A Holy Land Reborn

by Huber, Toni

• ISBN13: 9780226356488
• ISBN10: 0226356485
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-08-15
• Publisher: Univ of Chicago Pr

Summary

The Dalai Lama has said that Tibetans consider themselves "the child of Indian civilization" and that India is the "holy land" from whose sources the Tibetans have built their own civilization. What explains this powerful allegiance to India? InThe Holy Land Reborn Toni Huber investigates how Tibetans have maintained a ritual relationship to India, particularly by way of pilgrimage, and what it means for them to consider India as their holy land. Focusing on the Tibetan creation and recreation of India as a destination, a landscape, and a kind of other, in both real and idealized terms, Huber explores how Tibetans have used the idea of India as a religious territory and a sacred geography in the development of their own religion and society. In a timely closing chapter, Huber also takes up the meaning of India for the Tibetans who live in exile in their Buddhist holy land. A major contribution to the study of Buddhism,The Holy Land Reborndescribes changes in Tibetan constructs of India over the centuries, ultimately challenging largely static views of the sacred geography of Buddhism in India.

Author Biography

Toni Huber is professor of Tibetan studies at the Institute for Asian and African Studies at Humboldt University, Berlin. He is the author or editor of five books, including most recently Nomads of Eastern Tibet.

Table of Contents

List of Figures	p. ix
Acknowledgments	p. xi
Note on Transliteration	p. xv
Introduction	p. 1
Locating and Dislocating the Land of the Buddha
The Shifting Terrain of the Buddha	p. 15
Buddhist Knowledge and Anachronism in Tibet	p. 40
Journeying to the Centre of the World	p. 58
Tantric Buddhist India and Its Tibetan Appropriation	p. 85
Reinventing the Holy Land in India
Nirvana in Assam	p. 125
Return to the Centre of the World	p. 166
The Allure of the Atsaras	p. 193
The Precious Guru in the Punjab	p. 232
Modern Rebirths of the Holy Land
Archaeological and Discursive Rebirths of Buddhist India	p. 251
Encountering the Modern Holy Land	p. 291
Exile in the Land of the Buddha	p. 336
Notes	p. 377
Bibliography	p. 439
Index	p. 485
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