Prognostic Structure and the Use of Trumps in Tibetan Pebble Divination

This paper discusses the structure of prognoses offered in a form of pebble divination common to the Bön religion of Tibet. In addition to fieldwork conducted at Menri Monastery, Sirmaur District, H.P., India, the discussion will be drawn primarily from an alleged witness to an eleventh century “treasure” text, as well as two divination manuals written in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries respectively. Following a brief introduction to Tibetan divination practices and to the Bön religion, the method of casting will be discussed. It will be shown that Tibetan pebble divination uses a system of ‘trumps’ that significantly complicate the distillation of prognoses. In this respect, lithomantic techniques stand apart from other Tibetan divination practices, many of which use similar numeral systems, though lack a mediating structure of ‘major’ and ‘minor’ results