西藏文化中的死亡預測與對治

Tibetan Death Divinations and Rituals

曾德明(Te-ming Tseng)

《臺灣宗教研究》 7卷2期 (2008/12) Pp. 77-92

摘要

西藏在地理上位居東亞與中亞、南亞交界之「世界屋脊」，文化上折衝於中國、波斯、印度等各大古老文明之間，在歷史的淵遠長流中發展出多元且深具特色的文化風貌。西藏文化豐富多彩，其中尤以死亡文化倍受各方矚目。然而，學界對西藏死亡文化的論述大都偏重於與佛教思想相關的討論，例如：「移識法」（'pho ba）、「中陰聽聞解脫」（bar do thos grol）等方面的探討。相對而言，西藏平民百姓的死亡概念仍然頗受忽略，相關研究並不多見，除了一些介紹葬儀種類和習俗的一般性文章之外，僅有若干涉及藏人對鬼怪的想像和恐懼，以及驅魔的消災法術等方面的零星報導。至於一般藏人對死亡的看法，例如：死亡的原因、死亡可能帶來的災難與障礙，以及亡者與家屬之間的關係等等屬於非佛教的民間死亡觀，目前仍然缺乏嚴謹而有系統的研究。本論文的目的在探索藏人如何預測死亡，以及如何對治因家人死亡所帶來的噩運。討論主要根據「漢藏命理學」領域的藏文名作《白琉璃》（Vaidurya dkar po）和一份記載民間常用消災儀軌的重要文獻《吉祥滿願》（bKra shis 'dod' jo）之中與死亡相關的描述。

關鍵字

西藏學 ； 西藏死亡文化 ； 西藏民間信仰 ； 西藏宗教文化

並列摘要

Being located on the ＂roof of the world＂, Tibet finds itself at the meeting point of the eastern, central and southern parts of Asia, from where the ancient civilizations of China, Persia and India originated. Constant interactions between Tibet and its neighboring areas during the course of history have contributed to the multifaceted features of the Tibet culture. Among the diverse aspects of the Tibetan culture, the Tibetan views of death have attracted the attention of many people. Scholars have focused their discussions on the influence of Buddhist thoughts on the Tibetan views of death, especially on ＂transferring the consciousness of a dead＂ (＂pho ba) and ＂the Tibetan books of the death＂ (bar do thos grol). Little attention has been paid to the conceptions of death of the ordinary Tibetans. Besides some general introductions to the burial modes and customs, there are only sporadic reports on the imagination and fear of ghosts or on the sorceries for dispelling ghosts. No thorough and systematic examination has been made in the ordinary Tibetans＂/non-Buddhist attitude toward death, e.g. the cause of death, possible calamities and hindrances as results of a death event, the relationship between the dead and the surviving members of the family, etc. The purpose of this study is to investigate how the Tibetans predict a death event and how they avoid misfortune which could be resulted from the death of a family member. The discussions are based mainly on the depictions relating to death in two Tibetan texts: Vaidurya dkar po, the classic of Sino-Tibetan divination, and bKra shis 'dod 'jo, an important text in which diverse popular rituals for driving out adversities are compiled.

並列關鍵字

Tibetan Studies ； Tibetan death culture ； Tibetan folk religion ； Tibetan religious culture