The Hidden Vegetarians of Tibet
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Articles/The Hidden Vegetarians of Tibet
Articles/The Hidden Vegetarians of Tibet
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The Hidden Vegetarians of Tibet
Article
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Description
This article by Geoffrey Barstow challenges the widespread assumption that vegetarianism was absent from traditional Tibetan Buddhism. Drawing on biographical and textual sources, it documents more than 110 named lamas who abstained from meat prior to the Chinese invasion of the 1950s, including major figures such as Dolpopa, Jikten Gonpo, Shabkar, and Jigme Lingpa. These masters advocated vegetarianism primarily on grounds of compassion for sentient beings, while openly acknowledging the prevalent Tibetan medical view that a meatless diet was physically harmful. The article traces the key doctrinal debates surrounding meat consumption — including the rule of threefold purity and Tantric justifications for eating meat — and the vegetarian counter-arguments mounted against them. It concludes by situating this historical tradition within the context of a growing contemporary vegetarian movement in Tibet, arguing that the movement reflects indigenous religious values rather than merely external Chinese or Western influence.
Read this article here.
Citation
Barstow, Geoffrey. "The Hidden Vegetarians of Tibet." Tricycle: The Buddhist Review (Fall 2018). https://tricycle.org/magazine/tibetan-vegetarians/.
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