Sunteți pe pagina 1din 16

The View from Somewhen:

Evenemental Bodies and the Perspective of Fortune around Khawa Karpo, a Tibetan Sacred Mountain in Yunnan Province
GIOVANNI DA COL University of Cambridge

gd228@cam.ac.uk
ABSTRACT Similarly to the Amerindian model, in Tibetan cosmology humans and nonhumans share an inner principle under the form of consciousness (rnam shes). Corporeal differences and perspectival access are nevertheless determined by the economy of a field of fortune. This field may be regarded as a form of clothing a being wears: a body that may provide cosmological mobility, a poor mans way to assume nonhumans points of view and transcending ontological domains without having to be a shaman. Nevertheless, the field is unstable and his configuration fragmented and folded. Each perspective needs an event in order to be transiently activated and unfolding the configuration of forces composing a body of fortune. The absence of ideas of fortune and karma among Amerindians results in a perspectivism as being predominantly a spatial view from somewhere. Among Tibetans, an economy of merit and fortune produces an evenemental perception, a view from somewhen where perspectives are also points of view on ones karmic continuum. After discussing notions of fortune, merit and the Tibetan perceptual propensity in relation to other living beings, this paper will examine the ontology of some key Tibetan bodies and their relation with perspectivism: the zombie (ro langs), the mountain god (yul lha), the reckless hunter ( rngon pa), the living Buddha (sprul sku) and the idiom of emanation (sprul pa), commonly known as incarnation. Keywords: events; cosmological mobility; instability; forces; bodies; equivocation; fortune/luck; temporality; Yunnan Tibetans. Time is the substance I am made of. Time is a river which sweeps me along, but I am the river; it is a tiger which destroys me, but I am the tiger; it is a fire which consumes me, but I am the fire. The world, unfortunately, is real; I, unfortunately, am Borges. Jorge Luis Borges, A New Refutation of Time FROM THE MOUNTAINS POINT OF VIEW I owe the discovery of fortune and perspectivism to Ani Loson.i In Spring 2005, I was hiking on a trail from the village of Yunlin (Lcang nags sten) to Parata (Phar ri ltag) in Dechen County (Ch. Deqin, Tib. Bde chen) in Northwest Yunnan (China).ii Ani Loson, my mentor, was accompanying me. The day was dry and hot and the trail followed the Mekong River (Rdza chu, Ch. Lancang jiang), which in that region is surrounded by some of the worlds most impressive gorges. From the 1800m altitude of the river the elevation rises 6740 m, in no more than 30 km, to the of the summit of Khawa Karpo ( Kha ba dkar po, Ch. Meili Xueshan), the most important holy mountain of Eastern Tibet ( Khams). Staring at the river, I made some remarks on how dramatically narrow the gorges were probably not more than twenty metres wide in some spots. Ani (A myes, grandfather) laughed and told me that just after the Peaceful Liberation, the newly appointed Communist Party Secretary of Yunnan Province thought about diverging the course of the Mekong River in order to preserve the countrys fortune. The mighty plan included the construction a dam and the excavation of a tunnel in the mountains. This, the Secretary believed,

would avoid the exhaustion of Chinas territorial wealth and fortune. Chuckling, I replied that the Party Secretary was probably not too worried by the fact that the main water resource of Indochina would have been depleted by his megalomaniac design and that Thailand, Laos and Vietnam would have probably declared war on China. Nevertheless, Ani Losons story taught me a key Tibetan idiom because when Ani referred to the loss of countrys fortune and prosperity he employed the Tibetan term yang (g.yang). That was the first time I reflected upon that term and its economic-like idioms. The idea of an economy of fortune arose out Anis account. In Anis expressions, fortune emerged both as spiritual quality and ontological materiality, a hybrid energy susceptible of being contained, transacted, stolen, exhausted and wasted. Nevertheless, in the same trip I discovered other modalities of fortune. In one of the numerous rests we took along the steep trail which climbs to Parata, 1500 m above Yunlin, Ani Loson told me another story. I was inquiring about the kinship relationships of Khawa Karpo. In Tibet, mountains have intentionality and corporeality, they see each other as persons and entertain kinship relationships, including marriage and extra-marital liaisons. Khawa Karpo has children and is married to Miatshimu (Sman btsun mo), the daughter of Yulong Xueshan (Sa thang gangs ri), a 5596 m mountain located about 300 km south of Dechen County, in Lijiang Prefecture, and regarded as holy by the Naxi (Jang), the other major Tibeto-Burman ethnic group of Northwest Yunnan. Miatshimu moved long ago to Dechen and is a 6054 m pyramidal peak east of Khawa Karpos summit. According to Ani Loson, one day a group of hunters was hunting high on Miatshimus slopes. The group decided to follow a track which headed in the direction of the rigua (ri bkag), the sacred border which separates the local communitys land from the territory belonging to the mountain goddess. It was early morning and the birds were trilling and chirping in the oak forest. When the group arrived near the rigua, one of the hunters seemed to slow down as though he were listening, trying to make sense of a noise only he could hear. He explained later how the trill of the birds became louder and how he could not avoid paying attention to them. His face darkened in a puzzled expression as he suddenly stopped and listened carefully. They are talking Naxi, he murmured to his fellow hunters. The hunter was from a mixed Naxi-Tibetan descent and knew Naxi language. What? one replied, Whos talking? The birds. Their trills. Its human language. Theyre talking in Naxi. Dzenla ma de, dont tell lies, said one of the fellow hunters. And what are they saying? Please dont shoot us? he continued, laughing and trying to make fun of his companion who turned towards him with an expression of bewilderment. The ants are coming. The ants are coming. THE FORTUNATE PERSPECTIVE The object no longer refers its condition to a spatial mould in other words, to a relation of form-matter but to a temporal modulation that implies as much the beginnings of a continuous variation of matter as a continuous development of form. []The object here is manneristic, not essentialising: it becomes an event. (Deleuze 1984: 19) Ani Loson later explained how the birds were talking on behalf of Miatshimu, the Naxi mountain goddess, being her minions. The ants were the hunters from the point of view of Miatshimu. Yet after I inquired further about the story, Ani Loson commented that the Naxi-speaking hunter must have had a big sonam (bsod nams), karmic storage and his lha ngo (lha mgo, lit. divine head) must have been very high (mtho) that day. In other words, he must have been very fortunate. In one day I learned three different notions of fortune/luck: yang, energy and prosperity and sonam and lha mgo, in relation to the protection and well-being of a person. Yet while I was discussing the story with other Tibetan friends the magnitude of the idiom of fortune in the story grew. Probably his soul was cha (drag), victorious, said one. The hunter had the le (las, karma) for the encounter, said another. I was lost in an overabundance of terms for describing the event. Because that perspectival moment was precisely that: an event. That view, the point of view of the birds, familiars of the mountain goddess, was not made known, like in the Amerindian world, through the account of a shaman able to spatially travel between two different worlds but through what Dechenwas call geya (skal ba) a fortunate event. iii Fortune and

