Buddhas Secret Gardens PDF
Buddhas Secret Gardens PDF
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H A R V A R D UNIVERSITY
G r a d u a t e Sc h o o l of A r t s a n d Sci ences
THESI S A C C E P T A N C E C E R T I F I C A T E
and
Indian
S tudies
C om m ittee
Sardar-Afkham i
S ig na tu re
Typed m im e
k ..... v a n .. ae r...iy.u.ij.R.
S ig n a tu re ....
Typed name
S . Jamison
S ig na tu re ...
Typed name
M. Wi t z e I
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A thesis presented
by
A b d ol-H am id Sardar-Afkham i
To
The Departm ent o f Sanskrit and Indian Studies
In partial fu lfillm e n t of the requirements
For the degree of
D octor o f Philosophy
In the subject of
Tibetan Studies
H arvard U niversity
Cam bridge, Massachusetts
Janurary - 2001
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UM I Number: 3011 4 7 4
Copyright 2001 by
Sardar-Afkhami, Abdol-Hamid
UMI
U M I Microform 3011474
Copyright 2001 by Bell & Howell Information and Learning Company.
All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against
unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code.
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Ill
Abstract:
In recent years, there have been a grow ing interest in the subject of Tibetan
sacred geography, yet the re la tio n sh ip between sacred places and p o litica l
crisis in Tibet im agination remains little understood. In p opular im agination,
Tibet still conjures up fantasies of a peaceful land sitting outside of time, whose
subjects were p rim a rily engaged in spiritual pursuits and w ent on pilgrim age
to distant shrines and mountains. In reality, Tibet was a more complex feudal
society characterized by c iv il wars, re lig io u s persecutions and foreign
invasions. In such times, a secret society of Tibetan yogins began to fantasize
about hidden utopias situated in the m ountains su rrounding th e ir country.
This study focuses on a collection of m edieval guidebooks to these sacred
places and examines their im pact on Tibetan im agination up to m odem times.
W hile this study is p rim a rily historical, it emphasizes the psychological aspect
of the p rim a ry literature, and attem pts to shed lig h t onto a small group of
Tibetan yogins, for w hom the Him alayan wilderness became a source of hope
and utopian fantasy.
iii
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Table of Contents
Indian Origins..................................................................................................... 9
3.2.2
3.2.3
The Path-finders.................................................................................. 51
3.2.4
3.2.5
iv
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Chapter Four: The Visionary journey of Rig 'dzin Rgod Idem can
4.1
4.2
5.2
The Incredibly Long Life ofLegs ldan Rdo rje gro lo d ....................................102
5.3
The
6.2
The
Adventures of the Fifth Sgamp o p a 0 rgyan 'G ro 'd u l gling pa....... 153
6.3
The
M odem Exodus....................................................................................158
6.4
Rdo
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Concluding Thoughts................................................................................................168
A ppendix 1....................................................................................................................182
A ppendix 2....................................................................................................................197
A ppendix 3
................................................................................................................199
vi
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In tr o d u c tio n :
in 1933, James H ilto n w rote a popular novel called Lost Horizon, in which
a hijacked plane carrying a group of Western
travelers
crashes in the
mountains of Central A sia The survivors stum ble in to a hidden valley w here
they take refuge in a m onastery called Shangri-la. As the High Lama explains
to Conway, the protagonist of the novel, Shangri-la exists fo r a tim e when,
"men, exultant in the technique of homicide, w ou ld rage so h o tly over the
w orld that every precious th in g w o u ld be in danger... and that, m y son, is w h y
am here, and w h y you are here, and w h y w e may pray to o u tliv e the doom
that gathers around on every s id e "'
Of course, H ilton did not invent the idea of Shangri-la. An extensive
2
description of these lands are found in the prophecies of Guru Rinpoche,' one
of the founding saints of Tibetan Buddhism, w h o describes the w ay to reach
these m ountain sanctuaries or 'hidden-lands' (sbas y u l). These guidebooks
sustained
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hidden-land called 'Pemako' ( Padma bkod).3 Bacot was unable to keep up w ith
the fleeing pilgrim s, but he managed to obtain a guidebook which caused quite
a stir among French Tibetologists.
Three years later, a British expedition m apping the inner gorges of the
Brahmaputra River encountered another band of Tibetan refugees w ho w ere
badly wounded after an encounter w ith Mishmi headhunters. The expedition
leader, Captain F.M. Bailey writes: "W e had come upon these seekers for the
promised-land, but they had not found it. The exact geographical position of
Pemako was im precise All that was know n was that somewhere in the
[ Brahmaputra] watershed there was a holy m ountain of glass and around this
holy m ountain lay fertile valleys."3 All the w ay up the valley Bailey reports
"m ore traces of the fatal retreat of the Tibetan im m igrants. There were cooking
pots, a heavy m illstone and fleshless skeletons in ro ttin g clothes, it was a scene
of the v ic to ry of nature over m an."3
These initial setbacks did not seem to detract from the papular appeal of
Padma tkod. The English botanist Francis Kingdon-W ard, w ho was collecting
seed samples in the Brahmaputra canyon in 1924, observes that the Tibetans
were still coming in search of their promised land only to find "perpetual rain,
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snakes and w ild animals, giant stinging nettles and m yriads of b itin g and
blood-sucking ticks, hornets, flies and leeches."' In Tibet, lamas from rival
schools, tried to dissuade people from embarking on this dangerous search by
refuting the guidebooks to Padma bkod, but to no avail.
D uring the Tibetan uprising against Chinese occupation in 1959, m any
Tibetans fled tow ards the hidden-land. Once again, they were confronted w ith
perpetual rain, predators and headhunters w ho shot them w ith poison tipped
arrows. Khams sprul rin po che, w h o presently lives in Dharamsala as an
advisor to the Dalai Lama, prayed fo r months before cliffs that failed to part.
Some starving im m igrants even resorted to boiling their leather shoes to make
broth. The disillusioned pilgrim s continued their trek to Indian refugee camps
relating a gripping account of their search for a paradise that had failed to
materialize - a green oasis, in the m id d le of which, they were supposed to find
a giant crystal mountain.
Padma bkod was not the only place Tibetans went to hide in the wake of
the Com m unist invasion. The Guru's guidebooks gave directions to dozens of
other secret valleys in the Himalayas, in the early 1960's, a Tibetan lama called
Brtul bzhugs gling pa led a group of refugees in search of a hidden-land called
'The Valley of Rice' {'Bras mo gshongs), where he perished in an avalanche on
a m ountain pass between Nepal and Sikkim. In 1978, a USC expedition led by
the late M. A ris to the Buri Gandaki Valley in Nepal stumbled across a group of
isolated Tibetan refugees livin g in a dead-end canyon know n as 'The Happy
Vale' (Skyid mo lung),* where the w ild mountain goats are reported so tame
F. Kingdon-Ward,(London:1926),110.
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that they licked salt from the hands erf the local lama. Also coming to attention
was a hidden-land first described in 1978 by the explorer J. Reinhard in the
upper reaches of the Arun Valley called the 'H idden-Land of Incense Plants'
(Sbas i/ul M khan pa lung).
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their own etic theoretical models; rarely do they try to understand the political,
historical, and religious forces that shaped this Tibetan myth.
Western theories about utopias and earthly paradises, furtherm ore, often
only explain how the search fo r the sacred place fails - they are less useful in
telling us how it is achieved. Eden and Shangri-la are only symbols of human
happiness, and are not meant to represent a physical reality. The earthly
paradise is unattainable, argues Mircea Eliade, but the failure to find it does not
deter people from try in g again, fo r as long as the 'need' arises, the quest is
reproduced. The utopia, "is an ideal model for human society that is never
expected to be achieved in itself, but only to outline basic form sof human life
and to assist in th in k in g through their functioning in the social and personal
order."
12
" Thomas Berry, The Dream o f the Earth, Sierra C lu b Nature and N atural
Philosophy Library, (1988),114.
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the same way. Where the ordinary eye sees only gleaming glaciers and
rhododendron forests, the guidebooks describe a landscape where one finds
healing waters, self-sowing crops and hidden treasures - perfect w orlds that
inspired hope and even led to a certain degree of papular delusion among the
m any Tibetan refugees w h o escaped through the Himalayas from Chinese
armies.
The Tibetan myth, some may argue, was a skillful w ay to lead people
away from Tibet in times of war. But, underlying the popular myth, we also
find a deeper spiritual significance Even if these forests did not conform to
people's ord in a ry sense of paradise, there is a sense that it was im portant to
visualize them as such for the benefit of one's ow n state of mind. For m any
Tibetan yogis the borderlands were not only places to hide from armies, but
also ideal places to meditate, and the physical journey to these hidden valleys
became an allegory for the path to enlightement itself.
To understand the spiritual significance of the Tibetan m yth, we need a
theory that explains how the earthly paradise can become real and tangible w e need to see how the idea of paradise can become a geographic support fo r
the m ind's journey to enlightenment. This study attempts to see how this
happens through the view p o in t of Tibetans w h o experience this journey.
These journeys are best elucidated by the Tibetan texts themselves - a
literature inextricably linked to memories of sacred places in Indian Tantric
literature, to the tirtha (holy river banks and confluences), pttha (divine
residences)
and
smaSana (sacred
charnel
grounds),
which
provided
a reading
of
the
Tibetan
literature
the
guidebooks,
histories
and
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behind these geographic fantasies and the role they came to play w ith in the
complex environm ent of Tibetan social imaginings, where popular yearnings
for an earthly paradise and Buddhist messianic ideas merged together w ith an
ancient tradition of Tantric p ilgrim age From the perspective of this tradition
the reality of these sacred spaces is neither entirely psychological nor
geographical, but a dim ension that can only manifest between the two, when
m ind and landscape become transparent to each other in a non-dual space
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Chapter One:
Pure Lands and Forest Utopias in Indo-Tibetan Imagination
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Indian O rigins:
by
the
Pure
Lands
of
the
Saddharmapun^arika
and
the
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10
of
13
pttha-s was
never
fixed.
The
Guhuvasamflja
and
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Indian tribal
culture produced
radical
form ulation of saivite and Buddhist tantras, which envisioned these jungle
shrines as the geographic representations of a sacred female anatomy, saivite
yogis m arried the Indian tribal goddesses to Lord siva, erecting a lingam at
these sites, w hich sym bolically bound the w ild energies of the M other Goddess
to the grounding clarity of the atman. The Buddhists reinterpreted the cult of
the M other Goddess in the context of their own metaphysics, id e n tify in g her
w ith Vajrayogint and her jungle shrines as a creative m atrix of emptiness that
destroyed the illusion of a permanent self.
Situated on the peripheries of traditional brahmanical civilization, the
sacred lands associated w ith Vajrayana Buddhism were not always delightful
places of worship. Unlike the blissful groves of Lumbini and the serene gardens
of Bodh Gaya, the pitha-s inspired both awe and repugnance in the uninitiated.
Travel to these places, inhabited by w ild animals and savage tribes, prom ised
d ifficu lt but sw ift enlightenment. Oddiyana was supposed to be a land of
ferocious dakini; Singala - a demon-infested place that also promised the ideal
tantric consorts - and Kamarupa the site of powerful aboriginal fe rtility cults
where the Siddha Krsnacarya met his death at the hands of a w itch called
Bahuri.
These o u tw ard ly threatening lands fulfilled the need fo r a charged
environm ent that allowed the ripe n ing of visions. Like the icon of V ajrayogini
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herself - fierce and beautiful, w ith fiery red color and disheveled hair, sw aying
her hips to the flu tte r of her bone-om am ents and pouring a skull-cup of blood
do w n her throat - these exotic lands are a m arriage of the beautiful and the
h o rrific
w ith
the
fundam ental human dichotom y of hope and fear. The journey through the
forest shrines, combined w ith the inner visualization of psychic veins and
channels, became a radical tantric m ethod fo r resolving the d u ality between the
self and the w orld.
To understand Mahayana Buddhism as it was practiced in India, it is not
enough
Buddhist
the
there
is enough
evidence in
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13
the
Madhyamaka pandits,
Saraha learns to
dem onstrate
emptiness
by
From
the philosopher
Ratnakarasantipa
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14
Out in the field, in the frontier places and charnel grounds, places of
dissolution and dis-illusion, the young brahmin scholars like M aitripa observed
a rich and w ild tribal cu ltu re Only the best of the students survived this
'fie ld w o rk', and saw those te rrifyin g phenomena as the display of enlightened
mind, immersed in these borderlands, the young scholars revalorized the
totem ic practices of the tribes, their animal-headed deities, and their chamel
ground ornaments, and recast them as Buddhist symbols of transformation.
Young scholars like M aitripa left NJalanda to become men. They all left
w ith only ideas about Buddhism and an inflated sense of purity, only to be
brought back in to the field of arousal by masters w h o could communicate
through sound, light, and movement. They left w ith grammar, logic and
epistemology, and returned singing ecstatic songs (doha).
Situated in tribal areas beyond the boundaries of w hat was considered
respectable brahmanical civilization, the pitha-s and the bizarre rites associated
w ith them became a foil to the great seats of Buddhist learning like Nalanda
and their rational curriculum. It was in these forest shrines and chamel grounds
that many of the legendary Vidhyadhara-s and Mahasiddha-s of Indian Tantric
lore traveled to exhaust their dualistic perception and understand the ultim ate
nature of their minds.
This brand of Buddhism and its complex lore of pilgrim age sites was
introduced to Tibet in the period of the first Buddhist diffusion (circa. 800 A D .)
by Indian masters like Padmasambhava, H tim kara and Vimalamitra, w h o had
achieved their m iraculous powers by m editation in the legendary smasana and
pitha
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15
The first period of Buddhist diffusion in Tibet, w hich began w ith the reign
of Srong btsan sgam po (618-641 AD.?), did not last very long. In the 9th
century Glang Dar ma (838-842 AD.?) ascended the Tibetan throne and came
under the influence of m inisters hostile to the gro w in g pow er of Buddhism.
Monasteries were closed, and the reactionary king him self was in turn
assassinated by a disgruntled m onk w h o escaped to Mongolia. The Tibetan
kingdom
organized
principalities
of
political
passed
dow n
among
lay
practitioners,
tracing
back
to
Indian
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16
of sacred space,
a new
geographic
These teds
m ention lands
such
as K a m b o ja
Dan M artin, "'0 1 -m o-lung-ring, the Original H oly Place", in Tibet journal ,
vo l.20, no. 1, (1995), 52. As Dan M artin shows, these derived from a list of 48
countries found in Buddhist sutras like the TathagatadntyagOhvanirdesasQtra
and its commentaries dating to the 13th century, l i e also refers to M chim s
'Jam pa'i dbyang's Tibetan commentary on the AbhidharmakoSa. The Nine
Great Countries in the Rgya bod yig tshang (1434) derived from an earlier
and now non-extant biography of the Buddha composed by Bcom Idan Rig
joa'i ra! 'g ri (ca. 1230-1315) in the second half of the thirteenth century.
W hile the original Kalacakratantra was no longer extant, a short version
(lag h u ta n tra / bsdus rgyud) reached Tibet w ith a com m entary called the
Vim alaprabha CGrel chen dri med 'od) by Pundarika w h ic h refers to a
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17
states:
First, meditate in yo u r
own
house
w ander
the thirty-seven
great
countries, beginning w ith the pitha and the upapitha, fo r the sake of
perform ing the penance of kno w le dg e This method is propounded in
the Tantras and the teachings of the Great Yogin [i.e Buddha]. H aving
understood practice such as this, one w ill become fu lly awakened in this
very life
19
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18
Many beautiful
(Dzva la mu
khe, Jvalamukhi)
2D
where both
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19
Rgyal thang ba Bde chen rd o rje (late 1200s),Mtsho sngon m i rigs dpe
skrun khang, (Zi lin g :l992), 76... de yang dza' lan dha ra zhes bya ba de
vul nyi shu rtsa b z h i'i ya gyal yin z h in g / phyi rol gyi yul nyi shu rtsa behi
n i/ d kyil 'k h o r gyi sku gsung thugs kyi 'k h o r lo la y o d / nang gi yul nyi
shu rtsa behi n i/ rang gi lus la yod d e / lus la sbyar na spyi gtsug y in / spyi
gtsug na rtsa thams cad 'dus nas yod pas/ rtsa gang na yod sa na byang
chub kyi thig le gnas pas/ des zag med kyi bde ba bskyed / bde ba'i dpa'
bo mkha' 'g ro sprin bzhin du 'du bas/ de yang gnas de'i bkod pa n i/
thang la g m th il lta r m nyam zhing bde ba la / byang chub kyi shing dang
ta la dang thang shing la sogs pa'i shing sna tshogs skyes p a / ar bur s kyu r
gsum la sogs pa'i sman sna tshogs skyes pa/ co li dang nyo li kham bu
dang star kha la sogs pa'i shing thog sna tshogs p a / pad m o dang ku m u
ta pun ta ri ka la sogs pa'i me tog sna tshogs skyes pa/ rma bya dang ne
tso khrung khrung la sogs pa'i 'dabs chags mang pos sgra snyan sgrog
p a / khri snyan dang ru r u / stag dang gung la sogs pa'i mdzes pa'i ri
dvags mang po 'khrigs ba'i gnas d e / phyi rang bzhin gyi gzhal yas khang
du yod p a / nang bcud lha dang lha m o gnas p a / de yang gyas gyon
gnyis nas chu bo chen po gnyis rgyug ring 'dus pa'i sum m d o r/ ri de'u
chen po glang po nyal ba 'd ra ba g rig gi m khal khung n a / na' ga kro dha
zhes bya ba'i grong khyer stong tsho Inga yod r in g / ri bo de'i sna la dzva
la mu khe zhes bya ba'i gtsug lag khang chen po g rig yod d e / de la phyi
nang gnyis ka'i m chod pa 'bul z h in g / de na grong khyer sum cu tsam
dkon gnyer du 'dug gsung/ rin po che phebs pa'i nyin m o dzva la m u
kher byon pas/ de'i nub m o grong p a 'i chos kyis ma gos pa'i bu m o drug
cu bdun cu tsam mdzes shing yid au 'ong ba/ lha'i bu m o 'dra ba dang
tshon m am pa Inga las byas pa'i na bea' gsol b a / rin po chei dbu rgyan la
sogs pa rgyan du mas brgyan 'dug rin g / de thams cad kyi phyag na / la
la me to g / la la bdun spos la sogs pa'i mchod rdzas m am pa sna tshogs
thogs pas/ bu m o m am s skad kyis sgyur lha khang gi nang du ras kyis
mgo bo btums nas 'g ro bzhin 'd u g / der rin po che yang byon pas/ rigs
ngan gyis sgo srung gi dbyugs pa thogs nas 'byon du ma bcug pas/ der
tsham tshom med par sgo phul nas nang du phin pas/ kho rang bred nas
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20
Rgod tshang pa's zeal for spiritual exploration was perhaps matched only
by the w anderings of his disciple Urgyan
pa w ho retraced
his guru's
pilgrim age back to Jalandhara in the next generation. Like his guru, U rgyan pa
observes that, " as fo r the heavenly heart 'cakra' of the 24 countries - [which] is
the head of the vajrakaya - I arrived at the great sacred place called Jalandhara
[ where! there is a great city called 'Shri na ka ra kro tre'. That country is full of
22
natural amenities and all the woman [there] are from the lineage of d a k in i."-
For both Rgod tshang pa and U rgyan pa, as w ell as fo r all pilgrim s of the
vajrakaya, enlightened women play an essential role on the pilgrim age to
realization. They often appear in the form of dakini - literally 'sky-waikers' that teach m ankind how to use desire as a path to realize emptiness. A fte r
travelling through Western Tibet, Kashmir, Gilgit, Tazig, U rgyan pa finally
reaches O ddiyana in the year 1260, where he describes the fabulous city of ' Rdo
ma tha la', and participates in Tantric feasts (tshogs/ganacakra) in cave shrines
w ith famous dakini w ith names such as Grags pa so ni, Ga su ri, Ma tarn gi and Sa
ta si - wom an w ith special powers and w isdom that support his inner jou rn e y
tow ards realization.
if some of the vajrakaya sites and their lineages of enlightened female
muses were still vaguely identifiable by Tibetan p ilg rim s in the 13lh century,
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21
" For an account of Tibetan p ilg rim s tra ve llin g to the Indian vajrakaya
sites as late as the 15th century see G.Tucci (Calcutta: 1940).
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Chapter Two:
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23
in Tibet, the
guidebooks to the sacred m ountains describe how this process also occurred.
in a dream, the patriarch of the 'B ri gung sect 'Jig rten gsum mgon (11431217) saw the local deities of the three m ountain sites of Ti se, La phyi and Rtsa
ri, invited him to visit their places. He subsequently sent out his most
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24
khor lo sdom pa'i sku y i gnas gangs ri ti se dang gsungs gnas la phyi gangs
kyi ra gnyis kyi gnas yig, w e read:
T h e 'B ri gung Spyan snga Shes ra b 'b yu n g gnas (1187-1241) and the
Siddha Seng ge ye shes perceived this snow m ountain in the state of the
clear lig h t as the palace of the sixty tw o deities of the Samvara mandala
complete w ith gates. Also the glorious incomparable Lamp of the
Doctrine of the Ri bo Dga' ldan pa, the omniscient Pan chen Bio bzang
chos kyi rgyal mtshan perceived this snow m ountain as the palace of
Cakrasamvara.^
W hile m editating at M ount Ti se, th e 'B ri gung Spyan nga Shes rab 'byung
gnas reportedly even managed to hang his cloak on the legendary tree of
Himavat, but for those in his entourage w ith o u t the requisite karma it was
seen to float in m id-air.
27
Ibid.
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25
To Sa skya
Pandita's dismay, what was o rig in ally a secret Tantric ritual in India was now
tu rn ing in to a popular cult in Tibet:
continued.
Tseng
kha
pa
(1357-1419)
an
adept
of
the
Cakrasamvaratantra - also made pilgrim ages to both T i se and Rtsa ri, and his
devotees and disciples follow ed suit. The most im portant of these m ountains
sites, like Ti se, La phyi, Lho brag, M tsho Ma pharn and Rtsa ri, soon became
recognized respectively as the second terrestrial incarnations of the legendary
pitha-s of Himavat, Godavari, Devikotta, Pretapuri and Caritra - sacred places
that no longer could be identified accurately on the Indian map.
3 Ibid,132.
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26
Even before the transfer of Indian sacred sites to Tibet, people had a
tremendous sense of being linked to nature in indigenous Tibetan m yths the
landscape is sometimes seen as an extension of human or d ivin e anatomy. The
'vita lity ' or 'soul'
centers on the landscape such as 'soul lakes' (bla rntsho), 'soul trees' (bla s h in g )
and 'soul mountains' (bla ri). There is a sense that h u rtin g the landscape can
hurt man, and that the health of a com m unity is strengthened by preserving
the sanctity of the landscape
Nevertheless, it is safe to say that for the o rdinary Tibetan w h o suffered
from a kind of cosmic hypochondria, the mountains were not a rom antic place
of worship, but a stark arena of survival, where old demons required
continuous p ropitiation and had to be reminded of their vow to protect
civilization. Such a natural environm ent
useful when
' J.L. Paglung," On the N arrative of the K illin g of the Evil Yak and the
Discovery of Salt in the Chos 'byung of Nyang ral", in Tibetan Studies, (eds.)
S. Ihara and Z Yamaguchi, Naritasan Shinshqi,2 (Narita:1992), 661-667.
30
Regarding the demoness see J. Gyatso, " Down w ith the Demoness:
Reflections on a Feminin Ground in Tibet", in Tibet Journal, 12,4 (1987),38-53.
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27
Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara drains the lake over Tibet and grants people six
kinds of seed.3'
.As Buddhism started to prom ote the idea of m ountains as mandala-s,
Tibetan environm ental consciousness entered a certain a m b ig u ity." Old myths,
suggesting that nature was a dangerous place, to be kept at bay
and
became
bridge-w orld
reflecting
the
inner
anatomy
of
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28
like a king seated an a throne To the H indu pilgrim , externally this snow
m ountain resembles a crystal reliquary shrine (stupa), and internally it has the
layout of a palace in w hich the mother-father union of the great god Mahadeva
and the goddess Uma reside
even this
Meaning o f the M ountain Cult in Tibet and the Himalaya, (eds.) A.-M .
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29
paradoxical and often dangerous side of Tibetan pilgrim age was perhaps best
exem plified by the pilgrim age around the 'Pure Crystal Peak' (Dag pa Shel ri)
of Rtsa ri.
Situated in the dense cannibal-infested forests of southeastern Tibet, this
m ountain used to attract tens of thousands of Tibetan pilgrim s every year p rio r
to the Chinese com m unist occupation in 1959. Perceived as the holy mandala of
the Buddhist deity Cakrasamvara, the outer circum am bulation around this
m ountain (tended in to the te rrito ry of the 'black' Lopa (Klo nag), a term used
to identify the unconverted Dafla tribes still liv in g beyond the confines of
civilized Buddhist culture Risking their lives, every year pilgrim s from various
parts of Tibet attempted to circum am bulate this m ountain under the threat of
Dafla arrows.
W ithin a very short period between the 13-14th centuries, the cotton-clad
ascetics of the Bka' brgyud order established a netw ork of pilgrim age sites
around Tibet's m ajor m ountain
pilgrim age netw orks
peaks.
of Western
Chrisitianity,
of the grand
marked
a great
tu rn ing
point
in
Tibetan
geographic
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30
became foils to the great Tibetan monastaries, places from where yogins like
Mi la ras pa could protest the g ro w in g pretension of conservative monastic
culture.
These voices from the m ountains became an im portant source for o u r
understanding medieval Tibetan society. They were tolerated by the political
authorities and admired by o rd in a ry Tibetans, for w h o m they articulated a
deep longing that could not be easily acted out in a conservative feudal society.
It is on these mountains, unrestrained by the closing vision of a theocratic
empire, that Tibetan yogins incarnate the most im portant ideals of their
tradition.
The grow ing popularity of m ountain pilgrim age coincided w ith a period
of Mongol occupation in the mid-13,h century that introduced profound
changes and upheaval in Tibetan society. During this period w e begin to see a
fu rther shift in Tibetan geographic sensibility, w here the m ountains are
envisioned as places of hope and messianic significance, places to hide and
rebuild the ideal Buddhist society.
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31
C hapter Three:
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32
Tibetans liv in g d u rin g the 11th and 12th centuries first witnessed the
demise of Indian Buddhism under the M uslim sw ord and then their own
borderlands raided and their king Ye shes 'od, taken
hostage by the
34
Qarakhanid Turks.
form idable Mongol invasions. In 1240, Tibet was sacked by the armies of
Goden Khan, w ho then appointed a learned monk from the influential Tibetan
Khon fam ily called Sa skya Pandita to act as his chaplain. A century of m ilita ry
34
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33
ecclesiatical faction and its lay supporters in a long protracted struggle for the
dom ination of Tibet.
Under Kubilai Khan, the Mongol yoke was further tightened as Tibet was
assimilated in to the Yuan Empire. '' Tibet once again came under a pow erful
central a u th o rity but not everyone prospered under this 'Pax Mongolica'. New
taxes, political institutions and habits of dress were introduced to Central Tibet,
w h ile the old feudal aristocracy found itself competing w ith an upstart class of
Tibetan officials w h o confirmed their appointments through the much coveted
im perial 'tiger' seals obtained from the Mongol court.
The w andering Tibetan yogin-poet 'Ba' ra ba Rgyal mtshan dpal bzang
(1310-1391) w rites that it was a tim e of "unm itigated hunger" (gzar med Itogs
pa)
when monasteries were forced to bear the costs of raising armies, and
"people put on m onks' robes only to get food," (Ito p h y ir btsun gzugs byed).
3K
W hile 'Ba' ra ba was travelling across the valley of Shangs, he relates how a
certain Mongol inspector called Gye phyag ta and Si tu dbang brtson, an official
from 5(7 skya, were authorized to undertake an inspection during which they
plundered Tibet and reduced the entire country to servitude
It is no surprise
that d u rin g this period of occupation, people's im agination turned towards the
borderlands, and for m any like 'Ba' ra ba, the sym bolism of the sacred place as
* L. Petech, Central Tibet and the Mongols: The Yuan-Sa skya Period of
Tibetan History, Serie Orientale Roma, 64 (Rom el990).
' 'Ba' ra ba Rgyal mtshan dpal hzang, Rje 'Ba' ra ba chen po rgyal mtshan
dpal bzang g i bka' bum, Ngawang Gyaltsen and Ngawang Lungtok,
(Dehradun:1970), vol.l3,fol.l07.2.
38 Ibid, fol.107.5.
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34
40
W hoever he was
ibid, 104.5... shangs su yongs pa'i dus su / si stu dang gyephyag tas phyegs
byas pas bod thams cad nang 'dzugs byed res dang/ dmag brdeg res dang
choms po byed ches byas pas/
40 ibid, fol.107.4.
The hagiography in question, Bka' thang Zangs gling ma, contained in R in
chen gter mdzod chen mo. (Paro:1976-1978),vol.l, became a kin d of m odel
for many sim ilar w orks of its k in d in Tibet. For another edition of this w o rk
see the Slob dpon padma'i m am thar zangs g lin g ma, (Chengdu:1989). For
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35
translations.
an English translation of this text see Erik Pema Kunsang, The Lotus-Born:
The Life Story o f Padmasambhava, (Boston:1993).
Alex McKay, " Kailas-Manasarovar in Classical (H indu) and Colonial
Sources , in Pilgrimage in Tibet, (ed.) A McKay, (Surrey: 1998), 171-172.
McKay draws attention to the w orks of Nancy Falk (1973:1) w h o examines
the relationship between ascetics and the wilderness". In Indian m ythology,
there is a complex relationship between kings and the wilderness. Specific
attention is brought to the legends of Arjuna and Rama, traditional epic
heroes w h o are as complex icons of kin g ly and ascetic powers, a com bination
needed to master the wilderness and make it accessible to humans, w hom
they can protect by th e ir pow er as intermediaries w ith the gods.
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36
yig/lam byang) instructing people on when and how to flee to the mountains.
These oracular texts take us in to a turbulent period in Tibetan history when the
country is occupied and ruled by Mongol overlords. Religious and political
corruption are on the rise, the flo w of devotional offerings to the central
shrines of the fo khang and Bsam yas have almost ceased, and people are
afflicted by many sorts of unwholesom e passions. D uring such times the Guru
commands his follow ers to flee tow ards the hidden m ountains sites in the
southern borderlands - in to w ild v irg in forests where the supports fo r
enlightenment are naturally assembled.
