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Journal of the American Academy of Religion 2005 73(3):813-841; doi:10.1093/jaarel/lfi080
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© The Author 2005. Published by Oxford University Press, on behalf of the American Academy of Religion. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oupjournals.org

On Mandalas, Monarchs, and Mortuary Magic: Siting the Sarvadurgatiparisodhana Tantra in Tibet

Zeff Bjerken

Associate professor in the Department of Religious Studies at the College of Charleston, Charleston, SC 29424

Recent scholarship on Indian Buddhist esotericism identifies the individual practitioner’s pursuit of kingship and dominion as the central defining metaphor of Tantric literature. From this perspective the mandala is not simply a gnostic symbol of enlightenment but a model used for the realization of a Buddhist feudal polity. This article extends this line of argument by explaining why one Indian Buddhist text, the Sarvadurgatiparisodhana Tantra (SDPS), would play an important role in the conversion of Tibet to Buddhism. Drawing upon the theories of J. Z. Smith on locative religion and ritual, I argue that the ubiquitous mandalas featured in this text serve as "maps" and modes of emplacement that have political ramifications for an emerging Buddhist polity in Tibet. The mandalas, sovereignty symbolism, and mortuary rites of this text also undermine the indigenous model of divine kingship that was present in Tibet prior to the arrival of Buddhism.

The realm of our experience is similar to a tapestry. Time is the warp and space is the woof; the myriad patterns appearing out of warp and woof are the metamorphoses of all things.

—Inoue Enryo (Grapard: 196)


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