Slippage in Buddhist Geography, by Todd Gibson

Swat River, Pakistan - Wikicommons

“Slippage” in Buddhist Geography: 

Orissa, Bengal, Kashmir, and Nepal as Sacred Proxies

Todd Gibson

Note: Today’s blog is an original essay by Todd Gibson. It is extracted from a chapter of his forthcoming book Inner Asia and the Nyingmapa Tradition of Tibet: The Case of Shri Singha.

 

Abstract: The reconstruction of the history of Buddhism in India and Tibet is complicated by the often-haphazard approach to geography found in the Indic sources, and a changing understanding of Indian names in the Chinese material. It is becoming apparent, however, that the shifts in perception of what geographical terms referred to was not always due to a mere lack of adequate information; the article discusses four cases which demonstrate deliberate, ideologically-motivated relocation of sacred sites away from the Indian border areas in the wake of historical changes.

It has long been noticed that geographical accuracy was not a great concern for many Indian scholars of the past. In his masterly survey of esoteric Buddhism in India, Davidson notes (2002, p. 33) that “geographical terms are used in a hazy and imprecise manner” and “alternate names are encountered with alarming suddenness in epigraphs and literature”. As a result, “The problem of the relationship between designation and locale can be acute, especially in medieval Buddhist literature.” This relationship is even more tenuous in Indian accounts of the countries of the mleccha peoples, those which lay beyond the civilized area of Āryavārta.

Chinese sources dealing with Indian Buddhist history must also be used with caution. When Buddhism first began to appear in China, the Chinese had only the haziest geographical understanding of the Indian subcontinent. As a result, the names of Indian locales in Chinese sources altered over time, sometimes (but not always) reflecting an improved understanding of the facts on the ground. Another factor that must be taken into account in weighing geographical references in Chinese Buddhist accounts is the veneration of central India as the holy land of Buddhism, and the increasing desire to distinguish the Buddhism of India from that of the Inner Asian peoples who were China’s neighbors, and who had an often-troubled relationship with the Chinese.[1] These factors, however, do not tell the whole story; creative geography in the service of religious legitimation that is found in some sources (both Indian and Tibetan), is a factor that has not yet been well examined. This article treats four cases in which this factor contributed to several persistent but inaccurate identifications of sacred lands.

The first of these cases is the country of Odiyana.[2] The current scholarly consensus in the West is that the name (in Sanskrit: Uḍḍyāna, Uḍḍiyāna, Oḍḍiyāṇa, Uḍyāna,[3] etc.; in Tibetan: Urgyan, Orgyan), narrowly defined, is conterminous with the region of Swat in the north of present-day Pakistan, a valley west of the Indus and separated from the Indus valley by a single range of mountains. This identification, based first on the testimony of Chinese pilgrims such as Xuanzang,[4] was accepted by early scholars such as Aurel Stein and Giuseppe Tucci,[5] and has been supported by the vast number of Buddhist archaeological data that are still coming to light.[6] Their opinion been followed by the majority of Buddhologists since (dissenting opinions will be discussed below), and can be accepted with some important qualifications.

As is the case with so many toponyms in India and elsewhere, Uḍḍiyāna has not been an entity with fixed boundaries throughout its history. Upasak (1990, pp. 20- 24) has asserted that in the early Indic sources, it designated modern eastern Afghanistan while Kapiśa meant that country’s central region, and Bālhīka its north. He cites Ptolemy as indicating that the name included the whole region to the north and west of the realm of Gandhāra, centered on what is now Jalalabad, and including the Swat valley, but adds that by the fourth or fifth century, Uḍḍiyāna sometimes meant only the eastern part of this region, up to the Indus, while the land from the Kabul River to the Khyber Pass was called Nagarahāra. In considering references to Odiyana, particularly in Chinese sources, it is often necessary to distinguish between these meanings. 

While among Buddhologists, the view now seems to be that, when discussing Buddhist esoterism, Odiyana is indeed to be located in Swat, there have been attempts to claim that the Oḍḍiyāna of the Sanskrit Buddhist sources refers not to the Eastern Afghanistan or Swat regions, but rather the area of Orissa/Odishya (Oḍra) in eastern India. Among modern Indian scholars, this may even be the majority[7] view, but some Western commentators have also thought among similar lines. Huntington (1975, p. 8 n. 12), for example, claimed that “there is substantial indication in Tāranātha’s History of Buddhism in India . . . that the Uḍḍiyana of the 8th and 9th centuries would have been in the Orissan or the Orissan-Bengal border region.” He bases this evaluation on the idea that most of the mahāsiddhas mentioned in the History were supposedly active in this area.[8] On the other hand, Tāranātha closes his book (Chimpa and Chattopadhyaya, 1970, p. 351) by saying that he was not able to include an account of how Buddhism spread to Kashmir, Odiyana (Urgyan), Tokharistan, or South India, for lack of detailed source material. This seems to argue against a location in Orissa. In any case, Tāranātha composed his work in the 17th century, and some of his Indian sources may well have placed Uḍḍiyāna in east-central India.

In his translation of the “official” biography of the master Shan wu wei, the first of the recognized patriarchs of the main East Asian Buddhist tradition, Chou (1945, p. 252 n. 4), notes that the same Chinese logograph can be used to represent Odiyana and Orissa/ Odishya, and clearly this was one of the reasons for a confusion between the two.[9] A possible example of this confusion is found in the history of a major sutra, the Avataṃsaka, in China. The first complete translation of this sutra into Chinese was carried out in 420 by Buddhabhadra, a monk from Afghanistan,[10] who had obtained his copy from the king of Karghalik, just west of Khotan (Hamar, 2013, p. 85). Similarly, another Afghan monk, Prajñā, who hailed from Kapiśa,[11] brought and translated a late version of the Gaṇḍavyūha chapter of the Avataṃsaka to China. The mainstream tradition accepts that Prajñā received the scripture from the king of Orissa, but given the history of the earlier version and Prajñā’s own provenance, it seems more likely that he obtained the scripture from a ruler of Odiyana in the larger sense (i.e. the eastern Afghanistan or Swat area). As for Shan wu wei himself, Chou assumes — for no clear reason — that he was from Orissa, but given the documented association of Odiyana with esoteric currents in Buddhism from early times[12] the subject deserves a thorough revisiting.[13]

In the present case, it is likely that the perceived connection with Orissa is not only a matter of an honest misunderstanding taken up and repeated, but also reflects certain later Buddhists’ attempts to locate all milestones of Buddhist history, especially its esoteric aspects, well within the bounds of the Indian subcontinent. This assertion is borne out by other cases in the later Tibetan (and Chinese) Buddhist literature in which sites in Inner Asia and the northwestern border areas of the Indian subcontinent have evidently been “moved” to India proper. Particularly noticeable in this regard is the case of a country called Zahor. A certain king of Zahor, Indrabhūti (also sometimes known as Tsa, or Dza in the Tibetan tradition), is regarded by the Nyingmapas, the oldest Buddhist school in Tibet, as having transmitted the tantric literature known to them as Mahāyoga. This tradition usually locates Indrabhūti’s kingdom in Odiyana, but sometimes in Zahor.[14] An Indrabhūti also appears in the historical accounts of the newer Tibetan schools as the source of their so-called Yogatantra literature, including the fundamental tantra called the Compendium of Buddhas (Sarvatathāgatatattvasaṃgraha).[15] The confusion brought about by the Tibetan attempts to make a coherent whole out of a variety of conflicting accounts of this literature’s history has resulted in various versions, in which one or two Indrabhūtis are posited, and Odiyana is considered to be either the same as or different from Zahor.[16] A few scholars (Davidson, 2002, pp. 242-245; Karmay, 2009, pp. 76-93; Van der Kuijp, 2010) have attempted to deal with this tangle of material, but it is clear that the legend is so fraught with textual corruption and so tied up with issues of religious legitimation that a definitive description of the evolution of these traditions will probably never be had. Nevertheless, from the point of view of the present work, it is significant that the Nyingmapa almost invariably locate Zahor (whether identified with Odiyana or not) in the northwest,[17] while the newer Tibetan schools in general support the idea that Zahor was in eastern India, probably Bengal (Karmay, 2009, pp. 80- 81; van der Kuijp, 2010, p. 148, citing Drigung Paldzin). Karmay has concluded from this (ibid., p. 89) that “Just as the later Tibetan tradition made the first king of Tibet an Indian, in the same way it also desired to connect king Tsa /Dza with the land which gave birth to Buddhism.”