temporality were connected (dang ldan pa). The geya allowed the hunter to briefly tap into another perspective, to understand how humans who see themselves as humans are seen as ants by the mountain goddess. It showed how Tibetan perspectivism involved a transcendence of humans point of view achieved by the deployment of an accumulated potential in coincidence with an event. This article will be mostly concerned with how Tibetan communities in Northwest Yunnan (China) conceptualise and enact the relation between bodily energies and cosmological mobility. The simplest version of my scrutiny concerns how events unfold subjectivities. Every attempt to apply Viveiros de Castros notion of perspectivism in the Tibetan world will have to take in account of the fact that ones perspective is dependent on the state of an unstable field of fortune. In Tibet, the concept of Buddhist karma (las rgyu bras) interacted since its inception with a surroundings of pre-Buddhist forces which compose and divide the Tibetan person and produce not a static but a contingent perceptual field which regulates interactions with nonhuman beings. Viveiros de Castros ideas that in an Amazonian ontology subjectivities are dependent on bodies, defined as assemblage of affects, may apply to the Tibetan case. Nevertheless, while Viveiros de Castro argues for a processual and contingent nature of subjectivity, Amerindian perspectivism remains mostly spatially-oriented and grounded on visual tropes. A Tibetan perspectivism has to be a radicalisation of the perspectivism ascribed by Viveiros de Castro to the Amerindians, a radicalisation achieved by incorporating notions of temporality and fortune/luck. In other words, not only a view from somewhere and someone but a view from somewhen . In Amerindian perspectivism no referent is absolute. There is not an object perceived by a subject but only some-thing, an objective correlative which would activate ones subjectivity and point of view in opposition to an Other (Viveiros de Castro 2004). If a man sees a gourd filled with blood he will be determined as a human in opposition to his hosts, which must be jaguar-like yet he would also realise he sees blood because he has been contaminated by a jaguar-affect. His subjectivity would be in danger. The question for Indians writes Viveiros de Castro (2004) is not one of knowing how monkeys see the world but what world is expressed through monkeys, of what world they are the point of view. In the Tibetan case, I think we could take Viveiros de Castro s notion of objective correlative further and regard objects and signs (rtags) as evenemental. A Tibetan object-event will agent a point of view which will not only define ones subjectivity in opposition to an Other (human, divine or demonic being whatsoever) and give hints about ones position in the cycle of reincarnations. The someone which is seized by an event becomes a local configuration of a greater nexus of circumstances, a singularity which will unfold a higher set of powers and karmic connections.iv Tibetan perspectivism has therefore to be situated along two dimensions: 1) a vertical one, where a body of fortune allows to transcend cosmological hierarchies; 2) a horizontal, virtually infinite temporal horizon, extending beyond one life and composed by a multitude of reincarnations/lives.v UNSTABLE COSMOLOGIES While hierarchies in Amerindian cosmology seem not to play a major role, most of Yunnan Tibetans know the universe is inhabited by six class of beings (gro ba rigs drug), as represented in the Buddhist wheel of existence and reincarnation (sri pa khor lo): gods (lha), demigods (lha ma yin), humans (mi), animals (dud 'gro), hungry ghosts ( yi dwags), and hellish beings (dmyal ba). People are also familiar with the vertically-oriented and tripartite cosmos (yul gsum): the upper world where the gods rules (steng phyogs lha yul), the middle one where humans live (bar phyogs mi yul) and the lower one belonging to lu (klu, Skt. naga) and other chtonic beings ('og phyogs klu yul). Yet the Tibetan world is unpredictable, unstable, mobile and constantly require a temporal datum to determine the state and position of nonhuman beings. Stein writes: En analysant les classifications mythiques du Tibet, il faut se rappeler un fait essentiel: elles ne sont pas stables. part le fait que plusieurs systmes de divination existent toujours cte cte (ce qui permet de passer d'une classification l'autre), il importe de noter la migration des esprits. En effet, sur

l'chiquier du monde, les divinits ne restent pas affectes un lieu dtermin. Elles changent de place, que ce soit suivant les jours, les phases de la lune ou les saisons. (1939: 298, emphasis added) In Dechen, it is almost impossible to avoid neka (gnod pa), the wrath of chtonic beings like sadak, lu, nyen and yullha ( sa bdag, klu, gnyan, yul lha). Especially lu and sadak are disturbed whether farming, collecting wood from the forest or taking care of ones property. The action which offend these beings in Dechen are so essential to existence that even if one has the best intentions, is not possible to avoid them. A man in Xidan (skyid gtam/shing ltum/shar tang) village once showed me a large chestnut tree in his garden where a lu resided. The tree branches were growing considerably, reaching his windows and had to be cut from time to time. Shaking his head, the man told me there was no way to know where the lu was residing at the time of cutting. The lu was moving all over the tree and its location was unpredictable, shifting from one branch to another. Sometimes the presence of the lu was felt closer by the family, sometimes the man thought the lu was gone. The man had to face the wrath of the lu once in a while. Apparently, he argued, the lu was particularly benevolent and retaliated only by making his pigs sick or killing them and left his family unharmed.vi In daily life, Dechenwas would have little doubt if they had to determine whether one is human or not. Yet subjectivities are particularly unstable and always in-becoming, stretched in the temporal continuum of the cycle of reincarnations. One is human yet he may already be transforming in another class of beings, captured by any of the affectual dispositions which characterise that state of existence. Suspicion (dogs pa) is a key word in Dechen and proverbs on the difference between the inner (nang) and outer (phyi) nature of a person abounds. Two acquaintances may know each others face (ngo shes) but their gyudak ( rgyud bdag), real nature, may remain concealed forever. Real subjectivities are hidden and become temporarily visible through astrology, divination or specific events and signs which would reveal ones assemblage of potentials, whose set I hitherto defined field of fortune.vii CONFIGURATIONS OF BODIES AND AFFECTUAL DISPOSITIONS: MOBILITY AND UNPREDICTABILITY Caterpillar: Who are YOU? Alice: I I hardly know, sir, just at present at least I knew who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been changed several times since then. Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland According to Viveiros de Castro , Amerindians regard the body as a site of differentiation of perspectives, a clothing or envelope which conceals a common spiritual essence or principle of consciousness. Dechenwas would find this ontological principle as familiar, especially when discussing zombies (ro langs, lit. rising corpses). When one dies two ghosts (srog gcod pa and bla bza pa) are supposed to collect his vitality and soul, while consciousness, namshi (rnam shes), leaves the body. Yet at that time the namshi of a demon of the gdon or bgegs type may try to enter the corpse and reanimate it. According to Dechenwas, the main purpose of holding a vigil beside the dead is to prevent these demons from transforming the corpse into a ro langs. The person responsible for the wake should constantly stay alert and stop roosters and black cats from going near the corpse since those are the metamorphosis of the two demons. Tibetan folk literature where beings transform themselves by wearing a human or animals skin also abounds. In the ancient Dunhuang manuscripts we read how the fiend Dgu sul devoured a shepherd and, after wearing his skin and stealing his fortune (g.yang), slept with the mans wife (Thomas 1957: 30). Another popular tale is the one of a young herdsman receiving a wealth-generating dog as a gift. One day, when no one was watching, the dog went up to the hearth and shook off his skin revealing a beautiful woman. The young herdsman, who was peeping, suddenly grabbed the skin and threw it into the fireplace, burning it to ashes. As a result, the woman could not return to her dog form (Wickham-Smith 2005).viii The story does not make clear whether the woman was

