Kalacakra, "The Wheel of Time"--my dissertation investigates this tantric system of multivalent text and elaborate ritual. Utilizing an interdisciplinary methodology, I describe Kalacakra's manifestations in India, Tibet and the West, focusing on social, psychological, economic and political factors that have propelled this tradition forward. Fundamentally interested in patterns of cultural and religious transmission, I examine the manner in which potent themes inherent to both textual and ritual Kalacakra--threats of apocalypse; projections of utopia; pronouncements of curse; promises of fulfillment; and the aesthetic resonance of melothesia--have made this tradition adaptable to changing historical and cultural contexts.
Chapter I discusses role of the Dalai Lama in using the Kalacakra Empowerment as a vehicle for the globalization of Tibetan Buddhism and as a catalyst for world peace. Focused on method, Chapter II reviews recent work in the field of Translation Studies; theoretically, I combine Lawrence Venuti's discussion of "foreignizing" and "domesticating" translation strategies with Buddhist Studies' reconstructive scholarship. Chapter III surveys Kalacakra's textual history. Here I argue that the Sri Kalacakra was authored in Bengal and that Khotan served as the prototype for the "Sambhala" mentioned in Kalacakra texts. Chapter IV, based upon my preliminary translation of the third chapter of the 'Sri Kalacakra, highlights the manner in which the Tibetans reinterpreted the 'Sri Kalacakra in order to fit their own ritual and cultural parameters; this local point dovetails with my central thesis, that Kalacakra's elasticity and resilience reflects its syncretism and inclusiveness.
Chapter V provides preliminary notes on Kalacakra's history in Tibet, whereas Chapter VI describes contemporary Kalacakra enactment. As the Kalacakra tradition accommodates to One World, the role of women in the tradition is changing significantly, an issue discussed in Chapter VII. In the Postscript, Kalacakra's Cyber presence is considered, e.g., a video rendition of the empowerment served as one of ethnographic medium used in this project. Kalacakra's postmodern manifestations are harbingers of a media-intensive slippage much more fundamental than that between "text" and "ritual;" now its Fifth Element promises to replace community-based and live "sacred" encounters with videotaped initiations and Cyber gurus. Who knows.
