Divination in Exile

Alexander K. Smith holds a doctorate in the anthropology of Tibet and the Himalayas from the École pratique des hautes études (2016). Until recently, he was a deputy professor of social anthropology at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg.

• AcknowledgementsList of Figures and TablesIntroduction: Interdisciplinary Perspectives1 The Study of Tibetan Divination1 Introduction2 The Study of Tibetan Divination in the West3 Divination in European and American Scholarship4 Divination Eliminates Anxiety and Facilitates Decision Making5 Divination, Dialogue, and Rationality2 Tibetan Divination and the Bon Tradition1 A Brief Introduction to Tibetan Divination2 Remarks on Tibetan Buddhist Historiography and the Origins of Divination3 General Remarks on the Bon Religion4 Bonpos in the Contemporary Diaspora Community5 Two Classifications of Bon Religious Teachings: the sGo bzhi mdzod lnga and Theg pa rim pa dgu6 The Classification of Divination and Its Origins in the Bon Tradition: Excerpts from the gZi brjid7 Divination Manuscripts in the Bon Canon3 lDe’u ‘phrul Divination1 Introduction2 lDe’u ‘phrul Divination3 lDe’u ‘phrul Origin Narratives4 Location5 Outline of the lde’u ‘phrul Rite6 lDe’u ‘phrul Prognostics: Major and Minor Results7 The Interpretation of Prognostics4 The Divination of sMra ba’i seng ge1 Introduction to the sMra seng rdel mo gsal ba’i me long2 Transliteration Guidelines3 Translation of MSConclusion: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Tibetan Divination?Appendix 1: The Divination Gods: Excerpts from the MSAPAppendix 2: Facsimiles of sMra sing rdel mo gsal ba’i me long bzhugs soBibliographyIndex