinduism and Buddhism. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.

Tucci, G. 1980 [1970]. The Religions of Tibet. Translation of Die Religionen Tibets from the German and Italian by Samuel, G.; London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

Turner, V. W. 1968. The Drums of Affliction: A Study of Religious Processes among the Ndembu of Zambia. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Urban, H. B. 2003. Tantra: Sex, Secrecy, Politics, and Power in the Study of Religion. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

Williams, P., with Tribe, A. 2000. Buddhist Thought: A Complete Introduction to the Indian Tradition. London and New York: Routledge.

Published

2007-06-01

Issue

Section

Articles

How to Cite

Child, L. (2007). Subtle Bodies, Wrathful Deities and Men in Buddhist Tantric Traditions. Religions of South Asia, 1(1), 29-45. https://doi.org/10.1558/rosa.v1i1.29