Vision and Violence: Lama Zhang and the Politics of Charisma in Twelfth-Century Tibet

This book offers the first in-depth examination of the life and writings of Lama Zhang (1122-1193), key figure in the Tibetan renaissance. Controversial, larger-than-life, already revered as a literary innovator and tantric meditation master, Zhang entered public life in mid-career and forged a new model of rulership and religious community that would set the standard for later religious rulers of Lhasa-most notably the Dalai Lamas. The focus of the model was the tantric hermit who comes down from the mountains and sustains a worldly community through his mastery of space, time, and symbol. The subject is approached through a complex of related issues: lineage and tradition-formation, charisma and hegemony, literary genre, textual economy, and the politics of tantra.