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Geography, Gender and the Supine Goddess

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Elizabeth Ruprecht May 13, 2017 REL 317 001 Eric Mortensen


What implications does the Srin-mo, a pre-Buddhist deity who traverses across almost all of the periods of time in Tibetan religious life, have on the social status of women? Embodying the places and spaces of Tibet, a malevolent demoness called the Srin-mo has been essential in laying the formation of

Tibetan Buddhism. The concept of the Srin-mo can be traced back to the pre-Buddhist religion of Tibet: Bon. The story of the Srin-mo is not a creation myth in the sense of a worldly inception, but the story of the demoness does represent the creation of a harmonious society, spurring from the preceding time

of primordial chaos found amongst the Bon religion. Looking at the origins of the demoness' story is necessary in order to understand how and why the Srin-

mo holds efficacious power over the land and people of Tibet. The Bon worldview has undergone transformation in nature and thought, but eventually,

tripartite conception of demons, humans, and deities set the tone for the intermediary, relational obligations humans hold between deities and demons. The

first section will explore the ideas of how Buddhism undermined the prominence of the Bon religion, and how the idea of the land of Tibet (literally being

the supine demoness), the Srin-mo, prevailed through the religious transfusion. As the religious spectrum of Tibet changes with time, the idea of the Srin-

mo is held as a centerpiece. The Srin-mo's role in the religious transformation of Tibet is illustrated in Tibetan myths and stories. During the past

century, an evolution of thought has taken place, surrounding ideas concerning the agency and equality of women. The sphere of academia is no exception to

the recent developments on gender. Tibet has been a place of western fascination for centuries but in recent times, attention to the area of Tibet has

grown as a consequence of recognizing the current, socio-political oppression imposed on Tibet by the People's Republic of China. The aforementioned

progressions have sparked a conversation regarding the gendered nature of religious deities in Tibetan Buddhism. Here, I will investigate the case of the

Srin- mo, which is controversially one of the most important beings in Tibet, but unquestionably, an irrevocable component of understanding what

implications geography holds on Tibet.


Greater implications of the Sri-mo are clarified by explaining the mythic origins she spurs from, which is what I am to do first. The Srin-mo is a female demon, or demoness who, along with her male counterpart, the Srin- po, together makeup the class called Srin demons. The Srin demons personify the

dangers and disasters, which the World of the Dead holds against the World of the Living. The Srin class of demons likely belongs to a substratum of pre-Bon beliefs, also known as Yang bsang the'u rang lugs. Another pre-Bon belief is the idea of a dual cosmos, Up-Below (ya yogs) or Earth-Underworld (sa'og

), two mutually opposed realms. The Dead (mtshun) roam the earth with aims of regaining the vital power (bla), which has been lost, and in doing so, threaten the Living with envious attempts of repossessing the Living's energy. A form known as g.Yung drung Bon, reshaped the idea of a dual world in the

Bon religion by adding a third celestial sphere to the system; an idea from the Western regions of Zhang zhung and Bru zha. Leading up to the reign of the king Gri gum btsam po, the leading beliefs in Central Tibet were called rDol Bon or ‘Jol Bon, which refers to the most

ancient forms of Bon. The king's death is considered a turning point in the Bon religion, as well as in the cultural life of the Tibetan people. After the king's death, a new doctrine was introduced in Central Tibet, which is now considered to be the second stage of Bon. The ideology introduced stems from the

Western neighboring cities of Zhang zhung and Bru zha, and is known as the ‘Khyar bon (‘Erroneous Bon'), or Dur Bon (‘Bon of the Tombs'). Grave shamans (Dur gshen), play an important role during the time period. Funeral rites rule grave shamans, which is the reason for the specific name for Bon holds.

g.Yung drung Bon or Svastika Bon, is understood to be a further developed form of ‘Khyar Bon, which began during king Gri gum btsam po's reign and remained the most prevalent form of religion until the time of the Buddhist king, Khri Srong lde'u btsan (approximately c. 724-797). Although another subsection of Bon, called ‘New Bon,' exists, we will not be focusing on the third diffusion because no significant changes affected the Bon worldview taxonomy, as relating to the topic of discussion.


In the second diffusion of Bon, Bon po priests exorcised the chthonic world by making tombs for the Dead in order to win over the ‘dre (spirits) as well as the Srin of the Underworld. The priests took action because nothing was more dangerous to the World of the Living than threats from the World of the Dead.

