Assessing and Adapting Rituals That Reproduce a Collectivity: The Large-Scale Rituals of the Repkong Tantrists in Tibet
Résumé
Tantrists, non-monastic religious specialists of Tibetan Buddhism, constitute
a diffuse, non-centralized form of clergy. In an area like Repkong, where they present a
high demographic density, large-scale supra-local annual ritual gatherings of tantrists
are virtually synonymous with, and crucial for, their collective existence. In the largest of
these rituals, the ‘elders’ meeting’ is in effect an institutionalized procedure for evaluating
the ritual performance, its conditions and effects, and, if necessary, for adjusting aspects
of the ritual. At a recent meeting, the ‘elders’ decided to abandon a powerful and valued
but violent and problematical component of the ritual, due to its potential detrimental
effects on the fabric of social relations on which the ritual depends for its continued
existence. Thus, a highly scripted, ‘liturgy-centered’ ritual (per Atkinson) can be adapted
to the social context. The specialists of these textual rituals demonstrate collectively an
expertise that extends into the sociological dynamics surrounding the ritual.
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