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 of traditional 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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