Thank You for the Light, A Turkic Loanword

 

Lcags-mag

The ink is hardly dry on the last blog and the holiday season is bearing down on us. Still, I’d like to add on one more before giving these loanwords a rest. This example does suit my already-described method of identifying words that were likely borrowed from Tibet’s northerly and western neighbors. The second syllable in this case is mag, a word with a possible resonance within the Tibetan language, but no meaning that could go together with a first-syllable lcags. That first syllable looks like nothing so much as the ordinary Tibetan word for iron.*  

(*It would be a tedious exercise to go too much into it at this juncture. Still, the first possibility that presents itself is that mag could, theoretically, be a shortened version of mag-pa, meaning a matrilocal groom, or to put it another way, a son-in-law who is invited to join his bride’s household and, eventually, enjoy inheritance rights. If you can see how 'matrilocal groom of iron' makes sense all power to you. We’ll soon see that it is spelled rmag in some early manuscript testimonies, but this also takes us nowhere.)

I had long ago noticed this word listed in Berthold Laufer’s “Tibetan Loan-Words.” I couldn’t work up much enthusiasm for it. We know Laufer is here basing himself on entries in Jäschke’s dictionary (or in some cases Das’s dictionary, often itself based on Jäschke’s).* I had the feeling it wouldn’t carry a lot of weight if it just popped up once in a local market somewhere west of Western Tibet in the 19th century never to be used again. In truth I’m more inclined to deal with words of widespread and enduring currency that date from earlier times. 

(*It may be difficult to locate in Jäschke’s long entry, but look at p. 148, column 2, the 8th line from the bottom [in its most widely available version], where you can see the Turkish spelled out in Arabic script with the notice [“W.”] that it is a word belonging to Western Tibet.)

Even if I were unable to establish, as I will do in a moment, early usage for this word, we could still find it useful for its help in defending and refining a systematic method for detecting foreign words in Classical Tibetan. I would never claim the method is foolproof. An impressive degree of effectiveness is all I aim for. Now let’s look at some of that early evidence for this word lcags-mag, but first, a passage where it does not appear.

In answer to a question by a woman among his disciples at Tingri, Padampa (d. 1105?) uses a flint as an object lesson. He actually uses the word me-lcags, which would seem on the face of it to mean “fire [starting] iron,” but as I will try to show later on, its older and more original meaning must have been fire striker, and therefore the steel that strikes the flint. Still, in the minds of many, me-lcags seems to cover the entire set of fire-starting items including the pouch it comes in. The same is if anything more true of the word that will be our chief concern.

མ་ཇོ་ཆོས་གསལ་ན་རེ་ ། དམ་པ་ལགས་ ། ཆོས་ཐམས་ཅད་སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་ཡིན་སྐད་ན་  སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་ལ་འཁྲུལ་རྒྱུ་དང་ ། ་སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་གྲོལ་རྱུ་འོང་པ་ཙུག་ལགས་ཟེར་བས་ ། 

དམ་པའི་ཞལ་ནས་ ། དེ་འདུན་ཀྱིད་ཁྱོད་ཀྱི་མེ་ལྕགས་ཤོག་དང་གསུང་ནས་ ། དེ་ལ་མེ་བཏོན་ཅུང་ཟད་བསོས་ཏེ་ཤིར་བཅུག་ནས་ ། ལྟས་ངན་མེ་འདི་རྐྱེན་ལས་བྱུང་ནས་རྐྱེན་གྱིས་ཤི་ ། འདིའི་རྒྱུ་མཚན་ལ་རྗེས་གཅད་དུ་མ་བཏུབ་པ་ངོ་མཚར་ཆེ་ ། ་མེ་ལྕགས་གྲང་མོ་འདི་མེ་ཚན་མོའི་རྒྱུ་ཡིན་ཁོངས་མ་བཅུག་ ། ང་ཅག་གི་རྒྱ་གར་ན་འདི་འདྲ་བ་མྱེད་གསུངས་པས་ ། 

མོས་བརྡའ་དེའི་དོན་གོ་ནས་འཁྲུལ་པ་ཞིག་གོ་།།    །།

Majo Chösel asked, “If it is true, as they say, that all dharmas are Voidness, how is it that in Voidness causes of delusion and causes of liberation come about?” 

