Spirit-Mediums, Sacred Mountains And Related Bon Textual Traditions In Upper Tibet ― Calling Down The Gods

Bellezza (U. of Virginia) examines the spirit-mediums from the upper regions of northwest Tibet, men and women who serve as the incarnate form of the region's chief mountain gods as well as a range of other divinities. He finds that the spirit-mediums are locally important religious and medical practitioners with a long legacy of tradition behind them that opens windows into the remaining non-Buddhist culture of the region, which has indelibly imprinted Tibet's Buddhism over the centuries. Because the study focuses on the culture and traditions of the spirit-mediums, he draws primarily from Tibetan textual and oral sources, wherein are enshrined the legendary and contemporary components of the tradition that he compares for his diachronic perspective. Annotation c2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

John Vincent Bellezza, Visiting Scholar, University of Virginia, has spent over two decades researching the cultural history of the Great Western Himalaya and Upper Tibet. He is the author of several books and numerous articles on indigenous aspects of Tibetan culture, including Divine Dyads: Ancient Civilization in Tibet (LTWA, 1997).