Sources

The Hidden History of the Tibetan Book of the Dead

Citation Formats

General Reference

Divinity Atlas. "The Hidden History of the Tibetan Book of the Dead." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://divinity.interactivelion.com/sources/the-hidden-history-of-the-tibetan-book-of-the-dead.

APA Style

Divinity Atlas. (n.d.). The Hidden History of the Tibetan Book of the Dead. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://divinity.interactivelion.com/sources/the-hidden-history-of-the-tibetan-book-of-the-dead

BibTeX

@misc{divinityatlas-the-hidden-history-of-the-tibetan-book-o,
  author = {Divinity Atlas},
  title = {The Hidden History of the Tibetan Book of the Dead},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://divinity.interactivelion.com/sources/the-hidden-history-of-the-tibetan-book-of-the-dead},
  note = {Accessed August 30, 2026}
}

Bryan J. Cuevas is a scholar of Tibetan Buddhism, and this Oxford University Press book is his academic history of the Bardo Thodol, popularly known in the West as the Tibetan Book of the Dead, tracing the text's origin within the Tibetan terma tradition of concealed and rediscovered scripture and its later transformation through Western translation and reception. Its strength is separating what the text was and meant within Tibetan Buddhism itself from the very different, often New Age, meanings it acquired after Walter Evans Wentz's influential but historically loose 1927 English edition popularized it in the West. Its limit is that, as an intellectual and textual history, it is the source to check for the text's origin and reception rather than for the funerary ritual's own liturgical detail, which needs a source closer to the practice itself.

Facts

Citation

Author

Bryan J. Cuevas

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Publication Year

2003

URL

https://archive.org/details/hiddenhistoryoft0000cuev

Source Type

academic monograph

Assessment

Reliability Tier

Bryan Cuevas's Oxford University Press history of the Tibetan Book of the Dead (the Bardo Thodol) and the terma tradition of revealed treasure texts it belongs to.

Notes

Added wave8: history of the Bardo Thodol and its terma tradition

Claims Backed By This Source (60 claims)

This source backs 60 claims across the atlas. As facts: 45 well-attested, 2 open question. As cited relationships: 3 holds. Plus 10 entities citing it as a general reference with no single fact or relationship attached.

Disposition By Topic

Realms, 12 claims: 11 well-attested, 1 general references.
Historical Figures, 8 claims: 5 well-attested, 2 open question, 1 general references.
Open Questions, 8 claims: 6 well-attested, 1 holds, 1 general references.
Sources, 8 claims: 8 well-attested.
Doctrines, 6 claims: 5 well-attested, 1 general references.
Articles, 5 claims: 5 well-attested.
Subcategories, 5 claims: 4 well-attested, 1 general references.
Denominations, 3 claims: 2 holds, 1 general references.
Numbers, 2 claims: 1 well-attested, 1 general references.
Beliefs & Restrictions, 1 claims: 1 general references.
Esoteric Texts, 1 claims: 1 general references.
Rituals, 1 claims: 1 general references.