The famous 14th century Tibetan scholar, Klong chen rab 'byams pa (13081364), w h o meditated in the Bum thang valley (present day Bhutan), calls it a
"hidden-land" (sbas y u l) where "th e ideal geographic and human qualities
together conspire to create the perfect conditions for religious life. 45 in the
w orks of another contem porary master called O rgyan gling pa (h 1323), w e
find a list of hidden-lands where Tibetans can escape from the armies of the d u
44
gling pa (1340-1396) discuss a num ber of hidden-lands which spread across the
Tibetan landscape like the petals of a giant lotus flower.^
The Guru's most extensive descriptions of these hidden m ountain
sanctuaries appear in the Treasures revealed by Rig 'dzin Rgod kyi Idem 'phru
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37
47
a Treasure
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38
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The Guidebook:
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40
"O h Great Acarya, during the last 500 years [of the Buddha's doctrine],
when the sentient beings of this snowy realm want to go to the hidden lands
w hat w ill the external signs be?"
50
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41
[ Padmasambhava] re p lie d :" Lord-K ing listen, as i have taught before, the
signs of the end-times surpass the imagination. The particular signs indicating
that you should go to the (2a) hidden-lands w ill be the d ry in g up of the stream
of offerings to the viharas erected fcy you and [the tw o previous generations of]
bodhisattva kings. H alf of the'border-tam ing' temples and the 'further-tam ing'
temples w ill also be de stro yed /' T w o generations from now, an avatar king
w ill build temples receiving a perpetual stream of offerings near On chang
rdo.
These w ill fall apart three hundred and sixty years after they are built.
[When you see] these outer signs of the country, [know them to bei the signs
that you should go to the hidden-lands.
The 'inner sign w ill be when the Sovereign Lords em pire in Tibet is
destroyed, and the law disintegrates. (2b) Tibet w ill be lawless for 123 years,
then the Mongol Mu d u r'T h e Black' w ill in v a d e * 125 years of Mongol law w ill
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42
follow , after w hich the Mongol law w ill collapse A t that tim e Tibet[ansl must
go to the hidden lands."
53
Again [the King] asked: " Oh Great Acarya, when w e - the Lord and
subjects of Tibet - must go to the hidden lands, is it guaranteed that w e w ill find
the hidden-lands or not? W ill Tibet [manage to] keep the hidden lands or not?
What w ill happen when the heart-strength of Tibet is exhausted in the end[timesl?"
[The Master] replied: "O h King! Listen! No m atter how I teach, [youl
foolish Tibetan subjects never see No m atter how i explain, [you] never
understand. No m atter how I counsel, [you] never follow ,
in later [times],
those subjugated by the spell of the Demon Srin po ska lin g w ill be m ostly
killed. As the final 500 years [of the Buddha's doctrine] draw to a close, first a
slave w ill rule fo r 125 years, [then] a butcher's reign w ill last 60 years. A t that
tim e it w ill be possible to escape
To go to the hidden lands you w ill need a 'dharm a-protector' king. (3a)
Because an evil butcher-king w ill cause an ocean of envy, attachment and
hatred to gush forth, the pious w ill exhort people to go to the hidden land,
[but] they w ill be persecuted by the wicked. Dharma practitioners leading the
w ay w ill be slandered. Because dharm a practitioners obtain good provisions
Pandita to the Mongol court in Kansu, in 1240 he sacked the Rgyal lha khan g,
but apparently, he later repented and donated gold and silver fo r its repairs.
B A 91, 577-78, Ferrari: 77, W y lie 162.
x The allusion here is to the collapse of the Yuan Dynasty in 1368, which left a
power vacuum in Tibet leading to a period of anarchy and civil war.
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43
needed for the journey, they w ill be robbed. You w ill need to inquire carefully
in order not to be deceived by the tricks of the landscape, [but there] w ill be
senseless talk all around.
First the Demon's son called G orta 'The Black w ill appear in Tibet. A t that
tim e the prophecies left behind by us, priest and patron, w ill be gradually
uncovered from m any [hidden] treasure troves.
going to Tibet's hidden lands w ill arise, [and] everyone w ill despair. A fte r the
Mongol law disintegrates, Tibetans w ill wage a a v il war. A u th o rity w ill break
down, [and] because the three form er [M ongol dynasties] plundered the
resources of the land, the pious w ill lack [the means to] open the way. Those
contemplating the hidden lands w ill be terrified, [they w ill] tremble w ith o u t the
courage to go.
At this time, the steadfast penance of just a few pious individuals w h o
persist in the search fo r the hidden lands w ill bring several years of good
fortune to Tibet. (3b) A lth o u g h the pious w ill fin d the [way] to the hidden lands,
they w ill be slandered due to Tibetan people's attachment to their good fortune
and their hatred and envy. A t this time, lacking in resolve, the pious will
despair, and be unable to carry their m erit to the end.
The practice of b u ryin g and revealing religious texts was already active on
the level of Indian legendary material, but the Tibetan friars developed this
tradition in to a fu ll-d o w n revelatory practice To demonstrate continuity
w ith the past, Tibetan m ystics began a visionary treasure hunt across the
Tibetan landscape fo r scriptures and talismans allegedly concealed by the
legendaryGuru radmasamohava. These treasures acted as m em ory triggers,
causing the appointed discoverer to recall entire teachings and prophecies
received from Padmasambhava in a past life A fter m editating on these
unearthed objects and scrolls the Treasure finders (gter ston) usually
composed volum es of texts relating to many aspects of life and spiritual
practice These indigenous Tibetan revelations were to outnum ber the Indian
Buddhist canon. For a general overview of the Tibetan Treasure tradition see
J. Gyatso (1989).
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44
A t that time, the Demon Kamadeva, observing the general victory of the
dark side in the four directions from the sum m it of the m ountain Sumeru, will
be overjoyed. Looking in the southern direction at the decline of the teachings
of sakyamuni of Jambudvipa, the demon's heart w ill rejoice A t that period, in
mdia, the M uslim Turks having seized Vajrasana, the Demon w ill scatter the
flowers of sharp weapons. The tim e being unripe for the spread of the Buddha's
rem aining doctrine, that King of Demons w ill shoot seven poison arrows
tow ards Tibet from the peak of Sumeru.
The years and months w ill be exhausted, [and the poison arrows! will
strike a
vear and a m onth after the radiance of the sun and moon have
disappeared from the w orld. The 'external' omen w ill be firelights shooting
across the sky. As for the 'inner' omens, the poison which makes people kill
<b<od
byed
kui
the governors,
generals,
chieftains, and those w h o hold high w o rld ly office intense hatred and envy
w ill suddenly erupt. Then, they w ill kill one another, and [set out to| conquer,
destroying one another.
The poison arrow w hich causes delusion (smyo byed dug mda') w ill strike
the great masters versed in the dharma, [so their] hearts w ill suddenly turn
frig id and n u m b A t this tim e [the poison] w ill penetrate the minds of dharma
practitioners, [so] they w ill slander one another. Leaving the dharma they w ill
enter w o rld ly occupations. Forsaking m editation they w ill rely on words.
Wearing yellow robes, they w ill fill half the country. Just a few places w ill abide
according to the Buddha's word.
The poison [arrow ] w hich causes w arfare Ckhrug byed kyi dug) w ill strike
m inisters and counselors; [so that] disloyalties w ill suddenly arise Then those
deluded by great misguided avarice w ill report false rum ors on one side; and
give undesirable counsel on the other.
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45
D uring Tibet's civil war, the poison [a rro w l of craving (Ito ba'i dug) w ill
strike the young [so that] im pulsive urges and insatiable craving w ill suddenly
arise among dharm a practitioners and ordinary devotees. A t this tim e appetite
for all types of food and beverage w ill increase (4b), [people] w ill kill young
animals, catch the fish in streams, butcher the [calves] under their own cattle;
eat red meat, d rin k blood, and wear red hides, in the Dark Age some w ill eat
the flesh of [th e ir ow n] father.
The poison [arrow ] w hich causes deception (gyo byed kyi dug) w ill strike
women; infidelities w ill suddenly arise [so then] much slander w ill be spoken,
father and son w ill enter in to dispute People of the [same] region w ill fight,
lord and slave w ill quarrel and siblings w ill feud.
The arrow of 'evil actions [and] deluded m ind' (las log bio rgyugs k y i
n td a '> w ill strike the wicked [so that] fierce tempers w ill suddenly erupt. At
Sharp
blades w ill be carried under ecclesiastic robes, [and] women w ill rise in arms.
People w ill be strangled and their hair and scalp w ill be tom out. This w ill be a
[tim e when] the liv in g are buried under the ground.
The Demon w h o robs the life force and decreases longevity w ill strike
pious kalyanamitra dharma practitioners and honest ministers, so the devout
w ill suddenly become faint of heart. A t this tim e whatever the roots of v irtu e
may be, they w ill not be carried to their end.
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46
search fo r the path and take possession of a place by know ledge of skillful
means and interdependent conditions, [from where he w ill] discover all the
hidden lands [in w hichl the border armies and M uslim Turks perpetrating
destruction w ill no longer be able to massacre the Tibetan people
[Yet]
because the Demon's poison arrows w ill strike Tibet, kindness w ill be met by
evil and the pious w ill sin. Because of this the pious w ill be unable to move due
to suffering.
in the country of Mdo K h am s there are three hidden lands; three hidden
lands on the frontiers of the country of Dbus, eight hidden lands towards the
country of Gtsang , [and! tw o hidden lands in the country of M nga' ri.
For the
most part these [hidden lands] w ill not be grasped by just mental yearning.
[ For] the Tibetans w h o lack the fortune to go the hidden lands during the endtimes, these w ill be like [im aginary] 'Buddhafidds' (5a) [they] w ill not become
visible through sim ple hearsay.
prayers have joined together in one pointed aspiration, the pious w ill flee in to
four valleys (Ijong) and the three gorges (rong) - the hidden lands of Tibet.
An incarnation of Acarya Vairocana w ill open a hidden land in the region
of Dbus. Dharma practitioners w ill m ostly escape to the m outh of that gorge A
man from K h a m w h o is an incarnation of three [mastersl w ill open a hidden
land in Gtsang. An incarnation of Acarya Jnana (Atsa ra dza nya) w ill open a
hidden land in Stod. Priests w ill flee in to seven gorges. [A lthough] the hidden
land in M n g a ' r i [canlnot be opened [at this time], a few can escape in to that
gorge.
T h irty to sixty years after Mongol rule has collapsed, nine great armies
[and] tw enty-one envoys of the Demon w ill come from below. Five cruel and
sw ift m o vin g battalions and the three great armies w ill come from above.
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47
Those w ho do not escape w ill suffer under the Tibetan Demon Srin po sha
Hugs, [and] the borderlands w ill be consumed by flames.
m ounds of Bscim yas and the fo k h a n g w ill [survive] as a seed due to the
blessings of the lords of the three bodhisattva lineages. [But] generally all of
Tibet from the frontiers of Bio bo Pu rangs up to China w ill be devastated.
Sentient beings w ill be m urdered because of the consequence of th e ir ow n
actions.
: feel compassion fo r Tibet - compassion for the sentient beings of Tibet.
[Such w ill be the] effect of com ing under the Demon's power, the effect of
jealous passions sw irlin g lik e a tempest, the effect of reaching the end of time,
[but] if you listen to m y oral instructions there are methods to prevent the
exhaustion of the years and months. There are ways to reverse three-year
cycles.
Even though these [methods] exist, they do so only to the extent to which
they are [activated] by the sincere aspiration prayers of dharma practitioners.
Those holding w ron g view w ill go to damnation. [I] p ity the sentient beings
livin g in this evil time, [but] it is the [result of] their ow n actions.
Those w h o
pervert m y view', tu rn their backs (on me] day and night, those beings w h o
sever the'life-force' of the lineage w ill b e lik e trees blazing in a fire - [only] the
pious w ill be spared.
in the fearsome battle to come, those followers of m y oral instructions
[w h o are] endowed w ith good intu itio n [must] search for the hidden-lands!
[Those of a] benevolent [nature must] meditate on protection cycles, [those]
endowed w ith strong m erit [m ust p er f orm rituals tol repulse the Demon's
soldiers. (6b). If you lack such capacities, practice one-pointed enlightenm ent in
the hollow of trees w hich have been w orn out by goats and rodents in rem ote
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48
places, ravines and forest slopes w ith o u t being attached to this w orld, and the
Demon w ill not kill you in this life
realm of the Victorious [ Buddhas], If you refrain from the act of taking life; the
Demon's soldiers w ill not kill you. If you do not eat food [derived from l flesh
and blood, others w ill not stab you w ith sharp weapons. Therefore, heed m y
instructions."
methods of protecting the snowy realm of Tibet against the Demon's poison
arrows, and the w ay to certainly find the hidden lands during the final 500
years [of the Buddha's teachings]."
" King! Listen carefully. For protection against the Demon's poison arrow s
you w ill need the three outer lands, the three inner provisions, the three secret
samadhi-s, the three fierce spells, and the three cycles of (bca' pa?) First,
regarding the three outer lands: (7a) Go to the three temples built by the
bodhisattva [kings] and the m editation places blessed in ancient times. If at the
appropriate tim e you remain w ith the spell of the Buddha's usnisa drawn on
your parasol or in the hollow of yo u r hat, the Demon's poison arrows w ill not
strike you.
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49
As fo r the three fierce spells, if you recite the mantras of Rdor rje Scier
m o, Gtsug gto r'kh o r
dawn, the poison arrows w ill not h it you. As for the three (bca' pa?): when you
physically assume the 'vajra-posture'1, the 'w rath fu l stance', and [w h ile y o u r
body] circumambulates and prostrates [to holy shrines], the poison arrows w ill
not strike you. Oh pious ones w h o fo llo w m y instructions, (7b) to protect
[yourselvesl there is a [text] called the 'M eteoric-Lightning Tent' in the first
scroll of [m y] prophecies - read it! Likewise I w ill teach the w ay to the great
holy places and the keys to the hidden lands for those w h o w ill not come to
harm by the Demon's poison arrows.
in this regard, there are three great holy places in Tibet, [and] each w ill
require seven 'e n try-w a rra n ts'.* There are thirteen interm ediate holy places,
each requiring three entry-warrants.
requiring a single entry-w arrant.
between the age of 60 and 70 years," seven great troves of 'treasure' w ill be
discovered by seven incarnations.
these ['treasures'].
(T ih Rdo rje skyil srung ; Skt. VajraparySrika) w ith the legs crossed in the
opposite manner to the H indu 'fu ll-lo tu s' posture of padmasana.
in addition to his principle Treasures the Guru concealed num erous
subsidiary Treasures called byang bu, kha byang, them byang, etc which
contain prophecies and commands leading to the principal Treasures (see J.
Gyatso. 1991).
A ccording to Buddhist cosmologies like the Afchidharmakofia the Buddha
appeared in the w o rld when the average human life expectancy was a 100
years, and his teachings were to remain for 5000 years after his death. This
period was d ivid e d up in to progressively less spiritual epochs, where human
life span decreased an average of 5 years fo r every 500 years, culm inating in
the 'last 500 years' of the teachings; a Dark Age when only a reflection of the
true doctrine was said to remain, and the average life expectancy of people
was said to be on ly 50 years.
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50
hidden lands are Rtsa r i to the east, ' Bras mo shongs to the south, and 'Bras
mo khugs (khud) to the north. As fo r the thirteen lands of interm ediate size
they are situated in the southern range (8a) from Rgya rno Tsha bai rong up
to Gtsang Sra rum . As for the small ones they are situated in between these.
As for Tsha byi in the North and Gyu sa brag mo to the south, o rdinary people
w ill not be able to go there, [sol there is no point in discussing [them here]
5fi
From among these the [hidden land] which w ill be easy to find is M k h a n
pa lung of U w brag. It w ill also be easy to keep.
Khum
easy to find, [and| if one is skillful, it w ill be kept. The Kun bskyed Cave w ill be
difficult to find but easy to keep.
d iffic u lt to escape to. As far as keeping it, each priest [w h o opens the way! w ill
be able to keep it for only a generation.
It is easy
to go to Rtsa r i to the east, [and] if one is able to stay, it w ill prosper like a
king's palace The hidden land of Has [called] Ding ding nag mo is far [and]
d ifficu lt to reach, [but] easy to keep. The [hidden land] of Rtsa r i [standing]
m id w a y is easy to reach, and easy to keep if one knows the method. As for the
SB
In th e M fl 'ongs lung bstan gsal ba'i sgron me, Tondup Tashi, Leh: 1973,
pp. 455-456, w e fin d a slightly different distribution of the hidden-lands: On
the borderlands of M on from T i se u n til Rkong po there are said to be 11
hidden-lands; 2 in M nga' ri; 7 in Gtsang; and 4 in Dbus.
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51
other hidden lands, some w ill be difficult to find, [and] because some are small
(8b) ['] w ill not discuss them [here],
IThe Path-finders:l
of the [deitv] Rdo rje Phitr ba, w ill open th e 'm id d le ' 'Bras mo bshongs.
Due
the three siddha-s each having spread separately, three places [dedicated] to the
mantra-teachings w ill be established in Bras mo bshongs. An emanation of
Acarya Jnana w ill open the M ountain Range of La phyi.
Because of Acarya
Vairocana was the first ordained Tibetan monk, and one of early disciples
of the legendary Guru Padmasambhava. According to hagiographical
accounts he was w ro n g fu lly slandered and sent in to exile after shunning the
advances of the lustful Tibetan Queen. The text is referring to the karm ic
consequences of w ro n g fu lly banishing him.
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Jnana's great faith, one of his fervent disciples w ill [succeed in] keeping [the
land], (9a) These sacred places w ill be certainly discovered.
As for those places that w ill only be found if they meet w ith the
karm ically destined persons. One w ho has m editated and realized the deity Rta
mgr in w ill open the happy cave of Ku thang. He w ill arrive from Gtsang Bkra
thum. One w h o has meditated and realized the 'Great Guru Vidhyadhara' w ill
discover the M ountain Ranges of Yol mo. He w ill also arrive from the West of
Gtsang Bkra thum. One w ho has meditated and realized the Tslie mchog M a
mo-s w ill find the great valley of Sman sha Khum bu. He w ill arrive from the
land of 'N o rth ' Tho yor nag po. One w h o has meditated and realized [the
deity I Rdor rje R n a m ' jo in s w ill find M khan
from the Western region of Ru lag rgyang. One w h o has meditated and
realized [the deity] Jam dpal Gshin rje w ill find the hidden-land of Ding mo.
He w ill a rrive from the direction of N yin g ro. One w h o has meditated and
realized [the deity] Heruka w ill fin d the Royal Mkhan pa lung of Lho brag. He
w ill arrive from the region of Bsam yas.
Because the hidden lands are precious fo r Tibet at the tim e when people's
teeth fall out between the ages of 50 and 60 years, seven people w ill come to
open the door to Bras mo bshongs, the kin g of all the hidden lands (9b).
Three w ill come to Rtsa ri. Tw o w ill come to the M ountain Range of La p h yi.
Three w ill come to the Mountain Range of Yol mo.
happy land of Sku thang.
they meet, they w ill find the hidden-lands; if they do not meet, the doors w ill
close
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53
Since the m erit of sentient beings liv in g during the end-times w ill be
weak, it w ill be difficult fo r the [textual] transmissions and oral instructions to
come together. For the most part, the great sacred places w ill not be found.
[ But] because of the sincere aspiration prayers made by the King and me, the
three sacred places w ill d efinitely be revealed for the purpose of [relocating]
the pious people liv in g in the upper, m id d le and lower [regions of Tibet]."
Again [the King] requested: " Oh great Vlahacarya, please teach the
means of finding the three precious places of great, intermediate, and lesser
size."
[Padmasambhava]
replied:
"
Oh King, listen!
prophecies regarding the tim e when people's teeth fall out between the ages of
50 and 60. W ithout the original descriptions of these places, the instructions [I
have] given, and from pure memory, (10a) [you] w ill not be able to go and find
these places. When people's teeth fall out at the age of 50, a person blessed b y
me w h o is unattached to this w o rld , one w h o teaches about impermanence and
has an unpredictable [temper], w ill open all of the hidden-lands. When the tim e
has come to tame sentient beings, [he w ill] open the three great and seven
small hidden-lands in between Gtsang Tshong 'dus 'gnr mo up to Spra d u m
along the borders of Tibet and M o n .
Dharma practitioners
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54
The
the service of w o rld ly dakinl-s, and amassing m undane power; propitiate [the
deity] Rta m g r in and the Tshe mchog M a mo-s. Since both m y w o rld ly and
supreme treasure teachings are complete, practice these when one or the other
is required.
Then, if dharm a practitioners lack provisions, at the tim e of setting out to
Lho 'Bras mo bshongs, to the southwest of Gtsang Tshong
dus g u r mo,
oO
Take it!
sides [m easuring ] fo u r ' donis' [and] put the invocations to [open the door ]
(bskul byang) to 'Bras mo bshongs in to w ritin g . In the southern borders of
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55
Tibet, build eight temples [in] the unbroken m ountain range of Gangs rn d z o d
Inga stag rise (11a). Establish a settlement for the dharma com m unity, [and]
b u ild the path to 'Bras mo bshongs. Establish secluded retreats in the center of
the holy place
From the East border armies w ill march three times in to the center of
Dbus and Gtsang.
recall the fate of Tibet at that time, [and] urge people to have faith and p e rfo rm
m eritorious actions by rem em bering m e Then, when M ongolian soldiers and
the like, invade all at once, fillin g the entirety of Dbus and Gtsang , leave Tibet
and escape to Bras mo bshongs.
Those w h o w ish to go to Bud and Khum bu, there is a rock tem ple which
looks like a (cang mas?) Proceeding [a distance of] seven doms pa in the valley
to the southwest, there is a fu ll Bsam yas bre- measure of gold and seven pieces
of turquoise. Take these and build a temple on the cliffs of Bu le gangs, and
establish a settlement for dharm a practitioners in the gorge of Bud.
For those going to the hidden lands of the Snowy Ranges of La p h y i and
Yol mo, take fiv e um s of gold and gzi stones and a nugget of gold the size of a
goat's live r from the east of Zang zang lha brag, in the valley of Rgyal th a n g
build a shelter,
dharm a practitioners [and] search fo r the w ay to the hidden land. Those going
to Sky id mo lung, there is a full load of lapis and an u m of gold next to the
central gate of the temple of Sra thum. Take these, and at the same tim e build
a house and a shelter in the valley of Ku thang. Doing this w ill bring a fu ll year
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56
there is a fortress [w hich can hold] 300 escaping dharm a practitioners. Because
of the existence of
practitioners of Stod.
As for the method of keeping the hidden lands of Dbus : make the pious
circum am bulate the M ountain Range of Rtsa ri in the East. Because the forests,
valleys and caves are peaceful, it w ill be easy to go. Establish a settlement fo r
dharm a practitioners in (12a) Bka' ma lu n g of Dags po [and] the cause of
sentient beings w ill be greatly furthered,
of means, take out a vase [fu ll] of five kinds of gems, a M ongolian girdle, a
half-measure of gold dust, ten high-quality turquoises, and a box full of
small!er] turquoises from the side of the m other cave at Yer pa. As fo r 'entrycertificate' ( lam byang) decipher it lik e that of Bras mo bshongs.
in front of the Red Rock at Bsarn yas there is a cliff like a rolled up scroll.
Underneath, there is a red leather amulet. It [emits] poisonous gas, [so] smear
it w ith goat lard ointm ent and leave it in a remote place
w h ite boulder w eighing one bre.
g2
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57
medicine vase, [you w ill find] gold w eighing one Bsam yas 'khal -mesasure.
Build a road-shelter for dharm a practitioners at 'Chims pu, and find the sacred
place in the gorge of Lho brag Khar chu. The border armies [canlnot reach the
center of that place
in later times, take out these treasures and repair the damages to Bsam
yas. W ith three measures of gold, p ro vid e sustenance for dharm a practitioners
and escape in to the gorge When the tim e comes for all Tibet[ansl to escape to
the southern gorges, (12b) place the amulet of poisonous gas at the gate of
Bsam yas.
Bsam yas w ill be ruined and there w ill be a d v ii w ar in Tibet, if [all] three
stories of Bsam yas are damaged, armies from the border w ill fill Tibet. [But] if
the three stories of Bsam yas and the Ra mo che are not ruined and damaged
by the enemy, Tibet w ill not be destroyed from the center. Therefore, in order
to prevent this, a person bom in a m onkey-year [must] stuff a pouch of
sandalwood pow der up the hole of [his] nose and smear goat-fat ointm ent all
over [his] head and body, place the amulet of [poison gas] under the threshold
of Bsam yas, open the lid and run away!63
Build a road-shelter at Gtsang Jo mo kha rag, and find the sacred place at
Uio brag Mkhar chu and escape to those [places]. Later, all of Tibet w ill escape
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from Byang Dang ra to M ount Star bgo, [cultivate] a land situated a day's w alk
to the north. A fte r one m onth of ordinary travel from M ount Star bgo, you w ill
be encircled by snow peaks resembling iron mountains. By shouting 'so' in the
m iddle of these mountains, you w ill be liberated.
khud.
If it is
discovered, there is no happier place in the snowy realm of Tibet. Even [if it is
not] opened [by m y appointed avatarl, people can generally escape in to its
m ountain ravines!
First, the Demon's armies w ill slaughter all the men and livestock fro m
Dang ra up to Byang smad Rgifal mo'i smug dong. Then, the arm y of Stod
w ill kill from Ti se until the northern m ountain ranges of Dang ra. From the
head of Ba thag sha d u n g until the lands bordering on China, the m ountain
ranges of the center w ill be subject to misery and destruction. From Pu rang
un til the southern border districts of Ga M i nyag [the land] w ill be conquered
through plunder.
Oh King!
descendent of y o u r own royal lineage (13b) and the suffering of Tibet w ill
commence. T w o w ill be slain by sharp weapons, and the destruction of Tibet
w ill begin. W ith the m urder of three, because Tibet's happiness w ill be
exhausted, escape to the hidden lands and the southern regions.
A t this tim e
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59
suffer like the w eight of a mountain; th e / w ill all die expiring in pits of fire,
crying in agony like exploding rocks. Like pine cones burning in flames, all
crops w ill be destroyed. Reaping the consequences of their actions, all those
killed by this w'ar w ill be reborn in the 'black-house heir.
In 'dukha'-
suppressed times like those, it w ill be too late to contemplate the hidden-lands
and the Guru. Those of you w ho have one-pointed devotion, escape w ith o u t
looking back at the war, flee towards the Western country of L i *
The law
of
the
dharm a-protecting
King
having
been
previously
destroyed, Tibet w ill then be divided in to m yriarchies - this w ill be the proper
tim e to escape, [but] due to peoples attachment to their homelands they w ill
not go. Afterwards, when Mu d u r'T h e Black' suppresses Tibet w ith [his] evil
sins, there w ill be no [chance to] escape
Then the Mongol law w ill collapse The realm w ill fall apart, and it w ill be
d iffic u lt to travel on the roads; at that tim e it w ill [again] be possible to flee At
that tim e m y disciples, escape! As before, Ibuild] settlements w ith the help of
people of the various districts.
Demon's poisonous arrows are com peting in strength, when the Demon
f>4
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60
causes obstacles like slander and accusations to arise for m y blessed prophecy
holders, escape w ith o u t fear.
[ Regarding] when to escape, there are seven prophetic sutra-s in the South
Jambu continent by the Victorious Sakyamuni. In each of these [sutra-s],
further, the proper tim e to escape is a tim e w hich the agama-s refer to as the
period surrounded by border armies. Because of the evil demon's black wind,
[one w hich can] trem ble [a w eight of] 9 bre, the 'Rcyal Sutra cf Prophecy* ( L u n g
bstan rgyal po'i mdo)' says:
all the places where the Buddha's teachings exist. Since the dharma w ill
spread to the Northern country of Tibet d uring the end-time, teach the
prophecies concerning the final 500 years of degeneration [in which] the
three bodhisattvas instruct people to escape to the gorges of the b o rder
forests.
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61
prophecy, Tibet!ans w ill] lose the chance to escape, [and] w ar w ill certainly
arrive from the fo u r borders like pressing mountains."
E vil-m inded Tibetan people are like dogs id ly gossiping like the fax.
Distracted by evil spirits they are mad.
Compared to now, the Dark Ages w ill be ten times worst.
W ithout a king - like a headless body every land w ill have its petty king.
Each petty butcher-king - the heart of an ax.
Slaves w ill in itia te gossip and rum or every tem ple in a place w ill have an abbot and teacher.
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62
King! Do not torm ent yourself. The 'dukha' of the three low er realms [of
existencel is unbearable, [but] unless your karma is purified it is useless
w orry.
to
Furtherm ore because the Demon's soldiers of that tim e w ill take
[rebirthl in bodies w ith evil karma, [and] they w ill be killed [in turn].
Here in Tibet, because of the aspirations of the King and me which have
come together, seven bodhisattvas of lineal descent [w ill come to] lead the w ay
- 300 w ill escape to South 'Bras mo bshongs-, 200 w ill escape to the borders of
Nepal and Tibet; 160 w ill escape to the district of Brin Khum
to the district of Bud; 400 w ill escape to the environs of Spa gro Bum thang;
100 w ill escape to the d istrict of Lho brag Khar chu. These people w ill certainly
discover the hidden-lands. 500 w ill escape above Rtsa ri tsa gong.
Furthermore, travelling near to the southern districts, some w ill escape
w ith their lives, [others] w ill be killed by evil [causes found] in the southern
districts. Some w ill die in forests, glaciers and rivers. Some w ill die w ith the
sword in Tibet's civil war, [or] having escaped the demon's soldiers, they w ill
perish from [other] evil causes. Some w ill die from the poison of the southern
(tribesmen). Oh King, d u rin g this tim e whatever beings do, happiness w ill not
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63
follow , it w ill be like hell. That period w ill be a tim e of suffering fo r all sentient
beings,
happiness and d iss aside from death [itself]. Oh King! Now that you have the
op portunity to engage in the profound dharmata, seize it firm ly."
The King having choked on his p rid e shed many tears. A t that tim e
Acarya Padmasambhava placed sentient beings liv in g in the degenerate age of
the Buddha's doctrine under [his] prophetic command [saying]:
" When the period of the last 500 years of the teachings of the C onqueror
sakyamuni draw to a close, since all sentient beings of the w o rld w ill lack peace
and happiness, escape to the safe [havens].
sinners, the pious must bring their intentions in to a single focus. Although the
hidden lands [i havel described are (16b) secure forests and valleys, abandon
the desire fo r broad plains of bliss,
unbalanced elements are the cause of the four diseases, w hich w ill require
medical expertise based on how things interdependently originate W ithout
fear, head in to the ravines where the valleys and forests come together.