Padampa said, “Gendun Kyi, come bring your flint.” He lit a fire with the flint and tended it a bit, but it started to die out. “This poor ill-omened fire,” said Padampa, “It arose through conditions and it dies through conditions. It’s so amazing we cannot follow up on the reasons for this happening. We can’t comprehend how this cold flint could be cause for a warm fire. In our India we don’t have such things (as flints).” 

The woman understood the intentions behind Padampa’s symbolic mode of expression and her delusions dissolved. (Zhijé Collection, vol. 2, pp. 293-294.)

As I said, our word of interest isn’t actually used there, but Padampa could say the flint was unknown in India, and that may mean something. Also it is a beautiful example of how he made use of flints in his spiritual teachings. 

I do know of two usages of lcags-rmag (notice that silent ‘r’) in the Zhijé Collection. Both occur in works belonging to a relatively late level of the ZC, from the time of Tenné or roughly the last half of 12th century. These works do of course include commentaries on the words of Padampa, but also preserve the teachings Tenné received from his teacher Patsab:

Zhijé Collection, vol. 4, p. 109
(click to enlarge)

Number six: The aspiration prayer with interdependent conditions complete. It has been said, ‘You get fire from the lcags-rmag when the full set of causes and conditions are present.’ That means when the root cause, the dried bracken (ngur-mo), has ngar (flammability?); when the contributing cause, the hard stone (mkhregs-rdo, the flint), has corners; and when neither moisture nor mildew (btsa’) have entered in. In a similar manner, when all fifteen dharmas are present, all that you propose in the aspiration prayer comes to fruition.* 

(*The text continues listing all 15 of them. The OCR of the newly edited version of the text mistakenly corrects btsa' to rtswa, or grass, and speaks of five dharmas here rather than the correct fifteen. The meaning of btsa' here is not certain — it could also mean rust or spark — but I'm fairly certain it is the originally intended spelling.)

The second example occurs in the same volume, at p. 269, although it doesn’t help us so much right now. What it does do is verify that the spelling used in this old manuscript source is indeed lcag[s]-rmag. In context it’s telling us that meditative awareness is applied to more and more expansive objects, contrasting the infant prince with the ruling king, the lunar crescent just after the new moon with the full moon, and the fire of the lcags-rmag with a forest fire.

Evening sky

And there is a third example of early usage, this time from a 13th-century work by a follower of Cutting teachings. The following passage comes from the 12-vol. new edition of Zhijé & Cutting teachings, vol. 9, p. no. unknown, but anyway found inside Jamyang Gönpo’s work entitled Bdud Gcod Zab-mo Don-gyi Nying-khu-las/ Zab-don-gyi Spyi-khrid Chen-mo. It seems this text has not been translated, although a related text, the root text of the same, has indeed been published in English (see Sarah Harding’s book in the reading list).

དཔེར་ན་མེ་ཤེལ་ལམ། དུར་ལང་ངམ། ལྕགས་མག་མེ་དང་ལྡན་པ་མེ་ནང་དུ་བཅུག་ན་ཕྱིས་མེ་མི་འབྱུང་བ་བཞིན་ནོ།། 

dper na me shel lam / dur lang ngam / lcags mag me dang ldan pa me nang du bcug na phyis me mi 'byung ba bzhin no // 

It is as if, for example, you were to take a fire glass, or an amber,* or a lcags-mag, objects that possess fire, and place them into the fire. Later on no fire would come from them.  

