Macrocosmic Man in the Kālacakra Tantra

Well, Leonardo’s Vesuvian man it is not. I am not and never have been an artist. I drafted the drawing you see here above decades ago, in the early ’80’s, as part of an attempt to understand the first chapter, “On Cosmology,” of the Kālacakra Tantra. A group of us read it together outside of regular school hours for a few hours every week, taking advantage of our varying levels of Sanskrit and Tibetan knowledge. This was how I met my life-long love and ended up where I am today. 

At the time I had no idea that very similar such body charts of the universe might have been done before. The most remarkable of them all was put on display at the Rubin Museum in New York City. It is now on view at their website,* although you might prefer this scan at Himalayan Art Resources. Still, these digital scans are not sufficiently dense to allow us to see the Tibetan inscriptions clearly, which is a pity.

(*There is an interactive version with labels by Elena Pakhtouva in Spiral magazine, you only need to tap HERE.)

Although I will not go into it very much right now, these Kālacakra charts might very well bear comparison in both structure and content with Kabbalistic ‘trees’ (ilanot).  But I think you can do the comparison on your own without even cracking open the cover of Yossi Chajes’s book, The Kabbalistic Tree. I do think it should be cracked open. But if you prefer you can see it in a brief video review. In it the reviewer kindly flips through the pages so you can get a glance at the illustrations. You will understand why they would require profound contemplation and study. Not just a flip-through.

As if that were not enough, you could also compare it to a very curious early (11th century?) Tibetan example of a body mandala of Vajravārāhī displayed and discussed in an essay by Amy Heller. As usual, Tibeto-logic leaves you with many more questions than it can possibly answer, and quite a bit more material to explore (listed below) than could be crammed into any known blogosphere without the help of Alien Intelligence.

Alert! 

Tibeto-logic is a human-made blog. So while it does make use of digital resources wherever useful, it is not and never will be a product of generative A.I. or A.I. editorial tools. I cannot abide their tyranny. Neither should anyone.

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Literature you might want to see or even read

Paramādibuddhoddhṛta Śrīkālacakra-nāma-tantrarāja (Mchog-gi Dang-po’i Sangs-rgyas-las Phyung-ba Rgyud-kyi Rgyal-po Dpal Dus-kyi-’khor-lo).  Tôhoku no. 362.  Dergé Kanjur, vol. KA, folios 22v.1-128v.7.  Tr. by Somanātha and ’Bro Shes-rab-grags.  Revised by Shong-ston Rdo-rje-rgyal-mtshan. For blogs on early woodblock printings of this scripture, see this and this and this. For translations of parts of it, continue to scroll down.

Yael Bentor, The Cosmos, the Person, and the Sādhana, a Treatise on Tibetan Tantric Meditation with a Translation of Master Tsongkhapa’s ‘Fulfilling the Bee’s Hope’, University of Virginia Press (Charlottesville 2024).

J.H. Chajes, The Kabbalistic Tree  [האילן הקבלי], Pennsylvania State University Press (University Park 2022).

Amy Heller, “Two Early Tibetan Ritual Diagrams for Cakra Meditations,” Tibet Journal [Dharamsala], vol. 34, no. 3 to vol. 35, no. 2 (Autumn 2009 to Summer 2010), pp. 59-70.

S.K. Heninger Jr., “Some Renaissance Versions of the Pythagorean Tetrad,” Studies in the Renaissance, vol. 8 (1961), pp. 7-35, at p. 15:

“Pythagoras was the first man in western culture to propose a persistent pattern that prevails throughout each level of creation—which is, of course, the ideological basis for the entire microcosm-macrocosm analogy. This integrated system provided a basis for scientific hypothesis and for optimistic philosophical speculation. As [André] Dacier [in his Life of Pythagoras, p. 74] said: ‘He first call’d the Universe κόσμον, Mundum, to mark the Beauty, the Order and the Regularity that reign thro’ all its Parts.’ It was recognized that κόσμος means ‘embellishment’ as well as ‘order’.”

If it is true as is often said that Pythagoras was the inventor of the concept ‘cosmos’, and if as this paper by Heninger maintains this cosmos concept largely means the quaternity of the elements, and then if we add in Empedocles’ dynamic dialectic of love and hate, then we would seem to have located a Greek source for the heart and core of the Buddhist maṇḍala idea. (That Pythagoras is said to have visited India might also be brought into the argument, perhaps even in favor of overturning it.) But the modernistic caricature of the cosmos idea as something static and uninteresting, or as an eternal symmetry, needs to be set aside.

And if it is the case that the Pythagorean tetraktys (1+2+3+4=10) underlies the Ten Powers of Aristotle (supposed to supply coverage for ten possible ways to apply predicates to a noun in subject position) that entered the Middle East within logic textbooks in the form of the Tree of Porphyry then we might be able to identify the Greek sources underlying the Kabbalistic tree, the ten Powers of the Kālacakra, as well as the cosmological use of ‘ten’ in the writings by the Basran Brotherhood of Purity.* I am by no means insisting on a Greek origin, but I do believe entertaining the idea may lead us into historical truths we would never be able to come up with unless we try to prove or disprove it. 

(*For some efforts along these lines see our previous blog, “Three Traditions of Ten Powers: In Judaism, Buddhism, Islam.”)

Moshe Idel, Enchanted Chains: Techniques and Rituals in Jewish Mysticism, Sources and Studies in the Literature of Jewish Mysticism series no. 16, Cherub Press (Los Angeles 2005). This book may be difficult to obtain, but I cannot suggest any better discussion of something this book (p. 41 ff.) calls continua, symbolic entities that link between divine and human worlds, and between macrocosm and microcosm. These links are inevitably, given the Judaic contexts, mainly restricted to the forms of letters and words, although there is a particularly interesting appendix on a different type involving colors. And they largely explain why ritual and meditation techniques can do their work. The concept of continua (Hebrew shalshelet) might with profit be placed alongside the Tibetan Buddhist ideas of rgyud (“continuity”) and more specifically Tsongkhapa’s ideas about effective correspondences. See Bentor’s book, p. 60: 

“[Tsongkhapa] distiguishes between mere similarities and the correspondences that entail a continuity. For Tsongkhapa, only the latter can achieve purification of impure grounds by means of the sādhana—in other words, are of soteriological value. Thus, in his view, only in the case of continuity—and not of connections—can there be grounds of purification and their purifiers that are beneficial to yogis...” 

Idel bears reading in connection with the anthropomorphic images often used to mediate between realms in Kālacakra and Kabbalah (forms made visible or semi-visible in many Ilanot), particularly pp. 51-52 where the author points to the “chain of Holy Forms” referring to the supernal anthropos, and the “chain of the image or likeness” or “enchainment of divine faces.” Here “chain” carries no sense of bondage, but rather of links or linkages, or if you prefer, connectedness.

See both books for much more along these lines.*

(*And for all those who might otherwise continue to mindlessly back-translate rgyud as ‘tantra’ without fail, I must urgently recommend the translated passages and discussions in van der Kuijp’s essay, pp. 103-108.)

Leonard W.J. van der Kuijp, “The Bird-Faced Monk and the Beginnings of the New Tantric Tradition, Part Two,” Journal of Tibetology, vol. 19 (December 2018), pp. 86-127.

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Translations of the Kālacakra Tantra into English, Primarily

The same text is frequently referred to as Laghukālacakra Tantra. I haven’t yet seen a recently published translation by Niraj Kumar, The Kālacakra Tantra, Translation, Annotation and Commentary, Vol. 1, DK Printworld (New Delhi 2022), in 651 pages. It is possible to find interviews with the author on YouTube, and from these I conclude the first volume must correspond to the first chapter of the tantra (four further volumes are announced as forthcoming), and that its 5 volumes will encompass a complete translation.

Translations of Chapter 1:   B. Banerjee, Über das Lokadhātu Paṭala I. Kapitel des Laghu Kālacakra tantra rāja, dissertation (Munich 1959). 

