The Bodhisattva's Body in a Pill: The Material and Spiritual History of a Buddhist Relic Tradition

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James Duncan Gentry

The Bodhisattva's Body in a Pill

Name: The Bodhisattva's Body in a Pill
Price: 115 AUD
Availability: PreOrder
ISBN: 9780813954653

The Material and Spiritual History of a Buddhist Relic Tradition

James Duncan Gentry

$115

Paperback

Forthcoming
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English

University of Virginia Press
01 June 2026

Tibetan Buddhism

Series: Traditions and Transformations in Tibetan Buddhism

The first historical study of the medicinal mani pill and its profound spiritual significance in Tibetan religion and culture

The maṇi pill is one of the most popular relic traditions in Tibetan Buddhism. Treasured around the globe, maṇi pills are small edible pellets formed from mixing the powdered bodily remains of buddhas and bodhisattvas with ingredients used in Tibetan medicine and sanctified through a tantric liturgy. Maṇi pills are today predominantly produced by the Fourteenth Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso, who consecrates and distributes hundreds of thousands annually, but the tradition of producing and consuming maṇi pills stretches back more than a millennium.

Examining the broad cultural history of Buddhist tantra in Tibet through the lens of the maṇi pill, James Duncan Gentry illustrates how these pills have influenced Tibetan conceptions of the body, medicine, healing, collective identity, and shared past; how they have functioned as a point of interaction, contestation, and negotiation between different Buddhist sects and institutions; and how they have created and shaped social bonds and religious identity across Tibet and beyond to the present day.

By: James Duncan Gentry
Imprint: University of Virginia Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 235mm, Width: 156mm, Spine: 25mm
ISBN: 9780813954653
ISBN 10: 0813954657
Series: Traditions and Transformations in Tibetan Buddhism
Pages: 402
Publication Date: 01 June 2026
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

James Duncan Gentry is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Stanford University and the author of Power Objects in Tibetan Buddhism: The Life, Writings, and Legacy of Sokdokpa Lodrö Gyeltsen.