The Legacy of Bla ma dkar po: An Unsettled Dispute between Chone and Labrang on the Inner Asian Frontier

From the 1860s to the 1890s, Bla ma dkar po, a Chone Tibetan lama rose to power in Xinjiang and became a major participant in the late Qing Inner Asian politics. With the support of Beijing, Lhasa, Mongol patrons and local tsho ba, the lama established a university monastery in his hometown, where was caught between Chone and Labrang in eastern Mdo smad. After he died of illness, the Qing court recognized him as a reincarnated ho thog thuin Dzungaria. Chone and Labrang contested for his spiritual and material legacies, competed for controlling his hometown, turned the reincarnation lineage into a local institution, and left the dispute unsettled up to the present. This article uses this case to examine the complex relations between Tibetan regional powers and local societiesin Mdo smad. It elaborates how the “long-term unsettling” became a solution for such a covert dispute. བླ་མ་དཀར་པོའི་གནའ་རྫས།ཡ་གླིང་ནང་མའི་མཐའ་མཚམས་ཁྲོད་ཀྱི་ཅོ་ནེ་དང་བླ་བྲང་བར་གྱི་ཡུན་རིང་ཐག་གཅོད་མ་བྱས་པའི་རྩོད་གཞི། སྤྱི་ལོ༡༨༦༠-༡༨༩༠ལོའི་བར།བླ་མ་དཀར་པོ་ནི་ཅོ་ནེའི་བོད་རིགས་ཀྱི་བླ་མ་ཤིན་ཅང་ས་ཆ་ནས་དབང་ཐང་རྒྱས་པར་མ་ཟད།ཆིང་རྒྱལ་རབས་ཀྱི་དུས་མཇུག་དུ་ཡ་གླིང་ནང་ཁུལ་གྱི་ཆབ་སྲིད་དུ་ཞུགས་མཁན་གཙོ་བོ་ཞིག་ཡིན།པེ་ཅིན།ལྷ་ས།སོག་པོ་བཅས་ཀྱི་སྤྱིན་བདག་དང་ས་གནས་དེའི་ཚོ་བའི་རྒྱབ་སྐྱོར་ལ་བརྟེན་ནས།བླ་མ་འདིའི་ཕ་ཡུལ།ཨ་མདོའི་ཤར་ཕྱོགས།ཅོ་ནེ་དང་བླ་བྲང་ས་ཆའི་བར་ནས་དགོན་པ་ཆེན་པོ་ཞིག་འཛུགས་བསྐྲུན་མཛད།ཁོང་རང་སྐུ་མྱངས་ནས་མྱ་ངན་ལས་འདས་བའི་རྗེས་སུ།ཆིང་སྲིད་གཞུང་གིས་ཁོ་རང་ཇིང་གུར་གྱི་ཡང་སྲིད་ཧོ་ཐོག་ཐུའི་ཆོ་ལོ་སྩལ།ཅོ་ནེ་དང་བླ་བྲང་བར་ཁོང་རང་གི་ཐུགས་དགོངས་དང་དངོས་པོའི་ཤུལ་བཞག་འགྲན་རྩོད་བྱུང་ནས།ཁོང་རང་གི་ཕ་ཡུལ་གྱིས་བརྩོན་ལེན་བྱེད་པར་ཚོད་འཛིན་བྱས།དེ་ནས་གདུང་རྒྱུད་འཛིན་པའི་གདུང་རབས་ཏེ་ས་གནས་ཀྱི་ལམ་ལུགས་སུ་འགྱུར།དེར་མ་ཟད་རྩོད་གཞི་འདི་ད་ལྟའི་བར་དུ་ཤུལ་ལུས་ཐག་གཅོད་མ་བྱས།རྩོམ་ཡིག་འདིར་ཨ་མདོའི་བོད་རིགས་ཀྱི་ས་ཁོངས་དབང་ཆ་དང་ས་གནས་སྤྱི་ཚོགས་བར་གྱི་རྙོག་འཛིང་གི་འབྲེལ་བ་དཔེ་མཚོན་དུ་བཟུང་ནས་བརྟག་ཞིབ་བྱས་ཡོད།ཁོ་བོས་“ཡུན་རིང་ཐག་གཅོད་མ་བྱས་པ”ཅི་ལྟར་འདི་འདྲའི་སྦས་བའི་རང་བཞིན་གྱི་རྩོད་གཞི་ཅག་གཅོད་བྱེད་ཐབས་ཞིབ་བརྗོད་བྱས་ཡོད། བརྡ་ཆད་གཙོ་བོ།  བླ་མ་དཀར་པོ། ཅོ་ནེ། བླ་བྲང་། ཚོ་བ། གདུང་རྒྱུད་ལམ་ལུགས། ཡ་གླིང་ནང་མ

Is mindfulness Buddhist? (and why it matters).