On Chapter 1:  Winfried Petri, Indo-tibetische Astronomie, Habilitationsschrift (München 1966), in 151 pages.  This was never properly published, and I have never seen it.

Partial translation of Chapter 1: John Ronald Newman, The Outer Wheel of Time: Vajrayāna Buddhist Cosmology in the Kālacakra Tantra, University Microfilms International Dissertation Information Service (Ann Arbor 1987).  Doctoral dissertation, University of Wisconsin, Madison. 

Translation of Chapter 2:  Vesna Acimovic Wallace, The Inner Kālacakra: A Buddhist Tantric View of the Individual, University Microfilms International Dissertation Services (Ann Arbor 1995); doctoral dissertation, University of California at Berkeley.  This contains the Mongolian text of Chapter Two.  The dissertation has now been published in two parts:  Vesna A. Wallace, The Inner Kālacakra: A Buddhist Tantric View of the Individual, Oxford University Press (Oxford 2001); Vesna A. Wallace, The Kālacakratantra: The Chapter on the Individual together with the Vimalaprabhā, American Institute of Buddhist Studies, Columbia University (New York 2004). 

Translation of Chapter 3:  Jensine Andresen did a preliminary translation of this chapter as part of her dissertation (listed below) that is due to be published with the expected title The Kālacakra Tantra: The Initiation Chapter with the Vimalaprabhā Commentary. In her dissertation, this translation is Appendix A with unnumbered pages, although we may count 219 in all.

Translation of Chapter 4:  Vesna A. Wallace, The Kālacakra Tantra: The Chapter on Sādhanā together with the Vimalaprabhā Commentary, Translated from Sanskrit, Tibetan, and Mongolian, Introduced and Annotated, The American Institute of Buddhist Studies (New York 2010). Reviewed by David Reigle, The Kālacakra Tantra on the Sādhana and Maṇḍala: A Review Article, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, series 3, vol. 22, no. 2 (2012), pp. 439-463.

Translation of Chapter 5: A translation is included within a very lengthy dissertation: James Francis Hartzell, Tantric Yoga: A Study of the Vedic Precursors, Historical Evolution, Literatures, Cultures, Doctrines, and Practices of the 11th Century Kaśmīri Śaivite and Buddhist Unexcelled Tantric Yogas, doctoral dissertation, Columbia University (New York 1997), chapters 11-13, pp. 1057-1395.

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More Kālacakra-related literature in English, German, Italian etcetera (an impartial but decidedly partial list)

Jensine Andresen, Kālacakra: Textual and Ritual Perspectives, doctoral dissertation, Harvard University (Cambridge 1997).

Edward A. Arnold, ed., As Long as Space Endures: Essays on the Kālacakra Tantra in Honor of H.H. the Dalai Lama, Snow Lion (Ithaca 2009).

S.S. Bahulkar, “The Lokadhātupaṭala of the Kālacakra Tantra,” Dhīḥ, vol. 19 (1995), pp. 163-182.

Biswanath Bandhyopadyaya (aka Biswanath Banerjee), “A Note on the Kālacakratantra and Its Commentary,” Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal (Letters), vol. 18, no. 2 (1952), pp. 71-76.  This reference may need checking.

——, “A Note on the Kālacakrayāna of Tantric Buddhism,” Proceedings and Transactions of the All India Oriental Conference: Eighteenth Session, Annamalainagar, December 1955 (Annamalainagar 1958), pp. 219-221.

——, “Some Aspects of the Kālacakra School of Buddhism,” International Congress of Orientalists: Proceedings (1973), pt. 1, pp. 41-45.

Biswanath Banerjee, “The Kālacakra School: The Latest Phase of Buddhism,” contained in: N.N. Bhattacharyya, ed., Tantric Buddhism: Centennial Tribute to Dr. Benoytosh Bhattacharyya (Delhi 1999), pp. 263-267.

Gilles Béguin, “Un grand mandala de Kālacakra au Musée Guimet,” La Revue du Louvre et des musées de France, no. 2 (1978), pp. 113-121.

Alexander Berzin, Introduction to the Kalachakra Initiation, Snow Lion (Ithaca 1997/2010). Much of this author’s work has been made freely available in a variety of languages at this website.

——, Kalachakra and Other Six-Session Yoga Texts, Snow Lion (Ithaca 1998). Translations of several brief texts for use in daily meditation practice.

——, Taking the Kalachakra Initiation, Snow Lion (Ithaca 1997). For more of Alex Berzin’s essays and translations, there is a listing in the back of the book (for an online version of the same listing go here).

Barry Bryant, in cooperation with Namgyal Monastery, The Wheel of Time Sand Mandala, Harper San Francisco (New York City 1992).

Mario E. Carelli, Sekoddeśaṭīkā of Naḍapāda (Nāropā), Being a Commentary of the Sekoddeśa Section of the Kālacakra Tantra, The Sanskrit Text Edited for the First Time with an Introduction in English, Oriental Institute (Baroda 1941).

Claudio Cicuzza and Francesco Sferra, “Brief Notes on the Beginning of the Kālacakra Literature,” Dhīḥ, vol. 23 (1997), pp. 113-126.

Damdinsüren, “A Commentary on Kalacakra or Wheel of Time,” Tibet Journal, vol. 6, no. 1 (1981), pp. 43-49.

Sarat Chandra Das, “On the Kālachakra System of Buddhism, which Originated in Orissa,” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal, n.s. vol. 2 (1907), pp. 225-227.

Ngawang Dhargyey (Ngag-dbang-dar-rgyas), A Commentary on the Kālacakra Tantra, tr. by Alan Wallace, Library of Tibetan Works and Archives (Dharamsala 1985). This is marked as being restricted to initiates.

——, “Introduction to and an Outline of the Kalacakra Initiation,” Tibet Journal, vol. 1, no. 1 (1975), pp. 72-77. Translated by members of the Translation Bureau of the Tibetan Works and Archives, including Sherpa Tulku, Alexander Berzin and Jonathan Landaw, in preparation for the initiation in Bodhgaya in India, in January 1974.

Herbert Fux, “Sambhala und die Geschichte des Kālacakra - Ein lamaistisches Thaṅ-ka aus dem Österreichischen Museum für angewandte Kunst,” Alte und moderne Kunst, vol. 107 (1969), pp. 18-24.

Geshe Drakpa Gelek (Dge-bshes Grags-pa-dge-legs), “Dissolution and Emptiness Meditation in the Kālacakra Six Session Guru Yoga Sādhana,” contained in: Arnold, As Long as Space Endures, pp. 449-455.

Gen Lamrimpa, Transcending Time:: An Explanation of the Kālacakra Six-Session Guru Yoga, tr. by B. Alan Wallace, Wisdom (Somerville 1999). The author is also known as Lobsang Jampal Tenzin (Blo-bzang-’jam-dpal-bstan-’dzin).

B. Ghosh, “Emergence of Kalacakratantra,” Bulletin of. Tibetology [Sikkim Research Institute of Tibetology, Gangtok], no.2 (1985), pp. 19-31. Available online.

David Gist, “But Why the Kālacakra?” Tibet Journal, vol. 25, no. 3 (Autumn 2000), pp. 32-38.

Raniero Gnoli and Giacomella Orofino, Nāropā. Iniziazione Kālacakra, Biblioteca Orientale, Adelphi Edizioni (Milan 1994).

——, ed., La realizzazione della conoscenza del Supremo Immoto (Paramākṣarajñānasiddhi of Puṇḍarīka), Supplemento no. 1 alla Rivista degli Studi Orientali vol. 70, Bardi Editore (Rome 1997). Italian translation of the commentary on verse 127 of chapter 5 of the Kālacakra Tantra.

——, “La Sekoddeśaṭippaṇī di Sādhuputra Śrīdharānanda: Il testo sanscrito,” Rivista degli Studi Orientali, vol. 70, fasc. 1-2 (1996), pp. 115-146.

——, “The Sekoddeśaṭippaṇī: A Brief Commentary on the Summary of the Initiation by Sādhuputraśrīdharānanda,” translated from Italian by Phillip Lecso, contained in: Arnold, ed., As Long as Space Endures, pp. 51-92.

David B. Gray, “The Influence of the Kālacakra: Vajrapāṇi on Consort Meditation,” contained in: Arnold, As Long as Space Endures, pp. 193-202.

Günther Grönbold, “Heterodoxe Lehren und Ihre Widerlegung im Kālacakra-Tantra,” Indo-Iranian Journal, vol. 35 (1992), pp. 273-297.

——, “Kreigsmaschinen in einem buddhistischen Tantra,” contained in: Friedrich Wilhelm, ed., Festschrift Dieter Schlingloff, Dr. Inge Wezler Verlag für Orientalistische Fachpublikationen (Reinbek 1996), pp. 63-97. On the devices (yantra), including war machines, described neaer the end of Chapter One of the scripture.

——, “Materialien zur Geschichte des Ṣaḍaṅga-Yoga I. Der Ṣaḍaṅga-Yoga im Hinduismus,” Indo-Iranian Journal, vol. 25 (1983), pp. 181-190.

——, “Materialien zur Geschichte des Ṣaḍaṅga-Yoga II. Offenbarung des Ṣaḍaṅga-Yoga in Kālacakra-System,” Central Asiatic Journal, vol. 28 (1984), pp. 43-56.

——, “Materialien zur Geschichte des Ṣaḍaṅga-Yoga III. Die Guru-reihen im buddhistischen Ṣaḍaṅga-yoga,” Zentralasiatische Studien, vol. 16 (1982), pp. 227-347.

——, “Materialien zur Geschichte des Ṣaḍaṅga-Yoga IV. Tibetische Literatur zum Ṣaḍaṅga-Yoga,” Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde Südasiens und Archiv für Indische Philosophie, vol. 27 (1983), pp. 191-199.

——, Ṣaḍ-aṅga-yoga: Raviśrījñāna's Guṇabharaṇī nāma Ṣaḍaṅgayogaṭippaṇī mit Text, Übersetzung und literarhistorische Kommentar, Dissertation Ludwigs-Maximilians-Universität (Munich 1969).

——, “Der Sechsgleidrige Yoga des Kālacakra-Tantra,” Asiatische Studien, vol. 37, no. 1 (1983), pp. 25-45.

——, ”Vom Zähneputzen zur Unsterblichkeit. Medizin und Alchemie im Kālacakra-Tantra,” contained in: C. Chojnacki et al., eds., Vividharatnakaraṇḍaka. Festgabe für Adelheid Mette, Indica et Tibetica no. 37 (Swisttal-Odendorf 2000), pp. 283-296.

——, “Weitere Ādibuddha-Texte,” Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde Südasiens, vol. 34 (1995), pp. 45-60.

——, The Yoga of Six Limbs: An Introduction to the History of Ṣaḍaṅgayoga, Robert L. Hütwohl, tr., Spirit of the Sun Publications (Santa Fe 1996).  English translations of most or all of his German articles on the subject of Ṣaḍaṅgayoga.

——, “Zwei Ādibuddha-Texte,” contained in: Jens-Uwe Hartmann et al., eds., Sanskrit-Texte aus dem buddhistischen Kanon: Neu-entdeckungen und Neueditionen II (Göttinge 1992), pp. 111-161.

Gungbar Rinpoche, “Shri Kālachakra,” Dreloma, vol. 6 (1982), pp. 9-15.

K.N. Gyatso, Ornament of Stainless Light: An Exposition of the Kālacakra Tantra (Boston 2004).

Ernst Haas and Gisele Minke, “The Kālacakra Initiation,” Tibet Journal, vol. 1, nos. 3-4 (Autumn 1976), pp 29-31.

Hadano Hakuyû, “Fundamental Study on the Formation of the Kālacakra-tantra” [in Japanese], Mikkyô Bunka, vol. 8 (1950), pp. 18-37. This and the next require verification.

——, “The Influence of Hinduism on Buddhism: The Formation of Kālacakra as a Counter Measure Against Islam” [in Japanese], Journal of Indian and Buddhist Studies, vol. 1 (1953), pp. 356-357.

Urban Hammar, “The Concept of Ādibuddha in the Kālacakratantra,” contained in: Arnold, As Long as Space Endures, pp. 203-218.

——, “The Kālacakra Initiation by the Fourteenth Dalai Lama in Amaravati, January 2006,” Orientalia Suecana, vol. 58 (2009), pp. 40-59.  Try downloading it here. This may or may not be identical to yet another online publication on the same subject but a different title.

——, Studies in the Kālacakra Tantra: A History of the Kālacakra Tantra in Tibet and a Study of the Concept of Ādibuddha, the Fourth Body of the Buddha and the Supreme Unchanging, doctoral dissertation (Stockholm 2005). Download the entire book in your preferred format here.

Laura Harrington, “Exorcising the Mandala: Kālacakra and the Neo-Pentecostal Response,” Journal of Global Buddhism [online journal], vol. 13 (2012), pp. 147-171. Check this author’s academia.edu page here.

——, “Like a Buddha Jewel-Casket Thrown Open: Selected Excerpts from Dge ’dun rgya mtsho’s Mtshan yang dag par brjod pa’i rgya cher bshad pa’i rdo rje’i rnal ’byor gyi de kho na nyid snang bar byed pa’i nyi ma chen po (The Great Sun Illuminating the Reality of Vajra Yoga: An Extensive Explanation of The Ultimate Names of Mañjuśrī,” contained in: Arnold, As Long as Space Endures, pp. 127-143.

Edward Henning, Kālacakra and the Tibetan Calendar, The American Institute of Buddhist Studies (New York 2007).

——, The Kālachakra Mandala: The Jonang Tradition, Treasury of the Buddhist Sciences, American Institute of Buddhist Studies and Wisdom (New York 2023). Not yet seen.

——, “The Six Vajra Yogas of Kālacakra,” contained in: Arnold, As Long as Space Endures, pp. 237-258.

Michael Henss, Der Kalachakra Tantra (Zurich 1985). Not seen.

Helmut Hoffmann, “Buddha's Teaching of the Kālacakra Tantra at the Stūpa of Dhānyakaṭaka,” German Scholars on India, vol. 1 (1973), pp. 136-140.

——, “Das Kālacakra, die letzte Phase des Buddhismus in Indien,” Saeculum, vol. 15, no. 2 (1964), pp. 125-131.

——, “Kālacakra Studies I: Manicheism, Christianity and Islam in the Kālacakra Tantra,” Central Asiatic Journal, vol. 13 (1969), pp. 52-73.

——, “Kālacakra Studies II,” Central Asiatic Journal, vol. 15, no. 4 (1972), pp. 298-301.

——, “Literarhistorische Bemerkungen zur Sekoddeśaṭīkā des Naḍapāda,” Beiträge zur indischen Philologie und Altertumskunde. Festschrift Walther Schubring (Hamburg 1951), pp. 140-147.

——, “Manicheism and Islam in the Buddhist Kālacakra System,” Proceedings of the IXth International Congress for the History of Religions (Tokyo 1958), pp. 96-99.

Jeffrey Hopkins, tr., The Kālacakra Tantra, Rite of Initiation for the Stage of Generation: A Commentary on the Text of Kay-drup-ge-lek-bel-sang-bo by Tenzin Gyatso, the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, and the Text Itself, Wisdom (London 1985).

Roger Jackson, “The Kalachakra Generation-Stage Sadhana,” contained in Sopa, Wheel of Time, pp. 119-138.

——, “Kalachakra in Context,” contained in: Sopa, Wheel of Time, pp. 1-49.

