Not a Padampa

As we’re prone to do when trapped in our rooms with nowhere to go, I was wearing out my eyesight for a good cause browsing through some recently posted photos of Tibetan art works at Himalayan Art Resources website. If you are reading Tibeto-logic you no doubt already know that HAR is the best place in the whole universe to see Tibetan art. No museum can compete with it, not even the Newark Museum. I was thrilled to see what did at first seem to me to be a brassy image of our hero Padampa. Have a look at it yourself by tapping on those purple colored words (or are they orange, you decide). I mean, it has one hand raised above the head, the other holding what could very well be a bag, and we know that Padampa’s “Interdependence Bag” does at times occur as part of his iconography, even in his left hand as we see here. And Padampa was well known for practicing yogic gazes out into space, something perhaps indicated by the way the right hand is raised above the head. But when I looked at the back side of the lotus throne, I soon changed my mind. There we can read a inscription very clearly: 

grub thob gling la na mo, or Praise to the Siddha Ling.  

That means Lingrepa Pema Dorjé. On him have a look at the biographical sketch at Treasury of Lives. He may be regarded as the founder of the Drukpa Kagyü order, even if there has been some equivocation on that point. And that means the school affiliation of the image supplied on the website requires emending, too. Lingrepa is normally depicted in his untamable Siddha aspect, and the presence of a bag may just be telling us he was a wandering yogi, one who packed a bit of food for along the way, as yogis had been doing in India and Tibet all along, not just Padampa. I should look into this question, but right off the top of my head I just don’t know of any affinities Lingrepa may have had for Padampa or the Zhijé School. I do know that Lingrepa was often compared to the Indian Mahâsiddha Saraha, the one who made arrows.

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Read more

A fine new essay about Lingrepa has appeared. You may be able to locate a free copy of it on the internet, if not right at this moment in the near future. Here are the details: Marco Walther, “The Development of the Biographies of Gling ras pa Padma rdo rje (1128-1188),” Bulletin of Tibetology, vol. 51 nos. 1-2 (2015), pp. 99-113. It has a bibliography that includes earlier writings you may want to look into.

I guess I had a point to make about iconography here, and never actually made it. Padampa appears in many forms besides the better known ones (try looking here). There are quite a few un-inscribed portrait images that I would regard — because of a cluster of traits associated with him — to be what I call possible Padampas. This image could at first glance qualify as one of them, no doubt, but when we turn it over and find the label we realize our mistake.*

(*We might want to make an argument that labels carved in stone or etched in metal are always correct, but nowadays with the stakes high there is really no limit to the things business people might do to increase the value of their pieces. That said, I hasten to add that there is not any reason to think that is happening in this instance. After all, those particular iconographic features could just as well apply to Lingrepa as far as we can know, and anyway no particular advantage could be expected by altering the identity of the person portrayed. If anything, a depiction of Padampa would have more, and not less, value than one of Lingrepa.)

PS (March 24, 2020)

Since posting this I thought to take a closer look at other Padampa images that are featured on this HAR webpage. I was surprised to see a special category of Padampas in the [right hand] “salute gesture.” This does of course include the very image that contains the inscription identifying it as Lingrepa, and to me this casts in doubt the inclusion of this entire group among the Padampas. Why not call them all Lingrepas on the strength of the inscriptional evidence? Still, there are one or two examples in this group that have enough Padampa characteristics I would still want to call them possible Padampas, this one in particular, although the right hand really isn’t raised high enough to be in the salute gesture. This same one has been published a few times, as for example in D. Weldon & J.C. Singer, The Sculptural Heritage of Tibet, Laurence King (London 1999), plate 31 on pp. 154-55, where it is labelled as “Yogin.” This yogin, along with the nude image that once belonged to  R. H. Ellsworth, I regard as possible or possibly even probable Padampas, as I’ve argued before in the case of the Ellsworth.

PPS (March 26, 2020)

Just to add perplexity to complication, try this experiment. Go to the HAR website’s page about a thangka with Pemakarpo as its central figure. Scroll down the page until you find a detail with the added label “Ling Repa.” Tap it for a closer view (or go here). If it didn’t hit you like a hammer right away, let me tell you, this is a perfectly normal Zhijé form of Padampa, with the mirroring hand gestures unique to Padampa, the loose blanket around the lower part of the body, the earrings, everything. In my mind this is not just a possible Padampa, it’s a definite one. If you would like to have a closer look at the painting as a whole, you can see what I believe are biographical scenes from the life of Pemakarpo, the Fourth Drukchen showing his meditations and visionary experiences. One of these scenes shows what I imagine is the Drukchen himself in a posture of veneration beneath what would have to be a vision of Padampa's presence. Unless there is a label saying Lingrepa somewhere there, and I couldn’t find one, I think that is what we are seeing. Oh, and one more thing, unlike Lingrepa, we know that Pemakarpo had Zhijé teachings, and he composed a respectably lengthy text on the subject (details here).

HAR 65368, detail

PPPS (April 11, 2020)

Here’s another bit of fun with iconography I’d like to share and discuss if you have time for it. Have a look at this all-too-short video that informs us that the thangka, while bearing characteristic marks of an old (perhaps pre-Mongol period) painting, nevertheless has to be dated two centuries later because the curator identified a figure in its upper register as being Pema Lingpa (1450-1521 CE). It’s true that Pema Lingpa is often depicted this way, with an Orgyan hat like that of Guru Rinpoche and the longlife vase held in the palms of hands in meditation gesture, just as you see here. But notice right away in the first seconds of the video the arrow pointing to something the unnamed scholars supposedly missed, an inscription that indeed reads when we standardize the Tibskrit spellings Puṇyamaṅgalaṃ. Okay, but this is a Sanskritized 'name mantra' of a Tibetan (as we can see in the portrait itself) who would have been named Bsod-nams-bkra-shis.  The name Bsod-nams-bkra-shis does not as far as anyone seems to know belong to any set of names given to Pema Lingpa.  We know it *does* belong to a number of other people. So answer this puzzle: Given the fact that it fits the iconography and looks like Pema Lingpa, the label tells us it must be someone else. Is someone overlooking something?*

*(Just now I noticed that HAR has posted a version of this same painting with added English identifications. Have a look.)

