2. Karl Debreczeny is senior curator of collections and research at the Rubin Museum of Art, New York. His past publications include The Black Hat Eccentric: Artistic Visions of the Tenth Karmapa; The All-Knowing Buddha: A Secret Guide; Situ Panchen: Creation and Cultural Engagement in Eighteenth-Century Tibet; and The Tenth Karmapa & Tibet's Turbulent Seventeenth Century.
摘要
How do political leaders rise to power? What gives them the right to rule? In some governments today, we imagine power comes from the democratic consent of the people. In other systems, power can manifest through sheer might alone or could be transferred through religious mandate. The force of religion to claim political power is a global phenomenon, and Tibetan Buddhism once offered such divine means to power and legitimacy to rule.
Faith and Empire explores the dynamic historical intersection of politics, religion, and art in Tibetan Buddhism. Through more than 60 objects from the 8th to the 19th century, the exhibition illuminates how Tibetan Buddhism presented a model of universal sacral kingship, whereby consecrated rulers were empowered to expand their realm, aided by the employment of ritual magic. Images were a primary means of political propagation, integral to magical tantric rites and embodiments of its power.
By the 12th century, Tibetan Buddhist masters became renowned across Northern Asia as bestowers of this anointed rule and occult power. Tibetans also used the mechanism of reincarnation as a means of succession, a unique form of political legitimacy that they brought to empires to the east.
Through the lens of Tibetan Buddhism’s potent historic political role in Asia, Faith and Empire seeks to place Himalayan art in a larger global context and shed light on an important but little-known aspect of power in the Tibetan tradition.
目次
Contents Foreword Jorrit Britschgi 11 Acknowledgements 13 Map 17 chapter 1: Faith and Empire: An Overview Karl Debreczeny 19 chapter 2: Indic Roots of Political Imagery and Imaginaire Ronald M. Davidson 53 chapter 3: The Emanated Emperor and His Cosmopolitan Contradictions Brandon Dotson 69 chapter 4: Tibetan Buddhism and Tibetan Buddhist Art in the Xixia Kingdom Xie Jisheng 83 chapter 5: Tibetan Buddhism and Art in the Mongol Empire According to Tibetan Sources Tsangwang Gendun Tenpa 105 chapter 6: In the Shadow of the Khan: Tibetan Buddhist Art and Political Legitimation in the Ming Dynasty Karl Debreczeny 125 chapter 7: Rise of the Dalai Lamas: Political Inheritance through Reincarnation Per K. Sørensen 151 chapter 8: The Politics of Magical Warfare Bryan J. Cuevas 171 chapter 9: Bodhisattva Emperors of the Manchu Qing Dynasty Wen-shing Chou 191 chapter 10: Maitreya, Shambhala, and the End of Buddhist Empire Johan Elverskog 213 Appendices 229 Bibliography 235 Index 255 Contributors 269
