Description
Book SynopsisFounded in 1676, Mindröling monastery became a key site for Buddhist education and a Tibetan civilizational center. Dominique Townsend investigates the ritual, artistic, and cultural practices inculcated at Mindröling to demonstrate how early modern Tibetans integrated Buddhist and worldly activities through training in aesthetics.
Trade ReviewThis book focuses upon a remarkable monastic institution in the early modern period and shows how it shaped the cosmopolitanism of the Tibetan capital and its aristocracy. Townsend provides fascinating case studies of letter-writing, monastic curricula, and
belles-lettres, developing a special understanding of literature and aesthetics as ethically significant and religiously coded. The book serves to adjust our understanding of just what the category of “Buddhism,” or even “Buddhist institution”—or even “monastery”—could and should denote, and troubles forever more any strict boundary between religion and secular life in Tibetan Buddhist society. -- Janet Gyatso, author of
Being Human in a Buddhist World: An Intellectual History of Medicine in Early Modern TibetTownsend has achieved something rare, drawing on a wide array of genres and weaving them into a remarkably rich whole. Her translations are beautifully done, and her analyses demonstrate her expertise as a close reader, as she patiently dwells on key elements to bring her sources to life. The result is sure to inspire others in her field to take more seriously the role of aesthetics in Tibetan writing. -- Jacob P. Dalton, Khyentse Foundation Distinguished University Professor in Tibetan Buddhism, University of California, Berkeley
A Buddhist Sensibility is a work of great and persuasive originality. Mindröling was not only a religious institution. It also offered what may be called a humanistic education, next to a religious one, and was remarkable for the place women occupied. Townsend has written a book that is at once scholarly and hugely readable. Her writing testifies to her fine control over the Tibetan sources she has used. This is an outstanding contribution not only to the field of Tibetan studies in general but also to anyone interested in the sociology of monastic life. -- Leonard W. J. van der Kuijp, Harvard University
What are the boundaries of the religious and the secular? And how does the realm of aesthetics become folded into the political? In this elegant study of Mindröling monastery, Townsend dislodges our immanent frame through a combination of historical rigor and literary acuity, providing a new model to understanding the pervasive place of institutions in the Tibetan Buddhist world. -- Tsering Shakya, author of
The Dragon in the Land of Snows: A History of Modern Tibet Since 1947This brilliantly innovative exploration of Buddhist aesthetics at Mindröling monastery, one of the foremost centers of Tibetan intellectual and artistic production, is also the history of an extraordinary family and the remarkable institution they developed during a pivotal time in Tibetan history. Townsend’s elegant work transforms our perspective on the relationship between materiality, renunciation, and social and political power. -- Annabella Pitkin, Lehigh University
A Buddhist Sensibility breaks new ground in considering a prominent Tibetan monastery not only for its philosophical and contemplative expertise, or even its political significance, but also for its aesthetics and cosmopolitanism. Townsend’s exploration of how these elements connected “court and cave,” or in other words Buddhist and worldly authority (
lugs gnyis), is both artful and compelling. -- Sarah H. Jacoby, author of
Love and Liberation: Autobiographical Writings of the Tibetan Buddhist Visionary Sera KhandroTownsend’s focus on aesthetics illuminates intimate connections between the aristocratic circles surrounding the Dalai Lama’s court and the visionary, ritual, and curricular innovations of Mindröling Monastery, transforming our understanding of the relationship between Buddhism and society far beyond Tibet. -- Benjamin Bogin, author of
The Illuminated Life of the Great YolmowaDominique Townsend’s masterful study presents, for the first time, an authoritative and sustained consideration of Buddhist aesthetics in early modern Tibet.
A Buddhist Sensibility reveals how aesthetic concerns influenced new approaches to religious education, prompted new forms of cultural production, and supported the rise of new Buddhist institutions and their charismatic leaders. It likewise documents Mindröling Monastery’s position as an exemplar of Buddhist excellence in the fields of philosophy, literature, art, ritual, and the highest aspirations of Tibetan literati culture. -- Andrew Quintman, Wesleyan University
Dominique Townsend brings to her translations not only a careful reading of Classical Tibetan but also the insight and talents of a poet. She rightly situates Mindroling as the preeminent academy for scores of religious teachers and aristocratic officials, including the Great Fifth Dalai Lama, in seventeenth-century Tibet. -- Pema Bhum, Director of The Latse Project
For anyone interested in Tibetan Buddhism, the institutional history of Tibetan Buddhist monasteries, women’s role in Tibetan history, or Tibetan history at the turn of the eighteenth century,
A Buddhist Sensibility is a must-read. * H-Buddhism *
A Buddhist Sensibility contributes significantly to our understanding of a consequential monastic institution and its role in Tibetan history...[and] should be of interest to scholars of Tibetan, Himalayan, Central Asian, and Buddhist studies for its fine study of a monastic institution and its integration with lay society, as well as for its stimulating forays into aesthetics, poetics, and educational models. -- Nancy G. Lin, Institute of Buddhist Studies * Journal of Buddhist Ethics *
Table of ContentsList of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
A Note on Translations and Transliterations
Introduction: Buddhist Aesthetics, the Cultivation of the Senses, and Beauty’s Efficacy
1. Historical Background: Laying the Foundation for Mindröling
2. A Pleasure Grove for the Buddhist Senses: Mindröling Takes Root
3. Plucking the Strings: On Style, Letter Writing, and Relationships
4. Training the Senses: Aesthetic Education for Monastics
5. Taming the Aristocrats: Cultivating Early Modern Tibetan Literati and Bureaucrats
Epilogue: Destruction and Revival: The Next Generation
Abbreviations
Notes
Bibliography
Index