Finally, if you went to HAR and liked what you saw there, you might consider a donation by looking at its Go Fund Me page. It's just a suggestion, I mean it's no business of mine what you do with your hard earned money or your ill-gotten gains. Whichever.

A Padampa Portrait Painting: The Middle

Zhije Lineage Tree, photo courtesy of Sotheby's
(click on the photo for an enlargement [I hope] - 
click on the enlargement for a super-sized version -
The copyright for the image remains with Sotheby's)

My, isn't this an amazingly beautiful painting?  Just ignore the stuff I'm writing here and go back to look some more at that painting. Some of the figures are so alive, you imagine they might talk to you or step off the page. Even if it is only partly there, it is really remarkable for so many reasons. Even if you didn't know the central figure was Padampa (and I do know that it's Padampa as you will see) it would be fascinating.

Now that we've seen and said how beautiful it is, let's look into what can be known about this historically richly important painting. The first thing that I believe can be known without a doubt is that the central figure is Padampa. I would know this if only the central figure, nothing else, were visible in it. Equally, if only the surrounding figures were visible while the central figure was left blank, I could tell you who the person in the blank space ought to be, so much am I sure of this identification. But you may need to read further into this blog if you want to learn at least some of the sources of my conviction, not least among which is an early text that basically tells you what the Zhije lineage tree would look like if you were to visualize it. The text is very likely to date from somewhere close to the same time as the painting itself. But please don't do as I know some are inclined to do and assume that the painting must have proceeded out of the text. It could be that the painting is older. Try to keep an opened mind. We'll go where the evidence leads us.

First, some necessary disclaimers:

I don't have any connection to the art trade, let alone any art auctioning houses.  I wouldn't call myself a collector, or if I am, I never owned any art that cost me more than one hundred dollars, which I guess from some perspectives would label me as pathetic. I have nothing to gain or lose if anything I might say would have an effect on the future placement of this painting or the livelihood of its owners, although my best hope is that it will go to a public institution (like a museum) that will take care of it well. I find it a matter both for pride and alarm that Tibetan paintings have already a few years ago pushed through the million dollar ceiling. 


Well... This kind of neutrality is important. With no economic interests, I can speak freely but perhaps, too, you might feel a little more inclined to believe what I have to say, although it's hard to feel too sure of it. I won't even pretend to be neutral about Padampa. What would he think about all this high-level commerce going on around his person? If you need to ask this question, it's clear you have yet to be introduced.

I was surprised to see this painting on auction, although I wasn't surprised that it existed. I knew about it back in around 2004 or 2005, when I corresponded about it with A.H. It was A.H. (I will put your complete name here if you will permit me) who brought it to my attention for the first time and sent me some photographs. I very much wanted to study it and write about it, but the owner at the time, it appears, was not interested. He wanted to keep its existence a secret. I must admit, I was a little annoyed by this decision, especially since I was at the time writing up an article, meanwhile published, on the iconography of Padampa. 

Now compare the central figure in the painting with the figure on your left in this ink drawing dating to the mid-13th century:

Ink drawn miniature - Padampa ("Dam-pa") on your left, his student Kunga on your right -
from vol. 2 (kha), folio 15, the Zhijé Collection scribed in 1245 or so

When you compare the two Padampas illustrated here so far, you see a few remarkable things in common. First of all visualize the thrones away as irrelevant. Then look at the interesting and unusual ‘lobed’ hair on top of his head (more on this later) with what looks like several small braids splayed out over the shoulders.  Look a little closer and notice the skimpy beard in both portraits.


Wait, let me try and put a detail of the painted head up here for you so you won’t have to scroll back and forth so much:

The hand gestures (the mudrâs) are different, but then they are different in all the images in the Zhijé Collection (I’ve only put one example here; others may be seen in the Martin article listed below). Both are seen sitting in what might best be described as a sitting bag, otherwise they both are basically naked. I’m not an expert on this subject, but I imagine the style of Padampa’s loincloth in the painting resembles better the simpler style of underwear, with string or twisted cloth tied at the sides, used in South India (kaupina seems to be the word for it) than the somewhat more complicated langot[i] used in the north. I won’t embarrass myself by exposing more of my ignorance on this particular matter, although I would warmly welcome clarification from those more knowledgeable. If it is in fact an item of South Indian attire depicted here, there is something wonderful about knowing this. It lends a touch of South Indian authenticity to his portrayal.

I promised to return to the hair. Perhaps you are already aware that Padampa is normally portrayed in more recent Tibetan art with something closely resembling the standard “Buddha curls.”  In early art, as well as this text that must date to mid 13th century, we find something different:

“Imagine the precious holy Indian Dampa with a body of dark brown color with a reddish cast, his hair rising up like elm tree [leaves?], wearing a varicolored loincloth, his hands held in a cross-pointed (tips crossed?) gesture [capable] of pressing down all of phenomenal existence if he pressed down with them or raising it up if he raised them.”*

(*For the source, see the work by ’Jam-dbyangs-mgon-po listed below, p. 413. This passage was cited already in Martin’s 2006 article, pp. 118-119. The Tibetan text will be examined a little further on in this blog.)

Let’s think about what this passage says. Ignore for the time being the mudrâ, since the fact is the language of the description isn’t clear, and in early representations his gestures haven’t become fixed yet.  Then notice it says that his body was “of dark brown color with a reddish cast.” This rather exact description of skin tone seems to be followed out in the painting. If that idea leaves you plagued by doubts, notice the mention of the loincloth, not often seen in Padampa portraits (although I get your point, it doesn’t seem to be very ‘variegated’ in color as the text would have it).  Is it possible that this text played a role in the making of the painting? 


