The Path of Desire: Living Tantra in Northeast India (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780226831121)

A provocative study of contemporary Tantra as a dynamic living tradition.

Tantra, one of the most important religious currents in South Asia, is often misrepresented as little more than ritualized sex. Through a mixture of ethnography and history, Hugh B. Urban reveals a dynamic living tradition behind the sensationalist stories. Urban shows that Tantric desire goes beyond the erotic, encompassing such quotidian experiences as childbearing and healing. He traces these holistic desires through a series of unique practices: institutional Tantra centered on gurus and esoteric rituals; public Tantra marked by performance and festival; folk Tantra focused on magic and personal well-being; and popular Tantra imagined in fiction, film, and digital media. The result is a provocative new description of Hindu Tantra that challenges us to approach religion as something always entwined with politics and culture, thoroughly entangled with ordinary needs and desires.

Author: Hugh B. Urban
ISBN-10: 0226831124
ISBN-13: 9780226831121
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Language: English
Published: 03/27/2024
Pages: 288
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.88lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 1.00d