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ABSTRACT Tibetan Buddhism, which has been nurtured and developed within the unique geographical environment of the Qinghai‐Tibet Plateau, represents a religious and cultural phenomenon that exhibits distinct regional and ethnic characteristics. Investigating the spatiotemporal evolution of Tibetan Buddhism is essential for a comprehensive understanding of this religious practice. Traditional research has largely concentrated on qualitative descriptions derived from historical data compilation, neglecting the quantitative analysis of its spatiotemporal evolution and underlying mechanisms. This study seeks to quantitatively explore evolutionary patterns and various factors influencing the historical development of Tibetan Buddhist culture within Amdo Tibetan cultural heartland in China. Utilizing Tibetan Buddhist monasteries as cultural carriers, the research employed spatiotemporal data mining and machine learning methods to uncover these dynamics. The results show that: (1) The quantity of Tibetan Buddhist monasteries in the Amdo region has substantially grown over time, exhibiting increasingly noticeable spatial clustering characteristics; (2) Factors such as the concentration of population and economic activities, accessibility to water resources, climate and agricultural production conditions, and convenience of transportation significantly impact the spatiotemporal evolution of Tibetan Buddhism; (3) Under the combined influence of macro‐geographical environment factors and micro‐level religious heritage history, the Amdo Tibetan inhabited area has gradually developed a spatial pattern characterized by clusters of monasteries centered in the Hehuang Valley, with widespread distribution throughout the eastern region. The quantitative research framework proposed in this paper offers an academic reference for exploring the spatiotemporal evolution of complex religious and cultural phenomena across long historical periods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although there have been concerted efforts to integrate Tibetan Buddhist monastic education into the Indian university system since the 1960s, the attainment of academic accreditation has tended to require significant curricular trade-offs. The majority of Tibetan Buddhist monastic colleges have therefore eschewed the potential advantages of academic accreditation—including greater opportunities for monastic graduates in universities and other secular contexts—in order to preserve the rigour of traditional scholastic programmes. However, through its affiliation to the University of Mysore in 2022, the Geluk monastery of Sera Je is now able to award accredited Bachelor of Arts (BA) degrees even without making significant changes in practice to its traditional curriculum and pedagogy. This article examines the structure and content of Sera Je's new programmes and contextualises what may prove to be a landmark development against the backdrop of previous attempts to negotiate the boundary between Tibetan Buddhist monastic education and university education in India. It suggests that the accreditation of research programmes raises further challenges in addition to those associated with the accreditation of taught programmes. Nonetheless, the urgency of solving these longstanding issues appears to have been heightened by a developing crisis in Tibetan Buddhist monastic recruitment. In investigating the topic of academic accreditation, this article throws light on an issue that has driven notable evolutions in Tibetan Buddhist monastic education in India but has previously received little scholarly attention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Tibetan Buddhist monasteries constitute significant cultural heritages of ethnic minorities, evolving into the Principal-Subordinate Monastery System (PSMS) with profound historical and cultural significance. This system exhibits an integrated hierarchical structure in terms of religious dominance, political administration, and cultural diffusion. Existing research primarily focuses on internal humanistic factors such as governance patterns, while there is not any research focused on its patterns and manifestations in spatial distribution. This study aims to elucidate the spatial distribution characteristics of the PSMS in Hehuang region, including the Tibetan Buddhist monasteries from all sects in the Hehuang region since the Song Dynasty It establishes a hierarchical PSMS database based on the affiliation relationships, aimed at storing spatial and property information related to PSMS. The database standardizes the naming and coding of monasteries, and classifies them through hierarchical relationships to ensure data consistency and usability. Finally, the classified and coded monastery data were analyzed by GIS tools to form the PSMS spatial distribution characterisation framework. Results reveal that (1) Monasteries demonstrate notable spatial clustering patterns from both holistic and sectarian perspectives, with density being influenced by the principal monastery’s position. (2) Almost every PSMS exhibits a spatial pattern centered around the principal monastery, with subordinate monasteries clustering within a defined range correlated with the administrative region of the principal monastery. (3) PSMS scale variations are controlled by principal monasteries, exhibiting positive correlations in hierarchical structure, control quantity, and distribution range. (4) The spatial orientation of PSMS correlates with river distribution, while the relationships among mountain ranges require further investigation. These findings provide initial insights into the spatial distribution characteristics of PSMS, confirming the spatial influence of the principal monastery. Besides, this study established an innovative spatial research framework for heritage clusters with multiple types and hierarchies. Thus, this study offers new insights into the spatial distribution of Tibetan Buddhist monastery heritage and presents a framework for further examining the spatial distribution of the Tibetan Buddhist monastery heritage in other regions, as well as other heritage clusters where connected and clustered through religious and cultural ties.

