Donald Lopez is a professor of Buddhist and Tibetan studies, and this book is not a translation of the Tibetan Book of the Dead itself but a history of the text, tracing how a Nyingma treasure text about the moment of death became, in the hands of Walter Evans-Wentz and later readers, a very different object in the West than it ever was in Tibet. Its strength is exactly that critical distance, Lopez is explicit about where popular Western readings diverge from the text's own Buddhist context and says so plainly rather than repeating the popular version. Published by an academic press, it draws on the manuscript and commentarial tradition rather than on the popularized paperback. Its limit is scope, it is a biography of the book's reception, not a full doctrinal or ritual manual in its own right.
Facts
Assessment
Reliability Tier1
Donald S. Lopez Jr.'s scholarly study of how the Bardo Thodol became, in the West, the Tibetan Book of the Dead, and the theosophical framing Walter Evans-Wentz gave it; cited for this reception history, not for the ritual text itself. NotesTraces how the Bardo Thodol became, in the West, "the Tibetan Book of the Dead", and the theosophical framing Walter Evans-Wentz gave it. Cited for the reception history, not for the ritual itself.
Citation
AuthorDonald S. Lopez Jr.
PublisherPrinceton University Press
Publication Year2011
Source Typeacademic monograph
Claims Backed By This Source (65 claims)
This source backs 65 claims across the atlas. As facts: 43 well-attested. As cited relationships: 5 holds. Plus 17 entities citing it as a general reference with no single fact or relationship attached.
Disposition By Topic
- Practices, 23 claims: 14 well-attested, 1 holds, 8 general references.
- Rituals, 9 claims: 6 well-attested, 2 holds, 1 general references.
- Sources, 7 claims: 7 well-attested.
- Doctrines, 6 claims: 4 well-attested, 1 holds, 1 general references.
- Realms, 6 claims: 5 well-attested, 1 general references.
- Articles, 4 claims: 3 well-attested, 1 general references.
- Beliefs & Restrictions, 4 claims: 3 well-attested, 1 general references.
- Denominations, 3 claims: 1 holds, 2 general references.
- Historical Figures, 2 claims: 1 well-attested, 1 general references.
- Esoteric Texts, 1 claims: 1 general references.
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