Bhutan: The Early History of a Himalayan Kingdom by Michael ArisReview by: Steven B. GoodmanJournal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 107, No. 4 (Oct. - Dec., 1987), pp. 840-841Published by: American Oriental SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/603382 .

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840 Journal of the American Oriental Society 107.4 (1987)

A Missionary Social Worker in India: J. B. Hoffmann, The Chota Nagpur Tenancy Act and the Catholic Co-operatives 1893-1928. By PETER TETE, S. J. Pp. xix + 191. (Docu- menta Missionalia. Vol. 18) Rome: GREGORIAN UNI-

VERSITY. 1984. $25.00.

When one hears of 'Jesuits' in connection with India, either early pioneers of inculturation, such as De Nobili and Beschi, or of outstanding recent scholars, such as Bulcke or Antoine are likely to be recalled. Yet outside the mainstream of Hindu India were others about whom we hear too little, such as the German J. B. Hoffmann (1857-1928) of the Ranchi Mission, who spent himself in service to the Tribal peoples of Chota Nagpur, the Mundas, Oraons and Kharias.

While nowadays the Jharkhand Movement is a sensitive issue, and missionaries are under intense scrutiny-so much so that there is little they can do besides compiling diction- aries and writing learned articles without risking deportation- Hoffmann belonged to quite a different era, one in which the socioeconomic concerns of the Tribals preoccupied members of the Ranchi Mission. Fr. Constant Lievens, Hoffmann's controversial predecessor, exhausted himself in arousing among the Tribals a sense of injustice and in organizing effective resistance vis-a-vis non-Tribal landlords, lease- holders and moneylenders, even to the extent of repudiating bethbegari (compulsory labor) and withholding exorbitant rents. Hoffmann campaigned on behalf of the Tribals more diplomatically, finally convincing government that their tra- ditional land-ownership system deserved legal recognition. Hoffmann believed it was not enough to simply defend the right of the Tribals to their land, and so he struggled to establish an agricultural and banking cooperative controlled by the tribals themselves, a venture that proved only partially successful. Undergirding his varied activities was his belief that his mission included a responsibility to preserve whatever knowledge he could of a culture that he felt was on the verge of extinction. The result, published irregularly in fascicles and mainly written while serving as chaplain to a German military hospital following his forced repatriation in 1915, was the Encyclopaedia Mundarica.

Tete's work is welcome, especially his detailed study of the role Hoffmann played in the Chota Nagpur Tenancy Act. However, insofar as Tete, himself a Tribal and a Jesuit, is offering us a biography of a missionary of his own Order who was sent to his own people, he is somewhat disap- pointing. Critically objective at times but tending to 'canon- ize' his subject at others, he is also throughout the book strangely apologetic in attempting to reconcile Hoffmann's 'secular' activities with his 'spiritual' calling as a missionary. Though such concerns as these may be distractive to certain types of readers, there is substantial merit in this book,

particularly for students of land-tenure policy and Christian missions.

RICHARD Fox YOUNG

MEIJI GAKUIN UNIVERSITY

Bhutan: The Early History of a Himalayan Kingdom. By MICHAEL ARIS. Pp. xxxiv + 344. Plates 31. Warminster: ARIS & PHILLIPS LTD. 1979.

The subject matter of this book has been virtually unex- plored to date, largely because its sources have consisted of oral traditions and written accounts by later monastic histori- ans. As the author points out, these later versions of popular traditions, reconstituted with evident sectarian bias, tell us more about the state of affairs in medieval Bhutan than the ancient times to which they refer.

In order to create a fresh perspective of Bhutan's early history, Aris has collected numerous source materials, both oral and written, including some previously unavailable, to which he has added linguistic and archaeological evidence. Yet it is his unique historical perspective towards somewhat scant sources which gives this "history" an insightful and interesting flavor. While attempting to mine the ore of historical "fact" embedded in legend, the author admits to a greater concern with "the psychological attitudes of the society for which the myth acts as statement of truth." Although his method is not structuralist per se, he explores and analyzes several consistent themes which permeate the origin myths of Bhutan. Besides accounting for their his- torical beginnings, Aris finds that these legends express the tensions which the Bhutanese feel between the assertion of their distinct cultural identity and their role within the cultural world of Tibetan Buddhism. His appreciation is for the functions which these myths serve for their audience; a function which, he asserts, "is as revealing of a people's inner aspirations and history as hard fact."

