Repkong Tantric Practitioners and Their Environment: Observing the vow of not taking life

Authors

• Tiina Hyytiäinen

Abstract

This paper is based on my fieldwork in a Tibetan farming and semi-pastoral
village located in the Amdo (Chinese: Qinghai) Repkong area. The villagers
resemble ordinary rural Tibetan householders: farming, herding, and raising
their children. For extra income, they collect caterpillar fungus, a medicinal
mushroom endemic to the Tibetan Plateau. They are not ordinary householders,
however. They observe daily and periodical commitments to tantric Buddhist
practices and rituals. Their supervising teacher, the present lineage-holder at a
local hillside monastery, has given as prerequisites to both his male and female
disciples at least two of the five Buddhist lay precepts. The most salient of these
precepts is not taking life. The majority of the sources of livelihood practiced by
the villagers, however, involve the killing of insects at least. Based on my interviews
and observations, I will first describe the living environment of the tantric
practitioners, concentrating mostly on the women, and their religious practices.
Then I will discuss the caterpillar fungus trade and other local sources of livelihood.
Finally I will describe how these religious practitioners seek to overcome
the apparent contradiction of maintaining a vow of not taking life, given their
living circumstances.