Author: Patrick Mc Allister
Publisher: Austrian Academy of Sciences Press
ISBN: 9783700175858
Category : Himalaya Mountains Region
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
This collection of essays is the outcome of a symposium hosted by the International Institute of Advanced Studies, Shimla (15th-18th April 2009). An international group of scholars, collaborating in the project The Cultural History of the Western Himalayas from the 8th Century (sponsored by the Austrian Science Fund, NFN S98), present here some of their own specific research on various areas, archaeological sites, monuments and centres of learning that, in various degrees, have studded the region along the centuries. The complex morphology of the Western Himalayas has favoured quite a number of dynamic interactions with their bordering countries (present day U-tsang and Chang-thang in the TAR, Nepal, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu-Kashmir, North Pakistan and beyond) that is here followed through the study of iconographic elements in the coinage of Nezak Shah (Pfisterer and Uhlir) or portable cult objects from Khotan (Forte), items that, like manuscripts (Tauscher), often travelled over long distances. Like art-historical evidence surviving in Lahul (Widorn), they help to trace Buddhist pilgrimage routes and recover religious maps. The consideration of the historical, cultural and social background of the Buddhist sculptures in ancient Uddiyana, where Indian motifs interlace with local elements (Filigenzi), gives yet another view of such a landscape. The theme of Tibetan Himalaya Style in the art of the Western domains, thoroughly analysed in the larger context of the surrounding regions and in consideration of an impressive number of artistic productions, contributes to a social history of these regions (Klimburg-Salter). The role of Kashmir as a privileged centre of learning, particularly during the last centuries of the first millennium CE and the following two centuries, is here investigated through the work and life of the philosopher Sankaranandana (Eltschinger), the Buddhist theory of universals (McAllister), the practices of translating Buddhist texts (MacDonald), and the aesthetic theory discussed by Saiva and Buddhist philosophers (Mukherji). The intellectual life is also viewed through practices related to the written, e. g., the use of palimpsests on inscribed murals in Zhalu (Tropper and Scherrer-Schaub). Besides micro-historical data about the founder of the Guge-Purang dynasty in Western Tibet, Ye ses 'od, gathered from a recently discovered manuscript (Samten Karmay), and a first-hand account of the culture and religious practices of modern Dolpo (Phuntshog Nyima), three ritual texts for summoning good fortune are analysed by studying the role of the deer as a structuring principle in Bon po rituals (Ramble). Finally, new methodological approaches are presented in an introduction to the use of new technology to map history (Cartwright), the project of an on-line cartographic information system elaborated at the University of Vienna (Pucher and Kriz), and the use of a GPS data acquisition tool (Schobesberger), followed by the example of the 3D visualization of the temple complex at Nako, Kinnaur (Nausner and Schobesberger).
Cultural Flows Across the Western Himalaya
Author: Patrick Mc Allister
Publisher: Austrian Academy of Sciences Press
ISBN: 9783700175858
Category : Himalaya Mountains Region
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
This collection of essays is the outcome of a symposium hosted by the International Institute of Advanced Studies, Shimla (15th-18th April 2009). An international group of scholars, collaborating in the project The Cultural History of the Western Himalayas from the 8th Century (sponsored by the Austrian Science Fund, NFN S98), present here some of their own specific research on various areas, archaeological sites, monuments and centres of learning that, in various degrees, have studded the region along the centuries. The complex morphology of the Western Himalayas has favoured quite a number of dynamic interactions with their bordering countries (present day U-tsang and Chang-thang in the TAR, Nepal, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu-Kashmir, North Pakistan and beyond) that is here followed through the study of iconographic elements in the coinage of Nezak Shah (Pfisterer and Uhlir) or portable cult objects from Khotan (Forte), items that, like manuscripts (Tauscher), often travelled over long distances. Like art-historical evidence surviving in Lahul (Widorn), they help to trace Buddhist pilgrimage routes and recover religious maps. The consideration of the historical, cultural and social background of the Buddhist sculptures in ancient Uddiyana, where Indian motifs interlace with local elements (Filigenzi), gives yet another view of such a landscape. The theme of Tibetan Himalaya Style