Jhado Rinpoche (Bya-rdo Rin-po-che), “Essence of the Kālacakra Six Session Guru Yoga Practice,” contained in: Arnold, As Long as Space Endures, pp. 457-463.

Thubten Jinpa (Thub-bstan-sbyin-pa), “Rendawa and the Question of Kālacakra’s Uniqueness,” contained in: Arnold, As Long as Space Endures, pp. 317-330.  Red-mda’-ba Gzhon-nu-blo-gros (1349-1412).

Kalu Rinpoche, The Kālacakra Empowerment Taught by the Venerable Kalu Rinpoche, tr. by Nalanda Translation Committee, Karma Kagyu Kunchab (San Francisco 1982).

Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche, “Purifying the Inner and Outer Wheels: Remarks from Venerable Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche on the Significance of the Kālacakra for Times of Conflict,” contained in: Arnold, As Long as Space Endures, pp. 465-472.

Leonard W.J. van der Kuijp, The Kālacakra and the Patronage of Tibetan Buddhism by the Mongol Imperial Family, The Central Eurasian Studies Lectures series no. 4, Department of Central Eurasian Studies (Bloomington 2004). 

Joseph Loizzo, “Kālacakra and the Nālandā Tradition: Science, Religion and Objectivity in Buddhism and the West,” contained in: Arnold, As Long as Space Endures, pp. 333-366.

Kameshwar Nath Mishra, “Vimalaprabhā on the Laghukālacakratantra 2.7.161-180,” Indologica Taurinensia, vol. 28 (2002), pp. 163-178.

Glenn H. Mullin, The Practice of Kalachakra, including Translations of Important Texts on the Kalachakra Tantra, Snow Lion (Ithaca 1991).

John Newman, “A Brief History of the Kalachakra,” contained in: Sopa, Wheel of Time, pp. 51-90. Check this author’s academia.edu page here.

——, “Buddhist Sanskrit in the Kālacakra Tantra,” Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies, vol. 11 (1988), pp. 123-140.

——, “Buddhist Siddhānta in the Kālacakra Tantra,” Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde Südasiens, vol. 36 (1992), pp. 227-234.

——, “‘Developmental’ versus ‘Revelatory’ Soteriology in the Kālacakra Tantra,” Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies, vol. 40 (2017), pp. 209-224.

——, “The Epoch of the Kālacakra Tantra,” Indo-Iranian Journal, vol. 41 (1998), pp. 319-349. 

——, “Eschatology in the Wheel of Time Tantra,” contained in: Donald Lopez, ed., Buddhism in Practice, Princeton University Press (Princeton 1995), pp. 284-289. 

——, “Islam in the Kālacakra Tantra,” Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies, vol. 21, no. 3 (1998), pp. 311-371.

——, ”Itineraries to Sambhala,” contained in: J.I. Cabezón and R. Jackson, eds., Tibetan Literature: Studies in Genre, Snow Lion (Ithaca 1996), pp. 485-499. 

——, “The Paramādibuddha (The Kālacakra Mūlatantra) and Its Relation to the Early Kālacakra Literature,” Indo-Iranian Journal, vol. 30, no. 2 (April 1987), pp. 93-102.

——, “Vajrayoga in the Kālacakra Tantra,” contained in: David White, ed., Tantra in Practice, Princeton University Press (Princeton 2000), pp. 587-594.

Khedrup Norsang Gyatso [Mkhas-grub Nor-bzang-rgya-mtsho, 1423-1513], Ornament of Stainless Light: An Exposition of the Kālacakra Tantra, tr. by Gavin Kilty, The Library of Tibetan Classics series no. 14, Wisdom (Boton 2004). This is Gavin Kilty’s award winning translation of the work of Mkhas-grub Nor-bzang-rgya-mtsho entitled Phyi Nang Gzhan Gsum Gsal-bar Byed-pa Dri-med ’Od-kyi Rgyan.

Giacomella Orofino, “Apropos of Some Foreign Elements in the Kālacakratantra,” contained in: Helmut Krasser, Michael T. Much, Ernst Steinkellner, Helmut Tauscher, eds., Tibetan Studies I and II: Proceedings of the 7th Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies, Graz 1995, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften (Wien 1997), vol. 2, pp. 717-724.

——, “Divination with Mirrors: Observations on a Simile Found in the Kālacakra Literature,” contained in: Per Kvaerne, ed., Tibetan Studies: Proceedings of the 6th Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies, Fagernes 1992, The Institute for Comparative Research in Human Culture (Oslo 1994), pp. 612-628.

——, “The Mental Afflictions and the Nature of the Supreme Immutable Wisdom in the Sekoddeśa and Its Commentary by Nāropa,” contained in: Arnold, As Long as Space Endures, pp. 27-49. 

——, “On the Ṣaḍaṅgayoga and the Realisation of Ultimate Gnosis in the Kālacakratantra,” East and West, vol. 46, nos. 1-2 (June 1996), pp. 127-143.

——, Sekoddeśa. A Critical Edition of the Tibetan Translations, Serie Orientale Roma no. 57, Istituto Italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente (Rome 1994).

Winfried Petri, “Die Astronomie im Kālacakralaghutantra,” contained in: Helga Uebach and Jampa L. Panglung, eds., Tibetan Studies: Proceedings of the 4th Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies, Schloss Hohenkammer, Munich 1985, Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften (Munich 1988), pp. 381-385.

Katja Rakow, “Kālacakra in Transition: From the Apocalypse to the Promotion of World Peace,” contained in: István Keul, ed., Transformations & Transfer of Tantra in Asia and Beyond, De Gruyter (Berlin 2012), pp. 413-433. Look here.

David Reigle, Kalacakra Sadhana and Social Responsibility, Spirit of the Sun (Santa Fe 1996). This author’s publications are all downloadable here.

——, The Lost Kālacakra Mūla Tantra on the Kings of Śambhala, Kālacakra Research Publications, no. 1 (Talent. Oregon 1986).

——, “Sanskrit Mantras in the Kālacakra Sādhana,” contained in Arnold, As Long as Space Endures, pp. 301-322.

Jean M. Rivière, Kalachakra. Initiation tantrique du Dalaï-Lama, Robert Laffont (Paris 1985). Note that the author, aka Jean Marquès-Rivière (1903-2000), was an anti-Masonic and anti-Semitic propagandist working in France for the Vichy government of Nazi collaborationists during World War II. He had started publishing fictional books based in Tibet already in 1930. (This just-given information should have been included in the biographical sketch in the inside back cover of the book.)

George N. Roerich, “Studies in the Kālacakra,” Journal of the ‘Urusvati’ Himalayan Research Institute of the Roerich Museum, vol. 2 (1932), pp. 11-23, plus plate. Try here.

M.S. Saccone, “The Wheel of Time (Kålacakra): A Survey and Bibliography of Previous Research and Forthcoming Works,” contained in: Dramdul & S. Sferra, eds., From Mediterranean to Himalaya: A Festschrift to Commemorate the 120th Birthday of the Italian Tibetologist Giuseppe Tucci (Beijing 2014), pp. 503-551. Not yet seen. 

Francesco Sferra, “Constructing the Wheel of Time: Strategies for Establishing a Tradition,” contained in:  Federico Squarcini, ed., Boundaries, Dynamics and Construction of Traditions in South Asia, Firenze University Press (Florence 2005), pp. 253-285. Check this author’s academia.edu page here.

——,  “The Elucidation of True Reality: The Kālacakra Commentary by Vajragarbha on the Tattvapaṭala of the Hevajratantra,” contained in: Arnold, As Long as Space Endures, pp. 93-126. 

——, “Fragments of Puṇḍarīka’s Paramārthasevā,” contained in: K. Klaus & J.-U. Hartmann, eds., Indica et Tibetica. Festschrift für Michael Hahn zum 65. Geburtstag von Freunden und Schülern überreicht, Arbeitskreis für Tibetische und Buddhistische Studien (Vienna 2007), pp. 459-476. 

