Many are familiar with the history of Tibetan Buddhism; fewer understand the other religious streams in Tibet. Several years ago when I began to seriously study the religions of early Tibet, I found that I was woefully out of touch with the thinking of modern Tibetologists. My views on Tibetan religious history and those of many of my acquaintances, both Tibetan and Western, remained untouched by the past several decades of research. In short, I missed two important pillars in my understanding of Tibetan religious history. 1) Bon is a transmission of Buddhism that traveled through Central Asia to reach Tibet. 2) Pre-Buddhist Tibetans embraced yet another religious system which I call folk religion. Following is a brief introduction.

Misunderstood Bon

Throughout the duration of my stays in Tibet, both Tibetans and non-Tibetans taught me that Bon was the indigenous, shamanistic religion of Tibet that had evolved to become similar to Buddhism. I believed that through the centuries, as Bonpo (Bon adherents) realized the supremacy of Buddhism, they adopted Buddhist doctrine and practice so that, today, there is little that differentiates Bonpo from Buddhists. I once asked a Bon monk child, perhaps 10 years old, the difference between Bon and Buddhism. He replied, “The difference is which valley you are born in.” I believed that the similarities between Buddhism and Bon could be explained by Bon’s mimicry of Buddhist thought and ritual.  However, my pro-Buddhist version of history has been shown to be out of sync with modern research.

Firstly, some scholars no longer believe that Bon was an indigenous Tibetan religion that Buddhism eventually supplanted (Beckwith, 2011; Bjerken, 2001). Most likely, Bon was an alternative transmission of Buddhism that came through Central Asia (Bjerken, 2001; Ryavec, 2020; Snellgrove, 2002). Bon is not—as some Bonpo have claimed—18,000 years old; it is relatively young. It only became known as its own religion by forming its identity in contrast to Indian Buddhism in the tenth or eleventh centuries (Beckwith, 2011; Blezer, 2011a, 2011b; Imaeda, 2007; Stein, 1985/2010; Teeuwen & Blezer, 2013). 

Missing Folk religion

Secondly, yet another stream of Tibetan religious thought and practice can be differentiated from both Buddhism and Bon (Beckwith, 2011; Haarh, 1969; Macdonald, 1971; Stein, 1962/1972; Tucci, 1980/2012; Wylie, 1963). Most likely this stream preceded the other two (Stein, 1962/1972). Tibetologists have not formed a consensus about what to name it; borrowing from Tucci (1980/2012), I call it the folk religion. I now assume a somewhat young Bon and the existence of an older folk religion.

Conclusion

In summary, Bon was most likely a transmission of Buddhism through Central Asia and another pre-Buddhist Tibetan belief system probably existed in old Tibet. Interestingly, all three religious traditions – the folk religion, Bon, and Buddhism – concerned themselves with the divine incarnation of the first eight Tibetan kings. As a Christian, I find the parallels between Christian thought and the ancient Tibetan story of the divine incarnations significant. I hope to describe those parallels in the future. But first, I intend to describe in more detail what scholars have discovered about the religious landscape of Tibet around the time when the first Tibetan documents were written.

Stay tuned!

Timothy Miner

I adapted the above from my dissertation Similarities between Early Tibetan Deities and the Christian God at Biola University in 2022.

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References

Beckwith, C. I. (2011). On Zhangzhung and Bon. In H. Blezer (Ed.), Emerging Bon: The formation of Bon traditions in Tibet at the turn of the first millennium AD (pp. 164–184). International Institute for Tibetan and Buddhist Studies.

Bjerken, Z. (2001). The mirrorwork of Tibetan religious historians: A comparison of Buddhist and Bon historiography (UMI No. 3000921) [Doctoral dissertation, University of Michigan]. UMI Microform.

Ryavec, K. E. (2020). Regional perspectives on the origin and early spread of the Bon religion based on core areas of monastery construction across the Tibetan plateau. Revue d’Etudes Tibétaines, 54, 5–27.

Snellgrove, D. L. (2002). Indo-Tibetan Buddhism: Indian Buddhists and their Tibetan successors. Shambhala.

Blezer, H. (2011a). In search of the heartland of Bon—Khyung lung dngul mkhar the silver castle in garuḍa valley. In H. Blezer (Ed.), Emerging Bon: The formation of Bon traditions in Tibet at the turn of the first millennium AD (pp. 117–163). International Institute for Tibetan and Buddhist Studies.

Blezer, H. (2011b). The Bon of Bon: Forever old. In Emerging Bon: The formation of Bon traditions in Tibet at the turn of the first millennium AD (pp. 207–245). International Institute for Tibetan and Buddhist Studies.

Imaeda, Y. (2007). The history of the cycle of birth and death: A Tibetan narrative from Dunhuang. In M. Kapstein & B. Dotson (Eds.), Contributions to the cultural history of early Tibet (Vol. 14, pp. 105–181). Brill.

Miner, T. (2022). Similarities between Early Tibetan Deities and the Christian God. Biola University.

Stein, R. A. (2010). Tibetica antiqua III: A propos du mot gcug-lag et de la religion indigene [Regarding the word gcug-lag and the indigenous religion]. Bulletin de l’École française d’Extrême-Orient, 75, 83–133. (Original work published 1985)

Teeuwen, M., & Blezer, H. (2013). Buddhism and nativism: Framing identity discourse in Buddhist environments. In H. Blezer & M. Teeuwen (Eds.), Challenging paradigms: Buddhism and nativism. Framing identity discourse in Buddhist environments (pp. 1–28). Brill.

Haarh, E. (1969). The Yar-luṅ Dynasty: A study with particular regard to the contribution by myths and legends to the history of ancient Tibet and the origin and nature of its kings. G.E.C. Gad’s Forlag.

Macdonald, A. (1971). Une lecture des Pelliot tibétain 1286, 1287, 1038, 1047 et 1290: Essai sur la formation et l’emploi des mythes politiques dans la religion royale de Sroṇ-bcan sgam-po [A reading of the Pelliot Tibétain 1286, 1287, 1038, 1047 and 1290: An essay on the genesis and use of political myths in the royal religion of Sroṇ-bcan sgam-po]. In A. Macdonald (Ed.), Études tibétaines dédiées à la mémoire de Marcelle Lalou (pp. 190–391). Librairie d’Amérique et d’Orient.

Stein, R. A. (1972). Tibetan civilization (J. E. Stapleton Driver, Trans.). Stanford University Press. http://www.scribd.com/doc/78298057/Stein-Tibetan-Civilization (Original work published 1962)

Tucci, G. (2012). The religions of Tibet (G. Samuel, Trans.). Routledge. (Original work published 1980)

Wylie, T. (1963). ’o-lde-spu-rgyal and the introduction of Bon to Tibet. Central Asiatic Journal, 8(2), 93–103.