Abstract
The gaṇḍī beam is a monastic tool which was already known to have been used in Buddhist monasteries in ancient India for the purpose of calling the monks to gather for a joint activity. With the spread of Buddhism the instrument was transmitted to the Tibetan and later Mongolian Buddhist cultures. It has been in use in the Tibetan and Mongolian Buddhist monastic traditions till the present day. One of the most prominent cases of the gaṇḍī beam application in modern Mongolia relates to the poṣadha ritual. In this article I attempt to present the history of the gaṇḍī beam within the framework of material culture studies. The analysis aims at the investigation of the mutual relations between the artefact and the societies that have made use of it as well as of the ways in which these relations could have changed. In order to accomplish this task I study the testimonies of the original Sanskrit and Tibetan texts, religious images and accounts of ritual practices.
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Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Aufsätze – Articles – Articles
- Socialist Promises, Ethnography and the Building of a Kyrgyz Soviet Nation
- Tractors, Power Lines, and the Welfare State: The Contradictions of Soviet Development in Post-World War II Tajikistan
- Qadimism and Jadidism in Twentieth-Century Daghestan
- Der mongolische Maskentanz (Tsam) in Vergangenheit und Gegenwart
- Religious History of the Gaṇḍī Beam: Testimonies of Texts, Images and Ritual Practices
- Reconciling Ethnic Nationalism and Imperial Cosmopolitanism: The Lifeworlds of Tsyben Zhamtsarano (1880–1942)
- Buddhist Scriptures in 17th Century Mongolia: Eight Translations of the Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā
- Rezensionen – Comptes rendus – Reviews
- Drège, Jean-Pierre/Zink, Michel: Paul Pelliot: de l’histoire à la légende
- Park, J. P.: Art by the Book: Painting Manuals and the Leisure Life in Late Ming China
- Vogel, Hans-Ulrich: Marco Polo Was in China. New Evidence from Currencies, Salts and Revenues
- Vuillemenot, Anne-Marie: La yourte et la mesure du monde – Avec les nomades au Kazakhstan
- Widmer, Caroline: Der Buddha und der „Andere“. Zur religiösen Differenzreflexion und narrativen Darstellung des „Anderen“ im Majjhima-Nikāya
- Walravens, Hartmut: Wolfram Eberhard (1909–1989). Sinologe, Ethnologe, Soziologe und Folklorist. Schriftenverzeichnis. Zusammengestellt mit einer biografischen Einleitung von Hartmut Walravens
- Wang, Yan: Jincheng shu xiang (1640): Ein Leben Jesu mit Bildern für den chinesischen Kaiser, verfasst von Johann Adam Schall von Bell S.J. (1592–1666)
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Aufsätze – Articles – Articles
- Socialist Promises, Ethnography and the Building of a Kyrgyz Soviet Nation
- Tractors, Power Lines, and the Welfare State: The Contradictions of Soviet Development in Post-World War II Tajikistan
- Qadimism and Jadidism in Twentieth-Century Daghestan
- Der mongolische Maskentanz (Tsam) in Vergangenheit und Gegenwart
- Religious History of the Gaṇḍī Beam: Testimonies of Texts, Images and Ritual Practices
- Reconciling Ethnic Nationalism and Imperial Cosmopolitanism: The Lifeworlds of Tsyben Zhamtsarano (1880–1942)
- Buddhist Scriptures in 17th Century Mongolia: Eight Translations of the Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā
- Rezensionen – Comptes rendus – Reviews
- Drège, Jean-Pierre/Zink, Michel: Paul Pelliot: de l’histoire à la légende
- Park, J. P.: Art by the Book: Painting Manuals and the Leisure Life in Late Ming China
- Vogel, Hans-Ulrich: Marco Polo Was in China. New Evidence from Currencies, Salts and Revenues
- Vuillemenot, Anne-Marie: La yourte et la mesure du monde – Avec les nomades au Kazakhstan
- Widmer, Caroline: Der Buddha und der „Andere“. Zur religiösen Differenzreflexion und narrativen Darstellung des „Anderen“ im Majjhima-Nikāya
- Walravens, Hartmut: Wolfram Eberhard (1909–1989). Sinologe, Ethnologe, Soziologe und Folklorist. Schriftenverzeichnis. Zusammengestellt mit einer biografischen Einleitung von Hartmut Walravens
- Wang, Yan: Jincheng shu xiang (1640): Ein Leben Jesu mit Bildern für den chinesischen Kaiser, verfasst von Johann Adam Schall von Bell S.J. (1592–1666)