Long Lives and Untimely Deaths by Barbara Gerke
Longevity and long-life practices have been a pan-Tibetan concern for a very long time, but have hardly been studied by anthropologists. This book presents ethnographic accounts and textual material demonstrating how Tibetans in the Darjeeling Hills, India, view the life-span and map out certain life-forces in various areas of knowledge. These life-forces follow daily, monthly, and annual cycles. Divinations and astrological calculations are widely but varyingly used by Tibetans to assess the strength of life-forces and forecast difficult periods in their lives. Loss, exhaustion, or periodic weaknesses of life-forces are treated medically or through Tibetan Buddhist practices and rituals. In all these events, temporality and agency are deeply interlinked in the ways in which Tibetans enhance their vitality, prolong their life-spans, and avoid 'untimely deaths.'-
Studying the Bka’ ’gyur and Bstan ’gyur
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The Tibetan Policy of the PRC Government from 1949 to 1951
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Rolf Stein's Tibetica Antiqua
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Esoteric Buddhism at Dunhuang
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Buddhism and Empire
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Vision and Violence
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Crazy for Wisdom
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Opening the Hidden Land
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Lamas, Shamans and Ancestors
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Monastic and Lay Traditions in North-Eastern Tibet
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Peace and Conflict in Ladakh
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Power Objects in Tibetan Buddhism
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Nomads of Eastern Tibet
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Contributions to the Cultural History of Early Tibet
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Mahamudra in India and Tibet
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Homeland or Religion? Personal Identity Building in Zangskar, Indian Himalayas
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Hidden Lands in Himalayan Myth and History
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Divination in Exile
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Effortless Spontaneity: The Dzogchen Commentaries by Nubchen Sangye Yeshe
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The Many Faces of King Gesar
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Knowledge and Context in Tibetan Medicine
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Spirit-mediums, Sacred Mountains and Related Bon Textual Traditions in Upper Tibet
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The Mardzong Manuscripts
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Taxation in Tibetan Societies: Rules, Practices and Discourses
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Ethnolinguistic Prehistory of the Eastern Himalaya
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The Words and World of Ge bcags Nunnery
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Art and Architecture in Ladakh
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Kailas Histories
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Tibetan Printing: Comparison, Continuities, and Change
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Social Regulation: Case Studies from Tibetan History
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Tibetan Inscriptions
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Enlightened Rainbows
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Revisiting Rituals in a Changing Tibetan World
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The Archaeology of Tibetan Books
'Gerke offers the first comprehensive account and analysis of Tibetans' contemporary ideas and practices related to multiple 'lifeforces' and the 'life-span'In so doing she makes a noteworthy contribution to the study of Tibetans in Indian exile, outside of the well-documented Dharamsala-based communities. However, this work stands out for another reason: the author offers an innovative analytical approach, 'practices of temporalisation,' through which to consider the disparate, yet highly interconnected, ideas regarding long life that are held by medical, astrological, divinatory, and ritual experts and lay Tibetans. (...) This book will be a fascinating and inspiring reading for the specialized scholarly audiences in anthropology of the HImalayas, (Tibetan) Buddhism, and Asian medicines.' Theresia Hofer, University of Oslo, Himalaya, XXXII (2012)
Barbara Gerke, D.Phil. (2008) in Social Anthropology, University of Oxford, is the Principal Investigator of a three-year DFG funded research project at Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany. Her research focuses on the anthropology of Tibetan Medicine, longevity, toxicity, and methods of purification.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9789004217034 |
| ISBN 10 | 9004217037 |
| Title | Long Lives and Untimely Deaths |
| Author | Barbara Gerke |
| Series | Brill's Tibetan Studies Library |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Hardback |
| Publisher | Brill |
| Year published | 2011-12-23 |
| Number of pages | 388 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |