The 21st Asia Pacific Research Prize winner: Dr. Lajiaben

- Summary -

 The purpose of this dissertation is to reveal the reality of the life of faith of Tibetans living in the Amdo region of Tibet from the perspective of village dwellers, based on an analysis of the religious activities of Tibetans living in the region. Bon skor village, Guinan County, Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province, China, was selected as the study site.
 First, the introduction sets out the purpose of this dissertation, then traces back to the history of Tibetan studies beginning in the 17th century, places this dissertation within that history and sets out the research questions. Chapter 1 reveals the Tibetan Amdo as a region where various cultures have coexisted and intermingled, and then illustrates the area of incarnate lama rule in the region and its influence from the perspective of the people of the temple area. Chapter 2 discusses how the society of Bon skor village has changed since 1958, following the relocation of the village due to the construction of the dam. Chapter 3 examines the relocation of religious institutions and changes in villagers' Buddhist religious activities as a result of dam construction. Chapter 4 describes the phenomenon of Sinicization, in which the people of the Amdo region have named the Wenchang deity worshipped by the Han Chinese as A myes yul lha (ancestral deity) and accepted him as an all-powerful deity. Chapter 5 focuses on the Mani Hall, the site of Buddhist activities of the seculars, and discusses the Buddhist religious activities of the villagers in relation to the sMyung gnas rituals (repent and purify rituals) that have been held there. Chapter 6 examines the role of the home priests (dPon) in relation to the Bon religious institutions in the village and details the purification rituals of Bon patron deities performed in Buddhist households, particularly as a household-level ritual where there is a significant mix of Buddhism and Bon.
 The conclusions noted the following points. Community cohesion in Bon skor village was strengthened by the relocation due to the construction of the dam. In addition, government compensation for relocation activated the religious activities of the village and provided an economic basis for communal rituals to take place. In other words, the loss of homeland and 'tradition' drove people to create new traditions, and that interest especially turned them towards religious activities. It was also argued that the religious activities of the villagers are oriented in two directions: folk beliefs seeking worldly benefits and beliefs seeking advanced doctrines such as the salvation of all sentient beings or of the next life. Characteristic of the mixed nature of religion in the region is that those two beliefs are coexisted and related mutually without contradiction.