ABSTRACT
This 'folk religion' has flourished alongside the teachings and liturgy which are the special province of the monks and which are passed on in the various religious schools; everywhere among the Tibetans one can perceive in the beliefs of the people the survival of the multifarious and all-encompassing pre-Buddhist beliefs of the land of snow. Besides, the observation that every new religion seeks to incorporate within itself the totality of beliefs which it finds already in existence is as true here as elsewhere. In Tibet the situation was particularly favourable for the admission of indigenous religious elements, because there were remarkable analogies between the local traditions and the world of Tantrism, and both were governed by a similar psychological atmosphere. Already in India Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism had willingly accepted the heritage of folk religion. It is enough in this connection to recall scriptures such as the Mahamayuri and other tendencies common in many places, e.g. in Uddiyana (Swat), or in Bengal, where an important part of the Tantr ic scriptures was written down. One can also think of certain doctrinal formulation such as the inclusion of folk deities ('jig rten pa) in Tantr ic 'families' and so on. This theme became once again in Tibet the object of heated debates, because the problem of the compatibility of the indigenous numina and dii minores with the deities of
way that the religious life of the Tibetan has acquired its extraordinary richness of forms.