A third case of geographical confusion or dissimulation can be seen in the region referred to in the Chinese sources as Jibin. Many or most Buddhist scholars (and some secular historians) have traditionally regarded the word as referring to Kashmir (cf. Zurcher, 2012), because the Chinese word represents an early attempt at transliteration of that name. Kuwayama, however, has noted (2006, p. 110; see also Kuwayama, 2002, pp. 142-146) that “In ancient Chinese accounts and maps Jibin’s location shifted from place to place as the Chinese geographical knowledge changed over time.”[18] Kuwayama uses the travel accounts of the Chinese Buddhist pilgrims, as well as monastic biographies of fourth- and fifth-century figures to demonstrate that for them, Jibin referred to the general area of Gandhāra, the pilgrimage region where the Buddha’s begging bowl was kept; he shows that on the routes these pilgrims took to and from China, any visit to Kashmir would have represented an extensive detour. More recently, Falk (2022-23, esp. n. 36) has also taken up the question of the Chinese pilgrimage routes, and has asserted that for Faxian, Jibin referred very specifically to the area around Hadda in present-day Afghanistan.

Kuwayama (2006, p. 108) also says that “In the Gaoseng zhuan” — a sixth-century Chinese compilation of Buddhist biographies — “Jibin surpasses any other region of India as the goal of Buddhist pilgrimage, and most of the foreign monk-translators in fourth-to-fifth century China were closely associated with Jibin, whether or not they were natives of that area.” Many celebrated teachers and translators from Inner Asia were trained in the Jibin of this era. The first of these was Fotucheng, who afterwards went to China, arriving in Luoyang in 310. Although Kuwayama believes he was a native of Gandhāra, an earlier, more detailed treatment of his career concluded he was probably originally from Kucha, and only studied in the former region.[19] His impact on Buddhism in China was considerable; he was able to increase the acceptance of Buddhism among both the upper classes and the common people mostly through practical means like rainmaking, war magic, and medicine, at a time of “chaos and misery”, as Wright puts it. This acceptance meant Fotucheng was able to lay the foundation for a future state-supported Buddhism, besides passing on his knowledge to disciples, who came to China from as far away as India and Sogdiana to study with him (Wright, 1948, p. 367).

The next illustrious alumnus of Jibin’s Buddhist schools was the great translator Kumārajīva (344-413). Like Fotucheng, he was from Kucha, and was taken as a child to be educated in Gandhāra.[20] After a few years, he returned to Kucha, but was kidnapped by an army from China and taken to Liangchou, where he remained for almost twenty years. Upon the capture of that city by the Later Qin dynasty, however, Kumārajīva was taken to Changan. Since by that time he knew not only his native Kuchean language, but also Northwestern Prakrit, Sanskrit, Chinese, and possibly Agnean and Sogdian (Hansen, 2012, p. 56), he was put to work at the head of the bureau that was rendering Buddhist scriptures into Chinese, and became the most prolific translator before Xuanzang. His renderings of many sutras remain the preferred versions up to the present, and he trained many Chinese disciples who became famous in their own right. Two other translators from Gandhāra, Buddhayaśas and Bhīmarakṣa, went to China to aid Kumārajīva in his work.

In sum, while there are some Chinese materials in which Jibin does refer to Kashmir, the identity can no longer be taken for granted, particularly in a Buddhist context.

The fourth example of this phenomenon is so well known that there can be no controversy about it. The kingdom of Khotan, stronghold of Mahāyāna Buddhism for over five hundred years, was well known to Tibet from at least the beginnings of the imperial period under the name of “the Li Country” (Li Yul), which name is found among some of the oldest surviving writings in Tibetan. Tibet conquered Khotan between 665 and 670, and solidified their rule in 675. Khotan maintained close contact with the Dunhuang area before and during the Tibetan imperial period, and many later documents in Khotan Saka were found at Dunhuang. Until the coming of Islam to Khotan in 1006, the three areas had strong cultural connections, and the religious chronicles of Khotan were translated into Tibetan. Nevertheless, by the twelfth or thirteenth century, some Tibetans had begun writing as if Li Yul referred to Nepal (in effect, to the Kathmandu Valley) (Snellgrove, 1987, pp. 366, 417; first remarked on by Brough, 1948).[21] It is possible that the relationship with Khotan had gradually been forgotten in Tibet during the institutional chaos that followed the fall of the Tibetan empire, but it is also likely that when the Tibetans began to reassemble their memories of that time, some of them had a vested interest in associating the country with India rather than the north. 

It is well known that sacred sites can “migrate” as part of either the spread or the domestication of a religion; the reduplication of sacred Indic place names throughout Southeast Asia was at least meant to establish a connection with India, and probably also served to supply surrogate pilgrimage sites to those who could not make the journey to the subcontinent. Sacred places may be also moved in the popular imagination, even to unapproachable areas, when the situation on the ground precludes their existence in their former location; the mythic land of Shambhala is probably the best-known example. However, the converse seems to be true as well. As Grenet has shown in relation to Zoroastrianism,[22] a religion may move its sacred sites geographically “inward” in order to be in harmony with changes in the prevailing politico-religious situation. In point of fact, it can hardly be coincidence that three of the four areas discussed above were “relocated” to the single area in India (Bihar-Bengal-Orissa) where Buddhism was still prospering and perhaps even predominant in the ninth century and after, following the Brahmanic Hindu resurgence and Muslim conquests elsewhere (Sanderson, 2009, p. 80). The fourth area, Kashmir, was also able to maintain the Buddhistic aspects of its culture much longer than was Gandhāra. There was probably a felt imperative to situate the holy places of Buddhism, particularly Vajrayāna Buddhism, within the small remaining Buddhist heartland on the subcontinent, and this resulted in the imaginative shift seen in later Indian accounts, in which all important developments were traced back to this area. The Tibetans, who for a variety of reasons became more and more inclined to equate scriptural authenticity with Indian origin, were for the most part happy to fall in with this reading of history.

•

Notes

[1] Chinese Buddhists increasingly differentiated the people of India (fan) from those living to the west of China (hu), and only the former land was held by them to be the domain of true sages. For a treatment of this trend, see Yang, 1988.

