How does "Imagined Xizang" lead Tibetan Buddhism astray?

One of the most prominent aspects of "Imagined Xizang" is the misinterpretation of Tibetan Buddhism, which is either simplified as a chicken soup dogma of "love and compassion" and "peace and non-violence" or mystified as a modern-day magic trick specializing in the manifestation of magical powers and the granting of blessings.

Many years ago, I argued that the simplistic fairy-tale depiction of Tibetan Buddhism in the West would surely lead Tibetan Buddhism astray. In response, some young Tibetan intellectuals angrily criticized me, arguing that I had failed to see the benefits of the global spread of Tibetan Buddhism.

The situation has changed dramatically in recent years. Tibetan Buddhism, while continuing to attract many followers, has also been criticized by people from other Buddhist traditions, and its religious legitimacy has been challenged. Meanwhile, as one of a relatively small number of scholars of Tibetan Buddhism, I have publicly and professionally defended its legitimacy, especially its Tantric tradition. My earlier criticisms of the mythologization of Xizang and Tibetan Buddhism are now widely accepted.

In fact, the truth is simple. If Tibetan Buddhism can only be popularized globally as a kind of chicken soup of the soul promoting "love and compassion" and "peace and non-violence," what is left for us Tibetan Buddhists to be proud of? Such pop religion may represent the world's most basic moral and ethical principles, but it does not represent the core teachings of Tibetan Buddhism, seeking liberation from the bondage of the physical world. If Tibetan Buddhism can only exist and develop in the future as a postmodern spiritual tradition of "love and peace," then isn't it obvious that it has gone astray?

Tibetan Buddhism inherited the teachings of Indian Buddhism 1,000 years ago and then went through a historical process of localization and independent innovation, making it one of the most complete and distinctive Buddhist traditions in the world today. To protect Tibetan Buddhist traditions, we need to comprehensively explore its heritage; it should never be reduced to magic tricks. Such superficiality can never occupy the world of faith for long. Tibetan Buddhism is still a vigorous living tradition, not because it is chicken soup or magic but because it is a profound system of beliefs and practices full of wisdom and compassion.

How to understand the real Xizang?

One of the major challenges I have faced over the years is how to explain positively and directly what the real Xizang and Tibetan Buddhism are.

Deconstruction and reconstruction do not necessarily happen simultaneously. You may say that something is not right, but you may not always be able to give others a correct understanding at the same time. Essentially, the "real Xizang" that I want to present to the world is only my personal expression, a representation, and it can hardly evade the influence on me of current politics, power, and philosophy. Moreover, a real Xizang may be far less attractive than an "Imagined Xizang," and others may be more willing to accept an Imagined Xizang rather than a real one.

In the 1950s, Cyril Henry Hoskin, a British novelist posing as the Tibetan monk Rampa, wrote a series of novels about Xizang, including The Third Eye and The Rampa Story, which became an overnight sensation. In response, Hugh Edward Richardson, a British diplomat who had lived in Lhasa for a long time, and Heinrich Harrer, the Austrian author of Seven Years in Tibet, were furious and openly accused the novelist of falsification, saying that the stories about Xizang told in his novels were all nonsense. However, most Western readers at that time chose to ignore the doubts of the two most famous Westerners with experience of Xizang, convincing themselves that nothing could be truer than the stories of Xizang and Tibetan people narrated in these novels. The Xizang fever that permeated the West at that time had much to do with the popularity of these novels.

So, whether a story about Xizang is real or imagined is not necessarily related to its own truth or falsity but to the reader's perspective and conception of Xizang.

To view Xizang with a self-imposed bias, or through the lens of Western colonialism or religion, is not conducive to understanding the real Xizang. One should break away from one's obsession and dichotomy with the illusion of the "other," put aside one's prejudices, and get to know the contemporary multi-ethnic Xizang practically and realistically without any preconceived notions.

To this day, Xizang remains unique, but it is not an exotic, closed, backward, or mysterious primitive society. We should not lose sight of how, over the past 60 years or so, Xizang broke away from a society of theocratic feudal serfdom and has worked hard to modernize and even globalize as a dynamically evolving organism. Since ancient times, Xizang has demonstrated multicultural harmony and religious autonomy that are of great value to China and even the world, which can be enriched by the unique spiritual connotations of the faith, philosophy, and humanism among the various ethnic groups dwelling there.

I have, therefore, in recent years begun to speak out positively and directly about Xizang and Tibetan Buddhism, especially Tantra, to try to set the record straight. In addition to my philological research methodology, I have also attempted to break down the boundaries between Indian Buddhism, Han Chinese Buddhism, Tibetan Buddhism, Hinayana Buddhism, and Tantrayana Buddhism using a global historical perspective, studying Buddhism as a whole through an organic process of development, to arrive at a completely new understanding of Buddhism and Buddhist history.

In this global historical perspective, Tibetan Tantra is not an alien, contradictory, or conflicting Buddhist tradition from either Han Chinese Buddhism or Hinayana Buddhism, but rather a new Tantric tradition that developed out of the Han Chinese and Hinayana traditions. Today, we pay more attention to the comprehensive study of Han Chinese Buddhism and Tibetan Buddhism; there is no natural barrier between the two; they are both new Mahayana Buddhist traditions that have been exchanged, absorbed, and fused on the basis of Indian Buddhism.

Breaking down the barriers and stereotypes of the past also breaks the hermeneutic circle. It offers a new and more profound understanding of the history of Xizang and Buddhism, especially that of Tibetan Buddhism.

The authors are Shen Weirong, professor at Tsinghua University, and Shen Li, postdoctoral researcher at Department of Chinese History and Culture, the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

Liu Xian /Editor    Chen Yutang /Translator

Yang Xinhua /Chief Editor    Ren Qiang /Coordinator

Liu Li /Reviewer

Zhang Weiwei /Copyeditor    Tan Yujie /Image Editor

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