The Path of Desire - Living Tantra in Northeast India

A provocative ethnography of contemporary Tantra as a dynamic living tradition. Tantra, one of the most important religious currents in South Asia, is often misrepresented as little more than ritualized sex. In this ethnography, Hugh B. Urban reveals a dynamic living tradition behind the sensationalist stories. Urban shows that Tantric desire goes beyond the erotic, encompassing such quotidian experiences as childbearing or healing. He traces these holistic desires through a series of unique practices: institutional Tantra centered on gurus and esoteric rituals; public Tantra marked by performance and festival; folk Tantra focused on magic and personal wellbeing; and popular Tantra imagined in fiction, film, and digital media. The result is a groundbreaking new description of Hindu Tantra that challenges us to approach religion as something always entwined with politics and culture, thoroughly entangled with ordinary needs and desire.