ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that though religious images in circulation among Tibetan Buddhists retain some of the features which A. Gell describes as ‘distributed personhood’, other factors in their production and use are of greater significance for Tibetan viewers than his ‘general theory of idolatry’ would suggest. In the nexus in which Tibetan images circulate, political factors are undeniable and their production is enmeshed in discursive regimes in which both elite individuals and the larger community negotiate. The shape of the land ‘Tibet’ has taken on an iconic status, instantly recognizable to Tibetans and their supporters worldwide, as confirmation that an independent Tibet existed and covered a section of the globe as large as Western Europe. The Tibetan reaction to the destruction of the distributed personhood of the Buddha was to replace his form with that of the Dalai Lama. According to Tibetan Buddhist principles, the personhood of any individual is only temporarily housed within a particular body.