in the art of the Western domains, thoroughly analysed in the larger context of the surrounding regions and in consideration of an impressive number of artistic productions, contributes to a social history of these regions (Klimburg-Salter). The role of Kashmir as a privileged centre of learning, particularly during the last centuries of the first millennium CE and the following two centuries, is here investigated through the work and life of the philosopher Sankaranandana (Eltschinger), the Buddhist theory of universals (McAllister), the practices of translating Buddhist texts (MacDonald), and the aesthetic theory discussed by Saiva and Buddhist philosophers (Mukherji). The intellectual life is also viewed through practices related to the written, e. g., the use of palimpsests on inscribed murals in Zhalu (Tropper and Scherrer-Schaub). Besides micro-historical data about the founder of the Guge-Purang dynasty in Western Tibet, Ye ses 'od, gathered from a recently discovered manuscript (Samten Karmay), and a first-hand account of the culture and religious practices of modern Dolpo (Phuntshog Nyima), three ritual texts for summoning good fortune are analysed by studying the role of the deer as a structuring principle in Bon po rituals (Ramble). Finally, new methodological approaches are presented in an introduction to the use of new technology to map history (Cartwright), the project of an on-line cartographic information system elaborated at the University of Vienna (Pucher and Kriz), and the use of a GPS data acquisition tool (Schobesberger), followed by the example of the 3D visualization of the temple complex at Nako, Kinnaur (Nausner and Schobesberger).
Publisher: Austrian Academy of Sciences Press
ISBN: 9783700175858
Category : Himalaya Mountains Region
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
This collection of essays is the outcome of a symposium hosted by the International Institute of Advanced Studies, Shimla (15th-18th April 2009). An international group of scholars, collaborating in the project The Cultural History of the Western Himalayas from the 8th Century (sponsored by the Austrian Science Fund, NFN S98), present here some of their own specific research on various areas, archaeological sites, monuments and centres of learning that, in various degrees, have studded the region along the centuries. The complex morphology of the Western Himalayas has favoured quite a number of dynamic interactions with their bordering countries (present day U-tsang and Chang-thang in the TAR, Nepal, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu-Kashmir, North Pakistan and beyond) that is here followed through the study of iconographic elements in the coinage of Nezak Shah (Pfisterer and Uhlir) or portable cult objects from Khotan (Forte), items that, like manuscripts (Tauscher), often travelled over long distances. Like art-historical evidence surviving in Lahul (Widorn), they help to trace Buddhist pilgrimage routes and recover religious maps. The consideration of the historical, cultural and social background of the Buddhist sculptures in ancient Uddiyana, where Indian motifs interlace with local elements (Filigenzi), gives yet another view of such a landscape. The theme of Tibetan Himalaya Style in the art of the Western domains, thoroughly analysed in the larger context of the surrounding regions and in consideration of an impressive number of artistic productions, contributes to a social history of these regions (Klimburg-Salter). The role of Kashmir as a privileged centre of learning, particularly during the last centuries of the first millennium CE and the following two centuries, is here investigated through the work and life of the philosopher Sankaranandana (Eltschinger), the Buddhist theory of universals (McAllister), the practices of translating Buddhist texts (MacDonald), and the aesthetic theory discussed by Saiva and Buddhist philosophers (Mukherji). The intellectual life is also viewed through practices related to the written, e. g., the use of palimpsests on inscribed murals in Zhalu (Tropper and Scherrer-Schaub). Besides micro-historical data about the founder of the Guge-Purang dynasty in Western Tibet, Ye ses 'od, gathered from a recently discovered manuscript (Samten Karmay), and a first-hand account of the culture and religious practices of modern Dolpo (Phuntshog Nyima), three ritual texts for summoning good fortune are analysed by studying the role of the deer as a structuring principle in Bon po rituals (Ramble). Finally, new methodological approaches are presented in an introduction to the use of new technology to map history (Cartwright), the project of an on-line cartographic information system elaborated at the University of Vienna (Pucher and Kriz), and the use of a GPS data acquisition tool (Schobesberger), followed by the example of the 3D visualization of the temple complex at Nako, Kinnaur (Nausner and Schobesberger).