Tibetan Buddhist monasteries constitute significant cultural heritages of ethnic minorities, evolving into the Principal-Subordinate Monastery System (PSMS) with profound historical and cultural significance. This system exhibits an integrated hierarchical structure in terms of religious dominance, political administration, and cultural diffusion. Existing research primarily focuses on internal humanistic factors such as governance patterns, while there is not any research focused on its patterns and manifestations in spatial distribution. This study aims to elucidate the spatial distribution characteristics of the PSMS in Hehuang region, including the Tibetan Buddhist monasteries from all sects in the Hehuang region since the Song Dynasty It establishes a hierarchical PSMS database based on the affiliation relationships, aimed at storing spatial and property information related to PSMS. The database standardizes the naming and coding of monasteries, and classifies them through hierarchical relationships to ensure data consistency and usability. Finally, the classified and coded monastery data were analyzed by GIS tools to form the PSMS spatial distribution characterisation framework. Results reveal that (1) Monasteries demonstrate notable spatial clustering patterns from both holistic and sectarian perspectives, with density being influenced by the principal monastery's position. (2) Almost every PSMS exhibits a spatial pattern centered around the principal monastery, with subordinate monasteries clustering within a defined range correlated with the administrative region of the principal monastery. (3) PSMS scale variations are controlled by principal monasteries, exhibiting positive correlations in hierarchical structure, control quantity, and distribution range. (4) The spatial orientation of PSMS correlates with river distribution, while the relationships among mountain ranges require further investigation. These findings provide initial insights into the spatial distribution characteristics of PSMS, confirming the spatial influence of the principal monastery. Besides, this study established an innovative spatial research framework for heritage clusters with multiple types and hierarchies. Thus, this study offers new insights into the spatial distribution of Tibetan Buddhist monastery heritage and presents a framework for further examining the spatial distribution of the Tibetan Buddhist monastery heritage in other regions, as well as other heritage clusters where connected and clustered through religious and cultural ties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Architecture is the stone book of history, and the evolution of architectural styles showcases a non-verbal history constructed through images. As an important part of China's historical and cultural heritage, the architectural forms and styles of Tibetan Buddhist temples were initially modeled on Tang dynasty temple architecture and gradually evolved into the most significant architectural types in regions such as Tibet and Qinghai in China. Religious architecture has also played a significant role in shaping regional cultural landscapes. Existing research on Tibetan Buddhist temples is primarily focused on qualitative studies of individual temple buildings. This research takes the spatiotemporal evolution of architectural styles of Tibetan Buddhist temples as an entry point and, for the first time, employs ArcGIS technology to visualize the spatial and geographical distribution of Tibetan Buddhist temples from the 7th to the 18th century, establishing a comprehensive academic vision that encompasses both historical stratification and cross-regional spatial correlations. By analyzing the cultural symbolic features embodied in the construction styles of Tibetan Buddhist temples and the visual characteristics reflected in their decorative arts, we propose two spatiotemporal dimensions for the formation and transmission of Tibetan Buddhist temple architectural styles: "Westward Transmission" and "Eastward Diffusion". Firstly, from the 7th to the 9th centuries, the architectural style and construction techniques of Tang dynasty Buddhist temples were transmitted westward along the Tang–Tibet ancient road, integrating with local Tibetan elements to form the Tubo architectural style, which was further refined into the "Sino–Tibetan Combined Style" with strong visual characteristics around the 13th century. Subsequently, along with the spread of Tibetan Buddhism, this temple architectural style underwent an eastward diffusion from the 13th to the 18th century, reaching regions, such as Sichuan, Qinghai, Gansu, Inner Mongolia, Hebei, and Beijing, presenting a spatial gradient from west to east in the geographical dimension. On this basis, in this research, we construct a historical evolution mapping of Tibetan Buddhist temple architectural styles based on bidirectional transmission, attempting to elucidate that the intrinsic driving forces are religious and the cultural identity that guided the bidirectional transmission mechanism of these architectural styles under the historical context of the formation and dissemination of Tibetan Buddhism from the 7th to the 18th century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Throughout the history of Tibet, sacred places such as mountains, lakes, caves, and monasteries have been visited by laypeople and religious elites alike in search of purification, blessings, karma, long life, teachings, and spiritual transformation. More recently, scholars have studied the history and evolving present circumstances of pilgrimages across the Tibetan landscape. While the study of pilgrimage in Tibet remains a relatively small subfield, in the past 30 years, this body of scholarship has grown. This article will provide a short overview of this scholarship on pilgrimage in Tibetan Buddhism. It is intended as an introduction to people new to the field of pilgrimage studies in Tibet, so that they can orient themselves in the literature, find resources on topics of interest, or find teaching resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In monastic Tibetan Buddhists, we explored the psychological construct of self-essentialism, looking at links to satisfaction with life and meaning in life. We selected this population due to their deep commitment to teachings that emphasize the notion of "non-self." We further explored the role of self-construal in the association between self-essentialism and psychological well-being. Finally, we explored how differences between the formal learning stages in Tibetan Buddhism affected our outcome variables. Replicating findings with other samples, there was small positive endorsement of self-essentialism, and a positive association between psychological essentialism and psychological well-being in this Tibetan Buddhist sample. Those on the highest learning stage in Tibetan Buddhism indicated greater self-essentialism, satisfaction with life, and search for life-meaning compared with the other stages. Interdependent self-construal moderated the association of self-essentialism with satisfaction with life. Contextualizing these findings within Tibetan Buddhist doctrine, it appears that Tibetan Buddhist monks utilize self-essentialism to clearly identify their path from the self toward "non-self." