The Bar Do Thos Grol, Or ‘The Tibetan Book Of The Dead’: Tibetan Conversion To Buddhism Or Tibetanisation Of Buddhism?

Abstract

The translation of the Bar do thos grol under the title of The Tibetan Book of the Dead, or the After-Death Experiences of the Bardo Plane, was first published in 1927. French and German translations soon followed, in 1933 and 1935 respectively, both based on the English translation and not directly upon the original Tibetan text. The Bar do thos grol, as is by now familiar, gives a precise, carefully structured, and vivid description of the experience of the deceased person during the period of forty-nine days between death and rebirth in the cycle of transmigration. The steady flow of reprint editions and of new translations in both European and non-European languages reflects the sustained interest in this work, which is now firmly established as a 'classic' of Tibetan Buddhism. Keywords: Bar do thos grol; European; Tibetan Buddhism