In 1927, Oxford University Press published the first western-language translation of a collection of Tibetan funerary texts (the Great Liberation upon Hearing in the Bardo) under the title The Tibetan Book of the Dead. Since that time, the work has established a powerful hold on the western popular imagination, and is now considered a classic of spiritual literature. Over the years, The Tibetan Book of the Dead has inspired numerous commentaries, an illustrated edition, a play, a video series, and even an opera. Translators, scholars, and popular devotees of the book have claimed to explain its esoteric ideas and reveal its hidden meaning. Few, however, have uttered a word about its history. Bryan J. Cuevas seeks to fill this gap in our knowledge by offering the first comprehensive historical study of the Great Liberation upon Hearing in the Bardo, and by grounding it firmly in the context of Tibetan history and culture. He begins by discussing the many ways the texts have been understood (and misunderstood) by westerners, beginning with its first editor, the Oxford-educated anthropologist Walter Y. Evans-Wentz, and continuing through the present day. The remarkable fame of the book in the west, Cuevas argues, is strikingly disproportionate to how the original Tibetan texts were perceived in their own country. Cuevas tells the story of how The Tibetan Book of the Dead was compiled in Tibet, of the lives of those who preserved and transmitted it, and explores the history of the rituals through which the life of the dead is imagined in Tibetan society. This book provides not only a fascinating look at a popular and enduring spiritual work, but also a much-needed corrective to the proliferation of ahistorical scholarship surrounding The Tibetan Book of the Dead.

The Hidden History of the Tibetan Book of the Dead, Brian Cuevas, OUP, Paperback, 328 pages, $62.00

Bryan J. Cuevas (born 1967) is an American Tibetologist and historian of religion. He is John F. Priest Professor of Religion and Director of Buddhist and Tibetan Studies at Florida State University, where he specializes in Tibetan Buddhist history, literature, and culture.[1] His research focuses on Tibetan history and historiography, hagiography and biographical literature, Buddhist popular religion, the literary history of death narratives and death-related practices, and the politics of magic and ritual power in premodern Tibetan societies, from roughly the eleventh through the early eighteenth centuries.[2]

A Note on Tibetan Words xi
Introduction: The Saga of The Tibetan Book of the Dead 3
CHAPTER ONE: DEATH AND THE DEAD
Beginnings: Funeral Ritual in Ancient Tibet 27
Transitions: The Buddhist Intermediate State 39
From Death to Disposal 69
CHAPTER TWO: PROPHECY, CONCEALMENT, REVELATION
Prophecies of the Lotus Guru 81
A Tale of Fathers and Sons 91
The Gampodar Treasures 101
The Third Generation 120
CHAPTER THREE: TRADITIONS IN TRANSFORMATION
Traditions in Eastern Tibet 137
Traditions in Central and Southern Tibet 158
CHAPTER FOUR: TEXT AND CONSOLIDATION
Rikzin Nyima Drakpa, Sorcerer from Kham 179
Conclusion: Manuscripts and Printed Texts 205
Notes 217
Bibliography 271
List of Tibetan Spellings 303
Index 312