Tantric Revisionings: New Understandings of Tibetan Buddhism and Indian Religion

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Tantric Revisionings presents stimulating new perspectives on Hindu and Buddhist religion, particularly their Tantric versions, in India, Tibet or in modern Western societies. Geoffrey Samuel adopts an historically and textually informed anthropological approach, seeking to locate and understand religion in its social and cultural context. The question of the relation between 'popular' (folk, domestic, village, 'shamanic') religion and elite (literary, textual, monastic) religion forms a recurring theme through these studies. Six chapters have not been previously published; the previously published studies included are in publications which are difficult to locate in major specialist libraries.

About the Author :

Geoffrey Samuel is a specialist in the anthropology of Buddhist societies, particularly those of the Tibet and the Himalayas. He has also researched and published on anthropological theory, medical anthropology, ethnomusicology, and new religious movements in Western societies. He has worked at the University of Newcastle, Australia where he is currently Professor of Anthropology, since 1978, with the exception of three years (1995 to 1997) as Professor of Religious Studies at Landcaster University. In January 2005, he will be moving to Cardiff University in Wales as a Professor Fellow.

Samuel's previous publications include two books, Mind, Body and Culture (1990) and Civilized Shamans (1993), as well as numerous articles and book chapters. He has also edited four books: Tantra and Popular Religion in Tibet (1994, with Hamish Gregor and Elisabeth Stutchbury), Nature Religion Today (1998, with Joanne Pearson and Richard H. Roberts), Healing Powers and Modernity (2001, with Linda H. Connor) and The Daughters of Hariti (2002, with Santi Razario).

**Contents and Sample Pages**