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Book Cover
E-book
Author Gerke, Barbara, 1966-

Title Long lives and untimely deaths : life-span concepts and longevity practices among Tibetans in the Darjeeling Hills, India / by Barbara Gerke
Published Leiden : BRILL, 2011

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Description 1 online resource (xxiii, 362 pages) : illustrations
Contents Note on Previous Publications; Acknowledgements; List of Maps and Illustrations; List of Abbreviations; Notes on Tibetan Terms and References; Maps; Part One Ethnographic Settings and Analytical Frameworks; Chapter One Introduction; 1. Outlining the Argument; 2. Organisation of the Book; 3. Some Notes on Important Terms; 4. Ethnographic Encounters; Monastics; The Lay Community; Tibetan Medical Practitioners, Astrologers, and Diviners; 5. Documentation Methods and Challenges; 6. Analytical Frameworks: The Anthropology of Time; Part Two The Field Site and Tibetan Areas of Knowledge
Chapter Two Tibetans in the Darjeeling Hills: The Socio-Political and Historical Background1. Historical and Political Climates; 2. Demographic Data of Tibetans; 3. The Reinvention of Ethnicity: Creating 'Cultural Vibrancy'; 4. What Does it Mean to be a Tibetan in the Darjeeling Hills?; 5. Tibetan Refugees; 6. Being Tibetan Without Speaking Tibetan; 7. Tibetan Buddhist Monasteries; 8. Tibetan Medical Healthcare; Chapter Three Contextualising Tibetan Longevity Practices; 1. An Exposition of Pertinent Tibetan Areas of Knowledge; Tibetan Medicine; Tibetan Astrology; Divinations
Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhist Longevity Rituals2. Knowing about the Life-span; Part Three The Life-span and Life-forces in Tibetan Medical Contexts; Chapter Four Temporal Dimensions of Life-forces; 1. The Three Nyes pa; 2. Temporal Frameworks of the Three Nyes pa; 3. Temporalities and Treatment Schemes; 4. Appropriating the Auspicious: The Best 'Life-force Days' and 'Life-essence Days'; Chapter Five Detecting the Life-forces in the Body and the Life-span in the Pulse; 1. Bla and Its Places in the Body in Tibetan Medical Texts and Clinical Practice
2. Divinatory and Temporal Aspects of Pulse Diagnosis3. Rhythm of Pulse, Rhythm of Life; 4. Distilling the Supreme Radiance of Vitality; Part Four The Life-span in Astrological and Divinatory Contexts; Chapter Six Merit, Karma, Liberating Animals, and the Five Astrological Factors; 1. Merit and Karma; 2. The Longevity Practice of Liberating Animals; 3. Astrological Calculations Involving the Five Factors; The Tibetan Almanac; The Life-force & the Body; Power, Prosperity, and Presence; Generating Good Fortune; 'Bla is the Mother of Srog'; 4. Jigme Lost His Bla
Chapter Seven Untimely Deaths, Remaining, and Maximum Life-spans1. The 'Timely' Death of Samden; 2. A Family Story of Short Lives; 3. Controlling Breath and the Maximum Life-span; 4. The Life-span is Completed; Chapter Eight Divining the Life-span; 1. 'Your Life-span is Exhausted': Momola's Rosary Divination; The Notion of Bar chad; 2. Throwing the Dice: Textual Divination on Tshe and Srog; The Palden Lhamo Divination; The Certainty of Uncertainty: Divinations on 'Whether Srog is Stable or Unstable'; 3. Life-span Divination and Issues of Accuracy
Summary How do Tibetans in India's Darjeeling Hills understand the life-span and various life-forces that influence longevity? This book analyses ethnographic and textual material demonstrating how Tibetans utilise temporal frameworks in medical, astrological, divinatory, and ritual contexts to locate and reckon life-forces influencing their life-spans
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes Part Five Tibetan Buddhist Long-life Empowerments
Print version record
Subject Tibetans -- India -- Darjeeling (District) -- Social conditions
Tibetans -- India -- Darjeeling (District) -- Religion
Longevity -- India -- Darjeeling (District)
Life span, Productive -- India -- Darjeeling (District)
Old age -- India -- Darjeeling (District)
SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Anthropology -- Cultural.
SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Discrimination & Race Relations.
SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Minority Studies.
Life span, Productive
Longevity
Manners and customs
Old age
Tibetans -- Religion
Tibetans -- Social conditions
SUBJECT Darjeeling (India : District) -- Religious life and customs
Darjeeling (India : District) -- Social life and customs
Subject India -- Darjeeling (District)
Form Electronic book
ISBN 9789004217485
9004217487