(*I read sbur-long [also spelled spur-len], with meaning of amber in place of dur-lang. Amber holds a prominent place in the history of electricity, with its static variety being what sparks and moves the straw. See Laufer's essay listed below. It is said that heating the steel striker up to the point where it glows will seriously diminish its ability to make sparks.)

Among the ethnographic illustrations at the end of the
Zhang Yisun dictionary is this pouch labeled 'ba'-khug. 
It looks very much like a tinder pouch
but lacks the steel rim emerging from the bottom.
That’s why I believe it must be a coin purse or sewing kit.

Quite apart from these Zhijé works, we have at least two examples of the use of lcags-mag in Tanjur works, plus another commentarial work on one of the Tanjur works.  One of them, Maitreya’s Bhavasaṅkrāntiṭīkā, a very brief commentary on a work of Nāgārjuna, mentions rtsub-shing and lcags-mag as possible instruments of fire making. It interestingly mentions the rubbing stick (rtsub-shing) in the same breath with the lcags-mag. Its translator was Dawa Zhonnu, although knowing this doesn’t seem to be much help as he is not a well-known figure with a date.

The second Tanjur example is in Dharmottara’s commentary on the Pramāṇaviniścaya. It has a few difficult points, so I’ll just give you the Tibetan text to read for yourself (see below under Dharmottara) and leave it at that, although in general it agrees with Padampa’s symbolic usage. 

An entry from the Redhouse dictionary,
tashi means “stone”

‘What about the Turkish?’ you might be asking.

I know enough of the modern Anatolian variety to catch a word here and there in Turkish movies. So I wouldn’t expect you to believe me entirely, but the noun çakmak is the modern word for the lighter in use by smokers, campers and the like. It would be pronounced something very like chukmuk, and this is also a good way to represent the sound of the Tibetan version lcags-mag. In my crude understanding of the Turkish word, it is a verbal root çak with a kind of nominalizing (or infinitive forming?) suffix -mak added on. So the meaning of the entire word comes out meaning something like striker.

That means this shared word is necessarily a borrowing from a Turkic language int0 Tibetan rather than the other way around. We know this because the Tibetan preserves the word-final syllable -mag that only bears meaning in Turkic. 

There is another use of lcag, properly spelled without the final ‘-s’, in the Tibetan word for horse whip, which is rta-lcag. Reflecting for a moment that a whip is a striking instrument, it appears that the Tibetan word lcag was also borrowed from Turkish.* Of course borrowings can enter into hybrid expressions, but there is no reason to think that is the case with lcag-mag. The whole word and not just part of it is borrowed.

(*All you have to do is leave the ‘s’ off when you put “lcag mag” into the search box at BDRC, and you will come up with several instances of this spelling. Lcag-mag is not a hypothetical, and so does not require an asterisk.)

Another thing that becomes more obvious just by thinking about it is that Tibetans in past centuries, knowing that the fire-striking apparatus they use includes a metal piece for striking the flint, were bound to interpret the syllable, properly spelled lcag, as the word for “iron,” lcags, and go on to spell it that way without much fear of contradiction. Sometimes the truth seems so obvious, and sometimes the obvious fools us.

Of course there are some small issues surrounding all of this that require closer study and investigation. We have paid too little attention to phonological changes, local vocabulary variations, dialectology, Tibeto-Burman linguistic issues, true enough. Our emphasis has been the earliest known sources. So, as far as a conclusion is concerned, what I’ve written above is about as much as I intended to say. Still, in the spirit of the season I thought I would end with a few earnest platitudes and good wishes.

You may think studies of loanwords are a matter for philology of the most piddling sort, all about the words and low on substance and consequence. Basically a waste of time and a tedious one at that. But no, please, loanwords indicate human interactions (I almost said sociality). Their very existence nearly always indicates historical contact of some duration between peoples speaking different languages. This particular loanword is about even more. It indicates a tool, something useful for everyday life, an object shared across ethnic and linguistic boundaries. This tool, or set of tools, receives interesting symbolic meanings, even as a metaphor for interdependent origination, an essential Buddhist idea if there ever was one. And a small word can indicate a larger range of influences, or at least encourage us to look into them more than we have been.