I’m not sure we can answer the question. Still, in the attempt we may learn something. Besides, if some large part of the information in the text corresponds with what is in the painting, it ought to be enough for us. I think the information that enters into the painting has the same general source as that that enters into the text, so one may be used to illuminate (or in some cases perhaps add to or correct) the other.

Well, what I’ve just described is a major project that may take more effort and time than I can give to it. I think we will have to bring a lot of texts into account to explain the painting in its entirety. Two cases in point are the identity of the two divine mandala arrays on either side of Padampa, but on his same mid-level part of the painting. Let's start with the one on his right (your left):

Detail of divine assemblage on the central figure’s right side

Although I haven’t yet located any text about her, neither among the Tanjur texts by Padampa nor in the Zhijé Collection, it appears we must identify the central figure as Rdo-rje-gtum-mo, with the four surrounding figures being the las-mkhan-ma. Basing ourselves on the Dharmaśrī text in the Gdams-ngag Mdzod, vol. 13, p. 251, they are:

1. In the southeastern quarter, lion-faced.
2. In the southwestern quarter, tiger-faced.
3. In the northwestern quarter, monkey-faced.
4. In the northeastern quarter, wolf-faced.

Given that east is usually the direction closest to the viewer, the orientation may need to be tipped 90° or so one way or another... Do you think the textual information fits the animal heads in the painting?

Divine assemblage on the central figure’s left side

On Padampa’s left side is a different divine assemblage, with a form of Vajravārāhī at the center. In this case we do have a Padampa text in the Tanjur. It’s this one: Rdo-rje-phag-mo’i sgrub-thabs — Toh. 2328, found in vol. ZHI, fol. 269, where she is described like this:

rnam par dag pa lha'i sku zhal gcig phyag gnyis pa gri gug dang thod pa dang kha ṭwāṃ gi 'dzin pa / sku mdog dmar ba la dur khrod chas kyis brgyan pa zhabs g.yas bskum pa / g.yon brkyang bas dus mtshan ma mnan pa / gar dgu'i nyams kyis bzhugs pa bsgom par bya'o //

To translate quickly: 

“Visualize a perfectly immaculate divine form of one face and two arms holding chopper and skullcup and khatvanga, her body red in color ornamented with the cemetery items, her right leg bent, the right extended pressing down Kālarātri (Dus-mtshan-ma), displaying all nine communicable dramatic emotions (rāsa).”

The main different aspect of this portrayal is that Vajravārāhī has a sow’s head alone.  Usually the sow’s head is off to the side of a human face. The single representation that exists for her among the ink drawings in the Zhijé Collection, doesn’t appear to show any sow’s face at all, but it isn’t all that clear. It is at least of interest because the loose scarf floats around her in a very similar way to the one in the painting.  The legs are reversed, you may notice.

Now that we’ve finished with the central register, we’ll talk about the figures both visible and invisible in the upper register, along with the group primarily made up of Tibetan followers of the Zhijé lineage down below Padampa, in an upcoming blog posting.  Until then...

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Here is the description of “Lot 85” of the Stuart Carey Welch collection, Part II, at the Sotheby’s site. Try to get there soon in case the link expires (it has expired, and I apologize for that [June 2018]. Perhaps this link will take you to it.).

Although Stuart Carey Welch was born long before me, we were born in the same city. For an obituary look here. He specialized in Indian Mughal and Islamic art, and taught for 35 years at Harvard. I once had one of his books as the only assigned textbook in an Islamic art class. That's the main reason I remember his name. He was definitely one who felt that one could appreciate art and art history well enough without being encumbered by the language used in the culture that produced the art. Perhaps that helped to make his book more suitable for an undergraduate course, if I may be forgiven for trying my best to put this all in a better light.

Not everyone joined in the “chorus of praise” for Sotheby’s record-breaking sale (i.e., earnings) of the Islamic art in the Welch collection that took place in April. Here is what Souren Melikian had to say about it. Souren Melikian, by the way, is one of the most formidable scholars on the subject of early Iranian and Islamic connections with Buddhism and Buddhist art, and on the history of Iranian Buddhism in general. His criticism of the auction houses in recent years has placed them on the defensive, which is probably why they more than anyone need to hear what he has to say. I’m just passing on this information. I’m not eager to criticize auction houses or the people who bid in them, not today.  Today, if you don’t mind, I’ll feign neutrality and keep my opinions to myself.

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More to read, as if you can’t find enough, and even more discussions of tediously minor issues that have to do with trees, hair and the like:

On the iconography of Padampa, see D. Martin, Padampa Sangye: A History of Representation of a South Indian Siddha in Tibet.  Contained in: Rob Linrothe, ed., Holy Madness: Portraits of Tantric Siddhas, Rubin Museum of Art (New York 2006), pp. 108-123. There is a brief but substantial iconographical study of Padampa (Pha Dam-pa Sangs-rgyas) contained in Lokesh Chandra, Transcendental Art of Tibet, International Academy of Indian Culture and Aditya Prakashan (New Delhi 1996), pp. 97-8, revised in Lokesh Chandra, Dictionary of Buddhist Iconography, International Academy of Indian Culture and Aditya Prakashan (New Delhi 2003) vol. 9, pp. 2619-20.


