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Communication Dans Un Congrès Année : 2022

Lahaul: The Sacred tantric Buddhist Land between Tibet and Uddiyana

Résumé

Giuseppe Tucci explored the Western Himalayan regions on no less than eight occasions. Two of the many works that resulted from his archaeological expeditions drew specific attention to Tibetan travellers in the region: "Santi e briganti nel Tibet ignoto: diario della spedizione nel Tibet occidentale" (1935), and "Travels of Tibetan Pilgrims in the Swat Valley", initially published in 1940 by the Greater India Society (Calcutta). The latter features a number of major Tibetan figures who travelled across the Western Himalayas and his work was a ground-breaking analysis of historical travel books; it is still quoted and used as a reference in Tibetological studies of long-distance pilgrimage across the Himalayas. Travelling through the Western Himalayan regions, the pilgrims studied by Tucci set out to reach a country called “Lahul”, today spelled as “Lahaul,” locally known as “Garsha Khandro Ling”, the Sacred Land of the Dakinis. This is a region of high-altitude valleys and a major pilgrimage area that has attracted Buddhist meditators for probably more than a millennium. However, Tucci notes in his book that he struggled with some terms in the travelogues he parsed. It seems that at one point he stumbled on a corrupted word that prevented him from properly identifying Lahul. Moreover, in the same source he also misread the term “rgya ras pa,” associating it to a group of Hindu meditators (cotton clad ascetics), whereas the passage testifies to the presence of a vibrant congregation of Tibetan Buddhist disciples of gTsang pa rgya ras in that place. Overall, and probably owing to misreading of sorts, Tucci suggests in his book that Lahaul was Buddhist but of no significance in the 13th century and he fails to mention the specific features of this Buddhist sacred land. In view of this oversight, I propose to complement Tucci's work on Lahaul by re-examining the said sources alongside new materials. In doing so, I cast new light on Lahaul’s status as an important ancient Buddhist pilgrimage destination.
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Dates et versions

hal-04571440 , version 1 (07-05-2024)

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  • HAL Id : hal-04571440 , version 1

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Estelle Atlan. Lahaul: The Sacred tantric Buddhist Land between Tibet and Uddiyana. Giuseppe Tucci, his Adventurous Life, and his Scholarly Legacy - Academic symposium, University of Hong Kong and Italian Cultural Institute (Hong Kong), Aug 2022, Hong Kong, China. ⟨hal-04571440⟩
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