[2] I use a phonetic representation of the name rather than the more customary Sanskrit because the earliest named people of the area, the Odis, were neither Sanskrit speakers nor culturally “Sanskritized.” Settlements in the Swat valley date back to the Chalcolithic period, obviously predating the Indo-European incursions to the Indian subcontinent. The Odis themselves first appear in the historical record as satraps of a Saka ruler. Pāṇini, who was himself from the area of modern Peshawar, knew the name as Urḍi or Aurḍayāni (Upasak, 1990, p. 20). As late as the composition of the Purāṇas and the great epic Mahābhārata, Odiyana and its northern and western neighbors were not considered part of Āryavārta (Bronkhorst, 2016, pp. 17-34, pp. 124-25). In sum, it is misleading to insist on the Sanskritized spelling.

[3] But now see Falk (2022, pp. 17-19), who rejects the reconstruction of the name as Uḍyāna.

[4] Xuanzang’s name for the region was previously reconstructed as Wu chang, but this too seems to have been a scholarly error; see Li (1996, p. 82).

[5] Tucci’s 1977 contribution was the first to point out the importance of this area in detail, and pioneered the ongoing work by the Italian, Pakistani, and Japanese archaeological expeditions that have contributed decisively to its study.

[6] Callieri (2006); Neelis (2011). Neelis (ibid., p. 245) speaks of the valley’s “especially rich archaeological, artistic, epigraphic, and literary heritage with seemingly innumerable remains of Buddhist stupas, monasteries, and rock carvings.” The earliest Buddhist site, Butkara I, dates back to the third century BCE.

[7] See Mohanti and Panigrahi (2016) for a typical presentation. As with most such claims, their assertions rely largely on very late Indian and Tibetan literary sources. Chandra (1980) even proposed Kanchipuram, in southern India, as an alternative. 

[8] While Orissa was without doubt a major Buddhist stronghold in the ninth century, Tāranātha’s evaluation of the Buddhism prevailing there at that time has been called into question (Kinnard, 1996, pp. 284-287). 

[9] The confusion is not found only in Chinese sources. Sircar (1973, pp. 12- 13) has noted that in the Kālikā Purāṇa, Oḍra is inconsistently substituted for Oḍḍiyāna as one of the four major tantric seats, but he concludes that in relation to the Hindu tantric literature, the notion that the seat in question was actually located in Orissa is “unworthy of serious consideration.” Davidson (2002, pp. 206-211) also discusses the confusion and inconsistency surrounding the location of these seats.

[10] The usual reckoning has Buddhabhadra as Kashmiri, or just “Indian”, but Kuwayama (2002, p. 146; 2006, p. 109) shows that he was from Nagarahāra, specifically the area between Jalalabad and the Khyber Pass.

[11] Copp (2011, p. 360).

[12] As has been often noted, Xuanzang recorded the emphasis that the people of Swat laid on spell literature and meditation; see Li (1996, p. 83-84). 

[13] It should be taken into account that the attempts to connect this master with a later royal family of Orissa — the so-called Bhauma-kara dynasty — are based on a reconstruction of his Sanskrit name (Śubhakarasiṃha) that can in no way be considered equivalent to Shan wu wei (Chou, ibid., p. 251 n. 3). Furthermore, Shan wu wei’s official biography was written by at least two different people (Chou, ibid., pp. 250-251), and while the first half, dealing with his purported birth and career in India, contains the usual tropes of royal descent and miraculous but otherwise unknown teachers, the second begins with his travels towards China and is supported throughout by much historically verifiable information, including the rule of a Türkic khan in Odiyana (in the expanded sense) when he passed through. 

[14] The connection between Indrabhūti and Odiyana seems to date back at least to around 800 (van der Kuijp, 2010, p. 130).

[15] Karmay (2009, p. 80-82). There is a close relationship between a collection of these tantras, which were brought to China by the Sogdian master Amoghavajra, and the tantras of the Mahāyoga, though the two collections are not identical. This was first noticed by Eastman (1981), and the similarities have more recently been taken up and analyzed by Giebel (1995) and Almogi (2014). The East Asian tradition claims that Amoghavajra’s collection was originally taken from a legendary Iron Stupa that was in South India. That the tradition does not claim a provenance in the Orissa-Bengal area might be because the legend of the Iron Stupa was already established in China before the shift in Zahor’s supposed location came about. 

[16] According to Davidson (2002, p. 244), however, the Sakyapas, oldest of the “new” schools, have a tradition of three Indrabhūtis – all from Odiyana.

[17] The Fifth Dalai Lama, who came from a Nyingmapa background, nevertheless felt compelled to invent a convoluted history of his own Zahor ancestry so that he could trace it back to Bengal (van der Kuijp, 2010, pp. 147 ff.). An interesting sidelight to this question is the fact that the traditional Tibetan account of the creation of their alphabet claims that they took the letter za from Zahor (van der Kuijp, 2010, p. 137). While this is usually understood to mean that they took the form of the letter from the alphabet used in that region (which was not the case), it might mean instead that they had to find a way to indicate the voiced sibilant /z/ which is found in Tibetan words, but not in Indic; the /z/ was a native phoneme in Northwestern Prakrit, but only used in “Iranian names and loanwords” in Sanskrit (Salomon, 1990, p. 269). This would also obviously indicate a northwestern location for Zahor.

[18] See Kuwayama (2006, p. 110 n, 14) for a discussion of various reckonings on the question. Kuwayama (2002, pp. 193-199) had earlier used the testimony of later pilgrims, as well as Chinese historical materials, to demonstrate that during the Tang, Jibin came to mean the kingdom of Kapiśa in what is now central Afghanistan. 

[19] See Wright (1948, pp. 332-335) for a discussion. Wright errs, however, in following the then-current consensus that Jibin always referred to Kashmir. Some sources claim that Fotucheng was a native of Central India and a descendant of royalty, but the trope of the royal (or high-caste) descent of prominent Buddhist figures found in Chinese biographical literature is far too commonplace to be accepted at face value, and can be seen as part of the hu vs. fan dynamic mentioned above (note 2).

[20] While McRae (2004, p. 442) continues to place Kumārajīva’s studies in Kashmir, Hansen (2012, p. 66) correctly locates them in Gandhāra. As usual, there also exist accounts that make Kumārajīva the descendent of Indian royalty (Hansen, op. cit.).

[21] Tāranātha was one Tibetan who placed Li Yul south of the Himalayas (Chimpa and Chattopadhyaya, 1970, p. 60, n. 41; see also Brough, 1947-48, p. 338).

[22] Grenet (2015, esp. p. 26) demonstrated that while the sites described in the oldest Avestan literature as being created by Ahura Mazda are all located in southern Inner Asia, Afghanistan, or western Pakistan, the later Pahlavi literature moved them to the Iranian plateau.

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—— (2006) “Pilgrimage Route Changes and the Decline of Gandhāra” in Gandhāran Buddhism: Art, Archaeology, Texts, ed. P. Brancaccio and K. Behrendt, UBD Press, Vancouver, pp. 107-134.

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Whose Praise of Tsari?

Pemakarpo, HAR 65368

Over the years I’ve developed my own way of seeing holy places. I’ve spent decades living in one of the most celebrated pilgrimage destinations the world has ever known. I see today’s Places as rooted in the primordial human past, when divine presences began to be enshrined in natural features such as standing stones, cairns and groves* that eventually evolved into the towering cathedrals and temples of our time. Simplistic? Well, of course, simple ideas are the most difficult to arrive at sometimes, and to keep things simpler still, we have to ignore the ways holiness and divinity might demand definition and explanation. Religious studies experts are still at work on that. We don’t expect consensus anytime soon.

(*And, I should add, mountains...)