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Khenpo Sodargye is one of the key second-generation Tibetan Buddhist leaders at Larung Gar Buddhist Academy, who has been highly influential in transmitting the teachings of the Nyingma lineage to Chinese lay and monastic practitioners. Fundamental to this transmission is his ‘translation’ – in both linguistic and cultural terms – of the Tibetan tradition through the medium of both traditional and modern Chinese culture. Khenpo teaches Tibetan Buddhism to Chinese followers often using Chinese cultural terms and historiography, yet draws these into the Tibetan Buddhist, and specifically Nyingma lineage, normalising them with parallels already found in the Tibetan tradition. This cumulative ‘Eastern’ religiosity he sets up in oppositional terms to ‘Western’ modern influences which have led to a decline in values in modern China. One such example of using Chinese culture in this manner is his teaching on the Analects (Lunyu), which this paper seeks to explore. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes the enthronement of the sixth Dalai Lama held in Lhasa, Tibet, in December 1697. The previous rebirth, the fifth Dalai Lama, became the first ruler of the central Tibetan regime founded in 1642. The enthronement of his successor lasted nearly one month. It combined assemblies, banquets, and private audiences, at which thousands of gifts were exchanged. It was attended by all the major parties with a stake in the Tibetan polity, including government officials, lay and clerical elites, and patrons from Mongolia and China. The article summarizes the proceedings and examines some salient social, material, and intellectual details. The author reflects on the importance of such ceremonial events for studying politics and religion in Tibet and suggests that the enthronement was an effort by the ruling authorities to present an ideal image of the state as they wished it to be perceived. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In early twenty-first century Tibet, many Geluk monasteries established capital funds that they invested in small businesses—the Geluk being one of the main Tibetan Buddhist traditions. Drawing on fieldwork in northeast Tibet, this article examines debates surrounding this monastic engagement in business, asking why it proved contentious despite historical and canonical precedent. I approach this question by thinking about monastic business engagement in relation to Geluk monasticism as a distinctive corporate form. Foregrounding how monks made sense of what they were doing as corporate actors, I examine common rationales, concerns, and questions of legitimacy at the heart of arguments both for and against monastic business development, and how these related to the monastic corporation’s core concern with preservation and continuity. The article concludes with some broader reflections on what these debates can tell us about the ongoing process of corporation-making, suggesting some possible avenues for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Golog is located at the source of the Yellow River, with a fragile ecological environment and an important position for ecological protection. The prefecture is the hometown of Gesar culture in China, and the Tibetan population accounts for more than 90%. As one of the main venues for local residents, temples carry multiple cultural functions. Exploring its spatial distribution characteristics and land use patterns is of great significance to the ecological and environmental protection of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Based on the remote sensing data from 1990, 1995, 2000, 2005, 2010, 2015 and 2020, building buffers with ArcGIS, using spatial statistical methods, this article analyzed the geographical distribution characteristics of Tibetan Buddhism temples at different altitudes, slopes and aspects, and analyzed the changes in land use and landscape indexes within 0-6 km buffer of the temples. The results showed that 86% of the temples were located in areas with an altitude of less than 4373 m, of which the number of temples was the largest in the range of 4046-4226 m; 72% of the temples were located on slopes with a slope range of 6-15 ° and 15-25 °. During the study period, the main land use type in the study area was grassland; grassland was also the main land use type where land transfer occurred. Among them, the transfer of grassland to woodland and the transfer of unused land to grassland were the main transfer types. The building land mainly came from the transfer of grassland, which increased by 200% from 1990 to 2020. The proportions of farmland and woodland in the three buffer zones of the temple were far higher than the average level of the study area. Among them, the proportion of woodland in the buffer zones of 0-2 km, 2-4 km and 4-6 km was the largest in the study period. The average values were 19.99%, 19.56%, 17.69% respectively. The closer the woodland was to the temple, the more it would be affected by it, so that the nearby virgin forest could be preserved. However, the landscape index in the buffer zone showed that the closer to the temple, the more complex the structure of the landscape pattern, and the existence of the temple might also cause the fragmentation of the surrounding landscape. This research can provide a theoretical basis for the improvement of the ecological environment in Tibetan cultural areas, and also can provide a reference