The Canon · No. 040
Bon
Yungdrung Bon; the Tibetan pre-Buddhist tradition
Claimed prehistoric; historically c.11th c. CE – present · East Asian · Living · Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan, northern India
IV. THE CLASSICAL & IMPERIAL WORLD — c.200 BCE – 500 CE
How many
Perhaps 400,000, mostly in eastern Tibet and among exiles in India.
Who began it
Tonpa Shenrab Miwoche, held by Bonpos to have been an enlightened teacher who lived 18,000 years ago in the land of Olmo Lungring, often identified with Zhangzhung in western Tibet. No historical evidence supports the early dating; the organised tradition as it exists is documented from the 11th century.
What it is for
To attain liberation, and, in its folk layer, to manage the spirits of a demanding landscape.
What it worships
Enlightened beings closely parallel to buddhas. A large population of local deities: mountain gods (yul lha), klu (serpent water-spirits), btsan and other classes of being who cause illness and misfortune when offended.
What it holds
Bon teaches enlightenment, karma, rebirth and emptiness in terms very close to Tibetan Buddhism, with its own Dzogchen (great perfection) lineage which Bonpos claim is older than the Buddhist one. The relationship is genuinely tangled: Bon has been described as Tibetan Buddhism's shadow, as a distinct pre-Buddhist religion, and as a rival Buddhist school that refuses the Indian pedigree. Scholars now generally distinguish three things — an obscure pre-Buddhist royal religion, organised Yungdrung Bon from the 11th century, and modern folk practice — and note that only the second is a coherent religion with texts.
What it does
Nearly identical in form to Tibetan Buddhism: monasteries, tantric ritual, mandalas, prayer flags, mantras, debate. The visible marker is direction — Bonpos circumambulate and spin prayer wheels counterclockwise, and use the left-facing swastika (yungdrung, eternal), where Buddhists go clockwise. Distinct pantheon, distinct lineage, distinct canon.
After death
Rebirth through six realms; an intermediate state; liberation as the goal. Elaborate death rituals to guide the consciousness. Sky burial, the exposure of the body to vultures, is practised across both traditions and is as much a matter of Tibetan geology — frozen ground, no timber — as of doctrine.
Its texts
Its own Kangyur and Katen, parallel in structure to the Buddhist canon. The Zermig and Zhiji, biographies of Tonpa Shenrab. Many texts are presented as terma, treasures hidden in the persecution period and rediscovered later.
Its branches
Yungdrung Bon (the organised tradition); New Bon, which incorporates Padmasambhava; folk Bon, a loose label for non-Buddhist ritual practice.
Of note
Popular writing treats Bon as pure Tibetan shamanism predating Buddhism. That picture is mostly wrong. What exists today is a fully developed monastic tradition whose claim to priority is a religious claim, not a demonstrated historical one.
Its timeline
- Pre-7th c. CE A royal Tibetan religion existed with priests, funeral rites and animal sacrifice. Its relationship to later Bon is unclear.
- c.760–797 CE King Trisong Detsen establishes Buddhism as the state religion; Bon traditions describe persecution and the hiding of texts.
- c.1017 CE Shenchen Luga discovers major terma; organised Yungdrung Bon begins.
- 1405 CE Menri monastery founded; it becomes the mother monastery of the tradition.
- 1959 onward Chinese occupation; Bonpos flee with Buddhists and re-establish Menri at Dolanji, Himachal Pradesh.
- 1978 CE The 14th Dalai Lama formally recognises Bon as the fifth religious tradition of Tibet, alongside Nyingma, Kagyu, Sakya and Gelug, ending centuries of marginalisation.
Sources
Not yet checked against named sources. This entry is the house's reading; until it is checked, treat each claim as unverified. Correct it, with a source.