Teaching the History of Yesterday might be Teaching the Prejudice of TodayI recently chanced upon a label copy for a Padmasambhava sculpture in a current exhibition at the Rubin Museum of Art in New York City. It was interesting because it was a sculpture that I had purchased for the museum some years earlier when I worked there (between 1999 & 2007) and an object that Samten Karmey and I had used in the first ever Bon art and culture exhibition, also at the RMA - 'Bon the Magic Word.' We used the object as a possible example of the 'legendary' teacher Yungdrung Tongdrol - why not?
Now, to my point, I include in this post the label copy that accompanies the image of Padmasambhava and ask you - does this smack of systemic conditioned and on-going prejudice? Or am I over reacting? I have written a short paragraph below that I think somewhat represents a similar historical prejudice (and racism) that is part of the American experience. For me the two paragraphs are essentially the same and are intended to convey, ignorantly or intentionally, the same basic story. The paragraph below is also something similar to what could be found in American school textbooks up to the 1970s. It is however, now, no longer publicly acceptable in the USA in any way and considered extremely prejudicial. Well, what about the Padmasambhava label and the portrayal of the Bon - especially to a new audience, a non-Tibetan audience, an audience that is currently being molded by educators?
Who out there is researching this topic of Buddhist textual prejudice against Bon? Who actually cares? Who has any kind of investment in this issue? I for one can cite dozens of examples, just from memory, of instances of anti-Bon prejudice in Buddhist literature. Those stories are part of my Buddhist training: Padmasambhava life story, Milarepa life story, Sachen Kunga Nyingpo life story, etc., etc., etc. Are we now ignorantly continuing this tradition of blatant prejudice against the Bon Religion and culture just because it is written in the Tibetan Buddhist 'sacred' texts?
Comparison Paragraph:
"A legendary American Hero, General George Armstrong Custer, was one of the figures that tamed the wild West. Stories abound about his travels through-out the country-side and the sites where he tamed and converted the locals are considered historical. One such episode takes place at a location where General Custer came to defeat the Indian people of the plains and their indigenous religion. When a local Indian chief rose up to resist by force of arms and the aid of their sacred religious drum and ghost dances the chief along with most of his people, women and children, persihed. Now when the thunder clouds rumble, the local Indians say that the spirit elders of that place are beating the sacred drums and dancing." (Written by Jeff Watt as a comparison to the RMA Padmasambhava/Bon label copy).
Padmasambhava Label Copy: (click on image)
(First published on the International Bon Studies website, May 13th, 2010).
1 comment:
This sculpture is so beautiful! It's too bad that the label text doesn't even mention the object or its artistry. You can see a larger image here: http://www.himalayanart.org/image.cfm/65459.html.
There is an intense energy in the figure that seems to me to come from two details: the uprightness of the spine -- in this photos, there's even a suggestion of a backward lean -- and the beautiful articulation of the thumbs and fingers. Both are just slightly too much for a normal human. It is almost uncomfortable...then when you look at the face, you read this outsized physical energy as intense alertness combined with good nature.
Then, yes, after the art itself, there is the story -- it's pretty poigniant that this could be an icon of either the vanquisher or the vanquished.
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