for the study of other ethnic minority cultural areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The official adoption of Buddhism by the Tibetan state in the mid-8th Century (761-762 CE) was relatively late compared to its permeation from northern India to elsewhere in south and east Asia, due to the country’s geographical isolation. Whilst reasons for its adoption remain uncertain, it is thought that the religion provided a strong unifying influence permitting both the consolidation and subsequent expansion of the Tibetan Empire. Early historical records suggest that the religion was prohibited in 739-741 CE and again in 841-842 CE, the latter coinciding with the fall of the Tibetan Empire. This research presents a detailed examination of Tibetan and Chinese historical records and also of recent fine-resolution palaeoclimatic reconstructions to demonstrate that the ‘oscillating fate’ of Buddhism during the Tibetan Empire (618-842 CE), was not only linked to the economic fortunes of the Tibetan state as previously envisaged, but also inextricably to disease, the long-term regional climatic deterioration and possibly also to a series of natural disasters, many of which were recorded in the north and north-west of the Tang Empire adjacent to Tibet, as well as in Tibet itself. These ‘disasters’ noted in the historic records, and both catalogued and quantified here, indicate extreme pressures placed on the rural economy of the Tibetan Plateau and adjoining areas by crop failures, the death of many livestock and associated widespread famine and human mortality. The ‘chaos & disorder’ of the latter stages of the reign of Emperor Ralpachen (815-836/838 CE), as well as the Second Prohibition of Buddhism by the last Tibetan Emperor Lang Darma can therefore now not only be related to climatic-environmental deterioration, but also to the likely loss of public faith in both Tibetan Emperors and in Buddhism. It is possible that in the eyes of superstitious Tibetans, neither their rulers nor the state religion could address an accelerating spiral of crises. Devine displeasure could have been further signified by a devastating earthquake in Tibet sometime between 839-842 CE and the subsequent ‘implosion’ of the Tibetan Empire should no longer be considered surprising. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Erdene Zuu is the oldest extant Buddhist temple in the country of Mongolia, founded following the reintroduction of Tibetan Buddhism to Inner Mongolia in the sixteenth century. The subject of this paper is the building activities of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, particularly of the complex centering on Gurban Zuu (Three Temples), which are the main buildings of Erdene Zuu. The author first confirms Gurban Zuu's ground plan based on measurements, and then interprets the "black-ink inscription" discovered on the ridge purlin of the Central Buddha Hall. This complex is then compared with Inner Mongolian Buddhist temples of the same period. Finally, the author studies whether or not the spatial structure of the temple architecture of the Mongolian Empire of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries was continued at Erdene Zuu, and analyzes the position that Erdene Zuu occupied in the Tibetan Buddhist sphere. This comparative study investigates the origins of Erdene Zuu's architectural spatial composition within East Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article continues a series of publications on Tibetan texts dedicated to various Buddhist deities, discovered in Khara-Khoto within a large corpus of texts from the Tangut State period (11th-13th centuries). While the main part of this corpus was brought by Petr Kozlov to Saint Petersburg in 1909, a small yet significant collection was later acquired by Aurel Stein as a result of his 1913-1915 expedition. Among Stein's collection kept at the British Library (London) is a single manuscript folio, IOL Tib M 143, which contains what appears to be an entire text entitled Gtsug gtor rnam par rgyal ma'i bstod pa byin brlabs can ("The Hymn to Uṣṇīṣavijayā with the Blessing"), the colophon lacking any other details including the author's name. It is one of several pieces of textual evidence highlighting the important role of the cult of the goddess Uṣṇīṣavijayā, one of the most popular long-life deities, in 12th and early 13th century Tangut Buddhism. I would date the manuscript to this period as it features some elements of old orthography. This hymn is not found in the Tibetan Buddhist canon and may have been composed by a Tibetan-speaking author. This assumption is indirectly supported by the analysis of the assonances, alliterations and sometimes even rhymes in the text, which reveal a high level of poetic craftsmanship. Such sophistication might be less expected from a translation, although this does not preclude the possibility of a translation being equally skillful. The text consists of eight stanzas of praise and two stanzas of prayer, the latter seemingly referred to as "the blessing" in the title. The praising part moves from describing Uṣṇīṣavijayā's divine nature, merits, and main iconographic features to her spiritual and soteriological roles. The iconographic part is not very detailed, it omits attributes held by her in the eight hands or colors of her three faces. However, I provide these details in my paper for a fuller picture. The text of the manuscript is published as a diplomatic transliteration, where I attempted to address several issues with unclear places, particularly reconstructing lacunas caused by holes in the folio. I believe that, except for one or two instances, I was able to arrive at a reliable version. The full English translation of the text is also supplied. While the hymn does not explicitly provide any historical information concerning the cult of Uṣṇīṣavijayā among the Tanguts, this edition may prove useful for scholars of Tangut Buddhism. Perhaps they will be able to identify its Tangut or Chinese version among Khara-Khoto fragments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article deals with the scientific biography and achievements of Olena Dmytrivna Ohnieva, a leading researcher of Tibetan civilisation in Ukraine. Ohnieva continued the scientific work of her famous teachers B. I. Kuznetsov, B. I. Pankratov, and G. M. Bongard-Levin, the representatives of the Soviet Tibetan