Food of Sinful Demons

A creative and nuanced exploration of an aspect of Tibetan religiosity that has heretofore remained largely in the dark. An important and exciting book.--Andrew Quintman, Yale University Exceptionally relevant in how it explores tensions between compassionate concern for animal welfare grounded in Buddhist ethics, perceptions of health, and Tibetan cultural values.--Reading Religion For those following the vegetarian debate as it unfolds on the Tibetan plateau and as Buddhism spreads to new contexts, Barstow's book provides essential reading.--Tricycle: The Buddhist Review In this first in-depth study of the history of vegetarianism in Tibet, Geoffrey Barstow clearly shows that vegetarianism has always existed in Tibetan culture and was essentially motivated by compassion for the animals. Food of Sinful Demons is a welcome contribution to the important debate over the relationships between and among vegetarianism, health, and religion.--Matthieu Ricard, author of A Plea for the Animals: The Moral, Philosophical, and Evolutionary Imperative to Treat All Beings with Compassion A very welcome and entirely novel work on the place of vegetarianism in Tibet, Food of Sinful Demons will make a solid scholarly contribution to religious studies, Buddhist studies, and Tibetan studies. Covering a topic of broad interest in fields from ranging religion to animal rights, it offers something new for specialists but is also accessible to undergraduates as well as educated Buddhists trying to understand the role of vegetarianism and meat eating in Tibetan Buddhism.--Gray Tuttle, Leila Hadley Luce Associate Professor of Modern Tibetan Studies, Columbia University