A Brief History of the Bön Tradition and
its Founder
Common Misconceptions and Misunderstandings
The word Bön is as old as the history of Tibet itself. The term has been used to describe many different traditions and used in many different contexts, some positive and some negative. In this book, I am concerned with the ancient indigenous religion of Tibet, a tradition and teaching lineage founded by Tonpa Shenrab Miwo thousands of years before Buddhism. This Bön tradition is also referred to as Yungdrung Bön. The spiritual practitioners of the Bön religion are referred to as Bönpo.
Yungdrung Bön represents the oldest known form of what people in the West generally think of as Tibetan Buddhism. This ancient, unbroken continuity of spiritual teachings extends back thousands of years, and may be considered the philosophical and cultural basis for all other forms of Tibetan Buddhism. Many parts of the Tibetan culture originated with Yungdrung Bön, including Tibetan Sang offering, prayer flags, Tibetan medicine, healing practices, philosophy, and many of the traditional rituals used today by almost all Tibetan lineages.
Before the birth of Tonpa Shenrab, there were several indigenous religions in Zhang-Zhung, Tibet, and the surrounding regions which were also known by the name Bön. Many of these involved elaborate ritual animal sacrifices for propitiating gods or deities and for ensuring the transfer of power safely within the ruling families. These ancient “primitive Bön” traditions may have had many similarities to what today we call shamanism, but the early primitive religions are very different from the Bön tradition founded by Tonpa Shenrab. This misconception has resulted in an inaccurate linkage between Bön and shamanism, leading to many inaccuracies in the portrayal of contemporary Bön as described within Western literature. So, it is important to note that these early Zhang-Zhung and Tibetan practices involving shamanism and animal sacrifices are different from the religion and practices of Tonpa Shenrab and Yungdrung Bön.
The teachings of Tonpa Shenrab never involved animal sacrifices. One of his first achievements was to reform the practice of animal sacrifices by substituting a ritual symbolic of animal sacrifice through the making of tormas (prayer cakes made in the shape of animals). This compassionate approach eliminated the need to take the lives of real animals. He explained to his followers that to kill animals created negative karma and so he instructed them in the making of tormas, red and white cakes made from flour and butter molded into the shape of animal figures, as symbolic offerings. Thus, we cannot refer to the Yungdrung Bön as shamanism in the traditional sense.
Moreover, in the Tibetan language there is no word that translates directly as “shaman”. “Shaman” is an expression that has its origin in Siberia. Nevertheless, there are some similarities between Siberian shamanism and primitive forms of Tibetan religious practices. There are also some similarities in their world-views, rituals, and even in the traditional garb and feather headdresses worn during ceremonies. Like Siberian shamanism, ancient Tibetan spirituality was animistic and focused on formless deities and spirits who lived in the land, water, plants, rocks, storms, and so forth. These ancient practitioners made offerings to local nature spirits, often by sacrificing animals. These ancient Tibetans also called themselves Bönpo.
The understanding of Bön by the general public can become even more confused when we consider the primitive peoples that currently live on the borders of Tibet, Bhutan, India and Nepal. These people also call themselves Bönpo,and continue to sacrifice animals and perform rituals that are contrary to the teachings of Tonpa Shenrab. Since the religious practices, traditions, and lineages of such people are very different from Yungdrung Bön, they are not to be mistaken with the Bönpo who are followers of Tonpa Shenrab.