school of Leningrad and Moscow in the second half of the 20th century. She conducted research in the field of textual studies and art history, proving the need for a comprehensive study of the iconographic and iconometric foundations of religious painting in Tibet on the basis of classical texts. Ohnieva has developed her own style of studying and reading the subjects of Tibetan thangka paintings that contain many symbols, knowledge and information about the painting tradition, Buddhism, history and ethnicity of Tibet. Armed with this knowledge and methods, she was able to research and provide detailed descriptions of numerous works of fine art from Central Asia, not only of Tibetan origin, but also the art of regions that were influenced by Tibet through the spread of Buddhism. She researched the biographies of famous religious figures of medieval Tibet who laid the foundations of traditional painting theory. During different periods of her life, she also acted as a translator and researcher of Tibetan religious texts, and proved herself to be a populariser of Tibetan culture. For more than a quarter of a century Ohnieva had been working on search and description of original Tibetan materials in Ukrainian museums. Thus she made an invaluable contribution to the development of oriental studies in Ukraine. Her studies of museum collections became basis for organising exhibitions that had granted many people the opportunity to get acquainted with the tradition of Tibetan Buddhism and the culture of the peoples of Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As part of the unique Tibetan culture, Tibetan Buddhism is associated with traditional educational influence on Tibetan children's self-development, such as psychological resilience and self-harmony. Social mentalities, an individual's cognitions and feelings of fundamental social relations and phenomena, are also influenced by minority social culture, including Tibetan Buddhism concepts. This study hypothesizes and explores the serial mediating roles of psychological resilience and self-harmony between faith in Tibetan Buddhism and positive social mentalities in Tibetan primary and secondary school students. For this purpose, 1007 Tibetan primary and secondary school students who believed in Tibetan Buddhism were surveyed using a cross-sectional design. The results showed that faith in Tibetan Buddhism was not directly associated with positive social mentalities. However, psychological resilience and self-harmony had serial mediating effects on the relationship between faith in Tibetan Buddhism and positive social mentalities, and it is a wholly mediated effect. It means that students who have faith in Tibetan Buddhism have higher levels of psychological resilience and self-harmony, resulting in more positive social mentalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Death awareness can serve as an awakening experience and act as a powerful spark for significant life changes. The central question is, "How could death awareness and its creative examination transform our fear of death, open a path to liberation and self-empowerment, expand our consciousness, and lead us toward more meaningful, creative, and service-oriented lives?" The premise is that, instead of avoiding the reality of death, there is an opportunity to look into it and examine our fixed ideas and preconceptions about it—focusing on the person's fear of their death and not on their other fears related to the death and dying of significant others. Furthermore, the article examines death as a catalyst for significant life changes and fear of death, further exploring how death anxiety shows up in our lives, why reducing death denial is essential, how to honor death and all the lessons it teaches us, and how to transform our relationship with our mortality. It examines cross-cultural wisdom and alternative epistemologies that support the transformation of our death, such as spirituality, creativity, consciousness, transpersonal psychology, and Tibetan and Zen Buddhism. Future research would expand on the idea that the transformation of the relationship with death could foster personal growth and intensify connections to Earth and all living beings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Buryats are one of the three ethnic groups in Russia who profess Tibetan Buddhism. Tibet has been perceived as the center of Buddhism for the Buryats since the seventeenth century and consequently served as a place of intense pilgrimage. In this article, we characterize the modern Buryat pilgrimage to Tibet and outline its peculiarities. We show that the pilgrimage of the Buryats to the sacred places of Tibet is an interesting path that carries different contexts. The revived Buryat pilgrimage to Tibet in the post–Soviet era has qualitatively new characteristics. A complex fusion of ideas about Tibet based on its rich history, the cultural and religious environment, academic and religious literature, and Hollywood films impacts the travels of modern Buryat pilgrims. In general terms, it is possible to claim that the enthusiasm and goals with which the Buryat pilgrims come to Tibet are either partially or completely satisfied and, in some cases, exceed the initial expectations. At the same time, its location within the Chinese environment plays a special role in the perception of Tibet. Thus, the Buryat pilgrimage to Tibet goes beyond the personal spiritual path and is a journey that affects many contexts that are reflected, strengthened, or destroyed in the process of a journey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the transformation of religious and non-religious practices in contemporary Japanese youth culture. The article employs both western analysis of 'nones' and Japanese theories to explain this transformation. Three concepts characterize (non-)religiousness in Japanese youth culture: 'practicing belonging', 'vicarious spirituality', and 'gendered fetishism'. These concepts are first exemplified in a culture surrounding the concept of 'tulpa' (created paranormal beings, derived from Tibetan Buddhism) in Japan. Other examples reflecting each of these concepts are presented, along with a discussion of why Japanese youth culture came to manifest such characteristics. In so doing, we will refrain from drawing a rigid line between religious and non-religious settings, acknowledging that what may appear religious to Japanese scholars may not be viewed as such by western scholars. The factors behind the transformation of religiousness in Japan affect not only religious and spiritual but also non-religious or secular settings, resulting in parallel phenomena. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on an ethnographic study among Chinese Indonesians who practice Tibetan Buddhism, we analyze doctrinal beliefs and meanings associated with the appearance of spiritual teacher in dreams. The most common meanings conveyed in their narratives were the beliefs that Guru‐related dreams signify successful spiritual practice, a prophetic insight into future events, and an encouragement for further endeavor in spiritual practice. For a significant number of them, these meanings centered around the precarious feeling of being perceived as the source of the nation's problem. Analyzing the dynamic of these positive/optimistic meanings and negative/pessimistic feelings with regard to Guru‐related dreams, we conclude that both represent the ongoing negotiation between spirituality and ethnic belonging and are connected to the soteriological project of forging a new ethical self. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The positive effects of meditation on human wellbeing are indisputable, ranging from emotion regulation improvement to stress reduction and present-moment awareness enhancement. Changes in brain activity regulate and support these phenomena. However, the heterogeneity of meditation practices and their cultural background, as well as their poor categorization limit the generalization of results to all types of meditation. Here, we took advantage of a collaboration with the very singular and precious community of the Monks and Geshes of the Tibetan University of Sera-Jey in India to study the neural correlates of the two main types of meditation recognized in Tibetan Buddhism, namely concentrative and analytical meditation. Twenty-three meditators with different levels of expertise underwent to an ecological (i.e., within the monastery) EEG acquisition consisting of an analytical and/or concentrative meditation session at "their best," and with the only constraint of performing a 5-min-long baseline at the beginning of the session. Time-varying power-spectral-density estimates of each session were compared against the baseline (i.e., within session) and between conditions (i.e., analytical vs. concentrative). Our results showed that concentrative meditation elicited more numerous and marked changes in the EEG power compared to analytical meditation, and mainly in the form of an increase in the theta, alpha and beta frequency ranges. Moreover, the full immersion in the Monastery life allowed to share the results and discuss their interpretation with the best scholars of the Monastic University, ensuring the identification of the most expert meditators, as well as to highlight better the differences between the different types of meditation practiced by each of them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From the point of historical analysis, this study recognises the role of pedagogy in bringing vicissitude to Buddhism from its origin to now, and revisits Comte’s three-stage theory in the Indian sub-continent. It also demystifies religious philosophy by illustrating its epistemological base of origin, expansion, and reinterpretation. Information was generated from the translated Nikaya texts and other secondary texts, and analysis was carried out using a hermeneutic approach. From its origin in Varanasi in 600 BC to the Tibetan Plateau in the 20th Century, Buddhism accomplished three major turning points and some minor vicissitudes. Buddhism, whose original form is Dharma-Vinaya, a combination of doctrine and practice, emerged from the practice of the middle path, and the doctrine was developed as a byproduct. Around 300 AD, a new school, Mahayana, emerged that ascended an arhat up to the saviour God. Similarly, around 1400 AD, the noble eightfold path was revised to tantric sex and the arhat into the Tulku. While expanding the doctrine, scholars, monks, and sages interpreted and taught it as per the learners’ epistemological base by changing the content. Pedagogy is the primary cause of vicissitude in Buddhism, and new emergences are the product of fulfilling the ‘gap’ in the epistemological paradigm between the teachers and the learners.

The publication presents for the first time the B. Baradin’s theses to A. Dorzhiev’s lecture that was supposed to be delivered at the international Buddhist exhibition in Leningrad in 1927. A. Dorzhiev was a famous Buryat lama who received the academic title of Geshe (the highest philosophical academic degree in the Gelug tradition of Tibetan Buddhism) upon completion of his philosophical education in the monasteries of Mongolia and Tibet. After 1918, he was involved in organizational issues of the Buddhist Sangha in Russia. B. Baradin was an academic scientist and public figure, a professor at St. Petersburg University, and the author of studies on the history and teachings of Tibetan Buddhism. After the revolution of 1917, he began working in Buryatia in various administrative positions, focusing on the organization of the scientific and cultural life of the Republic. Their main idea is that the modern world consists of the two equal parts - East and West, unification of which is possible and even necessary for the further development of humanity. The system-forming teaching of the East is Buddhism; and the lecture hold on those aspects of Buddhist philosophy that could be compared with the teachings of the West. Four points are highlighted: 1) Buddhism is comparable to Darwin’s theory in that both consider humans in the context of all living beings in an evolutionary manner; 2) Buddhism, like science, accepts the determinism principle; 3) the Buddhist concept of shunya is similar to the relativistic principles of physics; and 4) the system of Buddhist psychotechniques is similar to the theory of reflexology. B. Baradin concludes that Indo-Buddhist culture and European culture are complementary and their rapprochement will bring us closer to a truly universal culture. The theses mentioned here are, apparently, the first systematic exposition of the views of neo-Buddhists-renewalists on the points of convergence between Buddhist and Western cultures.

