Prisoners of Shangri-La: Tibetan Buddhism and the West

Abstract

In this book, Lopez eloquently argues that the Western romance of isolates Tibet from the quotidian world and denies Tibetans their agency in constituting such a world. Although, as Lopez observes, the of may have more recently drawn Western support to the cause of Tibetan independence, imagery ultimately serves to undermine the realization of this goal. It is this assertion that gives rise to the book's title. prisoners of Shangri-la are the Tibetans, Tibetophiles and Tibetologists who, having crafted, disseminated and, at times, striven to enact these are the architects of their own imprisonment. Throughout the seven chapters of the book, Lopez directs his examination to the confluence of fact and fiction that has formed and is forming the Western image of Shangri-la. first six chapters are assays of myths that contribute to this image: the Western preference for designating Tibetan Buddhism by the non-indigenous construct lamaism, the emergence of the text known as The Tibetan Book of the Dead in the Western spiritual canon, the authorizing principle behind the self-proclaimed autobiographical works of an Englishman-cum-Tibetan lama known as Lobsang Rampa, the Western insistence upon and devoted pursuit of esoteric, extra-Tibetan meanings of the mantra Om Mani Padme Hum, the orientalist approach to interpretations of Tibetan religious art, and the politics of knowledge involved in the fashioning of Tibetan Buddhist programs within Religious Studies Departments in several North American universities. In a sense, these myths, which Lopez entitles respectively The Name, The Book, The The Spell, The Art and The Field, are presented as signposts along the Tibetan magical mystery tour. As an American Buddhist scholar trained within The Field, Lopez identifies himself as an erstwhile tour participant while deftly deconstructing the very signposts that have attracted many Westerners to the tour itself. nuanced explorations in these chapters contribute to a Western ethnohistory of and are the strength of this very well-written book.The question to ask, Lopez tells us, is why Western concerning Tibet persist and how they continue to circulate unchallenged (p. 9). He endeavours to answer it by exploring the authoritative nature of the myths. To this end, Lopez provides examples ranging from the mantle of science worn by psychologists who equated the experiences produced by psychotropic drugs with the after death visions described in Tibetan texts, to a delightful account of his straight-faced (and context-free) assignment of Lobsang Rampa's book, Third Eye, to his undergraduate students and their resistance to Lopez's subsequent efforts to impugn the autobiographer's authority. …