The Grub mtha' shel gyi me long (Crystal Mirror of the [[[Exposition]]] of Tenets) explains the following: “The Dur gshen possessing weapons removed the obstacles of the Living, made tombs for the Dead, subdued the Chung gi Sri, observed the celestial constellations [and] crushed the ‘Dre of the Earth.” Here, the ‘dre are shown to be powerful forces. The Underworld poses dangers, which are so critical in nature, priests must take cautionary actions to

circumvent the threats posed. At the time, the Bon po priests encouraged the transformation in religious cosmology, “by introducing a conception of the world as formed of three distinct spheres, Underworld (mar), Upper World (yar) and Middle World (bar), respectively occupied by demons (‘dre and srin), gods (lha) and human beings (mi).” Carla Gianotti goes on to explain:


By closing the doors of the tombs, then, the Dur gshen, i.e., the Bon officiants of the Graves, cut the bonds with the World of the Dead and, by opening the door to the lha, they introduced a third celestial sphere in the cosmos, making the idea of Heaven a religious reality in the Tibetan concept world and existence.”


At such a point in time, humans were sandwiched into a category, which separated the gods of the Upper and the demons of the Underworld. The people had no choice but to become dependent on the Bon po priests, who were in charge of taming the World of the Dead (by performing funerary rites and ritual treatment

of corpses) and also to build ties with the World of the Gods (by teaching the path of the Svastika Bon or g.Yung drung Bon). The demons proved to be legitimized in importance and power when the cosmology changed. Additionally, the societal power structure of Tibet changed as a consequence of the Underworld's influences over the Bon po priests' actions. One of the main purposes of the second diffusion of Bon was to control demons and the prominent

Srin demons of the Underworld. The aforementioned Bon po priests' endeavors force the Srin-mo, as well as the Srin-po, into the obscure depths of the Underworld. Instead of disappearing into the abyss, the Srin actually drew on the vital forces hidden within the earth. In the beginning, Tibet was a savage land, full of demons who harmed humans. In the Lha ‘dre bka'i thang yig (‘Legend of Gods and Demons'), the gter ma or

hidden treasure', which was rediscovered by Organ Chokyi, says: “In the land of the Yi dwags, Pretapuri [or] Bod kyi yul,/ There is the land of the noxious beings (gDug pa can gyi yul),/ the three countries Dwags po, Kong po [and] Nyang po.” Additionally, the rGyal po bka'I thang yig (‘Legends of Kings') says, “Then the bDud and Srin mo ruled./ The name [of Tibet] was determined as Lha Srin gnyis kyi yul (‘The Land of Gods and Demons'). The Srin

class of demons was first referred to during “primordial” times in a very old myth. In the myth, Tibet is described as the land where the Srin originate, and the birthplace of the Tibetan people, who are considered to be Flesh-Eaters (zha sa) and direct descendants of the Srin demons. The idea of Tibetan people being directly descended from Srin adds to the notion of Tibetans holding Srin as momentously, consequential beings. The framework of the pre-Bon

and Bon ideas laid the foundation for the Srin-mo, who was later recorded in Buddhist literature as the female progenitor of the Tibetan people. The most popular story of Tibetan's (and Tibet's) origins, the Flesh-Eaters or Red-face-Flesh-Eaters (gdowng dmar zha sa), comes from an ancestral pairing of the Rock-Demoness (brag srin mo) and the Ape of the Forests (spr'u). The legend is retold in a variety of texts, dating to before Buddhism's arrival in Tibet. Buddhist literature recognizes the text sometime around the 8th century. Here, the story was presented first when the primordial Ape and Demoness were the two principal divinities of Tibetan Buddhism, i.e., the bodhisattvas sPyan ras gzigs (Skt. Avalokitesvara) and the goddess sGrol ma (Skt. Tara), and later as embodiments on earth. The connection made between the Srin-mo and sGrol ma is one recent development in her transformation within Tibetan Buddhism. In singular or plural form, the Srin-mo assumed extraordinary aspects of sometimes zoomorphic character of well-known protective deities like dPal ldan lha mo or Nag po Chen po (Skt. Mahakala). The Srin-mo assumes characters in order to serve the Buddhist Dharma. The Srin-mo was forced in the monumental task of supporting temples erected on the focal points of geomantic sites (me tsa, also spelled me btsa' or me rtsa, lit. ‘fire vein') of the

supine position of her body, which was identified to literally be the land of Tibet. According to an account made in the Chos ‘byung (‘History of the Doctrine') by Bu ston, in the rGyal rabs gsal ba'I me long (‘Clean Mirror of Royal Genealogies'), as well as two different versions of the Mani bka' ‘bum (‘Hundred Thousand Words of Mani'), the wives of king Srong brtsam sga, po (c. 627-