I no longer remember when I first became aware of the traditional-style nature reserve in southeastern Tibet known as Tsari. I suppose it must have happened in the late-’70’s to mid-’80’s. In my younger days I read a lot of travel literature, and although traveling botanists were not my usual thing, I do remember books by Fletcher and Kingdon-Ward that may have touched me off, or at least peaked my interest at a new level. At some point I uncovered something I should have known already, that a particularly difficult song by the Sixth Dalai Lama (b. 1682 CE) is devoted to this place even without specifically naming Tsari. Without knowing about Tsari, there can be no way to begin to understand the poem itself, it would seem like nothing but senseless word salad.

The same might be said for the verse work I’ll translate for you in a minute, one that we’ll call by the short name Praise. It assumes even much more knowledge about the sacred geography of Tsari than was expected by the Sixth Dalai Lama. When I noticed it in a brand new collection of the works of Tāranātha (ཏཱ་ར་ནཱ་ཐ་, 1575-1634) it intrigued me, as I had no idea this famous Tibetan (not Indian!) scholar ever wrote about Tsari, so I had a closer look, only getting more and more frustrated by each new quatrain. But thanks to the internet, and specifically to BDRC, these problems have a way of working themselves out and that is how I came to realize that it is, with hardly any reason for doubt, a work by the 4th Drugchen Pemakarpo (འབྲུག་ཆེན་པདྨ་དཀར་པོ་, 1527-1596). It was placed in the collection by mistake.

If there is one point about pilgrimage that can be taken away from this Praise with confidence, it is that the same landscape can be loaded with multiple layers of meaning. Still, only one level is likely to be available to a particular pilgrim at any one time. As far as the overall picture is concerned, people do see what they come prepared to see. On the deeper levels, Tibetan pilgrims could possibly experience states corresponding to those in the intermediate state of the afterlife at Kawa Karpo (see Buffetrille’s essay) or, at Tsari, undergo the four empowerments of Vajrayāna.  Take any two or three pilgrims traveling over the same landscape, and you may well find two or three highly disparate worlds. Pemakarpo is exceptionally explicit about this. Let this be a warning, we talk in generalities at our own peril, pilgrimage is not necessarily a ‘simple’ popular religious practice for gaining merit and purifying sins however much it might look that way to people like ourselves.

Without more ado, I’ll place before you my translation of the Praise, although I will repeat the whole set of verses at the end of this blog entry in parallel with the text edition, such as it is, so Tibetan readers can compare for themselves and criticize the English as they must. I tried to translate poetry as poetry, but I can’t claim success. The combination of esoteric initiatory imagery and classical kāvya poetics makes the going particularly hard, kind of like a perilous pilgrimage in the Himālayas. I beg of you to read with patience and care. Assistance in interpretation will be offered later on, just in case you could use some.

White Lotus Belles Lettres: 

A Praise of the Holy Place Known as Caritra

Praise the name of glorious Caritra!

The learned are the swans who find delight in their findings,

‘here in this wide and glorious lotus pond of utmost perfection,’

they’ve unfurled the broad white wings of their poetic arts,

and with slow drumbeats on their throat drums praised its wonders.

All-pervasive and subsuming all, as it was in the beginning,

never ever changing, the ultimate extinguishing of change,

this very same high peak as the Victors see it

paints its own painting, ‘The Field of Pure Dharmakāya.’

It all displays atop a single base as one great mandala,

the entire supreme array of peaceful, lustful and wrathful ones,

its each and every atomic particle displaying likewise,

here in this Sambhogakāya Field of visionary experience.

For personages defined as ordinary, medial and supreme

this watery moon dances its appropriate marvels as needed,

and the eye of divination descries in this crystalline Place

‘rulings’ of a country of miraculous Emanations.

To the south of the place where the Teacher taught those emanations,

this Great Cemetery is one of a group of twenty-four

that the multitude of unsurpassed tantra texts made out to be supreme Places,

one that has chopped off the tongues of philologers, Caritra.

The blood-thirsty Heruka, hero whose soles are soaked

in waves of red blood from the slaying of the frightful ones, is

there in union with the Ḍākinīs who purify the two obscurations

as the delusion-vanquishing Crystal Mountain, a caitya of Dharmakāya.

The twelve island lakes are the field of their deployment

together with the Vidyās and Messenger Women, the Place

where Pagsam Wangpo went to take the powerful siddhi substance,

a vowed substance subsuming them all, an icon of the Ḍākinīs.

It is a place the Karma Ḍākinīs, experiences of heat, do espionage

under varied guises of environments—mountains and lakes, trees and ravines—

a divination mirror for gauging the quality of prior cultivation,

it is a Place for Nirmāṇakāyas, so the less well endowed risk their lives.

Emaho! 

Opening up the two folded hands of faith

these articles of offering scatter in its direction.

The doorlocks blocking the turnoffs of eternalism & nihilism

were cleared by the riverbank of swift causation.

When we inspect the tracks of those with robes of nonattachment

gotten by renouncing household life, this place with its great contemplative absorption in 

circumambulation with one-pointedness and insight

brings down all those arrogant about their desire-free path.

Fully soaked by love in compassion’s wet meadow they are

expert in taking paces with wisdom and means paired together,

‘This is the heart of the Wisdom Gone Beyond,’

with this thought the favorably endowed advance very far.

For recipients of the commitments of this Place’s awesome guardians,

ushered through the door of the great Dharma-origin of Pölung,

the blessing descent, dawning of instantaneous spiritual experience

and realization, reveals all mandalas in that glorious forest.

Humans much darkened in sin, this vessel of cloud,

blocked at the time of waking the mists curl round its neck,

this descent of compassion streams bathe their bodies

making it pure, this being the empowerment of no turning back.

Descending within the Four Ravines and settling upon the Four Passes,

the solar and lunar transversals leave no chance for dreams;

it is solely the enjoyment of the secret assembly substance

that is known to the fortunately endowed ones as The Second.

Then imbibing the melt from the twelve island-lakes,

when climbing to the peaks of four mountains,

the darkness of thick sleep is vanquished and 

consecration in the drop of space is what was named The Third.

Then journeying to the Four Caves, upon a lion throne

they first settle the mind in high manifest Awakening,

dissolve into the four absorptions, then aroused by the song of Turquoise Lake's goddess, 

arise as teacher of the Goal in the pass named Gayo.

Those who with care proceed living true to their commitments,

move into Bumdé, then cross the valley of Lachen pass,

are the ones who will protect the great treasure of renown

that forms the basis of benefit and comfort for all living ones.

Some beginners in the pilgrimage bear the mere signs,

while intermediate pilgrims are just borrowers of blessings,

while the advanced ones see everything in its full state of divinity

and so it is explained to travelers, “This is circled three times.”

In these words Vajradhāra revealed the secrets,

so when this grandchild of the Kagyü Lamas speaks them

may the lotus teeth in all the smiles of the Ḍākinīs

be tied as tightly around him as a turban.

The circumambulation of Caritra is symbolic of the gradual traversal of the Path of Great Secrets, and seeing it as such I thought to expand on it as a teaching made in offering to others, and this is why I composed this work called White Lotus Belles Lettres in the palace where the great Vajra Wielders stage their visible performances, the glorious forest of Chigchar.

§   §   §

Text edition (here my English translations and comments are rubrics in red font, while the Tibetan texts of Pemakarpo are in black).

