Monk, Householder, and Tantric Priest: Newar Buddhism
Author: David N. Gellner
Category: Buddhism   
Popularity:

 

About  .

The Book

Many misconceptions circulate in the West about Tantric religion, whether Buddhist or Hindu, mainly because scholars have relied exclusively on textual sources. Here, for the first time, is an account of how Tantric Buddhism works in practice. Monk, Householder and Tantric Priest is a detailed ethnography of the Mahayana and vajrayana (Tantric) Buddhism of the Newars of the Kathmandu valley, Nepal. It describes the way of life and social organisation of the Hindu?Buddhist city of Lalitpur, the relationship of Buddhism to Hinduism, and the place of religion and ritual in the life of Newar Buddhists. The study of the Newars has wider implications for it allows us to grasp how Buddhism?works and worked in its original context of caste and Hindu Kingship. This is an important book which should appeal to those interested in Buddhism and religious studies specialists, as well as to South Asianists, sociologists and social anthropologists.

"He places Newar Buddhism delicately and precisely in relation to other forms of Buddhism and Hinduism... The scholarship is meticulous. As a book it should stand as the definitive source on Newar Buddhism for generations to come..."
- Michael Carrithers

For the quality of its ethnography and its ambitious attempt to make sense of an extremely complex religious field, Gellner's book deserves to be recognized as a major contribution to scholarship.
- The journal of the Anthropological Society, of Oxford (JASO).