Prisoners of Shangri-LA : Tibetan Buddhism and the West

Rating:
Summary: Excellent book marred by slander
Review: As many reviewers have commented, Prof. Lopez does an excellent job deconstructing the many fantasies Westerners entertain about Tibet. I was very dismayed, however, by his sneering dismissal of the work of Trungpa Rinpoche and Sogyal Rinpoche, who he declares are not "real Tibetans" because they dared to try to present a difficult terma text in a manner that they believed would resonate with Westerners. While Trunpa Rinpoche did often present the dharma in psychological terms, he consistently affirmed the conventional Tibetan understanding of the six realms and other teachings. Surely Prof. Lopez is aware of the years of vigorous traditional monastic training Rinpoche underwent as a tulku in pre-invasion Tibet, as a result of which he received both the Khenpo degree in religious and mundane studies and the Kyorpon degree in astrology. For Prof. Lopez to think that he is in a position to weigh in on the validity of the teaching choices made by these two lamas strikes me as quite arrogant and presumptuous.

Rating:
Summary: The Social Construction of Tibet in the West
Review: Lopez is a genius and really gets at the heart of the Western construction of Tibet, the realities of the Panchen Lama and the Shugden affair really hit home that Tibet is real and for as long was we treat Tibet as the ideal Shangri-La, we deny Tibet any real space in history. Lopez writes, 'To the extent that we continue to believe that Tibet prior to 1950 was a utopia, the Tibet of 1998 will be no place' (11). This book is a triumph in Tibetan studies and should be read, written, and discussed. Donald Lopez shows us that from within how to find some way to break free from the carceral community and perhaps 'some may find a file with which to begin the slow work or sawing though the bars' (Lopez 13). Lopez writes, 'This book does not set out to apportion praise and blame. Neither is its purpose to distinguish good Tibetology from bad, to separate fact from fiction, or the scholarly from the popular, but to show their confluence. The question considered is not how knowledge is tainted but how knowledge takes form. This book then is an exploration of some of the mirror-lined cultural labyrinths that have been created by Tibetans, Tibetophiles, and Tibetologists, labyrinths that the scholar may map but in which the scholar also must wander. We are captives of confines of our own making, we are all prisoners of Shangri-La. This book, then, is not written outside the walls of the prison, nor does it hold the key that would permit escape. Hidden in its pages, however, some may find a file with which to begin the slow work of sawing though the bars' (Lopez 13).

This book, in my opinion, is one of the best books around on the social construction of Tibet. This book is effectively a history of the 'Orientalist' creation of Tibet. Lopez give an account of a vast set of creations of Tibet and Tibetan Buddhism that pervade popular western culture. Tsering Shakya reads in Lopez's work that Tibet remained outside the scrutiny of post-colonial discourse because it was never really annexed by a western colonial power. My sense is that the remoteness and seemingly unprofitable conditions that was Tibet insulated it from colonial powers in the past ' not anymore. But the extensive examination of the archive that Lopez undertakes undermines Shakya's reading of Lopez that it was never really annexed ' maybe not physically but certainly was culturally. I have to agree with Lopez in that there are really two Tibets ' the somewhat more authentic one and the one constructed by the West.

In his extensive look at the archive, Lopez digs into a few very key aspects of Tibetan Buddhism that were not just appropriated but rather misappropriated to seem almost representative of the whole of Tibet. In Lopez's examination of the phenomenon of Lamaism, his deconstruction of T. Lobsang Rampa, his examination of the discourse of the Book of the Dead, and the uncritical appropriation of the mantra Om Mani Padme Hum we see how extensive the invention is of Tibet is in the West.

The Dalai Lama himself is quick to point out that Lamaism (which really does not exist) is not a debasement of Buddhism but rather that the reverse is true. Tibetan Buddhists, perhaps more than any other sect, adhere strictly to the Sutras. Translated from the original Sanskrit, Tibetan text and the commentaries are perhaps the 'purest' ' if I might be allowed to use the phrase without overly romanticizing. Lopez continues by outlining what I would call his version epistemic violence that is within the framework of dualities: 'Thus Lamaism may be portrayed in the West as the most authentic and most degenerate form of Buddhism, Tibetan monks may be portrayed as saintly or rapacious, Tibetan artists may be portrayed as inspired mystics and mindless automatons, Tibetan peasants may be portrayed as pristine or filthy. This language about Tibet not only creates knowledge about Tibet, in many ways creates Tibet, a Tibet that Tibetans in exile have come to appropriate and deploy in an effort to gain both standing in exile and independence for their country' (Lopez 10).

The deconstruction of the T. Lobsang Rampa is very telling in that falsification is very difficult. Making all sorts of questionable claims ' akin to the ones made by Madam Blavatsky of the Theosophical Society ' very difficult to disprove (or even prove). The discourse of the Book of the Dead and its publication here in the west and it position as representative and preeminent status as 'the book' (as Lopez likes to call it) is really proven to be the product of western academic fiction. The exoticizing of the mantra Oh Mani Padme Hum only proves that the Orientalist discourse of the self and other and the rendering 'exotic' is alive and well. Lopez compels us to ask the question, 'Who's Tibet'?

Miguel Llora

Rating:
Summary: West meets East!
Review: Lopez, Donald S. Prisoners of Shangri-la: Tibetan Buddhism and the West (University of Chicago, 1998) is a meticulous analysis of the misinformation, disinformation and fantasies promulgated by various people, well-intended and otherwise. They include charlatans like T. Lobsang Rampa, famous for having written a series in the 1950's about his "life" as a lama in Drepung monastery. Trungpa Rinpoche's psychologization of Tibetan Buddhism as exemplified by his version of the Bardo Thodol, and Leary and Alpert's psychedelic-isation of that Nyingma text, as well as Lama Sogyal's well-received edition of the same, are examined. Lopez offers an amusing look (and a fascinating one, to someone who has partaken of all these notions in her own journey of discovery) at a wide variety of topics including the notion of Tibet, itself; of that invention of the West known as Lamaism, of Tibetan art (the implication being whether there is such a thing or not), and the history of the dispute over misconceptions concerning the meaning of the six-syllable Chenresi mantra, among other subjects.

Of particular interest to me was the revelation of Jeffrey Hopkins's methods of teaching traditional philosophical debate at the University of Virginia. This book is an excellent complement to Stephen Batchelor's The Awakening of the West. It will be remembered that Batchelor's final chapters, in which he expressed the idea that the West could never accept Buddhism into the mainstream until concepts and language became more Westernized, created a bit of a stir.