Visited a Bon (pronounced "Bun") monastary behind Swayambunath at Katmandu Valley's Western edge. Hiked up there and spoke with the head monk in English breifly.

Here is the Bon perspective as I understood it:

Bon is the origional religion of the tibetan people before an monk from India brought the Pali sutras to the Tibetan people. Tonpa Shenrab founded the Bon religion 18,000 years ago. In its current appearance the Bon temple, the dress of the monks, the statues inside and the manner of prayer all appear to be indistinguishable from what one sees in a Tibetan Buddhist temple. "Why does this look like a Buddhist temple?" I ask, "are you imitating the Buddhists?" The response I got more or less that it is actually the Buddhists that are actually continuing the outward form of Bon while espousing the teachings of the lord Buddha. Hence the panoply of Buddhist "dieties" one sees in Buddhist temples. Hence the ritualistic actions, offerings, and heirarchy of Tibetan Buddhism - these are remenants of Bon and have much more to do with the ancient, continuos culture of Tibetan people than they do with Siddartha Gaurtama Buddha's teachings. Th practicers of Bon feel they are the true repository of Tibetan culture and the worldview of their forefathers, they resent the modern depiction of them by the practicers of Buddhist as "primitive Bon devil worshipping shamans."

This is what I understood of the rarely consulted Bon perspective in a world of a western press madly in love with an idealized vision of pre-communist-China Tibet.

The present leader of the Bon religion named Mendri Tridzin (meaning throne holder) lives in Simla, India.