About this product

Product Identifiers

PublisherUniversity of Chicago Press

ISBN-10022635587X

ISBN-139780226355870

eBay Product ID (ePID)8038267185

Product Key Features

Number of Pages304 Pages

LanguageEnglish

Publication NameSubject to Death : Life and Loss in a Buddhist World

Publication Year2016

SubjectDeath & Dying, Death, Grief, Bereavement, Buddhism / General (See Also Philosophy / Buddhist), Anthropology / Cultural & Social, Asia / India & South Asia

TypeTextbook

AuthorRobert Desjarlais

Subject AreaFamily & Relationships, Religion, Social Science, History

FormatTrade Paperback

Dimensions

Item Height0.7 in

Item Weight15.1 Oz

Item Length9 in

Item Width6 in

Additional Product Features

Intended AudienceScholarly & Professional

LCCN2015-039597

Dewey Edition23

ReviewsA detailed, insightful, and at times moving ethnography of rituals around death and dying among ethnically Tibetan Hyolmo Buddhists in Nepal. Desjarlais provides rich descriptions of the Hyolmo's multistage approach to dying, from the prayers and presence of lamas around a dying individual to help the person leave the world without any attachments to the construction of the funeral pyre and search for sacred relics or images among the bones. As he describes each stage of this intricate rite, Desjarlais reflects on the meaning of the ritual, which connects individuals facing loss to universal human emotions. In addition, he looks at the ways in which the rites and rituals around dying reflect the Buddhist world view of impermanence and rebirth. This balance between attention to the particular and reflection on the universal is what makes this book so rich., A detailed, insightful, and at times moving ethnography of rituals around death and dying among ethnically Tibetan Hyolmo Buddhists in Nepal. Desjarlais provides rich descriptions of the Hyolmo's multistage approach to dying, from the prayers and presence of lamas around a dying individual to help the person leave the world without any attachments to the construction of the funeral pyre and search for sacred relics or images among the bones. As he describes each stage of this intricate rite, Desjarlais reflects on the meaning of the ritual, which connects individuals facing loss to universal human emotions. In addition, he looks at the ways in which the rites and rituals around dying reflect the Buddhist world view of impermanence and rebirth. This balance between attention to the particular and reflection on the universal is what makes this book so rich., A detailed, insightful, and at times moving ethnography of rituals around death and dying among ethnically Tibetan Hyolmo Buddhists in Nepal. Desjarlais provides rich descriptions of the Hyolmo's multistage approach to dying, from the prayers and presence of llamas around a dying individual to help the person leave the world without any attachments to the construction of the funeral pyre and search for sacred relics or images among the bones. As he describes each stage of this intricate rite, Desjarlais reflects on the meaning of the ritual, which connects individuals facing loss to universal human emotions. In addition, he looks at the ways in which the rites and rituals around dying reflect the Buddhist world view of impermanence and rebirth. This balance between attention to the particular and reflection on the universal is what makes this book so rich., Desjarlais writes powerfully from a position that seamlessly integrates Hyolmo views and feelings, a scholar's knowledge of Tibetan Buddhism in the Himalayas, the struggles of contemporary philosophers like Blanchot and Ricouer to understand death, and his own human yearning to come to terms with it. Subject to Death is a moving ethnographic account that lifts out of its genre, becoming most of all a hard and honest look at the reality of the human condition., Desjarlais's Subject to Death is like stepping onto a train already in motion. Its momentum isn't fierce but there's no time to ease in--from its first pages, as readers we find ourselves in the midst of death and life and loss as they take and are given form. At the risk of overusing the term, there is great care in this book...not owing to an expected attitude or comportment towards life and death, but attending to what is required by the invitation Desjarlais makes to readers, made between author and subject and reader, as we are brought into a conversation rather than relegated only to eavesdrop., Subject to Death is such an extraordinary achievement that I stopped breathing for a moment as I finished reading it. When something like Desjarlais's book comes our way, we should recognize its originality and uniqueness, for so few people in anthropology can write in this way. Twenty years from now, when many of us have faded from memory, new generations on their quests to learn more about life and death than academia's disciplinary machines can offer will find this book and be astonished by its simplicity and integrity in the midst of its brilliance., Desjarlais's Subject to Death is like stepping onto a train already in motion. Its momentum isn't fierce but there's no time to ease in--from its first pages, as readers we find ourselves in the midst of death and life and loss as they take and are given form. At the risk of overusing the term, there is great care in this book...not owing to an expected attitude or comportment towards life and death, but attending to what is required by the invitation Desjarlais makes to readers, made between author and subject and reader, as we are brought into a conversation rather than relegated only to eavesdrop., Subject to Death is an elegantly written, richly detailed, and absolutely unique ethnographic contribution to the study of death, dying, and grief. Its nuanced and rich material unfolds in a patchwork of glimpses, squints, and sideways glances at death and its existential entailments. A mature work by one of our discipline's very best ethnographers, Subject to Death is the culminating achievement of a career-long engagement with Hyolmo communities, and it is a must-read for any scholar working on issues related to aging, death, dying, or the grieving process., Desjarlais writes powerfully from a position that seamlessly integrates Hyolmo views and feelings, a scholar's knowledge of Tibetan Buddhism in the Himalayas, the struggles of contemporary philosophers like Blanchot and Ricouer to understand death, and his own human yearning to come to terms with it. Subject to Death is a moving ethnographic account that lifts out of its genre, becoming most of all a hard and honest look at the reality of the human condition., I gained much from reading Subject to Death , less as an ethnography of a group, and more as an insight into people, into persons. It is beautifully written and a necessary balance to its more ethnographically and socially-focused counterparts, and should fruitfully be read alongside them. It gives insight, in particular, into how people feel about death and dying, and how such feelings inform what they make of the rich complexities of Buddhist funeral practices and the fate that awaits us all. It is in this last regard, above all, that this work makes its sustained contribution, and one that will make it a powerful work to present to students still prone to the Orientalism of emotional distance from those they read about.

