Reflections on Reality: An Ethnographic Study on Tibetan Food Offerings in India

Abstract

This article deals with the cultural construction of food offerings among the Tibetans in India. The analysis is based on the ethnographic representation and discussion of the cultural meanings and symbolism of various kinds of Tibetan food offerings (sacrifices) especially those made of rtsam pa (parched barley), to a deity or spirit. The study further explores the importance of material culture of food offerings and their functionality in the dimension of cultural reproduction and the cultural constitution of values. By focusing on the indigenous conceptualization of food offerings and the metaphorical explanation concerning the means of salvation, the study also concerns symbolism, and the functionality of the food offerings in cultural context. It is argued that the Tibetan food offerings invested with an informal spirituality in the mundane sphere either drive away evil or encourage growth of the seed of life, with fortune and success for the receivers. The spiritual potentiality is objectified in Tibetan food offerings especially in gtor ma, which disseminate power in a more democratic manner. Tibetan food offerings are considered as powerful and sacred while the ritual continues; they challenge the imaginative distinction between spiritual recognition and the functionality of the material object. My anthropological study of Tibetan food offerings attempts to focus on one hand on the symbolic equivalences which are made about human and spiritual identity and relationships, and on the other on the act in which food offerings may be interpreted as reflecting and reinforcing certain aspects of cultural integration even in the contemporary era. This study attests to a more fundamental dimension, that the logic of Tibetan sacrificial ritual acts provides psycho-therapeutic exposure in extension with tranquility and peace that justifies the status of the Tibetans with potential strength in wider cultural context.