W ithout frig h t of rain, fog, ('chibs?) and 'ground-poison', perfo rm the (pho
nya?) Engage in three years of virtuous practice; afterwards both the land and
body w ill prosper. Although the forested valleys are preciptous, they are
secure places.
the Lotus King of Oddiyana concealed blessed Treasures in the safe
valleys and territories of small regions in order to tame the landscape [I] have
appointed path finders, gate keepers, and attendants. For that reason every
hidden-land, each m editation cave and all the great sacred places are symbols
of m y teachings; leave them undisturbed. W ithout hesitation, go seek m y
blessed m editation caves like a son inheriting the father's place A fte r this life
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64
have no doubt of meeting m e Heed these w ords because at the tim e of these
teachings the evil doers of Tibet w ill be d yin g on the evil natured sword." (17a)
A t that tim e King Khri srong lde btsan held on to each of the [Guru's]
prophecies separately, [and after] offering the master a mandala of five kinds
of gems, [the prophecies] were hidden as Treasures. This prophecy was
concealed at Byang Zang zang lha brag. A t the tim e when the Guru departed
for Oddiyana [he] spoke to his three Tibetan devotees [saying]:
"Tibetan devotees listen! When the tim e comes to take out the transcripts
of m y oral advice, one of fierce disposition, appearing in the w ra th fu l body of a
person bom in a dragon or ax year w ill reveal this Treasure in a small valley
resembling a lotus stem. A fte r that excellent [person] reveals this ['treasure'],
[he] w ill open the seven southern gorges - the seven hidden lands.'' The
welfare of Tibet w ill depend on him. The Twelve Mother Guardians w ill
relinquish [m y] prophetic commandments to that excellent being."
May this 'key' to all the prophesized hidden-lands meet w ith a w o rth y
person. Samaya rgya rgya rgya (trip le seal of concealment).*
According to the Northern Treasures tra d ition the three principal recipients
of the prophecies were the emperor Khri Srong lde'u btsan, the princess Ye
shes mtshorgyal and the yogi Snanam R dorjebdud 'jams, the latter w h a n
reincarnated as Rig 'd zin Rgod Idem can in the 14th century.
The Ma 'ongs lung bstan gsal bai sgron me, Tondup Tashi, Leh: 1973,
pp.531-533, Rig 'dzin Rgod Idem obtained the'keys' to seven hidden-lands:
Sky id mo lung; Padma tshal; Rol ba mkha g ro 'i gling; Rgyal g y i Mkhan
pa lung; Lha'i pho brang; Bras mo bshongs; Sgro mo khud.
* What developed in Treasure texts was an entire narrative structure based
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65
[Colophon:! From the Treasures revealed by Rig 'dzin rgod kyi Idem
phru can from Byang Zang zang lha brag.
of 'treasure' texts one w ill notice the use of various 'seals' (rgya), such as the
'seal of treasure') (gter rgya), the 'seal of p ro fu n d ity ' (zab rgya), and the 'seal
of the appointed [revealer]' (gtad rgya), seals w hich conceal the teachings
outside of ordinary tim e and space u n til their appointed discovery. These
narrative tools serve to im bue the text w ith a secret aura that enhance its
revelatory significance
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66
Chapter Four:
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67
Of the extant biographies of Rgod Idem, the earliest and most extensive is
(fi
called the Sprul sku chen po'i m am thar gsal byed nyi ma'i 'od zer , w ritten
by N'yima bzang po (*SQryabhadra; b l386), w h o was a late disdple of the
master. W hile the author arrived on the scene tow ards the end of Rgod Idem's
career, and did not personally witness all the events he w rites about, he
presumably composed the biography as it was dictated to him by the master
and others w h o had accompanied Rgod Idem on his journey through the
hidden-lands. W hile N yim a Bzang po's narrative is p rim a rily concerned w ith
the visions and m iraculous occurrences surrounding the master's career, it also
provides an interesting perspective on
historical
events
as they
were
&
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68
The prophetic text called Snyan brgyud drug g i tho byang describes how
Rgod Idem was conceived out of such a ritual sexual union:
rje Phag m o
A t birth, the child displayed strange moles on the top of his head, which
m u ltip lie d by the age of fiv e Later, these cranial deform ities caused his hair to
stand up like v u ltu re feathers - a sign that was to identify him fo r his special
destiny.
Rgod Idem's childhood witnessed the demise of the Yuan Empire and
their Tibetan viceroys from the noble house of Sn skya lost their param ouncy
in Tibetan politics. A fter the death of Sa skya Pandita (1182-1251), his nephew
'Phags pa (1235-1280) was invested w ith the office of spiritual and tem poral
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69
master of Tibet in the year of the water-ox of the fo u rth cycle (1253). Until his
death Tibet experienced a period of relative stability and peace.
The office of
temporal ruler was subsequently conferred upon the Dpon chen Kun dga'
bzang po, from w hich tim e the temporal power of the Sa skya began to decline
d unng a period of internecine w arfare This period also marked the begining of
strife between monastaries and political appointess of the same sect, as they
sought to free themselves fro m ecclesiastic authority. Tibet was about to be
engulfed in a bloody civil war.
The first of such incidents focused on the Dpon chen himself, w h o after
being implicated in the death of 'Phags pa, refused to relinquish pow er and
retreated in to his m ountain fortress called the 'Raven's Nest' (Bya rog rdzong),
where he was surrounded by Mongol troops and flayed to death.
The decline of central au th o rity led to a pow er struggle in Dbus and
Gtsang, where territories such as Dol po, Lo y u l and Gang thang began to
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70
blessed by me w ill arrive one after another. When the tim e comes they
w ill each discover [m y] Treasures continually in this fashion until
Buddhism is gona Especially in Tibet, when the law of the dharmaprotector King and the [subsequent] reign of [the Mongol captain] Mu
du r 'The Black' come to an end - when Tibetans w ill escape tow ards
Byang as if cutting off all their ties - at that tim e this is how to discover
The Guru also composed a num ber of prophecies and maps, which w ere
meant to lead to the principle Treasures. These texts, Nyi ma bzang po reports,
were discovered by an old herm it liv in g on M ount Bkra bzang (Ri khrod pa
Bzang po). This herm it had a dream in w hich a local protector deity called B u
Ic
urges him to start digging fo r Treasures buried under the threshold of the
~ Byang gter, pg.538.4... kye slob dpon chen po sangs rgyas sha kya th u b
pa'i bstan pa Inga brgya pa phrag bcu ru gnas pa'i % Inga brgya tha ma la
bka' rgyud lung dang gsum gyi chos thams cad rim s kyis rim s % de'i du su
sangs rgyas kyi bstan pa bse oa'i p h y ir du % rgyal ba'i tshabnga'i byin gyis
brlabs pa re re 'byung % dus la babs pa'i chos gter rer re than % de Itar sha
kya th u b pa'i bstan pa ma rdzogs kyi bar du % nga'i gter chos dang rgyal
tsh abrgyun mi 'chad do % khyad par du bod chos skyong rgyal po'i khrim s
dang % mu d u r nag po'i hor khrim s gnyis ka zhig % bod (khrab?) byang
'grol thag chad pa bzhin song ba'i dus su % nga'i chos dang rgyal tshab
'byung lugs ni % byang zang zang lha brag gi shar dpag tshad g rig jal ba na
% ri rgyal po gdan la behugs pa 'd ra ba'i bdun du % phyi nang thams cad
sbas pa'i tshul du gnas pa %
73
guardian by Padmasambhava.
One of the temples allegedly b u ilt by the Tibetan king Srong brtsan sgam
po (d.649?) to im m obilize the body of a supine demoness covering the
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71
me containing the
fo llo w in g prophecy:
A (snow| cap w ill cover the peak of the M ountain Bkra bzang.
From the north the foreign armies w ill strike like lightening in to M a n g
yul. In india, the Bodhi Tree w ill bend to the south, the stupa of Kasm ir
w ill crack in the northeast, the Svayambhu stupa in Nepal w ill arch over,
and meteorites w ill bolt dow n on the Red Rock at Bsam yas. A t a tim e of
unfortunate omens like these, a treasure w ill appear in a horse year on
the mountain, w hich resembles a heap of poisonous snakes.
Tibetan landscape This particular temple was b u ilt to pin dow n the left h ip of
the ogress.
For the list of Treasure scrolls discovered by Ri khrod pa Bzang po, see
Kun bzang, pp. 129-30.
&Byang gter, pg.84.1... ri bo bkra beang kyi rtse la zha skon% byang phyogs
nas mang yul du kha dm ag klog lta r *khyugs70 rgya dkar po i yul du byang
chub kyi shing lh o du yo% kha che'i mchod rten ka ni byang shar du ral% bal
p o 'i 'phags pa shing kun byang gi m chod rten phyogs su yo% bsam yas brag
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72
Am ong the scrolls there is another text called the Snying tig gnad k y i
man ngag don bdun, which contains a prophecy concerning the incarnation
A t the eastern slope of the m ountain that is called Bkra bzang, one
w h o is bom in the w ater realm in the year of the ox year [w ill] bear the
mark of moles. As a sign of having been blessed by me, Padma, on the
crown of his head v u ltu re feathers w ill grow again and again.
thang,
the
dm ar la gnams lcags kyi thog 'babs% de lta b u 'i ltas mi dge ba byung bai dus
su brag ri dug sprul spyangs 'd ra la lo rta 'i lo la gter 'byung par 'g yu r ro.
ibid, pg.67.4... ri bo bkra beang zhes pa'i shar 'dabs su% chu khams glang
lo rme ba'i mtshan rtags can% padma nga'i byin gys rlabs pa'i rtags% spyi
bor rgod kyi Idem 'phru yang yang 'byung.
Tshe dbang nor bu, pg.114... khyad par m ang yul sku lh a 'i byang shar du7o
sa m khar dung gi so mang 'd ra ba 'byung7c de ru rgyal rigs bong thung
byang sems can% chos rgyal bkra shis ld e zhes bya ba dang% gter 'd i 'phrad
na bod yul bstan pa ni7c m i lo Inga bcu rtsa gsum bsrings nus so70
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73
Buddhist
the
followers of the Old Tantras responded in various ways to the challenges which
faced them. As early as the 11th and 12th centuries, certain clans like the ' K h o n
for example abandoned m any of their old lineages and began adapting
Tj
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74
and
exhibited a nasty temper, but his odd behavior seems to have had an
enormous cultural im portance for the com m unity of Tibetan yogins livin g
around him.
Even if some 'intellectuals' at Sa skya monastery m ay have dismissed
Rgod Idem can as a visionary 'hick', from the perspective of the follow ers of
the Old Tantras (Rnying ma pa), he is portrayed as a hero w h o is about to
reveal a hidden Treasure that w ill revitalize Buddhism and protect Tibet's
ancient royal lineage - members of which were now apparently being killed
one after another.
The text called Snying byang gnad kyi thim bu, quoted in his biography,
tells us how Rgod Idem ultim ately resorts to w ra th fu l magical rites to secure
the patronage of the Gung thang prince
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75
Then [after I] sent a petition letter to the Gung thang king, [in itia lly
the King] was overcome by devotion and displayed much respect, then
he was amused and was overcome w ith hesitation, and finally he was
given to w rong view s as he came under the influence of Mara. Then, b y
engaging in the yoga of secret m antra activity - through samadhi of
Vajrakila - [II excorcized the black raven in the king s heart by w rath fu l
rites, and having dispelled the obstacle by those means, faith was
fiO
spontaneously generated in the king.
The parsimonious prince, w e are told, fin a lly offers only one zho of gold,
(approxim ately the w eight of a sovereign) to finance Rgod Idem's Treasure
hunt. A detailed description of the contents of the Treasures discovered b y
Rgod Idem can has been given elsewhere, so I w ill not go into it here,*51 suffice
to say that after overcom ing several m ore obstacles, which included being
pursued by a hostile official called Nye gnas Chos dpal pa w ho tried to d riv e
them back by a group of drafted soldiers",
82
bzang,
Byang gter, pg.307.3... denas gung thang rgyal p o 'i snyan du zhu ba'i tshig
sbyar bas% shin tu mos shing gus na rab% 'b rin g du dga' shing the tshom
snyoms% tha ma log lta skyes pa na% rgyal po bdud kyi dbang gyur bas%
gsang sngags spyod pa'i m al 'byor pas% rd o rje p h u r pa'i tin g dzin gyis%
rgyal p o 'i thugs kha na% bya rog nag po g rig bsams te% de la drag po'i
sbyar bas skrad% des bar chad sel khyur te% rgyal po dad pa rang bnyugs
(byung?) skye%
V For a detailed description of the Treasures unearthed by Rig 'd zin Rgod
Idem can see J. Boord (1993) and J. W. Herweg (1994).
82
Byang gter, pg. 93.3... nye gnas chen po chos dpal bas dmag b s k u l/ zhag po
dmag 'chad dang bcas pa rig gis belog tshad tshad pa (?) bar chad kyi mams
par byung,
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is
76
center of the tem ple in to a stable" (sgo mang mthil la rta ra byas
This brings the num ber of murdered royal Gung thang princes to three.
These violent
deaths,
the
biography
points
out,
were
prophecied
by
Padmasambhava in the Outer Passkey as signs to leave Tibet and open the
doors to the hidden-lands:
ft
:h d , pg. 100.5... bkra bzang kyi tse m a r/ lha khang g rig d a n g / gu ru 'i sku
chen pogshengs/ rd o rje p hur pa'i sgrubpa m dzad rin g behugs p a / srod la
sgo du me chen po re byung pas/ bla ma legs pa la zhu y ig gtad pas/ h u r po
/ rung m dzad par z h u / de 'd ra bar chad kyi rtags la'ng yang lags/ gsugs pai
gsung shog phebs nas m em ed par song 'd u g r in g / de dam s ri'I bar bcod la
yongs bar byas 'd u g r in g / ma tshugs pa yin gsungs n g o /.
Tshe dbang nor bu, pg.118.
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77
A text called the Snying thig don bdun, quoted by the master biographer,
also says:
from Gung thang. Because a sea of suffering w ill have come forth in
Tibet, you man! m y treasure discoverer, take refuge in Mon Bum th a n g
w ith o u t fear of this w orld! *
For Rgod Idem the tim e had come to cut off attachments to his homeland
and embark on an epic search fo r the Guru's promised lands - a journey that
was going to have a profound im pact on Tibetan geographic im agination fo r
centuries to come
A t the dawn of the first day of the tenth Tibetan m onth ( N ovem ber December) in 1370, the biography reports that Rgod Idem has a dream in
w hich he sees a long valley fu ll of dark fog. A person appears in the southwest
hoisting a banner of w h ite silk and w earing a w h ite dress, in the south another
person appears hoisting a flag and w earing a blue dress. Then he hears a great
86
Byang gter, pg.283.5... gal te gung thang rgyal po bdud kyis bar du bead do
Tc rtog ge sgra tshad lta b u 'I the tshom rtog rin g % dad pa dang mi Idan na
bod kyi skyid pa zad pa yin te % gung thang rgyal p o 'i gdung brgyud bdud
kyis spyod % bod kyi phung m go gung thang nas 'jugs te % bod la sdug
bsngal gyi m tsho rtol yong pas % skyes bu khyod nga'i gter than la % 'jig
rten 'd z in chags la ma zhen par % mon bum thang du 'bras g rig %
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78
voice saying, " if you desire to w ork for the benefit of beings, please go and
spread disciples in the border lands of Lho kha Mon."
h7
Rgod Idem, w e are told, initia lly develops doubt and feels sad at the
reception of this prophecy, and begins to pray to Guru Padmasambhava fo r
further guidance As Rgod Idem's dawn dream unfolds, a Tantric practitioner
w ith a great round hat and a loose maroon dress sitting nearby delivers the
fo llo w ing injunction:
Son, you
of
^ ibid, pg.107.2... lho kha mon gyi sa 'tshams su / sngon gyi las 'p h rosa d nas
kyang / gdul bya rgyas pas gshegs par zhu.
* Byang gter, pg.107.3... gu ru padma 'byung gnas kyi bka' d rin rjes su drag
te / bla ma sku gsum gyi gsol debs byas pas/ sngags pa dbu zhva chen po
khyil lam gsol b a / na te a smug nag lhubs sebabsnam s pa d g 'gram na
'd u g pa na re / bu khyod rigs kyi bu yin pas/ gro sdod kyi rtog pa thug
phrad du gtan la p h o b / khyod kyi gdul bya bod na rgya che/ smin pa lho
bod kyi tshams su smin par g y u r/ phyi nang gi rkyen thams cad 'kh ru l
snang yin (108) pas/ ji lta r snang ba sprin dang na bun bzhin du shes par
g yis/ sdug sngal gyi rtog pa drag po byung n a / re dogs kyi 'phrang skyur
la / ma bcos pa'i shes pa rang lugs tsams z h ig / gyeng byed kyi rkyen mang
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79
Padmasambhava,
the most
im portant one is called 'The Valley of Rice' {'Bras mo gshongs). A text called
the Ma ong lung bstan gsal ba'i sgron me describes how in legendary times a
'serpent-jewel' (nagamani) was buried there:
The heart of all thehidden-lands is a place called the ' Valley of Rice'
( Bras mo gshongs); it is located six leagues beyond [fro m i the south of
Gtsang tshong dus g u r mo.
w ill bring six years of happiness to the w orld. If one were to ask w h y in form er times, there lived a serpent-maiden called 'Beautiful' (mdzes
Idan) beyond the dancing [waves] of the Ocean of Sindhura. The C row n
89
na bio nang du khrug la bya byed kyi 'd o r len spongs/ ci shar gyi rig pa ma
slad par 'd z in med byung rgyal du skyongs/ rkyen snang the tshom gyis
sems kyi rgyud dkrugs te / ci yang byed ma shes par (?) 'k h o r n a / rig pa
rang lugs kyi ngang nas bla ma la gsol ba th o b / rjes su shar ba'i b io gros
mams rtog gi ma slad pa d e / sgro 'dogs gcod pa'i snying gtam yin no gsung.
HQ
Clear Lamp, pg.456.1... sbas yul de mams kyi snying po dpal 'bras m o
bshongs (gshongs) zhes bya b a / rtsang (gtsang) tshong dus 'g u r m o 'i lho
phyogs/ dpag tshad drug 'das pa'i pha rol na yod d e / de'i sgo phye nas mi lo
bdun gyi bar du lh o phyogs 'jam bu gling du bde skyid 'byung n g o / de ci'i
p h y ir zhe n a / sngon sen au ra rgya mtsho rol ba'i pha rol na; k lu 'i bu mo
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80
But, the route in to this valley was not going to be easy. The Outer Passkey
warns that people of this degenerate tim e w ill be tim id, lacking the courage to
go, and the borderlands w ill be full of dangers such as aboriginal poison cults,
w itchcraft and diseases.
dangers were only the outer obstacles. Rgod Idem, as w e shall see, w ou ld need
to overcome even more d a unting inner obstacles - demons of his ow n psychic
landscape, w hich obstructed the flo w of his natural awareness and blocked the
gates to the hidden paradise
in the year of the pig (1371), Rgod Idem and nine disciples quickly proceed
in the direction of one of the peaks loom ing in the southern horizon.
CO
On the
tenth day of the m onth they reach the h ill of Chu dbar in Lo where they build
a small altar and offer a ceremonial Tantric feast to the deities.
in the early w in te r they stay at a place called Khyung tshang in Bkra shis
glin g , and from there they go to 'B ring
tshams.
PI
journeys to 'Brang po, where they are forced to travel at nig h t because they
are pursued again by some armed soldiers. Later that w in te r they stay in
mdzes ldan bya ba yod d e / dei lag nas dbu rgyan gyi rgyal p o ind ra bho dha
v is / y id bzhin gyi nor bu rin po che blangs p a / ma 'ongs pai dus tha ma la
d gongs pa'i p h y ir / 'bras m o bshongs kyi dbus na gter du sbas yod d o / / de'i
yon tan yin no.
0(1
The m ountain refered to here is most probably Bkra shis Tshe ring ma
(Gauri Shankar in the Nepal Himalayas). Byang gter, pg.530-1, identifies this
mountain as the 'gathering place' before going to the hidden-lands.
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81
Chang mo in 'B ring 'tshams, and in the year of the female-ox (1373) they
w ith
than chasing after great sacred places, look very carefully," (gnas chen bsnyog
pa la i i i gal che ba yin pas legs par bltos shig zer).
<32
Each comer of the house faces one of the cardinal directions. In the
southeast direction a wom an wearing a cloak of black silk and tin k lin g jewel
ornaments is rid in g a black horse.
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82
were carrying a lot of incense w ith them, th in kin g that in the south one cannot
fin d this quality. A t that, the wom an rid in g the horse replied," if one goes to the
forest of sandalwood, one does not need to w o rry about being w ith o u t
incense. You need a w ay of m aking the loads lig h te r w hile you go over the
snowy m ountains and forested h ills of the south."
Rgod Idem's journey to the hidden-land thus becomes an allegory for the
path to enlightenment itself. The physical obstacles he encounters become an
outer reflection of his inner passions. The dakini w h o appears in his dreams tells
him that the key to the hidden-land lies in the depths of his own psychic
'channels' and 'w inds'.
But the m onth fo llo w in g this dream does not bring Rgod Idem any closer
to his goal. By the end of the summer, the party is still hopelessly stranded in
the wilderness. Starting in September, the biography reports that, "snow and
rain fell for 10 days w ith o u t anybody recognizing day and night, the minds
were confused, and the party was suffering,"
QS
At this time, Rgod Idem again retreats in to the landscape of his dreams.
He enters the same large foggy valley surrounded by mountains, in the center
of which is a large castle w ith teachings w ritten on the southern ramparts,
inside the castle Rgod Idem meets a large happy man w ith a m aroon
complexion dressed in a gem-studded yellow gown.
Byang gter, pg.112.4... tsan Idan gyi nags tshal du 'g ro ba la / spos med pa'i
rtog pa mi 'ts h a l/ lh o 'i gangs rong nags rong la 'g ro ba la kh u r po yang ba'i
thabs bya lags gyi gsungs so.
Ibid, pg.113.2... zhag bcu kha char nyin mtshan med par babs pa'i rkyen la
brten nas/ b io 'tshub rin g m i thams cad sdug sngal du gyur te.. /
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83
Behind him, to his left and righ t appear three b rillia n tly colored mandalas
on the walls. Mesmerized by the mandalas, Rgod Idem asks the large happy
man to introduce him self and explain the significance of the palace and the
mandalas. The man replies, "This land is the great continent of Jambu. As fo r
myself, I am the self-arisen king called 'Chi med rd o rje (Amaravajra). These
three mandalas are three very pure 'Buddha-fields.' I am their master, [and]
you yourself w ish to come to one of these realms, [so] look carefully."
The m andala directly behind the king is red, the mandala to his right is
blue, "lik e the color of the sky" and the one on his left is like the color of
refined gold. In the center of each mandala he see the mansions of the gods
and rays of lig h t in the five colors of the rainbow spectrum. Rgod Idem
develops great faith as he gazes in to these mandalas and eventually picks the
sky-colored one and begins to make prostrations tow ards the residence of the
main deity in the center of the mandala.
Surrounding the mandala palace there is a fence of flam ing vajras w ith
fierce-looking yaksa rid in g carnivorous animals and brandishing te rrifiy in g
weapons. Rgod Idem wonders w hat these w ild things represent, the king in the
dream tells h im that they are the Twelve Bstan ma (matara).
77
He prepares to
fight w ith them as he enters the mandala, but a w om an appears in his dream
encouraging h im to enter w ith o u t hesitation. Rgod Idem enters facing the
south and then sees a darkening doud, but the w om an quickly proceeds to
0*3
Ibid, pg. 114.2... yu l p h yo g s' di gling chen p o 'ja m bui g lin g y in / nga ni
rang byung gi rgyal po 'chi med rd o rje bya ba y in / d k h y il khor gsum po 'd i
sangs rgyas kyi zhing khams m am par dag pa gsum y in te / 'd i gsum gyi
bdag p o ng a y in / 'd i'i zhing khams rig tu / khyod rang 'ong 'd o d kyin dug
p a / legs par bltos rig gsung 'd u g pa dang/...
' N. W bjkow itz, 1965: 181 ff.
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84
gather up this cloud as if collecting silk strands revealing a broad valley flanked
by staggered mountains.
Rgod Idem asks the woman, "there is no change in w hat appeared in m y
dream the last time, but when I awake from this sleep, w ill change or not?"
The woman replies, "a t a tim e when one still possesses defilem ents and
mental traces, a dream, although thought to be permanent, leads to suffering,
it is impossible for the land you are seeing now to change Do not develop a
m ind filled w ith illusions."
A fter these w ords Rgod Idem thinks, " I am so happy, Lho
'Bras m o
Then as the dream draw s to a close Rgod Idem thinks, "th is place belongs
to me. A fter control over it has come to m e I must create an auspicious
Byang gter . pg.117.2... nyon mongs bag chag dang bcas pa kyi dus n a / rm i
lam rtag 'd zin byas kyang sdug sngal du 'g y u r/ ding sang m thong pa'i yu l 'd i
'g y u r mi srid k y is / n yin g 'k h ru l gyi b io ma byed zer 'dug pa d a ng / bdag gi
bsam pa la nga re dga' / lh o 'bras m o gshongs rang la lag bcangs su b y u n g /
yin m in gyi rtog pa dang bral / da lam thar m i thar gyi sdug bsngal kyang m i
dgos par 'd u g teams pa dang/...
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85
30
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86
paints him west beyond fo u r deep valleys towards a lo fty snow m ountain
where he w ill find 'Bras mo gshongs. When he reaches a snow gorge, a
maroon-complexioned girl of about sixteen years of age appears saying: " 1
have shown you many signs d u rin g the last year. Since then, because of
im pure remnants of yo u r previous karma, you have not recognized the
location of the hidden-land. Now, as far as the land you recognize, d o not
change your vision of it - go!" 01
in the summer of 1375, Rgod Idem has more dream encounters w ith the
ru d d y muse, w ho on one occasion offers him a pair of w hite felt boots telling
him he is about to reach 'Bras mo gshongs.
*02
Idem 'opens the door' to the hidden-land at a place called Sgo yol.
For the next five years, especially during the summer thaws, Rgod Idem
continues to explore the region. On M ount Gangs chen
mdzod
Inga
he
blades and sieves, which he barters w ith local tribesmen in exchange fo r food.
m thar 'don tsam na nyin re rang mi nus par brda/ de dang 'dra bas m thar
'don pa dka' ste rem m dzod cig zer te / kha shar du ltas song/
01 ibid, pg.121.3... bu mo smug m o lo bcu drug tsam Ion pa cig na re / n yid la
na ning nas brda mang po bstan lags te / sngon gyi las kyi lhag ro ma dag pas
dus da lta 'i bar du sbas pa'i yul ma mkhyen pa lags so / deng sang mkhyen
pai yul 'd ir migs pa'i rten ma 'g y u r ba m dzod la bzhud cig zer r o /
:nz
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87
In a place called Mchod rten nyi ma,"" (the Stupa of the Sun), he stumbles
across a natural rock-form ation resembling one hundred self-arisen statues and
many self-arisen letters. He makes these discoveries know n in Tibet by
attaching letters to the necks of vultures tw o tim es.'05 They stay in M o n fo r
another three years and they return to M ount Bkra bzang in Central Tibet in
the rat year (1384).
By this time, the political situation in Gung thang has im proved. The
Byang pa invaders have been repulsed, and their lord killed in a skirmish on
the border area of Sky id rong by enemy soldiers w h o shoot nine arrows into
his bo dy.'0" The young prince Mchog grub lde (d. 1389) is installed on the
throne of G ung thang, and the sacred hidden scrolls discovered by the d d
herm it Bzang po such as Gsol \iebs le'u bdun
hands. The Prince then issues an edict on Tuesday, August 31, 1389, declaring:
Padma byung
gnas
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88
bo
dpal
'bar,
are
under
my
sovereignty, are all awarded to our officiating priest (Rgod Idem can)
and his disciples in future times to come - as m ain [donations], including
th e ir quarters, hermitages [andl monasteries, and nom ad pastures.
IQS
But peace in Gung thang does not endure King Mchog grub lde dies
under mysterious circumstances in the same year he issues his generous edict,
when he "falls from a horse".
109
* Byang gter, pg.126.1... u rgyan padma 'byung gnas d a n g / chos rgyal khri
srong lde btsan gyi thugs rjes/ rgyal rgyud la dgos pa'i chos gter du behag
p a / bla ma ri bo bkra beang pa 'i bton p a / nged rgyal po'i gdung rgyud la
'p h ro d pas/ d in g sang chos skyong rgyal p o 'i lha rgyud d a n g / bla ma rig
'd z in pa'i rg y u d / sangs rgyas kyi bstan pa gnas ring la yon m chod byed pas/
ri bo dpal 'bar d a ng / sbas yul gsum gyi gtso byas p a 'i/ nged kyi mnga' 'og
d u / khong gi gnas gzhi dben d g o n / bod 'brog gi gzhis/ bu slob byung pa
thams ca d / bla ma mchod gtsang m ar ston pa yin. For a fu ll translation of
this edict see J. Herweg (1994), 128-133. A lso see Tshe dbang nor bu, pp.11920, w h o attributes this edict to Bsod nam ld e For a note on this apparent
discrepancy also see R. V ita li, The Kingdoms o f Gu.ge, Pu.hrang,
(Dharamsala: 1996), 483-488.
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89
Tibetan provinces of Gtsang and Byang. By the m iddle of the 15th century the
search for Guru Padmasambhava's hidden-lands also begins to gain a new
impetus.
ICR
Tshe dbang nor bu, pg.118... kh ri mchog grub lde chibs bcag par th o le
thang khar byon pas chibs kyis skyur te sku gshegs.
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90
Chapter Five:
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91
in the afterm ath of the Tibetan d v il w ar that results fro m the collapse of
the Mongol empire, real pow er in Tibetan politics fell in to the hands of Byang
chub rgyal m tshan (1302-1364) of the Rlang clan, w h o had been appointed to
head the m yria rch y of Sne'u gdong
1565). This period also witnesses the rise of the Dge lugs pa sect whose legacy
of theocratic reform was to dom inate the religious life of Central Tibet fro m
th e m id -1 7 h century onward.
Meanwhile, next to this vision of em pire and m onastic reform, was the
shadow w o rld of the Treasure finders and their patrons among the ailing
ro ya lty of G utig thang, w h o still dreamed of restoring the Tibetan m onarchy
to its form er prestige in Tibet. Increasingly m arginalized fro m the mainstream
of political and religious reform, these kings and their officiating priests found
themselves loo kin g tow ards the borderlands fo r vision.
Before his death in 1407, Rgod Idem is said to have discovered the 'e n try
certificates' and 'keys' (kha byang, Ide mig) to seven hidden-lands.
