Tuesday, August 11, 2026 · 天火 · tianmu.org
Ritual, Healing, and Bon-Gshen Traditions
Bon and Gshen ritual materials: healing contests, counter-sorcery, bird-lore, sacrifice polemic, and early Tibetan ritual taxonomy.
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Texts
The Breaking of SorceryA pre-Buddhist Tibetan counter-sorcery ritual from Dunhuang manuscript Pelliot tibétain 1039. A Bon priest summons the lords of five kingdoms to a ritual arena, erects copper curse-vessels, slaughters curse-sheep, brews hostility-beer, catches the sorcery-bird, and dissolves the curse through nine sky-rites and nine earth-rites. The cursed person testifies in first person — frozen, mute, heart like calf-fat — then the bee arises, the cockerel hatches, and the freed one is protected in the four quarters of the sky. First English translation.The Contest of Bon and GshenA pre-Buddhist Tibetan narrative of healing competition across the kingdoms — each realm's noble falls ill, diviners fail, and only the local Bon healer can cure. From Pelliot tibétain 1285, Dunhuang.The Counting of the BirdsAn Old Tibetan compendium of bird-lore, disease catalogues, healing rites, and mantras from the Dunhuang caves. The companion piece to the healing narratives of the recto.The Dharma of the Gods — ITJ 0990A Buddhist polemic against Bon animal sacrifice from the Dunhuang caves — arguing that ethical conduct, not blood offerings, pleases the gods. IOL Tib J 990, ninth-century Old Tibetan.The Rite and Pedigree of HorsesA pre-Buddhist Tibetan ritual text from the Dunhuang caves classifying horses into supernatural categories by coat color, mapping them to cosmic forces, and cataloguing thirteen kingdoms with their divine patrons and signature horses.