Substance and Sense
Subtitle: Objects of Power in the Life, Writings, and Legacy of the Tibetan Ritual Master Sog bzlog pa Blo gros rgyal mtshan
Contributors: Gyatso, Janet; Hallisey, Charles; Monius, Anne; van der Kuijp, Leonard
Published: 2014
Language: eng
Description: This thesis is a reflection upon objects of power and their roles in the lives of people through the lens of a single case example: power objects as they appear throughout the narrative, philosophical, and ritual writings of the Tibetan Buddhist ritual specialist Sog bzlog pa Blo gros rgyal mtshan (1552-1624) and his milieu. This study explores their discourse on power objects specifically for what it reveals about how human interactions with certain kinds of objects encourage the flow of power and charisma between them, and what the implications of these person-object transitions were for issues of identity, agency, and authority on the personal, institutional, and state registers in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Tibet.
Notes: Keywords: Buddhism, material culture, philosophy, ritual, state, Tibet.

Thesis Ph.D. Harvard University 2014