1. What is Bon (the indigenous religion of Tibet)?

[Note: This introductory part has been reproduced with slight changes from my article "Yungdrung Bon" in LTWA's Journal XLI, p-63 ff, 2016 ]

Bon is generally considered as the indigenous religion of Tibet, which has survived to this day, and Bonpo as the follower of this religion. But this is a general assumption which is true to some extent at the conventional level only. Before the advent of Buddhism in Tibet in the 8th century CE, this religion was widespread in the land and has been one of the important primal forces which nourished the culture, language and identity of its people. Tibetan civilization is greatly enriched by this indigenous faith or religion of their ancestors, which gave them a unique identity and a cohesive force to survive and evolve as a nation. Early Tibetan Empire is said to be conducted and sustained through Drung, Deu and Bon^[1]. Just as Buddhism became popular in Tibet and the neighboring regions around the 8th century CE, Bon too was popular in the Himalaya and its neighboring regions at one time in the history^[2]. We must remember that before the Tibetan nation emerged under the Yarlung dynasty, there existed a land known by Zhangzhung and was ruled by its Zhangzhung Kings. The land covers major part of Tibet and the surrounding areas^[3].

Historians and scholars have attempted to study the origin and the meaning of the word Bon. According to Prof. Namkhai Norbu, Bon is an ancient Tibetan term having the same meaning as that of the word bZla^[4], meaning to recite. Bon-pa is an archaic verb meaning: to recite.^[5] It is sometime substituted by word Gyer, which also means to recite or invoke^[6]. Gyer is believed to be a Zhangzhung word for Bon, and Zhangzhung is the country from where the Yungdrung bon religion came to Tibet. In ancient text, we can see the use of Bon as a verb as well as a noun which means to teach, recite, say, religion etc.^[7] Bon is also said to be source of the term "bod" for Tibet in Tibetan, and that the land took over the name of the religion "chos ming yul la tshur brtag pa"^[8]. Just as chos, a term used for Dharma or Buddhism initially, has different meaning apart from religion, Bon too has different meaning^[9].

The term "Bon" is as ancient as the early history of Tibet, which we will deal later. The concept of Bon, its teaching and the culture associated with it are purely of Tibetan origin. Unfortunately, this unique strength and original wisdom of Tibetan civilization have not been well understood and appreciated. Even today, with open knowledge, free access to information, and religious tolerance, Bon doctrine and its spiritual and culture contribution have not found the rightful place and acceptance it deserve from the progeny of the civilization it nurtured for so long. In this Chapter, we shall broadly study the religion and its founder, this will help us explore the subject from a new perspective and demystify various assertions made in some Tibetan histographical writings.

Just like any ancient civilizations, Tibetans ancestors too lived with the nature. Calm and bountiful nature gave peace, prosperity and development. Flood, thunder storms, earthquake, epidemics and other natural calamities brought fear and insecurity. In order to live in harmony with the nature and tame the destructive aspect of natural forces, our ancestors too were intelligent and ingenious enough to come up with ideas to communicate with these forces to pacify or control them. This communication took in the form of rituals involving propitiation, offerings, expelling, incantation, fumigation etc. As the civilization developed, the rituals also became more widespread and ritualized. This took the form of belief and formed the foundation of religion. These early practices and different forms of worship were called Bon. It has no doctrinal foundation, and shares a similar belief akin to Shamanism to some extent. R.S. Stein termed this as "Nameless Religion"^[10] to mean all the ritual practices widespread in Tibet and the neighboring regions in early times. With the advent of civilization, these indigenous practices also evolved and various form of Bon practices emerged in Tibet and the neighboring regions. Some of the early forms of Bon prevalent in the land were: gDon bon, bDud bon, bTsan bon, Dur bon etc.^[11] There were kLu bon, gNyen bon, 'Dre bon, Ngod sBying bon, Ma Sangs kyi bon etc^[12]. Like any primitive religion, some of these Bons among other things involve sacrificial rites [Tib:dmar mchod] as part of propitiation. It can be deduced from these fact that the term "Bon" was used broadly for all "ritual, healing and religious practice" in early period. It was not a specific but a generic term to mean various forms of rituals and religious practices or faith in the land. The Bon religion as we come to understand generally in Tibetan society is Yungdrung Bon as taught by Buddha Tonpa Shenrab. This Yungdrung Bon, which has sustained the Tibetan civilization since the early Zhangzhung and Yarlung Empire, and which later came to be known by Bon only, should not be confused with the generic Bon, a term used to mean various rituals, beliefs and faiths in the early period.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

(1) Nyang ral nyi ma 'od zer, p-158. (2) Orgyan Lingpa, p-151/152. (3) Namkhai Norbu, Drung, deu & bon, p-xvxx (4) Shes rig, Tibetan Reader VI Part, p-11

[2]:

(1) mDo 'dus, p-323. (2) Shar dza bkra shis gyal mtsan, p-150. (3) 'Go pa bTan 'zin 'brug drags, p-24

[3]:

(1) bsTan 'zin rnam dag, p-23/24. (2) Triten Norbutse, p-12

[4]:

Namkhai Norbu, Necklace of dZi, p-16

[5]:

Bod rgya tshig mdzod chen mo, p-1853

[6]:

ibid, p-385

[7]:

'Go pa g.yung drung yon tan, Bon sGo 24, p-135 footnote28

[8]:

dGe 'dun chos 'phel, Deb ther dkar po, p-8-9.

[9]:

(1) sMen ri dPon slob 'phrin las nyi ma, Bon sGo 6, p-20, 1993. (2) 'Go pa bsTan 'zin 'brug drags, Bon sGo:5, p. 31. (3) lHag pa tshe ring, Bon sGo 24, p-23

[10]:

R.S. Stien, Tibetan Civilization, p-191 ff

[11]:

(1) Namkhai Norbu, p-45. (2) 'Go pa bsTan 'zin 'brug drags, Bon sGo 5, P-37.

[12]:

dGe gshes Phun tshok nyi ma, p-xxiv, g.Yung drung bon gyi mdo sngags sems gsum gyi bon, ITC, Canada 2010³⁶⁶ 1) Tibetan g.Yungdrung Bon Monastery in India, 1983, p-6, 2) Samten Karmay, The Arrow and the Spindle, p109