The insides and outsides of a Tibetan Buddhist ritual on the outskirts of Sujātā village

Tibetan Buddhists engage in a number of ritual activities for various reasons including, among others, to generate merit, to purify negativities, or to protect against malevolent forces. In this chapter I describe a ritual that I participated in outside Sujātā village in late 2000. I relate the narrative to the study of ritual in Buddhist traditions and to the insider/outsider relation in the study of Buddhism(s).