Gendün Chöphel Explained

Gendun Chompel or Gendün Chöphel [1] (1903–1951) was a Tibetan scholar, thinker, writer, poet, linguist, and artist. He was born in 1903 in Shompongshe, Rebkong, Amdo. He was a creative and controversial figure and is considered by many to have been one of the most important Tibetan intellectuals of the twentieth century.

Chöphel was a friend of the Indian scholar and independence activist Rahul Sankrityayan. His life was the inspiration for Luc Schaedler's film The Angry Monk: Reflections on Tibet.[2] He is best known for his collection of essays called The Madman's Middle Way: Reflections on Reality of the Tibetan Monk Gendun Chophel.[3] and Grains of Gold: Tales of a Cosmopolitan Pilgrimage, written during his time in India and Sri Lanka in between 1934 and 1946. These essays were critical of modern Hinduism, Christianity, and British imperialism. While condemning places and events like the Black Hole of Calcutta and the Goa Inquisition, he praised certain British colonial practices of legislations.[4]

His erotic classic, Treatise on Passion, was completed in 1939, though it was first published posthumously in 1967. Written in Tibetan verse, this poetic and practical work was inspired both by his reading and partial translation of the Kama Sutra (introduced to him by Sankrityayan) and by his own recent, and prolific, sexual awakening. The work aims to provide extensive[5] guidance on heterosexual lovemaking and sexual happiness for both women and men in an overtly democratic spirit.[6] By now an ex-monk, Chöphel was happy to compare favourably his detailed sexual guidance (written from a lay perspective) to that contained in an earlier – and much less explicit – work bearing a similar title composed by Mipham the Great.[7]

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Notes and References

  1. Web site: Lopez Jr. . Donald S. . Donald S. Lopez Jr. . Dge 'dun Chos 'phel and Tibetan religion in the 21st century . National Taiwan University . https://web.archive.org/web/20220812124742/http://enlight.lib.ntu.edu.tw/FULLTEXT/JR-AN/an149085.pdf . 12 August 2022 . pdf . 2011 . en, zh . live.
  2. http://www.angrymonk.ch/ The Angry Monk: Reflections on Tibet
  3. Book: Lopez Jr., Donald S.. The Madman's Middle Way: Reflections on Reality of the Tibetan Monk Gendun Choephel. 2006. The University of Chicago Press. Chicago. 0-226-49316-4.
  4. Book: Sources of Tibetan Tradition. Kurtis R. Schaeffer. Matthew T. Kapstein. Gray. Tuttle. Columbia University Press. 2013. Tibetans Addressing Modern Political Issues. 753.
  5. Rossi . Donatella . L'iconoclast Gendün Chöphel (1905-1951) e il suo 'Kamasūtra' . Rivista degli studi orientali . 2007 . 80 . 1/4 . 141–147 . 41913382 . it . 0392-4866.
  6. Web site: "The Passion Book: A Tibetan Guide to Love and Sex" by Gendun Chopel . Butler . John . Asian Review of Books . 22 April 2018 . en-US . https://web.archive.org/web/20180426092202/https://asianreviewofbooks.com/content/the-passion-book-a-tibetan-guide-to-love-and-sex-by-gendun-chopel/ . 26 April 2018 . live.
  7. Jacoby . Sarah H. . The science of sensual pleasure according to a Buddhist monk: Ju Mipam's contribution to kāmaśāstra literature in Tibet . Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies . 2017 . 80 . 2 . 319–337 . 10.1017/S0041977X17000490 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220601232910/https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/255E609ADF6C4DDCEC9E92ED4BCA2867/S0041977X17000490a.pdf/the-science-of-sensual-pleasure-according-to-a-buddhist-monk-ju-mipams-contribution-to-kamasastra-literature-in-tibet.pdf . 1 June 2022 . live. en.

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