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This book explores the cross- and trans-cultural dialectic between Tantra and intersecting magical and shamanic phenomena associated with vernacular religions across Monsoon Asia. It will be of interest to South Asian religions, Tantric traditions, and Asian and global folk religion, shamanism, and magic.
List of contents
Acknowledgement; Introduction; 1. More Pre-Tantric Sources of Tantrism: Skulls and Skull-Cups; 2. Charnel Ground Items, Śmāśānikas, and the Question of the Magical Substratum of the Early Tantras; 3. Shamans and Bhūta Tāntrikas: A Shared Genealogy?; 4. Female Gaṇeśa or Independent Deity? Tracing the Background of the Elephant-faced Goddess in Mediaeval Śaiva Tantric Traditions; 5. Crossing the Boundaries of Sex, Blood, and Magic in the Tantric Cult of Kāmākhyā; 6. ‘Let us Now Invoke the Three Celestial Lights of Fire, Sun and Moon into Ourselves’: Magic or Everyday Practice? Revising Existentiality for an Emic Understanding of Śrīvidyā; 7. Narrative Folklore of Khyāḥ from Tantra to Popular Beliefs: Supernatural Experiences at the Margins among Newar Communities in the Kathmandu Valley; 8. Magical Tantra in Bengal, Bali, and Java: From Piśāca Tāntrikas to Balians and Dukuns; 9. Tantrism and the Weretiger Lore of Burma, Thailand, and Cambodia
About the author
Andrea Acri is tenured Assistant Professor in Tantric Studies at the École Pratique des Hautes Études (EPHE, PSL University) in Paris, France. His publications include the monograph Dharma Pātañjala (2011), as well as various edited volumes, including Esoteric Buddhism in Mediaeval Maritime Asia (2016). His main research and teaching interests are Śaiva and Buddhist Tantric traditions, Indian philosophy, Yoga studies, Sanskrit and Old Javanese philology, and the comparative religious history of South and Southeast Asia from the premodern to the contemporary period, with special emphasis on connected histories and intra-Asian maritime transfers.
Paolo E. Rosati received his PhD in Asian and African Studies from ‘Sapienza’ University of Rome, Italy. He has published a double special issue on Tantra for Religions of South Asia (14/1–2) in 2020, and several contributions on the yoni cult at Kāmākhyā. His current research focuses on magic, memory, and cultural identity in postcolonial Tantric contexts.
Summary
This book explores the cross- and trans-cultural dialectic between Tantra and intersecting magical and shamanic phenomena associated with vernacular religions across Monsoon Asia. It will be of interest to South Asian religions, Tantric traditions, and Asian and global folk religion, shamanism, and magic.