'Jam-dbyangs-mgon-po, Grub-chen Dam-pa Sangs-rgyas-nas Brgyud-pa'i Dam-chos Sdug-bsngal Zhi-byed-kyi Lam Lnga'i Khrid-yig Dri-med Snang-ba Grub-pa Mchog-gi Zhal-lung, contained in Gdams-ngag Mdzod: A Treasury of Precious Methods and Instructions of the Major and Minor Buddhist Traditions of Tibet, Brought Together and Structured into a Coherent System by 'Jam-mgon Kong-sprul, Lama Ngodrup and Sherab Drimey (Paro 1979-1981), vol. 13, pp. 409-438. About the author of this text, which is misattributed in the Table of Contents, look here and here. Following is the text of the passage translated above, although I also consulted a parallel in the same volume. This passage is on p. 413:  rje btsun dam pa rgya gar rin po che sku mdog smug la dmar ba'i mdangs chags pa / dbu skra bho lo ltar gzengs pa / sku la ras khra bo'i am gar ga gsol ba / snang srid thams cad mnan na non pa / btegs na theg pa / phyag rgya rtse bsnol du lag ge ba. This differs from, and deserves comparison with, the parallel in the same volume at p. 369 buried in a lengthy work by Smin-gling Lo-chen Dharmaśrī (1654-1717): rje btsun dam pa rgya gar rin po che sku mdog smug la dmar ba'i mdangs chags pa / dbu skra yo 'bog gi sdong po ltar gzengs pa / sku la ras khra bo'i ang rag gsol ba / snang srid thams cad mnan na non pa / btegs na theg pa / phyag rgya rtsa bsnol du bzhugs par bsam mo. I located in medical reference books the Tibetan word yo-'bog, identified as Ulmus pumila: Siberian elm. I thought it ought to mean the rather serrated lobes of the leaves, but here it clearly says that his hair rises up like the trunk (or just the whole tree) of the Siberian elm. I couldn't identify the bho-la found in the other text, although I suppose it could be Zhangzhung language for rabbit, or, as found in other T-B languages, a word for thumb (just grasping at straws here, friend).


There is, if truth be told, a small body of literature about hair - and the absence of hair - among Buddhists. But perhaps the most interesting for present contexts is Benjamin Bogin, The Dreadlocks Treatise: On Tantric Hairstyles in Tibetan Buddhism, History of Religions, vol. 48, no. 2 (November 2008), pp. 85-109 (references to further literature on hair may be found here).


Are you surprised that there is actually a blogger site devoted to traditional Indian underwear and loincloths in particular? When you get over your amazement, you can find it here. The Tibetan words for loincloth used in the two versions of that early description of Padampa are am-gar-ga (probable better reading: am-ga-rag) and ang-rag. I've never seen the first spelling, even in the corrected reading of it, while the second is seen occasionally, but not all that often. Tibetans in the past have been known to wear the loincloth, although it’s not the usual fashion. As suggested by one Bengali scholar whom I’ll mention in a moment, it seems to be limited to Tibetan yogi types and not everyday wear by ordinary people. I’ve been assured that traditional Tibetans wore something they call[ed] a smad-g.yog, which just means a lower [body] wrap, and as the name suggests it's just a piece of cloth wrapped like a very short skirt around the waist without — how shall we say it — any support mechanism. In his often but not always reliable (in my humble opinion) listing of Indic loan words in Tibetan, Vidhushekhara Bhattacharya, Loan Words in Tibetan, Archiv Orientalni, vol. 6 (1934), pp. 353-357, at p. 356, no. 74, says that an-'ga'-rag, another spelling I haven’t encountered, means “the trousers worn as an under-garment by Tantric priests in Tibet, cf. Hindi aṅgarkhā, Skt. aṅgarakṣā.” The Sanskrit word he gives means literally limb protection, and that might appear to suit the loincloth somehow, come to think of it, but my Monier-Williams dictionary gives a closely similar word as meaning limbs protector, which is to say coat of mail. An epigraphical dictionary says it means [the king's] bodyguard. Other sources translate it as coat or even turban. The Hindi word he gives is not in my Hindi dictionary. So, well, I don’t know if Bhattacharya is right on this or not, although the reading am-ga-rag would seem to help him, if this is the right reading and if it would in fact represent an earlier and not-yet-so-Tibetanized form of the presumably borrowed word. No plausible Tibetan etymology of the two syllables ang and rag rises up to suggest itself, so let’s bet more than even odds it really is a borrowing of some kind or another. Still, I haven’t succeeded in finding any source for the notion that Sanskrit aṅgarakṣā means underwear. I’ll keep looking.

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Note:  I’ve timed the posting of this blog for the day after the painting is to be auctioned. If you think about my possible reasons for doing this, I don’t think you’ll be too far off.  


Happy Birthday, Larry!



PS (Dec. 1, 2014):  Thanks for Small Person for pointing out that the url stopped working.  I hope it will work now!

The Magical Medical Bag Texts

An instructional chart showing the positions of some of the internal organs

A library in Copenhagen, the Royal Library in fact, has what I once believed to be a unique manuscript of a medical collection that is attributed to the authorship of Padampa. When I noticed it in a catalog, I was a little more than just intrigued, I immediately wrote away to the city of the Tivoli Gardens and still other amusements in order to eventually acquire a copy of it for my personal perusal. I can’t say I was disappointed at what it contained, since I already had some idea of what it was about. I was much more surprised, even on the verge of shock when, several months later, I saw a manuscript of what appeared to be a text from the same cycle of medical texts on e-Bay. I couldn’t resist my immediate impulse to place a bid on it. I felt that I was saving it. At the time, at least, I thought so.

Now there are several reasons not to buy Tibetan texts on e-Bay. Without going into all of them all at once, one reason is that not so many people are able to tell how valuable these things are. This goes not just for buyers but also, or perhaps even more so, for the sellers. Sometimes texts that are extremely common are priced sky high, while rare or seldom encountered texts are sold for practically nothing. The latter was the case with our medical text. I think to most e-Bay buyers one page of Tibetan writing is as good as the next.

If you will allow me to pass on a lesson hard learned, there is yet another reason not to buy Tibetan texts on e-Bay. That is: You never know if you are getting the whole complete text, and anyway, the dealers might actually feel encouraged to split up texts into several batches to sell one batch at a time thereby squeezing more out of their money cow. They believe the buyer will never know. So why not? Although I can’t be sure, I believe this is what happened with this magical medical text, which is complete as far as it goes, but then stops very abruptly. I must confess, as a buyer of this e-Bay artifact I might have unwittingly aided and abetted this practice. And of course, there is the broader issue of the stripping of Mongolia and Tibet of their traditional Buddhist cultural items. Tourist-market fakes along with legitimate reproductions come in to meet the demand, with the positive effect of leaving the real things alone (if, that is, there are any real things left).


