INTRODUCTORY ESSAY

Cultural Dispersion of Tantra

The collection of ritual practices now known as Tantra apparently grew out of folk rituals which formed the substrate of early Hinduism (Katherine Harper, The Roots of Tantra, 2002). These practices long predated the written manuscripts, the earliest of which were not composed until the medieval period. Yet this body of cultural wisdom, ritual practice and beliefs about the nature of man in the universe was widely dispersed through the ancient world.

The cultural influence of Tantric thought and practice, centered in the Indus River valley and the foothills of the Himalayas, stretched as far west as ancient Greece. Plato’s teachings made reference to Tantric beliefs about the clarifying power of moving sexual fluids through secret channels in the body, giving rise to “seminal thoughts” – and also finding concrete representation in the caduceus, the symbol of Western medicine, two serpents entwined around a central shaft. Tantric influence spread as far east as Japan: Kobo Daishi, the monk who brought Buddhism to Japan in 806 A.D., received Tantric training and initiation in China.

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