Modern exponents of mindfulness meditation promote the therapeutic effects of "bare attention"--a sort of non-judgmental, non-discursive attending to the moment-to-moment flow of consciousness. This approach to Buddhist meditation can be traced to Burmese Buddhist reform movements of the first half of the 20th century, and is arguably at odds with more traditional Theravāda Buddhist doctrine and meditative practices. But the cultivation of present-centered awareness is not without precedent in Buddhist history; similar innovations arose in medieval Chinese Zen (Chan) and Tibetan Dzogchen. These movements have several things in common. In each case the reforms were, in part, attempts to render Buddhist practice and insight accessible to laypersons unfamiliar with Buddhist philosophy and/or unwilling to adopt a renunciatory lifestyle. In addition, these movements all promised astonishingly quick results. And finally, the innovations in practice were met with suspicion and criticism from traditional Buddhist quarters. Those interested in the therapeutic effects of mindfulness and bare attention are often not aware of the existence, much less the content, of the controversies surrounding these practices in Asian Buddhist history

Shépa

Shépa: ‘explanation’ or ‘elucidation’ in Tibetan. A form of oral poetry sung antiphonally in a question-and-answer style. This book contains a unique collection of Tibetan oral narrations and songs known as Shépa, as these have been performed, recorded and shared between generations of Choné Tibetans from Amdo living in the eastern Tibetan Plateau. Presented in trilingual format — in Tibetan, Chinese and English — the book reflects a sustained collaboration with and between members of the local community, including narrators, monks, and scholars, calling attention to the diversity inherent in all oral traditions, and the mutability of Shépa in particular. From creation myths to Bon and Buddhist cosmologies and even wedding songs, Shépa engages with and draws on elements of religious traditions, historical legacies and deep-seated cultural memories within Choné and Tibet, revealing the multi-layered conceptualization of the Tibetan physical world and the resilience of Tibetan communities within it. This vital and unique collection, part of the World Oral Literature Series, situates Shépa in its ethnographic context, offering insights into the preservation and revitalization of intangible cultural heritage in the context of cultural Tibet, Indigenous studies and beyond. Scholars and students in the fields of anthropology, linguistics, ethnic and minority relations, critical Indigenous studies, Tibetan studies, Himalayan studies, Asian studies and the broader study of China will find much to reward them in this book, as will all readers interested in the documentation and preservation of endangered oral traditions, intangible cultural heritage, performance and textuality, and Tibetan literature and religions

Karma, morality, and evil

The doctrine of karma has been praised as a rational and morally edifying explanatory response to the existence of evil and apparent injustice in the world. Critics have attacked it as a morally misguided dogma that distorts one's vision of reality. This essay, after outlining the traditional doctrine, examines three criticisms that have been central to recent debates: firstly, that the doctrine offers no practical guidance; second, that it faces a dilemma between free will and fatalism; and third, that it involves a morally repugnant form of blaming victims for their own misfortunes. Possible responses are considered, the depth of the disagreement is highlighted, and a morally significant difference between alternative ways of articulating the belief in karma is analyzed

Ambicultural blending between Eastern and Western paradigms : fresh perspectives for international management research

East and Southeast Asian worldviews are distinctly different from those of the West. Westerners and Asians construct their environments differently, not least because they construct the notion of \u27self\u27 very differently. This paper describes and exemplifies distinctions in cognitive and linguistic styles between the East and the West and outlines the implications of these styles for environmental perspectives and research paradigms. Examples from Thailand illustrate the philosophical roots and practical implications of an indigenous Eastern perspective for local business interactions. We explore the privilege afforded in Western, Cartesian paradigms in (Asian) management research and stimulate debate on the benefits of promoting alternative Asian indigenous perspectives for both management research and management practice. We support the idea that Asian management discourse needs more self-confidence and deserves a more prominent place in international research, not least because international management research will greatly benefit from freshly \u27blended\u27 perspectives that incorporate Eastern and Western perspectives

Death and the Self

It is an old philosophical idea that if the future self is literally different from the current self, one should be less concerned with the death of the future self (Parfit, 1984). This paper examines the relation between attitudes about death and the self among Hindus, Westerners, and three Buddhist populations (Lay Tibetan, Lay Bhutanese, and monastic Tibetans). Compared with other groups, monastic Tibetans gave particularly strong denials of the continuity of self, across several measures. We predicted that the denial of self would be associated with a lower fear of death and greater generosity toward others. To our surprise, we found the opposite. Monastic Tibetan Buddhists showed significantly greater fear of death than any other group. The monastics were also less generous than any other group about the prospect of giving up a slightly longer life in order to extend the life of another

Boundary Crossing by a Community of Practice: Tibetan Buddhist Monasteries Engage Science Education

As a globalized world struggles with division and disinformation, engaging across difference has emerged as a major challenge to communication and collaborative action needed to address growing global challenges. As such, the initiative by Tibetan Buddhist leaders to incorporate western science in curricula for monastic education may serve as an important case study that illuminates the conditions and processes at work in genuine cultural outreach and exchange. That project, spearheaded in the Emory-Tibet Science Initiative (ETSI), involves reaching out across two quite different communities of practice, Tibetan Buddhism and science, and the willingness and ability of individuals to cross the boundaries between them. In the study reported here, we apply existing understandings of communities of practice and of learning mechanisms that mediate boundary crossing to probe for presence of conditions and processes that promote effective outreach among Tibetan Buddhist monastic students. We deploy analysis of qualitative survey, interview, and self-report data from monastic students shortly after ETSI began (2009) and after science education had been rolled out in the monasteries (2019) to, first, identify initial cultural conditions related to outreach and engagement with science, and, second, probe for post-rollout presence of boundary crossing learning mechanisms among monastic students which facilitate communication from one community of practice to another. We found a range of robust initial cultural conditions (e.g., perceived overlap in subjects and methods of inquiry), along with strong presence of mechanisms that facilitate boundary crossing (e.g., reflection, transformation) and operate through time. We observed cascading effects of these conditions and mechanisms on student engagement with science. Furthermore, interactions of these conditions and mechanisms allow monastic students to engage with science on their own Buddhist terms and to regard learning science as potentially beneficial rather than threatening to their personal or collective Buddhist goals