Now that I’ve no doubt succeeded in making you think less of me as a person, I would like to go on to talk about the text itself, albeit in the form of a different manuscript, at least enough to make much different sorts of points.  


The text in the Copenhagen library is listed in the Tarab - Buescher catalog, no. 983 at page 474 of volume 1.  Here the title is quite accurately given (I only fixed one small thing) as

Grub pa'i dbang phyug chen po dam pa sangs rgyas kyi rten 'brel dang bla ma brgyud pa'i gsol 'debs sogs dang man ngag 'khyug dpyad dkar nag khra gsum kha 'thor gyi 'khyug dpyad dang bcas pa phyogs gcig tu bkod pa me tog phreng mdzes zhes bya ba gzhan na med pa dge'o.  

The description of the content given here is also not 100% non-misleading. It says “Prayer related to the lineage of Pha Dam pa saṅs rgyas, followed by instructions on spiritual practices such as guru-yoga and on a number of (magical) practices expedient in all kinds of adversities.”


The first third is correct. There is a (but surely not the) lineage of Padampa there. The last third is correct, it's all about magical practices against various adversities (but primarily medical ones). The middle part is a little misleading. True, there is something there (on folio 4) that might be called guru-yoga, but very little. Really, it’s all about the magic — magic mainly against illnesses of the human body, but at the same time no reason not to include magic for solving social problems like gossip, or elemental disturbances in the environment, like floods. All very pragmatic. All very  much on the level of magic (and medicine), not spirituality.


The catalog entry tells us it was dictated to the scribe and disciple Rinchen Dargyé by his disciple Pel Wangchen Gargyi Wangchug Gyerab Dorjé.* 

(*In Wylie these names are Rin-chen-dar-rgyas and Dpal Dbang-chen-gar-gyi-dbang-phyug-rgyas-rab-rdo-rje — I think this last part should read dgyes-rab-rdo-rje. I have no idea who these people are, do you?).

The loose folio pages are numbered from 1 through 27.  Almost all the text, apart from the mantras, is in cursive and scribed in black ink except for occasional use of red ink for emphasis.


Another thing about the text as described there in the catalog that is liable to perk up some peoples’ interests:  “Part of the remaining space on fol. 27 verso has been used by a previous owner for adding, in dBu can script, a short instruction for magically obtaining success in various sorts of gambling.” Are you thinking what I’m thinking? Too bad if you are, because I’m going to try it out for myself first.


One thing the Copenhagen catalog does not tell us is who the Terton (gter-ston or gter-bton) was. Tertons, in case you are not yet aware of it, are treasure revealers. They do Buddhist-inspired archaeology, coming up with items of significance to their traditions. Many of these treasures (gter) are in the form of texts, or coded instructions for generating texts, or for touching off memory of the original teaching scene in the far distant past.


We may know this cycle of texts (or this three-fold cycle of texts) is one of these treasure texts because it is listed in the genre of texts called Teachings Received (Thob-yig or Gsan-yig) pertaining to such highly regarded historical teachers as Terdag Lingpa (1646‑1714), the Fifth Dalai Lama, Akhuching (1803‑1875), and the Tagdrag Regent (1874-1952). I’ve given some of the relevant content of some of these texts in an appended section below.


In the title itself, but also in the listings of contents, we may easily see that the cycle is a three-fold one. The word 'khyud-dpyad may cause problems for many Tibetanists, but the simple answer is that, whatever else it means, it means the medicine bag traditionally carried by Tibetan doctors. The three cycles could be translated as The White Medicine Bag, The Checkered Medicine Bag, and The Black Medicine Bag. I can easily show you what a Tibetan doctor’s bag looks like by pointing you to the Googlebooks version of Rechung Rinpoche's book that you will find here. I hope the link works for you. If not, the very same bag has been uploaded in color to various sites around the internet, so I feel free to pass it on (minus the misleading descriptive labeling).

A Medicine Bag (Wellcome Institute, London?)

From the just-mentioned Records of Teachings Received we may find revealed the name of the Terton who found the text. It was an obscure person by the name of Khamtön Sherabpel (Khams-ston Shes-rab-dpal) who found it at a place called Longtang Drolma (Klong-thang Sgrol-ma). 

This place in Kham, not too far from Dergé I believe, plays several roles in Tibetan history. Its temple was originally built by Emperor Songtsen Gampo in order to press down the left palm of a restless rakshasi, detected through geomantic methods, who would have wreaked havoc otherwise. It was a place associated with the 1oth-century visit of the Indian teacher Smriti. His story is well known. Although very learned, he couldn’t express himself in the local language and so had no choice but to find work as a shepherd. Eventually he was able to found an Abhidharma teaching school at Longtang. As an imperial period construction, it isn’t very surprising that treasures might be found there, and I’ve noticed another example. That Padampa personally hid the treasure there is an essential part of the story, and I haven’t located in biographical accounts of Padampa any information that he went there but, well, I’m still looking.


The Terton is so obscure I do not find anything about him in the standard histories of the Tertons.  We might guestimate his date by looking at the lineages. These place him 16 generations before the Fifth Dalai Lama (1617‑1682).  Let’s see, that would make him active somewhere around 1370, would it?


I won’t say more about the content of this work today. What you will see at the link that is soon to follow is a scan of the e-Bay version of the text. (Not, I repeat, not the Copenhagen library manuscript, since it is not within my rights to give — I hope they will put it up on their own site.) Those who already know Tibetan and are trained in magic can benefit from its content. Other people can just look at the pages and wonder, like I do, how such a work could ever have become associated with the name of Padampa.


I know it is rather odd and potentially confusing that all this time I have been describing to you one text, the Copenhagen manuscript, but now I send you a download link for a very different manuscript of (part of) the same collection that I have hardly described for you at all.


When you feel you are ready to go there, push here. See you soon, friends.

