The Embodied Experience of Prostration (chaktsal)

Prostration among Tibetan Buddhists in the Eastern Himalayas is an embodied practice that enhances the good life through a creative art of living. Drawing on sensory ethnography and somaesthetics, the analysis shows how daily prostration weaves together intersubjective relations, bodily sensibility, aesthetics, and politics. The practice is not merely ritual but a dynamic act that cultivates well-being and expresses the Monpa people's distinctive way of being in the world.

Study at a glance

Abstract

This study explores the embodied experience of prostration among Tibetan Buddhists through ethnographic research in the Eastern Himalayas. I extend somaesthetics theory by using a sensory ethnographic approach to analyze the intersubjective relations and bodily sensibility that intersect in the daily experience of prostration. By focusing on the interactions among their senses, aesthetics, and politics, I argue that prostration embodies the Monpa art of living as a creative act that enhances one’s good life. This study contributes to discussions of embodiment, sensory anthropology, Tibetan Buddhist studies of the body, and the politics of ritual.