A. Tāranātha [ascribed to], Tsa-ri-tra zhes-pa’i Gnas-la Bstod-pa Pad-dkar Legs-bshad, contained in: Rje-btsun Tā-ra-nā-tha’i Gsung-’bum Bris-ma, Dpal-brtsegs Bod-yig Dpe-rnying Zhib-’jug-khang (Lhasa 2008), in 10 vols, vol. 9, pp. 403-406, in cursive script. It has been very carefully proofread, but do note that abbreviated forms have been tacitly expanded. I cannot explain how this brief work ended up in this collection of Tāranātha manuscripts that were mostly drawn from the library of Arhat Temple in Drepung (we are told this in a preface). This particular title has no sign of a shelving number, so it is difficult to be sure if it was from the Arhat Temple.  The texts before and after it all have colophons informing us that Tāranātha was their author, and some also have those telltale shelving numbers.

B. Variants are drawn from the “headed” block-letter text with identical title in the works of ’Brug-chen Padma-dkar-po, vol. 9, images 537-542, of BDRC no. W10736 (while most of the 24 volumes are made available on OCR, unfortunately the volume we require, vol. 9, doesn’t appear in that form). I give complete lines as variants to avoid impeding computer-based searches, although I have sometimes bracketed the syllable-final “s.” Pemakarpo wrote a much longer Guide entitled: Gnas-chen Tsa-ri-tra’i Ngo-mtshar Snang-ba Pad-dkar Legs-bshad, contained in the same edition of his collected works, in vol. 4, pp. 207-274. As part of this Guide is written as a commentary on the Praise (this same part is summarized in Huber’s book), I have quoted relevant sections of its OCR following the appropriate verse (but not for every verse; I give no page numbers on the assumption that you, too, can locate it in the OCR version).

 

tsa ri tra zhes pa'i gnas la bstod pa pad dkar legs bshad ces bya ba bzhugs so //

White Lotus Belles Lettres: A Praise of the Holy Place Known as Caritra.

na maḥ shrī tsa ri trā ya / 

Praise the name of glorious Caritra!

phun tshogs padma can yongs dpal 'di zhes //

mkhas pa'i ngang pa dpyad pas yid mgu nas //

snyan dngags gshog yangs dkar po rab brkyang[s] te //

ya mtshan bstod pa'i mgrin rnga dal gyis brdungs //

mkhas pa'i dad pa dpyad pas yid mgu nas/_snyan ngag gshog yangs dkar po rab brkyang ste/_ya mtshan bstod pa'i mgrin rnga dal gyis brdung/

The learned are the swans who find delight in their findings,

‘here in this wide and glorious lotus pond* of utmost perfection,’

they’ve unfurled the broad white wings of their poetic arts,

and with slow drumbeats on their throat drums praised its wonders.

(*The word pond isn’t physically present, and the poetic term padma-can can have a variety of referents, all sharing the same characteristic of having or holding [a] lotus. Taking the verse as a whole, however, there can be no doubt that the meaning of lotus pond is intended here.)

°

kun khyab kun tu bsdus yang dang po'i tshul //

B: kun khyab kun tu brdzus kyang dang po'i tshul //

nam yang 'gyur med 'gyur ba zad pa'i mtha' //

rgyal rnams gzigs pa'i rtser 'thon nyid 'dis nyid //

dag pa chos sku'i zhing zhes ri mor byed //

kun khyab kun tu brdzus kyang dang po'i tshul/_/nam yang 'gyur med gyur ba zad pa mtha'/_/rgyal rnams gzigs pa'i rtser 'thon nyid 'dis nyid/_dag pa chos sku'i zhing zhes ri mor byas/_dpal bde mchog 'khor lo nyid dang gnyis su byar med pa/_/gsang ba mchog gi dgyes pa na/_/thams cad bdag nyid rtag tu bzhugs/_/zhes pa'i pho brang chen po ni 'di ste/_chos thams cad la khyab pas/_chos can gyi ngo nas dmar sbyar yang/_chos nyid kyi tshul nam yang 'gyur ba med pa sangs rgyas rnams kyi gzigs pas grub pa'i phyir ro/_/rgyu mtshan 'di nyid kyis nyid la gsang ba chos sku'i zhing khams zhes ri mor byas kyi/_gzhan gyi bsam pa dang brjod pa thams cad kyi ra ba 'gongs pas so/_/

All-pervasive and subsuming all, as it was in the beginning,

never ever changing, the ultimate extinguishing of change,

this very same high peak as the Victors see it

paints its own painting, ‘The Field of Pure Dharmakāya.’*

(*The word Pure [Dag-pa] here stoutly alludes to the name of Pure Crystal Mountain [Dag-pa Shel-ri], the central mountain of Tsari. The Crystal Mountain part of its name appears likewise embedded in a later verse where again it is associated with Dharmakāya. Victors is a commonly used epithet of the Enlightened Ones.)

°

gzhi gcig steng du ma lus dkyil 'khor che //

zhi chags khro ba rnam pa'i mchog thams cad //

ston la rdul rer rdul snyed de 'dra'i tshul //

'char ba'i snang ba longs sku'i zhing yang 'di //

B: 'char bas snang ba longs sku'i zhing yang 'di //

ngo bo de ltar yin pas/_gzhi gcig steng du ma lus dkyil 'khor che/_/zhi chags khro ba rnam pa'i mchog thams cad/_/ston la rdul rer rdul snyed de 'dra'i tshul/_/'char bas snang ba longs sku'i zhing yang 'di/_/ji ltar du mar snang zhe na/_gzhi gcig gi steng du rgyud sde rin po che rnams nas bshad pa'i dkyil 'khor gyi lha zhi ba dang/_chags tshul dang/_khro bo khrag 'thung chen po'i rnam pa thams cad ston pa'i zhing la khams gsum gyi yul ma yin pa'i 'og min stug po bkod pa zhes rnam par bzhag mod/_tshul de nyid kyis 'di'i rdul rer 'jig rten khams thams cad kyi rdul dang grangs mnyam pa'i gsang ba sngags kyi lha dang/_snying po dang/_phyag rgya thams cad 'char ba'i phyir na/_nang snang ba longs sku'i zhing khams su grub bo/_/

It all displays atop a single base as one great mandala,

the entire supreme array of peaceful, lustful and wrathful ones,*

its each and every atomic particle displaying likewise,

here in this Sambhogakāya Field of visionary experience.

(*We are used to mandala groupings of peaceful and wrathful deities, particularly in The Tibetan Books of the Dead, but the lustful group is less often mentioned. These are aspects in which these divine forms of Buddhas display to us, since we are the ones who are dominated by the Three Poisons that require transformation. We’ll leave the subject on this perplexing note. It is fascinating to see how the mandala stands for the holy Place as a whole, but also in fractal fashion it manifests in each atomic particle (the Tibetan rdul means both dust particle and atom, depending on context.)

°

tha ma 'bring dang mchog gi gang zag la //

ngo mtshar gang gi[s] 'dul de chu zla'i gar //

pra babs mig la shel mtshungs 'dir snang ba //

sgyu 'phrul sprul pa'i yul gyi gtan tshigs mthong //

des byed pa'i las/_mtha' ma 'bring dang mchog gi gang zag la/_ngo mtshar gang gis 'dul de'i chu zla'i gar/_pra babs mig la shel mtshungs 'dir snang bas/_sgyu 'phrul sprul pa'i yul gyi gtan tshigs mthong/_skal ba dman 'bring mchog gi gang zag rang rang ngo mtshar du 'dzin pa/_ri/_mtsho/_lung pa/_ljon shing/_srog chags/_lha'i gzugs brnyan/_lha tshogs sogs gang gis 'dul ba de dang der grub kyis/_gcig tu chad pa yin pa/_dper na pra babs pa la dpod mkhan gyi dbye bas/_mdun ngor shel gcig la mthong ba sna tshogs su 'gyur ba bzhin gyi phyi yul snang sprul pa sku'i zhing khams 'di shar ro/_/

For personages defined as ordinary, medial and supreme

this watery moon dances its appropriate marvels as needed,

and the eye of divination descries in this crystalline Place

‘rulings’ of a country of miraculous Emanations.

