Conference at 5:30 PM, by Nicolas Sihlé (Center for South Asian and Himalayan Studies, CNRS/EHESS), at Maison de l’Asie, 22 avenue du président Wilson, 75016 PARIS.

In northeastern Tibet (Amdo), a community of tantrists (ngakpa), non-monastic religious figures highly specialized in tantric ritual practice, has been famous throughout the region since at least the beginning of the 19th century: they are the “1900 ritual dagger bearers” of the Repkong district. They are mainly linked to two distinct ritual traditions of the Nyingma Buddhist order, but in the 1940s, a great annual unifying ritual was established to bring them together: the Zhitro, a tantric ritual dedicated to a group of one hundred peaceful (zhi) and wrathful (tro) deities. This presentation will trace the vicissitudes experienced by this ritual and, through it, by this exceptional religious community, up to the present day.