Even though ritual practices are one of the main preoccupations for the vast majority of Tibetan monks, they are to a large extent neglected by modern scholarship. This dissertation on the Indo-Tibetan consecration ritual (rab-gnas,pratistha) attempts to shed some light on consecration, not only as one important example of a Buddhist ritual, but also as the means of rendering religious objects, such as stupas and images, sacred. This study is based primarily on textual material, just as is the performance of the ritual itself. Still, since rituals are meant to be performed, this study would have been impossible without actually attending the ritual performances and discussing them with officiants.

The Indo-Tibetan consecration ritual is a special application of the tantric sadhana practices, by which practitioners transform themselves into lha. The employment of a soteriological ritual performed by human beings for the transformation of an object raises certain difficulties which are discussed. The tantric process is the dominant, but not the only means of consecration. The consecration as it is known since the eleventh century is a composite of various consecration processes which seem to be rooted in different periods and views. Rather than being supplanted, these forms of consecration were integrated by the authors of the tantric manuals. Furthermore, the present-day elaborate consecration is typically performed within a matrix of five complete rituals, some of which form a frame for still others. This complex structure of frames within frames is analyzed. Chapter 1 contains a brief general discussion of the Indo-Tibetan consecration ritual. Chapter 2 provides a context for each of the ritual episodes of which the consecration is comprised with special references to the annual re-consecration of Bodhanath Stupa in Kathmandu by Dga'-ldan-chos-'phel-gling Monastery in 1988. Chapter 3 is a translation of the consecration manual by Khri-byang Blo-bzang-ye-shes-bstan-'dzin-rgya-mtsho (1901-1981) which was used for the same re-consecration of Bodhanath Stupa. The appendix contains a bibliography of more than 200 Tibetan textual sources on consecration, a list of major consecration works or passages on consecration contained in the TibetanKanjur and a selected bibliography of sources on certain rituals closely related to consecration (gzungs-'bul and argha cho-ga).