649), had to face the builders of the Buddhist temples who burst forth from the body of the Srin-mo by unstoppable, uncontrollable forces which. The dreadful power of the wild demoness could not be subdued until the temples were erected on the thirteen focal points of her body (for example, the heart-blood, the shoulders, the hips, the elbows, the knees, the hands and the feet), in order to form three concentric circles, which protect her heart. Khri

btsun encounters difficulties during the process of building the temples, explained by Bu ston in the Chos ‘byung (c. 1290-1364): [The king] saw that the ground (sa gzhi) of Tibet was like [the body of] a she-devil (srin mo) that had fallen on her back, and that it was necessary to press down [this she-devil]. Accordingly, on the right shoulder [he caused to build] the monastery of sKa tshal, on the left one Khra ‘brug, on the right

leg gTsang ‘gram and on the left Grom pa rgyang, these being “the four monasteries of the four flanks”. Then on the right elbow, [the monastery of] Kong po bu chu, on the left Lho brag khom mthing, on the right knee sKa brag and on the left Bra dum rtse, “the four subduers of the borders” were constructed. Thereafter on the pams of the right hand rLung gnod of Byang tshal and on that of the left pne the ‘Dan klong thang sgron ma of Kham, on the right foot

Byams sprin of Mang yul and on the left, the Bum thang spa gro skyer chu of Mon yul were built and many other monasteries besides. Thereafter, in the middle of the lake O thang, [the king] made a foundation od stone covered with wood. Cement having been made of of the mould of the Nagas and earth having been brought with the help of a goat, the ground was leveled and the monastery of Lhasa, the Ras ‘phrul snang was built...


Above, the passage shows how the new Tibetan kingdom established control over the areas surrounding Tibet in order to establish the Buddhist faith over the territory. The sequence in which the Srin-mo was nailed to the ground reproduces the sequence of conquests, which were ascribed to the reign of Srong brtsan sgam po. The kingdom of Tibet reached sizable dimensions between the 8th and 9th centuries and simultaneously, the Srin-mo's body correspondingly

covers the kingdom. Gianotti explains, “In the correspondence between sacred and political space, natural geography has been reshaped as conventional imagery in order to subjugate (dul ‘ba) the “disorder” caused by the local autonomous divinities with the “order” of the new conquering religion.” Another version of the myth is included in the rGyal rabs gsal ba'I me long (‘Clean Mirror of Royal Genealogies'), by the famous Sa skya pa author, bSod

nams rgyal mtshan (c. 1321-1375), contained a detailed account of king Srong brtsan sgam po's marriage to the Chinese princess, Kong jo. The king's other wife, the Nepalese lady Khri btsun, asks princess Kong jo for astrological advice to find out where the most favorable site the build a temple may be. Wencheng explains the shape Tibet has: a supine demoness (srin mo gan rkyal du nal ba'i gzugs), which needs to be subjugated. The king decides to

permanently put the demoness under control by driving thirteen nails into parts of her body, the nails being the thirteen Buddhist temples erected on her body. As seen here, many of the localities of Tibet are conceived as the abode of evil beings, hostile to Buddhism (examples include klu, klu bud, the'u rang, btsan, mi ma yin, etc.), and contrastingly, many “antagonistic earthly forces” (sa sgra) are relative to the mountains, which are identified in their

topographical shape. Gianotti explains the topography's relation as she says, “This idea, possibly of Bon po origin, of anthropomorphic mountains needing religious edifices to be erected on them in order to neutralize their negativity seems to be a direct antecedent of the myth of the supine demoness.” If

Gianotti's supposition is correct, then the Bon po priests' idea of using religious buildings to render anthropomorphic mountains harmless could be the root of the actions taken by early Buddhists to suppress the Srin-mo. Janet Gyatso speaks on the importance of space and place in relation to the change of religious power:


