Bön is the oldest spiritual tradition of Tibet.
Often described as the shamanistic and animistic tradition of the Himalayas prior to Buddhism's rise to prominence in the 7th century, more recent research and disclosures have demonstrated that the religion and the Bönpo (a person, or people, who follow(s) the path of Bön) are significantly more rich and textured than was initially considered by pioneering scholars.
History of Bön
Foundation
Traditionally, Tönpa Shenrab Miwoche is believed to have established the religion. He is traditionally held to have been born in the land of Tagzig Olmo Lung Ring, considered an axis mundi, which is traditionally identified as Mount Yung-drung Gu-tzeg (Edifice of Nine Swastikas), possibly Mount Kailash, in western Tibet. Due to the sacredness of Tagzig Olmo Lung Ring and the Mt Kailash, both the sauwastika and the number nine are of great significance and considered auspicious by the Bönpo as well as Hindus.
1800s
In the nineteenth century, Sharza Tashi Gyeltsen, a Bön master (whose collected writings comprise eighteen volumes) significantly rejuvenated the tradition. His disciples Kagya Khyungtrul Jigmey Namkha trained many practitioners learned in not only the Bön religion, but in all Tibetan Schools. However, with the Chinese annexation of Tibet and the Himalayan diaspora, like the other schools, Bön has encountered significant cultural loss. Though, thankfully for the rejuvenation forded by the terma tradition, not irreparable.
According to the Bönpo, eighteen enlightened entities will manifest in this æon and Tönpa Shenrab Miwoche, the founder of Bön, is considered the enlightened Buddha of this age (compare yuga and kalpa). Lopön Tenzin Namdak is an important current lineage holder of Bön.
More than three hundred Bön monasteries had been established in Tibet prior to Chinese annexation. Of these, Menri Monastery and Yungdrung Monastery were the two principal monastic universities for the study and practice of the Bön knowledges and science-arts.
The present situation of Bön
According to a recent Chinese census, an estimated 10 percent of Tibetans follow Bön. At the time of the communist takeover in Tibet, there were approximately 300 Bön monasteries in Tibet and western China. According to a recent survey, there are 264 active Bön monasteries, convents, and hermitages.
The present spiritual head of the Bön is Lungtok Tenpa'i Nyima (b. 1929), the thirty-third Abbot of Menri Monastery (destroyed in the Cultural Revolution, but now being rebuilt), who now presides over Pal Shen-ten Menri Ling in Dolanji in Himachal Pradesh, India, for the abbacy of which monastery he was selected in 1969.
A number of Bön establishments also exist in Nepal; the most accessible is probably Triten Norbutse Bönpo Monastery, on the Western outskirts of Kathmandu. In Kathmandu, go to the bus stop on the Ring Road nearest Swayambhu (downhill just behind the great stupa.)
Bön spiritual practices
Bön, while now very similar to schools of Tibetan Buddhism, may be distinguished by certain characteristics:- The origin of the Bönpo lineage is traced to Buddha Tönpa Shenrab (sTon pa gShen rab), rather than to Buddha Shakyamuni.
- Bönpo circumambulate chortens or other venerated structures counter-clockwise (i.e., with the left shoulder toward the object), rather than clockwise (as Buddhists do).
- Bönpos use the yungdrung (g.yung drung or sauwastika ~ a vrddhi derivation of the swastika) instead of the dorje (rdo rje, vajra) as a symbol and ritual implement.
- Instead of a bell, Bönpos use the shang, a cymbal-like instrument with a "clapper" usually made of animal horn, in their rituals.
- A nine-way path is described in Bön, which is distinct from the nine-yana (-vehicle) system of the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism. Bönpo consider Bön to be a superset of Buddhist paths. (The Bönpo divide their teachings in a mostly familiar way: Causal Vehicle, Sutra, Tantra and Dzogchen).
- The Bönpo textual canon includes rites to pacify spirits, influence the weather, heal people through spiritual means, and other "shamanic" practices. While many of these practices are also common in some form in Tibetan Buddhism (and mark a distinction between Tibetan and other forms of Buddhism), they are actually included within the recognized Bön canon (under the causal vehicle), rather than in Buddhist texts.
- Bönpo have some sacred texts, of neither Sanskrit nor Tibetan origin, which include some sections written in the ancient Zhangzhung language.
- The Bönpo mythic universe includes the Mountain of Nine Swastikas and the Tagzig Olmo Lung Ring paradise.
The Bönpo school is said to resemble most closely the Nyingma school, the oldest school of Tibetan Buddhism, which traces its lineage to the First Transmission of Buddhism into Tibet.
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