Tantric Temples: Eros and Magic in Java

Description

Tantra is one of the most misunderstood of the esoteric disciplines. In order to get a clear idea as to the nature of Tantric ritual and belief it is necessary to go where Tantra is still practiced and from where important Tantric teachings originated a thousand years ago: the island of Java in present-day Indonesia. This book illustrates the history of Tantrism in Java with more than a hundred photographs of temples, statues and iconography dedicated to the system -- some rarely seen before, including the recently-excavated ""white temple"" of Yogyakarta -- and accounts of contemporary practi.;Cover; Front Flap; Copyright; Acknowledgments; Contents; Introduction; Secion I: The Tantric Context; 1. An Introduction to Tantra; 2. Introduction to Javanese Mysticism; Section II: The Tantric Temples; 3. Borobudur; 4. Prambanan and Sewu; 5. The Temple of Mount Lawu and the Production of Amrita; 6. Candi Ijo and the Creation of the World; 7. Candi Kimpulan, the White Temple; Section III: Tantric Practice; 8. Sacred Marriage and the Goddess of the Southern Ocean; 9. Love and Magic in a Javanese Cemetery; 10. Kabbalah, Tantra, and Sexual Gnosis; 11. Tantra, Magic, and the West; Conclusions.