...the old site of the indigenous religion is associated with some sort of special configuration of the land, in which powers of the deep are perceived as

having particular force. It is a place connected with spirits, spirits that course in a cavernous underground realm, and are often of a female nature or associated with some overarchingly feminine flavor of spirituality. The incoming religion seeks out those very sites, and builds right on top of them. The new structures obliterate the old places of worship, but gain instant history and sacred power thereby. Gyatso's description parallel's Buddhism's transformation in Tibet in the following way. The new religion in Tibet

utilized localities recognized by the Bon religion. The preceding religion recognized the sites to be associated with feminine forces (the Srin-mo). The Srin-mo is banished to the Underworld, which is similar to the underground cavern Gyatso describes. Gyatso describes how the new religion gains instant

recognition, which is analogous to the case of Buddhism. Gyatso's understanding of the gendered implications of temples is as follows: If the Srin-mo is a Mother Earth, then the architectural structures that hold her down must be seen as overtly masculine. At one point in the Srin-mo myth


this is quite explicit: one of the pinning structures is a Siva linga, to be set on the “earth enemy” (sa-dgra) in the east, a place which is “like the Srin-mo's pubic hair.” Vertical buildings, imposing structures.erections; in contrast, the feminine earth is associated with fertility, nurturing,

receptivity-even the stereotype of weakness and vulnerability voiced in Aris' reading of our Srin-mo as “the ancient yet virgin territory waiting to be subjugated and civilized.” The very horizontalness of the ground itself is significant.


As Buddhist representations of the Srin-mo emerge, she is mainly presented in her singular form in three ways: as the progenitrix of the land of Tibet, as the anthropomorphic embodiment of the earth, and as a form of sGrol ma (Skt. Tara). The Srin-mo is described in the plural form as being one of the many

groups of dam can (lit. ‘Vow-holder') divinities subdued by Guru Rin po che (or Padmasambhava) to the Buddhist Dharma. The demoness plays a generative role in sustaining, protecting and nurturing the newborn Buddhist doctrine, and in doing so, links forms of the past religion, Bon, to the proceeding

Buddhist religion. However, the Srin-mo poses a threat to Buddhism. The Srin-mo threatens the wellbeing of the people amongst the inception of Buddhism in Tibet, due to her

oppositional attitudes on the new religious orientations being introduced. As seen above, the Srin-mo played a critical role in the religious transformation in Tibet from Bon to Buddhism. The demoness holds great power throughout the time of Bon, traverses the religious ideological diffusions

between diverging categories of Bon, and links the philosophical and religious metamorphosis in Tibet from Bon to Buddhism. The Srin-mo is seen as a creation character in terms of the birth of the Tibetan people, or Flesh-Eaters, and again in the story of the Demoness and the Ape. Princess Kong jo has

divinations about the Srin- mo, and proposes a way to subdue the demoness and eliminate the threat she poses to Tibetans and the coming of Buddhism. The temples pin the demoness down in distinct places; the same way acupuncture uses set locations to perform particular functions. The next section will

describe geomancy, which means, “divination by means of figures or lines or geographic features,” as well as the relationship between gender and geomancy. Exploring the geomantic construction of the Buddhist temples may help to identify the roles the Srin-mo plays, which may elude to the Srin-mo's impact on

gendered societal values. Elisabeth Stutchbury describes the importance of the landscape of Tibet in the following way: “...the entire environment is understood to pulse with energy of existence. Furthermore, it is not only these currents of energy that are the landscape, embodied in the geographical

features, that are detected and understood, but also the effects on all buildings and habitations.” Tibetans used geomantic tactics so powerful spirits of the land (the Srin-mo) did not overpower the religious governance of Tibet. To best define the wordgeomancy,” a reference to a study by a geographer by

the name of David Nemeth, which so eloquently clarifies the meaning of the word, is shown here: Briefly, “geomancy” is an English word that has been assigned to both the African “science of sand” and the Chinese “wind-and-water” theory. Both African

and Chinese geomancies are systems of divination. Feuchtwang (1974: 231¬235) has elaborated on some of the similarities and differences between them. In both systems the geomantic figures being divined- sand particles or their symbols, and landforms or their symbols- are partly interpreted in relation to

celestial phenomena. Architects of Tibetan governance (such as the Phag mo gru dynasty and the Dga' ldan pho brang government) clarified the impact of the myth and reiterated

the intention of using geomancy to govern. As Martin Mills describes, the intention was meant, “to model one's own government on that of the early imperial period was also to adopt an established understanding of rule as geomancy.” The science of geomancy is a secretive, obscure, and esoteric historical

tradition in Tibet. Often called sa spyad or byung rtsis, Tibetan historians are fairly sure the earthly-divinations of geomancy to have been inherited from China, and not from the Kalacakra-dominated astrological system (from India), which also has geomantic practices. Chinese figures likely brought the

geomantic arts to Tibet, as illustrated in texts such as The Clear Mirror, and the Chinese figures helped to link geomancy to the creation of royal religious space as a basis for auspicious rule. “Textual evidence seems to affirm the Chinese origins of Tibetan geomancy, which is considered to form

part of Tibetan “black astrology” (nag rtsis) while astrological methods derived from India are classed as “white astrology” (dkar rtsis).” The she-demon's existence is a product of the Tibetan's perception to space (adopted from the Chinese) and the spatial understanding shapes the appearance of the

