Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-v9fdk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-07T23:06:12.560Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

On “personal protective deities” (’go ba'i lha) and the Old Tibetan verb ’go

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 August 2017

Brandon Dotson
Brandon Dotson*
Affiliation:
Georgetown University
*
[email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The ’go ba'i lha – usually translated with “personal protective deities” – are often approached as an integral part of Tibetan popular or folk religion. Typically five in number, these gods are said to be born with an individual, to reside in his or her body, and to protect various facets of his or her existence. As for the etymology of ’go ba'i lha, while “protective deities” is the dominant translation, it remains a highly communicative and contextual gloss of ’go, whose attested meanings do not include “to protect”. The present contribution offers a new analysis of the verb ’go based on attestations in Old Tibetan texts from Dunhuang from the ninth and tenth centuries. In doing so, the article not only proposes a new etymology of ’go ba'i lha, but also touches on the changing relationship between Tibetans and their gods over time.

Keywords

Tibetan popular religionDivinationLexicographyVerb morphologyTibetan Buddhism
Type
Articles
Information
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 80 , Issue 3 , October 2017 , pp. 525 - 545
Copyright
Copyright © SOAS, University of London 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Berounský, Daniel. 2007. “Iconography and texts of the Tibetan five protecting deities”, in Pakhomov, S.V. (ed.), Filosofiya, religiya i kul'tura stran vostoka. Materialy nauchnoi konferencii chetvertye torchinovskie chteniya. Saint Petersburg: Izdatelstvo Sankt Petergburgskogo universitěta, 331–40.Google Scholar
Chang, Betty Shefts. 1971. “Tibetan causative phonology”, Bulletin of the Institute of History and Philology 42, 623–725.Google Scholar
Das, Sarat Chandra. 1902. A Tibetan–English Dictionary with Sanskrit Synonyms. Calcutta: Bengal Secretariat Book Department.Google Scholar
Dorje, Gyurme. 2001. Tibetan Elemental Divination Paintings: Illuminated Manuscripts from the White Beryl of Sangs-rgyas rGya-mtsho with the Moonbeams Treatise of Lo-chen Dharmasri. London: John Eskenazi in association with Sam Fogg.Google Scholar
Dotson, Brandon. 2015. “The call of the cuckoo to the thin sheep of spring: healing and fortune in Old Tibetan dice divination texts”, in Ramble, Charles and Roesler, Ulrike (eds), Tibetan and Himalayan Healing: An Anthology for Anthony Aris. Kathmandu: Vajra Publications, 148–60.Google Scholar
Dotson, Brandon and Helman-Ważny, Agnieszka. 2016. Codicology, Paleography, and Orthography of Early Tibetan Documents: Methods and a Case Study. (Vienna Studies in Tibetology and Buddhism 89.) Vienna: Association for Tibetan and Buddhist Studies, University of Vienna.Google Scholar
Dung dkar Blo bzang ’phrin las. 2002. Bod rig pa'i tshig mdzod chen mo. Beijing: Krung go mi rigs dpe skrun khang.Google Scholar
Franke, Herbert, Hartmann, Jens-Uwe and Höllmann, Thomas O. (eds). 2005. Wörterbuch der tibetischen Schriftsprache. Bearbeitet von Helga Uebach, Jampa Panglung, Petra Maurer, und Johannes Schneider. (Kommission für zentral- und ostasiatische Studien.) Munich: Verlag der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften.Google Scholar
Gibson, Todd. 1991. “From btsanpo to btsan: the demonization of the Tibetan sacral kingship”, PhD Dissertation, University of Indiana.Google Scholar
Hahn, Michael. 1985. Lehrbuch der klassischen tibetischen Schriftsprache. Bonn: Indica et Tibetica Verlag.Google Scholar
Harding, Sarah (trans.) 2003. Machik's Complete Explanation: Clarifying the Meaning of Chod. Expanded Edition. Boston: Snow Lion Publications.Google Scholar
Heller, Amy. 1985. “An early Tibetan ritual: Rkyal ’bud ”, in Aziz, Barbara Nimri and Kapstein, Matthew T. (eds), Soundings in Tibetan Civilization. New Delhi: Manohar, 257–67.Google Scholar
Hill, Nathan. 2010a. A Lexicon of Tibetan Verb Stems as Reported by the Grammatical Tradition. Munich: Verlag der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften.Google Scholar
Hill, Nathan. 2010b. “Personal pronouns in Old Tibetan”, Journal Asiatique 298/2, 549–71.Google Scholar
Hill, Nathan. 2014. “A note on voicing alternation in the Tibetan verbal system”, Transactions of the Philological Society 112/1, 1–4.Google Scholar
Iwao, Kazushi, van Schaik, Sam and Takeuchi, Tsuguhito. 2012. Old Tibetan Texts in the Stein Collection Or.8210. Tokyo: The Toyo Bunko.Google Scholar
Jäschke, Heinrich A. 1998 (1881). A Tibetan–English Dictionary. New Delhi: Munishiram Manoharlal.Google Scholar
Kapstein, Matthew T. 2013. “The prayers of Dega Yutsel”, in Schaeffer, Kurtis, Kapstein, Matthew T. and Tuttle, Gray (eds), Sources of Tibetan Tradition. New York: Columbia University Press, 78–86.Google Scholar
