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Title: Prisoners of Shangri-LA : Tibetan Buddhism and the West by Donald S. Lopez Jr. ISBN: 0-226-49311-3 Publisher: University of Chicago Press (Trd) Pub. Date: June, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.36 (14 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Lost horizons
Comment: Refreshing and insightful take on the coming of the Buddha circus to the West, with a knuckle ball twist attempting to 'deconstruct' the perceptions of Westerners on Tibet. The sudden surge of Buddhism in the Americas, with outstanding issues like, should we cede the Rockies to the Tibetans? is an historical surprise and also a puzzle of New Ages, old ages inside these New Ages, and what _is_ the New Age? In the meantime the recreation of Tibetan religion inside American culture is preposterous, yet apt, although one wonders if these forms can survive the passage. Nothing much constitutes a bed of roses and where the Buddhas point to the moon, the dark side of the force can't be far behind. As a mere trifle in this regard, the amusing out in front history of the Lobsang Rampa story/fraud, and the curiously timely appearance of this series of Instant Tibet Myths just as a public was needed for the travelling circus, makes good sixties nostalgia reading. Most kids on my block had their roller skates on with this one back when. Lobsand Rampa would have been a giveaway if it hadn't been a decoy--right? In the meantime the cultural history of the blend of Buddhism and Tibetan religion is a first class anthropological mystery story, and this survey of many of the issues is good reading. The problem is that someone decided they had to divide a subject into exoteric and esoteric versions of one and the same version, with the result that sitting ducks won't know what hit them when the time came. In the meantime the Chinese treatment of Tibet remains an outrage and one can only hope the author's strategy of demystifying Tibet to induce realism will prove successful. Interesting book with lots of good notes and leads.
Rating: 5
Summary: Tibetology Deconstructed
Comment: This is a very unique analysis of how the idea of Tibet has been constructed by outsiders, especially those of far different Western cultures. Tibet has been described as everything from a backward haunt of crude barbarians to a paradise of pure thought and devotion. Lopez shows us that neither of these is accurate, and that Tibet is possibly the one location and culture on Earth that has been most heavily analyzed by outsiders who have never been there, or talked to its natives or leaders. Lopez tackles this subject from a purely academic angle, and his writing tends to get bogged down in esoteric theory (lighten up on the hermeneutics, sir), along with occasional egghead professor-speak like "Tibetan Buddhism was then constructed as the other of this other ('original Buddhism')."
Apart from those difficulties, we do get a mostly fascinating debunking of inaccurate Western pontifications about Tibet, like an exhaustive deconstruction of the West's misunderstanding of the familiar "om mani padme hum" mantra, or a treatise on why the European fraud Lobsang Rampa (not a real Tibetan) could be taken seriously. Of course Lopez has much to say about our modern celebrity Buddhists and the popular Free Tibet movement, all of which are riddled with inaccuracies. Lopez also gives us the true responsibilities and goals of the Dalai Lama, who is a worthy international icon but not necessarily the undisputed God of his people. Other books provide the background on Tibetan history, religion, and geography. But this book is a must-read for anyone interested in attaining accurate knowledge of the Tibetans and their struggles. [~doomsdayer520~]
Rating: 5
Summary: The Social Construction of Tibet in the West
Comment: Lopez is a genius and really gets at the heart of the Western construction of Tibet, the realities of the Panchen Lama and the Shugden affair really hit home that Tibet is real and for as long was we treat Tibet as the ideal Shangri-La, we deny Tibet any real space in history. Lopez writes, 'To the extent that we continue to believe that Tibet prior to 1950 was a utopia, the Tibet of 1998 will be no place' (11). This book is a triumph in Tibetan studies and should be read, written, and discussed. Donald Lopez shows us that from within how to find some way to break free from the carceral community and perhaps 'some may find a file with which to begin the slow work or sawing though the bars' (Lopez 13). Lopez writes, 'This book does not set out to apportion praise and blame. Neither is its purpose to distinguish good Tibetology from bad, to separate fact from fiction, or the scholarly from the popular, but to show their confluence. The question considered is not how knowledge is tainted but how knowledge takes form. This book then is an exploration of some of the mirror-lined cultural labyrinths that have been created by Tibetans, Tibetophiles, and Tibetologists, labyrinths that the scholar may map but in which the scholar also must wander. We are captives of confines of our own making, we are all prisoners of Shangri-La. This book, then, is not written outside the walls of the prison, nor does it hold the key that would permit escape. Hidden in its pages, however, some may find a file with which to begin the slow work of sawing though the bars' (Lopez 13).
