Although to a large extent their religious activities overlap with those of their monastic counterparts, throughout Tibetan areas they are the primary specialists of the tantric practices situated at the powerful, violent end of the ritual spectrum, such as strong exorcisms. 4 These non-monastic religious specialists are typically married and very often form family lineages, from father to son. The latter are most commonly known as ngakpa, 3 “mantra/tantra practitioners”, or tantrists, as the term is often rendered in Western languages. 2 The former hardly need an introduction. The (.)ġ As a common, albeit rather literary expression has it, in Tibet the Buddhist clergy is twofold, made up of “the category of the saffron-robed monks, and the category of the long-haired clothed in white”. 3 In order to make the reading of Tibetan terms easier for non-Tibetanists, I provide phonetic transc (.). 2 For instance, in a text on Padmasambhava we find the wording: rab byung ngur smrig gi sde dang gos (.).1 My warmest thanks go to my Tibetan hosts, assistants, interlocutors and friends (too numerous and, (.).Les notions tibétaines relatives à l'incorporation du divin ou au pouvoir rituel associé aux cheveux montrent l'importance d'inclure des questions sur les perceptions culturelles de la nature des cheveux et de leurs relations avec la personne ou avec les êtres qui peuvent y résider. L'approche analytique des cheveux de Bromberger, qui se concentre surtout sur des facteurs sociologiques, tels l'appartenance au groupe ou la norme et la marginalité, est pertinente ici, mais laisse de côté des dimensions culturelles clés du phénomène. L'objectif de cette étude de la culture capillaire des tantristes du Repkong est de montrer que, dans leurs cheveux, situés à l'interface du corporel, du social et du politique, nous avons un marqueur identitaire surdéterminé. L'importance des cheveux des tantristes est particulièrement frappante dans le district du Repkong (nord-est du Tibet), qui est célèbre pour son grand nombre de tantristes, dont beaucoup portent des dreadlocks nouées autour de la tête. Les tantristes tibétains (des pratiquants bouddhistes non monastiques de rituels tantriques) accordent beaucoup d'importance au fait de garder leurs cheveux longs. Tibetan notions of embodied divinity and ritual power attached to hair indicate that it is important to include questions about cultural perceptions of the nature of hair and of its relationship with the individuals themselves, or with the beings that can inhabit it. marginality, is relevant here, but overlooks key cultural dimensions of the phenomenon. Bromberger’s analytical approach to hair, which focuses primarily on sociological factors such as group belonging or norm vs. This study of the Repkong tantrists’ capillary culture will argue that their hair, at the intersection between the bodily, the social and the political, constitutes an overdetermined religious identity marker. The importance of tantrists’ hair is particularly striking in Repkong county (northeastern Tibet), which is famous for its large number of tantrists, many of whom wear dreadlocks wound around their heads. Tibetan tantrists (non-monastic Buddhist practitioners of tantric rituals) attach great importance to keeping their hair long.
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