NAKO
Author: Gabriela Krist
Publisher: Böhlau Verlag Wien
ISBN: 3205202678
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 378
Book Description
The Nako temple complex from the 12th century is an extraordinary testimony of early Tibetan Buddhism not anymore preserved in today’s Tibet. Endangered by the rough environment, improper treatment and frequent earthquakes, the outstanding monuments were re-discovered by scholars from Austrian universities in the 1980s. The transdisciplinary research project carried out over more than 20 years led to in-depth studies, preservation and model-like conservation of the temples and their artworks.
Publisher: Böhlau Verlag Wien
ISBN: 3205202678
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 378
Book Description
The Nako temple complex from the 12th century is an extraordinary testimony of early Tibetan Buddhism not anymore preserved in today’s Tibet. Endangered by the rough environment, improper treatment and frequent earthquakes, the outstanding monuments were re-discovered by scholars from Austrian universities in the 1980s. The transdisciplinary research project carried out over more than 20 years led to in-depth studies, preservation and model-like conservation of the temples and their artworks.
Around Abhinavagupta
Author: Eli Franco
Publisher: LIT Verlag Münster
ISBN: 3643906978
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 684
Book Description
Abhinavagupta is undoubtedly the most famous Kashmirian medieval intellectual: his decisive contributions to Indian aesthetics, Saiva theology, and metaphysics, and to the philosophy of the subtle and original Pratyabhijna system, are well known. Yet so far his works have often been studied without fully taking into account the specific historical, social, artistic, religious, and philosophical context in which they are embedded. The purpose of this book is to show that this intellectual background is no less exceptional than Abhinavagupta himself. (Series: Leipzig Studies on the Culture and History of South and Central Asia / Leipziger Studien zu Kultur und Geschichte Sud- und Zentralasiens, Vol. 6) [Subject: History, Abhinavagupta, India Studies, Religious Studies]
Publisher: LIT Verlag Münster
ISBN: 3643906978
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 684
Book Description
Abhinavagupta is undoubtedly the most famous Kashmirian medieval intellectual: his decisive contributions to Indian aesthetics, Saiva theology, and metaphysics, and to the philosophy of the subtle and original Pratyabhijna system, are well known. Yet so far his works have often been studied without fully taking into account the specific historical, social, artistic, religious, and philosophical context in which they are embedded. The purpose of this book is to show that this intellectual background is no less exceptional than Abhinavagupta himself. (Series: Leipzig Studies on the Culture and History of South and Central Asia / Leipziger Studien zu Kultur und Geschichte Sud- und Zentralasiens, Vol. 6) [Subject: History, Abhinavagupta, India Studies, Religious Studies]
Transfer of Buddhism Across Central Asian Networks (7th to 13th Centuries)
Author:
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004307435
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 351
Book Description
The interdisciplinary volume Transfer of Buddhism across Central Asian Networks (7th to 13th Centuries), edited by Carmen Meinert, offers a new transregional and transcultural vision for religious transfer processes in Central Asian history. It looks at the region as an integrated (religious) whole rather than from the perspective of fragmented sub-disciplines and analyses the spread of Buddhism as a driving force in a societal and cultural change of pan-Asian importance. One particular dimension of this ‘Buddhist globalisation’ was the rise of local forms of Buddhism. This volume explores Buddhist localisations through manuscripts and material culture in the multiethnic oases of the Tarim basin, the Transhimalyan region of Zangskar, Ladakh and Kashmir and the Western Tibetan Kingdom of Purang-Guge. Contributors are: Kazuo Kano, Deborah Klimburg-Salter, Rob Linrothe, Linda Lojda, Carmen Meinert, Henrik H. Sørensen, Monica Strinu, Gertraud Taenzer, Sam van Schaik, and Jens Wilkens.
