One of the difficulties of writing about the Bon religion’s early practices is that no known Bon holy scriptures existed until they were written down in the tenth century.
As we have seen, many writers today believe that there may have been a Tibetan script before the time of Songtsen Gampo, but at present, we have no manuscripts to prove this.
The earliest known religion of Tibet was not Bon (though some writers refer to it as ‘Early Bon’) but a simple religion that saw gods at work in nature’s power. Like many other early cultures around the world, the early Tibetans believed that trees, mountains, rivers and valleys were all the homes of the gods.
These gods had both good and bad sides – just as a river can provide life-giving water and destroy life in a bad flood. Simple religious practices grew up around these gods. Offerings of food, incense and even stones were made at high passes or river crossings, where it was thought the gods lived.
Halfway up to the Bonri Kora
Bon seems to have arrived in Tibet as a new religion after the death of the eighth king of Tibet. It may well have been spread by merchants and traders who came to Tibet from the west – possibly from Persia.
Certainly, the scripture written in the tenth century describes a perfect land in the west called Ol-mo Lung-ring, which was said to be in the shape of an eight-petalled flower.
According to the scriptures, the founder of the Bon religion was Lord Shenrab. He was one of three heavenly brothers who wanted to relieve the suffering of all living beings.
The first brother, Dagpa, took charge of the past ages, Lord Shenrab the present, and Shespa, Bon followers believe, is still to come.
In Bon holy texts, Lord Shenrab spends much of his time battling with demons. He is said to have visited Tibet in pursuit of a devil who had stolen his seven horses. Once there, he started to teach the Tibetans but found then unready to receive his doctrines. The Bon holy scriptures were later brought to the Tibet by a disciple of one of Shenrab’s followers.
Rest on the way to Bonri Kora
In practice, the Bon religion becomes very closely linked to the Yarlung King of Tibet. Bon priests conducted elaborate ceremonies to subdue the evil world of the spirits of the dead and to teach and show Tibetans the path to the gods of the sky – of which the king of Tibet was believed to be one.
Their funeral ceremonies were intended to free man from feat pf the dead, and it was their success in doing this that brought the Bon priests their power and influence.
Some writers have suggested that it may have been the chief Bon priest who held the real power in the early Tibetan kingdom.
After the Royal Family adopted Buddhism in the seventh century and the threat that this posed, Bon emerged as a fully organised religion. Both religions borrowed or adapted many practices from each other. But they were also rivals, and each went through periods of persecution.
In King Trisong Detsen (755-797), Bon priests were banished from central Tibet, and their sacred books were hidden. Many claims were later made about the rediscovery of these books in the tenth century.
Whether they were rediscovered or not, the great Bon scholar, Shen Chen Kludga, worked out a doctrine of Bon religious practices and did much to reconcile Bon with Buddhism. Four great monasteries were founded in Tsang, where Bon monks spent their lives in meditation and prayer.
Under the fifth Dalai Lama, Bon once more suffered persecution, but the religion could not be destroyed. Indeed, it has continued to develop, with new teachers and scholars, until the present day.
