Notes on Tibetan Buddhist Ritual and Insider/Outsider Problem
Tibetan Buddhist Ritual Description
Location & Time: Performed outside Sujātā village near Bodh Gayā, India, in late 2000.
Participants: Lama Kunsang Dorjee (Tibetan monk from Sikkim), his attendants, the author (James B. Apple), and other American and local Indian individuals.
Significance of Location: Commemorates the site where Prince Siddhārtha (Buddha-to-be) performed six years of austerities under a Banyan tree, according to Tibetan Buddhist tradition. This differs from the Pāli tradition where Sujātā offered milk-rice.
Ritual Actions: Involved placing offerings (candles, incense, katas - white silk cloth) on a stone platform, followed by chanting of offering prayers in Tibetan.
Purpose: Not merely acts of giving to a divine being, but acts of giving up, emulating Siddhārtha's renunciate acts. Prayers included invoking the Three Jewels (Buddha, Dharma, Saṃgha), cultivating Buddhahood, praises, offerings, confessions, rejoicing in merit, requesting teachings, and dedicating merit.
Author's Experience: Participated in chanting, faced language barrier at faster chanting pace, experienced peace amidst India's daily turbulence.
The Insider/Outsider Problem
Core Issue: A complex methodological and theoretical issue in the study of religion concerning scholarly role (practitioner, scholar, both, neither) and the ability to understand/interpret others' beliefs and practices.
Relativity of Terms: "Insider/outsider" is a relative, anthropocentric distinction, not an absolute state of being; it’s a classification shaped by relations and can hide temporal distance ("zero-time fiction").
J.Z. Smith's Four Applications:
Cultural/Social Identity: Based on shared cultural markers, language, worldview (e.g., North American, South Asian, Inner Asian).
Religious Identity: Often centered on "belief in" vs. "not believing in," with little in-between (tourist or convert). Critiqued for applying a Protestant Christian concept to non-Christian contexts.
Representation: Concerns how "insiders" (near, familiar views) and "outsiders" (far, exotic, strange) are represented through language and evaluation.
Academic Formulations: Views "insides" and "outsides" as roles or techniques (defamiliarization/familiarization) for approaching cultural goods, rather than permanent fixtures.
Critique of Dichotomy: The either/or "insider/outsider" binary is often simplistic and inadequate, needing relativity and a focus on scale (how close/far). The "slash" in "insider/outsider" indicates interaction and shifting relations.
Epistemological Angle: The problem is fundamentally about how we know something about someone else and whose interpretation is privileged.
"Cognitive Advantage of Seeing Things Otherwise": Refutes the "myth of immaculate perception" and the false claim of outsider objectivity due to ignorance. Instead, difference in perspective (like Kant's view of Plato) offers interpretive insights that insiders may lack.
Mediated Presence: Humans always work with "re-presentations" through language and cultural contexts, not unmediated presences.
Author's Conclusion: He was "inside" the ritual performance but "outside" in its analysis, emphasizing a reflexive, self-aware approach that disassembles rigid binaries and acknowledges shifting reciprocal relations over time and place.