A Note on Two Theogonic Myths found in a Bon Magical Ritual

In the religious literature of the Tibetan Bon tradition there are very interesting theogonic and cosmogonic narratives, mythical accounts, apotropaic and exorcist rituals that are rarely found in mainstream Buddhist Tibetan literary traditions and that have generally been considered by the followers of the Bon school as a heritage of the archaic cultural milieu of indigenous pre-Buddhist Tibet. The study of this early lore is far from complete, due to the huge bulk of material, which was absorbed, reframed and reformulated in the later systematized Bon literature. In this lecture two theogonic myths will be analysed and some hypothesis will be formulated on the construction strategies of Bon “nativist” identity discourse in Tibet.