Brenton Sullivan
In his new book, Building a Religious Empire: Tibetan Buddhism, Bureaucracy, and the Rise of the Gelkupa (UPenn Press, 2020) (https://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/16164.html), Sullivan utilizes constitutions written for Buddhist monasteries as well as Chinese and Tibetan historical materials to uncover the role of Geluk prelates in legislating and administering their monasteries. This historical output of constitutions and other documents contributed to the creation of a network of homogenous religious beliefs and practices that stretched thousands of miles across Tibet and Inner Asia.
Sullivan’s new book project, “The Golden Bridge between China and Tibet,” has been funded by the Fulbright Scholar Program as well as the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation. This project aims to consider the efforts of early Geluk missionaries and local Mongolic patrons on the frontiers between China, Tibet, and Mongolia, figures whose contributions to history have been overshadowed by later “great men” such as the “Great Fifth” Dalai Lama (1617-1682). The first essay resulting from this research is entitled “The First Generation of Dge lugs Evangelists in Amdo: The Case of ’Dan ma Tshul khrims rgya mtsho (1578-1663/65),” which will be published at Études mongoles et sibériennes, centrasiatiques et tibétaines.
Two other concurrent projects are, first, translating a Tibetan-language book manuscript on the history of the Monguors and, second, a social network analysis of two major Geluk prelates from northeastern Tibet, Tuken Lozang Chökyi Nyima (1737-1802) and Kungtang Könchok Tenpé Drönmé (1762-1823).
Phone: 315-228-6311
Address: 13 Oak Street, 313 Lawrence Hall
Hamilton, NY 13346
Sullivan’s new book project, “The Golden Bridge between China and Tibet,” has been funded by the Fulbright Scholar Program as well as the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation. This project aims to consider the efforts of early Geluk missionaries and local Mongolic patrons on the frontiers between China, Tibet, and Mongolia, figures whose contributions to history have been overshadowed by later “great men” such as the “Great Fifth” Dalai Lama (1617-1682). The first essay resulting from this research is entitled “The First Generation of Dge lugs Evangelists in Amdo: The Case of ’Dan ma Tshul khrims rgya mtsho (1578-1663/65),” which will be published at Études mongoles et sibériennes, centrasiatiques et tibétaines.
Two other concurrent projects are, first, translating a Tibetan-language book manuscript on the history of the Monguors and, second, a social network analysis of two major Geluk prelates from northeastern Tibet, Tuken Lozang Chökyi Nyima (1737-1802) and Kungtang Könchok Tenpé Drönmé (1762-1823).
Phone: 315-228-6311
Address: 13 Oak Street, 313 Lawrence Hall
Hamilton, NY 13346
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Papers by Brenton Sullivan
“Mass monasticism,” defined as “an emphasis on recruiting and sustaining very large numbers of celibate monks for their entire lives,” has been called one of “Tibet’s unique contribution[s] to humanity and the world” (Goldstein 1998 and 2009). The number of monks residing in some of the largest institutions swelled into the thousands, making them the largest monasteries in the world. Nonetheless, to date there has been no study that accounts for the origin and development of these monasteries. The current study begins to address this lacuna in our knowledge by looking at the largest monastery in seventeenth-century Northeastern Tibet (or Amdo), Gönlung Jampa Ling (dgon lung byams pa gling). Although Gönlung Monastery was not as early as some of the more famous institutions found in Central Tibet, it did house the first Geluk sect seminary in Northeastern Tibet, an essential feature of most mass or “mega monasteries.” The monastery also boasted a rich and regimented liturgical calendar, a strict and consistent system of governance and discipline, an extensive network of local patrons and subsidiary and allied monasteries, and, finally, political and economic connections with both the Dalai Lama’s government in Lhasa and the newly established Qing Dynasty in Beijing. Gönlung’s size and influence waned beginning in the mid-eighteenth century after it was implicated in a major Mongol rebellion and the monastery was subsumed within the Qing empire’s system of regulating the Buddhist clergy. Nonetheless, it paved the way for the political and religious rise of the Geluk sect in Inner Asia and for the establishment of other mega monasteries. This work’s argument is twofold. First, the history of the rise of these sizeable and complex institutions is more complicated than what others have previously suggested. That is, their origin can be placed before the reign of the renowned and influential “Great Fifth” Dalai Lama, and their development took place apart from his direct influence. Second, and more importantly, these monasteries were characterized by much more than the mere agglomeration of a massive number of monks: the strategic institutionalization of all monastic enterprises--scholastic, ritual, administrative--and the development of local and regional monastic networks defined mega monasteries.
