Object structure
Title:

Remarks on the Lesser-known Founders of the Myth of Tibet

Subtitle:

Ethnologia Polona 37 2016 (2017)

Creator:

Klafkowski, Piotr

Publisher:

Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology Polish Academy of Sciences

Place of publishing:

Warsaw

Date issued/created:

2017

Description:

ill. ; 24 cm

Type of object:

Journal/Article

Subject and Keywords:

Tibet ; orientalism ; Baird T. Spalding ; Edwin John Dingle ; Theodore Illion ; popular culture ; esoteric philosophy

Abstract:

This article presents three writers from the 20th century who are the lesser-known founders of the popular myth of Tibet: Baird T. Spalding (1872.1953), Edwin John Dingle (1881.1972) and Theodore Illion (1898?.1984) who also went by the name of Theodor Burang or Theodor Nolling. They are not as well-known as Helena P. Blavatsky, Alexandra David Neel and Cyril Henry Hoskin; the latter known as Lobsang Rampa, but their contributions to Tibet as it is today, especially in regard to so called oriental spirituality in popular culture, is significant. They created an imagined Tibet in their works. Spalding knew nothing of India and Tibet and he was wrong in almost every detail mentioned. Dingle did not mention any Tibetan details at all and it is Theodore Illion in his In Secret Tibet who seems to be the most authentic of the three. In my article I posit the question whether Spalding and Dingle simply wanted to share with others their interpretations of Christianity dressed up in an Oriental disguise

References:

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Relation:

Ethnologia Polona

Volume:

37

Start page:

53

End page:

66

Resource type:

Text

Detailed Resource Type:

Article

Format:

application/pdf

Resource Identifier:

0137-4079

Source:

IAiE PAN, call no. P 366 ; IAiE PAN, call no. P 367 ; IAiE PAN, call no. P 368 ; click here to follow the link

Language:

eng

Rights:

Rights Reserved - Free Access

Digitizing institution:

Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology of the Polish Academy of Sciences

Original in:

Library of the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology of the Polish Academy of Sciences

Access:

Open

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