Srin-mo's image. Pin-Ta Wu writes, The concept of gnas translates as “place” and also means the “abode” especially for the “Buddhist deities' mandalic abodes” as well as a “sense of

efficacious space” shaped by both the relationship between humans and deities. Due to the nay conception, Srinmo could be defined as a landscaping combination in both the extension of place and the display of space with the abode of spirit forces of all kinds of deities.


In Pin-Ta Wu's work, the following considerations are made: “In Massey's idea, the geographies with gender ideology are not only important in the construction of ‘symbolic' meaning of spaces/places,” but also “reflect and affect the ways in which gender is constructed and understood.” Understanding

the motivations behind the geomantic formations can tell us about how eleventh to fourteenth century Tibetan Buddhists understood the “conversion” from Bon to Buddhism in Tibet. Martin Mills examines the demoness myth; “in a direction concomitant with an awareness of the key place that geomancy has in Tibetan culture and religious life.” I have looked at myths of the Srin-mo and dipped into the idea of geomancy, and now a stronger analysis can be examined on what implications the information may hold.


In clerical Tibetan Buddhism, the society is encapsulated with certain understandings of women as being “low-born.” In the feminist perspective, the Srin-mo is a representation of the societal oppression of women. Here, the Srin-mo is seen as an oppressed female body, which is stereotyped by religious

patriarchy, which put all the evil personalities into the Srin-mo's naked body, and undoubtedly unveils the act of violence with legitimacy to limit the mobility of the Srin-mo. Mills explains the following as a counter argument to the posed feminist argument:


If we look at the supine demoness element in this wider context, then to assert that it represents a celibate Buddhist male suppression of the feminine seems peculiar at best, for a variety of reasons. In the first case, it ignore the fact that the entire interpretive project - of seeing Tibet as a

demoness capable of being nailed down- was presented not by a male celibate monastic, but by a female dynastic figure- the princess Kong jo, in answer to a request from another female dynastic figure, the princess Khri btsun. Moreover, the binding-down temples- whilst now monasteries that do indeed belong to

the various clerical Buddhist schools, not least the wholly celibate Dge lugs pa- were primarily placed at sites of royal marriage rather than celibate monasticism.


Mills explains, “At the heart of the feminist argument is the assertion that the image of the supine demoness is a mythic formulation of the patriarchal gender categories of a celibate monastic elite.” Looking at just the clerical aspects of the Srin-mo forces tunnel vision upon the viewer, and disregards

many other aspects of Tibetan religious culture. The divination of princess Kong jo is based on geomantic divination, not exclusively stratified sexual imagery. Separating the process of vertical suppression on the supinely positioned demoness from the processes of horizontal opposition is problematic

because the latter is less amenable to feminist and psychoanalytical images of sexual repression. The feminist argument of the demoness as an example of male suppression in Tibet only works if the dynastic tale is ignored.


Wu writes about the function of Tibetan temples as he says the following: We could realize that the Tibetan temples are not only the representation of the religious powers (the form of patriarchy) in stereotyping and fixing (or

even prisoning) Srinmo as an irreversible evil characters into the gendering geographies but also an active, symbolic way of a Buddhist activation in ritualizing a mandalic space.


Here, Wu expresses an understanding of misogynistic tendencies found in religious institutions' utilization of the Srin-mo. Ana Marko writes, “These monasteries are privileged custodians of myth. But, being largely male preserves, this privilege skews the construction of gender in the mythic philosophies. This can be seen through a consideration of the myth of srin-mo, or woman the demon who personifies Tibetan territory.” Marko provides no further evidence of how monasteries skew mythic philosophies, other than providing the maleness of such institutions. Applying gender theories to the case

of the Srin-mo and Tibet is a bit presumptuous in nature, but if the task is to be done, strenuous attention must be taken upon how to carry out such an examination. Marko seems to cut such considerations short in the same way the feminist lens extrapolated and projected opinions onto the Srin- mo. Both

cases were lacking sufficient evidence for the conclusions made. I find mapping the subversion of the demoness onto my understanding of societal pressures on women to be problematic, and the said mapping does not hold in the Tibetan context.