Talks by Brenton Sullivan
https://uhrp.org/featured-articles/china%E2%80%99s-tibetan-and-uighur-nationalities-fairbank-center-60th-anniversary
“Mass monasticism,” defined as “an emphasis on recruiting and sustaining very large numbers of celibate monks for their entire lives,” has been called one of “Tibet’s unique contribution[s] to humanity and the world” (Goldstein 1998 and 2009). The number of monks residing in some of the largest institutions swelled into the thousands, making them the largest monasteries in the world. Nonetheless, to date there has been no study that accounts for the origin and development of these monasteries. The current study begins to address this lacuna in our knowledge by looking at the largest monastery in seventeenth-century Northeastern Tibet (or Amdo), Gönlung Jampa Ling (dgon lung byams pa gling). Although Gönlung Monastery was not as early as some of the more famous institutions found in Central Tibet, it did house the first Geluk sect seminary in Northeastern Tibet, an essential feature of most mass or “mega monasteries.” The monastery also boasted a rich and regimented liturgical calendar, a strict and consistent system of governance and discipline, an extensive network of local patrons and subsidiary and allied monasteries, and, finally, political and economic connections with both the Dalai Lama’s government in Lhasa and the newly established Qing Dynasty in Beijing. Gönlung’s size and influence waned beginning in the mid-eighteenth century after it was implicated in a major Mongol rebellion and the monastery was subsumed within the Qing empire’s system of regulating the Buddhist clergy. Nonetheless, it paved the way for the political and religious rise of the Geluk sect in Inner Asia and for the establishment of other mega monasteries. This work’s argument is twofold. First, the history of the rise of these sizeable and complex institutions is more complicated than what others have previously suggested. That is, their origin can be placed before the reign of the renowned and influential “Great Fifth” Dalai Lama, and their development took place apart from his direct influence. Second, and more importantly, these monasteries were characterized by much more than the mere agglomeration of a massive number of monks: the strategic institutionalization of all monastic enterprises--scholastic, ritual, administrative--and the development of local and regional monastic networks defined mega monasteries.
https://uhrp.org/featured-articles/china%E2%80%99s-tibetan-and-uighur-nationalities-fairbank-center-60th-anniversary
Cet article étudie et contextualise une biographie récemment découverte de l’un des plus anciens évangélistes dGe lugs d’Amdo, ’Dan ma Tshul khrims rgya mtsho (1578-1663/65). La vie de Dan ma illustre des aspects importants de l'école de dGe lugs au cours de sa période de concours avec d'autres écoles bouddhistes (comme le Karma bKa’ brgyud) et avant la fondation du gouvernement de dGa’ ldan pho brang du Dalai Lama. En particulier, cela reflète une tendance chez les dGe lugs pas de cette période vers l'œcuménisme, la retraite et le tantra, ce qui contraste avec l'école mature de dGe lugs des institutions à grande échelle, de la discipline et de la philosophie. Cela démontre également l’importance des lamas autres que le cinquième dalaï-lama (né seulement en 1617) pour la diffusion de l’école dGe lugs à Amdo et au-delà.
The political reforms made along the Gansu-Kökenuur border in the aftermath of the Lubsang-Danzin Rebellion (1723-4) represented the first significant change to that frontier to occur in centuries. Only recently have scholars begun to consider the repercussions of these changes for the powerful religious institutions of this region known as Amdo. This article utilises Chinese histories, Tibetan-language materials and Chinese-language land deeds from the eighteenth century to illustrate the drastic increase in imperial oversight and regulation of Tibetan Buddhist monasteries and monastics in Amdo, especially those of the Xining River watershed. Significantly, the policies and practices directed toward these monasteries and monastics were those traditionally employed for Chinese Buddhists of the empire’ s interior. In addition, the reforms introduced in the Xining region helped to set the tone and precedents for how the Qing would later engage with monasteries and monastics elsewhere in Amdo.