originally a human or an animal subject: it seems that only the skin determined her humanity or animality. Nevertheless, De Castro argues that it is not so much that the body is a clothing but rather that clothing is a bodyTo put on mask-clothing is not to conceal a human essence beneath an animal appearance, but rather to activate the powers of a different body. (1998: 72, orig. emphasis) This idea, Ani Losons story and the related Dechenwas commentaries invite us to inquire into what a Tibetan body is made of. For what the body can do no one has hitherto determined writes Spinoza (Ethics 3, 2). Spinoza conceived a body as resulting from a composition of particles in a relation of motion and rest and not as a form, substance or function. Bodies are not made of matter but constituted by the trajectories of relevant interactions which compose their world and define their perceptual apparatus, namely affects.ix Affects are forces which are captured and deployed by subjects but remains independent from them. Bodies are just contingent nexus of powers. Consequently, Spinoza argued for an ethics founded on ones capacity for affecting and being affected. With Nietzsche this notion is taken further and the body is regarded something more astonishing of spirit or soul, a fruit of chance.x Corpo-reality becomes a provisional unity arising out of the contingent encounter of a multiplicity of irreducible forces. Since there is no body before an affectual event, one could never know what a body is or is capable of before a given event which would assemble and actualise a combination of affects. From substantial, a body becomes evenemental. The evenemental aspect which characterises the Tibetan body seems to elude scholars.xi Like in the rest of the Tibetan world, Dechenwas argue that the six class of beings share a spiritual principle under the form of consciousness and differentiate themselves through the karmic forces and moral qualities affecting them.xii What if the karmic forces which surround a being could be regarded as the Tibetan form of clothing? What if a being could be distinguished by the moral forces he is wearing? And this field could be regarded as a body, a body of fortune? The problem is that in the Tibetan case, one never knows exactly what he has on. Also, the boundaries between karmic and non-karmic forces or merit and fortune are extremely fuzzy. xiii Among Dechenwas, every time I asked what a human was made of, I had to confront a fuzzy set of elements and forces, characterised by instability, constantly fluctuating. Interestingly, in Tangla (Thang la) village people say that dogs bark at men because when dog see humans they see beings which are constantly shifting shape, changing from small to large, short to tall, back and forth. The forces which I regard as composing ones body of fortune are classified by Dechenwas according to whether they are related to ones continuum, (rang rgyud pa) or literally to another ones continuum (gzhan rgyud pa). Dechenwas do not even have a single term to indicate the whole of forces which composes one. A body of fortune is a kind of power armor which one could wears but also lose it or having it stolen or disintegrate. It allows one to be healthy, safe or become rich but also to see through illusions or to tap into another beings perspective. The forces which are rang rgyud pa include sonam and wangthang (dbang thang).xiv In Tibetan Buddhism, sonam is regarded as an ethical power and is related to the karmic storage accumulated in the previous lives which could be increased through virtuous deeds (dge ba) or consumed until exhausted (zad) by recklessly exploiting its power by gambling or indulging in excessive pleasures and vices. In practice, Dechenwas regard sonam as a barrier against the power of ghosts (dre), an immune system which preserves the well-being of a person. Sonam has also the critical property to amplify all the other forces. Wangthang concerns authority, destiny: it is a power that may be employed to influence the course of the events and avoid dangers. Wangthang is mostly innate ( lhan skyes) and can be increased sensibly only in the next life, by increasing ones sonam. In Dechen, Chairman Mao Tse-Tung is used as an example to describe the concept of wangthang. The success of Maos revolution against all odds, the occupation of Tibet and Maos fame as womaniser are undeniable signs of his wangthang to the point that some households worship him as a protector god (srung ma), men secretly ask his help in case of sexual dysfunctions and couples hang his portrait above their bed. Sonam and wangthang are often considered as a single compound by Dechenwas, sonam wangthang, to indicate ones personal power and efficaciousness.xv The idea is physically expressed by thopa rimo (thod pa ri mo), a

bodily metaphor indicating a wide forehead where the lines of the wrinkle are long and smooth, meaning that ones sonam has been carved there and will act as a protective barrier. Different perspectives, called in Tibetan [karmic] enjoyment (long spyod), belongs to each of the six classes of beings. Every class enjoys a vision. A classic example which may remind the Amerindian context is the following: where humans see a river as water, fishes (animal realm) see it as home and lu as air to breathe; gods see it as nectar; demi-gods as weapons; hungry ghosts as pus; hellish beings as molten lava. Each being enjoys a state which is limited by its own sonam. Perspectives are therefore dependent for their activation upon the availability of a sufficient quantity of sonam. When asked about karmic vision, one of my informants replied: All your long spyod comes from your le ( las, karma) and sonam. Its very simple: if you want to enjoy something (in this case to see other beings) you have to be rich enough to pay. A big sonam also allows transformation (sprul) into another being. Some of the most popular stories in Dechen are about mountain gods becoming animals and humans although Dechenwas regard it to be very difficult for a mountain god to become human since the transformation would require a huge amount of sonam. Because of that, mountain gods take mostly animal forms if they wish to interact with humans. The exception is Khawa Karpo who is capable of transforming into anything he chooses since his level of sonam is extremely high. ECONOMIES OF FORTUNE The forces outside ones continuum include the ones which need to be summoned, raised or preserved properly in order to clear ones path (lam) of obstructions (bar chad) and increase ones body of fortune. They include la (bla), yang and lungta (rlung rta). The result is an unstable assemblage and nexus of multiplicities extending much beyond ones physical frame (gzugs po) and which can never be fully mastered. Ones body of fortune may be also composed by nonhuman beings which act as fortune-enhancers and protectors: the protector gods and the divine-head, lha ngo, and two malicious spirits, the poison-god (dug lha), a quasi-parasite being which drew yang, lungta and other energies from the poisoned victims to its host and the turong (theu rang), a chance-influencing spirit, summoned to succeed in gambling and steal others people fortune.xvi The relationships with the fortune-enhancers has to be managed properly all the time since these beings are very susceptible to be contaminated or disturbed and constantly threaten to leave their owners or turning towards him. Concerning the protector gods, one of my informants commented: xvii Every one has two gods on the shoulders: the one on the right side is the dgra lha (fighting god), and the one on the left side is the pho lha (male god) or mo lha [for females]. They stay on the shoulders like two lamps. Dechenwas are very sensitive about this. They dont like others to hit them suddenly on the shoulders because they are afraid the two lamps of the protecting gods would be quenched. Some people say that if you are walking in the night and suddenly hear some sound behind you, its probably ghosts (dre) wanting to assail you. But they are afraid of the two protecting gods. So they want to make you turn back very quickly so that the lamps on your shoulders will be extinguished and it will be easier for them to attack you. When you walk in the night in Dechen, you should never be deceived by the ghosts that tease you to make you turn completely round of a sudden. The la (bla), translated by Tibetologists as soul, is treated by Dechenwas as expressive of the function of life support and helper (rogs).xviii An informant argued: If you want to see the other beings, it depends whether your la is cha [bla drag, strong, victorious, the opposite being bla zhan, weak, low]. You can see spirits either if your la is very strong or very weak. If your la is strong, spirits cannot hide from you. If the la is weak, spirits will come to scare you and the horrible visions will act as bad omens ( than) which will pollute you. If you see ghosts and you are self-confident then you will still be safe otherwise your la will