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92
The M a 'ongs lung btsan gsal ba'i sgron me, a compilation of prophecies
attributed to Padmasambhava, confirms the hidden-lands listed in the O u te r
Passkey. It says that between the southern borderlands of M o n up to the Ti se
range in north and Rkong po there are eleven hidden-lands, tw o in M n g a ' ris,
seven in Gtsang, and fo u r in Dbus.m A m ong these, the seven principal hiddenlands are: Bde Idan Skyid mo lung, Sbas pa Padma'i tshal, Rol pa M kha' 'gro
gling, Rgyal g y i M khan
W hile Rgod Idem personally visited some of these places in his life tim e
the further opening of these hidden-lands awaited future reincarnations of
Tibetan masters w h o were designated by the prophetic Commandments of
Guru Padmasambhava. The guidebook to Yol mo says:
When
human
the directions
to
my
Treasures can be revealed, and one person shall find the road-maps to
the hidden-lands. Then, when human lifespan further decreases to fifty,
Tibetan w ill establish themselves in the hidden-lands.
112
11 ibid, pp.531-2.
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93
[He] established m any 'entry certificates' and 'keys' to the m a jo r
holy places and the seven great hidden-lands. [These] became know n as
the Treasures, w hich lik e a minister, externally benefit Tibet and Khams.
Yet because [the tim e was not right] to disseminate a few of these, he
concealed in the earth those [Treasures] which needed to be hidden as
'fu rth e r Treasures' (yang gter)
in the early 16,h century, w e find the im patient k in g of Cung thang, Nyi
zla grags pa bzang po'i lde (h 1514), already pleading w ith a Treasure fin d er to
unearth these Treasures before their designated tim e The priest in question is
0 rgyan Bstan gnyis gling pa (alias Padma Tshe dbang rgyal po),
114
w h o is
known as one of the eleven Treasure finders w ith the ho no rific suffix g lin g pa.
His
biography
quotes
the
fo llo w in g
prophecy
from
the
Thang
hagiography of Padmasambhava:
M ilita ry camps w ill be constructed in the nine [districts of] Yar 'brog
mtsho gling. In a clash of weapons the th irty -tw o armies of Gtsang w ill
perish. Based on these omens the hidden Treasure tro ve of the Rtsis
Byang gter , pg.545.1... tshe lo drug bcu kha ral dus su nga'i gter kha nas
kha byang dang lun g byang m yed nas7o yul gyi phyogs dang lam bm yed
par 'g yu r ro% Inga bcu pa'i dus na yul 'debs%
Gcod y u l , pg.104.4 ..sbas yul chen po bdun gtso bor gyur pa'i gnas yul
mang po'i them byang Ide'u m ig sogs behugs pas bod khams spyi la phan pa
blon po Ita bu gter gcig bya ba yongs su grags/ yang 'ga' zh ig spel du m i
b tu b p a mams slar yang gter du sba dgos pa mams gu ru 'i lung bstan (105)
sa gnas so sor sba ba mdzad...
A short biography that appears in the Guru s Qrya senge'i rnam thar
rndor bsdud nges shes dren pa'i shing rta, composedby a Rig 'd z in 'P h rin
las Bdud 'jams (1726-1789), and deposited at the Nepal German M anuscript
Preservation Project in Kathmandu, fols.36, bearing the reel no. E-2691/6.
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yig
94
Temple shall not remain but be expelled forth. The Treasure discoverer
called 0 rgyan Bstan gnyis gling pa w ill c o m e "3
When 0 rgyan Bstan gnyis gling pa extracts the Treasures buried under
the Rtsis Tem ple"6 the king of Gung thang insists that he now extract those
Treasures reconcealed by Rgod Idem at Ri bo Dpal 'bar:
beings, [w h ile the Treasure finder] reached in to take out [m ore scrolls]
the m outh of the rock clamped shut and chopped off his forefinger. (6a)
A t that time, the Treasure guardian Jo mo Rgya gar ma appeared in a
3 Phrin las, fol.5a.l... yar 'brog m tsho gling dgu la dmag sgar 'cha' % stag
'th a b n a n g du gtsang dmag sum gnyis 'chi % rtsis kyi lha khang sbas pa'i gter
kha 'd i % mi bzhag 'don pa'i rtags de bstan nas byung % o rgyan bstan gnyis
gling pa zhes bya 'byung %
16 see Kun bzang, pp. 240-41 fo r a m ore detailed description of this Treasure
called Sangs rgyas dgongs 'dus.
On the notion of khrom gter see M. A ris (1989), 120-134.
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95
very angry form and the m antradhara Che mchog Rdo rje was afflicted
US
w ith illness because of d istu rbin g the Treasure
This episode serves as a rem inder of how the act of Treasure discovery
could be dangerous. As texts like the Outer Passkey caution, these Treasures
must only be extracted by those specific individuals w h o hold the prophetic
'seal of appointm ent' (gtad rgya) - and even then, only at a specifically
designated times (dus la bab) . Neglecting these conventions can p ro v o k e
disastrous consequences fo r those involved and can even lead to death, as in
the case of the unfortunate m antradhara from Do bo che.
Bstan gnyis g ling pa's u n tim ely venture, nevertheles, served to heal the
doubts of the local com m unity, w h o rewarded him the hereditary stewardship
of the Byams sp rin tem ple It was from this strategically located 'bordertaming' dntha' d u l) tem ple that Bstan gnyis gling pa's descendents were to
populate the hidden-lands on the Nepal-Tibet frontier in the next generation.
'Phrin las: 5h2... de yang gter ston chen par mnga' bdag gung thang
rgyal pos 'gro ba'i log rtogs gsal p h y ir ri bo dpal 'bar nas khrom gter bzhes
dgos par bskul ba'i tshe/ slob dpon chen po la gsol ba b ta b p a s / rang zhal
mngon sum du bstan te dpal 'bar gyi gter mams khyod kyi gtrer skal m in
kyang de ltar na shog ril zhig long shig long shig gsung ba'i gnang ba thob
par brten 'dus pa'i 'k h o r dang bcas te b ra g rd o rje rgya gram du byon ma
th a g / kun gyi m thong sar brag kha bye pa'i nang du shog ser rdza ma gang
'd u g pa nas bzhes rg y u 'i shog ril te rlun g gi bskyod pa lta r 'k h o r zhing 'd u g
pa de bzhes/ der m d o bo che'i sngag 'chang che mchog rd o rjes 'g ro ba'i don
yin pas da dung bzhes dgos zhus nas bzhes par brtsams pas glo bur du brag
kha 'g rig pa'i bar du gter ston gyi phyag (6a) m dzub kyang shor la khad
byung skad/ der gter bdag jo m o rgya gar ma shin tu khros pai gzigs snang
byung ba lta r sngags 'chang che mchog rd o rje la gter tu r byung nas snyun
gyis z in / rdzong khar phebe ba'i lam dgun mda' nas bgrong bar phyogs pa'i
tshe/ gter ston chen p o 'i sku 'phang du dbu mgas gtad de skye ba 'd i la
khyed la log rtog gi bskur ba yang mang po thal skye ba phyi ma khyed kyi
sras su rjes su bzung dgos zhus nas gshegs so/ rin g por ma thogs pa gter
ston gyis sras su sprul sku 'k h ru l med du byon/ de skabs m d o bo che bar
dgon ma lag dang 'brel ba bdun tsam yod pa las shel ri byams sprin dang
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96
bcas pa sprul pa'i sku rgyud bcas la 'p h ul bas deng sang byams sprin gyi gnas
'd zin byed dgos byung ba 'd i'o /.
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97
Besides Bstan gnyis gling pa, w e find other Treasure finders gravitating to
the court of the Gung thang King Nyi zla grags pa.
'dzin Mchog ldan mngon po (alias Gter ston M do sngags gling pa) w h o plays
an instrumental role in reinstigating the search for the hidden-lands.
119
of
Byang,
and
their
120
12D
Ibid, pg.221.4... rdzas ci 'dra dgos zhus pas/ hor chos ma thos pa'i thod pa
dgos/ hor gyi dm ag dpon m am s k y i m ing shes dgos gsungs/.
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98
over to h im m any 'entry certificates' to the hidden-lands, and specifically urges
h im to open a hidden-land called 'The Snowy M ountain Range of Yolmo' ( Yol
mo Gangs ra also know n as Padma'i tshal)
121
~ - a hidden-land shaped like a
lotus stalk that is meant to be opened as a refuge fo r Tibetans fleeing from the
122
province of Stod.'
faces of birds.'
Guru Bkra' skis, v o l.2, pg.31... ri bo dpal 'bar du thugs 'dam la rgyun ring
bzhugs/ spyan ras gzigs 'k h o r ba dong sprugs kyi sku li dm ar las grub pa
gter nas bzhes/ dpal 'bar gyi lha 'dabs dkar gye zhes pa' dben dgon du
rgyang tsam bzhugs/ de skabs rig dzin mchog ldan m ngon po skye grong
jo bo mjal bar phebs p a / dkar gyer gdan drangs/ gter ston sprul sku des
sbas yul spyir sger gyi kha byang mang po rje di par gnang nas/ sbas yul
sgo 'fcyed pa d a n g / 'd z in pa'i bka' babkhyed la yod pas cis kyang lag tu
longs ma m dzod gsungs/zhal ta dang bden brjod smon lam m dzad pa bzhin
sbas yul padm a'i tshal la m / yol mo gangs rar phebs tsu ti dgon pa btab/
Byang gter, pg.535.2... de 'd ra i dus su bod kyi skyid pa zad pas% dge byed
chos pa dang% skye bo chos la dkar ba mams lh o bal dang rong la bros%
khyad par stod kyi sa cha la gnas pa mams% yol m o gangs kyi ra ba la bros
gcig7o dang po gangs bkra shis tshe ring m a'i n ub thad% grong khyer li'i
byang shar na% sbas yul padm a'i tshal zhes fcya ba% lun g pa'i dfcyibs thams
cad padm a'i sdong po 'd ra ba gcig yod7o
Ibid, pg.531.2... dus tha ma la bod sdug bsngal gyis nyams thag pa mams
der bros gcig% de nas rgya gar (dkar) dang bod kha ba can gyi yul bdud
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99
[spirit] <Vlo ta, depart [only] after having offered good clean victuals to
these guardian deities, in the east you need to go across flat plains, in
the south you need to enter in the direction of a great river, in the west
you need to enter in the direction of snowy m ountains and rock cliffs.
The route [from ] the north is very difficult. But, even if you enter fro m
those three directions, carefully examine the cliffs, rivers and forests.
Place [path] markers in the dense forests. Bring axes and chisels to
properly clear the [overgrow n 1 path.
When you are unable to proceed because of rain and being
enveloped in fog, pray to Guru Rinpoche and the protector deities, if
strange things happen d u rin g snow storms and rain, then you should
bum the stool of a black dog along w ith 'ku ku r' resin (A m yris Galloca).
Recite the m antra of the 'Ten Furies' and all the demons w ill vanish. If
dmag du ru kas brtul ba'i dus na% n ub mang yul la gtad pa% shar gnya'
nams la gtad pa'i bar na phu gangs kyi chod pa% mda' nags kyis chod pa'i
lung pa btsan po gcig yoci do% de'i lha 'd re dang gzhi bdag ni tsub po% lung
pa de'i gting na m tsho gnyan po gcig yod% (532) de la klu gdug pa can yod%
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100
A fte r enum erating more hazards, the guidebook describes reaching the
center of the hidden-land, where it lays out the ideal plan for a fu tu re m ountain
settlement:
From the center of that place you can see all around like a m irro r.
The m id d le of the land looks like a tray of gems. There you can build the
city of kings, in the north there is a m ountain rising like a jeweled stupa
in the m idd le of which you must build an offering shrine to Guru
Rinpoche's lineage-holders and a retreat center. In the east, there are
grassy meadows as smooth as a thanka. Below that build a shrine fo r
Shakya Senge (a monk
manifestation of
Guru
Rinpoche)
and
brag gnams du snyog pa 'dra ba la% bstan rgod dregs pa can y o d / m o ngs
gdug pa can dang bsen m o yod% mi rgod bya'i gdong pa can yod%
~4 Ibid, pg.519.1... dang p o la m gyi yo b ye d mang du khur% u rgyan nga'i
thugs bsgrubdben pa gcig tu zla ba gcig du bsgrubpa shig% de i dred gdeng
dang ldan pa'i dus su lam btsal te% lam gang nas 'g ro yang m dal rgod sgro
ma la dar sna Inga dang me long gsal ba btags% gser skyems dang 'bru
mchod kyi chas mang du khyer% gnas de'i gzhi bdag rd o rje legs pa dang%
dge bsnyen (gloms ru ?) dang% m o ta'i lha btsan la gtad yod pas70 bshos
bzang gtsang ma la% gzhi bdag mchod nas 'gro'o% de yang shar gyi lam
gya spang la phal cher 'gro dgos% lho chu bo chen p o 'i mtshams nas 'ju g
dgos% nub gangs dang brag gi mtshams nas 'ju g dgos% lam byang bgrod
dka'7c phyogs gsum ka nas 'ju g kyang7o brag dang chu dang nags kyi rong
la rigs pa zh ib m o s dpyad gro% m ig m thong re la m th o re gzugs7o nags dog
pa mams la m tho lag sgral (ste?) du gzugs7c ti'u dang gzong khyer la lam
dka' ba mams legs par 'chos kyin 'gro70 kha char dang (520) rm ug pa byung
pa'i7o sa 'k h o r nas 'g ro ma nyan na% gu ru la gsol ba gdab7o gzhi bdag la
bden pa brdar70 cho 'p h ru l dang kha char che grags na70 khyi nag po i lud
bsreg pa dang70 gu gul gyi dud pa btang7o khro bcu'i sngags rings kyis bgegs
tsher gcad do70 gcan zan dang sems can gdug pa'i cho 'p h ru l che na% rol
m o'i sgra sgrag70 gla ba shing kun mu z i'i dud pa btang70 padma bdag la gsol
ba 'debs kyin p h yin na7c lam bgrod par 'g y u r ro70
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101
there, build a tem ple for the Buddha Am itabha and build a large
com m unity for dharma practitioners. To the north, in the range w here
there is the m ountain like a jeweled stupa, there is a cave opening to the
southeast; there you w ill find a sacred place belonging to me, U rgyan
(Padmasambhava), called Yang dag mchog g i bsgrub gnas. From the top
*25
Ibid, pg.521.3... yul de'i dbus nas phyogs mtshams me long gi ngos ltar
mthong ba% sa'i dbus ni rin po che'i gzhong pa 'dra ba yod% der rgyal po'i
gling gdab dgos% de'i byang phyogs na ri sna rin po che'i mchod stong
btsugs pa lta bu y o d / de'i rtsa (rise?) bar padma 'byung gnas rig 'd z in gyi lha
khang bzhengs la% gnas der dge byed kyi gling tshugs% shar na spang
bshongs bde ba dar gyi yol ba 'b ri pa lta bu yoa% de'i 'dabs su shakya seng
ge'i lha khang dang% dge 'dun btsug pa'i gling thob% lh o phyogs (522) na
spangs dang nags 'dres pa'i ri gdong gcig yod% de'i dbus su phag pa sphyan
ras gzigs kyi lha khang dang% skye bo yongs kyi gnas thob% n ub na btsun
mo thu ba rkyang pa dra ba'i ri yod7e de'i m dun du sangs rgyas 'od dpag
med kyi lha khang dang% dge fcyed kyi sde chen po tshugs
(btshugs/btsugs)% byang ri rin po che'i mchod sdong dra ba'i rgyud la%
brag phug kha shar lh o r bstan pa gcig yod% de u rgyan ngai yang dag
mchog gi bsgrub gnas y in no% de'i rise nas bltas pas yang le bshod kyi brag
phug mthong%
*26
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102
teachings of
the Sa skya pa sect,'^ the young Legs ldan rd o rje gravitated towards the
charismatic personalities of Treasure finders like Mchog ldan mngon po and
Shakya Bzang po, the latter of whom bestowed on h im the complete N orthern
Treasure empowerments and teachings, and m ade h im aware of his destiny as
a Treasure finder.
inducted in to the messianic ideology of these Treasure finders, Legs ldan
rd o rje was also appointed to unearth several hidden Treasures that w ould
'tame' a period of civil unrest. The Tibetan historian, Guru Bkra shis quotes a
prophecy from the Thang yig hagiography of Padmasambhava:
*27
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103
The border armies w ill obscure Central [Tibet]. The female yak and
the pig w ill fight. Dbus and Gtsang w ill be wrecked in to pasture [fo ri a
small herd of pigs. Based on these omens the hidden Treasure tro ve of
the Tiger's Den at 'On p in t shall not remain but be expelled forth. The
130
Treasure discoverer called Rdo rje gro lod w ill come
Guru Bkra shis then provides the fo llo w in g gloss on the prophecy:
As for the omens of the time, they correspond exactly to when the
Mongols began to raid M do Smart, the internecine struggles of B ri
gung pa, [and] the decline of G overnor Phag m o gru pa's Law when
[fields] turned in to pasture The Lord Legs ldan completely extracted the
cycle of teachings of the 'W ra th fu l Ten-Heads' (drags po'i dbu dgit) fro m
the Tiger's Den at 'On p h u and bestowed it onto Gnas gsar ba M khyen
brtse'i dbang phyug (1524-1587), w h o [became] the principal guardian of
teachings. Then, as the tim e of the [prophecized] Treasure started to
npen, he departed to open the door to the [hidden-land] of ' Bras m
gshongs, [where] at dusk, on the tenth day of the seventh m onth of the
130
Guru Bkra shis, vo l.2, pp.46-7... M tha' dmag dbus 'thibs 'b ri dang phag pa
'th a b % dbus gtsang sil bu phag khyu tshal par gas % 'on phu stag tshang
sbas pa'i gter kha di % mi bzhag 'don pa'i rtags de bstan nas 'b yu ng % gter
ston rd o rje gro lod zhes bya 'byung % For an alternative translation of this
passage and a discussion concerning the political subtext of Tibetan
prophecies see R. Pratz 1997:256-60.
131
Ibid,... zhes pa'i dus rtags h o r sog gis m d o smad la gnod pa byed pa'i m go
tshugs/ 'b ri gung pa nang zhig sde srid phag m o gru pa'i bstan pa nyams te
tshal par song ba sogs shin tu dus 'g rig pa la b rte n / rje legs ldan zhabs kyis
'on phu stag tshang nas/ drags po dbu d g u'i chos skor yongs su rdzogs pa
spyan drangs/ cos bdag gi gtso bo gnas gsar ba mkhyen brtse'i dbang phyug
la gnang/ gzhan yang rang gter lun g bstan gyi don thog tu babs te 'Ira s m o
gshongs kyi gnas sgo dbye par phebs/ sa 'brug zla ba bdun p a 'i tshes bcui
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104
Legs ldan rd o rje's brother Mnga' ris Pan chen Padma dbang rgyal
reincarnated in the northern district of Gyas ru, in to a noble fa m ily descending
from Tangut ( M i nyag) royalty as Bkra shis stobs rgyal chos rgyal dbang poi
sde (1550-1607). in his childhood he received the transmissions of the N orthern
Treasures from Legs ldan rd o rje himself, and became the m ain systematizer of
these teachings in his generation. From a cave in Gtsang rong, he extracted
several cycles of hidden Treasures
legendary
Guru
Padmasambhava,
132
contained
om inous
prophecies
concerning the invasion of the Hor (Mongols). When the Mongols attacked his
home province of Byang, he performed w rathful rituals associated w ith 'Black'
srod la tshe sg ru bb d u d rtsi 'k h y il pa'i chos skor ngo m tshar can 'd i rin chen
snying po'i brag nas spyan drangs/
132
These were th e Tshe 'grub sku gsum rig 'dus, the Karma g u r u i chos skor
and the M a rgyud khrag rlung ma.
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105
Yama ( Gshin rje nag po), w hich repelled the hordes and brought happiness to
the land of Tibet.
133
Bkra shis stob rgyal's magic was equally effective against his enemies at
home. During his lifetime, the com m unity of the Northern Treasure yogins,
know n as vatn Lcog sgar, were still forced to w ander from place to place due
to the enm ity of Kar ma Tshe brtan Rdo rje (c 1565) the ruler of Gtsang w h o
had recently taken over power from the Rin springs pa. When Bkra shis stobs
rgyal failed to heal the rift peacefully, he resorted to w rathful magic - ritu a lly
slaying the u n ruly governor by casting an evil spell associated w ith
particularly virulent aspect of the god Vishnu Ckhyab
ju g ) - a deed that
subsequently earned him the h o norific title Byang bdag ('Protector of the
Northern [Treasuresl'
Bkra shis stobs rgyal's son Rig 'dzin Ngag gi dbang po (1580-1639) was
recognized as the third incarnation of Rgod Idem. He b u ilt the m onastary of
Rdo rje brag (1632) on the northern banks of the Tsang-po River, where the
itinerant
seminary
of
Northern
Treasure
practitioners
finally
found
3:5Lung bstan, fol,19h6... bkra thum dgu rtser rta skad tser ba'i tshe% gshin
rje nag po'i gzhan bzlog byas gyur na% ngam ring hor gyi 'ja m pa nges par
bzlog% byang chubsems dpa'i sprul pa chos sde'i ming% lha khang kun la
zhabs rtog mchod pa dang% gsol ba btab d n g yig drug 'dren pa dang% rigs
gsum mngon po'i gzungs 'don klu m chod dang% hor bzlog byas pa'i b o d la
bde skyid 'byung%
This is according to Bdud 'joms Rinpoche, The N vingm a School of Tibetan
Buddhism, (tr.) Gyurme Dorje and M atthew Kapstein, (Boston: 1991),
v o l.1,783.
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106
W hile the m onastary of Rdo rje brag secured the fortune of the sect in
central Tibet, the messianic ethos of Northern treasures seemed out of step
w ith the Dalai Lama's vision of empire backed by M ongolian mercenaries.
in 1642, the 5,h Dalai Lama once again unified Tibet under a central
government. But this was achieved through an alliance w ith Gushri Khan of
the Qosot Mongols, whose armies defeated the Gtsang pa and terrorized all
other Tibetan factions posing a threat to the tem poral a u th o rity of the new
Dalai Lama. Even though the religious com m unity of the N orthern Treasures
was spared because of its close ties w ith the 5th Dalai Lama, other Rnying m a
pa masters such as Sog bzlog pa Bio gros rgyal mtshan dpal bzang po (1552-
1624), literally the "O ne w h o Turns Back the Mongol Hordes," held a ve ry
i i i
,i5
bleak view of current events.
Mongol invasion: The first of these, started w ith the incursions of the notorious
Mongolian captain Dor tog (Doorda Darqan), 36 whose depredations were so
v iv id ly lamented by texts lik e the Outer Passkey. The Mongol abuses of this
period, according to the author, reached a climax after 'Phags pa's death, when
Mongol troops were brought in to hunt dow n and put to death the renegade
governor Kun dga' bzang po.
in Tibet, the follow ers of the Old Tantras, known as the 'A n cien t Ones'
(Rnying ma pa), never managed to combine ecclesiastic and tem poral
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107
reports that the Dpon chen A g lan (the Grand Governor of Sa skya) used
Mongol mercenaries to invade 'B ri gung, where m any temples and scriptures
were put to the torch, and m any people and cattle were killed.
A t this time, the author states that a certain Bla ma 'Jam dbyangs Gsar ma
travelled all over central Tibet exhorting people to perform M ongol-repelling
ceremonies. The monks, Tantric practitioners, and the adherents of the Bon po
sect all perform ed rites according to their own traditions. He also m entions a
Rgyal ba Yang dgon pa (1213-1258) w h o collected offerings from the provinces
of Dbus and Gtsang and established the practice of repelling Mongols am ong
monks, Tantric practitioners and the Bon po. On one occasion it is reported that
he sat in m editation and repelled a Mongol invasion by the sheer pow er of his
m editative concentration on
the 'Great
The
Sog bzlog, pg.217.3... bod du m tha' dm ag lan gsum ong bar lung bstan pa
la s/ lcags po byi ba lo gcig la / rgyal po go dan g y is / hor dor rtog dmag
dpung dang bcas pa btang nas... /. On the id e n tity o f ' Dor tog' see note 41.
37 ibid, pg.218.5... bla ma 'jam dbyang gsar mas dbus gtsang thams cad du
byon nas/ hor zlog gi dge bskul m dzad pas / ban sngags bon gsum so so nas
rang rang lugs kyi rim 'gro byas/ khyad par du rgyal ba yang dgon pas/
dbus gtsang nas phye phud bsdus/ ban sngags bon gsum so so zlog pa
btsugs/ thams cad la zhabs tog dang yon rdzong bzang po m dzad d e /
tshogs 'k h o r gyi dpang yang ri d o chad tsam byung ze r/ rje rang gis phyag
rgya chen p o 'i dgongs pa la zhag bdun du m nyam par gzhags pas/ hor
dmag zlog pa yin t e / .
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108
predicted in prophecy texts lik e the Gsal ba'i me lo n g ." ' Sog zlog pa m entions
that about fifty-on e secret prophecies were circulating at that time, predicting
the invasions and prescribing rituals to repulse them - texts w hich he says
further strengthened the intent of repelling armies (dmag zlog gi dgcngs pa
315
gtad)
the 'Bri gung [Chos rje Kun dga rin chen?l Rin po che (1475-1527) also spoke of
the im portance of m editating on the vital points (me btsa') of the Tibetan
landscape and b u ild in g special stupas to repel invading armies, but these
directives went unheeded fo r the most part, and due to people's lack of faith
the master Bsam 'g ru b Rdo rje was unable to take out the greater portion of
Treasures buried at Mchim pit pertaining to the repelling of armies.'40
Then according to Sog bzlog pa, at the tim e designated by the text called
the 'D a' ka'i zhal client,''' and the tim e of the m onth recommended by the text
called the Kun
gsal
me
prescribed in the 'Testament' (Bka clients) of Padma g lin g pa that included one
Unknown.
Sog bzlog, pg.220.
*40
ibid, pg.220.4... bstan pa gso thabs kyi lung bstan d e / dbus gtsang m do
khams kong po la sogs su bstan pa spyi rim bskul ba la btang na y a n g / byed
mi su yang ma byung bas thugs mugs ste/ m chim bu (phu) na dmag zlog gi
gter kha rgya cher yod kyang gdan ma drangs.
41 Unknown.
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109
hundred fire-offerings, thread-crossing ceremonies, initiations, Tantric feasts,
rites of the m edicine Buddha and Tara, the restoration of the ancient bordertam ing (mtha did) and further-tam ing temples (yang did) and the resum ption
of the form er ritual offerings to these temples, perform ing a hundred rites of
attainment, suppression, Tantric feasts and fire-offerings at each of the fo u r
h o ly places of Rtsa ri, Yer pa, Stag tshang and T i se, to p u t a ban on hunting in
mountains and valleys. If these are not performed, the Testament warns, that
'people from the border'
(mtha'
m i)
144
45 Unknown.
143 Sog bzlog, pp. 224-225.
144
Ibid, pg.221.1... da lta dus ngan snyigs ma Inga bod 'd ir / bod kyi yul
mam s hor gyis nyen pa'i d u s / /m th a ' dmag thams cad dbus su rd ib p a 'i
d u s / / gnas chen sbas yul thams cad 'fcyed pa'i dus; ;dbus m i thams cad
m tha' la 'bros pa'i dus/... /h o r sog m tha' dmag thams cad belog dus
y in /... /m th a ''d u l y a n g dul gtsug lag gso'dus yin.
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110
But Mchog ldan mngon po was unable to fu lfill his mission. A t the age of
35, he traveled to the hidden-land of M khan
Bhutan
and
contructed
Padmasambhava,
but
tem ple
w ith
he was killed by
pa lu n g in the highlands of
gilded
copper
"m isguided
people
image
w ho
of
w ere
incarnated demons" (bdud sprul skye bo log pa'i bio can dag).'*
A fter his u n tim e ly death, Mongol soldiers again began to raid Tibet. The
author reports that Padma gling pa's chief disciple; Zla ba grags pa, was
secretly travelling across Tibet at this time, perform ing M ongol-repelling rites
at Bsant yas
brothers Mnga' ris Pan chen and Legs ldan rd o rje also learned these rites fro m
Mchog ldan mngon po and effectively used them against the Mongols.
Sog bzlog pa, the author of this unique Tibetan history, now turns to his
own times, claim ing to have inherited the m antle of a 'M ongol Repeller' fro m
his own Guru, Sprul sku Zhig po gling pa (h l5 2 4 ).147 He m entions his ow n
contributions in repulsing the Mongol mercenaries w hich had been invited to
Tibet by the monks of Bras spungs monastery ( bras spungs pas dmag b s ku l
This appointm ent is also confirm ed by Kun bzang, pg.295.6... khyad par
khyung tshang brag gi dm ag bzlog nyer lngai skor bka' babs kyi slob ma lha
rje bio gros rgyal mtshan la gnang nas/ khong gis m tha' dm ag bzlog pa sogs
bstan 'g ro 'i don brlabs p o che m dzad pa yin.
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byas),1* and then provides a long list of over tw o hundred names of Mongol
captains belonging to the 'six banners of Chahar and the three banners of the
Turned' to be ritu a lly murdered using effigies and w rathful ceremonies.
149
To
attest to the efficacy of such rites, the author then relates an episode during the
early w in te r of the w ood-tiger (1614?) when an entire Mongol arm y was
buried under an avalanche, after a group of priests conjured up frightening
w in d s and snow storms.
Sog bzlog pa's unique w ork depicts a Tibetan w orld in crisis, not only
political crisis, but also social and religious crisis, where an old Tibetan
aristocracy and its spiritual lineages are being displaced by new Tibetan clans
backed by large theocratic hegemonies and their Mongol mercenaries. In Sog
bzlog pa's w orld, w rath often becomes an expression of compassion, and the
d u ty of a Tibetan bodhisattva is not only not only to teach people the truths of
Buddhism, but to reveal Padmasambhava's buried Treasures and repel Mongol
armies through fierce rituals.
By the 17th century w e also begin to see a new geographical orientation
emerging from this speculation. T h e 'b o rd e r-ta m ing ' (mtha \ i u l ) and 'furthertam ing' (yang \ i u l ) temples, w hich were allegedly built d u rin g the reign of
Tibets first Buddhist king, Srong btsan sgam po, in order to pin dow n the limbs
ibid, pg.254.3... de nas shing pho stag lo 'i rgun thog de ser myog dang sog
po 'dres pa m ang po 'ong gi dug zer/ 'o 'ug gi bod 'brog thams cad skrag
pa'i tshe/ dpon slob bcu bdun gyis sgrubpa la behugs pas/ zhag bdun na
rtag th a n / gangs chen babs/ d e ije rlung chen po langs nas/ kha ba thams
cad bye ri lta r 'gongs pa 'd ir yang b y u n g / sog po mam s gangs sdibs kyi 'og
tu mi rta khal ma dang bcas pa non te / gcig kyang ma thon par shi / gangs
zhu dus su hor smad pa m am s la de tsho'i chas dngos len gyu byung 'dug.
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center.