Tibetan Buddhism has an inseparable connection with the spatial characteristics, development process, and human-natural environment of the Tibetan Plateau. This paper takes monasteries as carriers of Tibetan Buddhist culture in U-Tsang region which is one of the traditional geographical units of Tibet. Using geospatial analysis methods, this study explores the spatial quantification characteristics of Tibetan Buddhist monasteries and qualitatively and quantitatively analyzes the factors that influence the spatial distribution of monasteries. The results indicate that: (1) Political activities of human society influence the pattern of political power. Under the unique context of Tibetan theocracy system, the scope of political authority has a significant influence and affects the religious spatial pattern in the U-Tsang region throughout history. The distribution of monasteries in the U-Tsang region shows significant spatial differences at three sub-regional scales. (2) The religious spatial pattern in the U-Tsang is the result of the diverse interaction of human-natural factors. The results indirectly endorse that religious space is an inevitable product of the interaction between humans and the environment. (3) The religious spatial distribution patterns in the three major Tibetan regions have distinct characteristics, closely related to the superior conditions of their respective historical and geographical environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines how the life experiences of a Tibetan female thangka painter, Lutsojam (known as Lutso), are intertwined with the meaning of her artworks, in particular, with the thangka painting, "Avalokiteśvara with Mind at Rest," which I followed from its birth in Amdo Rebgong (Qinghai, China), to its visit to an art gallery in Beijing, and finally to its entry into the collection of an ethnographic museum in New York. Through painting thangkas and training her own apprentices (especially female apprentices), Lutso is able to support her family, empower other Tibetan women, and authenticate a religious identity that has been elided in the official narrative of Tibetan thangka art. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper takes a descriptive-analytical method to examine the emerging relationship between Taiwan and exiled Tibetans. It identifies four key issues to underscore the historical ties, current challenges and prospects of Taiwan and exiled Tibetan relations. The study finds that Tibetan Buddhism has played an important role in strengthening relations, especially people-to-people connections, even though higher-level exchanges and engagement were often obstructed by factors such as the Chinese hegemony and the Kuomintang's contestation of sovereignty over Tibet. Therefore, the study argues that to establish a cohesive relationship, both sides should focus on non-political factors, such as religion, education and the promotion of democratic values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tibetan Buddhism has played a shifting role in the official identity discourse of the Republic of China (ROC) on Taiwan. Established for the administration of Tibet, Mongolia, and other frontier regions in 1928, the ROC's Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs Commission (MTAC) continued research and publication activity on Taiwan (1949–2017). A major focus of this work was Tibetan Buddhism. This article examines how MTAC portrayals of Tibetan Buddhism evolved in response to changes in the ROC's legitimating ideology and to Taiwan's shifting political and cultural context. During the martial law era (1949–1987), Tibetan Buddhism was largely portrayed as an exotic religion facing brutal Communist oppression. By the twenty-first century, the MTAC was repositioning itself as a supporter of Tibetan Buddhism within Taiwan. MTAC discourse on Tibetan Buddhism reflects both the growing detachment of ROC politics from Mainland affairs and the persistence of Orientalist views of Tibetans and their culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gelugpa is the most influential extant religious sect of Tibetan Buddhism, which is the spiritual prop for Tibetans, with thousands of monasteries and followers in Tibetan areas of China. Studies on the spatial diffusion processes of Gelugpa can not only reveal its historical geographical development but also lay the foundation for anticipating its future development trend. However, existing studies on Gelugpa lack geographical perspective, making it difficult to explore the spatial characteristics. Furthermore, the prevailing macro-perspective overlooks spatiotemporal heterogeneity in diffusion processes. Therefore, taking monastery as the carrier, this study establishes a multi-level diffusion model to reconstruct the diffusion networks of Gelugpa monasteries, as well as a framework to explore the detailed features in the spatial diffusion processes of Gelugpa in Tibetan areas of China based on a geodatabase of Gelugpa monastery. The results show that the multi-level diffusion model has a considerable applicability in the reconstruction of the diffusion networks of Gelugpa monasteries. Gelugpa monasteries in the Three Tibetan Inhabited Areas present disparate spatial diffusion processes with diverse diffusion bases, speeds, stages, as well as diffusion regions and centers. A powerful single-center diffusion-centered Gandan Monastery was rapidly formed in U-Tsang. Kham experienced a slower and more varied spatial diffusion process with multiple diffusion systems far apart from each other. The spatial diffusion process of Amdo was the most complex, with the highest diffusion intensity. Amdo possessed the most influential diffusion centers, with different diffusion shapes and diffusion ranges crossing and overlapping with each other. Multiple natural and human factors may contribute to the formation of Gelugpa monasteries. This study contributes to the understanding of the geography of Gelugpa and provides reference to studies on religion diffusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines how Tibetan Buddhist teachers' and communities' responses to the COVID-19 pandemic have further facilitated the global transmission of their traditions in non-heritage contexts. Based upon fifteen months of ethnographic research in Taiwan, I examine how one Taiwanese Tibetan Buddhist community, the Bhumang Nyiöling Buddhist Society, adopted practices to the deity Parṇaśavarī, a protectress against pandemic illnesses, in response to COVID-19. Drawing upon Deleuze and Guattari, I introduce the concepts of spiritual deterritorialization and reterritorialization to describe the processes whereby divinities in the Buddhist cosmos are unbound from specific geographies and expand their intercessory powers across new contexts. I argue that the Bhumang Nyiöling community's adoption of Parṇaśavarī practices during the COVID-19 pandemic serves as a vibrant example of how processes of spiritual deterritorialization and reterritorialization can play a powerful role in the broader transmission of Tibetan Buddhism globally, particularly when catalyzed by critical moments of crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the connections between the Dolmetsch family, Marco Pallis, and esoteric ideas during the early music revival in the early twentieth century. The Dolmetsches were pioneers in reviving old instruments and performance practices of western Europe, and Pallis, a student and friend of the Dolmetsches, made significant contributions to their work and later became a scholar of Tibetan Buddhism and Traditionalism. The article discusses the religious metaphors and spiritual aspects associated with the Dolmetsch Circle and highlights the influence of esotericism in the early music revival. It suggests that there may have been influences from Traditionalist thought in their approach to early music and their appreciation of transcultural listening. [Extracted from the article]

This article examines how Tibetan Buddhist teachers’ and communities’ responses to the COVID-19 pandemic have facilitated the contemporary global transmission of this tradition. Based upon fifteen months of ethnographic research in Taiwan, I examine how one community, the Bhumang Nyiöling Buddhist Society, was introduced to and adopted practices to the deity Parṇaśavarī, a protectress against pandemic illnesses, in response to COVID-19. Drawing upon Deleuze and Guattari, I introduce the concepts of spiritual deterritorialization and reterritorialization to describe the processes whereby divinities in the Buddhist cosmos are unbound from specific geographies and expand their intercessory powers across new contexts. I argue that the introduction of Parṇaśavarī practices to the Bhumang Nyiöling community during the COVID-19 pandemic serves as a vibrant example of how processes of spiritual deterritorialization and reterritorialization can play a powerful role in the broader transmission of Tibetan Buddhism globally, particularly when catalyzed by critical moments of crisis.