(If the download link doesn’t work for you at one try, please don’t give in to frustration. I suggest trying again several hours later or on another day. Use the fastest internet connection you can. Then if you still can’t make it work, I’m always ready to hear your complaints.)

§  §  §

From the Record of Teachings Received of the Great Fifth Dalai Lama, vol. 2, fols. 86-88 (based on a digital version of the text produced by Ven. Carola Roloff):

+ rgya gar dam pa sangs rgyas kyis bod du lan gsum byon pa'i mtha' mar man ngag 'khyug dpyad dkar nag khra gsum khams kyi klong thang sgrol mar gter du sbas pa mkha' 'gro'i lung bstan ltar khams ston shes rab dpal gyis bton pa'i dang po

'khyug dpyad dkar po'i skor la /   'khrug pa dang nad zhi ba /   mi kha dang nad ngan phyogs ngan thub pa /   ske nad mkhal nad zhi ba /   mi phyugs kyi nad rgyun chad pa /   sris rmo ba /   snying rlung /   ro stod /   lag pa so dang ldan pa na ba rnams sel ba /   rlung gi mgo na ba /   dpral ba /   mig  /  bad kan gyi nad /   dpung pa /   ro stod /   pus mo /   byin pa /   long bu /   rkang mthil na ba rnams gso ba /   rlung /   tshad pa /   grang ba /   lus tsha hra ba byed pa rnams sel ba /   skyug pa /   'khru ba /   gzer nad /   mgo gcod sel ba /   rgyun du gnod pa'i 'dre zhi ba rnams /  

'khyug dpyad khra bo la /   rta phyugs kyi nad zhi ba /   'dre byed ba /   'thab mo nyung ba /   'dre gnod thog 'tshag 'od 'khrug zhi ba /   bkra shis shing sa dpyad ngan pa zhi ba /   yams nad 'chad cing zhi ba /   sa 'dul /   dag zhi ba /   ngag dang stobs zhi ba /   rlung chen ldang ba /   'dre thams cad thub pa /   mi kha dang dgra nyung ba /   stobs bskyed pa /   chu kha smras /   mes mi 'tshig pa dang [087a] me mched pa zhi ba /   phan gnod gang yang sdeb thub pa /   mi kha zhi ba /   dgra 'dre thub pa /   dgra jag 'thab rtsod zhi ba /   'thab mo mi 'byung ba /   'khrug pa bzlum pa /   rlung gnon /   lhog pa thub pa /   nam mkha'i nad zhi ba /   sel zhi ba /   nad ngan thub cing don 'grub pa /   'de drag po'i gnod pa dang zug gzer gcog pa /   rbad 'dre dang khyi du ba mtshan ma ngan pa rnams zhi ba /   ser ba zhi ba /   rkun jag grol ba /   smyo ba'am kha smras dang nad 'byung ba /   thog bsrung rnams /   nag po'i skor la /   'chi la khad bsos pa /   dmag bzlog pa /   dmag byer ba /   gral dpon 'chi ba /   nad kha bsgyur ba /   dmag dang gnod pa kha smras zhi ba /   gzer gyis 'chi ba /   sngo skam la 'gro ba /   khang pa 'gas pa rnams /   zla ba'i 'khyug dpyad la /   dmag  /  bag ma gtong len /   khyim rtsig 'jig  /  lam 'jug ldog  /  ston mo /   gyod len gang la'ang bkra shis par bya ba rnams /   tshes grangs kyi 'khyug dpyad kyis dmag  /  bag ma /   mkhar las /   lam zhugs /   ston mo /   kha mchu sogs gang la'ang shis par bya ba /   yi ge'i 'khyug dpyad kyis zug gcog cing nad rmang nas 'don pa /   skud pa'i 'khyug dpyad kyis nad rnams zhi ba /   mtshon cha'i 'khyug dpyad la /   thog 'tsheg pa dang /   gdon /   gnod byed zhi ba /   dmag bzlog  /  dgra bgegs zhi ba /   brgyal bar byed pa /   lhas ngan dang gnod pa zhi ba rnams /   'chi blu'i 'khyug dpyad kyis nad bso ba /   sna tshogs pa'i 'khyug dpyad la /   skyug pa gcod pa /   gzer nad zhi ba /   spos pa sel ba /   'khru pa gcod pa /   skran nad gso ba rnams /   drang srong rgyu skar gyi 'khyug dpyad la [087b] gsum gyi dkar po la /   skar ma so so'i zla skar la brten pa'i rten 'brel gyi nad gso ba /  

nag po'i 'khyug dpyad la /   sngags kyi kha bsgyur bstan pa /   rta /   bong bu /   glang /   mdzo /   rtol gsod pa /   bu chung ngu ba /   khyi zug pa zhi ba /   mdze 'ong ba /   khyi thams cad sgo la zug pa /   zhing la lo mi skye ba /   lo tog sngo skam la 'gro ba /   chang gtad /   pho mo dbye ba /   khang pa bshig pa /   ltas ngan gtong ba /   'od yong ba /   me 'byung ba /   bya sna tshogs 'bab pa /   gdung thams cad sbrul du 'gro ba /   chu khrag tu 'gro ba /   khang pa 'jig pa /   rmi lam ngan pa sna tshogs 'byung ba /   zhing sel /   bla mtshan nar mar 'bab pa /   lo tog gtan nas mi skye ba /   ljang pa ser skam du 'gro ba /   zhing ri dags kyis mi za ba /   smyo bar byed pa /   gnag thams cad 'gum par byed pa /   'byed pa /   mo mtshan smra bar 'gyur ba /   rabs chad pa /   zhing la ri bong bsrung ba /   dgra thams cad gnyid du 'gro ba rnams kyi lung thob pa'i brgyud pa ni /   'gro mgon dam pa sangs rgyas /   khams ston shes rab dpal /   ston pa chos brtson /   (khams ston shes rab dpal gyis gter ba rton nas ja sig tu bcug smon lam gyi gtad rgya dang bcas bskur ba yin no /   /  ) 'khrul zhig dkon cog gzhon nu /   mtshungs med rin cen shes rab /   'khrul zhig ye shes dpal ba /   rgyal sras shes rab bzang po /   mtshungs med kun dga'i mtshan can /   rtse sgang 'jigs med 'od 'phro /   drin can sangs rgyas bstan pa /   ri khrod pa grags pa bsod nams dpal dbang /   zhi byed bstan pa'i nyi ma karma chos grags /   grub dbang nyi zla grags pa /   rje mgon po lhun grub /   sprul sku sh'akya rin cen /   drin can [088a] gter bdag gling pa /   des bdag za hor bande la'o /   / 