——, “Kālacakra,” contained in: Jonathan A. Silk et al., eds., Brill’s Encyclopaedia of Buddhism, Volume One, Brill (Leiden 2015), pp. 341-352. A very useful survey.

——, “The Last Stanzas of the Paramārthasevā,” Tantric Studies, vol. 1 (2008), pp. 209-214.

——, “Newly Discovered Stanzas of the Paramārthasevā by Puṇḍarīka,” Newsletter of the Nepal-German Manuscript Cataloguing Project, vol. 5 (2007), pp. 9-12.

——, ed. & tr., The Ṣaḍaṅgayoga by Anupamarakṣita with Raviśrījñāna's Guṇabharaṇī nāma ṣaḍaṅgayogaṭippaṇī: Text and Annotated Translation by F. Sferra, Serie Orientale Roma series no. 85 (Rome 2000).

——, “Sekoddeśaṭīkā: The Paramārthasaṃgraha by Nāropā (Sekoddeśaṭīkā): Critical Edition of the Sanskrit Text by F. Sferra and Critical Edition of the Tibetan Translation by S. Merzagora, Serie Orientale Roma (Rome 2006).

——, “Textual Criticism Notes on the Vimalaprabhā by Puṇḍarīka,” East and West, vol. 45 (1995), pp. 359-362.

Michael R. Sheehy, “A Lineage History of Vajrayoga and Tantric Zhentong from the Jonang Kālacakra Practice Tradition,” contained in: Arnold, As Long as Space Endures, pp. 219-235.

Geshe Sopa, “An Excursus on the Subtle Body in Tantric Buddhism (Notes Contextualizing the Kālacakra),” Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies, vol. 6, no. 2 (1983), pp. 48-66. Try here.

——, “The Kalachakra Tantra Initiation,” contained in: Sopa, Wheel of Time, pp. 91-117.

——, “The Subtle Body in Tantric Buddhism,” contained in: Sopa, Wheel of Time, pp. 139-158. 

Geshe Lhundup Sopa, Roger Jackson, and John Newman, The Wheel of Time: The Kalachakra in Context, Deer Park Books (Madison 1985).

Surya Deep Prasad Shrestha, “The Origin and Development of the Kālacakra Tradition in Nepal,” Research Nepal Journal of Development Studies, vol. 6, no. 1 (2023), pp. 107-122. Available online.

Sofia Stril-Rever, Tantra de Kālacakra - Le livre du corps subtil (Paris 2000). Although I haven’t yet seen it, this apparently translates the entire Sanskrit text of the scripture into French. I have only seen it at this commercial site. Check the author’s academia.edu page here.

 ——, “Vibrating in Splendor, the Source Experience of Kālacakra’s Maṇḍala,” contained in: Arnold, As Long as Space Endures, pp. 399-413. 

Vesna A. Wallace, “The Body as a Text and the Text as the Body: A View from the Kālacakratantra’s Perspective,” contained in: Arnold, As Long as Space Endures, pp. 179-191. Check this author’s academia.edu page here.

——, “Buddhist Tantric Medicine in the Kālacakratantra,” Pacific World, nos. 11-12 (1995-6), pp. 155-174.

——, “A Convergence of Medical and Astro-sciences in Indian Tantric Buddhism: A Case of Kālacakratantra,” contained in: A. Akasoy et al., eds., Astro-medicine, Sismel Edizioni del Galluzzo (Florence 2008). Not yet seen.

——, “Medicine and Astrology in the Healing Arts of the Kālacakratantra,” contained in: Arnold, As Long as Space Endures, pp. 276-300.

Ronit Yoeli-Tlalim, “The Fourteenth Dalai Lama’s Oral Teachings on the Source of the Kālacakra Tantra,” Pacific World, 3rd series, no. 6 (Fall 2004), pp. 229-244. Check this author’s academia.edu page here.

——, “The Kālacakra Empowerment as Conducted by Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche,” contained in: Arnold, As Long as Space Endures, pp. 415-448. Kīrti Mtshan-zhabs Rin-po-che Blo-bzang-’jigs-med-dam-chos (1926-2006). 

§  §  §

Notes on Cosmic Man 

Contributed by John Newman, on 11th of May 2025.

Dan, as a fellow American, I might say, “Cosmic, man.” No, you are no da Vinci, but your diagram is nevertheless a work of art, and I love the anecdote of how you met your “life-long love and ended up where I am today” while puzzling over the arcana of the Kālacakra. Karma works in mysterious ways.

If I may beat my own drum a bit: The locus classicus for your diagram is Śrī Kālacakra 1.10–25 & Vimalaprabhā 1.8.10–25, which are translated in my 1987 dissertation The Outer Wheel of Time: Vajrayāna Buddhist Cosmology in the Kālacakra Tantra on pp. 471–530. (A PDF of this ancient and obscure work is available, warts and all, on my academia.edu page.) If I was to suggest any modification of your diagram, I might shorten the face a bit and put an uṣṇīṣa on top of the head (25k leagues on top of Meru, 6 fingerbreadths in the body) [cf. my diss. pp. 478–479], similar to the Tibetan painting scan you posted. But I was delighted to see your calculation of “1 yojana = 9.0909 miles.” Who’s fingerbreadth did you use to establish the length of the cubit? In any case, that is pretty darn close to the crude 9 [U.S.] miles estimate for the Kālacakra yojana I came up with in my diss. p. 487n16. In terms of translation, I might suggest something like “the single void” or “void alone” (śūnyam ekam) in place of “simply nothing” (cf. my diss. p. 479, esp. n.9), but the Tibetans vociferously argued about the meaning of this term.

Another quibble: I would rather designate this diagram “The Measurements of the Body and the Cosmos.” This layout homologizes the cosmography of a single lokadhātu and the physiognomy of a single human body. In the Kālacakra cosmology there are limitless trichiliocosms (1000³ lokadhātus) throughout the limitless expanse of the universe, sort of like the way there are billions of galaxies in our dinky little modern “scientific” universe and multitudes of human bodies on our puny little earth. As Carl Sagan used to intone: “Billions and billions.” Again, like totally cosmic, dude.

For similar diagrams I recommend Collette Caillat & Ravi Kumar, The Jain Cosmology (Basel: Harmony Books, 1981) [a PDF of this is currently viewable on Internet Archive (archive.org)]. See, for example, pp. 52–53. Note that the names of the hells there are related to the names used in the Kālacakra, which are quite different from the layout of the hells in general Buddhist usage, e.g. Abhidharmakośa 3.58–59. Way back in the last millennium David Reigle pointed out to me that the Kālacakra hells scheme is almost identical to that found in the Jaina Tattvārthādhigamasūtra 3.1 [cf. my diss. p. 478n8], and there are other Jaina elements found in the Kālacakra. It may be the case that the Kālacakra cosmos/body homology is to some degree inspired by Jaina doctrine. However, the basic idea “embodied” in the slogan you used as a caption on your diagram (“As the external world is, so is the body”) [cf. my diss. p. 472n1: yathā bāhye tathā dehe = Śrī Hevajra 2.4.49c] has a long history in Buddhism, not to mention non-Buddhist traditions like the Vedic Puruṣasūkta. If I was to speculate, I would speculate that in India this idea is pre-historic. I suspect that people were thinking about this in Mohenjo-Daro, and even then the idea was already very old.

So Primitive Man may not have been so primitive after all. And lest the ladies think that they have been left out of this discussion, it should be strongly emphasized that in the Kālacakra Tantra Cosmic Man (the mahāpuruṣapudgala)—like everything else—is born from the Mother of the Universe (Viśvamātā), and She is the Matrix within which everything arises and disappears. So think of your Mother on this U.S. Mother’s Day holiday.

