The Hidden Vegetarians of Tibet

Geoffrey Barstow (Tricycle, Fall 2018), Paul Hostetler (illustrator); Eds., Wisdom Quarterly

Contrary to popular belief, meat eating has been questioned by Tibetan masters both past and present. 

In the mid-19th century, the Tibetan Buddhist master Nyala Pema Dündul composed a poem in which he gave an account of a recent visionary experience.

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In this short work he recalls waking up one morning and beginning his usual daily practice, focused on Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva of compassion.

Suddenly his perception shifted, and instead of having to consciously visualize the deity, he was able to see and speak with Avalokiteshvara directly, as if the bodhisattva were literally present.

Serving as something of a tour guide, Avalokiteshvara showed Nyala Pema Dündul around various hell realms, where he observed people being tortured by demons [narakas, yakkhas, rakshasas, pretas] with animal heads.

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These torments, Avalokiteshvara explained, were the inevitable consequence of having eaten meat in a previous life.

Perhaps not surprisingly Pema Dündul tells his readers that he emerged from his vision shaken, lamenting the fact that he himself had eaten meat.

“Let the Three Jewels be my witness!” he writes, “In the past, ignorance and habit have led me to eat the flesh of beings....From today on, may the thought of eating meat never even enter my mind! If I do eat it, may the Three Jewels punish me!

Nyala Pema Dündul was not alone in his concern about meat eating. In fact, a meatless diet in Tibet was far more common than might be expected.

To date, I have identified more than 110 individual lamas -- religious teachers -- who made the decision to give up meat and who were active prior to the Chinese invasion of the 1950s.

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Given the fact that Buddhist history in Tibet has spanned 1,300 years, 110 may not seem like a large number. But it represents only those individuals I could identify by name. There must have been many others who are as of yet untraceable.

Whether or not one should eat meat was a real, active debate in premodern Tibet, and vegetarianism was a frequent response.

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And yet the simple fact that vegetarianism existed in Tibet is almost unknown today. Indeed, contemporary Tibetan Buddhists -- both Tibetan and Western -- tend to assume that vegetarianism was a non-issue.

Time and again I have been told that researching the history of Tibetan vegetarianism is pointless, as the diet simply did not exist.

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Contained in this assumption, moreover, is an argument against adopting vegetarianism today. Like followers of other traditions, Tibetan Buddhists [Vajrayanists] often look to examples set by previous masters to guide their own conduct.

So it is not surprising that contemporary Buddhists often answer the question of why they eat meat by pointing to revered masters... More

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