§  §  §

From the Record of Teachings Received of Akhuching:

What follows is a somewhat modified (made into Wylie) version of an extract from the work of Akhuching, dating to 1875, the year of his death, input by the Asian Classics Input Project.  Go here to find the source in its unmodified form.

Lineage of the magical medical text at p. 162v, one that includes Fifth Dalai Lama:

rgya gar dam pa sangs rgyas bod du lan gsum byon pa'i tha mar mkhyud spyad /  gangg'ara 'khyug dpyad zer /  dkar nag khra gsum khams kyi klong thang sgrol mar gter du sbas pa mkha' 'gros lung bstan ltar khams ston shes rab dpal gyis bton pa las /  drang srong rgyu skar gyi mkhyud spyad dkar nag gnyis gangg'ara yod kyang kun mkhyen 'jigs med dbang po'i gsan tho las dpe ma 'byor bas ma thob ces 'dug pa dngos su mthong /  de ma gtogs pa'i pha dam pa'i mkhyud spyad dkar nag khra gsum /  sna tshogs pa'i mkhyud spyad las mtshon cha'i mkhyud spyad kyi gnod byed zhi ba yan chad kyi tho gangg'a dang /  ma dros klong chen dang /  bla ma rdo rje 'chang gi gsan yig shog grangs brgya dang go lnga bar gsal ba ltar rdzogs par thob ba'i lung gi brgyud pa ni /  dam pa sangs rgyas /  khams ston shes rab dpal /  ston pa chos brtson /  'khrul zhig dkon mchog gzhon nu /  rin chen shes rab /  ye shes dpal pa /  shes rab bzang po /  kun dga'i mtshan can /  rtse sgang 'jigs med 'od 'phro /  sangs rgyas bstan pa /  grags pa bsod nams dpal bzang /  karma chos grags /  nyi zla grags pa /  mgon po lhun grub /  sprul sku sh'akya rin chen /  'gyur med rdo rje /  kun gzigs lnga pa chen po /  dge slong 'jam dbyangs grags pa /  bla ma mang thos rgya mtsho /  bla ma rin chen phun tshogs /  dka' chen thabs mkhas rgya mtsho /  rje btsun dkon mchog 'jigs med dbang po /  lcang lung khri rgan dge 'dun bstan 'dzin /  [163a] hor sprul sku blo bzang 'jam dbyangs /  dus 'khor dpon slob dkon mchog dar rgyas /  lha btsun dge legs bstan 'dzin /  rdo rje 'chang dkon mchog rgyal mtshan /  des bdag la'o //

yang na rdo rje 'chang dkon mchog rgyal mtshan /  grub dbang dkon mchog rgya mtsho /  des bdag la'o // mtshon cha'i mkhyud spyad kyi mjug man chad bla mas gsan dus dpe ma 'byor bar snang /  da lta dpe yod kyang lung rgyun btsal dgos /  om swa sti /  sna tshogs cho 'phrul snang ba ma 'gag pas // zhes pa'i dbu can gyi rdzas kyi rten 'brel dkar po brgyad cu /  yang na mo ratna gu ru /  a'a li k'a li'i sgra don bshad pa yis // zhes pa'i dbu can gyi sngags kyi rten 'brel gser gyi char ba gnyis gangg'a dang ma dros klung chen du med kyang tho yig bla ma'i gsan yig tu gsal ba cha tshang bar snga ma dang mnyam du rdo rje 'chang dkon mchog rgyal mtshan pa'i zhal snga nas las thob /

§  §  §

From the Record of Teachings Received of the Tagdrag Regent:

Source:  Works of the Regent Stag-brag Ngag-dbang-gsung-rab-mthu-stobs (1874-1952), vol. 1, pp. 767-775.  This is section NU in a larger title: (ja) Bod kyi mkhas grub rnams kyi gsung rgyun lung gi skor, which takes up vol. 1, pp. 321-858.  For the text of these collected works, see TBRC code no. W29272. I haven’t typed the entire text here, only part, since it is quite long.

(nu) Dam pa sangs rgyas kyi man ngag mkhyud spyad dkar nag khra gsum gyi skor (pp. 767-775). 

[fol. 224r]

NU / 'dir dam pa sangs rgyas kyis bod du lan gsum byon pa'i tha mar man ngag mkhyud spyad dkar nag khra gsum / khams kyi klong thang sgrol mar gter du sbas pa / mkha' 'gro'i lung bstan ltar khams ston shes rab dpal gyis bton pa'i dang po mkhyud spyad dkar po'i skor la / 'khrug pa dang nad zhi ba / mi kha dang nad ngan phyogs ngan thub pa / ske nad mkhas nad zhi ba / mi phyugs kyi nad rgyun chad pa / sris rmi ba / snying rlung / ro stod / lag pa so dang ldan pa na ba rnams sel ba / rlung gis mgo na ba / dpral ba mig / bad kan gyi nad / dpung pa / ro stod / pus mo / byin pa / long bu / rkang mthil na ba rnams gso ba /

rlung / tsha ba / grang ba / lus tsha hra ba byed pa rnams sel ba / skyug pa / 'khru ba / gzer nad / [224v] mgo gcong sel ba / rgyun du gnod pa'i 'dre zhi ba rnams /

[The Checkered Medicine Bag:]