be taken and eaten (bla za). Even if your la is strong you must be aware of the harm they could bring. To make your la strong you have to strengthen your dgra lha [the god on mans right shoulder] through offers (dgra lha mchod) and prayers and be careful of not to pollute him. The la is mobile and astrology regards it as residing inside the physical frame (lus, gzugs po), following a trajectory according to the monthly lunar cycle (Cornu 1997). In Dechen, the la is regarded as external to the physical frame of a man but always attached to it (chags), like a shadow. Being extremely motile, the la may flee or be transferred through a ritual into a location (a mountain, a lake, a tree), which will act as a safe receptacle of the life-support (Stein 1972: 228). Even a larger body like a household or a village can possess a la or even several la, located in different places. In Dechen, the most famous la story relates to the Kang family ( khams sgang pa), one of the four households of chieftains (Ch. Tusi, Tib. sde dpon), who ruled over the county before the Liberation in 1950. The Kang family had a life-support tree (bla shing). It was created after a divination which advised them to perform the ritual in order to protect the household from harm and increase its power. They asked a guru to put their la into a tree in Minyong (Me long) village, on the way to Go Me temple. When they found the tree, it was small and hidden and the household thought it was safe to put their la there. But before liberation a big rock fell down and broke a branch of the tree. In the same year, the household chief (bdag po) fell from his horse and broke a leg. He died soon afterwards, fighting against the Chinese army. Ten years ago the top of the tree started to dry out. Today the household has only two men left and the patrilineal lineage (rus) is dying. If the la flees following a traumatic event, a person enters a state of lethargy and distress which eventually results in death. A soul-calling ritual (bla gugs) has to be performed.xix The most relevant part of the ceremony for our discussion is the evaluation of the efficacy of the ritual. How does one know if the la has returned? There are several ways to test the success of the ritual, divination being the most common. In Dechen, the most intriguing way is the one in which the clothes of the patients are weighed before and after the ritual. If the clothes weigh more after the ritual, the la has returned. Are we not facing here a hybrid ontology of a soul considered as invisible but material? Here Viveiros de Castro s dichotomy of spiritual unity/bodily diversity becomes problematic. How should we deal with hybrid terms? How should we treat a soul which has weight? Is it spiritual or corporeal? We are reminded here how Western cosmologies have entertained debates (theological and scientific) on the materiality of the soul from Aquinas to Dr MacDougall (1907), a physician who determined that at the moment of our death we lose exactly 21 grams. The other types of forces which composes a body of fortune could be explained through the examples of pricey matsutake mushrooms (Ch. Songrong, Dechen Tib. pesha, Ber sha), collected through all Dechen. Since the middle of the Eighties, Dechens economy has been largely supplemented by the income derived from mushrooms sold on Japanese markets as delicacies and regarded as having anti-cancer and aphrodisiac properties. When a collector in Dechen unexpectedly discovers a hidden spot in the forest which hosts several large specimens of matsutake, he is obviously happy and becomes aware that his divine-head ( lha ngo) must be high (mtho) or his yang must be spinning properly. Yet at the same time he is suspicious, since that fortunate event may be a bad omen ( than) or a sign (rtags) of something else. I once discussed the idea of lungta, yang, lha ngo and sonam with a mushroom collector: Lungta especially protects travellers. You are a good example because you travel a lot. One rises lungta (rlung rta gso) by hanging prayer flags. If you raise your lungta, no matter where you go, things would go smoothly, you would not get sick, no one will hurt you. Yang is a mobile thing, mostly related to prosperity and vitality (bcud) and humans beings, things or animals. If ones fortune surrounds

him properly he has yang khur (g.yang 'khor), he can find many pesha . If we go deeper we come to the concept of lha ngo tho (mtho, lit. the divine-head is high) or lha ngo ma (dma , lit. the divine-head is low). You may have a fortune five times greater than other people that year but you may go one day to collect mushrooms and get nothing. Then we say that day you had lha ngo ma. The quantity of mushrooms is like your lha ngo, lungta and yang, its are unpredictable, sometimes it rises, sometimes it falls. But we have to go deeper. Sonam is the capacity to extend the power of the yang and to bring eventually good consequences. If one has lots of yang but no sonam , he may find lots of pesha yet in the long term the fortune can change or the mushrooms may bring bad consequences. Some people found 50 jin [25 kg] of pesha in one week and established a record. But the collectors virtue and sonam today are becoming worse and worse and the amount of mushrooms should become less and less. What is happening then? The mushrooms quantity increases but their value (gong thang) on the market decreases! Yang, lungta and lha ngo brings you advantages but sonam will convert misfortune into fortune. If the price of the oil increases for a truck driver with a high sonam, the drivers income will also increase! An economy of fortune is then paradoxically determined in a future anterior. Fortune can only be negotiated retrospectively since ones fortune never ends in the present and needs constant attention to the future. An economy of fortune is an economy which borrows from the future: it refers not only to a past which determined its accumulation or the present of its deployment but to the future of the consequences that a non-virtuous use may bring in this or the next life. One can never enjoy a fortunate event because one can never entirely know whether that enjoyment will bring positive consequences. I have heard several stories of extremely fortunate and rich matsutake collectors who died suddenly in car accidents or were hit by other kinds of misfortune. One of the elements which define the different ontology of Tibetan fortune-idioms is their temporal efficacy. Different fortunes have different temporalities. Dechenwas consider lha ngo tho as a short-term fortune, a singular lucky and relatively autonomous event and sonam as a prophylactic energy and an investment on a long-term horizon (ones continuum of lives). Lungta is said to be a medium-term fortune, since its basic level is determined each year by astrological evaluations. xx Yang transcends time. Yang is the power to gather power, told me once a Nyngmapa abbot. In Dechen, yang is the most important type of fortune, a kind of Tibetan mana.xxi Yang is localised. It belongs more to a group of people (household, village) than to individuals. The yang-calling evocation, yang be (g.yang bod), is known by everyone in Dechen and constitutes the most popular economy of fortune, practiced in occasion of every major social event, such as weddings, deaths and new years celebrations. When one marries away, he has to attract new yang and store it properly and return the yang of the family of origin which was attached to him. Yang is normally translated as wealth which is a very limited notion of it. Yang is connected to the quintessence and vitality (bcud) of things, beings and powers and promotes the circulation of every other energies.xxii Yang is the base (gzhi) and support (rten sa) of every efficacious relationship, as epitomised by the origin myth of yang, which has to be retrieved by gods.xxiii Everything has its yang and the yang be summons the yang of religion, law, merchandise, wealth, war, grain. Yang has to spin (g.yang khor) properly in order to be efficacious and even the idea of efficacious configuration has to rely on yang. This is the reason that Tibetan fortune rituals summon even the fortune of fortune.xxiv THE POISONERS PERSPECTIVE AND THE IDIOM OF HOS(TI)PITALITY While Dechen is notorious for being the home of Khawa Karpo and flourishes with sacred sites and mountain Gods, its reputation is obscured by the presence of one of the most disgraceful classes of human beings for Tibetans: poisoners (dug ma). The poison god should be regarded as another fortune-enhancer. In some villages in Dechen is named yang lha, god of fortune. The poisoners case cast light on the relationship between fortune and perspectivism since stealing ones fortune means to steal ones clothing and point of view and be able to access an Others perspective. Poisoners are mostly women (dug