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004307435
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 351
Book Description
The interdisciplinary volume Transfer of Buddhism across Central Asian Networks (7th to 13th Centuries), edited by Carmen Meinert, offers a new transregional and transcultural vision for religious transfer processes in Central Asian history. It looks at the region as an integrated (religious) whole rather than from the perspective of fragmented sub-disciplines and analyses the spread of Buddhism as a driving force in a societal and cultural change of pan-Asian importance. One particular dimension of this ‘Buddhist globalisation’ was the rise of local forms of Buddhism. This volume explores Buddhist localisations through manuscripts and material culture in the multiethnic oases of the Tarim basin, the Transhimalyan region of Zangskar, Ladakh and Kashmir and the Western Tibetan Kingdom of Purang-Guge. Contributors are: Kazuo Kano, Deborah Klimburg-Salter, Rob Linrothe, Linda Lojda, Carmen Meinert, Henrik H. Sørensen, Monica Strinu, Gertraud Taenzer, Sam van Schaik, and Jens Wilkens.
Buddhism and the Dynamics of Transculturality
Author: Birgit Kellner
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110413140
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 305
Book Description
For over 2500 years, Buddhism was implicated in processes of cultural interaction that in turn shaped Buddhist doctrines, practices and institutions. While the cultural plurality of Buddhism has often been remarked upon, the transcultural processes that constitute this plurality, and their long-term effects, have scarcely been studied as a topic in their own right. The contributions to this volume present detailed case studies ranging across different time periods, regions and disciplines, and they address methodological challenges as well as theoretical problems. In addition to casting a spotlight on topics as diverse as the role of trade contacts in the early spread of Buddhism, the hybrid nature of religious practices in Japan or Indo-Tibetan relations in Tibetan polemical literature, the individual papers jointly raise the question as to whether there might be something distinct about how Buddhism steers and influences forms of cultural exchange, and is in turn shaped by modalities of cultural interaction throughout Asian, as well as global, history. The volume is intended to demonstrate the need for investigating transcultural dynamics more closely in the study of Buddhism, and to suggest new avenues for Buddhist Studies.
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110413140
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 305
Book Description
For over 2500 years, Buddhism was implicated in processes of cultural interaction that in turn shaped Buddhist doctrines, practices and institutions. While the cultural plurality of Buddhism has often been remarked upon, the transcultural processes that constitute this plurality, and their long-term effects, have scarcely been studied as a topic in their own right. The contributions to this volume present detailed case studies ranging across different time periods, regions and disciplines, and they address methodological challenges as well as theoretical problems. In addition to casting a spotlight on topics as diverse as the role of trade contacts in the early spread of Buddhism, the hybrid nature of religious practices in Japan or Indo-Tibetan relations in Tibetan polemical literature, the individual papers jointly raise the question as to whether there might be something distinct about how Buddhism steers and influences forms of cultural exchange, and is in turn shaped by modalities of cultural interaction throughout Asian, as well as global, history. The volume is intended to demonstrate the need for investigating transcultural dynamics more closely in the study of Buddhism, and to suggest new avenues for Buddhist Studies.
Studies on the History and Culture Along the Continental Silk Road
Author: Xiao Li
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 9811576025
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 203
Book Description
This book presents outstanding articles addressing various aspects related to the ancient Silk Road, in particular the cultural, political, and economic interactions that took place among the civilizations and cultures on the Eurasian continent. In addition, the articles help to reveal the hallmark features of cultural communication in Inner Asia in different historical periods. The book develops a new approach to studying the civilizations of the Silk Road, promotes interdisciplinary and multi-dimensional research, sets a new direction for Chinese ancient classics and western sinology, and presents the latest discoveries, including both archaeological finds and historical documents.
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 9811576025
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 203
Book Description
This book presents outstanding articles addressing various aspects related to the ancient Silk Road, in particular the cultural, political, and economic interactions that took place among the civilizations and cultures on the Eurasian continent. In addition, the articles help to reveal the hallmark features of cultural communication in Inner Asia in different historical periods. The book develops a new approach to studying the civilizations of the Silk Road, promotes interdisciplinary and multi-dimensional research, sets a new direction for Chinese ancient classics and western sinology, and presents the latest discoveries, including both archaeological finds and historical documents.