(This verse continues with the third Body of the Trikāya doctrine, making use of divination terminology, more particularly crystal scrying, seeing as the words pra-babs [scrying, although I translate it as divination] and gtan-tshigs [edict, logical proposition, although I translate it as rulings] are terms used in that art.

Oh, and notice where the Dharmakāya verse displayed high mountain imagery, this Nirmāṇakāya verse alludes to lakes.  The mountain/lake dyad is a very strong feature of Tibetan folk religious symbolism since early times.)

°

ston pas sprul bshad mdzad de'i lho phyogs kyi //

dur khrod che 'di nyi shu rtsa bzhi'i gya //

bla med rgyud gzhung rgya mtshos gnas mchog tu //

bsgrubs pas rtog ge'i lce chad tsa ri tra //

To the south of the place where the Teacher taught those emanations,

this Great Cemetery is one of a group of twenty-four*

that the multitude of unsurpassed tantra texts made out to be supreme Places,

one known to chop off the tongues of philologers, Caritra.

(*The group of 24 Places of the Vajra Body appears in variant forms in both Buddhist and non-Buddhist tantras, a topic for another time. If you need a bibliography just tell me. I’ll quickly admit that the name of Tsari is a real puzzle, but I think it is best explained as a ’Tibetanizing’ transcription of the first two syllables of Caritra. If this holds true, then the Tibetan name only seems to contain the notion of “mountain’ in it, even if there is a common understanding that the name means Herb Mountain. But I value my tongue, so I won’t say more.)

°

'jigs byed bsad pa'i khrag dmar rba glong gis //

zhabs mthil bsgos pa'i dpa' bo he ru ka //

B: zhabs mthil bgos pa'i dpa' bo he ru ka //

sgrib gnyis dag pa'i ḍā ki dang lhan du //

bdud 'joms shel ri chos sku'i mchod sdong yin //

The blood-thirsty Heruka, hero whose soles are soaked

in waves of red blood from the slaying of the frightful ones, is

there in union with the Ḍākinīs who purify the two obscurations

as the delusion vanquishing Crystal Mountain, a caitya of Dharmakāya.

°

rigs ldan ma dang pho nya mor bcas dang //

kun tu spyod pa'i 'khor sa bcu gnyis gling //

dngos grub len la dpag bsam dbang po ni //

yongs 'du lta bu dam tshig mkha' 'gro'i [b]rten //

The twelve island lakes are the field of their deployment

together with the Vidyās and Messenger Women, the Place

where Pagsam Wangpo went to take the powerful siddhi substance,

a vowed substance subsuming them all, an icon of the Ḍākinīs.*

(*It demonstrates amazing prescience, if the verse is by Pema Karpo, that he would name by name his immediate reincarnation Drugchen V Pagsam Wangpo [འབྲུག་ཆེན་དཔག་བསམ་དབང་པོ་, 1593-1653]. For the story of his involvement with the ‘vowed substance’ or sacramental medicine, the Rainbow Light Pellet, see Martin’s essay. One of its main ingredients grew in the neighborhood of Chigchar, an herb named in the verse by the Sixth Dalai Lama mentioned earlier. Not only the fifth, but the fourth and sixth incarnates were all involved in its making.)

°

sna tshogs ljongs dang ri dang mtsho klung shing //

las kyi mkha' 'gro nyams drol nyul ba'i sa //

B: las kyi mkha' 'gro nyams drod myul ba'i sa //

las 'phro bzang ngan brtag pa'i me long 'di //

sprul sku'i gnas yin skal med srog la [~ma?] gtum //

In this place the Karma Ḍākinīs, experiences of heat, do espionage

under varied guises of environments, mountains and lakes, trees and ravines;

a divination mirror for gauging the quality of prior cultivation,

it is a Place for Nirmāṇakāyas — the less well endowed risk their lives.*

(*The words “experiences of heat” and the final word gtum both consciously allude to psychic heat or tummo testing, something Tsari was known for. See discussion in Huber's book, pp. 86-90.  The phrase “risk their lives” isn’t literal, but ‘harsh on life-force’ is one way it may be understood.)

°

e ma ho /

dad pa'i snyim pa kha phye nas //

mchod pa'i yo byad 'di yi phyogs 'thor ba //

rtag chad lam gol [405] dgag pa'i sgo glegs zhes //

rgyu 'bras myur bu'i 'gram gyis gsal bar byas //

Emaho! 

Opening up the two folded hands of faith

these articles of offering scatter in its direction.

The doorlocks blocking the turnoffs of eternalism & nihilism

were cleared by the riverbank of swift causation.*

(*This verse refers to the laypersons’ typical experience of pilgrimage, alluding to challenges to ordinary views and dangers (physical hardship in itself may purify negative karma; read Huber’s book, p. 151), just as the next verse refers to the monastics’. The author shows a lack of enthusiasm for the pilgrimage experiences of householders and monastics.)

°

khyim nas rab byung zhen med chas gos kyi //

sgrub pa'i [b]shul rjes blta ba'i shes rab dang //

rtse gcig bskor ba'i ting 'dzin chen po 'dis //

chags bral lam gyi khengs pa thams cad bsnyil //

When we inspect the tracks of those with robes of nonattachment

gotten by renouncing household life, this place with its great contemplative absorption in 

circumambulation with one-pointedness and insight

brings down all those arrogant about their desire-free path.

°

byams pas rab brlan snying rje'i ne'u rdzab tu //

thabs shes zung 'jug gom[s] pa 'dor mkhas pa //

pha rol phyin pa'i snying po 'di yin zhes //

dgongs nas skal bzang yun ring de la bkris //

Fully soaked by love in compassion’s wet meadow they are

expert in taking paces with wisdom and means paired together,

‘This is the heart of the Wisdom Gone Beyond,’

with this thought the favorably endowed advance a long distance.

(Remember that Tsari is famously moist compared to other nearby valleys, which helps to explain its unique plant life. This particular verse emphasizes the Path according to the Great Vehicle, Mahāyāna. With the next verse we enter the more exclusive and esoteric realm of Vajrayāna, where we remain until the final verse.)

°

bod klung[s] chos 'byung chen po'i sgor bcug nas //

gnas srungs gnyan po'i dam tshig nod rnams la //

dpal gyi nags [~gnas?] su nyams rtogs cig 'char ba'i //

byin phab de la dkyil 'khor ma lus bstan //

For recipients of the commitments of this Place’s awesome guardians,

ushered through the door of the great Dharma-origin of Pölung,

the blessing descent, dawning of instantaneous spiritual experience

and realization, reveals all mandalas in that glorious forest.*

(*For an incident that occurred at Bod-klung [“phölung”], see Huber’s book, p. 64. I believe it is the centrally located valley where “Tibet Rock” [བོད་རྡོ་] is located. The ‘blessing descent’ indicates a phase in the sādhana practice.  ‘Glorious forest’ looks like a name for Chigchar, and the name of Chigchar is concealed later in this same line. For proof of the identity of the glorious forest with Chigchar, see the colophon, below.)

