Bhutan Religious Tradition
Buddhism
The twelfth-century Chendibji chorten, a
religious monument dominated by the Buddha's all-seeing eyes
Courtesy Bhutan Travel, Inc., New York (Marie Brown)
Mahayana Buddhism was the state religion, and Buddhists
comprised about 70 percent of the population in the early
1990s.
Although originating from Tibetan Buddhism, Bhutanese
Buddhism
differs significantly in its rituals, liturgy, and
monastic
organization. The state religion has long been supported
financially by the government through annual subsidies to
monasteries, shrines, monks, and nuns. In the modern era,
support
of the state religion during the reign of Jigme Dorji
Wangchuck
included the manufacture of 10,000 gilded bronze images of
the
Buddha, publication of elegant calligraphied editions of
the 108-
volume Kanjur (Collection of the Words of the
Buddha) and
the 225-volume Tenjur (Collection of Commentaries),
and the
construction of numerous chorten (stupas)
throughout the
country. Guaranteed representation in the National
Assembly and the
Royal Advisory Council, Buddhists constituted the majority
of
society and were assured an influential voice in public
policy.
In 1989 some 1,000 monks (lam, or gelong,
novices) belonged to the Central Monastic Body in Thimphu
and
Punakha, and some 4,000 monks belonged to district
monastic bodies.
The hierarchy was headed by the Je Khenpo, who was
assisted by four
lonpon or masters, each in charge of religious
tradition,
liturgy, lexicography, or logic. The lonpon, one of
whom,
the Dorji Lonpon, normally succeeded the current Je
Khenpo, had
under them religious administrators and junior monastic
officials
in charge of art, music, and other areas. Gelugpa monks
were
celibate, but Nyingmapa monks were not so restricted and
could
marry, raise families, and work in secular occupations
while
performing liturgical functions in temples and homes. In
all, there
were some 12,000 monks in Bhutan in the late 1980s. There
were also
active congregations of nuns, but no figures were readily
available.
The majority of Bhutan's Buddhists are adherents of the
Drukpa
subsect of the Kargyupa (literally, oral transmission)
school, one
of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism, which is
itself a
combination of the Theravada (monastic), Mahayana
(messianic), and
Tantrayana (apocalyptic) forms of Buddhism. Tibetan
Buddhism holds
that salvation can be achieved through the intercession of
compassionate bodhisattvas (enlightened ones) who have
delayed
their own entry into a state of
nibbana (see Glossary), or
nirvana, enlightenment and selfless bliss, to save others.
Emphasis
is put on the doctrine of the cosmic Buddha, of whom the
historical
Buddha--Siddhartha Gautama (ca. 563-ca. 483 B.C.)--was
only one of
many manifestations. Bodhisattvas are in practice treated
more as
deities than as enlightened human beings and occupy the
center of
a richly polytheistic universe of subordinate deities;
opposing,
converted, and reformed demons; wandering ghosts; and
saintly
humans that reflects the shamanistic folk religion of the
regions
into which Buddhism expanded. Tantrism contributed
esoteric
techniques of meditation and a repertoire of sacred icons,
phrases,
gestures, and rituals that easily lent themselves to
practical
(rather than transcendental) and magical interpretation.
The Kargyupa school was introduced into Tibet from
India and
into Bhutan from Tibet in the eleventh century. The
central
teaching of the Kargyupa school is meditation on
mahamudra
(Sanskrit for great seal), a concept tying the realization
of
emptiness to freedom from reincarnation. Also central to
the
Kargyupa school are the dharma (laws of nature, all that
exists,
real or imaginary), which consist of six Tantric
meditative
practices teaching bodily self-control so as to achieve
nirvana.
One of the key aspects of the Kargyupa school is the
direct
transmission of the tenets of the faith from teacher to
disciple.
The Drukpa subsect, which grew out of one of the four
Kargyupa
sects, was the preeminent religious belief in Bhutan by
the end of
the twelfth century
(see Origins and Early Settlement, A.D. 600-1600, this ch.).
Monasteries and convents were common throughout Bhutan
in the
late twentieth century. Both monks and nuns kept their
heads shaved
and wore distinguishing maroon robes. Their days were
spent in
study and meditation but also in the performance of
rituals
honoring various bodhisattvas, praying for the dead, and
seeking
divine intercession on behalf of the ill. Some of their
prayers
involved chants and singing accompanied by conch shell
trumpets,
thighbone trumpets (made from human thighbones), metal
horns up to
three meters long, large standing drums and cymbals, hand
bells,
temple bells, gongs, and wooden sticks. Such monastic
music and
singing, not normally heard by the general public, has
been
reported to have "great virility" and to be more melodious
than its
Tibetan monotone counterparts.
To bring Buddhism to the people, numerous symbols and
structures are employed. Religious monuments, prayer
walls, prayer
flags, and sacred mantras carved in stone hillsides were
prevalent
in the early 1990s. Among the religious monuments are
chorten, the Bhutanese version of the Indian stupa.
They
range from simple rectangular "house" chorten to
complex
edifices with ornate steps, doors, domes, and spires. Some
are
decorated with the Buddha's eyes that see in all
directions
simultaneously. These earth, brick, or stone structures
commemorate
deceased kings, Buddhist saints, venerable monks, and
other
notables, and sometimes they serve as reliquaries. Prayer
walls are
made of laid or piled stone and inscribed with Tantric
prayers.
Prayers printed with woodblocks on cloth are made into
tall,
narrow, colorful prayer flags, which are then mounted on
long poles
and placed both at holy sites and at dangerous locations
to ward
off demons and to benefit the spirits of the dead. To help
propagate the faith, itinerant monks travel from village
to village
carrying portable shrines with many small doors, which
open to
reveal statues and images of the Buddha, bodhisattavas,
and notable
lamas.
Data as of September 1991
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