Buddhist Theology and Prophecy

Most readers will be immediately struck by Momo's religiosity. Many children's books avoid focusing on child piety in large part to avoid controversy and increase general readership and other times for ideological reasons. There are, of course, exceptions. Nonetheless, Momo's religious faith plays an enormous and constant role in the book. Why exactly? The tale of Momo and Pempa seems to be deeply rooted in Tibetan culture which at the time was quite religiously committed vis-à-vis many other societies. Momo was raised in a complex milieu within Tibetan Buddhism, which is itself a complex mixture. Arguably, Tibetan Buddhist has two major theological foci. The first is the particularly austere and "pure" form of Buddhism practiced in many Tibetan temples, one that avoids polytheism and instead focuses largely on spiritual discipline and has an atheistic focus. The other is a rich polytheistic theology populated by...