+ mkhyud spyad khra bo la rta phyugs kyi nad zhi ba / 'dre byer ba / 'thab mo nyung ba / 'dre gnod / thog 'tshe ba / 'od 'khyug zhi ba / bkra shis shing sa dpyad ngan bzhi pa / yams nad cha cing zhi ba / sa 'dul / dgra zhi ba / dgra jag 'thab rtsod zhi ba / 'thab mo mi 'byung ba / 'khrug pa bsdum pa / rlung gnon pa / lhog pa thub pa / nam mkha'i nad zhi ba / sel zhi ba / nad ngan thub cing  don 'grub pa / 'dre drag po'i gnod pa dang zug gzer gcod pa / rbad 'dra dang / khyi ngu ba'i mtshan ma ngan pa rnams zhi ba / ser ba zhi ba / rkun jag grol ba / smyo ba'am kha smras dang nad zhi ba / thog bsrung rnams /

[The Black Medicine Bag:]

+ nag po'i skor la /

... ... ... ... text omitted ... ... ...

[226v, line 6]

+ sngags kyi rten 'brel gser gyi char pa'i skor la / 'gor / na mo ratna gu ru / â li kâ li'i sgra don bshad pa yis / [227r] sogs sho lo ka gnyis dang /

rten 'brel dngos la / bla ma'i thugs la 'dogs pa / shes rab me ltar 'bar ba / blo rno ba / rmi lam gsal ba / bud med dbang du bya ba / mi thams cad kyi snying du sdug pa / don grub pa / bdag la nyan pa / don thams cad grub pa / chu'i steng du 'gro ba / mkha' la bya bzhin 'gro ba / dgra zun thams cad kyis gsang tshigs smra ba / lha 'dre thams cad mthong zhing gtam smra ba / sa 'og gi gser mthong ba / sbrul mi 'ong ba / phyogs ngan bzlog pa / rlung mi skye ba /

... ... ... ... text omitted ... ... ... ...

Padampa in his Cutting form, with damaru rattle-drum and bell.

Biblio Notes:

Hartmut Buescher and Tarab Tulku, Catalogue of Tibetan Manuscripts and Xylographs, Det Kongelige Bibliotek (Copenhagen 2000), in two volumes. A PDF of the TOC and introduction of this pricey book may be downloaded without fee here.

The Royal Library in Copenhagen has kindly made freely available digitized versions of some most remarkable Nyingmapa texts from the collection of a famous Manchu prince by the name of Yunli (subject of an amusing yet educational book by Vladimir Uspensky of St. Petersburg that is warmly recommended), but more on that another time. Have a look here. These manuscripts are mainly in very beautifully executed cursive calligraphy, so worthwhile seeing even if you aren’t as eager to read them as you ought to be.


If you need to be introduced to the magic and mystery of Tibetan Tertons, there is nothing out there that can quite match Tulku Thondup Rinpoche's book Hidden Teachings of Tibet: An Explanation of the Terma Tradition of the Nyingma School of Buddhism. Read it if you dare. (It has photos.)

If you liked the frontispiece, and you have an hour to spare, go explore the fascinating Tibetan medical charts at Himalayan Art. Here is a good place to start. If you are wondering about the Tibetan labels in cursive script, they are, starting from the bottom, grod pa, stomach; snying, heart; glo ba, lungs. Then on your right brang rus, chest bone (sternum), and on your left brang khag, chest area (i.e. thoracic region; although you can’t see it here the lower part of the chart is labeled mtshang khag, pelvic region... Well, I like to think of this as a family friendly blog ...  Well, most of the time...). 

Hmm... I got all the way to the end of this blog without once alluding to, let alone paraphrasing or parodying, a famous song by James Brown? 

May all beings find themselves magically freed from every illness
(and never need to see doctors or magicians).




&  &  &

A P.S. for S.P.

re the discussion in the comment section below —

Here is a cutout of something I noticed in the January picture of the Wisdom Tibetan Art Calendar of 2011. I quote it here for commentarial purposes only. To see the complete picture you'll have to consult the calendar itself.  Oh, wait a minute. Somebody put up the entire thangka here. You'll still need to find the physically present calendar to find out what Olaf Czaja has to say about it.  The original is supposed to be in the Joachim Baader Gallery in Munich. The central figure is the Arhat Abheda.

You might expect Arhat paintings to be in an Indian setting, but in fact the figures in them tend to be rather international. Stylistically speaking, they tend to adhere more than Tibetan paintings usually do, to certain Chinese conventions (this is the thesis of Rob Linrothe's beautifully done book Paradise and Plumage: Chinese Connections in Tibetan Arhat Painting, Rubin Museum of Art [NY 2004]).  Still, I'd expect this turbaned figure with travel bags tied to each end of his stick would probably be an Indian sadhu type, perhaps the type known in more recent centuries as a Gosain (?).  He's got two green parrots (?) also, which makes him even more likely to be an Indian.  This is how I imagine Padampa's traveling provisions bag to look like, minus the birds.  Here's a little bigger quote from the same painting:

Notice near the sadhu the monkey entertainer
and the construction worker there next to the Arhat's robes.
I think all three of them are supposed to be Indians.
There must be a story concealed in this delightful detail.

P.P.P.S.


Here's another example of a sadhu's travel kit, taken from a Mongolian or Amdo blockprint that has been reproduced a number of times in publications like Alice Egyed's The Eighty-Four Siddhas (Budapest 1984), and more recently in A Terentyev's Buddhist Iconography Identification Guide (St. Petersburg 2004).  

The label says he is number 53 of the 84 Mahâsiddhas, and his name is given as Dzo-ki-pa, which is to say Yogipâ.  I guess his name doesn't mean much besides that he is a Yogin. His story is that his teacher sent him on pilgrimages to the 24 holy places, which took him twelve years. This nicely explains why he is depicted here on the road. I think this at least supplies a little bit more evidence for what the sadhu’s traveling bag would have looked like.  Speaking of bags, I’ve got a few of my own to pack.