Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
founder of the Gelugpa (Virtuous School) order, which came to dominate political and reli-
gious affairs in Tibet.
Tsongkhapa studied with all the major schools of his day, but was particularly influen-
ced by the Sakyapa and the Kadampa orders, the latter based on the teachings of 11th-cen-
tury Bengali sage Atisha. After experiencing a vision of Atisha, Tsongkhapa elaborated on
the Bengali sage's clerical-Tantric synthesis in a doctrine that is known as
lamrim
(the
graduated path). The Gelugpa school eventually subsumed the Kadampa school.
Tsongkhapa basically advocated a return to doctrinal purity and stressed the structure of
the monastic body and monastic discipline as prerequisites to advanced Tantric studies.
Tsongkhapa established Ganden Monastery, which became the head of the Gelugpa order.
The Ganden Tripa is actually the titular head of the order, but it was the Dalai Lamas who
came to be increasingly identified with the order's growing political and spiritual prestige.
Despite its connotations abroad, the swastika is an ancient Indian religious symbol that
was later adopted by Buddhism and is often found painted on Tibetan houses to bring
good luck. Swastikas that point clockwise are Buddhist; those that point anticlockwise are
Bön.
Bön
Main monasteries
:
Yungdrungling
,
Gurugyam
Founder
Shenrab Miwoche
The word 'Bön' today has three main connotations. The first relates to the pre-Buddhist
religion of Tibet, suppressed and supplanted by Buddhism in the 8th and 9th centuries. The
second is the form of 'organised' Bön (Gyur Bön) systematised along Buddhist lines,
which arose in the 11th century. Third, and linked to this, is a body of popular beliefs that
involves the worship of local deities and spirit protectors.
The earliest form of Bön, sometimes referred to as Black Bön, also Dud Bön (the Bön
of Devils) or Tsan Bön (the Bön of Spirits), was concerned with counteracting the effects
of evil spirits through magical practices. Bönpo priests were entrusted with the wellbeing
and fertility of the living, as well as curing sicknesses, affecting the weather and mediating
between humans and the spirit world. A core component was control of the spirits, to en-
sure the safe passage of the soul into the next world. For centuries Bönpo priests con-
