As David White explains in the Introduction to Tantra in Practice, Tantra is an Asian body of beliefs and practices that seeks to channel the divine energy that grounds the universe, in creative and liberating ways. The subsequent chapters reflect the wide geographical and temporal scope of Tantra by examining thirty-six texts from China, India, Japan, Nepal, and Tibet, ranging from the seventh century to the present day, and representing the full range of Tantric experience - Buddhist, Hindu, Jain, and even Islamic. Each text has been chosen and translated, often for the first time, by an international expert in the field who also provides detailed background material. Students of Asian religions and general readers alike will find the book rich and informative.
The book includes plays, transcribed interviews, poetry, parodies, inscriptions, instruc tional texts, scriptures, philosophical conjectures, dreams, and astronomical speculations, each text illustrating one of the diverse traditions and practices of Tantra. Thus, the nine teenth-century Indian Buddhist Garland of Gems, a series of songs, warns against the illu sion of appearance by referring to bees, yogurt, and the fire of Malaya Mountain; while fourteenth-century Chinese Buddhist manuscripts detail how to prosper through the Seven Stars of the Northern Dipper by burning incense, making offerings to scriptures, and chanting incantations. In a transcribed conversation, a modern Hindu priest in Bengal candidly ex plains how he serves the black goddess Kali and feeds temple skulls lentils, wine, or rice. A seventeenth-century Nepalese Hindu praise-poem hammered into the golden doors to the temple of the Goddess Taleju lists a king’s faults and begs her forgiveness and grace. An introduction accompanies each text, identifying its period and genre, discussing the his tory and influence of the work, and identifying points of particular interest or difficulty.
The first book to bring together texts from the entire range of Tantric phenomena, Tantra in Practice continues the Princeton Readings in Religions series. The breadth of work in cluded, geographic areas spanned, and expert scholarship highlighting each piece serve to expand our understanding of what it means to practice Tantra.
David Gordon White is Associate Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. A specialist in the religions of South Asia, he is the author of Myths of the Dog-Man and The Alchemical Body: Siddha Traditions in Medieval India.
PRINCETO N READING S I N RELIGION S Donald S. Lopez, Jr., Editor
Adopting a fresh approach to sourcebooks on the religions of the world, Princeton Readings in Religions moves away from an emphasis on philosophy and the religious expressions of elite groups to represent instead a wide range of current and historical religious practices. The series provides a new configuration of texts by making available for the first time works that have never been translated before, including ritual texts, hagiographical and autobiographical works, folktales, and ethnographic material. Although the books are designed for students, specialists will discover in them a wealth of unfamiliar and valuable material. Furthermore, the selections, appealing in themselves, are placed in an understandable context to attract a wide audience of general readers. The contributors include experts from around the world, each of whom provides a substantial introduction for his or her piece, placing the text in time and genre, discussing the history and influence of the work, and identifying points of particular difficulty or interest. Each volume also contains a substantial general introduction in which the history of the traditions is outlined and the significance of each work is explored.
PRINCETO N READING S I N RELIGION S Donald S. Lopez, Jr., Editor