°

yid can sdig la cher gnag sprin gyi bum //

sad pa'i skabs dgag na bun mgul dkris nas //

thugs rje'i chu rgyun phab 'dis lus bkrus pa //

dag byed phyir mi ldog pa'i dbang bskur yin //

phyogs thams cad sprin sngon po rab tu 'khrigs shing/_na bun 'thul ba/_char gyi rgyun mi zad par 'bab pa ni lus can rnams kyi sdig pa la cher gnag pa'i bum pa bzang po ras dkar gyi zur phud tsan nas bdud rtsi lnga'i rang bzhin gyi chab 'ongs te/_lus kyi thig le sad pa'i gnas skabs spro ba/_rags pa'i sdig sgrib 'khrud/_sku rdo rje'i nus pa 'jog pa bum dbang ngam phyir mi ldog pa'i dbang bskur ba ste/_bskur mkhan ni mkha' la spyod pa'i dbang mo rnams so/_/zhes pa'i brda'o/_/

Humans much darkened in sin, this vessel of cloud,

blocked at the time of waking the mists curl round its neck,

this descent of compassion streams bathe their bodies

making it pure, this being the empowerment of no turning back.*

(*I see a mountain here, for most part dark in color, but with a white turban on its top.  The word 'vessel' points to the Flask Initiation. Starting with this one, each verse that follows is about one of the four empowerments.)

°

rong bzhi'i nang 'bab la bzhir 'dzeg pa yis //

nyi zla'i bgrod pas rmi lam skabs phral [~bral] nas //

gsang ba'i tshogs rdzas longs spyod 'di kho na //

snod ldan rnams la gnyis pa zhes bsgrags so //

rong bzhi'i nang 'bab la bzhir 'dzeg pa yis/_nyi zla'i bgrod pa la rmi lam skabs phral nas/_gsang ba'i tshogs rdzas longs spyod 'di kho na/_snod ldan rnams la gnyis pa zhes bsgrags so/_/rong chen po bzhir babs nas/_la chen po bzhi la 'dzeg la/_de dag tu tshogs kyi 'khor la du ma bskor ba 'di yang bla ma dang gnyis su med pa'i bcom ldan 'das kyi khu ba dang/_bcom ldan 'das ma'i rdul rtsa stong phrag bdun cu rtsa gnyis nas 'khor lo bzhi'i rong du 'bab pa dang/_de nyid slob ma rang rang gi 'khor lo bzhi'i lar 'dzeg pa/_gsang ba'i rdzas bdud rtsi lnga khar myong bas te/_ngag gi thig le rmi lam gyi gnas skabs skyed pa phra ba'i sdig sgrib 'khrud/_gsung rdo rje'i (20_na_39)nus pa 'jog pa'i dbang gnyis pa gsang pa'o zhes bsgrags so/_/

Descending within the Four Ravines and climbing the Four Passes,

the solar and lunar transversals leave no chance for dreams;

it is solely the enjoyment of the secret assembly substance

that is known to the fortunately endowed ones as The Second.*

(*On the Four Great Ravines and the Four Great Passes as well as the Twelve Lakes that follow, geographical features of Tsari, see  Huber’s book, p. 101, for a passage in the long guidebook by Pemakarpo where all take part in an initiatory process.)

°

de nas bcu gnyis gling pa'i pad can gyis //

B: de nas bcu gnyis gling sa'i pad can gyis //

zhu ba 'thungs pa ri bzhi'i rtser son tshe //

gnyid 'thug mun pa 'joms pa nam mkha' yi //

thig ler rab gnas gsum pa zhes par btags //

de nas bcu gnyis gling gi pad can gyi/_khu ba 'thungs pa ri bzhi'i rtser son te/_gnyid 'thug mun pa 'joms pa nam mkha' yis/_thig ler rab gnas gsum pa zhes par btags/_de yang pho brang bcu gnyis la sogs pa'i mtsho'i chu 'thung zhing*/_ri bzhi'i rtser son pas nam mkha'i thig le nyi ma lta bur gsal ba nyid du gyur pa ni/_phyag rgya pad+ma can gyis bzhu ba'i byang chub kyi sems dkar dmar 'dres pa gsang ba'i sna rtses 'thung ba/_dus der sku gsung thugs ye shes kyi thig le 'dzag med du bsdam nus pas yid kyi thig le gnyid 'thug gam snyoms 'jug gi gnas skabs skyed pa shin tu phra ba'i sdig sgrib 'khrud cing*/_thugs rdo rje'i sa bon 'jog pa gsum pa shes rab ye shes/_'jig rten pa'i dbang bzhi pa'i mthar thug gi bar ro/_/

The twelve island lakes are the field of their deployment

when climbing to the peaks of four mountains,

the darkness of thick sleep is vanquished and 

consecration in the drop of space is what was named The Third.

°

de nas phug bzhir gshegs nas seng ge'i khrir //

mngon par byang chub che la mnyam bzhag pas //

B: mngon par byang chub che la mnyam gzhag pas //

bsam gtan bzhir zhu g.yu mtsho'i lha mo'i glus //

B: bsam gtan bzhir zhu g.yu mtsho lha mo'i glus //

dga' yo la der 'bras bu'i ston par bzhengs //

de nas phug bzhir gshegs nas seng ge'i khrid/_mngon par byang chub che la mnyam gzhag pas/_bsam gtan bzhir bzhugs g.yu mtsho lha mo'i glus/_dga' yo la der 'bras bu'i ston par bzhengs/_de yang/_phug bzhi'i nang du ngal bso ba dang/_khri bzhi la 'dug pa dang/_pho brang g.yu mtsho 'khor ba'i glus dga' yo lar skal bzang su byed pa ni/_so so rang rig pas mngon par byang chub par dbugs phyung ba dang/_zhu ba de'i mtshan nyid can rgyu'i he ru ka sgra bo bral gyi bsam gtan bzhir zhu dngas ma ye shes kyi mkha' 'gro ma bzhi'i glus bskul ba/_'bras bu'i he ru ka kha sbyor gyi sku bzhi pa'i thig le/_spang bya 'pho ba'i skabs skyed pa thun mong rnam shes kyi chos 'khrud cing ye shes kyi rdo rje'i nus pa bzhag pa 'jig rten las 'das pa'i dbang bzhi pa'o/_/

Then journeying to the Four Caves, upon a lion throne

after settling the mind in high manifest Awakening,

dissolves into the four absorptions, and with the song of the goddess of Turquoise Lake,

arises as teacher of the Goal in the pass named Gayo.

°

gang du bag yod dam tshig spyod pa'i 'gongs //

lum sder bskyod pas ma chen lung brgal nas //

B: 'bum sder bskyod pas ma chen lung brgal nas //

mtha' yas skye dgu'i phan bde'i gzhi yin pa'i //

grags pa'i gter chen skyong bar bya ba yin //

Those who with care proceed living true to their commitments

move into Bumdé, then crossing the valley of Lachen [pass],

they are the ones who will protect the great treasure of renown

that forms the basis of benefit and comfort for all living beings.

°

'ga' la dang po de de btags pa [406] tsam //

B: 'ga' la dang por de der btags pa tsam //

bar mar byin rlob brnyan po tsam zhig ste //

tha mar thams cad lha ru mngon rdzogs pas //

lan gsum gyis 'di 'khor zhes 'gro la bsnyad //

Some beginners in the pilgrimage bear the mere signs,

while intermediate pilgrims are just borrowers of blessings,

while the advanced ones see everything in its full state of divinity.