Dewey Decimal294.3/423

Table Of ContentNote on Transliteration Prelude " Ama, khoi ?" Poiesis in life and death Theorizing death I. The Impermanence of Life A good death, recorded Impossibly and intensively Creative subtraction This life Attachment An ethics of care Oral wills are harder than stone Seeing the face Liberation upon hearing The pulse of life II. Passing from the Body Death, impermanence has arisen Transference of consciousness Between Field of apparitions Shifting, Not Dying "Yes, it's death" Corpses, fashioned Bodies that wound The five sensual pleasures Consoling mourners Alternate rhythms III. Dissolution Trouble Eliminating the corpse Burnt offerings Thirst Ashes, burnt bones Finality IV. Transmutations Resting place Ritual poiesis, in time Dragging, hooking, naming Explanations, face to face "No form, no sound . . ." Generating merit Blank white Showing the way Those dangerous supplements V. After Life Made for forgetting The enigma of mourning Staring into the sun Afterword Acknowledgments Notes References Index

SynopsisSubject to Death by anthropologist Robert Desjarlais is a profound meditation on death through an empathic ethnographic analysis of the Hyolmo, a Tibetan Buddhist community from Nepal. At the heart of the book is the question of what a "good death" means. To answer this question, Desjarlais shows how the Hyolmo try through social and ritual practice to ease death's arrival, help the deceased sever their attachments to the world, and allow survivors to establish anew their relationships with the dead. Hyolmo orientations to life and death speak to the ways in which certain features of human existence--such as consciousness, identity, memory, desire, and bodiliness--are enacted and dissolved through a form of poesis, or creative world-making. In considering Hyolmo orientations to dying, cremation ceremonies, funeral rituals, grief, and mourning, Desjarlais reveals the ever-changing flow of life and death among Hyolmo people while offering moving insights into a universal experience., If any anthropologist living today can illuminate our dim understanding of death's enigma, it is Robert Desjarlais. With Subject to Death , Desjarlais provides an intimate, philosophical account of death and mourning practices among Hyolmo Buddhists, an ethnically Tibetan Buddhist people from Nepal. He studies the death preparations of the Hyolmo, their specific rituals of grieving, and the practices they use to heal the psychological trauma of loss. Desjarlais's research marks a major advance in the ethnographic study of death, dying, and grief, one with broad implications. Ethnologically nuanced, beautifully written, and twenty-five years in the making, Subject to Death is an insightful study of how fundamental aspects of human existence--identity, memory, agency, longing, bodiliness--are enacted and eventually dissolved through social and communicative practices.

LC Classification NumberBQ4487.D47 2016