e-mail: verlag@oeaw.ac.at
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27
e-mail: verlag@oeaw.ac.at
http://verlag.oeaw.ac.at
John Vincent Bellezza
Death and Beyond in Ancient Tibet
Archaic Concepts and Practices in a Thousand-Year-Old Illuminated Funerary
Manuscript and Old Tibetan Funerary Documents of Gathang Bumpa and Dunhuang
asian studies
John Vincent Bellezza
Zhang Zhung
Foundations of Civilisations
in Tibet
A Historical and Ethno
archaeological Study of
Monuments, Rock Arts, Texts,
and Oral Tradition of the
Ancient Tibetan Upland
Denkschriften der
Gesamtakademie 368
Beiträge zur Kultur- und
Geistesgeschichte Asiens 61
2008, 841 Seiten, 30x21 cm,
broschiert
ISBN 978-3-7001-6046-5
€ 129,20
Per K. Sørensen and
Guntram Hazod in Cooperation
with Tsering Gyalbo
Thundering Falcon
An Inquiry into the History and
Cult of Khra-ʼbrug
Tibetʼs First Buddhist Temple
Denkschriften der phil.-hist.
Klasse 333
Beiträge zur Kultur- und
Geistesgeschichte Asiens 46
2005, 432 Seiten +1 DVD,
zahlr. Farb- und SW-Abb.,
29,7x21cm, broschiert
ISBN 978-3-7001-3495-4
Print Edition € 99,36
ISBN 978-3-7001-3516-6
Online Edition
ISBN 978-3-7001-7433-2
Print Edition
Denkschriften der Gesamtakademie 454
Beiträge zur Kultur- und Geistesgeschichte
Asiens 77
2013, 292 Seiten, 29,7x21cm, zahlreiche
Farbabbildungen, broschiert
€ 85,10
http://hw.oeaw.ac.at/7433-2
John Vincent Bellezza
is a Senior Research Fellow at the Tibetan
Center, University of Virginia.
See www.tibetarchaeology.com.
These textual assets complement
one another by progressively
revealing an indigenous belief
system and praxis of great depth
and intricacy. The antiquated
narrations and rituals concerning
death presented in this book
furnish a lucid view of cultural
forms that circulated around
Tibet before its religious universe
became saturated with Buddhism
and Buddhist-influenced
doctrines and practices.
Especially when seen through
the lens of the archaeological
record, the sheer intellectual
and material wealth borne in
the archaic funerary traditions
demonstrates that Tibet
was endowed with culturally
advanced societies in the time
before the spread of Lamaism.
Bibliographies and indexes (with
glossary) are appended to the
main text.
This monograph brings to light
the eschatological patterns
and procedural constructs of
death rites in ancient Tibet.
It is centered on documents
written between circa 800 CE
and 1100 CE, which include an
illuminated funerary manuscript
of much rarity, two death
ritual texts recently recovered
in southern Tibet from the
Gathang Bumpa religious
monument, and several related
manuscripts discovered in the
Dunhuang grottoes a century
ago. This book builds upon
previous efforts of the author
to explicate the otherworldly
dimension in early Tibetan
religion and culture. Many of
the documents of this study
were written in the Old Tibetan
language and represent the
oldest known literary sources
for research into Tibetan
funerary traditions. The work
is underpinned by annotated
translations, which are critically
edited and painstakingly
provided with Classical Tibetan
word equivalents. Each featured
text is described in detail
and subjected to a rigorous
religious and historical analysis.
Other Tibetan literature that
supports the comprehension
of the foundational texts of
this study is also marshaled.
Asienforschung