When people speak of Tibetan religion they almost always think of Buddhism. Yet for centuries another tradition has existed on the plateau, Bön, which considers itself older than the arrival of Buddhism and which still has monasteries, teachers and communities of practitioners today, both in Tibet and in exile. Understanding Bön means entering a complex history of continuity, rupture and mutual influence.
Three meanings of one word
Scholars usually distinguish three different realities that go by the same name.
- The ancient religion, practised in Tibet before and during the empire (seventh to ninth centuries). The sources, including the manuscripts found at Dunhuang, speak of priests called bon and shen, specialised above all in the funeral rites of kings, in sacrifices and in protecting the ruler.
- Organised Bön, known as Yungdrung Bön, which took shape as a monastic and scriptural tradition from the eleventh century onwards, in parallel with the second diffusion of Buddhism.
- Popular practices connected with local spirits, divination and protective rites, which belong exclusively to neither of the two great religions.
Confusing these three levels leads to common mistakes, such as imagining present-day Bön as a pure, unchanged "pre-Buddhist shamanism".
Tonpa Shenrab and the land of Olmo Lungring
According to the Bön tradition, the doctrine was taught by Tonpa Shenrab Miwoche, an enlightened teacher who lived in a very remote age in the land of Olmo Lungring, placed to the west of Tibet in a region called Tagzig. His biographies, collected in very long texts, recount his birth, his deeds, his struggle against the demon Khyabpa Lagring and his visit to Tibet.
Historians read these narratives as sacred texts, not as verifiable chronicles. What is certain is that Bön links its origins to Zhang Zhung, a kingdom of western Tibet with its own language, absorbed by the Tibetan empire between the seventh and eighth centuries. Mount Kailash and the surrounding region were the heart of that world.
Persecution and rediscovered texts
During the empire, particularly under King Trisong Detsen in the eighth century, Buddhism gained the favour of the court, and the Bön tradition tells of a persecution: priests were sent away and many texts were hidden in order to save them.
This gave rise to a decisive feature of Bön: the terma, the rediscovered "treasures". From the eleventh century several discoverers declared that they had found texts hidden in caves, statues or pillars. The same phenomenon exists in the Nyingma school of Buddhism, and the two milieux influenced each other for centuries.
The way of yungdrung
The symbol of Bön is the yungdrung, the swastika turning anticlockwise. It signifies what is eternal and indestructible, and it gives its name to the tradition itself. The same anticlockwise direction appears in ritual gestures: Bön followers walk around temples, stupas and sacred mountains keeping them on their left, the opposite of Buddhists.
The doctrine is arranged in nine progressive ways:
- the first four, called the "ways of cause", concern divination, astrology, rites for spirits, funeral and protective rites;
- the following ones include the discipline of lay people and monks;
- the highest concern tantric practices and Dzogchen, the "great perfection".
Bön Dzogchen has its own transmission, known as the Zhang Zhung Nyengyu, considered among the oldest in Tibet.
Monasteries and exile
In 1405 the monastery of Menri was founded in Tsang and became the main centre of learning of the tradition. After 1959 many monks left Tibet: in India, at Dolanji in Himachal Pradesh, a new Menri was founded, while in Nepal the monastery of Triten Norbutse was established. From these centres Bön has also become known in the West.
Bön and Buddhism: rivals and siblings
Seen from outside, a Bön monastery looks very much like a Buddhist one: monks in similar robes, philosophical study, debate, meditation, mandalas. The differences lie in the lineages, in the names of the deities, in the figure of Tonpa Shenrab in place of the Buddha Shakyamuni and in the direction of ritual gestures.
The historical relationship was long polemical: Buddhist texts presented Bön as a religion of sacrifice and superstition, Bön texts accused Buddhists of copying their doctrines. Modern research describes instead a long coexistence in which both traditions preserved ancient elements and transformed together.
What Bön teaches us
For the student of traditions, Bön is an exemplary case. It shows how a religion can preserve the memory of a very ancient origin while having renewed itself profoundly, and how a relationship with the landscape, local spirits and rites for the dead can coexist with a highly refined contemplative philosophy. In the Officina Ermetica of the Studio Esoterico Cornelio we read it this way: not as a relic, but as a living tradition to be heard in its own words.
In short
- "Bön" denotes the ancient religion, the tradition organised from the eleventh century, and a set of popular practices.
- The tradition looks back to Tonpa Shenrab and to the western kingdom of Zhang Zhung.
- The anticlockwise yungdrung and the anticlockwise direction of ritual circuits are its most visible signs.
- The doctrine is arranged in nine ways, culminating in Dzogchen.
- Bön and Tibetan Buddhism influenced each other for centuries.
