Tibetan religious polemics: Bon Buddhism or Buddhist Bon?

ENThe paper examines how the identity of Bon is shaped in confrontation with Tibetan Buddhism. It distinguishes between 1) an older, loosely organized complex of local myths, spirit cults and funerary rites, and 2) a later, monastic Bon religion that claims an ancient founder, Gshen rab mi wo, but is historically visible only from the 10th–11th centuries. Early Buddhists both construct and denigrate “Bon” as a single inferior religion dependent on gods and problematic funeral practices. Later Buddhist polemics accuse institutional Bon of plagiarizing Buddhist scriptures and doctrines. Bonpo responses appeal to their elaborate doctrinal systems and to Gshen rab’s alleged precedence over Śākyamuni, though historical evidence is weak. The author suggests that large-scale borrowing from Buddhism functioned as a survival and systematization strategy, so that Bon, though heavily Buddhicized, still constitutes a distinct religion with its own ritual substratum. Keywords: Bon, Tibetan Buddhism, Gshen rab mi wo, religious polemics.