ma) whose household has been occupied by a dug lha, a poison-god. The dug lha usually enter a house following a fortunate event, usually the find of some jewel or precious objects on the mountain. Nevertheless, the object may be the magical emanation (sprul pa) of the dug lha who is able to enter a household and settling. The dug lha may also wanders randomly (dug chams) around villages and is able to access the households which have low-level of sonam and therefore lack protection.xxv Once it has occupied a house, the dug lha mates with the eldest woman, who cannot then refuse to poison whoever the dug lha decides should be poisoned. The dug lha manifests under the form of a snake, a frog or a centipede but is normally invisible to everyone but the dug ma. Anyone is likely to be killed, even members of the poisoners family if no one else is available. Poison is given in two ways: a) directly by the dug lha who lives underneath the roofs beams and drops the poison into the guests food or beverages; b) by the dug ma, who receives the poison from the dug lha and secretly adds it to the guests meals . Only the dug ma can normally see the dug lha. The dug ma can see through the eyes of the snake and the snake can see through the eyes of the woman. A perspective is contained in the same being which is dual: the dug ma can perceive herself and through her own eyes and the eyes of the poison god, whose perception registers the body of fortune of other human beings. Dug ma dug lha srog gcig, say Dechenwas, the poisoner and the poison God share one single vitality, one single body of fortune. Fortunate visitors are the most likely to be killed yet are the only ones who can spot the poisonous food and the dug lha, owing to their high fortune. If the dug lha is revealed and killed, the dug ma will suffer the same fate and die instantly. The poisoning of the victim results in a slow transference of the fortune from the victim to the poison god and the dug ma. Because of that, the poison acts slowly, usually killing in six months to three years. In the meantime, the household becomes rich and powerful, the fortune of the victims being slowly channelled to it. Moreover, all the energetic potential produced during healing rituals (sku rim) for the victim (often ignorant of being poisoned until the final stage of the sickness), are automatically diverted to the poisoner. The poisoners case become specially relevant when seen in the light of two fundamental Amerindian idioms of subjectification according to VdC: enmity and ontological predation (2004a: 479). According to De Castro, the archetypal conceptualization of enmity is affinity. In order to kill a prey, the killer has to apprehend its enemy as a subject, from the inside, and conceptualise it as an ideal brother-in-law. Here, the killer must be able to see himself as the enemy sees himas, precisely, an enemyin order to become himself or, rather, a myself. (ibidem). Enmity becomes a transfers of point of view, a merging of two into one. The poisoner follow a similar logic yet not through killing but parasitizing . To the Amerindian cannibal cogito where A eats B we may counterpoise a Tibetan idiom of hos(ti)pitality where the host subjugates the guest by parasitizing on him.xxvi The transfer of the point of view happens by the appropriation of the others field fortune with all the cosmological benefits it could provide in this life. Needless to say, faithful Buddhists regard this as a mundane benefit: eventually all dug ma will go to hell and reincarnate in a lower class of beings. TROPES OF PERSPECTIVAL ACCESS: EMOTIONS, EMANATION, AND CONCEALMENT Transitions between different class of beings happen normally through reincarnation (yang skyas) and is influenced by ones emotions, virtues or vices during ones life. In Tibetan Medicine, emotions are connected to three humours (nyes pa gsum) wind, bile and phlegm (rlung, mkhris pa, bad kan), which regulate all physiological functions. Each of the humors is associated with each of the three Buddhist poisons: desire, hatred and ignorance (Adams 1998). An excess of desire will result in an imbalance of the wind humour and a related pathology. Nevertheless, an excess of an emotional state not only may result in an ailment but in a shift to the class of beings characterised by that affect. Yi dwags (hungry spirits) are greedy and eternally crave, dmyal ba pa (hellish beings) are angry and aggressive, dud 'gro (animals) are stupid and servile, lha ma yin (demi-gods) are warlike, narcissist and jealous, lha (gods) are happy and peaceful. Humans (mi) are prone to express any of the affects above and undergoing a subjective change. One could be human but develop an animal-like affect which will make him reincarnate as a cow. The metamorphosis from a human to a nonhuman class of beings may nevertheless start

10

in ones current life. Around Khawa Karpo, the hunters figure (rngon pa) exemplify this danger. Everyone knows that excessive hunting is unwise because it can alter subjectivity and slowly changes one into a warlike spirit, a tsen (btsan).xxvii In order words, he would develop a tsen-like affect. Nevertheless, a hunter would become aware of the metamorphosis he is undergoing only after being victim of what De Castro (2004b) would name as perspectival equivocation. Ani Dom (lit. Grandfather Bear) was the most famous hunter in Dechen, having killed fifteen bears and thirty wild yaks. One day, while aiming at a wild goat, Ani saw himself standing in the place of the goat. He dismissed this omen and continued hunting. In 1987, during the new year period, he went with his fellow villagers to make an offering (bsang) to the local mountain god. When he arrived on the mountain he had a heart attack accompanied by a vision of an army of lha, nyen, lu and du tying his body and throwing him into the Mekong River while a voice was telling him how bloodthirsty he had become. After that, he converted to Buddhism and quit hunting. The notion of emanation or transformation, which assumes the form of the verb tul (sprul) or the noun tulpa (sprul pa), is critical to comprehending the idea of perspectival access in the Tibetan world.xxviii We already have seen how it works in the case of mountain gods. We turn now to the figure of the incarnated lama. In The Kings Two Bodies, Kantorowicz (1957) argues how the Medieval King was regarded as a being having both a material body and a transcendental one, a body politic. The figure of the Buddha extends this ontology to include three bodies (sku gsum, Skt. trikaya) inhabiting different planes of existence. xxix Tulku (sprul sku) is the term employed to indicate the reincarnated lama yet literally it means emanated body and refers to the physical manifestion of Buddhahood. The tulku is the body the Buddha has to assume in order to be able to interact with living beings. Each discrete domain and class of beings can be accessed via an emanation, tulpa (sprul pa), a capacity pertaining to the gods (lha) or enlightened beings. A Dechen diviner commented: Different beings cannot normally communicate. In other states of existence, there could be a direct communication between one and anothers consciousness. But we lost this ability and we need to use language to communicate even within the same types of beings. But lha or mountain gods like Chon Genyen (lcan dge bsnyen) [a mountain god in Dechen] employ tulpa because they want to let people know they have power or wants to send some message to them. Because a direct communication with people is impossible, gods have to use their tulpa. Tulpa may need dip (grib) in order to be activated. Dip is a key term among Tibetans, usually glossed as pollution but here I propose a new idiom: concealment. A Dechen monk once told me: A tulku could not exist without dip. If you are a tulku you have dip. A Buddha has three bodies ku sum choku, lonku, tulku. Only the tulku has dip . The first two bodies cannot be polluted by dip, only the tulku can be polluted. Choku is the the pure wisdom ( ye shes) of the Buddha himself who reached absolute emptiness (stong pa nyid). There is no place for dip to be deposited. Longku is somewhere but cannot be reached. The tulku originates from longku. A Buddha has to become the shape of the beings he wants to benefit. He has to be born and he gets the first dip once he enters the womans womb (mngal grib) . Thats why he starts to forget his nature; dip clouds memory. In order to become similar to the people he wants to benefit, he needs dip. A Buddha must take the aspect and qualities of the beings he wants to benefit. If he wants to help pigs he has to become a pig! The term dip should be interpreted following its original etymology, related to shade or shadow (grib ma) or shady side, as of a mountain (srib).xxx Dip results in the disintegration of the assemblage of affects which constitutes ones body: pollution leaves a being defenceless by eclipsing his powers. Nevertheless, in the case of tulpa, dip may be worn by a Buddha or other being as a form of disguise, allowing him access to other cosmological domains enveloped in a shadow.