Aba Prefecture is a prominent Tibetan inhabited area with profound Tibetan Buddhist sites that need to be protected. This study demonstrates that the value of religious sites lies in their terrain-based nature with perceptions by people, and advocates to interpret and preserve them from the religious landscape perspective. Using geographic data and online geo-tagged images, geographical and visual characteristics of religious landscapes in Aba Prefecture are drawn with the support of MaxEnt and FCN models. The results of the two models are cross-validated and complimented, to ensure that the analyzed religious landscape is interpreted in religious atmosphere, geographic context, and visual perception. Further, this study provides region-specific preservation proposals for religious landscapes in Aba Prefecture and a transferable preservation framework for religious landscapes in other regions.

Although there have been concerted efforts to integrate Tibetan Buddhist monastic education into the Indian university system since the 1960s, the attainment of academic accreditation has tended to require significant curricular trade-offs. The majority of Tibetan Buddhist monastic colleges have therefore eschewed the potential advantages of academic accreditation—including greater opportunities for monastic graduates in universities and other secular contexts—in order to preserve the rigour of traditional scholastic programmes. However, through its affiliation to the University of Mysore in 2022, the Geluk monastery of Sera Je is now able to award accredited Bachelor of Arts (BA) degrees even without making significant changes in practice to its traditional curriculum and pedagogy. This article examines the structure and content of Sera Je’s new programmes and contextualises what may prove to be a landmark development against the backdrop of previous attempts to negotiate the boundary between Tibetan Buddhist monastic education and university education in India. It suggests that the accreditation of research programmes raises further challenges in addition to those associated with the accreditation of taught programmes. Nonetheless, the urgency of solving these longstanding issues appears to have been heightened by a developing crisis in Tibetan Buddhist monastic recruitment. In investigating the topic of academic accreditation, this article throws light on an issue that has driven notable evolutions in Tibetan Buddhist monastic education in India but has previously received little scholarly attention.

Erdene Zuu is the oldest extant Buddhist temple in the country of Mongolia, founded following the reintroduction of Tibetan Buddhism to Inner Mongolia in the sixteenth century. The subject of this paper is the building activities of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, particularly of the complex centering on Gurban Zuu (Three Temples), which are the main buildings of Erdene Zuu. The author first confirms Gurban Zuu’s ground plan based on measurements, and then interprets the “black-ink inscription” discovered on the ridge purlin of the Central Buddha Hall. This complex is then compared with Inner Mongolian Buddhist temples of the same period. Finally, the author studies whether or not the spatial structure of the temple architecture of the Mongolian Empire of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries was continued at Erdene Zuu, and analyzes the position that Erdene Zuu occupied in the Tibetan Buddhist sphere. This comparative study investigates the origins of Erdene Zuu’s architectural spatial composition within East Asia.

A growing number of lay Buddhist practitioners have sought out alternative ways to incorporate Buddhist teachings in their daily practices and make positive changes in society by "doing good" for others. Sometimes recognized as part of "humanistic Buddhism," this approach emphasizes general morality and focuses on people who need help as a way to fulfill Buddhist teachings in this world. Some Chinese Buddhist practitioners who follow the Tibetan Buddhist tradition also carry out similar humanistic engagements but use more subtle space‐making processes and often "brand" these as Buddhist practices. Drawing on the ethnographic observations of lay Buddhist practitioners in urban China, this article examines how urban practitioners promote (middle‐class) morality and well‐being lifestyles through what I call "atmospheric Buddhism." Ultimately, the article argues that an alternative mode of Buddhist practice is emerging in Chinese urban environments in order to cope with politically constrained environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]