Buddhism in Central Asia III
Author:
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004687289
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 511
Book Description
The BuddhistRoad project has been creating a new framework to understand the dynamics of cultural encounter and religious transfer across premodern Eastern Central Asia. This framework includes a new focus on the complex interactions between Buddhism and non-Buddhist traditions and a deepening of the traditional focus on Buddhist doctrines between the 6th and 14th centuries, as Buddhism continued to spread along an ancient, local political-economic-cultural system of exchange, often referred to as the Silk Roads. This volume brings together world renowned experts to discuss these issues including Buddhism and Christianity, Islam, Daoism, Manichaeism, local indigenous traditions, Tantra etc. Contributors include: Daniel Berounský, Michal Biran, Max Deeg, Lewis Doney, Mélodie Doumy, Meghan Howard Masang, Yukiyo Kasai, Diego Loukota†, Carmen Meinert, Sam van Schaik, Henrik H. Sørensen, and Jens Wilkens.
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004687289
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 511
Book Description
The BuddhistRoad project has been creating a new framework to understand the dynamics of cultural encounter and religious transfer across premodern Eastern Central Asia. This framework includes a new focus on the complex interactions between Buddhism and non-Buddhist traditions and a deepening of the traditional focus on Buddhist doctrines between the 6th and 14th centuries, as Buddhism continued to spread along an ancient, local political-economic-cultural system of exchange, often referred to as the Silk Roads. This volume brings together world renowned experts to discuss these issues including Buddhism and Christianity, Islam, Daoism, Manichaeism, local indigenous traditions, Tantra etc. Contributors include: Daniel Berounský, Michal Biran, Max Deeg, Lewis Doney, Mélodie Doumy, Meghan Howard Masang, Yukiyo Kasai, Diego Loukota†, Carmen Meinert, Sam van Schaik, Henrik H. Sørensen, and Jens Wilkens.
Divining with Achi and Tārā
Author: Jan-Ulrich Sobisch
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004402624
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 292
Book Description
Divining with Achi and Tārā is a book on Tibetan methods of prognostics with dice and prayer beads (mālā). Jan-Ulrich Sobisch offers a thorough discussion of Chinese, Indian, Turkic, and Tibetan traditions of divination, its techniques, rituals, tools, and poetic language. Interviews with Tibetan masters of divination introduce the main part with a translation of a dice divination manual of the deity Achi that is still part of a living tradition. Solvej Nielsen contributes further interviews, a mālā divination of Tārā and its oral tradition, and very useful glossaries of the terminology of Tibetan divination and fortune telling. Appendices provide lists of deities and spirits and of numerous identified ritual remedies and supports that are an essential element of a still vibrant Tibetan culture.
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004402624
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 292
Book Description
Divining with Achi and Tārā is a book on Tibetan methods of prognostics with dice and prayer beads (mālā). Jan-Ulrich Sobisch offers a thorough discussion of Chinese, Indian, Turkic, and Tibetan traditions of divination, its techniques, rituals, tools, and poetic language. Interviews with Tibetan masters of divination introduce the main part with a translation of a dice divination manual of the deity Achi that is still part of a living tradition. Solvej Nielsen contributes further interviews, a mālā divination of Tārā and its oral tradition, and very useful glossaries of the terminology of Tibetan divination and fortune telling. Appendices provide lists of deities and spirits and of numerous identified ritual remedies and supports that are an essential element of a still vibrant Tibetan culture.
The Oxford Handbook of Indian Philosophy
Author: Jonardon Ganeri
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199314632
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 800
Book Description
The Oxford Handbook of Indian Philosophy tells the story of philosophy in India through a series of exceptional individual acts of philosophical virtuosity. It brings together forty leading international scholars to record the diverse figures, movements, and approaches that constitute philosophy in the geographical region of the Indian subcontinent, a region sometimes nowadays designated South Asia. The volume aims to be ecumenical, drawing from different locales, languages, and literary cultures, inclusive of dissenters, heretics and sceptics, of philosophical ideas in thinkers not themselves primarily philosophers, and reflecting India's north-western borders with the Persianate and Arabic worlds, its north-eastern boundaries with Tibet, Nepal, Ladakh and China, as well as the southern and eastern shores that afford maritime links with the lands of Theravda Buddhism. Indian Philosophy has been written in many languages, including Pali, Prakrit, Sanskrit, Malayalam, Urdu, Gujarati, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Marathi, Persian, Kannada, Punjabi, Hindi, Tibetan, Arabic and Assamese. From the time of the British colonial occupation, it has also been written in English. It spans philosophy of law, logic, politics, environment and society, but is most strongly associated with wide-ranging discussions in the philosophy of mind and language, epistemology and metaphysics (how we know and what is there to be known), ethics, metaethics and aesthetics, and metaphilosophy. The reach of Indian ideas has been vast, both historically and geographically, and it has been and continues to be a major influence in world philosophy. In the breadth as well as the depth of its philosophical investigation, in the sheer bulk of surviving texts and in the diffusion of its ideas, the philosophical heritage of India easily stands comparison with that of China, Greece, the Latin west, or the Islamic world.