This book, in my opinion, is one of the best books around on the social construction of Tibet. This book is effectively a history of the 'Orientalist' creation of Tibet. Lopez give an account of a vast set of creations of Tibet and Tibetan Buddhism that pervade popular western culture. Tsering Shakya reads in Lopez's work that Tibet remained outside the scrutiny of post-colonial discourse because it was never really annexed by a western colonial power. My sense is that the remoteness and seemingly unprofitable conditions that was Tibet insulated it from colonial powers in the past ' not anymore. But the extensive examination of the archive that Lopez undertakes undermines Shakya's reading of Lopez that it was never really annexed ' maybe not physically but certainly was culturally. I have to agree with Lopez in that there are really two Tibets ' the somewhat more authentic one and the one constructed by the West.
In his extensive look at the archive, Lopez digs into a few very key aspects of Tibetan Buddhism that were not just appropriated but rather misappropriated to seem almost representative of the whole of Tibet. In Lopez's examination of the phenomenon of Lamaism, his deconstruction of T. Lobsang Rampa, his examination of the discourse of the Book of the Dead, and the uncritical appropriation of the mantra Om Mani Padme Hum we see how extensive the invention is of Tibet is in the West.
The Dalai Lama himself is quick to point out that Lamaism (which really does not exist) is not a debasement of Buddhism but rather that the reverse is true. Tibetan Buddhists, perhaps more than any other sect, adhere strictly to the Sutras. Translated from the original Sanskrit, Tibetan text and the commentaries are perhaps the 'purest' ' if I might be allowed to use the phrase without overly romanticizing. Lopez continues by outlining what I would call his version epistemic violence that is within the framework of dualities: 'Thus Lamaism may be portrayed in the West as the most authentic and most degenerate form of Buddhism, Tibetan monks may be portrayed as saintly or rapacious, Tibetan artists may be portrayed as inspired mystics and mindless automatons, Tibetan peasants may be portrayed as pristine or filthy. This language about Tibet not only creates knowledge about Tibet, in many ways creates Tibet, a Tibet that Tibetans in exile have come to appropriate and deploy in an effort to gain both standing in exile and independence for their country' (Lopez 10).
The deconstruction of the T. Lobsang Rampa is very telling in that falsification is very difficult. Making all sorts of questionable claims ' akin to the ones made by Madam Blavatsky of the Theosophical Society ' very difficult to disprove (or even prove). The discourse of the Book of the Dead and its publication here in the west and it position as representative and preeminent status as 'the book' (as Lopez likes to call it) is really proven to be the product of western academic fiction. The exoticizing of the mantra Oh Mani Padme Hum only proves that the Orientalist discourse of the self and other and the rendering 'exotic' is alive and well. Lopez compels us to ask the question, 'Who's Tibet'?
Miguel Llora
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Title: Imagining Tibet : Perceptions, Projections, and Fantasies by Thierry Dodin, Heinz Rather ISBN: 0861711912 Publisher: Wisdom Pubns Pub. Date: 15 September, 2001 List Price(USD): $28.95 |
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Title: Buddhism in Contemporary Tibet: Religious Revival and Cultural Identity by Melvyn C. Goldstein, Matthew Kapstein, Orville Schell ISBN: 0520211316 Publisher: University of California Press Pub. Date: July, 1998 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: In Exile from the Land of Snows RI by John Avedon ISBN: 0060977418 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 31 December, 1997 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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Title: Virtual Tibet: Searching for Shangri-LA from the Himalayas to Hollywood by Orville Schell ISBN: 0805043810 Publisher: Henry Holt & Company, Inc. Pub. Date: June, 2000 List Price(USD): $26.00 |
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Title: The Dragon in the Land of Snows: A History of Modern Tibet Since 1947 by Tsering Shakya ISBN: 0140196153 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: 03 October, 2000 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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