In Travels in the Netherworld, Bryan J. Cuevas examines a
fascinating but little-known genre of Tibetan narrative literature
about the delok, ordinary men and women who claim to have died,
traveled through hell, and then returned from the afterlife. These
narratives enjoy audiences ranging from the most sophisticated
monastic scholars to pious townsfolk, villagers, and nomads. Their
accounts emphasize the universal Buddhist principles of
impermanence and worldly suffering, the fluctuations of karma, and
the feasibility of obtaining a favorable rebirth through virtue and
merit. Providing a clear, detailed analysis of four vivid
return-from-death tales, including the stories of a Tibetan
housewife, a lama, a young noble woman, and a Buddhist monk, Cuevas
argues that these narratives express ideas about death and the
afterlife that held wide currency among all classes of faithful
Buddhists in Tibet.
Relying on a diversity of traditional Tibetan sources, Buddhist
canonical scriptures, scholastic textbooks, ritual and meditation
manuals, and medical treatises, in addition to the delok works
themselves, Cuevas surveys a broad range of popular Tibetan
Buddhist ideas about death and dying. He explores beliefs about the
vulnerability of the soul and its journey beyond death, karmic
retribution and the terrors of hell, the nature of demons and
demonic possession, ghosts, and reanimated corpses. Cuevas argues
that these extraordinary accounts exhibit flexibility between
social and religious categories that are conventionally polarized
and concludes that, contrary to the accepted wisdom, such rigid
divisions as elite and folk, monastic and lay religion are not
sufficiently representative oftraditional Tibetan Buddhism on the
ground. This study offers innovative perspectives on popular
religion in Tibet and fills a gap in an important field of Tibetan
literature.
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