----------

Added note (May 24-26, 2025)

I already recognized as I was putting it up it was a poor attempt if my plan was to supply a reasonably full bibliography of works about the Kālacakra, so I’ve already updated it a few times. Unfortunately, until today I was unaware of the Saccone bibliography and still haven’t seen it. If you notice any mistakes or omissions major or minor I would appreciate hearing about them. I’ve almost entirely omitted publications focusing on Sambhala (Shambhala), thinking they would deserve a bibliography of their own. For knowledge of the very latest books, I recommend a search of the internet or of particular websites such as Amazon.

A Gift of Tibet’s History for Qubilai Khan

 

Orgyanpa, detail

What kind of royal history is this? Represented to posterity as a gift to the Khan, we get the feeling it was produced without much enthusiasm, and definitely without much literary style. I don’t believe it is stated clearly anywhere, but it could be that the Khan commanded him to write it. That would help explain why it is so dry, largely lists of names in kingly or other types of lineages. But in those rare spots where it does manage to supply a little narrative it tends to say something remarkable.

You can gain a general impression of the content of this work by glancing at the list of English subtitles that I inserted into my transcription of the text:

• A. Royal Lineages of India.
• B. Tibetan Royal Lineages.
• C. Their Deeds Relative to Holy Dharma.
• D. Emperor Songtsan the Wise.
• E. Successors to Songtsan the Wise.
• F. Seven Landfalls, Nos. 2-7.
• G. Age of Divided Dominions.
• H. The Revival of Buddha Dharma.
• I. Chronological Discussion.
• J. Other Highland and Lowland Vinaya Lineages.
• K. Nyingma Tantras.
• L. Highland Vinaya Again.
• M. The Works of Panditas and Translators.
• N. The Kadampa School.
• O. On the Mongol Impact.
• P. Colophon and Dedication Verse.

Let’s point out a few of the highlights and leave it at that. One thing is of considerable interest for the history of Old Tantra transmissions. We find this in section F, a treatment of the seven chronologically ordered entries of Indian Vajrayâna Buddhism into Tibet. This historical schema was put together by Rongzompa in the early- to mid-11th century, and I believe it was Rongzompa who first applied the term I translate as ‘landfalls.’ However, Rongzompa’s work on the subject only survives in so far as it was copied or followed by others (see Germano’s essay). So here we have useful additional evidence. It answers the very important question of how Tibetan Buddhism turned out to be so tantric.

Moving on to a different context, one of the things that most horrified me was what it has to say about the suppression of Bon religion in western Tibet in the time of the Chidar, or Second Spread. This needs some close comparison with testimonies from a couple of other sources, so I will bookmark it for a future blog of its own.

There are a few references to earlier histories that ought to be mentioned.  The author, or the mchan-note writer if that is someone other than the author (and that’s a possibility), makes one clear reference (at fol. 7v) to what would have been a manuscript hot off the press, so to speak: the history book, dating to 1261, by Chomdan Reldri and its not well accepted idea that there was such a thing as an Intermediate Spreading of the Dharma (Bar-dar). This 1261 work, like our 1278 royal history, hasn’t yet appeared in press.*

(*To find out more about it, first download the 2020 revised version of Tibetan Histories, then scroll down to entry no. 87.)

He also demonstrates (at fol. 5r) that he knows of the historical text on the royal tombs that very likely dates to Tibet’s imperial era, the Extra Small Secret, Tomb Generations (Gsang-ba Yang-chung / Bang-so’i Rabs). This particular history represents the “half” in the 6½ histories we’ve discussed in a recent blog.

I stumbled on an odd statement about one of the early 10th-century monks of Amdo region that made things click in my mind. It serves to confirm something that came up during those long years spent translating the long Deyu history. Orgyanpa says, “Drum Sherab Monlam received the [esoteric Dzogchen] precepts of Aro.”* This is a further piece of evidence associating the transmission of this strain of Dzogchen, its lineage continuing straight through the era of Divided Dominions, with the earliest monks of the Second Spread. This connection is unexpected and, perhaps needless to say, not well known. Okay, but then neither is the associated Turkish connection expected or well known. Two Uighur Turks are listed one after the other in the Aro Dzogchen transmission as seen in an appendix to the Deyu translation (p. 784). The first of the two, Yazi Böntön (ཡ་ཟི་བོན་སྟོན་), is often listed as monastic ordinand of Gongpa Rabsel (དགོངས་པ་རབ་གསལ་), while the Yazi part of his name, meaningless in Tibetan, could indicate something in local Turkic dialect, likely a word meaning ‘scribe’ (I do think this merits careful consideration). Yazi’s disciple Drugu Logjung (དྲུ་གུ་གློགས་འབྱུང་) has a name indicating that he was a Drugu, a Turk.

(*Grum She[s]-rab-smon-lam gyis / A-ro'i gdam ngag brnyes / Note that Grum in his name is often replaced with Grum-shing, which is in turn evidently just a shortened version of Grum Shing-slag-can. Grum is usually taken as a clan name, but it is possible the syllable Drum is hiding there, and that could be a borrowing from an Indic word meaning ‘tree,’ Shing-slag-can signifies that he wore a cloak of wood [barkcloth?].  He was not part of the very first group of central Tibetan men to visit the northeast in order to receive ordination vows, but he did belong to the second group that arrived soon after. See footnote 2481 in the long Deyu translation. For sure, Phying-slag-can also occurs, and this would mean ‘having a felt cloak.’ But misspellings of the name abound, and the easiest or more sensible reading, as we know, is not always the most valid, more likely the contrary)

But the part bound to most excite the world at large is the section “O” with its invented subtitle On the Mongol Impact. If you will permit it, I will hack out a quick translation without expending a lot of labor on quibbles, justifications, arguments, footnotes etc.

•

O. On the Mongol Impact.

ston pa'i dam chos rnam gnyis te lung dang rtogs pa'i bdag nyid do // de 'dzin byed pa smra byed dang / sgrub par byed pa kho na yin / ces 'byung pas /  deng sang bod kha ba can gyis yul du sangs rgyas kyis stan pa rin po che dar ro //

‘The holy Dharma of the Teacher is twofold, characterized by scriptural learning and practical realization. That means exclusively the memorizing or reciting of it, and the accomplishment of the practices.’* Even so nowadays in the country of snowy Tibet the precious Teachings of Buddha have spread.  

(*See Gold’s essay, p. 172, for an alternative translation of the verse along with much valuable commentary. Something like this verse occurs in many canonical texts, but our most sure Indic source is in the root verses included in Vasubandhu’s Abhidharma­kośa commentary­.)

de yang dbus rtsang mi drug gi smad nas [13r] dar la / rin chen bzang po dang / jo bo rje stod nas dar zhing / gzhan lo yan [~span?] phal cher gyis dkyil nas dar ro //

Indeed, the Six Men of Ü and Tsang have spread them from the lowlands, Rinchenzangpo and Atiśa from the highlands, and besides those the Tibetan translators and Indian paṇḍitas have for most part spread them from the center.

dus phyis bod kha ba can gyis yul du stan pa dar ba'i dus su / 'dzam bu gling gis byang phyogs ge gsar [~ge sar] gyis yul du / rgyal po dzi gir gan zhes bya ba bsku 'khrungs te / 'dzam bu gling gis yul phal cher bshig cing / rgyal po phal pran [~bran?] ltar byas pa'i dus / bod kha ba can gyis yul du yang dmag des / yul dang stan pa la gnod pa 'byung pa'i dus su [~la?] bab pa'i tshe / skye ba 1 gis thogs pa'i byang chub sems dpa' / shes bya rig pa'i gnas thams cad la mkhyen pa'i ye shes kyis snang ba rgyas pa / saskya'i lo tsha ba zhes yongs su drags pa de / thugs rje'i rba rlabs cher g.yos te / ji gir gan gyi gdung rgyud kyis rgyal rgyud thams cad chos la bkod cing / yul dir [~'dir?] sangs rgyas kyis stan pa rin po che bzhago //

