Editing Bon (section)

{{Short description|Tibetan religion}}
{{About|the Tibetan religion}}
{{EngvarB|date=March 2023}}
{{Bon}}
[[File:Tonpa Shenrab.jpg|thumb|A statue of [[Tonpa Shenrab Miwoche|Tonpa Shenrab]], the central [[Buddhahood|Buddha]] in Yungdrung Bon]]
'''Bon''' or '''Bön''' ({{bo|t=བོན་|w=bon|l=pʰø̃̀|z=Pön}}), also known as '''Yungdrung Bon''' ({{bo|w=gyung drung bon|t=གཡུང་དྲུང་བོན་|z=Yungchung Pön}}, {{literally|eternal Bon}}), is the indigenous [[Religion in Tibet|Tibetan religion]] which shares many similarities and influences with [[Tibetan Buddhism]].<ref name="Samuel">Samuel 2012, pp. 220–221.</ref> It initially developed in the tenth and eleventh centuries<ref>{{cite book |last1 = Kværne |first1 = Per |author-link1 = Per Kværne |year = 1995 |title = The Bon Religion of Tibet: The Iconography of a Living Tradition |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=Cg8SAQAAIAAJ |publication-place = Boston, Massachusetts |publisher = Shambhala |page = 13 |isbn = 9781570621864 |access-date = 4 November 2022 |quote = According to its own historical perspective, Bon was introduced into Tibet many centuries before Buddhism and enjoyed royal patronage until it was finally supplanted by the 'false religion' (i.e. Buddhism) from India{{nbsp}}...}}</ref> but retains elements from earlier [[Religion in Tibet|Tibetan religious traditions]].<ref>Samuel 2012, p. 220.</ref><ref name=":21">Kvaerne 1996, pp. 9–10.</ref> Bon is a significant [[minority religion]] in Tibet, especially in the east, as well as in the surrounding [[Himalayas|Himalayan regions]].<ref name="Samuel" /><ref name=":21" />

The relationship between Bon and [[Tibetan Buddhism]] has been a subject of debate. According to the modern scholar [[Geoffrey Samuel]], while Bon is "essentially a variant of Tibetan Buddhism" with many resemblances to [[Nyingma]], it also preserves some genuinely ancient pre-Buddhist elements.<ref name="Samuel" /> [[David Snellgrove]] likewise sees Bon as a form of [[Buddhism]], albeit a [[heterodoxy|heterodox]] kind.<ref name="Powers 2007, pp. 500–501">Powers 2007, pp. 500–501</ref> Similarly, [[John Powers (academic)|John Powers]] writes that "historical evidence indicates that Bön only developed as a self-conscious religious system under the influence of Buddhism".<ref name="Powers 2007, p. 497">Powers (2007), p. 497.</ref>

Followers of Bon, known as "Bonpos" (Wylie: {{transliteration|bo|bon po}}), believe that the religion originated in a kingdom called [[Zhangzhung]], located around [[Mount Kailash]] in the [[Himalayas]].<ref>Karmay, Samten G., "Extract from 'A General Introduction to the History and Doctrines of Bon'", in Alex McKay, ed. ''History of Tibet, Volume 1'' (New York: Routledge, 2003), 496–9.</ref> Bonpos hold that Bon was brought first to Zhangzhung, and then to Tibet.<ref>Namdak, Lopon Tenzin, ''Heart Drops of Dharmakaya'' (Ithaca: Snow Lion Publications, 2002).</ref> Bonpos identify the Buddha [[Shenrab Miwo]] (Wylie: ''gshen rab mi bo'') as Bon's founder, although no available sources establish this figure's historicity.<ref>Karmay, 499.</ref>

Western scholars have posited several origins for Bon, and have used the term "Bon" in many ways. A distinction is sometimes made between an ancient Bon ({{bo|w=bon rnying}}), dating back to the [[History of Tibet#Early history (c. 500 BC – AD 618)|pre-dynastic era]] before 618 CE; a classical Bon tradition (also called ''Yungdrung Bon'' – {{bo|w=g.yung drung bon}}) which emerged in the 10th and 11th centuries;<ref>
{{cite book
 |last1                = Kang
 |first1               = Xiaofei
 |last2                = Sutton
 |first2               = Donald S.
 |year                 = 2016
 |chapter              = Garrison City in the Ming: Indigenes and the State in Greater Songpan
 |title                = Contesting the Yellow Dragon: Ethnicity, Religion, and the State in the Sino-Tibetan Borderland, 1379–2009
 |url                  = https://books.google.com/books?id=wOAzDwAAQBAJ
 |series               = Religion in Chinese Societies ISSN 1877-6264, Volume 10
 |publication-place    = Leiden
 |publisher            = Brill
 |page                 = 32
 |isbn                 = 9789004319233
 |access-date          = 4 November 2022
 |quote                = [...] Yungdrung Bon [...] emerged in the 10th and 11th centuries, along with the second rise of Buddhism in Tibet, and continues as a minority practice among Tibetans in both the People's Republic and overseas.
}} 
</ref>
and "New Bon" or Bon Sar ({{bo|w=bon gsar}}), a late syncretic movement dating back to the 14th century and active in eastern Tibet.<ref name="Achard2015">{{cite journal|last= Achard|first= Jean-Luc|year= 2015|title= On the Canon Bönpo of the Collège de France Institute of Tibetan Studies|url= https://journals.openedition.org/lettre-cdf/2225|journal= La Lettre du Collège de France|publisher= Collège de France|issue= 9|pages= 108–109|doi= 10.4000/lettre-cdf.2225 |access-date=2021-02-15|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{cite book|last= Keown|first= Damien|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=3ZQoszLjWBkC&q=B%C3%B6n&pg=PT111|title= Oxford Dictionary of Buddhism|publisher= [[Oxford University Press]]|year= 2003|isbn= 0-19-860560-9|author-link= Damien Keown}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite web|last= Achard|first= Jean Luc|title= The Three Kinds of Bon (The Treasury of Lives: A Biographical Encyclopedia of Tibet, Inner Asia and the Himalayan Region)|url=https://treasuryoflives.org/foundations|access-date=2022-01-28 |website= The Treasury of Lives|language=en}}</ref>

Tibetan Buddhist scholarship tends to cast Bon in a negative, adversarial light, with derogatory stories about Bon appearing in a number of Buddhist histories.<ref>Samuel, Geoffrey, "Shamanism, Bon, and Tibetan Religion," in Alex McKay, ed. ''History of Tibet, Volume 1'' (New York: Routledge, 2003), 462–3.</ref> The [[Rimé movement]] within Tibetan Buddhism encouraged more ecumenical attitudes between Bonpos and Buddhists. Western scholars began to take Bon seriously as a religious tradition worthy of study in the 1960s, in large part inspired by the work of English scholar [[David Snellgrove]].<ref>Samuel, 465-7.</ref> Following the [[Chinese invasion of Tibet]] in 1950, Bonpo scholars began to arrive in [[Europe]] and [[North America]], encouraging interest in Bon in [[Western world|the West]].<ref>Samuel, 465.</ref> Today, a proportion of Tibetans – both in Tibet and in the [[Tibetan diaspora]] – practise Bon, and there are Bonpo centers in cities around the world.