The history of landscape painting in the West has dictated and reiterated a phenomenological point-of-view derived from the Cartesian coordinate plane system. After having journeyed to northern India for eight months, I became influenced by other pictorial conceptions of space, namely the radial cosmological mandalas of Tibetan Buddhism and yantras of Hinduism. Unable to fully eliminate the coordinate plane system from the recess of my mind, I embarked upon a creative journey through consciousness in which my own studio practice provided the means to construct a new orientation, not only in terms of the perceivable, external world, but within the realm of my own embodied mind.

In response to Tibetan social pressures in the 11th century, Atisa initiated a renewal of Buddhist monasticism that resulted in all Buddhist praxis outside of meditation being strictly framed by attitudes and behaviors informed by love and compassion. Atisa's teachings are exemplified in pithy sayings that point to the heart of bodhisattva practice, and this mind training practice developed into a tradition in the period immediately following his passing. The success of the method, and of the emulation of Atisa as exemplar of a perfect bodhisattva, led to the adoption of mind training throughout Tibetan Buddhism. "Tibetan Mind Training: Tradition and Genre" explains the relation between a native Tibetan literary genre and monastic Buddhist practice found in the 14th century compilation Mind Training: The Great Collection (theg pa chen po blo sbyong rgya tsa). The introduction provides context and presents methodology. Chapter one argues that 'blo sbyong' should be translated as 'mind training.' Chapter two has two broad arguments: a rebuttal of a conception of mind training as an essentially psychological preparation for other practices; and an explanation of its praxis as the interaction of mind and real objects. Chapter three explains the relation of mind training praxis and tradition, with reference to Atisa's reforms. Chapter four explains some characteristics of the literary genre of mind training.

This dissertation examines the relationship between human societies and natural landscape in the Songpan region of northern Sichuan, China from 1800 to 2005. It seeks to achieve three goals. First, it seeks to complicate our understanding of China's modern political transformation from dynastic state to republic and socialist state by adding an environmental perspective to these changes. Second, it seeks to complicate existing understanding of China's environmental history, which is largely concerned with developments in "China proper," by focusing on an isolated and historically autonomous locality in western China. Finally, this dissertation seeks to understand the historical processes that led to the region's gradual incorporation into the Chinese state in terms of changing patterns of land use, resource management, and how a variety of local actors interacted with one another to produce these changes. To achieve these goals, the dissertation explores and analyzes the various ways that indigenous communities, largely Tibetan, and successive Chinese states have inhabited the eastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau and how their socio-economic structures, land use strategies, political ideologies, and technologies combined with environmental factors to shape the world around them. This program of research contributes a local environmental and socio-economic dimension to existing political and religious histories of the Sino-Tibetan borderlands. No separate study has analyzed the social, political, economic and environmental encounters in the late imperial, Republican, and modern periods as a whole in western China. In order to analyze the dynamics of local socio-economic and environmental change, this dissertation de-centers China geographically and socially in order to look at an "exceptional typical" periphery. In the process, it challenges common and ideological historical chronologies of social and political development in western China. By analyzing Tibetan-Chinese political, social and market relations, it also adds to the literature of local elite and state patterns of dominance in twentieth century China. Finally, it contributes to a growing literature on Chinese environmental history by analyzing the role of changing systems of resource use and development in western China while revealing the often complex and dialectical ways that human societies and environmental factors have interacted in western China.

