[Buddha-l] Zizek: expert on Buddhism and what "we" think

[curt]

Margaret Gouin wrote:
> On Thu, October 11, 2007 6:29 pm, curt wrote:
>   
>> ancient, "indigenous" religions, such as Bon -
>>     
>
> However ancient Bon may be--there's some suggestion that there were two
> "Bon", one pre-dating the arrival of Buddhism in Tibet and one post-dating
> it--it seems unlikely that Bon was 'indigenous' to Tibet. The 'dur Bon' of
> the pre-Buddhist kings was described as being imported; the origin myth of
> 'modern' Bon specifically states that Bon originated in a country to the
> west (outside) of Tibet.
>
>
>   
"Indigenous" is always a slippery term. Native Americans are not really 
"indigenous" to the Americas, for example. But I think the term has an 
obvious and reasonable application here - whatever religion(s) the 
Tibetans had prior to arrival of Buddhism can be considered at least 
"relatively indigenous". And the same point still remains - did the 
religions that preceded Buddhism in Tibet suffer the same fate as the 
religions that preceded Christianity and Islam in Europe, North Africa 
and the Middle East?

Curt Steinmetz