Bön

Overview

Bön is the indigenous spiritual tradition of Tibet that predates the arrival of Buddhism from India. Tradition holds that Bön was founded by the enlightened teacher Tonpa Shenrab Miwoche in the land of Olmo Lungring (identified variously with Zhang Zhung in western Tibet or a more mythological realm). Bön shares many structural and cosmological features with Tibetan Buddhism — including the concept of Buddha-nature (called Künzhi in Bön), a Nine Yana system, and the practice of Dzogchen (called Dzogchen or Zhang Zhung Nyan Gyud in Bön) — while preserving its own distinct lineages, deities, rituals, and cosmology rooted in the ancient Zhang Zhung kingdom of western Tibet. Bön practitioners maintain that Buddhism in fact borrowed from Bön, while Buddhist scholars have argued the reverse. Modern scholars treat them as parallel traditions that deeply influenced each other over centuries. The Dalai Lama has officially recognised Bön as the fifth major spiritual tradition of Tibet, alongside the four Buddhist schools.

Transmission Lineage 傳承

Tonpa Shenrab → Zhang Zhung oral lineage → Drenpa Namkha → Shenchen Luga (11th c. — textual revival) → continuing Menri Monastery lineage

Principal Texts 要典

• ▸Zhang Zhung Nyan Gyud (Great Perfection oral transmission)
• ▸Kanjur and Tenjur (Bön canon, parallel to Buddhist canon)
• ▸Ma Gyud (Mother Tantra)
• ▸Phur Pa (Kila rituals)
• ▸Ziji (Splendour — cosmological treatises)

Core Practices 修行法門