Geoffrey Barstow's monograph Food of Sinful Demons is the first to significantly explore the contours of vegetarianism in Tibet. His introduction begins by explaining the book's two goals; first to show that vegetarianism “was an important aspect of Tibetan religion since at least the tenth century,” and second “to situate the practice of vegetarianism in [Tibet's] broader religious and cultural context” (p. 2). He then defines vegetarianism according to indigenous Tibetan understandings before delving into the theoretical considerations with which his work intersects, such as religion and animals, meat-eating and masculinity, and vegetarianism and Buddhism.
In his first chapter, Barstow provides a thorough chronological exploration of vegetarianism in Tibet using significant textual sources. He notes that certain schools of Tibetan Buddhist thought especially promoted vegetarianism, such as the Drikung Kagyü and the Sakyapa of Ngor Monastery, but he also finds examples in all major schools. He explains that the thirteenth to fifteenth centuries saw a relative increase in vegetarianism, with a decline in the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries. A rise in interest happened again in the nineteenth century and was renewed in the present day. He is careful not to make assumptions about whole communities and errs on the side of caution when the text is ambiguous. Nevertheless, Barstow successfully shows that vegetarianism as a practice, if even a marginal one, has existed in Tibet for nearly a millennium.
Chapters 2 through 4 each focus on one of the three Buddhist vows Tibetan practitioners are expected to adopt and how they relate to vegetarianism. Chapter 2 explains that there were no explicit rules against meat-eating in the Buddhist monastic codes (vinaya), yet there was still vigorous debate about the interpretation of these rules. The third chapter explores the Mahāyāna bodhisattva vow and the centrality of compassion. The Tibetan authors Barstow cites rely on the pathos evoked by the suffering that slaughtered animals experience and even argue for the soteriological benefits of vegetarianism. The fourth chapter completes this trilogy of vows by exploring the tantric commitments. The chapter examines what should be an immediate contradiction to a vegetarian lifestyle—the requirement to eat meat as part of tantric antinomian ritual. Barstow does an excellent job teasing out the nuances of this understanding and cites various vegetarian proponents who argue that meat is only acceptable in ritual circumstances, should only be eaten in meager amounts, or should be replaced with dough substitutes.
The next two chapters contrast with the first three by examining other cultural influences beyond the Buddhist vows. Chapter 5 explores how attitudes toward vegetarianism were affected by Tibetan medical and dietary concerns. Meat was often perceived as a needed food staple as well as a medicinal item that increased strength; yet prominent vegetarians still argued against this pragmatic understanding. In chapter 6, Barstow examines positive cultural attitudes toward meat that generally stymied the spread of vegetarianism in Tibet. Two specific sentiments that encouraged meat-eating are the cultural symbol of wealth it represented and the connections it had to heroic masculinity and animal domination.
While the final chapter is followed by an epilogue, it in many ways acts as a conclusion. Here Barstow discusses the strategies and solutions pro-vegetarian authors attempted to implement in reconciling the tensions between Buddhist ethics, the Tibetan medical tradition, and cultural attitudes toward wealth and masculinity. The general result is a tiered system—what he terms “hierarchies of practice” (p. 179)—that encourages degrees of vegetarianism to the extent that an individual can adopt it. Because these cultural tensions are never fully resolved, lay and monastic individuals must negotiate for themselves where their priorities lie. The epilogue itself examines vegetarianism in contemporary Tibet using ethnographic material cultivated through interviews and fieldwork. Drawing observations predominately on his research in Kham, Barstow examines the vegetarian movement that is flourishing among Tibetan communities on the plateau and in exile. He argues successfully that this movement is not an overt continuation of premodern vegetarianism in Tibet, but that many of the claims made by religious figures today still draw on the same sources and arguments used in the past.
As the first extensive examination of vegetarianism in Tibet, Barstow's work is a foundational contribution to Tibetan studies that also broadens conversations on Buddhist ethics, animal rights, and religion and gender. Tibetan and Buddhist studies scholars will gain a lot from this book, but it is also accessible to graduate and advanced undergraduate students. Perhaps my one criticism is that there are several instances of redundancy, sometimes to the point of certain sentences being repeated verbatim or with some rewording. This is a minor flaw, however, and aids the reader by reinforcing key observations. Regardless, Barstow utilizes his extensive selection of primary and secondary sources well and expertly draws on his ethnographic data to buttress his arguments. He offers novel insights on a significant yet underexplored issue.