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199314632
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 800
Book Description
The Oxford Handbook of Indian Philosophy tells the story of philosophy in India through a series of exceptional individual acts of philosophical virtuosity. It brings together forty leading international scholars to record the diverse figures, movements, and approaches that constitute philosophy in the geographical region of the Indian subcontinent, a region sometimes nowadays designated South Asia. The volume aims to be ecumenical, drawing from different locales, languages, and literary cultures, inclusive of dissenters, heretics and sceptics, of philosophical ideas in thinkers not themselves primarily philosophers, and reflecting India's north-western borders with the Persianate and Arabic worlds, its north-eastern boundaries with Tibet, Nepal, Ladakh and China, as well as the southern and eastern shores that afford maritime links with the lands of Theravda Buddhism. Indian Philosophy has been written in many languages, including Pali, Prakrit, Sanskrit, Malayalam, Urdu, Gujarati, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Marathi, Persian, Kannada, Punjabi, Hindi, Tibetan, Arabic and Assamese. From the time of the British colonial occupation, it has also been written in English. It spans philosophy of law, logic, politics, environment and society, but is most strongly associated with wide-ranging discussions in the philosophy of mind and language, epistemology and metaphysics (how we know and what is there to be known), ethics, metaethics and aesthetics, and metaphilosophy. The reach of Indian ideas has been vast, both historically and geographically, and it has been and continues to be a major influence in world philosophy. In the breadth as well as the depth of its philosophical investigation, in the sheer bulk of surviving texts and in the diffusion of its ideas, the philosophical heritage of India easily stands comparison with that of China, Greece, the Latin west, or the Islamic world.
Glimpses of Tibetan Divination
Author:
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004410686
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 250
Book Description
Glimpses of Tibetan Divination: Past and Present is the first book of its kind, in that it contains articles by a group of eminent scholars who approach the subject matter by investigating it through various facets and salient historical figures. Over the centuries, Tibetans developed many practices of prognostication and adapted many others from neighboring cultures and religions. In this way, Tibetan divination evolved into a vast field of ritual expertise that has been largely neglected in Tibetan Studies. The Tibetan repertoire of divinatory techniques is rich and immensely varied. Accordingly, the specimen of practices discussed in this volume—many of which remain in use today—merely serve as examples that offer glimpses of divination in Tibet. Contributors are Per Kværne, Brandon Dotson, Ai Nishida, Dan Martin, Petra Maurer, Charles Ramble, Donatella Rossi, Rolf Scheuermann, Alexander Smith, and Agata Bareja-Starzynska.
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004410686
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 250
Book Description
Glimpses of Tibetan Divination: Past and Present is the first book of its kind, in that it contains articles by a group of eminent scholars who approach the subject matter by investigating it through various facets and salient historical figures. Over the centuries, Tibetans developed many practices of prognostication and adapted many others from neighboring cultures and religions. In this way, Tibetan divination evolved into a vast field of ritual expertise that has been largely neglected in Tibetan Studies. The Tibetan repertoire of divinatory techniques is rich and immensely varied. Accordingly, the specimen of practices discussed in this volume—many of which remain in use today—merely serve as examples that offer glimpses of divination in Tibet. Contributors are Per Kværne, Brandon Dotson, Ai Nishida, Dan Martin, Petra Maurer, Charles Ramble, Donatella Rossi, Rolf Scheuermann, Alexander Smith, and Agata Bareja-Starzynska.