11

Tulpa can be also employed by high lamas, gods and demons (lha srin sde brgyad) to change the appearance of things. Hunters stories on Khawa Karpo and their moral message revolve around the tulpa theme: one should never kill on the territory where powerful beings dwell because one never knows what their quarry will be. We have already told the story of Ani Dom. Another story from Adong (A Dong/a gdong) village explains the illusionary powers of tulpa : There were two brothers, Ana and Samdo. One day the two brothers went hunting together. When they arrived in the mountains above Adong, Ana told his brother to go first because that way they could manage to keep some animals between the two of them and have a better hunt. Samdo agreed, and he remained behind with the only gun they had, while his brother entered the wood. Samdo waited for a while but nothing happened and he decided to follow his brother into the wood. He walked for a while until he arrived in view of a mound covered with grass. A wild sheep (gna) was standing there. Samdo took his gun and aimed at the animal. When he was about to pull the trigger the animal transformed into a man. Samdo put down his gun and looked very carefully. He saw the goat again. Three times he saw the goat transforming into a man and stopped in confusion. After the third time, the animal was about to escape the rifles firing range. Samdo decided to take the shot and the animal fell down instantly. He ran quickly towards his prey and was horrified when he saw his brother Ana lying on the ground with his hands compressing a bleeding wound at the top of his stomach. Samdo realised that he killed his brother. Samdo carried the wounded brother to the village immediately, but he died before they could arrive home. With his last words he asked Samdo to take care of his family. Do you know why Samdo saw his brother as a wild goat? Because of the power of Tochen Gyelpo (Stogs chen rgyal po), the mountain god of Adong. He can change the way people look at things. TWO WORLDS AT ONCE We return to the Tibetan example of perspectivism: a river is water for humans but home for fishes, nectar for gods, a weapon for demi-gods, pus for hungry ghosts and molten lava for hellish beings. Nevertheless, we encounter here the greatest divide between Amerindian and Tibetan Perspectivism. While Amerindian Perspectivism distances itself from all forms of idealism and relativism, Buddhist doctrinal discussions employ the above-mentioned example of the river to prove that there are no things which are inherently existent. The river the six beings see only pertains to the conventional truth-world ( kun rdzob bden pa) and not to the ultimate truth-world (don dam bden pa). According to the doctrine of the two truths (bden pa gnyis), the abundance of perspectives on the river would show that an object is essentially empty.xxxi In the conventional world subjects are defined by their points of view on things. In the noumenal world of ultimate truth, there are no points of view since there are not even objective correlatives and no topology can be established. Everything in this world is tulpa, illusion said a Buddhist friend in Dechen, because everything is made out of emptiness. There is no beginning or starting point (thog ma med pa). Everything is endless, infinite and circular. If you really wants to conceive an origination point, you need the concept of time but in emptiness itself there is not even that, there is only eternity. Through the two truths we encounter the most fundamental aspect of Tibetan ontology: the existence of two worlds at the same time. One day I was standing in front of Khawa Karpo with a friend, a Buddhist Khenpo (Mkhan po, abbot). Pointing to the mountain, he said: Most the beings see false things, appearances [tulpa]. They never see the essence (rtsa ba). Khawa Karpo is the palace (pho brang) of Demchok (Bde mchog), a tantric deity (yi dam) who reached the state of selflessness and can see the ultimate truth of things. Khawa Karpo is both a mountain and the palace where Demchok resides. They are two different levels, which exist at the same time. But only a powerful lama, living Buddha or lha can see the abode of Demchok. Normal men or other minor beings cannot. Only a high sonam will allows you to see behind the tulpa. Most of the people are too impure or ignorant, they have too much dip

12

which is like a spot which covers their eyes. Whether you will see beyond the appearance and see the essence of things depends on your karma (las). If it is your karma to see the palace or the hidden valley (sbas yul) of Khawa Karpo, you will. One could never tell when but if there is the right coincidence of circumstances (rten brel) to see what is behind tulpa , you will [emphasis added]. Everything is either ultimate or conventional truth, essence or appearance, depending on ones karma and body of fortune. Revelations will happen at that the appropriate moment. It will be a view from somewhen since a Being has to be conceived in time, being not a singularity but a multiplicity, not one life but a multiplicity of lives and perspectives: the sum of all the perspectives it will traverse during the course of the virtually infinite extension of its possible lives. And each perspective or event is produced by a configuration of forces and is connected with other events to the point of containing them. Tendril (rten brel) is employed by Dechenwas to describe a combination of fate and event, to indicate either the coincidence of auspicious circumstances tashi tendril, (bkra shis rten brel) or the seizure of the best moment to perform a delicate action (rten brel rtsi). xxxii Yet in Dechen, it is the term geya (skal ba) that expresses the unique ontology which connects fortune, destiny and time. One could say to have the geya to see the true nature of Khawa Karpo and meet him or not. Geya has two meanings. First it is the result of all the positive forces, a propitious configuration of a body of fortune, like a good dice throw which has been warmed well in ones hands. Yet in daily life geya means also property, share, belonging. Geya refers to events which meant to be ones lot. Geya affirms the necessity of chance. We are reminded here of the Deleuzian (1990) distinction between Aion and Chronos, the first being the infinite virtuality of past and future, the second its actualisation in the present. Aion, the pure empty form of time, has no empirical or conceptual content but is the condition of Chronos, its virtuality being the condition of its actuality. Similarly, a body of fortune is either increasing or decreasing, accumulating or spending, its body is never inert and forces continuously fluctuate. A perspective is the becoming-subject of a being emerging out of the punctuality of an event, the actualisation of its body of fortune in a somewhen of the immemorial past of ones previous lives or the future anterior of the next ones. In the Tibetan world, even events and not only things and beings are and create points of view. CONCLUSION: SUPPLEMENTS AND PERSPECTIVES Finally we are left with a multiplicity of fortune-terms: an overabundance of fortunes. Is fortune another mana-like concept? In a skillful discussion of the idea of mana, Holbraad (2006), inspired by Viveiros de Castros notion of potential (1998: 756), criticises Levi-Strauss for having regarded mana-like terms either too generally excessive or devoid of meaning, in other words too hot to handle. Whilst I have much sympathy with Holbraads superb analysis, it is a fact that while Levi-Strauss defines mana-like terms as providing a surplus of signification, he also regards their effect as a distribution of a supplementary ration [for] the very condition of the exercise of symbolic thinking (1987: 63, emphasis added). Mana terms are supplements which carve a space of freedom for the subject to appear in the management of them. Mana-terms are not excessive. Actually, they are never enough. Uray argues that one of the Tibetan term for fortune, lungta, is the translation of the Chinese divinatory term i-ma, meaning post-horse or stagehorse. (1984: 358, n.56) The term is explained in a divinatory manual as follows: it is like when one comes to a posthouse and finds a horse when one is tired (ibid.) Fortune is always a relationship with a lack. You never have enough of it, you never know what its state is. One may perform all the right rituals yet still have an unbalance among his forces. Some can be high, some low, one container may be full, another one empty. You need an event for knowing that although your configuration may change again afterwards. In the meantime, you generate terms and discussions, you wait, you test your fortune, you enjoy your lack. This lack is also a space for thinking and carving yourself a gap out of time, to introduce a breach between the cycle of reincarnations and Buddhist fatalism. For fortune offers you a space