D uring Sog belog pa's time, these temples and their im m ediate
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113
The designated revealer of Rig 'dzin Rgod Idem dngos grub rgyal
mtshan's reconcealed Treasures [was] Mnga' ris Gter ston Zla ha rgyal
mtshan otherwise know n as Gar dbang rd o rje [w ho] was bom in a
place called Nub r i Sku thang mnyal in the [province] of M nga' ris. His
[b irth ] was accompanied by m any m arvelous signs: The umbilical cord
was w rapped around him like a m editation belt, [and] when that was
unravelled,
there
was
a beautiful
child
whose
hands rested
in
[m editation posture] and his m outh uttering the syllables A and Ham
A t the age of 18, Mnga' ris gter-ston Gar dbang rd o rje (1640-1695) is still
herding sheep in the highlands of Nub ri, but a strong feeling draws him
tow ards religion and he begins to serve as 'C hant Master' (dbu mdzad) at his
uncle's local tem ple He continues his studies at the nearby hermitage of
'Crystal Cave' (Shel
Northern
(sramanera) vow s w ith a certain Bla ma Bsod m ams rgya mtsho. A t the
famous Mi la ras pa cave-hermitage of Brag dkar rta so he meets the Great
Cotton-Clad ascetic (Ras chen) Karma chos 'phel, from w hom he receives the
in itia tio n of Cakrasamvara. A t the command of his teacher he stays in a threeyear retreat at Shel phug, practicing inner yogas in freezing temperatures,
clothed in just a cotton robe
3 Gcod yul, pg.105.3... rig 'd z in rgod ldems dngos grub rgyal mtshan gyi
yang gter gyi bka' b abm nga ris gter ston zla ba rgyal mtshan n a m / gar
dbang rd o rje ni 'k h ru n g yu l mnga' ris nu b ri sku thang m nyal zhes pa'i sa'i
c h a r/" (106) lte th a g sgom thag gi tshul du d k ris p a zhig byung debsal bas
nang nas k h y i'u y id du 'ong ba phyag m nyam benag d a n g / zhal nas a ham
gsungs pa sogs ngo m tshar ba'i rtags mang du byung yang.
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114
A fte r the passing away of the Ras chen in 1671, he begins to w ander in the
hidden-land of Sky id mo lu n g visitin g the lairs of demons and rock-spirits in
the manner of a mad ascetic practicing Gcod (gcod pa'i brtul bzhugs sam s m y o
spyod lta bu).
152
valley had long ago been visited by the great Tibetan yogin Mi la ras pa in the
12'h century, w h o described it as a demon-infested land inhabited by a people
w ho speak an incom prehensible dialect called sku skad.1*
D uring this wilderness pilgrim age, he dreams of a man dressed in a w h ite
robe w h o introduces him self as the Lord of M u l Gangs, the guardian spirit of
the Treasures reconcealed by Rgod Idem. The dream apparition then directs
him westward tow ards a c liff called Ra zam where, in a subsequent dream, the
three local deities of the land introduce themselves to him as Rdzong lha d k a r
po, a man dressed in w h ite h olding a m irro r and a gem, Skos rje dkar po, as
another man h olding a conch shell, and a 'female serpent' (naginl) called K lu
sman dkar mo, dressed in w h ite .
Excited by these visions, he starts to explore the nearby cliffs, reciting the
Guru m antra when he suddenly spots a red m ountain goat and trails it to a
steep c liff where he can no longer follow . Inside the boulders he fin d s a k id n e y
* ibid, pg 110.4. The practice of gcod or bdud kyi gcod y u l (literally, "th e
demon as the object that is to be cut off"), is a Tantric practice developed in
Tibet that marks a syncretic movement between Indian Tantric Buddhism
and pre-Buddhist shamanic elements in Tibet. To cut off ego-attachment, the
adepts of gcod m editate in burial grounds and remote m ountains and
through elaborate visualizations and prayers sym bolically offer th e ir m ortal
bodies to the demons and goblins w hich haunt these te rrifyin g places. For the
early history of this lineage in Tibet see J. Edou, Machig Labdron and the
Foundations o f Chod, (Ithaca:1995).
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115
shaped amulet containing three scrolls bearing the dharm a Treasure know n as
154
'The
H e a rt-M irro r
thugs
kyi me
lo n g ).
rainbow lig h t illum inates the w ay to an overhanging boulder on the side of the
c liff where he sits for three years, m editating and revealing the contents of the
scrolls.
in the year of the sheep the country w ill be filled by war% The
heart of every Tibetan w ill be in anguish% In the year of the bird m any
officials are to be executed% Many monks w ill battle and die by the
sword% The province of La Stod Byang
and M ang y u l
Am ong the disciples w h o gather around Gar dbang rd o rje at this tim e is one
called as N yi zla klong gsal (alias ' Ja' lus snang stong rang grol), w h o embarks
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116
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117
Solid Food:
Bom in Stod Spu rang in to a fam ily of mantradhara-s, N yi zla klong gsal
receives initia tio ns and teachings from his own father and later from a Bla ma
'Phnn las dge 'dun he receives the initiations, oral permissions and ripening
instructions regarding the dakini practice of the Cakrasamvaratantra. A t T h u b
bstan gser mdog gdan sa, the residence of Mkhan po Shakya phun tshogs, he
dons the robes of a novice monk for six years and pursues intellectual
Mahayana studies, m astering the 'Five Treatises o f M aitreya' (Byams chos sde
Inga).
A u to-Liberation
o f the
Peaceful
and
W rathful Deities of the M in d ' (Zhi khrod gongs pa rang grol), as well as the
157
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118
15R
Zab bu lung, he meets the great Rnying ma pa master Smin gling Gter chen
Rig 'dzin 'G yu r med rdo rje (1646-1714), w h o bestows on h im initiations and
instructions from his own Treasure cycle called the Thugs thig, and shows him
the original unearthed Treasure scrolls.
zas mi te a ' ba'i dam bca' m dzad nas bcud len gyi rigs mang po re mos kyi
nyams tehes la g z h o l/.
^Ibid, pg. 135.2... stod smad gyi hor sogs gi dmag nam m kha'i bya gzings ba
Ita r/ shang lung nag po'i phu rgyud dbus gtsang m am s skyabs mgon med
pa dri te a ' Itar gyur nas nyam tnag kya n g / bod 'bangs khengs dregs kyi
padme 'byung gnas khyad du song/ khyed rang the tshom ma byed pa
gangs ri rgod kyi gshog pa brgyangs pa 'd ra 'i lh o rang la b ro s/g u ru la gsol
'debs dang 'brel hor dmag te lo g pa'i thabs mang po nyin mtshan med ba
bskyed cig zer ba'i sgra lan gsum byung nas m i snang bar g y u r/ ya mtshan
som nyi m dzad kyang phyis lo dus su dga' ldan tshe dbang gi(s) sog dmag
drangs nas stod mnga' ris skor gsum / bod 'brog thams cad b rla g /.
4
Ibid, pg.138.1... de ring phan chad khyed kyi m ing yang dge slong dza ha
b ir 'ja' lus snang stong rang grol zhes zer ro gsungs.
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119
A t Khatns
shag Srin mo
called Rig 'dzin 'g ro 'dul gling pa Sna tshogs rang grol N yi ma grags pa (?),
w ho gives him the initiations and ripening instructions of the Phag mo zab
rgya. He then reaches the border of Gnya' nang and Nepal, near to the
160
harrassed by soldiers. The soldiers w ho drove away their wealth and cattle on
top of the pass had perished in a massive landslide allegedly caused by the
protector deity of the land. The path in to these m ountains had been closed fo r
a long tim e and had recently been cleared.
On the w ay Nyi zla klong gsal sees many strange apparitions (phebs I a m
la cho 'phrul sna tshogs byung kyang), and fin a lly arrives in the hidden-land
160
This master has authored tw o small w orks equating Glang phreng w ith
the hidden-land of Gnam sgo zla gam called: Guam sgo zla gam g yi ngos
'dzin phan bde'i snying po, 355-371, and the Gnam sgo zla gam g y i nges pa
brjod pa sum rtse na dga' mai glu dbyangs, 377-381; both found in The
Collected Works (gsung bum) of Rdo dmar Zhabs drung M i g y u r rdo Rje,
(New-Delhi:1981), 681 pages. For a discussion of M do dm ar ba M i'g y u r rd o
rje in relation to the hidden-land of Gnam sgo zla gam, see Ehrhard 1997:336.
161
Ibid, pg.145.3... sbas yul glang 'phreng gu shar sgo gnya' nang rtsa sgo la
gtad pa sngon ma gcig phye nas mis 'grul byed p a / dmag z ir (gzir) zhig gi
skabs dmag m i m am s kyis phyin nas/ gnas de'i nor phyugs m am s ded nas
yong la rtsar 'b yo r pa na gter srung gi cho 'p h ru l m i mang po s h i/ gnas lam
'gag te m i lo mang po song ba der phebs 'd o d kyi lan gsum phebs kyang ma
th a r/ slar sprel lo zla ba brgyad pa i tshes gsum nyin gu ru o rgyan rje la gsol
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120
landscape and
enlightenm ent:
E ma h d
If one were to identify w ith the western Pure-land of Oddiyana,
it w o u ld be [one's figure] - a vessel measuring a few feet in length.
If one were to id e n tify w ith Lake Danakosa,
It w ould be in [this] body of blood and pus,
If the head were to be the Gesar lotus,
it w ould be at the sum m it of the three m ystic arteries.
Identifying w ith the stainless sun and moon lotus [throne],
one is the pure w h ite and red [drops] of sperm and egg.
identifying w ith the Vidhyadhara Padmasambhava,
is to abide in the calm unfabricated [naturel of one's own mind.
Identifying w ith the solitary m other Ye shes Mtsho rgyal,
Is to abide in the inexhasutable great bliss of the 'fo u r [Tantric] joys',
identifying w ith the dharmakaya,
w hich is empty [yet] cognizant and cannot be grasped,
is to abide in the original p u rity of one's mind,
identifying w ith the profoundly intelligent play of sambhogakaya,
is to abide in the union of cognizance and emptiness of the m ind itself,
identifying w ith the nirmanakaya Sna tshogs 'gro 'dul,
is to abide in one's own m ind that gives rise to appearances,
if one were to describe oneself as the one hundred peaceful and w rathful
deities [of emotions and the intellect],
one abides at the door from where the em pty yet cognizant natural
awareness arises.
Describing oneself as the dharm a-protecting her os and heroines,
is to rest in the [naturally] increasing blissful m ind of enlightenment.
ba 'debs bzhin phebs pas/ phebs lam la cho 'p h ru l sna tshogs byung yang the
tshom ma m dzad pa phebs te gnas m th il du phyag phebs/.
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121
As Nyi zla Klong gsal reaches the m id d le of the valley, the entire landscape fills
w ith rainbow lights, sweet smells and w onderful visions. He promises to
return to this hidden-land and goes back to his retreat cave
But, his subsequent attempt to explore the region is not as successful.
Sometime after, the master sets out w ith a disciple called Rab rgyas to locate
another hidden-land called 'H a lf Moon Sky Gate' (Zla gam
gnam
sgo).
Towards dusk they lose their way, praying and offering sweet jun ip er sm oke
to the protectors. As they begin to offer libations (ser skyerns), dense fog and
h 2 .
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122
strong w in d s surround them. On top of the pass they spot a yeti w ith a face of
a rat, and realizing it is the Treasure guardian, they recite the prayer M c h o d
sprin nor bu'i do shal, but the disciple Rab rgyas suddenly goes m ad.'63
T ra ve llin g to the m ountain cloister of Shel phug, N yi zla klong gsal seeks
out the counsel of the Treasure fin d e r Gar dbang rd o rje, w h o encourages his
wilderness odyssey, directing h im tow ards the sacred site of Lha'i pho brang
(near present day M khar rta). A t that time, according to his biographer, Tibet
was oppressed by the 'nine dem onic siblings' ('gong pospun dgu).
164
According
Ibid, pe. 148.1... skabs nyin gcig mtshan lam du sbas yul zla gam gnas sgoi
lam tshol ('tshol) zhig bya ba'i lung bstan la b rte n / lam 'tshol bar phebs pas la
rong kin tu bgrod dka'i gnas sgor bsangs m c h o d / gser skyem kyis bmgan
pas rmugs rlungs sprin sogs dvangs ba d a n g / la rtser m i rgod byi (bya?)
gdong can g zig s/ gter bsrung yin par mkhyen nas m chod sprin nor bu'i do
shal gsungs/ zhal slob rab rgyas de ma thag tu sm yo nas gar song ma byung
p a r/. For a different translation of this passage see Ehrhard 1997:337.
Ibid, pg.162.4... da ni maha gu ru 'i lung bstan tshe lo n y i shu kha ral gyi
'gar 'gong po spun dgu yang 'k h o r dang bcas pas bod khams dkar po'i Ijongs
kyi 'g ro ba rlag par gsungs pa'i dus rtags m am s phal tsher tshangs.
Ibid, pg. 162.5... byang sems ldan pa'i skyes bu y i % gangs ri gnas chen
bkra shis sar % lha khang bzhengs na bod khams bde % lung gsum m do
dang sa yi m d u d % rong sgo thang d k y il sa sgo ru % m chod rten behengs na
bdud dpung bzlog %
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123
him to the secret sites of the hidden-land where he finds a spring that "washes
away sins and cures those afflicted w ith disease and madness" ( myong tshad
sdig pm dag).'1'*'
in another dream, the voice of a woman tells him that the righ t tim e has
arrived for him to open the 'door' to the hidden-land for the benefit of the
people of Bod (Tibet) and Kham s W In a further dream, he sees a beautiful
maroon-complex!oned maiden w ip in g away some crystal footprints on top of
a boulder and asks her whose footprints those are She says they belong to
Guru Padmasambhava, upon which he grabs her hand, to prevent her fro m
erasing the prints. The next day he finds a place w ith the same exact footprint.
He then composes a guidebook describing the sacred places of the valley as
they were revealed to him, and teaches it to those w h o had follow ed him in to
the hidden-land.16h
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124
D uring a visit to the nearby valley of M kh a r ta, however, Nyi zla klon g
gsal is openly challenged by some 'intellectuals' (rtog ge ba), w h o claim that all
this talk of hidden-lands and and im m inent Buddhist apocalypse is all nonsense
The master
then
sings the
fo llo w in g
verses
attributed
to
Guru
He then explains:
snow mountains; Yar lha sham po, the snow m ountain of the gods;
Gang ba Bzang po, the snow m ountain of the gnod byin spirits; Rta sgo
bkram pa, the snow m ountain of the btsan spirits; Bu le dkar ba, the
snow m ountain of the naga; along w ith the aform entioned coiling
m ountain range of Rong phu - these are the eight.
Now as fo r the eight auspicious rock-mountains: the Dmar po r i in
Skyi shod Lha sa; the Has po r i in Sber y i Bsam yas; the Do ma r i in
Nag sho; Dpal Chu bo ri; Rnyan Bya ri; Phung bo Ri bo che; Rgyal
Shri ri and Ri bo Bkra bzang make eight.
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125
cave and Yang rdzong cave as the the 'eight great caves'.
[H e mentioned] the M a dros Lake and G ung Lake; 'O ma Lake
and the Grags pa Lake as the fo u r reknowned great lakes. The cliffs in
the four cardinal directions where [hel left his hand prints are the cliffs of
Mon kha and Spa ro cliffs; the cliffs of Dom tshang and Z a og.
In these sacred places, in times of suffering, [he said that] one must
perform purificatory rituals, Tantric feasts (ganacakra), expiatory rites,
invocation and aspiration prayers in order to greatly benefit sentient
beings.
Furthermore,
here in
Tibet,
the
Lord
[predicted]
in
his
Ibid, pg.170.6... skabs d e rrto g g etha snyad mkhan re 'g a s / sbas gnas yin
zer lung stong du sku gzugs lha khang bzhengs ba pra chal gyi rgyu red zer
ba mang ya n g / rje'i dgongs par maha gu ru 'i zhal nas/ bod kyi gnas chen
brgyad la rgyal mtshan tshugs % ri chen brgyad la lha khang zhongs % sgrub
pa sde gsum rgyun mi chad % de Itar byas na bde skyid byung % znes
gsungs pa Itar dgongs pa yin zhing %bod la bde skyid byung ba'i gangs
brgyad kyi nang mtshan rong phu k h y il ba rdza gangs su 'd u g pa'i gnas
d e r/ de lo m khar rta nas gu ru 'i sku brnyan gcig d a ng / rgyal m tshan/ dar
chen/ thugs dar Icog sogs mang du 'dzugs gtong gnang zhing bod khams
bde ba'i thugs smon m dzad tshul ngang/ gangs brgyad sogs ngos 'd z in d u /
gangs ri rgyal po ti se/ gangs r i'i blon po thang lh a / gangs ri'i dmag dpon
sporh ra / yar lha sham po lha yi gangs/ gangs ba beang po gnod byin
gangs/ rta sgo bkram pa btsan gyi gangs/ bu le dkar ba klu yi gangs/ gong
gi rong bu (phu) 'k h y il ba rdza yi gangs dang brgyad d o / bkra shis pa'i ri
brgyad ni / skyi shod lha sa dm ar po ri / sber yi bsam yas has po ri / nag sho
do ma ri / dpal gyi chu bo ri / m yan gyi bya ri / phung po ri bo che/ rgyal gyi
shri ri / ri bo bkra beang dang brgyad so/ maha gu ru 'i zhal nas/ stag tshang
senge zla ba phug % m am stod phug dang gangs bzang phug 7o lun g bzang
a la phug pa dang % m khar chu dpal gyi phug pa dang % bsam yas m chim
phu dza ri phug % slan 'brum sgong phug dang yang rdzong phug % phug
chen brgyad du grags pa yin % gsungs/ grags pa'i mtsho chen bzhi ni % ma
dros m tsho dang gung m tsho dang % 'o m a'i m tsho dang grags pa'i m tsh o /
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126
A fte r laying out this map of vital sacred places, N yi zla klong gsal then
urges his detractors to take a good look at their time, when the Demon
Kamadeva has cast his poison-tip arrows onto Tibet from the sum m it of
Sumeru, striking the hearts of priests, governors and m ilita ry commanders,
when people hunt and fish and the principal sustainance is red meat and blood.
Quoting Padmasambhava once again, he says, "w hen filled w ith signs like
these in Tibet there is no joy; one must go to the hid d e n -la n d s."170
Despite Nyi zla klong gsal's long pilgrim age through the hidden-lands on
the Nepal-Tibet border, he failed to 'take h old of these sacred places by
establishing a permanent seat or an incamational lineage This was to be the
destiny of another contem porary Treasure finder called Sorya Seng ge (16871738)
whose
life
story
is
testim ony
to
the
compulsion
that
Guru
zhes d a ng / phyogs b zh i'i brag la zhabs rjes bzhag pa n i/ man kha'i brag
dang pa spro'i b ra g/ dom tshang brag dang za 'og brag/ ces gsungs pa'i
gnas su bod sdug pa'i dus su bsangs dar p h an / tshogs skang gsol 'debs smon
lam la brtson m khan byung na shin tu bstan 'g ro r phan pa yong zhes maha
gu ru 'i bka' y in zhes gsungs/ rje n y id kyis kyang bod 'd ir rin g po m in pa hor
sog gi dus 'k h ru g che ba yong ba'i lung bstan d a n g / dus babspyod tshul la
gzigs m khyen g y i/ gong gi gnas m ams su phebs th u b p a m am s la ngo
phebs/ ma th u b pa m am s la'ng gzhan bskul ba'i bod la lhag par sku d rin che
ba'i yul du g y u r/.
Ibid, pg. 174.5... de Ita r rtags m am s tshang na bod yu l du % bde ba med do
sbas pa'i yu l m yogs shig %
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127
Bom in to the fifth generation of the Bstan gnyis gling pa dan, Surya Seng
ge became the hereditary steward of the 'border-tam ing' tem ple of Byams
sprin in Skyid rong. Like Nyi zla klong gsal, his fa m ily had dose ties w ith Rig
dzin Gar dbang rd o rje.171 A t the age of about three, he impressed everyone
one day when he jum ped off the roof w ith a bamboo sword in his hand and
landed w itho u t a scratch.172
His grandfather Guru Bdud 'dul taught him the dharma of his paternal
clan <yab chos) called the 'Magic Web o f the Peaceful and W ra thful
Deities'
iZ hi khro sgyu 'phrul). From a T a n tric master called Z il gnon dbang rgyal rd o
rje he received the vows of a novice m onk and teachings related to Phur ba
(Kilaya) and Gshin rje (Yamaraja) cycles, and fu rther teachings spedfic to his
paternal dan called the Rdzogs chen yang tig ye shes mthong g ro l and the
Phags mo zab rgyas.
When his guru Zil gnon dbang rgyal rd o rje dies, he leaves hom e and
wanders in to Nepal m editating in sacred confluences and Tantric charnel
'Phrin las, fol.8a.4... d e n y id kyi sras kyi thu b o n i/ bdag gi y a b rje b k a '
d n n mtshungs med mched gnyis yin te / nged rigs rus 'p h yo 'brang phun
sum tshogs shing rig 'd zin gar dbang rd o rje sogs skyes chen dam pas rjes su
bzung ba'i yum u rgyan skyid ma zhes dpral ba'i dbyings su sme ba dkar po
rin g bsrel Itar 'od 'tsher ba sogs m kha' 'g ro 'i mtshan rtags dang ldan pa de'i
rm i lam du bla ma sngags 'chang zhig gi lcags kyi rd o pe rtse Inga pa lag pa
(8b) ya g rig gi theg tsam zhig sbyin pa rm is nas ring bor ma thogs par dam
pa 'd i n yid lhum s su bzhugs so/.
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128
search for the hidden-land as this was the ripening of a vow taken in a fo rm e r
life-time.
But as the party travels tow ards Nepal, they hear reports that epidemic in
the Kathmandu Valley has still not abated, and is now claim ing about a
hundred lives a day in the Kingdom of Maharaja Jagajjaya Malla (ra dza dzye dza
ga smal la).
A t this tim e the w ife of a m inister called Jangal Thakur (dzang gal
khragkhur) n was struck by the plague and "all were amazed when Surya Seng
~ Ibid, fol,15h2... dgung lo gsum tsam phebs skabs phyag tu snyugs gri
bsnams pa dang lhan gcig yang thog nas lhung bas ci yang ma skyon par gri
dang bcas te krong ngehzhugs 'd u g pas kun ya mtshan du g y u r/.
\71
Ibid, fol,13a.4) o rgyan chen p o 'i ma 'ongs lung bstan mams thugs la bcags
bzhin pa'i ste/ / bstan 'g ro 'i pho 'g y u r sna tshogs byung ba'i rkyen gyis
kyang nger y id 'byung ste/ sbas yul snyegs par dgongs pa las gnyen bshes
yon bdag mams kyi thabs sna tshogs kyi sgo nas bshol ci btab kya n g / sngon
gyi smon lam gyi dus babs su gyur te bshol ma thebs par (13b) 'chas so / der
thams cad ci drag la dor te / b io stobs che ba mams ni khang gzhis bu smad
bor 'os mams bor nas rjes su 'b ra n g / b io stobs chung ba mams m ig 'chi ma
tsar re shul du lus nas bal yul du phebs.
74 The Newar king of Kathmandu, Jagajjayamalla w h o reigned 1722-1734.
See M. Slusser,1982:192-245; D. W rig h t,1990:221-222.
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129
ge delivered the princess from death by means of talismans and spells," (rdzas
dang Ijags sngags kyi btsun mo nad las grol te kan ngo mtshar du gyur).
the
deity
Rdo
rje
gzhon
nu
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130
protect from and repel the Lord of Death. A fter perform ing a m onth-long
m editation retreat on these rites he concludes w ith the ceremony of offering a
ransom effigy in the charnel ground of 'Ra ma d o li'.
The Maharaja himself attends the final ceremony, accompanied by his
ministers and retainers m ounted on horses and elephants, "w h ile a great
company of soldiers fire guns, cannons and the like until the sky looked as if
was b o iling over and the roar reached the plains of Tibet."16
The Maharaja then says: " Lama, because you and I have crossed paths
due to the power of a vo w taken in form er times, as long as the sky remains, I
w ould like to [extend to you the in vita tio n ] to stay in the royal palace If that is
not possible you may stay someplace in the highlands nearby."
Ibid, fol,13h.. de skabs kyang yam b u 'i rim nad ma chad par nyin rer yang
ro brgya phrag rgal ba re 'd o n c in g / rgyal bo nad kyi grong nas ra dza dzye
dza ga smal la rgyal srid 'phos te m a dang 'g rig / de'i tshebka' blon chen po
dzang gal khrag kh u r gyi btsun m or nad btabsteshi la khad thug pa'i skabs/
sngar gyi rgyus yod zhig gi lhas lung bstan pa'i bla ma de 'd i na phebs 'dug
zhus pas/ de phral du spyan 'dren ba byung nas byon / rdzas dang ljags
sngags kyi btsun m o nad las grol te kun ngo mtshar du g yu r/ de ga'i gnas
tshul rgyal po la zhus yod 'd u g bas/ rgyal po shin tu thugs mnyes te da lha
spyan drongs shig gsungs nas (14a) chibs dang bcas te gdan dren pa byung
b a r/ gos dm ar kha sprel zhig phyag rten du bsnams nas byon pas/ rgyal po
chen pos kyang bal tarn nyi shu tham pa phyag sbar du bcug ste Idem mjal
m d za d / yul lugs kyi mtshams dris d a ng / khyad par nad rims 'd i chad pa'i
thabs dang rten 'brel m dzad dgos tshul gyi bka' lung mams skad gnyis pas
bsgyur byung b a r/ dkon mchog la gsol ba btab pa'i ngos nas gang yong ci
th u b bgyid par zhus pas thugs dgyes so/ deng gang la ci dgos kyi yo byad ni
rgyal po'i gan m dzod nas zhu rgyu yod pas ci znus zhus yod 'd u g kyang rje
'd i par ltogs bla dang ma rabs kyi dri mas ma gos pas phral tu nye bar m kho
ba'i yo byad gang y in de gya nom pa sbyar byung ba zhus te rgyal khang
rang du gnas mal bcas so/ /d e r bcom ldan 'das rd o rje gzhon nu (14b) d a ng /
thugs sgrub drag p o rtsal gyi d k y il khor la brten pa'i gtor b e lo g / sri g n on /
khyad par nad bdag stobs 'jom s kyi bsrung belog bsad pa'i man ngag sogs
phan thabs thams cad gcig ti 'bungs te zla ba gcig gi bar du sgrub pa'i gzhi
bzung nas glud chen d u r khrod ra ma d o lir bteg zor 'phen gyi n y in / sku
drag pos chas su zhugs/ rgyal blon dpon gyog thams cad spyan gzigz kyi
bkod pa rgya chen pos rta dang glang po sogs la brgyan phun sum tshogs
pas brgyan / me m aa' dang me sgyogs la sogs pa dmag gi dpung chen pos
gnam sa 'khol ba tsam gyi 'u r sgra dang bcas te bod thang mgon p o 'i bar du
phebs bas/.
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131
A t that tim e that it dawns on Surya Seng ge that the hidden-land of Guru
Padmasambhava is to be his alloted destiny. The Maharaja gives h im a copper
plate land deed to the m ountain site, and fo r the value of tw o thousand silver
[N'epali sovereigns! purchases rice-grow ing lands in the valleys below to
support the com m unity of religious practitioners in the hidden-land. 77
Surya Seng ge and his party travel to the hidden-land of Yol mo Gangs ra
and start to b u ild the foundations of a tem ple on a frozen hill-top in the center
of the valley as directed by the prophetic guidebooks of Rig dzin Rgod Idem
can's N orthern
Treasures.
The
Iron
Hook
which
Captures
the
M inds
of the
F o r tu n a te
describes the physical features and spiritual qualities of this sacred placet salute the
awesome Guru!
Excellent Lama manifestation of the Lord Conqueror;
Ngag gi dbang po, posesser of the three kindnesses.
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132
Here the poet is id e n tify in g the landscapes in the four cardinal directions
w ith the fo u r Tantric activities (las) of pacifying, increasing, bewitching, and
destroying.
4 The notion of bla denotes w ha t is roughly understood as 'soul', and appears
to be a pre-Buddhist concept. A person's bla may be robbed by a demon
requiring that it be ransomed back by special Buddhist or Bon po rituals.
M any regions in Tibet associate the soul of their country w ith a central tree,
lake or m ountain.
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133
In the fo u r directions there are many m editation caves the legacy of w hat previous masters relied upon.
N aturally arisen on the side of the great rock on the upper slope of the valley
is the great Crazy W rathful Indestructible King.
The m agnificent body, about four stories in size, is clear before one's eyes.
Before the victorious peak of the northern snow m ountain
is a m arvellous sacred d w e llin g know n as the 100 springs,
or the river of eight branches,
a place where the m ind is happy and perceptions clear,
the flowers of the meadows and pastures in d oom ,
the eight-branched river running steadily like a d a ck serpent w ith the sound
of Ihung tilling'.
The golden-beaked grouse, the delight of the protector goddess Sman btsun,
rivals the beauty of the peacock's p lu m e
W ild animals and herds of deer [roam] here
and the w ater of small pools make the sound of the guru-siddhi mantra.
Furthermore in this snow-encircled Broad Sandy Plain,
the Lord Padmasambhava and the assemdy of knowledge-holders
th in k in g of the people of later generations,
h id innum erade profound dharma Treasures.
In particular it is clearly indicated by the North Lha brag p rophecy/
the manner of h id in g in a w h ite rock,
the relics of the glorious 'knowledge-holder' Santigarbha,
belonging to the fierce lineage of spells.
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134
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135
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136
in the Forest:
The prophecies and guidebooks of the Northern Treasures all agree that
'Bras mo gshongs ('The Valley of Rice') is the most im portant of the hidden-
lands - a place of intrinsic spiritual blessings, where the supports for realization
na turally come together in this degenerate age
pa rtially opened this hidden-land in the 14th century, its d e finitive opening was
to occur later, as foretold by this rather cryptic passage from the O u te r
Passkey:
vajrasiddha-s of Tibet at Bsam yas M chim pu, first one person w ill open
[the hidden land]. Afterwards, the prophecies of the three siddha-s each
having spread separately, three places [dedicated] to the m antrateachings w ill be established in Bras mo bshongs.
The most famous of these path-finders is Lha btsun chen po Rig 'dzin Nam
m kha' 'jigs med (1597-1650), a scion of the Lha btsad po lineage of Tibetan
dharmaraja-s, bom in Byar y u l in southern Tibet.
