Contents: Editor's preface. I. Buddhism -- General: 1. Buddhism and the state in eighth century Tibet/Geoffrey Samuel. 2. The rituals and their origins in the visionary accounts of the Fifth Dalai Lama/Samten G. Karmay. 3. Fourfold meditation: outer, inner, secret and suchness/Yael Bentor. 4. Towards an understanding to Tathagatagarbha interpretation in Tibet with special reference to the Ratnagotravibhaga/Anne Burchardi. 5. 'Gos Lo tsa ba Gzhon nu dpal's extensive commentary on and study of the Ratnagotravibhagavyakhya/Klaus-Dieter Mathes. 6. Skal ldan mgur ma dang de'i khyad chos/Dge 'Dun Rab Gsal. 7. Iranian themes in Tibetan Tantric culture: the Dakini/David Templeman. 8. The visionary lineages of Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo/Diana Cousens. II. Buddhism -- Hermeneutics: 1. Studies in Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Hermeneutics (3): Grammatical models in Buddhist formulas/Peter Verhagen. 2. Hermeneutique des tantra: Le ye shes rdo rje kun las btus pa'i rgyud las 'byung ba'i rgyan bdun rnam par dgrol ba de Sraddhikaravarman/Pierre Arenes. III. Buddhism -- Anthropology: 1. Lhacho [Lha mchod] and Hrinan [Sri gnon]: the structure and diachrony of a pair of rituals/Nicolas Sihle. 2. The ritual of freeing lives/David Holler. IV. Buddhism -- Gender: 1. A chung gnam rdzong bsam gtan chos 'phel gling gi btsun ma'i 'tsho ba spyod stangs skor dpyad pa/Bde Skyid Sgrol Ma. 2. Grags can bud med bstan ma'i sku rten blo bzang tshe sgron dang khong gi skor mdo tsam gleng ba/Byang Gnos Pa Tshe G-Yang. 3. A Tibetan female state oracle/Hanna Havnevik. V. Buddhism -- Great Perfection: 1. Chinese Chan and Tibetan Rdzogs Chen: preliminary remarks on two Tibetan Dunhuang manuscripts/Carmen Meinert. 2. The resolution of the simultaneous and gradual approaches to the great perfection in the Klong chen snying thig/Sam Van Schaik. 3. The Rdzogs chen murals of the Klu khang in Lhasa/Jakob Winkler. VI. Bon -- Great Perfection: 1. Unbounded functionality: a modest Rdzogs Chen rejection of the classic Don byed nus pa criterion/Anne C. Klein. 2. A brief survey of the Lung rigs rin po che'i mdzod blo gsal snying gyi nor by Shar rdza Bkra Shis rgyal mtshan (1859-1934)/Donatella Rossi. VII. Bon -- General: 1. Gshen rab mi bo che'i Mdzad rnam bsdus ma'i skor gleng ba/Don Grub Lha Rgyal. 2. Coming into existence: Bon notions of embryological development/Eika Vorndran. 3. Bod kyi shes rig las 'byung ba'i skor rags tsam gleng ba/Tshe Dbang Lha Mo. 4. Zhang bod kyi gso ba rig pa'i grol phugs 'bum bzhi dang rgyud bzhi'i skor la dpyad pa/Dbra Khyung Dge Bshes Skal Bzang Nor Bu. VIII. Literature: 1. The great Indian epics in the version of Dmar Ston Chos kyi rgyal po/Ulrike Roesler. 2. The unreal world of Tibetan free verse poetry: a preliminary study on topics and themes in contemporary Tibetan free verse poetry/Francoise Robin.
"The Proceedings of the Seminars of International Association for Tibetan Studies (IATS) have developed into the most representative world-wide cross-section of Tibetan Studies. They are an indispensable reference-work for anyone interested in Tibet and capture the cutting edge of Tibet-related research.
This volume is the second of three volumes general proceedings of the Ninth Seminar of the IATS. It presents a careful selection of scholarly and academic articles on Tibetan Buddhist and Bon religious culture, including a sizeable section of anthropological contributions."
