Tantra, Magic, and Vernacular Religions in Monsoon Asia: Texts, Practices, and Practitioners from the Margins - Paperback

by Andrea Acri (Editor), Paolo E. Rosati (Editor)

This book explores the cross- and trans-cultural dialectic between Tantra and intersecting magical and shamanic phenomena associated with vernacular religions across Monsoon Asia. It will be of interest to South Asian religions, Tantric traditions, and Asian and global folk religion, shamanism, and magic.

Author Biography

Andrea Acri is tenured Assistant Professor in Tantric Studies at the École Pratique des Hautes Études (EPHE, PSL University) in Paris, France. His publications include the monograph Dharma Pātañjala (2011), as well as various edited volumes, including Esoteric Buddhism in Mediaeval Maritime Asia (2016). His main research and teaching interests are Śaiva and Buddhist Tantric traditions, Indian philosophy, Yoga studies, Sanskrit and Old Javanese philology, and the comparative religious history of South and Southeast Asia from the premodern to the contemporary period, with special emphasis on connected histories and intra-Asian maritime transfers.

Paolo E. Rosati received his PhD in Asian and African Studies from 'Sapienza' University of Rome, Italy. He has published a double special issue on Tantra for Religions of South Asia (14/1-2) in 2020, and several contributions on the yoni cult at Kāmākhyā. His current research focuses on magic, memory, and cultural identity in postcolonial Tantric contexts.