In his youth he adopts the life of an itinerant ascetic m editating in the
sacred m ountains of southeast Tibet, where he quickly impresses people w ith
his m iraculous powers. Once when w alkin g around the 'Pure Crystal Peak' of
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137
Rtsa ri, a boulder rolls tow ards him. Casting a w ra th fu l [Tantric] gaze and
m aking a threatening 'mudra' w ith his hand he m iraculously diverts the falling
ro c k .80
The Tibetan historian Gu ru Bkra shis, takes particular relish in recounting
another hagiographical episode where Lha bstun pa travels to India and
encounters a heretical king w h o is persecuting Buddhists. For three days the
king's m inisters assault the Lha btsun pa w ith all kinds of weapons, but these
do not harm him and "pass through him lik e punches fly in g through em pty
space."
fo llo w in g year of the w ood-bird (1645), at the the request of his master Rig
'd zin 'Ja' tshon snying p o (1585-1656), Rkong po Rgod tshang sprul sku Mkhas
mchog padma legs g ru b and the great siddha Bkra shis tshe brtan, he departs
to open the secret site of Lha ri 'oci gsal snying po in the h id d a v la n d of 'Bras
mo gshongs.
Guru Bkra shis, v o l.2, pg.171... khyad par gnas chen rtsa r ir 'phebs dus
gangs zhur byung te ri chen po n y il ba dang dags pa shel r i'i gyon ngos nas
brag ri chen po chad la khad pa sogs lta bstangs dang sdigs m d zu b m dzad pa
tsam gyis rang gnas su zlog pa'i rdzu 'p h ru l bstan/.
Ibid, pg.172, rgya gar gyi yul du mu stegs kyi rgyal po zhig gis nang pa'i
bstan la 'tsho ba byed pa la rdzu phrul gyi rgyal po de'i k h ri'i khar phebs pas
rgyal blon thams cad kyi mtshan cha sna tshogs kyi n yin gsum bar du brdeg
par byas kyang m kha' la khu tshur bsnun pa Itar gyur te ci yang nongs par
ma gyur pas gus pa btud de bsnyen bskur phul / p h yin chad mu stegs pa'i
lugs m i b y ^ Par khas blangs te / rgyal bion 'k h o r bcas log pa'i lam las
skyobs nas nang pa la b k o a /.
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138
:s3
pioneer lama called Kah thog Kun tu bzang po, w h o is also looking for a path
in to the hidden-land. Kah thog pa recounts how he has been turned back b y
the cliffs of M ka' brag, "w hich looked lik e the pillars of the heavens."W But
Lha btsun pa tells him that the opening of the northern gate to the hidden-land
is to be allotted only to him and tells Kah thog pa to go search for a w a y
elsewhere.
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139
Lha btsun pa then proceeds to th e M k a ' brag cliffs and disappears in to the
ravines beyond the sight of his followers. A fte r a week, his disdples conclude
that he has died. As they start to turn back, however, they hear the echo of
their master's thigh-bone trum pet in the cliffs and decide to wait.
Inside the maze of cliffs, Lha btsun pa encounters a Lepcha w izard called
Thekong Salang w h o "guided by divine d ire ctio n "185 goes to receive the
Tibetan saint and guide him dow n from the pass. The bevevolent wizard
shows the master the great caves of the hidden-land, and helps him to
compose a guidebook describing the various sacred sites of ' Bras mo gshongs.
After a total of three weeks, the master returns declaring he has found a path
into the lush valleys across the m ountain range
W hile Lha btsun pa opens the northern gate to the hidden-land, news
amves that Kah thog pa has also forged a w ay in to the hidden-land from the
west over the " Singili" pass.
bdag Sems pa 'phun tshogs rig 'dzin, a scion of the old Tibetan royal family,
also starts to travel tow ards the hidden-land from the Tibetan province of
Gtsang on the 25th day of the 3rd m onth of the water-horse year (1642).
The History o f S ik k im quotes a prophecy concerning this lama from the
oracles of the Treasure fin d e r Ratna gling pa (1403-1478):
1 For the role of this Lepcha w izard in opening the hidden-land see ibid,
pp.44-5. A t Lha ri snying 'phug, the dent made by the end of the Thekong
Salang's bow, his foot print, a d u m p of bamboos planted by him, and his
grave at 'Khrag thang rong are still visited w ith reverential interest.
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140
of
S ik k im
was a
descendent of King Dpal 'kh o r btsan, the grandson of King Glang Dar ma
whose descendents had fled to the northern borders of Tibet and reigned as
kings over M ang yul, Spu reng
'k h o r btsan, named Bkra shis Khri btsan w h o ruled the border kingdom of Gu
go, m arried a Kashmiri princess called Lha gcig Bsod nams srgol ma, w h o gave
h r th to an extraordinary son on the 5th day of the 4th m onth of the iron-hare
year (1591).
When this young aristocrat is only 21, w e find him w andering around in
Central Tibet engaging in pranayama-related m editation practices, "abstaining
from solid food and barley, subsisting upon elixirs etc for a period of tw elve
years.
Tibetan m onth of the same water-horse year (1642).* Then in the year of the
,88 ibid.
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141
199
When the three saints ind ivid u a lly converge in the center of the hiddenland, Lha btsun pa convenes an assembly saying, "w e are all lamas, w e want a
layman to rule the kingdom righteously."
190
guidebooks to the hidden Treasures of Padma gling pa, Rgod Idem and Ratna
gling pa all agreed in saying, " if a descendant from the unbroken line of Khri
srong lde btsan be appointed ruler of this land, it w ill enjoy peace and
prosperity."
191
pa was even m ore precise saying, "one named Phun tshogs from the direction
_
1P2
of Lang w ill apear." Lha btsun pa sends his disciples to look fo r such a man.
The search party is led by a certain herm it called Rtogs Idan Skal bzang
don g ru b whose escort of musketeers and m ounted retainers apparently
make quite an impression on the aboriginal Lepcha population: "The simple
natives w h o had never seen ponies or firearms, said to others, the entire party
rode on huge hogs, and some of them bore sticks, w hich when pointed
tow ards you produced great sounds."'93
in the forests of Gangtok, the search party makes a startling discovery: a
lost Tibetan tribe liv in g alongside the Lepcha aboriginees. Am ong this clan,
ibid, pg.42.
Wibid, pg.35.
1ibid, pg.37.
02
ibid, pp.35-6.
Ibid, pp.36-7.
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142
they find a man called Phun tshogs m ilk in g his cows, and request him to be
their king.
The H istory of S ik k im traces this person back to the 25th king of K h a m s
M i nyak w h o was prophecied to go towards Bras mo gshongs, where his
and w ild animals were sacrificed and all the deities invoked to bear witness to
the bond between Tibetans and the Lepcha. Sitting on the raw hides of the
animals, they entwined the entrails around their persons and put their feet
together in a vessel filled w ith blood, and took a vo w that all the sons should
be regarded as Tibetan and all daughters as Lepcha."1"'
Settlling in the cloud forests of Gangtok, the descendents of Prince Brgyad
'bum brought the local Lepcha tribes under their control. Generations after, in
the year of the w ood dragon [1604], a boy called Phun tshogs m am rgyal was
bom in to this fa m ily - the one destined by Guru Padmasambhva's prophecies
to be crowned as the future king of the hidden-land.
The enthronm ent of the king takes place in the water-horse year [1642],
w ith Kah thog pa and Lha btsun pa acting as officiating priests. Having secured
M Ibid, pg.25-26.
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143
Guru
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144
Chapter Six:
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145
Padma bkod (The Lotus-Shaped Land') is undoubtedly the most rem ote
Located in a forgotten
comer of southeastern Tibet where the Brahmaputra River cuts a deep chasm
towards the plains of northern India, this region is separated from the rest of
the Tibetan plateau by m ountains and dense forests. The d ifficu lt journey over
the form idable rin g of high passes to the sacred sites of this hidden-valley is
possible only in late summer, when the blizzards briefly abate, and a path can
be cut in the snow.
Over the centuries the inaccessible ravines of Padma bkod served as an
ideal refuge from the invasions and civil wars w hich shook Tibet. According to
prophecies attributed to Guru Padmasambhava, somewhere in this untamed
wilderness Tibetans believed they w ould find an earthly paradise - a pure
realm abounding in fru its and self-sown crops which w ou ld
p rovide a
sanctuary d u rin g the Buddhist dark-age For the yogis of the Rnuing ma and
Bka' brgi/ud orders w h o held the transmission lineage of these prophecies, the
196
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146
the 5th Dalai Lama. For 'Ja' tshon snying po, Padma bkod
pilgrim age to undertake in this degenerate age (snyigs ma'i dus). Those w h o
enter this realm, he says, realize the 'vajra-body' and dissolve in to rainbow
light upon death. Merely taking seven steps tow ards Padma bkod guarantees
rebirth in this pure realm after death.
the Qosot Mongols were subjugating Tibet in the m iddle of the 17th century,
Ja' tshon snying po appointed his disciple Rig dzin Bdud 'dul rd o rje (16151672) to convert the aboriginal tribes of the Brahmaputra gorge to the
Buddha's teachings and open the w ay to the hidden-land.
Bdud dul rd o rje journeyed to the kingdom of Spo bo, situated at the
entrance to the vast wilderness of the Brahmaputra gorge
According to local
sham pa Nus ldan rdo rje (1655-1708), a famed Rnyitig ma pa master fro m
Kham s w ho had settled in Spo bo and discovered m any hidden Treasures. A
Treasure text called Rtsa gsum y i dam dgongs dus, revealed by Stag sham pa,
describes eight hidden-lands which unfold like the petals of a lotus over Tibet,
in the heart of the lotus, he locates Padma bkod, which he fu rth e r subdivides
^See Sbas y u l Padma bkod ky i lam y ig dang sku tshab padma bshes
gnyen 'gro dul dang skye bdun dkar chags, in the collection: Sbas yul
padma bkod kyi lam yig ma 'ongs lu ng bstan sna tshogs phyogs gcig
tu bsdus pa'i gsung pod. Tezu: 1974; fols. 1-35. Also see Erhart, 1994,
for discussion of material related to this hidden-land in the gter ma
cycle called Rdo rje gro lod rtsal g yi sgrub skor.
Sbas yul, pg.13.4-6
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147
territories.
During Stag sham pa's time, Padma bkod was still an uncharted h unting
ground inhabited by a fierce confederation of Mishmi and A b o r tribes: vassals
of the w arrior kings of A hom w h o had overran the Assam Valley and enslaved
the Naga.201 in his visions, Stag sham pa perceives this untamed wilderness as
the geographic representation of the goddess Vajravarahi his ow n secret
tutelary deity. The ritual pilgrim age through the 'cakras' of her body follow ed
the Brahmaputra riv e r which symbolized her central channel, begining fro m
her head in Tibet and culm inating in her w o m b somewhere in the jungles of
Northern india.
202
CD!
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148
The Dzungar I n v a s io n :
When the Dzungar Mongols sacked Lhasa in 1717, m any Treasure finders
fam iliar w ith the prophecies of Padmasambhava believed that the final wars
signaling the decline of the Buddhist teachings were at hand. An Italian Jesuit
missionary, H ip p o lyte Desideri, w h o spent the years 1712-1727 in Tibet was
also fa m ilia r w ith the prophecies of Padmasambhava:
But I m ust now recount what, when first I arrived in Thibet, I took
to be a jest and laughed at, but w hich later induced me to bow m y head
to the ground, adore the supreme inscrutable Providence of God and
repeat the w ords of the H oly Prophet David: Justus es, Demine; et rectum
iudiaum tuum. The judgem ents of God are, indeed, incomprehensible
but adorable You must know that among the m any books which are in
general use in Thibet tw o in particular deal w ith w hat I have been
m entioning. The name of one is Lungh-ten, or the prophecies of
Urghien ; this was the first that was translated to me w ord by w o rd
when I began to study the Thibettan books soon after m y arrival at
Lhasa. The second book which I studied and caused to be explained to
me w o rd by w o rd contains the life of Urghien. The first book and some
chapters of the second contain, in the form of a dialogue between the
King and Urghien, a series of prophecies of the latter as to w hat w ould
happen in Thibet d u rin g successive centuries, i read them in 1716 and
they had been w ritten a very long tim e before One was in manuscript
the other was printed. The first of the m any prophecies was that the
Tartars of Lower Tartary w ou ld become masters of Thibet. Secondly,
that the country w o u ld be invaded by Tartars of Upper Tartary. Thirdly,
that the latter w ou ld sack and ru in the land and send all the spoils back
to their country. Fourthly, that they w ou ld m urder m any religious and
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149
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150
caps, perhaps because they are m ore re tirin g or because they appear to
have higher m orality. The envy and intense hatred w ith w hich thay are
regarded by the monks of the first class is not to be described; the
persecution was so great as to cause the ruin and almost the destruction
not only of the monks of the second class, but of the unhappy Kingdom
of Thibet... The tyrannical execrable usurper of the kingdom of Thibet,
Ce-nng-ton-drup, was a m onk of the first class and studied in the great
M onastery-U niversity of Giegazze. The tw o principal commanders and
nearly all the soldiers of his arm y w ere also monks of the yellow cap
and, as I said before, no sooner did they approach Lhasa than from the
monasteries of Sera, Breebung and others the monks rushed out armed,
carrying arms and am m unitions to those barbarous enemies of their
fatherland. But the deluded Thibetans soon discovred that the statement
that they had delivered the Grand Lama fro m his prison in China and
were bringing him to his palace of Potala was only a pretext to be able
to vent their hatred on the monks of the red cap. So little did the fo rm e r
care about the Grand lama, that when the Chinese arm y entered Thibet
escorting him, those deceitful wolves attacked them. Indeed, from the
first of December, 1717, until the end of October, 1720, they ill-treated
and murdered the monks of the second dass and all w h o had dealings
w ith them. Many of their monasteries were sacked and destroyed, the
richest and most honoured
Am ong the "red cap" lamas escaping to the m ountains was Chos rje gling pa,
alias 'D zam gling rd o rje rtsal (h 1682), the abbot of the Bka brgyud cloister of
Ras chung phug in Yar klung, w h o believed the tim e had come to seek refuge
TfU
205
Ibid,220-1.
205
On the ide n tifica tio n of this master as the reincarnation of the former
abbot of Ras chung phug, Zhabs d ru n g 'C h i med dbang po see Kun
bzang, pg.322.
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151
Xus ldan rd o rje had apparently designated him as one of the path-finders of
Padma bkod. 206 As the Dzungars carried their bloody campaign tow ards the
cloisters of southeastern Tibet, Chos rje gling pa and his disciples fled in to the
hidden-land over the high passes of the kingdom of Spo bo:
2,7
Kun bzang, pg.325.4... de yang stag shams lung byang la s/ dang po nges
med smyon pa'I tshul gyis 'ongs70 zhes pa rje nyid kyi zhal slob byang gling
sgrub chen d a ng / derjes sems dpa' ded dpon tshul du 'ongs% zhes pa dam
pa n y id / de rjes m al 'b yo r 'g ro mgon tshul du 'ongs% zhes pa n i/ sgam po
rin po c h e ' g r o ' dul gling pa yin ' dra snyam m o /.
R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
The career of this master in Padma bkod was cut short when he suddenly
contracted a sharp rheum atic attack and passed away in the dam p cloud forests
of the hidden-land. But even after his death, Klo pa
his emanational w isdom -body (ye shes sku) surrounded by a retinue of female
companions deep in the jungle slopes.
206
210
'' Another tra d itio n claims that Chos rje gling pa was reincarnated as 'Jigs
med gling pa (1729/30-1798). See S. Goodman, " Rig 'd z in 'Jigs med gling pa
and the Klong chen Snying th ig ", in (eds.) S, Goodman & R. Davidson,
Tibetan Buddhism: Reason and Revelation, (A lb a n y: 1992), 188.
Guru Bkra shis, pg.134... gzhan yang padm a bkod kyi gnas r i'i bye brag
spyi bo m g rin pa'i gnas phug mang po gsar phyes d a n g / o rgyan yang
rd zo n g / padm a rdzong che chung sogs nas gsang gter kyang mang du
bzhes shing sgrub gnas gtsug lag khang sogs gsar skrun d a n g / gzhan yang
stod smad thams cad du lha kh a ng / m chod rten sogs mang du bzhengs par
gnang z h in g / k lo m o n gyi 'g ro ba m am s bsdu ba m am pa b z h i'I p h rin las
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153
Even as the fires of the D zungar invasion subsided, the legendary land of
Padma bkod continued to attract maverick Tibetan yogis in search of vision
and adventure The career of the Fifth Sgam po pa 0 rgyan 'G ro 'd u l gling pa
(t i 1757), the scion of the ancient Lha rgya r i '"fa m ily w h o ascended to the
abbacy of Dvag lha sgam po is a case in point.
The Adventures o f the Fifth Sgam po pa 0 rgyan 'Gro dul g lin g pa:
as the
Fifth
reincarnation of Sgam po pa, the famed master of the Bka ' brgyud order, but
he too soon gravitated tow ards the teachings of Rnying ma pa. in his young
age he received in itia tio ns from Kun beang 'od zer Gar bang Chi med rd o rje,
and fu rther teachings from Bde chen rgyal po the Treasure fin d er of 'B rug
thang w ho fu rther inducted the young Fifth Sgam po pa in to the messianic
kyis rjes su bzung ba m dzad nas/ slar yang lha ldan phyogs su phebs skyod
dang bcas skal pa dang ldan pa mang po'i don mdzad cin g /
For a brief history of this fa m ily see J. Karsten, "Some Notes on the House
of Lha Rgya-ri", (eds.) M .A ris & A u n g San Suu Kyi, Tibetan Studies in
Honor of Hugh Richardson, (W arm inster: 1980), 163-168.
212
" Kun bzang, pg.341.5... de rjes bead rgya gnang skabs bstan 'g ro 'i bde
thabs sbas yul du phebs dgos m th a dmag nad mtshon yang ts h u l/ belog
thabs lung bstan mang du byung bar snang.
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154
fell down.
213
He
then returns to the border kingdom of Spo bo, and w ith the support of the
local king, Nyi ma rgyal po, he attempts to further open the hidden sites of
Padma bkod.
He joins up w ith Kun bzang 'od zer, and the tw o of them become the
principal recipients of the teachings of the master Rig 'dzin Rdo rje thogs med
(1746-1797), called The Seven
Profound
Teachings
of the
Lumious
W eb
14
Web, spread
among the Mon pa clans m igrating to Padma bkod from Bhutan at the end of
the 18th century.
A fter Rdo rje thogs med s death, the Fifth Sgam po pa ventures fu rth e r
dow n the Brahmaputra gorge to reveal the sacred sites corresponding to the
Goddess' sacred anatomy. A t dawn, on the 9th day of the 5th m onth of the
w ood-tiger year (1794), an acarya and a woman in ragged clothes appear to
rsyus. P8-21Q-
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155
him in a dream instructing him to build a tem ple on a nearby hill in the shape
of a rice heap Rin chen spungs.
215
claim ing that the drum -beating and conch-blowing of the Buddhist lamas
w o u ld scare away the w ild game in the area. For compensation, they subm it an
exorbitant list of demands, which include a g ift of cows, yak half-breeds, pigs,
chickens, w ool
ornaments.
cloth, swords,
knives,
axes,
copper utensils,
and
silver
216
Surrounded on all sides by valleys, w hich fan out like the petals of a lotus,
Rin chen
Web
bkod. The
Lima, and in the surrounding groves one is said to find a plethora of healing
see Rnam thar, fol.723.1-3. W hile the conception of Padma bkod as the
geographic representation of Vajravarahi started to gain currency after
the 17th century, there was not always agreement as to the topographical
identification of her 'cakras. The Spo bo lo rgyus quoted by Ehrhard
(1994) identifies Bod lung pa as the heart of the Goddess and Rin chen
spungs as the navel 'cakra'. This identification also accords w ith
inform ation contained in Gnas gsol bar ched kun sel phrin las m y u r
'grub by Kun bzang od zer. This text identifies the 'cakras' of the Goddess
w ith entire sections of the Brahmaputra gorge The throat 'cakra', fo r
example, not only covers the site of M ngon po gnas as quoted by
Ehrhard (1994:11) but extends all the w ay to Dga 'Ide. Similarly, the heart
area comprises a vast region begining fro m Kong y u l, passing through
Bod lung pa and ending at Rin chen spungs, considered to be the
begining of the navel 'cakra'. But it seems that there was not always an
effort to correlate w ith past visions of the Goddess' 'cakras'. Instead, each
lama seems to have identified the 'cakras', of the Goddess w ith his own
personal visual fie ld of reference depending on where he settled in Padma
bkod. For a different topographical identification of the 'cakras' see Sle
lung Bzhad pa'i rd o rje, w h o fo llo w in g sections of Stag sham pa's Rta
mgrin dgongs 'dus, locates Rin chen spungs at the heart.
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156
plants and w ild fruits such as the giant 'tamanta', w hich can satisfy the hunger
of fiv e p e o p le '1'
In the Treasure cycle of the Luminous Web w e also fin d w hat appears to
be a discussion of hallucigenic plants. Near Rin chen spungs one is said to find
a plant called the 'cu ttin g of the klesa-s'. By eating this, it is said, one forgets
food, and the 'knots' (m d u d )
218
Padma bkod , w ith its perpetual rain, w ild animals and fierce tribes m ay
not have conformed to most people's idea of paradise, but fo r the 5th Sgam po
pa and his disciples it was the perfect Tantric paradise The journey through this
untamed wilderness was heaven and hell at the same tim e and as such it
became a sk ilfu ll means fo r the testing and transform ation of the hum an spirit
in this degenerate age
pitha, the 5th Sgam po pa says, "th e actions of w hoever enters this place are
beyond good and e v il."'
'" Tshe sgrub od kyi dra ba'i lam byang rnying g i mun sel, in Sbas
i/u/,pg.285.1... ta man ta zhes bya bai shing tog ni7c rtog po re res m i Inga
la tsheng pa yang%
218
ibid, pp.294.6... nyon mongs kun gcod rtsa m chog sus zes pa % rtsa
m dud kun grol shing kham s sna tshogs m thong % bea' btung rtogs pa
yid la mi skye zhing % tin nge 'dzin rang ? rgyud la skye bar 'g y u r %
tshangs pai dbyangs ldan dus gsum m khyen par gyur % A fu rth e r
description of fiv e special plants occurs in a text called the Rtsa m c h o g
rman pa Inga rtags thabs gsal bai me long- in Sbas y ii/,p p .250-263.
211
o
E.ma.ho/ dus gsum rgyal ba'i zhing mchog gnas kyi m chog/ / o rgyan
byin rlabs de w i ko ta'i s a // gangs can bod kyi Iho n u b rgya bod
m tsham s/ / gzugs can gang p h yin las la beang ngan med / / .... from a text
entitled Sbas y u l padma bkod kyi lam yig, handw ritten in cursive script
on damaged rice paper, signed by O rgyan Gro 'd u l g ling pa.
Photographed in the possesion of Ka ba sprul sku of Cham do in August
1995 by the author. Deposited at the Sanskrit Library, H arvard University.
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157
For the yogi initiated in to the secret topics of the M other Tantras, the
physical landscape of Padma bkod
W eb
describes Rin chen spungs as just a rock shaped lik e a pitched tent, but on the
'inner' level it is said to be the temple of Heruka, the Buddhist manifestaion of
enlightened wrath. On the'secret' level the h ill is described as the transform ed
mandala of emotions and thoughts represented by the 100 peaceful and
w rath fu l deities of the Z h i 'k h ro mandala, and its 'innerm ost secret' reality is
equated
w ith
the
[principle]
of
Padmasambhava,
Samantabhadra
and
22D
For the ordinary p ilg rim w h o could not directly experience these 'inner'
and 'secret' and innermost secret' levels of reality, the physical jou rn e y
through Padma bkod became the u ltim a te exerase in pure vision. The w arlike
aborigines were seen as the fierce human gatekeepers of the hidden-land;
venomous snakes on the path were considered supports for mindfulness; and
the leeches were believed to be sucking away one's sins. Even the hunters
inhabiting the Brahmaputra gorge saw their activity as a sacramental rite
Convinced that they live d in the perfect Tantric paradise, they came to believe
that the m inds of the animals they killed were instantly liberated and the
venison was tshog sha, the sym bolic m eat-offering of a Buddhist Tantric
feast.- '
See Sbas yul, pp.265... phyi lta r shel gyi pha bong gur ph ub *dra70 nang
lta r he ru ka yi lha khang ste% gsang ba kun bzang zhi kh ro 'i pho brang
che70 (266) yang gsang pad 'byung kun bzang rd o r 'chang gi% lha tshogs nyi
brgya kyi pho brang yin7c
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158
bkod
praising her
medicinal groves filled w ith rainbows and the sonorous voice of the dakini. At
the same time, however, he describes it as a gathering place of fierce btsan
spirits, teaming w ith tigers, leopards, bears, and poisonous snakes baring their
fangs.
222
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159
223
inhabitants of hidden-land start to pay taxes to the king of Spo in butter and
pelts, and he in return protects their villages against attacks from the 'black'
Klo pa. For disciples of the 5th Sgam po pa, Padma bkod became not only a
refuge from foreign invasions and religious persecution, but also a testing
ground for Buddhism as a 'tam ing1 force The hidden-land became the focus of
an archetypal encounter between the 'civilized' center and the 'barbaric'
periphery.
The Tibetans, however, were not the only ones obsessed w ith entering
this w ild frontier. For the last British imperial explorers Padma bkod harbored
one of Asia's last geographical riddles. It was in to this nearly im penetrable
region that the Tsangpo River disappeared from the Tibetan plateau, amid
speculation that it eventually emerged in India as the Brahmaputra river.
In an effort to determine w hether the Tsang-po and the Brahmaputra
were the same river, the Survey of India trained Tibetan-speaking secret agents
called 'pundits'. Equipped w ith dum m y prayer wheels, in w hich they hid paper
Bde chen rgyal po reincarnated as Sgam po pa's eldest son Rgyal sras
Bde chen gling pa w h o established his seat at the village o f Yid 'ong phel
on the righ t bank of the Brahmaputra across from the monastery of Rin
chen spungs. From here he initia te d the pilgrim age to the h o ly mountain
of Buddha tshe phug. A ccording to one local tra d itio n Rdors sems pho
brang and Buddha tshe phug are kn ow n respectively as the 'father' (yab)
and 'm other' (yum) pilgrim age sites. Kun bzang 'o d zer, reincarnated as
another one of the Fifth Sgam po pa's sons called Gar dbang Bstan pa'i nyi
ma. This master continued to reside and teach at the village of Dga Ide,
the traditional seat of the Chos rje g ling pa incarnations in Northern
Padma bkod. Rdo rje thogs m ed's reincarnation was also recognized in
one of the Fifth Sgam po pas disciples called Rdo rje drag sngag tsal, w ho
continued to expand the Treasure cycle of the Luminous Web revealed
by his previous incarnation.
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160
and tools, they were instructed to use their rosaries to count paces, and
measure a ltitu de by b o iling water.
224
T h e 'p u n d it' spies failed to fo llo w the entire course of the riv e r from Tibet
to India due to the h o stility of the Klo pa tribes, but their accounts convinced
m any that the Tsang-po and the Brahmaputra rivers were indeed the same.
There remained, however, a fu rth e r unsolved rid d le The riv e r lost so much
altitude in a short distance between Tibet and India that many geographers
speculated that the unexplored sections of the gorge harbored giant waterfalls,
surpassing even those of the Niagara.
in 1913, Lieutenant F.M. Bailey, the master spy of the Great Game in
Central Asia, was the first westerner to enter Padma bkod in search of its
fabled waterfalls. His journey began in M ipi, where he encountered a group of
frightened Tibetans searching fo r a hidden paradise Treating them fo r spear
w ounds suffered in a M ishm i ambush, Bailey writes:
224
The bravest of these 'p u n d its' was a Sikkimese man called K inthup w h o
along w ith a M ongolian lama was sent to explore the Tsangpo gorge in
1880. He was equipped w ith a d u m m y prayer wheel containing the paper
and tools necessary for m aking a record of his journey and was to use his
prayer beads to count distances in paces. Once in the gorge, he was to drill
inform ation in to logs and release them in to the riv e r to be picked up
dow n stream by the Survey in Assam. Having accrued a gam bling debt
along the way, the M ongolian lama sold K intnup in to slavery and was
never heard of again. K in th up escaped in to the gorge, until his master's
envoys caught up w ith h im at the village of M a rpu n ft where he
convinced the local lama to buy h im as his own servant. Then, on the
pretext of going on pilgrimage, he left several times to cut and release his
logs. These went unnoticed however, fo r the Survey had already given up
looking fo r them. Unable to fo llo w the Tsang-po River all the w ay fro m
Tibet to India because of the h o s tility of the Abor tribes, K inthup was
forced to return home retracing his footsteps through Tibet. For the story
of K in th up see F.M. Bailey, No Passport to Tibet, (London: 1957).
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161
Pemako was imprecise A ll that was know n was that somewhere on the
D ihang-lohit watershed there was a holy m ountain of glass and around
this holy m ountain lay fertile valleys.
225
explore the deeper reaches of the hidden-land. He led his party in to the lands
of the C hulikatta Mishmi in Arunachal Pradesh where he built a temple near
the village of Mipi called Dkar mo gling.
Mountain (Padma
shel
ri),
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162
[psychic] cause, the three poisons, and the fruit. It is the all encompassing
glorious citadel."
Rje drung's search fo r this fantastic m ountain was interrupted as the
armies of the Kuom intang occupied Spo bo forcing the local king to flee and
take refuge w ith the British at Sadiya in Assam. Rje drung returned to his hom e
place of Ri bo che after the Chinese had sacked it, but he was arrested by
Tibetan officials on w hat seemed to be trum ped-up charges of sedition and
im prisoned at Byang Stag lung where he passed away shortly after.
Rje drungs follow ers in Padma
227
In the ensuing
battle, Bailey explains that although the Tibetans were armed, the reflection off
of their matchlock rifles made them easy targets for the iMishmi archers w h o
picked them off w ith poisonous arrows. Experts at jungle warfare, "th e Mishmi
laid ambushes and set traps on the jungle paths and attacked the Tibetans at
every opportunity. They also set fire to the Tibetans' houses and crops."28
Rtsa gsum yid bzhin nor b u 'i chos sde las sbas yu l lam yig gsal bai
sgron me, in Sbas yul, pg.235,3 ...'di dang 'brel dang ma 'brel bai % lung
chen brgyad lung phran mang% 'jam gling sum gnyis shong ba yod7o
snogs stong ldan padma gling% m tha1dmag gdug can srung ba'i gong70
nad mtshon mu gebelog pa'i dpung% dug gsum rgyu 'bras bsad pa'i
mtshon% kun 'dus dpal gyi grong khyer yin7o
Oral account of the headman of Shinku villa g e in C him dro (Padma
bkod).
23Captain H. Bailey, 1957: 35-7.
