Kris L. Anderson

This dissertation examines the Buddhist funerary traditions of the Sarvadurgatiparisodhana tantra. The project maps the iterations of the text between the eighth and thirteenth centuries using the tantra, its Tibetan translations, and related ritual manuals from Dunhuang, contributing to scholarship on death in Buddhist traditions and on the development of the tantras. Its second portion examines later ritual literature preserved in Nepal, particularly samadhi and sadhana texts in a hybrid of Sanskrit and Newari, to trace how the text was deployed in later periods. The third portion of the project situates more recent texts and practices in the broader Sarvadurgatiparisodhana tantra tradition, looking at the contemporary Newar community of Patan, and the Tibetan community of Boudhanath, Nepal.