In later times, as the Teachings were spreading to the country of snowy Tibet, in the country of Gesar in the northern part of Jambu Island a king named Dzi-gir Gan (i.e. Chinggis Khan) took birth and went on to destroy in large part the countries of Jambu Island, its kings largely reduced to slavery. The time came when the country of snowy Tibet itself suffered harm to both country and Teachings by that same army. It was then that the one who achieved Bodhisattvahood in one lifetime and had developed the light of Enlightened Wisdom that is knowledgeable in all the subjects of learning about knowables, the one widely renowned as the Translator of Sakya, exceedingly moved by the waves of compassion, placed all of Ji-gir Gan’s (i.e. Chinggis Khan’s) royal descendants in the way of Dharma and established the Teachings of Buddha in this country.

de'i gdan sar lo tsha ba chen po de nyid kyis bcung gis rigs pas / rgyal ba’i bka’ dang stan chos thams cad kyis tshig don la smra ba’i spobs pa tshigsal [~tshig gsal] zhing / rigs par smra ba / bsod nams kyis dpal du mas rgyan pa / nges par sa thob pa’i byang chub sems dpa’ chen po a rgya’i [i.e., 'phags pa’i] mtshan can des kyang gong ma’i rjes su rgyal rgyud rnams chos la bkod pas / bstan pa rin po che dar cing rgyas par gyur to //

That same great Translator in his headquarters had a younger man in his family by the name of Argya (Ārya, i.e. Phagspa), a great Bodhisattva who had definitively attained the [three pure] Levels, adorned with the glory of his merit, his rational speech and clear words, his ability to expound eloquently upon all the words and contents of the Victor’s teachings (the Kanjur) and the [Indian Buddhist] Treatises (the Tanjur). The royal lineages in the following of the emperor he also established in the Dharma, making the precious Teachings grow and flourish.

gzhan bstan pa la nyan cing / gzhan stan pa la nyan cing bsgom pa’i blo can 'gas kyang / rgyal rgyud rnams chos la bkod pas stan pa la phan par gyur to //

There were still others who had studied and meditated upon the Teachings who established the royal lineages in the Dharma and benefitted the Teachings.

gzhan stod kyi mgon 3 gyis rgyud las / rgyal po rtsan phyug [13v] lde chibs kha lhor bsgyur bas / gangs ti se nas chu gang gha'i 'gram gyis ri brags kyis rgyal mkhams btul te sangs rgyas kyis bstan pa daro //

Then there was one among the successors of the Three Lords of the highlands (i.e., Ngari or western Tibet), a king named Rtsan-phyug-lde, who steered his noble horse toward the south and subdued the kingdom[s] in the mountainous area all the way from the Glacier Mountain Tise to the banks of the Ganges, spreading the Teachings of Buddha.

•

I hope that captures the gist of it well enough, and that some sharp young Tibetanist will find how to make it perfect. A few comments: Last things first, the king of a part of western Tibet who conquered the realms between Mt. Kailash and the Ganges was not immediately known to me, so I needed to look him up. I find he has to be the same as Btsan-phyug-lde, a king of Gugé-Purang. We have no specific dates for him, just that he moved down from Gugé to Yatsé in what is now Nepal in around the middle of the 12th century, and he is known in some local Nepal Sanskrit sources by the name Câpilla (see Tucci’s book as well as Vitali’s, and look here if you want to see where Yatsé was located on the map.). 

It cannot be an accident that Orgyanpa mentions those Gugé kings in a book sent to a Khan even while fully knowing that that same Khan was considering a military move into Nepal (and probably the whole of South Asia beyond Nepal). Still, one wonders how useful or relevant this information would be for that purpose. It dangles alone between unrelated subjects, as if it were placed there for some odd reason. I suppose it was.

There is not very much to be found in Tibetan writings that expresses the terror and anguish the Mongol invasions inflicted on local populations. We could say that people in a life-or-death situation lack the leisure to sit down and portray their feelings. But a disciple and biographer of the famous Yanggönpa by the name of Channgawa spares a paragraph on the subject, ending with the words, 

“Just hearing the name Mongol (Hor) or Tartars (Sogs-po [!]; i.e. Sog-po) made them unable to stand on their feet. All the people felt afraid and terrified as if they had been delivered into the hands of the karma-enforcing Lord of Death.”* 

(*See the longer passage translated in Higgins’ new book, p. 37. The translation ‘Tartars’ is very surely not exactly on the mark. In earlier sources, Hor would have definitely meant Uighur Turks, while Sog-po would have meant Sogdians, although after the Mongol advent its meaning is a bit of a problem, it depends on who is talking.)

The Mongols had achieved such awesome power and reputation for violence in the world, there is even today a common acknowledgement that Sakya Paṇḍita, the very same person we just heard called “Translator of Sakya,” was displaying the great wisdom he was indeed known for when he advised Tibetans not to resist them. On the Tibetan side, the idea developed that something good could be derived from this deadly situation if Mongols, who were settling down to rule over various civilian populations in Eurasia, could be coached or coaxed (without coercion!) into taking refuge in the philosophico-religio-ethical civilizational project Buddhism offers. They had some degree of immediate success with Hülegü and subsequent Ilkhanids in Iran and with Qubilai Khan in China, although we can in retrospect perceive that their efforts only bore great fruit much later on when most of Mongolia became Tibetan-style Buddhist. 

So, surprising as it is for us to hear, when Orgyanpa says that Chinggis Khan destroyed* the better part of the world, he was conscious of addressing the Mongols, to whom this accomplishment was a matter of pride, and would not be heard as a criticism. And if that last sentence made no sense to you, I invite you to read Sun Penghao’s dissertation. By the year 1278, when Orgyanpa’s book was written, Tibetan Buddhist leaders like Orgyanpa had fairly perfected the art of talking to Mongols in their own language, so to speak. By seeming to give them what they wanted, they were given the opportunity to offer them what they actually needed.

(*The tone of the verb here used, bshig (or 'jig in present tense), may be difficult to capture with an English word, but it does mean to destroy in the sense of reducing to ruins or dissolving solid objects. Words like decimated or annihilated come to mind, but I don’t believe their tone fits the larger context.)

 

From a manuscript of Qazmini’s
13th-c. CE Wonders of Creation

Literature Listing

For a 

complete transcription of the text, 

look here. I do not supply any photo of the manuscript itself, hoping that a facsimile (one better than my poor scan of an old xerox received from LK) will appear in a more appropriate place. I like to imagine the original gift to Qubilai would have been magnificently scribed in gold ink on dark purple paper. However, what we have right now is anything but magnificent, badly spelled and penned with a clumsy hand.

We’ve spoken about Orgyanpa in 

an earlier blog.

If you are looking for a brief biography, try 

this one by Alexander Gardner 

at Treasury of Lives website.

•

Cho Wonhee, “Negotiated Privilege: Strategic Tax Exemptions Policies for Religious Groups and the Mongol-Yuan Dynasty in 13th-Century China,” Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, vol. 63 (2020), pp. 1-37. Tax and drafted work exemptions were not automatically granted to religious institutions by the Mongol rulers, certain strings were attached. One of them involved a requirement to pray for the long lives of the rulers. From the conclusion (p. 26): “...religious groups were not simply passive recipients of imperial policy; aware of what the Mongols expected from them, they actively navigated, challenged and negotiated to expand their privileges.”

Choi Soyoung, “From Brutes to Bodhisattvas: The Mongols in Tibetan Sources,” contained in: Timothy May and Michael Hope, eds., The Mongol World, Routledge (London 2022), pp. 799-813. The same author’s 2018 doctoral dissertation is on this subject.

Deyu — Anonymous, A History of Buddhism in India and Tibet: An Expanded Version of the Dharma’s Origins Made by the Learned Scholar Deyu, tr. by Dan Martin, The Library of Tibetan Classics series no. 32, Wisdom Publications (Somerville 2022).

