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Communication Dans Un Congrès Année : 2022

On the Western Borders of the Buddhist World: Hemis Monastery activities towards neighbouring non-Buddhist Regions

Résumé

Hemis Monastery —the largest and most powerful religious institution of Ladakh in the Western Himalayas, affiliated to the Tibetan Drukpa (‘brug pa) lineage of Buddhism— was a simple cave hermitage in the thirteenth century. She gradually evolved into a grand and very rich monastery, still extremely dynamic today. Along with her contribution to the organization of the local society and her role in developing relationships with Buddhist Tibet, she was also actively involved in conciliating or mollifying non Buddhist influences. I will present various religious activities that have been initiated from Hemis towards the periphery of the kingdom between the 17th and 19th centuries, which we may assume were performed in order to buffer such influences. The non-Buddhist challenges were Hindu on the southern borders of Ladakh, coming in particular from the Chamba Kingdom in today’s Himachal Pradesh, and there was also Muslim pressure coming from Kashmir and from Central Asia on the western and northern borders. The related achievements of Hemis, and perhaps the overall culture it promoted for the local community may be located within the longer religious and social history of Ladakh as a country that stands on the westernmost border of the Buddhist world. By analysing a number of these activities, one may observe several key avenues Hemis pursued to assuage these influences that have proved helpful and supported the resilience of Buddhism in the region.
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Dates et versions

hal-04571437 , version 1 (07-05-2024)

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  • HAL Id : hal-04571437 , version 1

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Estelle Atlan. On the Western Borders of the Buddhist World: Hemis Monastery activities towards neighbouring non-Buddhist Regions. International Conference of IATS - Prague July 2022, International Association for Tibetan Studies, Jul 2022, Prague (CZ), Czech Republic. ⟨hal-04571437⟩
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