The earliest Tibetan history of Amdo that we have—Skal ldan rgya mtsho’s 1652 A mdo’i chos ’byung (History of the Dharma in Amdo)—begins with mention of eminent lamas from Central Tibet and, in particular, the visits to Amdo by the Third and Fifth Dalai Lamas. The history of Buddhism in Amdo, at least according Dge lugs scholars, is deeply indebted to its spiritual exchanges with Central Tibet. This article reveals one of the most important connections between Central Tibet and Amdo in the years immediately preceding and concurrent with the establishment of the Dga’ ldan pho brang government in Lhasa: that between the Skyid shod polity of the Lhasa Valley and the influential Monguor monastery of Dgon lung byams pa gling. In the process we will encounter some answers to why Dgon lung became the recipient of so much Oirat Mongol largess and why the Qing emperors, too, gave so much attention to Dgon lung and adjacent monasteries in Amdo.
This essay provides a translation of the travelogue of the eminent Oirat Buddhist lama Sumba Kanbo Yeshe Baljor (1704–1788) as he made his way to the sacred Mount Wutai. Among the many details this candid account reveals is the fact that Buddhists from the Tibetan Plateau did not travel to the sacred mountain of Wutai in China for the sake of pilgrimage, but in order to foster established relationships with Mongol patrons along the way. Sumba Kanbo spent seven months on the road in 1774 en route to Wutai (compared with only one month at the mountain itself), and during that time he was received by Mongol nobility for whom, in exchange, he contributed to the creation of ‘surrogate’ pilgrimage sites in Mongolia and more generally to the ‘Buddicisation’ of Mongolia. Sumba Kanbo’s account provides a unique window into the emergence of Buddhism in Mongolia and the manner in which this phenomenon depended upon both the political and religious bonds formed between lamas such as Sumba Kanbo and Mongol nobility, commoners and landscape that these lamas encountered on their peregrinations.
This article introduces a new online, quantitative encyclopedia of religious cultural history, the Database of Religious History (DRH). The DRH aims to systematically collect information on past religious groups from around the world in a standardized form, providing a novel digital humanities resource for the religious studies community, a forum for scholarly debates, a pedagogical aid, and a platform for testing hypotheses about religious change over space and time. We employ the DRH project as a lens through which to view some larger intellectual issues surrounding the comparative study of religion, the role of functionalism and “big data” in the study of religion, the challenges of large-scale collaborative projects, and the future of science-humanities integration.
This article explores the potential impact and contribution of the Database of Religious History (DRH) project within the field of Cognitive Historiography. The DRH aims to bring together, in a systematic and open-access format, data on religious groups from across the globe and throughout history. By utilizing robust, open-source technologies and best-practice software principles, the DRH constitutes a novel and innovative approach to historical and cultural studies. As a contribution to the scientific study of both religion and history, the DRH offers data amenable to statistical analyses, thus providing tools for assessing diachronic cultural innovation and adaptation , the testing of grand narrative theories of religious change, and for enriching and revitalizing traditional fields such as comparative religions, history of religion(s), and anthropology of religion. In this article we explore the methods employed in collecting and digitizing historical data, identify our unit of analysis, outline the challenges of
ABSTRACT
The relationships that existed over multiple generations between the Wang incarnate lama lineage based at Dgon lung Monastery in Northeastern Tibet and various polities in Inner Mongolia are presented. Dgon lung Monastery in general, and the Wang Khutugtu in particular, were responsible for
promoting and maintaining orthodox Dge lugs scholasticism and liturgy in Dpa' ris and beyond in Inner Mongolia. Particular attention is given to the customary composed by the Fourth Wang Khutugtu (1846-1906) for Eren Monastery in Inner Mongolia, which prescribed the system for nominating, testing, and awarding candidates for scholastic degrees.
KEYWORDS
bca' yig, Buddhist monasteries, customaries, debate, Dge lugs, Dgon lung, Inner Mongolia, monastic constitutions, scholastic degrees, scholasticism, titles, Wang Khutugtu, Youning si