[Buddha-l] Lamas and such

[S. A. Feite]

Hi Mitchell:

On Dec 3, 2009, at 2:46 PM, Mitchell Ginsberg wrote:

> Hello Steve and all,
> Thank you for your prompt and informative reply. I will try to  
> track down the references you give, since I do not have those texts  
> here. So, how do you understand Tucci's use of the term?

Lopez points out an interesting phenomenon re: "Lamaism": the pairing  
of Tibetan Buddhism with Roman Catholicism. Early commentators went  
to considerable lengths to compare the two. Lamas were like priests  
and the Dalai Lama was like the Catholic pope. I cannot say if Tucci  
was a practicing Roman Catholic, but I doubt the parallel would have  
escaped him.

It's also worth pointing out that Sir John Woodruffe in his tantric  
translations compared tantric (Hindu) liturgy to the Roman Catholic  
Mass. So this is a theme for early "Orientalists": compare the  
religious practices of "heathens" to something we are familiar with.  
As Lopez shows, early explorers went to considerable lengths to  
compare the two.


> Are there several attitudes taken in this past century, then, about  
> the admissibility of the term 'lamaism'?

My feeling is that it represents a word used by naive Europeans early  
on, and carried over unfortunately into more moderns writings without  
any critical examination as to why. I also think it also may be a  
negative term used by the Chinese, intending to offend: an "-ism" of  
Lamas, not of Buddh-, a religion, not of awakening, but of corrupt,  
wealthy, non-working, non-productive lamas who steal from  
impoverished, feudal underlings.

Steve