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163
Failing to negotiate a truce between the Tibetans and the Mishmi, Bailey's
expedition traversed the Yangyap-la and the Pungpung-la, reaching the main
Tibetan settlements in N orthern Padma
bkod.
to
determine
w hether
such
waterfalls
existed
in
the
Brahmaputra gorge, but he was also repulsed by intractable cliffs. A t this tim e
Kingdon-W ard observes that m any Tibetans from Kham and Spo bo were still
com ing in search of the promised land. He writes:
inaccessible
hidden
behind
m isty
229
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164
rival scholars such as Rje btsun Shes rab rgya mtsho, the notorious polemicist
of the Dge lugs pa order, denounced the Padma bkod guidebooks as lies,
accusing false Raping ma pa and Bka' brgyud pa Treasure finders of leading
people to their deaths.
Rdo bis dge bshes Shes rab rgya m tsho (1884-1968) began his career as a
brilliant m onk rising in the ranks of the Dge lugs pa order, and becoming a
close attendant of the 13th Dalai Lama, only to turn around, and openly
espouse the cause of Chinese com m unism in Tibet, inspired by the w ritin g s of
Mao Ze dong, Rdo bis was convinced that socialist reforms could fu lfill m any
Buddhist ideals betrayed by Tibetan feudalism. Elected to the Presidency of the
.All China Buddhist Association in 1953, one of Rdo bis' responsibilities was to
persuade his fellow Tibetans that the expansion of Chinese com m unism in to
Tibet presented an o p p o rtu n ity fo r progress. Standing in his way, however,
were rum ors of a hidden Buddhist paradise called Padma
bkod,
situated
bkod
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165
230
A t the turn of the 20th century, as a new w ave of political unrest swept
across Tibet, the m yth of the hidden-iand became quite popular among
nomads in Eastern Tibet. When the Chinese w arlo rd Chao Erh feng began to
plunder Eastern Tibet in 1902, hundreds of Tibetans from Khams escaped to
the upper valleys of Padma bkod. Then, in the fo llo w in g years, after the British
b ru ta lly forced themselves in to Lhasa, about tw o thousand m ore Tibetans set
out from K h am s, Spo y u l and other places. In the face of tropical disease,
insects, venom ous snakes, and hostile natives, these intrepid and often naive
Tibetans faced these tribulations w ith astonishing devotion.
Fifty years later, when the Peoples Liberation A rm y occupied Tibet, m any
Tibetans again flocked towards their promised land, precisely at the tim e Rdo
bis was attem pting to im plem ent his reforms in Eastern Tibet.
For progressive thinkers like Rdo bis, the notion of a hidden Buddhist
paradise was deeply offensive, not only because it was another example of
superstition and backwardness preventing social reform, but also because the
hidden-land directly competed w ith the socialist 'paradise' he was tryin g to
prom ote.
A m ong Rdo bis' collected w ritin g s we find a rather vehement refutation
of a guidebook to the hidden-land of Padma bkod entitled 'A Refutation
of
the Guidebook to Padma bkod, the Lamp which Clears the Darkness of Black
230
Lung bstan rdzun ma sun 'byin mongs pa'i mun sel shes rab nyi ma'i
ad zer in Rdo bis, v o l.2, pg.595... kho bo lo nyi shu rtsa g rig gi tshe rdza
skye rg yu 'i phyogs su lh a 'i lung bstan zhig la brten nas 'brog pa'i sde khyim
mang po spo yu l padm a bkod chung du bsnyeg pa don r i yang ma grub par
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166
rdzun
nag mun
23
'
Rdo bis, unfortunately, does not id e n tify the author of the guidebook he is
refuting, but the lines he quotes are taken almost verbatim from a guidebook
w ritten by 0 rgyan 'g ro 'dul gling pa (h 1757), the abbot of the Bka brgyud
hermitage of Divags lha sgam po, w h o was one of the principle path-finders of
this hidden-land towards the end of the 18th century.
Rdos bis' refutation conforms to the standard used in most Tibetan
polemical literature he first outlines the views of his opponent, and then
proceeds to show how these d o not accord w ith facts, nor reason, before finally
laying dow n his own views.
passage (bar do) does one pass [through on the w ay to Padma bkod?]."31
m i zog tshang mas ya nga gyong gud shi chad bsam gyis mi khyab pa'i sdug
sngal myangs te cho nge rgya cher bsgrags pa thos.
Ibid, vo l.3, 457-467.
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167
For Rdo bis the province of Spo bo, of w hich Padma bkod form ed a part,
was the furthest thing from a Buddhist paradise, notorious fo r its bandits and
people of crude manners and a ttire He rem inds the reader that this rebellious
kingdom had to be m ilita rily occupied and brought in to submission d u rin g the
tim e of the 13th Dalai Lama. "The people of that country," he says, "are m ostly
[of] fierce n ature D onning ape skins, and raising long swords, revelling in the
play of dogs and monkeys..."
233
Vlost travellers to this area w ou ld have to agree w ith Rdo bis to some
extent, but in general his arguments seem unfair. Where Sgam po pa says:
"The excellent odor of the six excellent medicinal crops pervades. For
every face of the moon 25 kinds of seed ripen. A variety of seed types fills the
earth ground. [Fori butter, there exist many trees, fruits, and fields [of
rapeseedl oil. One fru it satisfies seven men... " Rdo bis laughs, " Ha ha! Where is
the learned scholar w h o does not throw up at these verses."
liv in g in Spo bo, Rdo bis says, deny that any such fru it exists.
Even people
234
Ibid, pg.458... gang can bod kyi lh o n u b rg ya bod m tsham s/ gzugz can
gang phyin lus la bzang ngan m e d / gnas der 'g ro 'd o d gam pa bdun bor n a /
shi bar gyur kyang gnas der nhes par skye/ zhes sm ras/ ha h a / 'd i'i tshig
don gyi m am 'g y u r la ltos dang skyug pa mi tshor ba'i mkhas pa su y o d /
... gom pa gang nas drug gi bar gyis ci byed dang/ shi tshad der skye la
khyad yod med d a n g / bde can mngon dga' sogs dag ma dag gi zhing gzhan
du skye ba yod med d a n g / bar d o r 'da' ba sogs yod med gros m ol m dzad na
legs.
233 ibid, pg.457... yul de'i m i m am s phal cher gtum p o 'i rang b z h in / sprel slog
gyon zhing gri rin g thogs nas kh yi dang spre'u sogs rol du k h rid de dbus
gtsang ru b zh i'i phyogs su tshom bu tshom bur 'p h rog bcom btsan dbang
sdang sdug rgyun par gtong bar yin gshis rgyal dbang bcu gsum pa'i skabs
dga' ldan pho brang pa i dpung 'ju g gis zil 'og tu mnan cing dbang du bsdus
par b rte n /.
234
Ibid, pg.459... shing thog bzang drug sman gyi d ri bzang k h y a b / zla ngo
re la 'bru rigs nyer Inga tshang/ 'bru yi rigs ni bye brag sa gzhi gang/ m ar ni
shing 'bras snum zhing m ang po y o d / shing thog re yis m i bdun 'grang ba
y o d / ... shin tu snum pa'i shing 'bras kyi m ar da ng / g rig gis m i bdun 'grang
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168
Rdo h s ' inform ants obviously never travelled far enough in to Padma
bkod , otherwise they w ou ld have noticed that the climates of Spo bo and
Padma bkod are very different. In Padma bkod one enters a tropical cloud
forest boasting many species of plants and animals not found in Spq such as
banana trees, the fru it of w hich could easily satisfy seven people In fact, the
Chinese were thinking of creating a huge banana plantation there in the 70s,
but the idea was abandoned because it was too difficult to transport the
bananas out of this region.
Further along, when Sgam po pa says, "D a y and night are filled w ith
rainbow and light," Rdo bis sarcastically interjects, "... is there no darkness?...
225
unecessary, then what is the [purpose of] self-sowing crops, and the tw e n tyfive [types of seed] bloom ing every month?
236
"w herever one goes one finds m arks of enlightened realization," Rdo b s
retorts that the only thing people in this region have realized is how to ro b
others.^
ba'I shing thog gnyis kyang spo bo'i yul m i d a ng / der song ba'i mi m tha' yas
pa yod pa gnyis ka la d ris n a 'phral du thag ch o d /.
Ib d , pg.460... nyin mtshan thams cad 'ja' dang 'od kyis gang/ /m u n pa
med d a m / ... tshigs 'd i 'd ra o rg ya n chen po lta bu'i mkhas pas gsung e s rid /
glen pa bdag gis kyang rm i lam du yang m i smra o /.
ib d ... bza' b u n g mi dgos rgas med lang tsho rgyas/ /bza' b u n g m i dgos
n a / 'bru rigs kyis sa gang pa d a n g / zla ngo re la nyer Inga re thang bas ci cig
bgyi /
Ibd... kha ru song tshad grub rtags nges par skye/ / ze r/ 'd i yang skal ba
bzang/ spo mi mams la rku 'p h rog sogs k y i grub rtags yongs grags la yod
pa... /.
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169
These examples suffice to convey Rdo bis' general tone Sgam po pa's
m ystically inspired com position is designed to inspire and attract on several
levels. But Rdo bis seems intent on denying his opponent any such latitude He
takes Sgam po pa's poetic visions and slams them w ith a kind of hard-nosed
realism, w hich may seem somewhat ungenerous. In doing so, he calls to m ind
Sa skya Pandita, w h o back in the 13th century accused certain Bri g u n g yogins
of confusing the discourse of poets and scholars when
identifying the
the dragon, the three districts of Western Tibet w ill have been conquered, and
in the year of the horse the w o rld w ill be bereft of joy and happiness.
Rdo bis exhorts his readers to look back at the dragon year of 1952 and
the horse year of 1954 and see whether they were bad years. Quite to the
contrary, Rdo bis says, these were auspicious years, when output in the
pastures
and
farms
experienced
unprecedented
grow th
by
means
of
Production Brigades (m thun sgril thon skyed) operating under the guidance
of the People's Governm ent (mi dmang srid gzhung).
235 Ibid,461.
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170
He reassures his Tibetan audience, saying that even if there have been
wars in the past, these have been wars of liberation, necessary wars to secure
fu tu re prosperity and destroy im perialism and the policies of Chiang Kai shek.
But now, in this period of 'post-liberation', Rdo bis says, a new China has come
in to being, depending on the Com m unist Party, The Peoples Government, and
the Leadership of Chairman Mao, w h ile the various ethnic m inorities connect
23q
to it "lik e fingers on an iron fist" (Icags kyi khu tshur Ita bu).
offers his ow n prophecy, saying that in the fu tu re dragon year: 1963, and the
horse year, 1965, he is confident that Tibet w ill be enjoying trem endous
prosperity under a true socialist utopia.
Rdo bis' prophecies, of course, did not come tru e He soon became an
outspoken critic of the Chinese policy tow ards m inorities and was arrested.
D unng the Cultural Revolution, he was put in jail where he died in 1968.
What remains to be understood, however, is the kind of role Rdo bis
reserved for Buddhism in his imagined socialist society. If society had to be
reformed,
aspects,
those
apocryphal
prophecies
and
spurious
pilgrim age
other hand, a pilgrim age to a place like Padma bkod , and most pilgrim ages in
Tibet fo r that matter, were tra d itio n a lly lay affairs, and it was also in the lay
population that prophecies and guidebook literature circulated. The spiritual
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171
merits of such practices was already suspect for a Socialist ideologue lik e Rdo
bis, for they tied in w ith the w h o le issue of re d istributing wealth and the
dism antling the foundations of the lay religious aristocracy.
For Rdo bis, the hidden-land, in its exclusive ordering of sacred space,
reflected just the kind of hierarchy he wished to eradicate in Tibetan society.
The real nature of Padma
pho
brang in Padma
bkod.
Ib d ,464.
240
Sbas yul, 202.5... jo bo sha kya len ma bcu gsum d a n g / rtsa ri rong skor
gcig dang m n y a m / (203) rtsa ri rang skor bcu gsum dang padm a shri m tha'
bskor gcig dang m n y a m / padm a shri m tha bskor bcu gsum d a n g / rd o r
sems pho brang rtse bskor gcig dang m n ya m /
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172
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173
Succumbing to the
hardships of the physical journey, the party continued further south, settling in
Tuting under Indian jurisdiction.
A year later in 1957, Lha brdong Sprul sku, another disciple of Rje drung,
travelled
from
N orthern
Padma
bkod
w ith
seven
households
to
uninhabited valley south of the m ountain Kun dus rdors sems pho brang.
an
In
these fertile valleys, they herded yaks and cows and successfully cultivated
barley. A fte r three years they were spotted by an Indian helicopter gunship on
border patrol. Indian commandos were sent up to relocate the Tibetans.241
Today m any parts of Padma bkod remain unexplored. Many Tibetans
believe that the tim e to open the 'innerm ost secret place' of the hidden-land has
not yet come. Access to this area remains difficult, for on either side tw o of
.Asia's most pow erful armies confront each other in a border dispute As a
hidden-land, some w ou ld argue, Padma
located.
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174
Concluding Th o u g h ts:
Unlike
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175
hope and even delusion, fo r yogi's like Rgod Idem can the outer journey to
these sacred lands was a m ethod of spiritual attainment. The quest fo r these
hidden-lands repeated itself, precisely because they were attainable on some
level.
Whether they existed as a physical, verifiable scientific reality did not
matter, for they justified a 'quest' sym bolizing the attainm ent of som ething
much larger in scope The hidden-land was not only a place to go at the end of
time, but also a place to go to end ones lim ited conventional m ind - an
anachronistic journey back in to the legendary pitha and smasana of Indian
Tantric lore, places w here the true vision of the Tantras could be preserved,
and could heal the existential rift between outer and inner space
For Rgod Idem can and those Treasure finders w h o travelled in his
footsteps, these sacred lands were more than just places to hide from invading
armies, they were also a testing ground for Buddhism as a 'tam ing' force, the
focus of an archetypal encounter between
'barbaric' tribal periphery, a place where some Tibetans w ent to exorcize their
own inner demons, a pilgrim age in to the Tibetan 'heart of darkness'.
As Bishop observes, certain types of sacred places "induce a sense of both
serenity and terror. Such places are terrible, yet also fascinating. C ontem porary
use of the term 'sacred place, frequently lacks such paradox, too often sacred
places are imagined m erely as benign places for healing and contemplation. But
as w e shall see in the case of Tibet, once paradox has been too easily resolved,
contradiction replaced by harm ony am biguity by certainty; once fear and
darkness have yielded to unequivocal hope, then the sacred place has become a
utopia. A w hole new set of fantasies is then m obilized."
242
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176
What Bishop observes about the place of Tibet in western rom antic
im agination holds even more true for Tibet's own discourse w ith sacred places,
landscapes that were inextricably bound by both te rro r and beauty. Take fo r
example, this line from Sle lung Bzhad pa'i rd o rje, w h o made a pilgrim age to
Padma bkod in 1729:
dances and
instrum ents come forth, and the spontaneous sound of the secret
mantras rolls on."
243
What makes these lim inal places particularly valuable fo r spiritual progess
is the w ay they force the m ind to go beyond the extremes of hope and fear.
They act as sublim e gateways between the h o rrific and the beautiful; they are
paradoxical landscapes that heal the dichotom y of self and other as incarnated
in the ideal of the Tantric 'charnel ground'. As such these places become a
perfect foil to our inner condition that combines the peaceful and the w rathful.
Tantras such as the Z h i khr o teach that the p o la rity between the h o rrific
and the beautiful is our intrinsic condition - represented by the assemblies of
peaceful and w ra th fu l deities residing respectively in the heart and the mind.
243
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177
reborn
of a
transcendental paradise
But the Vajrayana takes us through a different order of sacred space, one
that radically removes the distinction between the self and the physical w orld.
In thepitha and smaSana the human passions are no longer seen as poisons but
as intrinsically uncorrupted energy. The landscapes of the th ird yana invoke the
pure invig o ratin g force behind India's h o rrific charnel grounds and w ild
aboriginal forests, suggesting that bliss and pain, hope and fear, are no longer
exclusive poles of experience but of one taste The passage through these
hidden-lands
- where
the
geographic
extremes
of
deep
gorges,
high
mountains, tropical forests and glaciers have attained a subtle harm ony promises to resolve the p o la rity of existence
The journey in to the hidden-lands was not only m otivated by a naive faith
in w hat could not be seen. For the yogis it was an attem pt to trigger a
sympathetic resonance between the inner psychic anatomy and the pure
elements of a physical landscape to trigger a prim al vision of bliss and
emptiness. As the m aroon-com plexioned dakini-s rem inded Rig 'dzin Rgod
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178
Idem, the journey in to his ow n 'vajrabody' was m ore im p o rta n t than chasing
around after the great sacred places.
But, fo r Tibetan yogis w h o wandered and m editated in the mountains
surrounding Tibet, the sym bolism of the sacred place as a threshold between
w orlds also became a response to political crisis. Tibet's rem ote m ountain
sanctuaries were not just places to hide, but also became ideal places fro m
where to look back onto Central Tibet and propose an alternative to a
degenerating feudal society.
W hile the quest for these sacred lent tended itself to the inner Tantric
sadhana. this internal process became a dynam ic act in Tibet, in times of
spintual degeneration,
feat
of
compassion
to
extenorize this inner journey and lead his flock in to a Tantric 'dream tim e' - a
creative act that had no precedence in Indian Buddhism.
O utw ardly these hidden-lands turned back the onslaught of armies and
in w a rd ly they banished the socio-political preoccupations, w hich disrupted the
m editative life Once these sacred lands were opened, invasion had no pow er
over you; physically you were surrounded by snow m ountains and intractable
cliffs representing a natural fortress to hide in, but in w a rd ly they represented
the full flo w e rin g of the hum an heart - leaving no scope fo r armies to arise
even as ideas.
W hile critics argued that this Tantric wilderness was to be reserved only
for heroes (vtra) and sky-walkers (dakini), for Rgod Idem the quest became a
skillful means to reorient society away from a w o rld plagued by aggression
and diversiveness. The Mongol armies and the like became the external
reflections of the inner armies: the five poisons of anger, greed, jealousy, lust
and ignorance, w hich afflicted all classes of Tibetan society.
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179
There are parallels h e re w ith the development of the rom antic wilderness
aesthetic in the West. W hile the circumstances of the industrial age and the rise
of machines were quite different, the inner psychology was not dissimilar. As
the forces of change in Tibetan society reached a critical mass the untamed
suddenly became a source of hope, a m etaphor fo r a deeper search.
The visionary Treasure finders w h o promoted this nature mysticism w ere
criticized by their m ore rational-m inded peers, w h o challenged them to reveal
their paradises where o rdinary eyes could only see rocks and ice But this was
not the first tim e pure-vision' was criticized in Tibet. The Guru's hidden
paradises were in part a physical, verifiable reality - but m ore im portantly,
they were a choice to see things in a new way. As such, the hidden-lands came
to sym bolize something larger than the physical geography they comprised;
they were a skillful means to redirect vision away from a corrupt and violent
w o rld by using a pristine natural landscape as the support. To conclude o u r
journey through these fantastic landscapes, let us contemplate a song by the
contem porary Tibetan master Bya bral Sangs rgyas rd o rje praising the hidden244
244
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180
Like the verdant heights of [ Rltsa ri, undestroyed by the 'fin a l war',
245
The Translator Ra, M i la, Rgod tshang, these three and cither Tibetans , M
245
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181
not just a few, but m any practitioners of the New and Old lineages,
relying on the the ascetic diet of nettles and mushrooms,
realize the Great Perfection because of the emptiness of the M idd le w ay of
Ground and Path.
This m elodious song of praise, quasi verse mixed w ith prose,
is offered from the d elightful inner valley of the m other Jo mo.
Buddha Bya bral's pronouncement of wonder!
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182
A ppendix 1
(lb ) slob d p o n padm a byung gnas kyis bsam yas 'chims phu'i brag phug
tu ting nge 'dzin la bzhugs pas %
yas su gdan drangs nas tshogs brgya rtsa m dzad pa'i dus su %
spyir ma 'ongs
pa'i lung bstan mang du zhus % khyad par sbas pa'i yul gyi lam yig zhus pa %
kye slob dpon chen po lags %
kha ba can gyi sems can m am s sbas pa'i yul du 'gro 'tshal na phyi'i rtags ji ltar
mchi ces zhus so %
bka' stsal pa %
khyad
rgyal po nyid la
sogs pa rgyal po byang chub sems ldan gsum gyis bzhengs pa'i lha khang gi
mchod pa 'chag phal cher zhig ral du song %
gtsug lag khang phyed zhig % mchod pa 'bul ba rgyun chad 'on chang rdo'i sa
phyogs su sprul pa'i rgyal po g rig gis da ste gdung rabs gnyis nas lha khang
bzhengs par 'g yu r ro %
du stongs par 'gyur % de nas phyi yul gyi rtags dang sbyar te bas pai yul du
'gro ran pa'i rtags so % nang rtags bod du rnnga' bdag rgyal po 'i rnnga' thang
nyams nas khrim s 'jig % bod la khrim s med (2b) lo brgya dang nyi shu rtsa
gsum yong %
dang nyi shu rtsa Inga yong % de nas hor khrim s 'jig %
h o r khrim s lo brgya
de'i dus su bod sbas
pa'i yul du 'gro dgos ces gsungs so % yang zhus pa % kye slob dpon chen po
lags % sbas pa'i yul du bdag cag bod kyi rje dbangs m am s 'gro dgos par gda'
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183
ba %
de'i dus su sbas pa'i yul mams nges par m yed dam mi myed lags %
'gyur lags % ces zhus pas % bka' stsal pa % rnnga' bdag rgyal po gsan d g %
khyed bod kyi mi khong bcol chung pas ji lta r bstan kyang m thong dus med %
ji ltar bshad kyang go dus med % ji lta r bskul y a n g 'g ro dus med %
spyir du
bod srin po sha lings kyis non pa gshin phal cher gsod par 'gyur ro %
Inga
brgya tha ma'i dus na dang po mi m go bran gyis byed pa lo brgya dang nyi
shu rtsa Inga yong %
de'i dus
'bros ran % sbas pa'i yul du 'gro ba la chos skyong pa'i rgyal po g dg dgos te %
(3a) rgyal po bshan (shan) pa nag pos byed pa'i dbang gis % ru nga chags
sdang gi m tsho brdol bas sbas pa'i yul 'g ro ba'i bskul ma dge byed kyis byed
de % dge byed sdig byed kyis 'khol % lam sna chos byed kyis byed de % chos
byed yal ga las smod % lam brgyags bzang po dgos te chos byed 'b yo r pas
'phongs % sa 'p h ru l ma 'kh ru l brtag dgos te col chung po ti ta 'k h o r % bod du
dang po bdud kyi bu go rta nag po bya ba 'byung % de'i dus o skol yon mchod
kyis bzhag pa'i ma 'ongs lung bstan mams gter kha mang po nas rim gyis
myed par 'g y u r % de'i dbang gis bod sbas pa'i yul du 'g ro ba'i bio skye % kun
kha skyengs par 'g y u r ro % de nas hor khrim s zhig nas bod nang 'khrug byed
% srid le'ur 'th o r % gong gsum du jag pa gcer thabs byed pas dge byed kyis
lam mi shogs % bod sbas pa'i yul dran pa mams 'jigs shing kyi gya' ste snying
stobs kyis 'g ro m i nus % de'i dus nas dge byed re re tsam gyis sbas pa'i yul
tshol ba'i 'dun pa drag po dang % tshol ba'i dka' spyad drag po byas pas bod la
bde skyid lo (3b) 'ga' 'byung % bod m am s de'i bde skyid la zhen pa'i sems
dang % ru nga phrag dog gi dbang gis dge byed sbas pa'i yul 'tshol ba la smod
cin g y a ga sgrog pa 'byung % de'i tshe dge byed m am s yi chad pas zhum ste
dge ba m thar m i 'don % de'i tshe bdud dga' rab dbang phyug gis % ri rab kyi
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184
rtse nas phyogs bzhir bltas pas % p h yir nag po'i phyogs kha rgyal nas bdud
brod pa skyed % lh o phyogs 'dzam bu'i gling pa sha'kya'i bstan pa nya ba'i sa
m thong pas % bdud snying dga' % de'i dus na rgya gar rd o rje gdan du ru
khas 'dzin pas bdud mtshon cha'i me tog 'th o r % bod kha ba can gyi yul du
bstan pa'i lhag ma dar la ma smin pa'i dus 'ongs te % bdud kyi rgyal po des ri
rab kyi steng nas dug mda' bdun bod la 'phen te % de la lo zad zla zad nyi zla'i
mdangs 'dzam bu'i gling la med p a 'i tshe 'phangs pas % phyi rtags su ni m kha'
la me 'od lam lam pa 'ong % nang rtags su sde dpon dang % dm ag dpon dang
% gtso bo dang % 'jig rten gyi las stobs che ba mams la bsod byed kyi dug
'phangs pas % bio bur du zhe (4a)
'kh ru g ram ram pa skye % de'i rjes su gcig gis gcig gsod % gcig gis gcig brlag
par joms so % mkhan po slob dpon ston pa stobs che ba m am s la smyod byed
dug m da' phog pas % bio bur du snying mi dga' ba dang % snying drang lhang
lhang pa 'ong % de'i dus su chos byed la sems zhugs te % gcig gis gcig smod %
chos bor nas 'jig rten gyi las la 'ju g % nyams len bar nas tshig la Itos % gos ser
m o gon pas yul phyed khengs % ston pa'i bka' bzhin sa re re tsam % 'kh ru g
byed kyi dug blon po dang gros byed la phog pas % shes pa rtsi phun pa bio
bur du skye % de'i rjes su bio phrul khong skyon che bar 'dod pas pha rol la
mi smra ba'i gtan tshur smra % tshur rol mi 'dod pa'i gros bar slob % bod nang
'kh u g ('khrug) la zing 'g ro m am char Ito ba'i dug shar po la phog ste % bod kyi
chos pa dang mi chos pa 'b rin g po thams cad la kha sngal khyog khyog pa Ito
ba tsha chil chil ba b io bur du 'b yu n g % de'i dus su thams cad la zas skom gyi
'd u shes 'd o d sred langs (4b) te p h u 'i ri dags (dvags) m gon % m d a 'i nya 'd zin %
rang gi phyugs 'og tu bcug ste gsod nus % sha dm ar po za % khrag dm ar po
'th u n g % lpags pa dm ar po 'dings % dus tha m ar pha sha za ba 'byung ngo %
gyo byed kyi dug bud med la phog ste bio bur du shes pa rtsi ru m 'ong % de'i
rjes su phra ma mang po smra ste pha dang bu 'th a b tu 'ju g % yu l m i nang
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185
'thab7c dpon dang gyog 'khon % pha spun nang sme byed pa gcig 'ong % las
log bio rgyugs kyi m da' bio ngan la phog nas b io bur du m gam sems hab
k h yu r ba skye % de'i tshe bio bur du m i gsod nor 'khyer 7o chos gos kyi 'og
nas gri 'dzugs % bud med gri ru mchi % dbugs ma chad par 'bal dang m g o
gdungs byed % gson po sa rdibs su skungs pa gcig 'ong % srog gcod tshe
