BON


Meaning of BON in English

adj.

Indigenous religion of Tibet.

It was originally concerned with magical propitiation of demonic forces, and its practices included blood sacrifices. It later developed a cult of divine kingship (with kings regarded as manifestations of the sky divinity), reformulated in Tibetan Buddhism as the reincarnation of lamas . Bon's order of oracular priests had their counterpart in Buddhist soothsayers, and its gods of air, earth, and underworld in the lesser Tibetan Buddhist deities. Though its religious supremacy ended in the 8th century, Bon survives in many aspects of Tibetan Buddhism and as a living religion on Tibet's northern and eastern frontiers.

Britannica Concise Encyclopedia.      Краткая энциклопедия Британика.