Overview

Donald Lopez provides in this book a cultural history of the strange encounter between Tibetan Buddhism and the West. He reveals fanciful misconceptions of Tibetan life and religion and examines the movement for independence from China and the politics of the term ""Lamaism"", a pejorative synonym for Tibetan buddhism. The book aims to present more than pop-culture anomalies, the history of Tibet presented is embedded in scholarly souces, and constitute a union of both the popular and academic.

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9780226493107

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Reviews

Prisoners of Shangri-La is a tour de force across the multi-faceted imaginary that is Tibet... Lopez is one of the pioneers uncovering the entangled histories of 'east' and 'west.' -- Religious Studies Review

In this fine scholarly work, Lopez (Asian Languages and Cultures/Univ. of Michigan) warns his readers away from romanticized visions of Tibet, which ultimately harm that beleaguered nation's prospects for independence. Buddhism, the religion of enlightenment, takes as its task the dispersal of human misconceptions of reality. It is only fitting that, in the wake of heightened popular interest in Tibet, Lopez should write a corrective to both positive and negative misconceptions of Tibetan Buddhism. Among the sources of misinterpretation he notes are: psychological interpretations of the Tibetan Book of the Dead; The Third Eye, by Englishman Cyril Hoskin, a fantastic (and popular) tale of Tibetan spirit possession published in 1956; mistranslations of the famous mantra, Om Mani Padme Hum; exhibitions of Tibetan art in Western museums; the institutionalization of the academic discipline of Tibetology; increasingly airy spiritualizations of Tibetan culture. What all these acts of interpreting Tibetan Buddhism share, says Lopez, is a whole or partial disregard for the concrete, living contexts of Tibetan religion. Elements of Tibetan Buddhism become abstract symbols onto which Western writers project their own spiritual, psychological, or professional needs. For example, the chant Om Mani Padme Hum, mistranslated as the jewel is in the lotus, is allegorized into an edifying symbol of conjoined opposites when, in fact, it is simply a prayerful invocation of the Buddhist god Avalokiteshvara. The irony is that Tibetans affirm these Western misreadings in hopes of winning more sympathy for their struggle for independence. The danger, according to Lopez, is that the full particularity of Tibet will be lost in ineffectual platitudes. He is angry about many of the more outrageous manglings of Tibetan belief and culture; he can also be quite witty over the more ridiculous applications by New Agers of ostensibly Tibetan beliefs. As an interpreter of interpreters, Lopez functions here twice removed from the actual religion of Tibet; readers should approach with some prior knowledge of Buddhism. (Kirkus Reviews)

Through Western eyes Tibet has always been a remote and mysterious place; a land of monasteries and lamas, who are possessed of a secret wisdom which can - if rightly understood - transform our spiritual lives for the better. There is also a parallel tradition, on the part of many Western academics, of dismissing Tibetan Buddhism - 'Lamaism' - as debased and worthless. So pervasive are these views of Tibet that they have come to affect even the self-perception of Tibetans in exile. But they are flawed visions of the reality, in urgent need of correction, which is exactly what Lopez provides here. Gently but firmly he demolishes these mythical images of Tibet and in their place he presents us, in most elegant prose, with a true picture of Tibetan religion, its literature and sacred art (all of which have been woefully misunderstood). Released from our 'mind-forged manacles' we can now appreciate Tibetan Buddhism as it really is: a living religion that is neither a museum exhibit nor the private domain of super-gurus. (Kirkus UK)

Author Information

Donald S. Lopez Jr. is the Arthur E. Link Distinguished University Professor of Buddhist and Tibetan Studies in the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of Michigan.

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