Another scholar, Toni Huber, turns attention to a scenario in Tibet where women were excluded from religious activities. I see a relationship between the information Huber presents and princess Kong jo's divinations of the Srin-mo. Huber examined the ritual prohibitions of Tsa ri, a sacred mountain in

southeastern Tibet, to analyze how women are excluded from certain pilgrimage routes around the mountain because the women's bodies might pollute the female divine forms manifested in the landscape. Only male ascetics are able to drink from the stream whose red waters are understood to be the menstrual

blood of the goddess Vajravarahi. The reasons given for women's exclusion in the region involves the women being banished by female divine figures. While women may be cast as the ones who are oppressed, “the divine female figures involved are often evoked as the very reason for that very subordination,

rather than as the victims of it.” Huber's findings add a dimension to the argument in direct opposition to the feminist perspective of how the Srin-mo myth affects women. Mills explains:


In light of Huber's ethnography, we can no longer take an equation between the supine demoness and the social class of Tibetan women as a given; indeed I would argue that the “supine demoness as patriarchal ideology” thesis only makes sense if we do scholastic violence either to the story of which it was a

part or to the culture from which it emerged. As Mills mentions, excluding any part of the Srin-mo myth, solely to make a point, takes the myth's original emphasis out of context. Doing so would be an

academic transgression, which does not augment to, either, the field of gender, or religious studies. My goal is to apply the current bodies of work and my own genuine considerations to understanding how and if the Srin-mo was created to have, or has ever gained, a gendered meaning with intentional, societal

motivations.


The pre-Bon and Bon myths suggest how, in the beginning, the land of Tibet is a land of savage demons. Before Bon po priests suppressed the demons, the Bon class of Srin, which includes both the male and female counterparts (the Srin-po and the Srin-mo, respectively), haunts and threatens the wellbeing of humans. When princess Kong jo had a divination, and the idea of pinning down the Srin-mo was first conceived, let us not forget that a female character

originates the idea. Had a powerful, Buddhist male figure initiated the process of subduing the Srin-mo, more evidence may point towards the idea of the Srin-mo as a representation of female oppression. While the feminist argument of the Srin-mo as being a representation of female oppression does exist, a

combination of the examinations of the original myths and of the origination of the demoness dating back to pre-Bon religious life do not suggest the Demoness to exemplify a notion of the suppression of women. But the Srin-mo predates the Buddhist monastic world, and additionally was envisioned by a

female dynastic figure. Martin Mills explained how women, as a group, are not the victims of subordination in the current matter because the choice to suppress the Srin-mo was a female religious figure's idea. Additionally, the Srin-mo is understood to be very powerful, and possesses a vast amount of

capabilities. As the transition from the Bon religion to Buddhism occurred in Tibet, thirteen temples were needed to subdue the deity. Her male counterparts could have easily ignored the conceptualization by princess Kong jo, but instead, her directions were followed, which serves as evidence of

female agency, influence and authority. Claiming a matriarchy would be a sweeping overstatement, and ample evidence of a patriarchal structured, monastic life in Tibet exists. But historical verification of the Srin-mo being used as a tool in a patriarchal system lacks fortitude due to the representations of

female power, which are additionally present. In my paper, considerable attention was given to the inception of the Srin-mo as appearing in the Bon religious sphere. Looking at the motivations behind an idea is telling of the intentions of actions taken in the name of such an idea.


When the logic is applied to the case of the Srin-mo, the motivations and intentions behind the Srin-mo's inception do not seem to be motivated by notions of oppressing a gender. In my opinion, gendered oppression cannot be named as a motivation behind the inception of the Srin-mo because both the Srin-mo and

the Srin-po ruled the land prior to the Bon religious diffusions. Looking again at princess Kong jo's divination of the Srin-mo, the person taking the action was a female, herself, and the figure that ordered the divination was, additionally, female. The king took the advice of the female's divination,


and acted on her orders. Essentially, the decision to subdue the Srin-mo by building the first thirteen decisions was a female conceived abstraction, not a male dictation imposed upon females. The feminist interpretation appears to be a remapping of Western understanding onto Tibetan religiosity, and is


extremely problematic. The projection's purpose adds to the case of the Western feminist, while taking legitimate formidability away from the female characters found in the Srin-mo myth. A convenient answer to how the Srin-mo affects the social status of women in Tibet has not been made apparent, but what cannot be concluded - a male insinuated, female oppression- from the historical myth of the Srin-mo has been made apparent.


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