David Germano, “The Seven Descents and the Early History of Rnying-ma Transmissions,” contained in: Helmut Eimer & David Germano, eds., The Many Canons of Tibetan Buddhism, Brill (Leiden 2002), pp. 225-263.

Jonathan C. Gold, “Sa-skya Paṇḍita’s Buddhist Argument for Linguistic Study,” Journal of Indian Philosophy, vol. 33 (2005), pp. 151-184.

David Higgins, Heartfelt Advice: Yang dgon pa’s Song of the Seven Direct Introductions with Commentary by ’Ba’ ra ba Rgyal mtshan dpal bzang, International Institute for Buddhist Studies (Tokyo 2022). This book is made available online as a free download.

Leonard W.J. van der Kuijp, “Some Remarks on the Textual Transmission and Text of Bu-ston Rin-chen-grub’s Chos-’byung, a Chronicle of Buddhism in India and Tibet,” Revue d’Etudes Tibétaines, vol. 26 (April 2013), pp. 115-193, at p. 182. Available online.

———, “Tibetan Historiography,” contained in: Tibetan Literature: Studies in Genre, ed. José Cabezón and Roger Jackson, eds., Snow Lion (Ithaca 1996), pp. 39-56, but you can also read it online. At p. 43 is what is most likely the first modern mentioning of the existence of Orgyanpa’s history book. It includes discussion of its 1278 CE date and the reason it was written, “as part of his attempt... to dissuade the Mongol emperor from invading Nepal.” Also pointed out: Orgyanpa’s history was known to the chronologist Mang-thos Klu-sgrub-rgya-mtsho (1523-1596), in the work we have listed below. He also told of the recent discovery of the 13-folio manuscript, and announced, in a footnote, a forthcoming edition and translation, something that never came about.

———, “U rgyan pa Rin chen dpal (1230-1309), Part Two: For Emperor Qubilai? His Garland of Tales about Rivers,” contained in: Christoph Cüppers, ed., The Relationship between Religion and State (chos srid zung ’brel) in Traditional Tibet, LIRI (Lumbini 2004), pp. 299-339, at pp. 319-320. The riverine geographical text is, together with the royal history, part of a set of gifts delivered to Qubilai Khan. I’ve heard that Part Three of L. van der Kuijp’s study of the riverine geography is forthcoming, even if Part One is not.

Mang-thos Klu-sgrub-rgya-mtsho (1523-1596), Bstan-rtsis Gsal-ba’i Nyin-byed and Tha-snyad Rig-gnas Lnga’i Byung-tshul Blo-gsal Mgrin-rgyan, Bod-yig Dpe Rnying Dpe-skrun-khang (Lhasa 1987).

Page 65 reads as follows: “de yang chu mo glang la Dpal-'khor-btsan 'khrungs // khong gi slob dpon Cang A-po yin zhes Grub-thob U-rgyan-pa’i Rgyal-po Rabs Phreng las bshad.” Our manuscript reads differently (7v): “sras khri Dpal-’khor-rtsan gyis rgyal sa bzung / ’phrul gyis blon po spyang A-pho zhes bya bas blon po byaso.” Notice the very significant difference between the clever (?) teacher A-po and the clever prodigious minister A-pho.

Orgyanpa’s work is cited, if not quoted, again on p. 68: “Rgyal-po Rabs Phreng las / Bla-chen gyis / Khams kyi Sog-po mi drug la sdom pa phog / de'i nang tshan btsun chen Sher-'byung gis Grum la / des Klu-mes sogs la phog zer.” But here there is a problem, since this can at best be a paraphrase of information found here and there in our ms. of Orgyanpa’s work, certainly not a direct quote. This problem could use some closer scrutiny. I suppose it might be a sign our available ms. is not a complete one.

Jampa Samten & Dan Martin, “Letters for the Khans: Six Tibetan Epistles of Togdugpa Addressed to the Mongol Rulers Hulegu and Khubilai, as well as to the Tibetan Lama Pagpa,” contained in: Roberto Vitali et al., eds., Trails of the Tibetan Tradition: Papers for Elliot Sperling, Amnye Machen Institute (Dharamshala 2014), pp. 297-332.

Sun Penghao, The Birth of an Etiquette Story: Tibetan Narrative of O rgyan pa, Qubilai, and the Yuan Government, doctoral dissertation, Harvard University (2023), posted online. The circumstances of Orgyanpa's composition are discussed at pp. 25, 42 et passim. On p. 26 (last lines of note 64), he points to previous mentions of it in Leonard van der Kuijp's work published in 1996 (listed above).

Giuseppe Tucci, Preliminary Report on Two Scientific Expeditions in Nepal, Serie Orientale Roma series no. 10, Istituto Italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente (Rome 1956). For identifying the Gugé king named  Btsan-phyug-lde, see pp. 28, 53, 66, 69, 70, 107 (these page numbers were not found through Google, and neither were they found through the book’s own index!) Download a free PDF or some such format by going here.

Roberto Vitali, The Kingdoms of Gu.ge Pu.hrang, Tho.ling gtsug.lag.khang (Dharamsala 1996). For identifying the Gugé king named  Btsan-phyug-lde (Vitali, too, places him in mid-12th century) see pp. 121, 139, 361-363, 417, 462, 465-467, 452, 480, 529, 693, 778 (page numbers located through the book’s own index).

Orgyanpa as central figure and Kâlacakra
teacher in a Derge Parkhang Xylograph

Postscript (June 9, 2023)

An excursus on the Turkish connection:  Well, it may be abundantly clear that finding Turkish words and names in our Tibetan sources is like taking a walk in the woods and tripping on a horse egg. But we’ve noticed some of these in an earlier blog.  

I would say the name elements Yazi (ཡ་ཟི་ “scribe”) and Muzi (མུ་ཟི་) are likely Turkish in origin. Yazi is in Turkish with several meanings (one of the being a personal name!), but is likely to mean “scribe.” The noun muzi does indeed occur in Tibetan dictionaries as a word for sulfur, although we have to wonder if it, too, is a borrowing.  

Then what about the name Kazi that we find in the name of Kazi Dawa Samdup (ཀ་ཟི་ཟླ་བ་དོན་གྲུབ་) the Tibetan translator that Evans-Wentz (of Book of the Dead fame) assisted by upgrading his English and adding footnotes, introductions and so on? At the moment I can’t really tell you if Kazi is Turkish, but it is surely a widespread bureaucratic term. Just dig out your Hobson-Jobson and have a look at its entry for “Cazee, Kajee,” where a sketch history of its usage is offered. It may best be explained as the Arabic word kaḍi for judge. Under the British in India, Kazi was a normal word for native judges who acted in a subordinate capacity to English judges. Although Kazi Dawa Samdup worked as a school teacher, as far as I know, it is entirely possible that one of his forbearers was a judge. It seems kazi had a local meaning in Sikkim that I’m not entirely clear about.

Tibetan history knows yet another two-syllable name element with second syllable “zi” - the clan name Gazi (ག་ཟི་), the hereditary lineage that headed the Taglung and Kham Riwoche monasteries.

I wonder if this, too, may be of foreign origin, and Old Turkish is the first possibility that comes to mind. To be sure, in later Turkish gazi means a victorious warrior or general, in modern Turkish a war veteran... but it may also be a late borrowing from Arabic.  In Ottoman times, if not in earlier centuries, there was such a lot of vocabulary exchange between Turkish, Arabic and Persian.

Peter Schwieger wrote an article about the Ga-zi clan in the 1996 Kailash. I’ll go find out the publishing details and let you know.

Here you go, found it!  “The Lineage of the Noble House of Ga-zi in East Tibet,” Kailash, vol. 18, nos. 3-4 (1996), pp. 115-132. You can download an instant pdf version of it here.