13

of proactive waiting: an opportunity to seize karma and anticipate its effects.xxxiii


i

Fieldwork in Dechen County was conducted for a total 22 months, from 2003 to 2006 and I am particularly grateful to Drapa Guru, Khenpo Namgyal, Muso, Loson Dondrub, Rincen Dorje, Ani Dom, Sonam Dorje. I also wish to thank for their advice and help Caroline Humphrey, Hildegard Diemberger, Ulrike Roesler, Rebecca Empson, Ludek Broz, Christoph Kletzer, James Laidlaw, Nick Green, Katherine Swancutt, Libby Peachey. ii In brackets, I include when available the Wylie Tibetan transliteration system of which follows the term in Dechen dialect. The Mandarin, Sanskrit or Pali terms, where relevant, have been included. For place names, the Mandarin toponym is employed first, followed by the Wylie Tibetan. I use the term Dechenwas ( bde chen ba) to refer to Dechen Tibetans. References to Tibetans, when not followed by a specific quote, should be related to Dechenwas. iii On shamanism among Tibetans see the recent study by Bellezza (2005). iv I am inspired here by Badious (2000) confrontation with Deleuze. Although I try to show with Deleuze that an event could be a local configuration of the One/Container of the totality of karmic connections, I consider it to be an ontological novelty, being connected to a lucky event, as Badiou would suggest. v A complete scrutiny of perspectivism among Tibetans would require an in-depth analysis of Buddhist and Bonpo cosmology and doctrinal elements. The reflections included here emerge out of discussions with informants of heterogeneous social status and level of education and should be considered as fieldwork-based inquiry into indigenous ontologies and popular cosmology. Their relation with Buddhist and Bonpo doctrines is expounded in my Phd thesis. vi Interestingly, Norbu mention the astrology of kabtse ( gab rtse) or hidden points which deals with specific conjuctions when sadak, lu, nyen and other beings, which are usually imperceptible, have a more direct relation with man and are likely to cause disturbances (1995: 149). vii Tibetan astrology and divination exist to overcome this Tibetan principles of indeterminacy, being technologies to determine the strategic time in which a body is determined, a configuration of forces reaches the optimal potential or to locate the position of a being. Tibetan elemental astrology ('byung rtsis) is based on a cycle corresponding to twelve animals of the lunar year, which are paired with a cycle of five elements: wood, water, earth, fire and metal. This creates a combined cycle of sixty years (i.e. water sheep year). Below the animals are three rows of alternating numbers, one tto nine, the mewa (sme ba) squares, which represent three levels of astrological interpretation for each year. The three levels indicate the condition of la, soq, lu, wangthang, lungta to be expected in a particular year which are also influenced by a system of eight parkha (spar kha), associated with ones birth year, direction and planetary influences which change throughout life. See Cornu (1997). viii I thank Ulriche Roesler for pointing me to this story. ix See also Deleuze (1988:123). x See Nietzsche [1901] 1968 (II, 25, 334). xi I am not suggesting that Tibetans do not have a body schema or a notion of physical body, designated by the terms lu ( lus) or zupo (gzugs po). I am interested in taking Viveiros de Castro s ideas further and argue that their body is different from ours and include a irreducible plethora of forces which composes a virtual body which becomes actualised only after an event. For concepts of bodily formation and embryology among Tibetan-speaking groups see Diemberger (1993). xii See also Ortner (1978). xiii While the article Lichter & Epstein (1993) has been seminal, I disagree with the sweeping dichotomy the authors establish between the domain of gyu (rgyu - necessary cause) and the one of chen (rkyen - cooperative cause) and the related contrasts of sonam vs lungta (rlung rta, translated as simply luck) and namshi vs. la. Among Dechenwas, things do not work so smoothly. The two domains are constantly intertwined and the anthropologist is left with a constant proliferation of hybrids. The fuzziness about Tibetan indigenous ontologies is precisely the point about them. Sonam (or sonam wangthang), for example, may be employed as synonymous of lungta in many cases, in

14

order to express an idea of efficacious power, similar to the Mongolian idea of buyan kesig (cf. Chabros 1992: 156). Lichter & Epstein also assume the Tibetan concept of luck to be like our concept luck which is strongly grounded in Western cosmological assumptions and cannot convey the magnitude and variety of the Tibetan notion. xiv Namshi, consciousness, and lu, the container or physical frame, are also rang rgyud pa. The soq ( srog), the condition of vitality, also belongs to this group but is not considered a force by Dechenwas but a ground or condition of life, the state of being alive. This contrasts with Tibetan astrology or previous research (cf. Karmay 1998: 311). Rituals like the soq lu (srog bslu) are performed in order to restore the integrity of the soq and prevent death and do not retrieve the soq. Unlike the la which can wander and may be recalled, once the soq leaves one is dead. xv On sonam, wanthang and lungta among Tibetan refugees see Calkowski (1993) and Clarke (1990) for Tibetan communities in Nepal. xvi I cannot pursue here the complex figures of the Theu rang and the poison-god and their role as fortune-enhancers. Both figures are explored in an article (The Fortune and the Poisoner) which could be regarded as the sequel to this one where I deal the relation between Viveiros de Castros notion of ontological predation and Tibetan idioms of hos(ti)pitality, the dice throw-influencing property of the Theu Rang and the critical relation between indigenous ontologies of chance and Buddhist determinism. On the mysterious origin of Theu Rang see Nebesky-Woykowitz (1957: 154-59). xvii Some informants are familiar with the old Tibetan ideas of the five tutelary deities (go bai lha nga), residing in different locations of the body. A possible configuration is the following: So lhha (srog lha), god of vitality with its seat in the heart; Pho lha (pho lha), male god, on the right shoulder; Mo lha (mo lha), female god, under the left armpit; Dralha (dgra lha) enemy-fighting god, on the right shoulder); Yullha (yul lha) territorial god, on the top of the head. Stein writes about five or six protector gods (1972: 222); Norbu (1995: 67) and Nebesky-Woykowitz (1956: 328) provide alternative patterns. I think that the inconsistencies in the accounts about the configurations of the protector gods is precisely the point about them and refers to their instability. xviii Interestingly, Father Savioz, a Catholic missionary who lived in Dechen until 1951 and is today still alive in Switzerland, told me that la should be translated as guardian angel. xix See Karmay (1998: 310ff) xx On lungta see also Karmay (2002: 413-22). xxi Every village in Dechen has a ritual expert named yanglen penghen (g.yang len bon rgan), lit. the elder Bon fortune summoner. Bon is today virtually absent in Dechen although is said Badong village hosted a temple (lha khang) which was destroyed during the Cultural Revolution. In Badong, I witnessed a few rituals of the mdos category that involved sacrifices of livestock and are regarded by locals as being of Bonpo origin. Yet it seems to me that Bon influences are more extensive in Dechen than what Dechenwas are aware of. In Dechen, g.yang is not only related to wealth and prosperity but to good luck, vitality and all positive aspects of ones life, as Bonpos emphasise (cf. Norbu 1995: 247). I also believe that the whole argument made by Sagant (1996) on life-force, soul-power and prestige among the Limbus should not be related to Tibetan ideas of bla or dbang, like the author suggests, but mainly to yang . xxii In Dechen, the difference between the Bonpo idea of cha (phywa) and yang is not relevant and the two terms are considered a synonym, even among the yanglen penghen (On phywa and g.yang see Karmay 1998: 178-9, n.31 and 2002: x). xxiii See the the Mu yi pra phud phyai mthar thug bzhugs so. xxiv Cf. a ritual text employed in Dechen for calling the yang, titled Gser od g.yang len zhes bya ba bzhugs so where we find the following formula: goddess of the land, goddess of stable support, please make the yang of the imperishable yang to descend (g.yang mi nyams rten mai g.yang tshur phob) xxv For Dechenwas also localities have sonam which protects their inhabitants and yang which enhance their prosperity and vitality (bcud). xxvi See Derrida (2000) who remarks that genuine hospitality is like a free gift: an aporia. Hospitality contains always a measure of inhospitability, becoming hos(ti)pitality , a hostile hospitality. Another instance of this idiom is the relation between communities

