A Comparative Study of the Earliest Bon and Buddhist Phur pa traditions

One of the greatest, most long-lasting, and most urgent puzzles in the study of Tibet is the emergence of the Bon religion, which has co-existed as a separate but vigorous minority religion alongside the majority Tibetan Buddhism since the earliest times. Although not found anywhere other than Tibet, Bon is nevertheless quite certainly somewhat different from the genuinely indigenous original Tibetan religion, with which it has sometimes been erroneously confused, not least by the Bon themselves. While the original indigenous Tibetan religion was in great part a sacrificial cult focussed on the worship of sacred mountains and spirits within the Tibetan landscape and on the person of the Tibetan emperor, Bon by contrast is in reality a more universalistic faith with significant components imported from abroad, and appears to be substantially modelled on Indian Tantrism and monasticism. Moreover, as far as current evidence shows, Bon first arose in Tibet within approximately the same historical period as Tantric Buddhism, and not, as they claim, a great many centuries earlier.
In fact, no-one yet understands how Bon arose, nor what its sources or antecedents are: but if we did understand this, we would not only understand Bon better, but we would also have a very much better understanding indeed of the formative processes of Tibetan religion in general, Buddhism included, which still remains extremely obscure in important respects. To finally understand Bon origins would hugely clarify much else about Tibet.
The situation is complicated by polemics: Bon and Buddhism share considerable similarities, but each attribute this to plagiarism by the other. Both traditions claim a much greater antiquity than the other. There are also contrasting historical ideologies: while Buddhism reveres and venerates the powerful Yar-lung Dynasty of Central Tibet, Bon reveres and venerates the old kingdom of Zhang-zhung based in Western Tibet, which was conquered by the Yar-lung Dynasty.
In short, the situation remains quite confusing, and no one yet knows how Buddhism, Bon and the original pre-Buddhist religion of Tibet were originally inter-related and shaped one another in the crucial early formative centuries of Tibetan religion. Efforts to unravel this most significant of historical periods by taking broad general overviews, or by using conventional historical sources, have so far been frustrated, not least because of the deep layers of polemics and ideology built up over time.
Some years ago, we hit on a specific method for unravelling the problem. There is a Tantric ritual cycle called Phur-pa that originated as a distinctly minor tradition in India - yet which was rapidly adopted and expanded by both Bon and Buddhism in Tibet with such enthusiasm that it became (and remains) probably the single most popular cycle for both traditions. This shows that Phur-pa is a key: its enthusiastic initial adoption indicates unique affinities with the original indigenous religion, while its separate but parallel Bon and Buddhist trajectories enable minute comparative studies.
In our earlier Research Projects, we focused on the earliest Buddhist Phur-pa traditions, and on Phur-pa's remarkable affinities with the original indigenous religion. We believe we have made tremendous progress in these fields. Now we want to fill in the last parts of the puzzle by making a minute study of the earliest Bon Phur-pa, and seeing how it fits our other data. As well as minutely studying the early Bon texts, we will also map and index the outer contours of this large literature. No one has yet studied early Bon Phur-pa texts, which would remain quite impenetrable without the specialised prior knowledge that we have laboriously accumulated through our last three AHRC projects on earliest Buddhist Phur-pa. We will analyse the relevant texts, ritual performances, myths, indigenous histories, and doctrines alike, and publishing findings in books, articles and websites.