An eminent anthropologist examines the foundings of the first
celibate Buddhist monasteries among the Sherpas of Nepal in the
early twentieth century--a religious development that was a major
departure from "folk" or "popular" Buddhism. Sherry Ortner is the
first to integrate social scientific and historical modes of
analysis in a study of the Sherpa monasteries and one of the very
few to attempt such an account for Buddhist monasteries anywhere.
Combining ethnographic and oral-historical methods, she scrutinizes
the interplay of political and cultural factors in the events
culminating in the foundings. Her work constitutes a major advance
both in our knowledge of Sherpa Buddhism and in the integration of
anthropological and historical modes of analysis.
At the theoretical level, the book contributes to an emerging
theory of "practice," an explanation of the relationship between
human intentions and actions on the one hand, and the structures of
society and culture that emerge from and feed back upon those
intentions and actions on the other. It will appeal not only to the
increasing number of anthropologists working on similar problems
but also to historians anxious to discover what anthropology has to
offer to historical analysis. In addition, it will be essential
reading for those interested in Nepal, Tibet, the Sherpa, or
Buddhism in general.
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