Tibetan Buddhism teaches compassion toward all beings, a category that
explicitly includes animals. Slaughtering animals is morally problematic
at best and, at worst, completely incompatible with a religious
lifestyle. Yet historically most Tibetans--both monastic and lay--have
made meat a regular part of their diet. In this study of the place of
vegetarianism within Tibetan religiosity, Geoffrey Barstow explores the
tension between Buddhist ethics and Tibetan cultural norms to offer a
novel perspective on the spiritual and social dimensions of meat eating.
Food of Sinful Demons shows the centrality of vegetarianism to the
cultural history of Tibet through specific ways in which nonreligious
norms and ideals shaped religious beliefs and practices. Barstow offers
a detailed analysis of the debates over meat eating and vegetarianism,
from the first references to such a diet in the tenth century through
the Chinese invasion in the 1950s. He discusses elements of Tibetan
Buddhist thought--including monastic vows, the Buddhist call to
compassion, and tantric antinomianism--that see meat eating as morally
problematic. He then looks beyond religious attitudes to examine the
cultural, economic, and environmental factors that oppose the Buddhist
critique of meat, including Tibetan concepts of medicine and health,
food scarcity, the display of wealth, and idealized male gender roles.
Barstow argues that the issue of meat eating was influenced by a complex
interplay of factors, with religious perspectives largely supporting
vegetarianism while practical concerns and secular ideals pulled in the
other direction. He concludes by addressing the surge in vegetarianism
in contemporary Tibet in light of evolving notions of Tibetan identity
and resistance against the central Chinese state. The first book to
discuss this complex issue, Food of Sinful Demons is essential reading
for scholars interested in Tibetan religion, history, and culture as
well as global food history.
