Other People’s Prophecies: Subversive Adaptations and Transformations of Śambhala Eschatology

Abstract

This article aims to demonstrate the processes of adaptation and transformation of the original, Śambhala-related, prophetic narrative in the course of its transmissions from one religious tradition to another (from the Hindu tradition to a later form of Buddhism) and from one culture to another (from India and Tibet to Mongolia). The permutations of an eschatological narrative that will be discussed here reflect not only their historical, social, and doctrinal contexts, but also the undoing of other people’s prophetic discourses through the ongoing and subversive reinterpretation and cultural signification. As we trace the development of the Kalkī-related eschatology from the Mahābhārata to its transformations in other Indic and Mongolian sources, we see that through recontextualization and creative production of new meanings, this eschatological narrative gradually grew from a brief, versified reference to elaborate prophetic accounts written in prose. Like the prophecies of other religious traditions, Śambhala-related prophecies come to us in the form of a revelatory dialogue.