Hard fact is certainly not lacking in this well documented and carefully organized work. Particularly for the medieval history surrounding Bhutan's founder, the Zhabs-drung Ngag-dbang rNam-rgyal in Part III, we are provided with a meticulous account of the genesis of the theocratic state under the 'Brug-pa lineage. The earlier religious history of the country (10th to 17th century) is outlined in Part II. This is recounted by way of separate treatments of the various religious lineages and schools which interacted and vied for dominance against the ethnic and geographical complexity of the region. This fragmentation, reflected in the source materials, is said to be an accurate portrayal of the period

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Brief Review of Books 841

preceding the unification of the country under Ngag-dbang rNam-rgyal. The modern era (18th to 20th century) is only cursorily summed up in the final section, being tangential to the principle focus of the book.

The heart of the book, comprising one half of its volume, is the first section, which examines a number of origin myths through which "history" consists of insights gleaned from legends. The first of these is the founding of the first Buddhist temples by the renowned Tibetan King Srong-bstan sGam-po (c.627-49). In his analysis the author brings to bear both a familiarity with Chinese and Tibetan geomancy and a careful survey of the extant physical evidence, including the pur- ported temples themselves and such items as an ancient and unique inscribed votive bell (cong). Other legends examined include that of the "Sindhu Raja," reputedly an expatriot Indian king and patron of Padmasambhava, and the similarly exiled, half-beast, Prince Khyi-kha Ra-thod and the story of his "Hidden Land." Using accounts both written and oral, from Bhutan as well as neighboring areas (Tibet, Central Asia, Assam), Aris attempts to reach beyond the constraints of the later religious histories to picture the ethnically divided and clan-based region which later became Bhutan.

As private tutor to the Royal Family of Bhutan for five years, the author had a unique opportunity to explore and study that country. He cites a number of sources collected during this period which provided the substance for the present work. As an addendum to the book, he has made four texts available on microfiche (through the publisher); three in Tibetan, including two previously unavailable to modern scholarship, and an early seventeenth century ac- count of Bhutan by a Portuguese missionary. These should undoubtedly serve as a useful aid to scholarship in this area. In addition, the book's substantial bibliography in three parts, consisting of Bhutanese, Tibetan and Western/ Modern sources, should be noted.

The non-specialist might approach a work like this with some apprehension, riddled as it is with transliterated Tibetan and Bhutanese names and terms. In fact, Aris has provided a surprisingly accessible piece of scholarship, both rewarding and enlightening, which formulates an early history of a little investigated region but even more addresses the self- perception and character of its people with sympathy and insight.

STEVEN B. GOODMAN

TEMPLE UNIVERSITY

Individual in Modern Indian Thought. By KANAK DWIVEDI. Pp. xii + 184. Varanasi: ANNAPURNA BHAWAN. 1985. Rs. 60.

This work examines the concept of the human individual as addressed by such modern Indian thinkers as Viveka- nanda, Tilak, Tagore, Gandhi, etc. Taking a historical stance, the author considers the attempt by all of these thinkers to synthesize the notion of the individual as a "cultural uni- versal" inherited from the Western liberal, democratic tradi- tion with certain "cultural constants" of traditional Indian thought.

According to Dwivedi, the philosophic individualism which underlies the beliefs, norms and values of modern Western societies manifests such attitudes as faith in man's rationality, a desire for self-sufficiency, lack of respect for coercive governing agencies, and a faith in the inherent moral good- ness of man. While fully embracing this reverence for the freedom, dignity and rights of the individual, modern Indian thinkers have sought to rescue him from a perceived sense of isolation and narrowness which has too-often befallen him as an empirical subject of materialist ends. Dwivedi examines their attempt to infuse a spiritual orientation into the concept of individualism while avoiding the handicap of certain traditional metaphysical presuppositions, for instance the lack of stress placed on man's emphemeral, empirical nature and the notion that his corrupt nature dooms him to con- tinual transmigration.

Classical Indian philosophers have postulated that the individual is essentially spiritual, that the metaethical spirit is the ground of the ethical individual and that the spiritual entails certain rights and duties which are manifest in socio- political life. Despite their varying approaches, all of the modern Indian thinkers under consideration appropriate this perspective of the individual's spiritual ground while address- ing him as a socio-political fact. According to the author, this provides the basis for a general rejection of capitalist or laissez-faire economic theory and the tendency toward social- ism in the economic sphere and non-alignment in the political. However, it is primarily the tendency to envision a concept of the individual as something transcending all social roles which characterizes these views. It is this thematic continuity with tradition, informed by such values as tyaga, ahimsa, aparigraha, etc., that provides modern Indian thinkers with a vision which, they feel, can enrich that provided by the West.

To her credit the author has not ignored the elitism of which these views partake. Drawing attention to a moral crisis in contemporary Indian society, she points out the need to translate theoretical concepts into action which will

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