This study consists of three main parts. Part I contains introductory matter and a presentation of the manuscript material which contains stories about Kavikumāra, one of the Buddha’s earlier lives, and a rough classification of the material. Part II contains editions and translations of some of the texts containing this story and in addition one text which is the source of a part of one text. Part III contains summaries and analyses of the main texts. Part I begins with a characterization of the avadāna literature genre followed by definitions of some terms used and a characterization of the texts treated in this study. All the known texts containing a story about Kavikumāra and their manuscript sources are enumerated. In Part II editions of some of the texts mentioned in Part I are found. Different types of editions and the relations of those types with my editions are treated. The characteristics of some of the manuscripts are described. The edition of the Tibetan translation of a part of the Sanghabhedavastu of the Mūlasarvāstivādavinaya is used as a check on Gnoli’s edition of the Sanskrit text, which is translated. The central part of this study is the synoptic editions of chapter 26 of Kalpadrumāvadānamālā and a prose paraphrase of the text and their translations. Critical editions of two more Tibetan texts and a diplomatic edition of two Sanskrit texts are also given. In Part III summaries of and comparisons between three of the main texts containing stories about Kavikumāra are made. The structure of the text in Kalpadrumāvadānamālā is described and the sources for the different parts are indicated. This text has been chosen for analysis because it is the earliest text which incorporates all the parts which are found in later texts containing the story. The relations of an extremely fragmentary text with the other texts are treated. A comparison of the stories about Kavikumāra and the Hero Story is made. The conclusion summarizes the main findings.

This study explores the idea that the Western adaptation of Tibetan Buddhism is in fact a continuum of the Protestant Reformation. With its inhospitable terrain and volatile environment, the geography of Tibet has played an important role in its assimilation of Buddhism. Demons, ghosts and gods are a natural part of the Tibetan world. Yet why is it that Tibetan Buddhism often downplays these elements in its self portrayal to the West? Why are Westerners drawn to an idealistic view of Buddhism as being rational and free from belief in the supernatural when the reality is quite different? This thesis will show that in its encounter with Western modernity Tibetan Buddhism has had to reinvent itself in order to survive in a world where rituals and belief in deities are regarded as ignorant superstition. In doing so it will reveal that this reinvention of Buddhism is not a recent activity but one that has its origins in nineteenth century Protestant values. While the notion of Protestant Buddhism has been explored by previous scholars this thesis will show that rather than solving the problems of disenchantment, Buddhist Modernism ignores the human need to find meaning in and to take control over one’s surroundings. In doing so it will argue that rather than adopting a modern, crypto-Protestant form Buddhism, Westerners instead need to find a way to naturally transplant Tibetan Buddhism onto their own surroundings.

Opportunities of mass education are a relatively new phenomenon in the Tibetan community. Following the incidents of 1959, the Dalai Lama and thousands of Tibetans fled into India. Mass education was implemented and sustained within the Tibetan community for the first time. The goal of this exploratory research is to study the impact of mass education on the first generations of Tibetans who experienced it in exile. This study analyzes the gendered pattern in subjects students choose to pursue, their educational attainment and the kinds of jobs they assume after graduation. The study presents a quantitative analysis of data spanning twenty years, which was collected by the head office of Tibetan Children’s Village schools based in India. This study finds that gender is a significant predictor of whether one pursued higher studies, and also of what kinds of jobs people get. The results indicate that females have lower educational performance, attainment and occupational scores than males within the Tibetan community. This study also points to a change in gender relations within the Tibetan community after migrating into India.

No description available.

The following essay is the result of approximately two years of research and fieldwork on the Bon religious community of the Songpan Prefecture in the Sichuan Province, People's Republic of China. The research was carried on between September 1991 to Spring 1993. The candidate uses translations of Tibetan Bon historical texts and information provided during field work by Bonpos informants to summarize the view of the Bonpos and contrast it with the historical data available in Western writings to establish a provisional definition of Bon. Translations from a Chinese historical report on the major events of Tibetan religion in Songpan from the period preceding Liberation to today's situation follow with descriptions of Bon monastic settlements and places of pilgrimage. A summary description of the major Bon religious and meditative practices with references to their corpus of ritual manuals and main commentaries used by monks and hermits then conclude the exposition of modern Bon religion as it is presently practiced in Songpan.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Miami University, Dept. of Geology, 2007. / Title from second page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 192-199).

Thesis (M.A.)--York University, 2005. Graduate Programme in Musicology. / Typescript. Title on accompanying compact disc: Reverence...thesis. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 47-48). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:MR11939