| Acknowledgements | 6 |
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| Contents | 8 |
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| Introduction | 12 |
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| PART I. South Asia | 28 |
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| Recoding the Natural and Animating the Imaginary. Kaula Body-practices in the Parasurama-Kalpasutra, Ritual Transfers, and the Politics of Representation | 30 |
| Some Observations on an U..i.a Abhi.eka Rite in Atiku.a’s Dhara.isa.graha | 88 |
| From Matr to Yogini. Continuity and Transformation in the South Asian Cults of the Mother Goddesses | 110 |
| Rivers to the Sky: Transformation, Metaphor, and Worldview in Bengali Tantric Traditions | 142 |
| Modern Bengali Sakta Tantrikas: Ethnography, Image, and Stereotype | 158 |
| Transformations in the Textual Tradition of Dhumavati. Changes in the Reception of the Tantric Mahavidya-Goddess in Ritual, Function, Iconography, and Mythology | 176 |
| Reconnecting to What? Imagined Continuities and Discursive Overlaps at Tantrapi.has in Central and Eastern India | 206 |
| The Absent Mother and Bodied Speech: Psychology and Gender in Late Medieval Tantra | 226 |
| PART II. Mongolia, Tibet, and China | 248 |
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| Embodying the Dharma: The Buddhist Way into Mongolia | 250 |
| Amitayus and the Development of Tantric Practices for Longevity and Health in Tibet | 274 |
| Ritual Expertise and Imperial Sovereignty: Some Remarks on Tantric Ritual Pragmatics in Medieval China | 298 |
| The Trouble with Tantra in China: Reflections on Method and History | 314 |
| PART III. Japan | 338 |
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| Taimitsu Rituals in Medieval Japan: Sectarian Competition and the Dynamics of Tantric Performance | 340 |
| Conversions of Tantric Buddhist Ritual: The Yoshida Shinto Juhachishinto Ritual | 376 |
| The Impact of Tantrism on Japanese Religious Traditions: The Cult of the Three Devas | 410 |
| PART IV ...and Beyond | 422 |
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| Kalacakra in Transition: From the Apocalypse to the Promotion of World Peace | 424 |
| Remembering Ourselves: On Some Countercultural Echoes of Contemporary Tantric Studies | 446 |
| Tantra, American Style: From the Path of Power to the Yoga of Sex | 468 |
| The Serpent Rises in the West: Positive Orientalism and Reinterpretation of Tantra in the Western Left-Hand Path | 506 |
| Notes on Contributors | 532 |
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| Index | 536 |
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