Karmay, Samten. 2007. “Myths and rituals”, in Karmay, Samten and Watt, Jeff (eds), Bon: The Magic Word. The Indigenous Religon of Tibet. New York: Rubin Museum of Art, 147–63.Google Scholar
Karmay, Samten and Nagano, Yasuhiko (eds) 2002. The Call of the Blue Cuckoo: An Anthology of Nine Bon Texts on Myths and Rituals. (Senri Ethnological Reports. Bon Studies 6.) Osaka: National Museum of Ethnology.Google Scholar
Lim, Francis Khek Gee Lim. 2008. Imagining the Good Life: Negotiating Culture and Development in Nepal Himalaya. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar
Macdonald, Ariane. 1971. “Une lecture des Pelliot Tibétain 1286, 1287, 1038, et 1290: essai sur la formation et l'emploi des mythes politiques dans la religion royale de Sroṅ bcan Sgam po”, in Études Tibétaines dédiées à la mémoire de Marcelle Lalou. Paris: Adrien Maisonneuve, 190–391.Google Scholar
Nebesky-Wojkowicz, Réne de. 1998 (1956). Oracles and Demons of Tibet. The Cult and Iconography of Tibetan Protective Deities. Delhi: Classics India Publications.Google Scholar
Nobel, Johannes. 1950. Suvarṇaprabhāsottama-Sūtra: das Goldglanz-Sūtra, ein Sanskrittext des Mahāyāna-Buddhismus. Die tibetischen Übersetzungen mit einem Wörterbuch. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar
Norbu, Namkai. 1997. Drung, De'u and Bon: Narrations, Symbolic Languages and the Bön Tradition in Ancient Tibet, trans. Clemente, Adriano and Lukianowicz, Andrew. Dharamsala: Library of Tibetan Works and Archives.Google Scholar
Orosz, Gergely. 2003. “Folk religion in the ritual manuscripts of ancient Tibet”, in Kelényi, Béla (ed.), Demons and Protectors. Folk Religion in Tibetan and Mongolian Buddhism. Budapest: Ferenc Hopp Museum of Eastern Asiatic Art, 19–26.Google Scholar
Pommaret, Françoise. 1996. “On local and mountain deities in Bhutan”, in Blondeau, Anne-Marie and Steinkellner, Ernst (eds), Reflections on the Mountain: Essays on the History and Social Meaning of the Mountain Cult in Tibet and the Himalaya. Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 39–56.Google Scholar
de Roerich, George Nicolas. 1983–93. Tibetsko–russko–angliiskii slovar: s sanskritskimi paralleliami. Tibetan–Russian–English Dictionary with Sanskrit Parallels, ed. Parfionovich, Y. and Dylykova, V.. 11 volumes. Moscow: Izd-vo “Nauka”, Glav. red. vostochnoi lit-ry / Central Department of Oriental Literature.Google Scholar
Sakaki Ryōzaburō, 榊 亮三郎. 1916. Hon'yaku myōgi daishū. Bon–Zō–Kan–Wa yon'yaku taikō 飜譯名義大集. 梵藏漢和四譯對校 . Kyōto: Shingonshū Kyōto Daigaku 眞言宗京都大學.Google Scholar
Samuel, Geoffrey. 1993. Civilized Shamans: Buddhism in Tibetan Societies. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.Google Scholar
Shastri, Lobsang. 1994. “The marriage customs of ru-thog (mnga’-ris)”, in Kvaerne, Per (ed.), Tibetan Studies: Proceedings of the Sixth Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies, Fagernes 1992. Volume 2. Oslo: Institute for Comparative Research in Human Culture, 755–67.Google Scholar
Stein, Rolf. 1939. “Trente-trois fiches de divination Tibétaines”, Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 4/3–4, 297–391.Google Scholar
Stein, Rolf. 1962. La Civilisation Tibétaine. Paris: Dunod.Google Scholar
Takeuchi, Tsuguhito. 1998. Old Tibetan Manuscripts from East Turkestan in the Stein Collection of the British Library. Volume II: Descriptive Catalogue. Tokyo: The Toyo Bunko and The British Library.Google Scholar
Takeuchi, Tsuguhito. 2012. “Formation and transformation of Old Tibetan”, in Takeuchi, Tsuguhito and Hayashi, Norihiko (eds), Historical Development of the Tibetan Languages: Proceedings of the Workshop B of the 17th Himalayan Languages Symposium, Kobe 2011 (Journal of the Research Institute of Foreign Studies 49) . Kobe: Kobe City University of Foreign Studies, 3–17.Google Scholar
Thomas, F.W. 1951. Tibetan Literary Texts and Documents Concerning Chinese Turkestan. Volume II. London: Luzac and Company.Google Scholar
Tucci, Giuseppe. 1980. The Religions of Tibet, trans. Samuel, Geoffrey. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Uray, Géza. 1972. “The narrative of legislation and organization of the Mkhas pa'i dga’-ston: the origins of the traditions concerning Sroṅ-brcan Sgam-po as the first legislator and organizer of Tibet”, Acta Orientalia Scientiarum Hungaricae 26/1, 11–68.Google Scholar
Vinkovics, Judit. 2003. “Life-protecting deities and personal protecting deities in folk Buddhism”, in Kelényi, Béla (ed.), Demons and Protectors. Folk Religion in Tibetan and Mongolian Buddhism. Budapest: Ferenc Hopp Museum of Eastern Asiatic Art, 89–92.Google Scholar
Walter, Michael. 2009. Buddhism and Empire: The Political and Religious Culture of Early Tibet. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar
Zeisler, Bettina. 2004. Relative Tense and Aspectual Values in Tibetan Languages. A Comparative Study. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Zhang, Yisun et al. (eds). 1998. Bod rgya tshigs mdzod chen mo. Beijing: mi rigs dpe skrun khang.Google Scholar