15

and mountain gods. The subjugation (dam btags) of mountain gods by living Buddhas or heroes inaugurates a relation. The community act as a powerful guest on the territory of a dangerous owner. The territorial god might still take offence and harm the guest that violates the rules of hospitality. The guest (human) has to constantly see himself through the eyes of the hostile host (mountain god) in order to avoid retaliations. This relationship could also considered a reciprocal subjectification, what VdC regards as an exchange of points of view (2004a: 479). xxvii Hunting has been banned in Dechen since the late Eighties but the hunter figure and the related neka stories continue to be very popular and play a critical role as moral exemplars. xxviii On sprul see also Stein (1973). xxix Chos sku (ultimately empty body of truth) and longs sku (body of enjoyment of Buddhahood) are the other two transcendental bodies. Sku is clearly not a body but a process of in-corporealisation. For a study of the three bodies see Makransky (1997). It is worth to note that sku mdun is the term to indicate the presence of the divine nature of the Dalai Lama. xxx See Stein (1972: 43). Also Schiklgruber (1992) and Diemberger (1993). xxxi See Newland (1992) on this complex Buddhist doctrine. I am dealing here only with what has filtered in popular thought. xxxii In Buddhist ontology, rten brel is an abbreviation of rten cing 'brel ba 'byung ba, commonly glossed as interdependent origination, being the translation of the Pali pratiya-samutpada. xxxiii See also Ramble (2002) on how Tibetan communities in Nepal generate notions of collectivity by introducing time-cracks and separate themselves from Buddhist ideas of temporal determinism. References Adams, V. 1998. Suffering the winds of Lhasa: human rights, cultural difference, and humanism in Tibet. Medical Anthropology Quarterly 11/2: 128. Badiou, A. 2000. Deleuze. The Clamor of Being. Minneapolis (MN); London: University of Minnesota Press. Bellezza, J. V. 2005. Calling down the Gods. Spirit-mediums, Sacred Mountains and related Bon Textual Traditions in Upper Tibet. Leiden: Brill. Calkowski, M. 1993. Contesting hierarchy: on gambling as an authoritative resource in Tibetan refugee society, in C. Ramble & M. Brauen (ed.) Anthropology of Tibet and the Himalaya. Zurich: Ethnological Museum of the University of Zurich. Chabros, K. 1992. Beckoning Fortune. A Study of the Mongolian Dalalga ritual, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag. Clarke, G. E. 1990. Ideas of merit (bsod-nams), virtue (dge-ba), blessing (byin-rlabs) and material prosperity (rten-'brel) in Highland Nepal. Journal of the Anthropological Society of Oxford 21/2: 16584. Cornu, P. 1997. Tibetan Astrology . Boston and London: Shambala. Deleuze, G. 1988. Spinoza. Practical Philosophy. San Francisco (CA): City Lights Books. Deleuze, G. 1990. The Logic of Sense. London: Athlone Press Deleuze, G. 1992. The Fold. Leibniz and the Baroque. Minneapolis (MN): University of Minnesota Press. Derrida, J. 2000. Hostipitality, in Angelaki: Journal of the Theoretical Humanities 5/3: 318. Diemberger, H. 1993. Blood, Sperm, Soul and the Mountain. Gender relations, Kinship and Cosmovision among the Khumbo (N. E. Nepal), in T. Del Valle (ed.). Gendered Anthropology. London and New York (NY): Routledge. Gser od g.yang len zhes bya ba bzhugs so. Ritual manuscript found in Dechen. Holbraad, M. 2006. The Power of Powder: Multiplicity and Motion in the Divinatory Cosmology of Cuban If (or mana, again), in A. Henare, M. Holbraad, S. Wastell (ed.) Thinking through Things. London: Routledge. Kantorowicz, E. H. 1957. The Kings Two Bodies. A Study in Medieval Political Theology. Princeton (NJ): Princeton University Press.

16

Karmay, S.G & Nagano, Y. (ed.). 2002. The Call of the Blue Cuckoo. Senri Ethnological Reports No.32. Osaka: National Museum of Ethnology. Levi-Strauss, C. [1950] 1987. Introduction to the Work of Marcel Mauss. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. Lichter, D. & Epstein L. 1983. Irony in Tibetan notions of the good life, in C. Keyes & E. V. Daniel (ed.). Karma. An Anthropological Inquiry. Berkeley & Los Angeles (CA): University of California Press. Makransky, J. J. 1997 Buddhahood Embodied: Sources of Controversy in India and Tibet . New York (NY): Suny Press. MacDougall, D. 1907. Hypothesis concerning soul substance together with experimental evidence of such substance. American Medicine 13: 2403. Mu yi pra phud phyai mthar thug bzhugs so, Manuscript, Text 2., in Karmay, S.G & Nagano, Y. (ed.) 2002. The Call of the Blue Cukoo. Senri Ethnological Reports No.32. Osaka: National Museum of Ethnology. Nebesky-Woykowitz, de R. 1956. Oracles and Demons of Tibet. The Cult and Iconography of the Tibetan Protective Deities. The Hague: Mouton & Co. Newland, G. 1992. The Two Truths. Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion. Nietzsche, F. [1901] 1968. The Will to Power. Trans. Walter Kaufmann & R.J. Hollingdale. Walter Kaufmann (ed.) New York (NY): Random House. Norbu, N. 1995 Drung, Deu and Bon. Narrations, symbolic languages and the Bon tradition in ancient Tibet. Dharamsala: Library of Tibetan Works and Archives. Ortner, S. 1978. The White-Black ones. The Sherpa view of human nature, in J. F. Fisher (ed.) Himalayan Anthropology. The Hague: Mouton. Ramble, C. 2002. Temporal disjunction and collectivity in Mustang, Nepal. Current Anthropology 43: 7584. Sagant, P. 1996. The Dozing Shaman. The Limbus of Eastern Nepal. Delhi: Oxford University Press. Schiklgruber, C. 1992. Grib: on the significance of the term in a socio-religious context. In Ihara S. And Z. Yamaguchi, (ed.) Tibetan Studies. Proceedings of the 5th Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies, Narita, 1989. Narita: Naritasan Shinshoji. Spinoza, B. [1677] 2001. Ethics. Trans. W. H. White; revised by E. H. Stirling. Ware: Wordsworth Editions. Stein, R. A. 1939 .Trente-trois Fiches de Divination Tibetaines. Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, 4/3-4: 297371 Stein, R. A. 1972. Tibetan Civilization. Stanford (CA): Stanford University Press. Stein, R. A. 1973. Un ensemble smantique Tibtain. Crer et Procrer, tre et Devenir, Vivre, Nourrir et Gurir. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 36/2: 41223. Thomas, F. W. 1957. Ancient Folk literature from North-Eastern Tibet. Introductions, Texts, Translations and Notes. Berlin: Akademie Verlag. Uray, G. 1984. The earliest evidence of the use of the Chinese sexagenary cycle in Tibetan, in L. Ligeti (ed.) Tibetan and Buddhist Studies Commemorating the 200th Anniversary of the Birth of Alexander Csoma de Koros. 2 vols. Budapest: Akadmiai Kiad. Viveiros de Castro, E. 2004a. Exchanging perspectives. The transformation of objects into subjects in Amerindian ontologies. Common Knowledge 10/3: 46384. 2004b. Perspectival anthropology and the method of controlled equivocation. Available at http://amazone.wikia.com/wiki/Introduo_ao_mtodo_do_perspectivismo. 1998. Cosmological Perspectivism in Amazonia and Elsewhere. Lectures delivered at Department of Social Anthropology, University of Cambridge. Wickham-Smith, S. 2005. Tales of Ancient Tibet . Leipzig: Engelsdorfer Verlag.

S-ar putea să vă placă și