________________
Chapter 08
Bon Religion
Bon religion consists of three parts
1.
The stories and letters.
2.
Singers of Riddle
3.
Bon principles
A.
i.
1.
The stories The intentions of storytelling:
ii.
iii.
iv.
V.
The intention of story telling was to disseminate ancient wisdom and to retain social structures.
To retain the social relation.
To improve the relation with God.
To establish the relation with the ancestors.
To validate the awareness of one's own society.
To retain the patterns of society.
To maintain the world order.
vi.
vii.
Dynamics of Bon Studies
For the understanding of 'Bon religion' it is obligatory to understand the dynamics of Bon Studies.
Bon Po Religion
According to French school Lalou (1957) Bon is a religion of 'Blood and Poison'. According to Stein (1962) Bon is a different non-Buddhist nameless Religion. According to Arian Macdonald prior to Buddh Religion there was nothing like 'Bon Religion'. Geoffrey Samuel (1993) has made survey of research on 'Bon' in the west. The similar research survey was published in 1994 on Bon religion by P Kavaerne. The same author has written an article "The study of Bon in the west: past, present and future in Bon studies - 2 - (2004) "New Horizons in Bon studies" Ed. by: Samten. G. Karmay and Yasuhiko Nagano". The West knew about 'Bon' through the English translation of a chapter on 'Bon' by Sharat Chandra Das (1888). It was from a Tibetan Buddhist scholar, Thu'u-Kwan Bi-bzang's book, 'Chos-kyi Nyi-Ma' (1881).
Religious preaching of Bon is found in The Tibetan History and Antiquities of Indian Tibet Vol I by priest A.H. Franke at the end of 19th century.
Systematic and comprehensive study of 'Bon Religion' was written by Helmut (1950, 1956, and 1961). Bon Religion is romantic in nature. In Bon religion nature is living and pulsative and they do accept Shraman Tradition. There are three stages of the development of Bon Religion.
Pre-Buddhist stage.
413
Bon and Jain Religion - A comparative study