'phrog gi bdud dge ba'i bshes gnyen chos byed dang 7c sde dpon ya rabs la
phog ste dge byed la b io bur du snying tsha stong stongs pa 'ong % de'i dud su
dge ba'i rtsa ba ci yod pa m thar m i than par mchi 7c de lta r bdud kyi dug mda'
bdun bod la phog pa dang % bye (5a) bran khras khyer ba lta r % bod kyi bsam
pa phyogs gcig tu mi 'd ril bar cig (gcig) la gcig rtsod % gcig la gcig sgol zhing
'khrugs pas 7c m i lo sum cu bar gnas so % de'i dus na dge byed byang chub kyi
sems dang ldan pa 7c snying rus lus stobs che ba 7c 'k h o r dang yo byad ldan pa
7c thabs dang rten brel mkhas pas lam rtsal (btsal) yul bzung na sbas pa'i yul
thams cad zin no 7c bod kyi mi thams cad m tha' dmag dang du ru kas briag
cing gsod par m i nus so % bod la bdud kyi dug m da 'phogs pa'i rkyen gyis
bzang lan ngan gyis mjal 7c dge sdig pas sgrub % de'i dbang gis dge byed
thams cad yi m ug sgyid lug shal nas 'g ro 7o m do khams kyi yul na sbas pa'i yul
gsum 7c gtsang gi yul phyogs na sbas pa'i yul brgyad 7c rnnga' ris kyi sa na
sbas pa'i yul gnyis yod de7o phal c h e ry id smod las lag tu m i Ion % m thar bod
la sbas pai yul du bsgrod pa'i skal pa med pas sangs rgyas kyi yul (5b) dang
'dra 7c thos lo tsam las m thong par m i 'g y u r ro 7c 'on kyang nga dang rgyal p o
nyid kyis sems rtse gcig tu dril ba'i mon lam gyis bod kyi sbas yul mi m yed
ljong bzhi dang rong gsum du dge byed phal bar ro (phal cher thar) 70 dbus
phyogs kyi sbas yul gcig blon po bai ro tsa nai sprul pa gcig gis 'byed 7c ro n g
kha ru chos byed pa phal cher thar 7o gtsang du khams pa m i gsum gyi sprul
pa gcig gis sbas yul 'byed 70 a tsa ra dznya na'i sprul pa gcig gis stod du sbas
yul gcig 'byed 7c rong bdun du chos byed pa phal cher thar 70 rnnga' rigs (ris)
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186
kyi sbas yul mi phyed % rong la 'ga' re thar de la ma thar ba mams hor kh rim s
zhig nas lo sum cu song ba dang smad nas dm ag sde chen po dgu % bdud kyi
pho nya nyi shu rtsa gcig stod nas m y u r mgyogs kyi bshan pa lag Inga %
dmag sde chen po gsum m i lo drug cu'i bar du brdol te % bod srin po sha lings
kyis non pa bzhin je sdug la 'g ro m th a r yul khams me yis tshig pa behin brlag
par 'g yu r ro % rigs gsum mgon po'i byin rlabs kyis (6a) bsam yas dang 'phrul
snang gi ri la sa bon tsam gcig las % p h y ir bod thams cad bio bo pu rengs
mtshams nas rgya nag po'i bar du kun brlag par byed d o % sems can las kyi
dbang gis kun gsod par 'g y u r te % bod snying re rje % bod kyi sems can
snying re rje % bdud kyi dbang du g yu r pas lan % phran dog rlu n g lta r 'tshub
pas lan % dus kyi m tha' la thug pas lan % nga y i bka' la nyan pa na % lo nur zla
n u r bsrung thabs yod % lo skor gsum du bzlog thabs yod % yod kyang chos
byed yid smon tsam % log Ita can m am s ngan song rgyu % dus ngan de yi
sems can mams % snying re rje ste rang gis lan % nga la log lta byed pa dang
% nyi zla rg ya b kyis phyogs pa dang % srog thag chad pa'i sems can m am s %
shing sdong me yis tshig pa bzhin % 'd i ru dge bas mi 'dogs te % phyi ma brtso
bsreg ya re nga % nga yi bka la nyan pa m am s % bio can mams kyis sbas yul
tshol % byams sems can gyis bsrung 'k h o r bsgoms % dge stobs can gyis bdud
dmag bzlog % de yi (6b) thabs dang mi ldan na % di ra rdza zom nags kyi
phug % brag rong nags rong dben pa ru % 'jig rten 'di la ma chags par % rtse
gcig byang chub sgrub pa gyis % tshe 'd ir bdud kyis mi gsod cing % phyi ma
rgyal bai zhing du thar % gsod gcod las la m i brtson na % bdud kyi dmag gis
gsod mi 'g y u r % sha khrag zas su mi za na % bdag la gzhan gyis mtshon m i
'phog % de p h y ir nga yi bka' la nyan % ces gsungs so % yang zhus pa % kyai
slob dpon chen po lags % Inga brgya tha mai dus bod kha ba can pa la bdud
kyi dug mda' bsrung ba'i thabs bstan du gsol % sbas yul nges par m yed pa'i
thabs bstan du gsol % ces zhus so % bka' stsal pa % rgyal po legs par gsan rig
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187
% bdud kyi dug m da'i bsrung pa la p h yii yul gsum % nang gi rdzas gsum %
gsang ba'i tm g nge 'dzin gsum % drag po'i sngags gsum % bca' ba'i khor lo
(khrul 'khor) gsum dgos so % dang po p h y i'i yul gsum ni % byang chub kyi
sems (7a) dang ldan pas bzhengs pa'i lha khang gsum dang % sngon byin gyis
rlabs pa'i bsgrub gnas su 'gro (ba dang) 'd u g pa'i dus na % gdugs sam zha'i
bum pa la u shni sha'i sngags bris pa dang ma bral na bdud kyi dug m da mi
'phog go % tin g nge 'dzin rang gi dam gyi lha dang % byang chub kyi sems
dang 7c m i dm igs pa'i tin g nge 'd z in gsum gang rung re dang ma bral na bdud
kyi dug mda' mi 'phog % nang gi rdzas ni 7c sgrub pa'i sman 70 de bzhin
gshegs pa'i ring bsrel % sngon grub pa th o b pa'i d kyil 'k h o r gyi rdzas bcangs
pas dug mda' mi 'phog 7c drag po'i sngags gsum ni % rd o rje rder m o'i sngags
7C gtsug gtor 'k h o r los bsgyur ba'i sngags 70 rd o rje go khrab kyi sngags %
dgongs kha g rib so gnag song nas bza' skar gyi skrag ma thon gyi bar bzlas
pas dug m da' mi 'phog % bca' ba'i khor lo (khrul 'khor) gsum ni 7o rdo rje
d kyil dkrungs % kh ro bo'i stang stabs 70 phyag dang bskor ba byed pa'i lus
gnad la dug mda' m i 'phog go 7c dge byed nga'i bka' la nyan pa (7b) mams 7o
bsrung ba'i p h y ir gnam lcags thog gi gur zhes bya ba shog ring (ril) dang po'i
nang na yod pas Itos shig 7o d e lta r bdud kyi dug mda' ma phog pa'i gang zag
la sbas yul gyi lde m ig gnas chen bsgrod pa'i thabs bstan gyis 70 de yang bod
na gnas chen po gsum yod 7c lde m ig byang bu bdun bdun dgos so 7o gnas bar
ba bcu gsum yod de 7c b y a n g bu gsum gsum dgos 7o gnas phran bu bdun yod
pas byang bu re res chog go 7o de yang tshe tshad bdun cu kha ral nas drug cu
kha ral la siebpa'i bar la gter kha chen po bdun sprul pai gang zag bdun gyis
myed par 'g y u r % de mams gung sgrigs la sbas pa'i yul du song zhig 7c gu ge'i
khugs (khyung) lung brag dkar nas 7c m do khams klong thang sgron ma yan
chad kyi lh o 'i rgyud la sbas pa'i yul nyi shu rtsa gnyis 7c byang gi rgyud la sbas
pa'i yul gsum yod 7o de'i nang nas che ba'i yul gsum ni 7o shar na rtsa ri 7c Iho
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188
R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
189
ni ku thang skyid kyi phug rta m grin la nus pa than pa gcig gis m yed do % de
yang gtsang bkra thum nas 'byung ngo % yol m o gangs kyi ra ba ni % rig
'dzin bla ma'i bsnyed pa rdzogs pa gcig gis m yed do % de'ang gtsang bkra
thum gyi n ub nas 'byung ngo % sman sha khum bu'i rong che mchog ma m o'i
bsnyed pa rdzogs pa gcig gis m yed do % de yang byang th o yo r nag poi yul
nas 'byung ngo % bud kyi mkhan pa lung rd o rje m am 'jom s la bsnyen pa
rdzogs pa gcig gis m yed do % de yang ru lag rgyang ni nub phyogs nas
'byung ngo % sbas yul ding mo ni jam dpal gshin rje gshed la bsnyen pa
rdzogs pa gcig gis m yed d o % de yang n ying ro i phyogs nas 'ong % lh o brag
rgyal gi mkhan pa lung ni % he ru ka'i bsnyen pa rdzogs pa gcig gis m yed do
% de yang beam yas kyi phyogs nas 'byung % sbas pa'i yul de mams bod la
gees pai p h y ir % sbas pa'i yul thams cad kyi rgyal po 'bras m o gshongs (9b)
sgo 'byed pa'i gang zag tshe lo drug cu kha ral nas Inga bcu kha ral gyi bar
bdun n m par 'byung % rtsa ri la gsum 'b yu ng % la phyi gangs kyi ra ba la
gnyis 'byung % yol m o gangs kyi ra ba la gsum 'b yu ng % sku thang skyid kyi
yul gnyis 'b yu ng % gzhan mams la re re 'byung % de mams dang 'phrad na
sbas pa'i yul m yed % ma 'phrad na sgo 'gag par 'g y u r ro % dus tha ma'i sems
can bsod mams chung bas lung dang man ngag 'dzom s pa dka' % gnas chen
phal cher m yed par mi 'g y u r % bdag dang rgyal po'i sman lam gyis gnas gsum
stod smad bar gsum gyi dge byed skyod pa'i p h y ir nges par m yed par 'g y u r
ro % ces gsungs so % yang zhus pa % kye slob dpon chen po lags % stod smad
bar gsum la gees pa'i gnas gsum po 'tshol ba'i thabs bstan du gsol ces zhus so
7C bka' stsal pa % rgyal po gson rig 70 tshe lo drug cu kha ral nas Inga bcu kha
ral gyi bar la lun g bstan mang po yod de % gnas kyi khungs brjod pa dang 70
phyogs mtshon pa dang % dang pa 'dren pa las (10a) gnas bsgrod pa dang
m yed pa mi 'b yu ng % tshe tshad Inga bcu la sleb pa dang bod kha ba can du
ngas byin gyis brlabs pa'i gang zag 'jig rten gyi yul la yid m i chags pa % skad
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190
mi rtag pa'i sgrar smra ba bya ba nges med spyod pa gcig gis sbas yu l thams
cad 'byed par 'g y u r ro % gdul bya dus la bab na gtsang tshong 'dus gur m o
nas spra dum gyi bar gyi bod dang mon gyi mtshams na sbas pa'i yu l chen po
gsum % chung pa yul phran bdun pa phye d g % dus m thar thug na gang b io
'ju g pa'i thad so la song la sbas yul gcig gis phye % de dus na bod kyi bsod
nams nyams pas chos byed tsho bas 'phongs % bdud kha langs (rlangs) pas
rdzun dang zog pos mi 'd u l ba yang % chos byed nga yis byin gyis brlabs pa'i
mi mams rgyu la zog med pas shes pa drang por yongs % rdzun dang zog
med pas bio drang por spyod % de'i dus su chos byed la chos log byed pas
lung bstan lung log gis bsgrub % bka' lung dri ma med pa nyon mongs pa'i
chags sdang gis 'gegs % dge byed y o (10b) byad kyis 'phongs % sbas pa'i yul
m thar mi phyin pa yang % de'i dus na nga'i lung bstan thob pa'i gang zag
mams dang po bar chad dul ba gal che gsungs % 'jam dpal gshin rje dang %
rd o rje phur pa khrag 'th u n g he ru ka gang (rung) gi bsnyen pa rdzogs par
gyis 7c de nas snang ba dbang du bsdu ba dang srid pa'i m kha' 'g ro bskang ba'i
p h y ir 7C rta m grin dang tshe mchog ma m o'i bsgrub pa gyis % nga'i gter kha
gnyis la mchog dang thun m ong gi bsgrub pa tshang bar yod pas gang la gang
dgos spyod % de nas chos byed 'tsho bas 'phongs na Iho 'bras m o gshongs
tshol ba'i dus su % gtsang tshang 'dus 'g u r m o'i Iho nub la nye ba na co ro srad
kyi yul yod 7o de'i skyed na u rgyan padm a 'byung gnas kyi sg ru bp h u g yod 7C
m ing m khar chen brag dkar zer % de na gser m dzo khal gcig yod pas thon 7C
tsha lo ro n g la lha khang 'd a m gru bzhi pa gcig behengs 7o 'bras m o gshongs
kyi bkul byang yi ge la th o b la zhog % gang m dzod Inga stag rtse'i ri rgyud
ma chad pa Iho bod kyi mtshams su lha (11a) khang brgyad brtsegs % dge
'd u n gyi sd e th o b7 0 'bras m o gshongs kyi lam chos 7c gnas kyi m th il du dben
khang brtsigs 7c shar nas m tha' dm ag lan gsum dbus gtsang gi gzhung la 'g rim
7c Iho kha tshur la mi yong pas 7c de'i dus bod kyi rkyen dbang gis nga dran pa
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191
yang pas dad pa dang phrin las bskul zhig % de'i phyi ma dbus gtsang thams
cad khyab pa'i her dmag sogs dus gcig la brdol nas bod yul bar la bras m o
gshongs su bros shig % bud dang khum bu la 'g ro bar 'd o d pa mams cang mas
lta bu'i brag gi lha khang yod % Iho nu b kyi thang po 'dom s pa bdun phyin pa
na gser bsam yas kyi bre gang dang % gyu bdun yod pas thon la bu le'i gangs
brag la lha khang brtsigs % bud kyi rong la dge 'dun gyi sde thob % sbas yul
gyi lam phyogs la phyi dang yol m o gangs la 'g ro ba mams % zang zang lha
brag gi shar na gser gzi'i dong pa gang dang th ig po ra'i mchin pa tsam zhig
yod pa thon % rgyal thang gi rong la lam khang tshugs % snya nam ( lib ) gyi
la ('gram) la dge 'dun gyi sde thob % sbas pa'i yul gyi lam chos % skyid m o
lung du 'g ro ba mams % sra thum gyi lha khang dbus m a'i sgo 'gram na mu
men gyi rdza ma gser bre dos bskang pa yod pas de thon la ku thang gi rong
la gnas dang lam khang dus gcig la thob% de lta r byas pas gtsang gi phyogs su
lo bskor gcig bde skyid yong % m thar chos byed dang mi nag pa bsam pa dkar
ba mams kyi srog thar ro % yang ti se gangs kyi shar Iho na % 'dzeng rd o dkar
po gyag tsam gcig yod % de'i n u b n a gser th ig po lag pa tsam bcu gsum yod %
chos byed phongs na thon te ti se la lam khang tshugs % gangs ri de'i n ub
phyogs kyi gangs yod kyi mtshams nas phyogs nub tu bltas pas gangs ri lha'i
khrom tshogs pa 'dra ba gcig yod % der dus tha ma la thug dus chos byed sum
brgya thar pa'i rdzong yod % 'tsho ba'i zhing yod pas stod kyi chos byed la
lam ston cig % dbus kyi sbas yul bzung lugs ni % shar rtsa ri gangs kyi ra ba
dge byed kyis bskor % nags rong phugs bzang pas bsgrod sla % dags p o 'i (12a)
bka ma lung du dge 'd u n gyi sde thob 'g ro don stobs che'o % chos byed 'tsho
bas 'phongs na yer pa'i brag phug shar m a'i logs la rin po che sna lnga'i bum
pa sog po'i skye regs gser phye ma bre phyed % gyu m ing can bcu % gyu
phran dong pa gang yod pas than % 'g ro ba'i lam byang ni 'bras m o gshongs
dang m thun pas gyis shig % bsam yas brag dm ar gyi m dun na pa bong rgya
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192
shog sgril ba 'dra ba gcig yod % de'i 'og na bse dm ar po'i sa ru (ga'u) gcig yod
% de na rdzi dug yod pas ra tshil gyi byug pa gyis la dben par zhog % de'i brag
rd o dkar po bre 'dra ba gcig yod % de gsal (bsal) ba'i 'og na ti tsha'i bum pa
gcig na gser bsam yas kyi khal gcig gis bskang pa yod pas % 'chims pu la dge
'd u n gyi lam khang gyis % Iho brag m khar chui rong la gnas th o b % de'i gting
du m tha' dmag m i yong % dus phyi ma la gter de mams thon la bsam yas kyi
zhig hsos gyis 70 bre gsum gyis chos byed kyi 'tsho ba gyis la rong la bros rig
% bod thams cad (12b) Iho rong la 'g ro ba'i dus na rdzi dug gi ga'u bsam yas
kyi sgo la zhog rig % de'ang bsam yas gogs pa dang bod la nang khrug yo n g
% dbu rtseri gsum dang lha sa 'p h ru l snang la zhig ral dang 'd g ra 'i gnod pa ma
byung na bod gting nas brlag par m i 'g yu r % de'i p h y ir m i sprel lo pa g rig gi
sna bug tu tsan ldan gyi gu blug % ra tshil gyis m go lus med par byugs % bsam
yas kyi them pa'i 'og na m ar bskos bse'i gau de'i nang du bzhag la kha phye
ste rang bros shig % gtsang jo m o kha rag gi dabs su lam khang tshugs % Iho
brag m khar chu la gnas th o b de m am s su thar ro % spyir bod thams cad ro n g
bzhi dang rdzong (Ijong) gsum la bros % dbus gtsang gnyis sbas yul dang Iho
kha tshar gyi yul la bros % byang m tha' (13a) regs la yod pa mams snying rus
che ba Iho rong du 'gros % der ma thar ba mams byang dang ra nas 'b ru 'i sa
bon khyer la star sgo gangs kyi byang thad na phar nyin lam gyi sar yul 'byed
du song g rig % star sgo'i gangs nas m i 'b rin g po'i zla gcig phyin pa'i sa na
gangs dkar po Icags ri'i thsul du 'k h o r yod % de'i gangs bar la so g rig byas nas
thar ro % dge byed kyi lam btsal na gangs de'i khog pa na byang 'bras m o
khud yod % de myed na bod kha ba can gyi yul na de bas dga' bai yul med do
% ma m yed kyang gangs brag la mi yongs kyis bros % dang ra nas byang
smad rgyal m o'i smug dong yan chad kyi mi phyugs ni thog ma la bdud dm ag
gis gsod % ti se nas dang ra 'i bar gyi byang rgyud ni phyis stod dmag gis gsod
% ba thag sha dung gi sgo m o yan chad nas rgya nag po'i bar gyi yu l dbus k y i
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193
rgyud thams cad sdug zad la song ngo 'jom s so % pu rengs nas mi nyag 'ga'i
rong yan chad kyi Iho kha tshar la jag pa'i tshul gyis 'joms so % kye rgyal po
stod mang yul gung thang du rgyal po n yid kyi gdung brgyud gcig gri ru (13b)
bkum pa dang bod kyi sdug m go 'dzugs so % gnyis gri ru bkum pa dang bod
kyi phung m go 'dzugs so % gsum bkum pa dang bod kyi skyid pa zad pas
sbas yul dang Iho rong la bros shig % de'i dus su sbas pa'i yul du thar pa m am s
la bde skyid 'byung ngo % Iho rang du thar pa m am s bshis ngan du 'chi mi
dgos % de ma yin pai rang yul la brtag phyis byed pa dang % col chung ti ta
'kh o r ba dang % bio log bka' lung la 'gal bar byed pa mams du kha ri yis gnan
pa tsam % zug zer me 'obs su shar ba tsam cho nges brag ral ba tsam m yo n g
zhig kun gsod par 'g y u r ro % sog ma me yis tshig pa bzhin 'bras bu kun brlag
ste dmag des gsod pa thams cad dm yal khang nag por las kyis skye bar 'g y u r
ro % de lta bu'i dus su thams cad du kha non te nga dang sbas pa'i yul dran pa
gcig yong ste phyis so % nga la rtse gcig tu mos pa mams dm ag la phyis m ig
ma lta bar bros pas n ub li'i yul du thar % de'i gong du chos skyong ba'i rgyal
po'i khrim s zhig nas bod k h ri'u r 'th a r ba'i dus su 'bros ran te kun yul la chags
nas (14a) mi 'gro% de'i rjes su mu d u r nag po hor gyis 'dul de'i tshe bod sdig
sgrib kyis non nas m i 'bros so % de nas hor khrim s zhig bde srid 'th o r bas lam
bsgrod dka' ste 'bros ran no % de'i dus su nga'i bka' la nyan pa mams bros cig
% gong lta r lam khang dang rong sna'i m i dang m thun par gyis la bros shig %
de'i dus na bod la nga'i thugs rje dang bdud kyi dug mda' rtsal 'gran pa'i dus su
de'i lung bstan th o b pa'i gang zag la bdud kyis byin gyis brlabs pa thams cad
ya ga dang sgra (sgro) skur dang bar chad rtsam pa yong ste % ci la yang
skrag par ma byed par bros shig % de'i dus na dros (bros) na Iho 'dzam bu'i
gling na rgyal ba sha'kya th u b pa'i lung bstan gyi m do bdun yod de % so so
na 'bros ran pa'i dus su yang % bdud sdig can gyi lung nag p o bre dgu gyos
pas de'i dus na 'dzam bu'i gling na m tha dmag gis bskor ces pa'i lung gi dus so
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194
% de'i dus na lung bstan rgyal po'i m do las % sha' ri'i bu nyon cig % nga m ya
ngan las 'das nas rgyal poi gdung sob sgron me (14b) dang dra ba lan bdun
'byung % de'i phyi la Inga brgya phrag bcu'i tha ma 'char % de'i dus na nga'i
nyan thos 'kh o r fcehi po ri bo dan tig gi gling dang chu bo dan tig gi m go dang
% p h yi'i rgya m tsho'i do gling dang bse tha nags kyi rong la song cig % rgya
gar dang % u rgyan dang % kha che dang sing nga dang tsha la dang li 'i yul
dang sangs rgyas kyi bstan pa yod pa'i gnas thams cad Iho n u b rgya m tsho'i
do gling la song cig % byang phyogs kha ba can gyi yul du dus kyi tha ma la
bstan pa dar bar 'g y u r gyis % der yang rigs gsum mgon pos lung ston pa Inga
brgya snyigs ma la bod nas m tha' nags kyi rong la bros shig ces lung ston zhig
shod cig ces gsungs pas % thugs rje chen po'i byin rlabs kyis da lta nga nyid
kyis lung ston pa'o% de'i tshede'i dus na 'dzam bu'i glin g bod kha ba can gyi
m tha' bzhi dmag gis 'k h o r yong % nga yis lung bstan pa'i dus la ma bros na %
bod thabs thug pa dang m i thar te mtha' bzhi nas dmag ri stibs pa lta r yong
nges pa'i p h y ir ro % ces gsungs so % kye slob dpon chen (15a) po lags % de'i
tshe de'i dus na bdud dmag de las thar ba du mchi % dus gsum m khyen pa'i
padma 'byung gnas kyis lung bstan du gsol ces zhus pas % bka' stsal pa %
rgyal po chen po gsan cig % bdag gis rgyal po bod la brtse ba'i p h y ir lung
bstan thabs mang po bstan pa yin gyis bod mtha' 'k h o b kyi m i 'di da lta dus
bzang pa yin kyang % nged lo pan bod kyi don la 'ong pa m am s gsod pa'i gros
byed % rgyal po n yid bod kyi m ig (mgo) yin te sku tshe ring na m i yong (dga')
pa'i bio 'char % bsam yas kyi lha khang bkrag che bas gzhon pa m ig yengs na
(zhon pa yi lam das nas) las stobs cog par bdug ('dug) zer % bod kyi m i 'di
bsam pa ngan pa kyi dang 'd ra % kha 'chal smra ba w a dang 'dra % gnod gyis
brlabs pas smyon pa 'd ra % da lta bas Inga brgya snyigs m a'i dus na bcu 'g y u r
bas ngan du 'g ro % rgyal po med pas m go med kyi yan lag 'd ra % yul re na
rgyal phran re % rgyal phran shan pa glang snying re % gros m go kha 'chal
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195
gyog pos byed % gnas dgos re na mkhan slob re % m khan slob skye (15b) bo
gos ser gyon % gros m go nye gnas sgyed (skyed) mgos byed % zag pas nye
bas kh yim mdzes 'jom s % bshes skur chos byed grogs la gtong % log lta
byams sems can la byed % spang bya dam pai chos la byed % de lta bui bsam
bya ngan pas bod khengs nas % bod phal cher phung zhing brlag par 'g y u r %
rgyal po thugs khral ma mdzad % de lta 'i dus na ngan song gsum na du kha la
hzod blags med te % las ma dag bar la thugs khral byas pas phan pa med %
dus tha m a'i bdud dmag de yang sems can las ngan can snyigs ma lus len pas
de'i bshed ma byed pa yin % bod 'd ir nga dang rgyal po'i smon lam gyis byang
chub sems dpa'i rigs can bdun gyis sna drangs nas Iho 'bras m o gshongs su
sum brgya thar % bal bod kyi mtshams su nyis brgya thar % brin khum bu'i
rong du brgya drug cu thar % bud kyi rong du Inga bcu thar ro % spa gro bum
thang gi mtshams su bzhi brgya thar % Iho brag m khar chui rong du brgya
thar % de m am s sbas pa'i yul du btsan pa zin pa'o % tsa ri tsa gong la Inga
brgya thar % gzhan yang Iho rong thag nye ba mams la (16a) 'gro ste % la la
srog thar % la la Iho rong gi ngan byung ste gsod % la la nags rong dang gangs
rong dang chu rgod la 'chi % la la bod nang 'khrugs te gri ru 'chi % bdud dmag
las th a rte rk y e n ngan g y is 'c h i % la la lh o 'i dug phog s te chi % la la ltogs te 'chi
% rgyal po de'i dus su sems can la ji Itar byas skyid med de dm yal ba'i gnas
dang 'dra % de'i dus sems can kun sdug pa'i dus yin % nags la me shar ba'i
gling na so gsod (sod) dang bde skyid dug pa ngas ma m thong % rgyal po
nyid rang chos nyid zab m o la longs spyad du yod pas da lta btsan pa bzung
m dzod % ces gsungs pas % rgyal po yul kyis bmangs nas spyan chab mang po
shar ro % de'i dus su slob dpan padma 'b yu ng gnas kyis Inga brgya tha ma'i
sems can la zhal gdams bzhag pa'i % bcom ldan sha'kya th u b pa yis % bstan
pa'i snyigs ma Inga brgya'i thar % 'dzam gling sems can thams cad la % bde
skyid med pas btsan par bros % sdig can bka' las m i nyan pas % dge byed
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196
bsam pa phyogs gcig d ril % lung bstan sbas (16b) pa'i yul mams kyang % nags
rong btsan pa'i yul yin pas % bde zhing yangs pa'i 'dod pa skyungs % smu
'thorns man gyi yul mtshams na % 'byung ba mi snyoms nad behi'i rgyu %
thabs mkhas rten brel sman dpyad dgos % nags rong 'dzin pa'i gyang sa la %
dred dangs ma byed sgo ba chos % char rmugs 'chibs dang sa dug la % 'jigs par
mi bya pho nya bcos % lo gsum spyod pa legs par bsdams % de nas yul dang
lus phrad 'g y u r % nags rong dog kyang sa btsan pas % u rgyan rgyal po
padma ngas % sa rong btsan pa'i yul phran mams % sa brtul byin rlabs g te r
chos sbas % sgo ba sgo bsrungs bka nyan bskos % de p h y ir sbas pa'i yul kun
nang % bsgrub gnas re dang gnas chen re % bka' rtags yin pas hzhag par bya
7C nga yis byin rlabs sgrub gnas su % pha yul bu yis 'dzin pa lta r % the tshom
med p a r'd z in du behud % skye ba 'di yi phi ma la % nga dang 'phrad par the
tshom med % bka' 'd i'i dus na bod kyi las ngan gyis % bshis ngan gri ru 'chi
bas (17a) lung 'di nyon % ces gsungs so % de'i
btsan gyis 7c lung bstan thams cad kha kha so sor btab % slob dpon la rin po
che sna lnga'i mandala phul nas gter du sbas so % lung bstan 'di gu ru u rgyan
du gshegs pa'i dus na byang zang zang lha brag gi skyed la sbas te bod kyi dad
pa can gsum la bka' stsal pa % nyon cig bod kyi dad pa can % nga yi zhal
gdams yi ge 'di % thon pa'i dus la bab pa'i tshe % lung phran pad sdong 'dra
ba'i rtsar % 'brug gam glang lo kh ro ba'i gzugs % drag shul can gyis gter nas
'don % las can d e y is 'd i khyer nas % Ih o y i rong bdun sbas yul bdun las can de
yis 'byed par 'g y u r % de la bod k yi srog rten cig % ma m o bstan ma bcu gnyis
kyis 7c lung 'd i las can de la bstod % ces gsungs so % ma 'ongs pa'i lung bstan
sbas pa'i yul thams cad kyi them yig 'di % las can d g dang 'phrad par shod %
sa ma ya' % rgya rgya rgya % byang zang zang lha brag gi skyed nas rig 'dzin
rgod kyi Idem phru can gyis gter nas bton pa'o %
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197
A ppendix 2
Na m o gu ru bhya/
Ka-ba gnam du bsgrengs 'd ra 'i jo m o yi gyang ri /
Kha-dog gcig tu mi gnas nam zla kho bskyur 'g ro /
Ga-bur rdul lta r dkar ba'i gangs ri yis m tha' bskor /
Nga-cag Padmai brgyud 'd zin bsti gnas su bsngags so / /
Ca-co gnas gyeng tin g 'd zin tsher ma dang bral zhing /
Cha- tsam nyon mongs yul m in ri dvags kyi grogs dang /
Ja -chang m yed dang bkur stis chos-mdzad m am s btegs kyang /
Nya- phag kha na tho'i sdig zas ni ma lags / /
Ta-tha ga ta dri med m tsho skyes kyi rd o rje /
Tha-m a'i dus la dgongs nas byin gyis brlabs m thus /
Da-lta sgrubpa'i m thun rkyen rang shugs kyis tshang zhing /
Na - dga' 'chi skyid gding thobsbas-gnas 'd i dga' o i l
Pa -Iba sangs lta r dkar ba i phu gsum gyi gangs dab /
Pha-rol tshu rol med par brag khrod dang nags-rong /
Ba-ling gtor gral bsham 'd ra 'i 'jigs m am s kyi bkod pa /
M a-m thong ltad m o gsar pa'i dga ston 'd i yag byung / /
Tsa'-ri rtsva gong lta bur m tha' dmag gis m i 'jig /
Tsha-grang snyoms pa bal bod sa mtshams su chags kyang /
Dza-lang log lta can tsho'i spyod yul yang ma lags /
Wa-spyang nags su gnas 'd ra 'i m u rgod m am s ci cha / /
Zhva-rengs spangs pa'i spra spreu m ig 'p h ru l behin brtse zhing /
Za - 'd o d lin g pa'i dgra la ri dvags tshogs bskur ste /
A'-cag rang shong spyil bu'i nye 'k h ris su yis 'd is /
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198
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199
A ppendix 3
p a i Icags kyn
(lb ) Nam o guru b h ya/ rje rgyal ba'i mam 'p h ru l bla ma mchog
//
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200
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201
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202
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Abbreviations
gsung rtsom pod gsum pa bzhugs so. M tsho sngon m i rigs dpe skrun khang:
Kun bzang =Bod du byung ba'i gsang sngags snga 'gyur g yi bstan 'dzin skyes
mchog rim byon gyi mam
don klong yangs (19th cent.) Puh Damchoe Sangpo, Dalhousie 1976
Rnatn
Dzvags-la
Sgam-po
O-rgyan
o f the Fifth
Sgam-po
M chog-sprul
Puh
of
Chopal
Guru Bkra' shis =Bstan pa'i snying po gsang chen snga g y u r nges don zab
mo'i chos kyi byung ba gsal bar byed pa'i legs bshad mkhas pa dga' byed ngo
mtshar gtam g\/i rol m tsho, Stag sgang Mkhas mchog Ngag dbang bio gros
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
218
Guru Bkra' shis B = Bstan pa'i snying po gsang chen snga 'gyu r nges don zab
tno'i chos kyi byung ba gsal bar byed pa'i legs bshad mkhas pa dga' byed ngo
mts'nar gtam gyi rol m ts h o .
Sbas yul = Sbas yul padma bkod kyi lam yig ma 'ongs lung bstan sna tshogs
phyogs gcig tu bsdus p a 'i gsung pod. A Collection of Prophecies of Things to
Monastary,
Rtsa gsum
= Rtsa gsum
y i dam
dgongs
thar byin rlabs gter mtsho. Ngag dbang Bstan 'dzin N or bu (1867-1940),
158 fols., Ngagyur N yingm ay Sungrab Series, vol. 21. Gangtok: 1972
'Phrin las = Gu ru su rya se nge'i m am thar mdor bsdus nges shes 'dren p a 'i
shing rta. Karma 'P hrin las bdud 'jam s (1726-1789), 36 fols., NGMPP E-2691/6.
Clear Lamp = Ma 'ongs lung bstan gsal ba'i sgron me. Leh: 1973.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
219
H isto ry of Sikkim
Maharaja Sir Thutob Namgyal, K.C.I.E, and the Maharani Yeshay Dolma of
Sikkim in 1908, bearing the seal of the India Office Library, dated 24, April,
1930.
Lungs bstan = Orgyan chen po'i ma ongs lung bstan gar dbang rdo rje dang
bya btang gro lod gnyis kyi gter nas spyan drangs pa. Mnga' ris Gter ston Gar
dbang rd o rje, (24 folios), place of deposit H arvard U niversity Library (Tibetan
Collection), I/Tib-176.
Tshe dbang nor bu = Bod kyi lo rgyus deb ther khag Inga. By Rig 'dzin Tshe
Byang gter
thar dang ma
Gangtok: 1983
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