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Book Reviews

The Origins of Yoga and Tantra: Indic Religions to the Thirteenth Century.

Geoffrey Samuel
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2008. 422 pp.
ISBN 978-0-521-87351-2 hardback, 978-0-521-69534-3 paperback.
£55/£21.99.

In this book Geoffrey Samuel offers a wide-ranging and original interpretation of

the history of Indic religions until the 13th century, paying particular attention to
the development of yogic and tantric traditions. He seeks to understand them in
terms of the wider social and religious context of South Asian society. By looking
at parallel developments in Hindu, Buddhist and Jain traditions he focuses on the
cultural and social environment in which certain ideas and practices were pro-
duced, circulated and debated among schools of thought that were often
competing for patronage at the same time, sometimes even for the same rulers. In
this way he manages to highlight the social and cultural fabric in a way that could
not be grasped by looking at any of the great religious traditions in an isolated
way.
For scholars specialising in Inner Asia this book is particularly valuable for it
casts light on the roots of religious traditions that were adopted in areas such as
Tibet and Mongolia where ancient debates were often revived in new settings.
One of the greatest merits of this book is that it provides a clear overview of
India’s very complex religious history, while highlighting specific scholarly
debates, providing a wealth of references, and suggesting original interpretations
that link socio-economic factors to the development of ideas and religious prac-
tices. This is a very valuable complement to Geoffrey Samuel’s earlier work on
Tibetan Buddhism, Civilized Shamans, in which he provides a comprehensive
study of the link between Tibet’s religious developments and its distinctive polit-
ical setting. The book is written in a very accessible and engaging style and
provides a grasp of highly complex debates for experts but also for readers not
specialising in India or Indic religions. This is particularly useful for researchers
and students who need to know the Indian context from which the traditions they
are studying originated but for whom this is only necessary background knowl-
edge rather than the main focus of their research.
A fascinating twist in this tour-de-force of Indian religious history is revealed
at the end of the book where Geoffrey Samuel offers two contrasting and yet
compatible perspectives on the development of the tantra. On the one hand he
devotes great emphasis to the study of the historical process that led to the devel-
opment of Indian tantric traditions in the 9th and 10th century with their
transgressive practices (including ritual sex and dealing with polluting sub-

Inner Asia 11 (2009): 359–62

© 2009 Global Oriental Ltd
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360 BOOK REVIEWS

stances and places); in this light these practices seem to have represented a sort of
aberration, to be understood against a particular spiritual and political back-
ground, which was eventually integrated in main stream traditions by eliminating
the most problematic aspects and by adopting a tactical use of ‘secrecy’. On the
other hand he concludes the book by looking at the tantric practices from ‘inside
the tradition’, making them more plausible and presenting them as innovative
engagement with the understanding of mind-body relations in an effort to deal
with challenges that are inherent to the human condition and which, nowadays,
may even interface with current scientific research.

HILDEGARD DIEMBERGER
University of Cambridge

Community Matters in Xinjiang 1880–1949: Towards a Historical Anthropology

of the Uyghur

Ildikó Bellér-Hann
Leiden: Brill. China Studies 17. 2008. xvi + 480 pp. ISBN 978-900-4166-75-2,
ISSN 1570-1344. € 115.00 / US$ 171.00.

In recent years, there has been a shift away from conceptualising Uyghur identity
as monolithic and diametrically opposed to that of the Han Chinese. As
increasing numbers of researchers do work in Xinjiang, a more complex, uneven
picture of Uyghur life emerges. Whereas the bulk of work of this kind rests on
evidence gleaned largely from the past two decades, Bellér-Hann’s work stands
out by virtue of its time frame: a period stretching from the Islamic rule of
Khoqandi warlord Yakub Beg to the dawn of Chinese Socialism in 1949. Her
detailed ethnographic accounts of the economy, social organisation, life cycle rit-
uals and religious practices during this period go a long way toward filling a gap
in the literature. This is particularly so when we consider the author’s emphasis
on the practices of non-elites, a focus which challenges assumptions of what is
understood as ‘traditional’ Uyghur life.
Many of the sources upon which this research is based are linked in one way
or another to Westerners who passed through or worked in the region during this
period. There is the use of local historical accounts written for missionaries at the
turn of the century, as well as travel accounts and ethnographies produced by the
various English, Russian, German and French contingents present there at this
time. The author’s frequent visits to Xinjiang are occasionally drawn upon to
support evidence of these written sources. However, due to the politically sensi-
tive nature of the region, access to documents housed in local archives were
frequently denied her.
As is evident from the title, an overarching theoretical theme which unites the
various chapters in the book is the idea of community – a collection of social