Buddhist forum lecture

In the Tibetan and Himalayan Buddhist world, sacred objects (ten) become sacred through processes of consecration and through their function and location. 

When statues, prayer flags, amulets, and other objects age to the point where they are no longer recognizable or non-functional, or are removed from their original context and rediscovered, they are not simply disposed of. Instead, they are recycled and repurposed to create other objects. In this presentation, I will explore the question of whether sacred waste exists in a Himalayan Buddhist context by examining how older sacred objects are cut up, crushed, melted down, burnt, or mixed with other items to be used as zung, a filling for statues, prayer wheels and stupas that are essential to their consecration. 

Zung can be made up of a variety of different types of objects, such as printed mantra, amulets and images of Buddhas and dharma protectors, precious minerals, consecrated liquid, chinlap, sacred pills, relics, and most importantly for this paper, parts of old sacred objects including broken statues and torn books. This presentation will outline how these old objects are recycled and prepared for re-purposing through processes of purification and re-consecration, thereby demonstrating that things as well as people can constitute part of the cycle of interdependent origination in Buddhist communities, and how ultimately, nothing sacred ever goes to waste.

The Buddhist Forum is kindly sponsored by the Khyentse Foundation. 

About the speaker

Amy Holmes-Tagchungdarpa is an associate professor in the Departments of Religious Studies and Asian Studies at Occidental College, Los Angeles, USA. She is the author of The Social Life of Tibetan Biography: Textuality, Community and Authority in the Lineage of Tokden Shakya Shri (Modern Tibetan Studies Series, Lexington, 2014), which explored the trans-Himalayan travels that shaped religious communities inspired by the Tibetan yogi Tokden Shakya Shri (1853-1919). 

Her current research explores the cosmological and material interactions that have shaped the cultures and histories of the Himalayas on a regional and global level. Part of this project has included her participation in the multi-year research project ‘Mapping Religious Diversity in Modern Sichuan’, led by Stefania Travagnin (SOAS) and Elena Valussi (Loyola University Chicago) and funded by the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange.

Registration

This event is free and open to all. For more information please contact: hs77@soas.ac.uk.