From Religion to Spirituality

Abstract

Comments on Tibetan religion followed a similar pattern to those on Tibetans as a racial or social unit. During the first half of the twentieth century, and particularly in the 1920s and 1930s, the sense of ‘Western’ superiority that we saw in many late nineteenth-century accounts began to disappear and was replaced with a more nuanced picture which ascribed both positive and negative powers to Tibetan religion, and often regarded Tibet as a source of great spirituality. This, it will be seen, reflected growing concerns about a supposed lack of spirituality and an allegedly overstated positivism in the West. In some ways, the contrast between late nineteenth-century representations and those of the 1920s and 1930s was even starker in comments on religion than it was in attitudes towards Tibetans as people. Less concrete than actual people, Tibetan religion could offer an even blanker canvas for European fantasies and worries.