Alyson Prude, “Sharing Journeys Beyond: Reports of the Deceased and the Worlds They Inhabit”
Delog reports of their journeys to the realms of the dead center on the karmic consequences of virtuous and non-virtuous actions. The journeys themselves, however, are remarkably diverse. The paths by which contemporary Tibetan Buddhist women visit the postmortem worlds reveal creative fusions of Buddhist and non-Buddhist cosmologies with various cultural and individual imaginaries. When juxtaposed with each other, accounts of delog journeys open a fruitful space for understanding and theorizing the interplay between “inner vision” and “outer reality.”
Readings:
Prude, Alyson, “Kunzang Drolkar: A Delog in Eastern Tibet.” In Eminent Buddhist Women, edited by Karma Lekshe Tsomo, 169-184. Albany: SUNY Press, 2014.
Baron, Richard, trans., Delog: Journey to Realms Beyond Death, Delog Dawa Dolma, 1-14. Junction City, CA: Padma Publishing, 1995. (“Copper-Colored Mountain of Glory”).
Prude, Alyson, “A Reexamination of Marginal Religious Specialists: Himalayan Messengers from the Dead” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 88, no. 3 (2020): 779-804. (excerpt)
Hourly Schedule
- 2:00pm - 2:45pm
- Presentation
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Speakers:
Alyson Prude
- 2:45pm - 3:30pm
- Q&A
Alyson Prude
Faculty
Alyson Prude is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Georgia Southern University where she teaches courses introducing students to Religious Studies and to Asian religions. Her research focuses on issues of power and authority, relationships between normative Buddhist and indigenous traditions, and contemporary delogs in Nepal and Tibet. Her publications include “A Reexamination of Marginal Religious Specialists: Himalayan Messengers from the Dead” (Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 2020) and “Tibetan Buddhist Perspectives on Death and Dying” (Death and Dying: An Exercise in Comparative Philosophy of Religion, 2019). She received her Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Speaker
-
Alyson PrudeFaculty
Alyson Prude is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Georgia Southern University where she teaches courses introducing students to Religious Studies and to Asian religions. Her research focuses on issues of power and authority, relationships between normative Buddhist and indigenous traditions, and contemporary delogs in Nepal and Tibet. Her publications include “A Reexamination of Marginal Religious Specialists: Himalayan Messengers from the Dead” (Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 2020) and “Tibetan Buddhist Perspectives on Death and Dying” (Death and Dying: An Exercise in Comparative Philosophy of Religion, 2019). She received her Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Barbara.