Home > Books & Publications > Books by Title A-Z >

Bodhisattva's Body in a Pill: The Material and Spiritual History of a Buddhist Relic Tradition
By: James Duncan Gentry
The Bodhisattva's Body in a Pill
 
Our Price: $49.50
Author: James Duncan Gentry
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 9789370899247
Publication Date: 2026


Availability: Usually Ships in 24 Hours
Product Code: 9780813954653
Qty:

Description About the author
 
The first historical study of the medicinal mani pill and its profound spiritual significance in Tibetan religion and culture

The mani pill is one of the most popular relic traditions in Tibetan Buddhism. Treasured around the globe, mani pills are small edible pellets formed from mixing the powdered bodily remains of buddhas and bodhisattvas with ingredients used in Tibetan medicine and sanctified through a tantric liturgy. Mani pills are today predominantly produced by the Fourteenth Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso, who consecrates and distributes hundreds of thousands annually, but the tradition of producing and consuming mani pills stretches back more than a millennium.

Examining the broad cultural history of Buddhist tantra in Tibet through the lens of the mani pill, James Gentry illustrates how these pills have influenced Tibetan conceptions of the body, medicine, healing, collective identity, and shared past; how they have functioned as a point of interaction, contestation, and negotiation between different Buddhist sects and institutions; and how they have created and shaped social bonds and religious identity across Tibet and beyond to the present day.

The Bodhisattva's Body in a Pill: The Material and Spiritual History of a Buddhist Relic Tradition, James Duncan Gentry, University of Virginia Press, Paperback, 402 pages, $49.50

Share your knowledge of this product with other customers... Be the first to write a review

Browse for more products in the same category as this item:

Books & Publications > Books by Title A-Z