Consuming the Lama: transformations of Tibetan Buddhist bodies

dc.contributor.author	Zivkovic, T.
dc.date.issued	2014
dc.description.abstract	Tibetan understandings about the bodies of spiritual teachers or lamas challenge the idea of a singular and bounded form. Tibetan Buddhists believe that the presence of the lama does not depend on their skin-encapsulated temporal body, or a singular lifespan. After death, it is not uncommon for a lama to materialize in other appearances or to become incorporated into the bodies of others through devotees’ consumption of their bodily remains. In this article, I discuss how the European ingestion of the holy bodies of Tibetan lamas creates new possibilities for embodied intersubjectivity, and also how this practice repositions bodily substance in cannibal discourse.
dc.description.statementofresponsibility	Tanya Maria Zivkovic
dc.identifier.citation	Body and Society, 2014; 20(1):111-132
dc.identifier.doi	10.1177/1357034X12462252
dc.identifier.issn	1357-034X
dc.identifier.issn	1460-3632
dc.identifier.orcid	Zivkovic, T. [0000-0002-4990-4372]
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/2440/86643
dc.language.iso	en
dc.publisher	SAGE Publications
dc.rights	© The Author(s) 2014
dc.source.uri	https://doi.org/10.1177/1357034x12462252
dc.subject	Bodies; cannibalism; death; Tibetan Buddhism
dc.title	Consuming the Lama: transformations of Tibetan Buddhist bodies
dc.type	Journal article
pubs.publication-status	Published

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