Hence it is explained to travelers, “This is circled three times.”*

(*This verse emphasizes the different levels at which the pilgrimage may be experienced. It is as if the Place reveals itself after first discriminating the spiritual capabilities of the pilgrim. Surely nobody actually circumambulates the mountain more than once in a once-in-every-12-year season, so the words recommending it are not intended literally.)

°

de skad rdo rje 'chang gis gsang ba byin //

bka' [b]rgyud bla ma'i tsha bo des smras tshe //

ḍā ki'i zhal gyi padmo'i legs so'i 'dzum //  [~padmo lo lo'i 'dzum]

ma lus bdag la thod bzhin 'ching bar mdzad //

In these words Vajradhāra revealed the secrets,

so when a grandchild of the Kagyü Lamas speaks them

may the lotus teeth in all the smiles of the Ḍākinīs

be tied as tightly around me as a turban.

°

ces tsa ri tra bskor ba gsang chen gyi lam rim par bgrod pa'i brdar mthong ba ltar / gzhan la sbyin pa'i chos su rgyas par bsnyad pa / pad dkar legs bshad ces bya ba / cig car dpal gyi nags ljongs / rdo rje 'dzin pa chen po rnams mngon par rol pa'i gzhal med khang du sbyar ba bde legs su gyur cig //  //

The circumambulation of Caritra is symbolic of the gradual traversal of the path of Great Secrets, and seeing it as such I thought to expand on it as a teaching made in offering to others, and this is why I composed this work called White Lotus Belles Lettres in the palace where the great Vajra Wielders stage their visible performances, the glorious forest of Chigchar.

                                    §   §   §

This detail from a thangka painting, one featuring Drugchen Pemakarpo as its central figure (HAR 821), surely depicts his visit to Tsari. It may not be clear in my cutout, but the name Chigchar appears at the beginning of an inscription, one that starts in the lake and continues under Pemakarpo’s feet. The lake itself is marked with the seed syllable taṃ,* and towering directly above the lake I can think of no better candidate for what mountain it might be than Pure Crystal Mountain. After all, it even looks crystalline.

(*This is seed syllable of Tārā, so it is likely to be the lake of Tārā, one of Tsari’s more famous lakes, located in the valley that leads up to Tārā Pass (སྒྲོལ་མ་ལ་). An inscription reading “dpon slob” (དཔོན་སློབ་) is behind Pemakarpo’s head, but I believe this is not the name of the mountain, it’s just telling us that what we see here is the teacher [སློབ་དཔོན་] with his disciples [སློབ་མ་].)

 

Pure Crystal Mountain,
from Claude Arpi’s Blog listed below

§   §   §

A couple of other things you might read (no pressure)

There is a serviceable Wiki entry for “Dakpa Sheri” worth a visit.

Claude Arpi, “The Chinese Village in India and the Pure Crystal Mountain Pilgrimage,” Claude Arpi’s Blog (January 19, 2021). Not to leave the impression it is a pristine wilderness, Tsari today may seem more like a string of army bases and a basis for border disputes.

Elaine Dobson, “From Mount Tsari to the Tsechu: Bhutan’s Sacred Song and Lute Dance,” Journal of Bhutan Studies, vol. 25 (Winter 2011), pp. 59-81.  Available online.

Mark S.G. Dyczkowski, “The Inner Pilgrimage of the Tantras: The Sacred Geography of the Kubjikā Tantras with Reference to the Bhairava and Kaula Tantras,” contained in:  A Journey in the World of Tantras, Indica (Varanasi 2004), pp. 93-174. I list this work here as unfortunately Tibetanists are unlikely to know of it. It does demonstrate that Caritrā is a well known Place (pīṭha) in a wide array of Hindu tantras, and not just in Buddhist tantras and in Tibetan compositions. His maps show it located in the coastal areas of Orissa.

Elena de Rossi Filibeck, Catalogue of the Tucci Tibetan Fund in the Library of IsIAO, Volume 2, Istituto Italiano per l'Africa e l'Oriente (Rome 2003).  If you happen to have this work on hand, you can see that among the works of Drugchen Pemakarpo listed on pp. 5-34, are found both the Praise and the longer Guidebook (see p. 7). The author of this catalog in a separate publication made a transcription of a more recent and lengthy Guidebook to Tsari.  I recommend her brief resumé of the same:  “A Guide-Book to Tsa-ri,” contained in: L. Epstein and R.F. Sherburne, eds., Reflections on Tibetan Culture: Essays in Memory of Turrell V. Wylie, Edwin Mellen Press (Lewiston 1990), pp. 1-10.

Harold R. Fletcher, A Quest of Flowers: The Plant Explorations of Frank Ludlow and George Sheriff Told from their Diaries and Other Occasional Writings, Edinburgh University Press (Edinburgh 1975), particularly Chapter Three, “To Tsari, a Tibetan Sanctuary,” pp. 77-126. Ludlow visited Tsari in 1936 and again in 1938. Worth obtaining for the photographs alone, for our purposes the black-&-white photo of Pure Crystal Mountain, or “Takpa Siri”  on p. 85, is the one to see. Many of the seeds of unique flowers he collected are propagated still today in Kew Gardens, London, in Edinburgh Botanical Gardens, and in many other gardens around the world. Francis Kingdon-Ward worked in about the same time and in a much broader area throughout the eastern Himalayas as far as Burma and Yunnan. His books and publications are far too numerous to list here, but the one you most ought to know about is linked just above. If you are keenly into botany, you may appreciate this online essay.

Toni Huber, The Cult of Pure Crystal Mountain: Popular Pilgrimage and Visionary Landscape in Southeast Tibet, Oxford University Press (Oxford 1999). This is the number one English-language publication for anyone with an interest in the subject. What more would I have to say to convince you to read it?

Dan Martin, “For Love or Religion?  Another Look at a ‘Love Song’ by the Sixth Dalai Lama,” Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft, vol. 138, part 2 (1988), pp. 349-363.

Matthieu Ricard et al., trs., “The Ravines of Tsari,” Chapter Ten, contained in: The Life of Shabkar: The Autobiography of a Tibetan Yogin, Snow Lion (Ithaca 2001), pp. 243-273. Told in first person by Zhabkar Tsogdrug Rangdrol (ཞབས་དཀར་ཚོགས་དྲུག་རང་གྲོལ་, 1781-1851), this is the most impressive account of a Tibetan pilgrimage to Tsari ever, and the translators’ footnote explanations are top notch.

Gnyos Lha-nang-pa

By the way —

One of the most exciting new developments in Tsari studies since Toni Huber’s book appeared has been the publication (in Dehra Dun in 2006) of a previously unavailable 12th-century guidebook, the one by Nyö Lhanangpa (གཉོས་ལྷ་ནང་པ་, 1164-1224).  He is not only among the first to open the pilgrimage route, he was the central figure in what was not so long ago the most highly priced Tibetan painting ever sold at auction (no doubt it has since been surpassed), and he is important to the history of the Drigung Kagyü school and its rare branch lineage called the Lhapa, known in bygone centuries in Bhutan. He is a major figure in the early history of Bhutan and Bhutanese Buddhism, just that he is less known elsewhere. His work on preliminary practices will be found useful to anyone interested in the history of the genre, and it, too, has surfaced. Even without doing divinations, I sense that more blogs are in our future. Is that a look of dread I see?

• Did you notice the ritual action of water getting poured over hands in the lower right-hand corner of the painting shown above? That’s part of traditional land donation practice in ancient India (as I learned from the late and lamented Hubert Decleer; I am not sure if the article with his observations on this painting was published or not).