Nowadays in much of the world women keep all their combs, pens, money, cigarette lighters and other assorted items in their purses or backpacks, men in their pockets, briefcases or backpacks. This may seem to go without saying, but it was not always so. Many cultures have made use of what is sometimes known as a chatelaine. That means a chain or belt, likely hanging on their bodies in plain view, with all those useful items suspended from it. Tibetan nomads in particular were likely to have quite a few such items hanging on their waist belts ready for action, rather like modern factory workers’ tool belts. Beautified as they are by finely tooled metalwork inset with corals and turquoise, the Tibetan nomad’s ‘utility belt’ denies us the boundaries we’ve drawn between jewelry and useful items, exemplifying both.

So during this holiday season, whether you are switching on your Christmas tree lights or lighting the Hanukkah or Kwanzaa candles, or the strings of  butterlamps and electric lights all around the temple for Tsongkhapa’s anniversary day, or shooting off firecrackers for Silvester Day, etcetera, stop for a moment. Think of the Tibeto-Turkish chakmak and contemplate the things that join us together as human beings instead of what pulls us apart. Please hold this thought for more than a moment, then let it expand further and further. It’s so important for our future as a species, and not just our single species, but for all living and sentient beings.

§   §   §

Written resources

• Turkish & Mongolian Loanwords, posted on December 10, 2014.

• Two Odd Words that Ought to be Persian, posted on December 12, 2024.

Gerard Clauson, An Etymological Dictionary of Pre-Thirteenth-Century Turkish, Clarendon Press (Oxford 1972). See the entry for “çak-” on p. 405 if you require proof the word çakmak was used in Central Asian Turkic languages in early times.  See also p. 591 for an interesting symbolic usage in a Turkish Buddhist text from Turfan. It compares the interdependent workings of the fire-starting kit with the workings of sensory perception.

Dharmottara, Pramāṇaviniścaya-ṭīkā (Tshad-ma Rnam-par Nges-pa’i ’Grel-bshad).  Tôh. no. 4229.  Dergé Tanjur, Tshad-ma section vol. DZE, folios 1v.1-289r.7. Translated by Kashmir Paṇḍita Parahitabhadra (Gzhan-la-phan-pa-bzang-po) and [Rngog] Blo-ldan-shes-rab (1059-1109 CE) at Anupamapura (Grong-khyer Dpe-med), presumably the city by that name in Kashmir.

ས་བོན་གྱི་ཆ་རྣམས་འབྲེལ་པའི་ཕྱོགས་ནས་བཟུང་སྟེ་མེ་ཏོག་ལ་སོགས་པ་རྒྱུ་ཐ་དད་པ་ཡིན་ནོ། །དེ་བཞིན་དུ་མེ་རྡོའི་མེའི་སྐྱེ་གནས་ཀྱི་ཟུར་ལྕགས་མག་གིས་བཅག་པ་ན་ཆག་པའི་འཛེལ་མ་ལས་མེ་འབྱུང་བའི་རང་གི་སྐྱེ་གནས་ལྡོག་པ་ཡིན་ནོ། །མེ་སྐྱེ་བ་ན་བུད་ཤིང་གི་སྙིང་པོའི་ཆ་འགའ་ཞིག་ནི་མེའི་དངོས་པོར་འགྱུར་ལ། ...

sa bon gyi cha rnams 'brel pa'i phyogs nas bzung ste me tog la sogs pa rgyu tha dad pa yin no // de bzhin du me rdo'i me'i skye gnas kyi zur lcags mag gis bcag pa na chag pa'i 'dzel ma las me 'byung ba'i rang gi skye gnas ldog pa yin no // me skye ba na bud shing gi snying po'i cha 'ga' zhig ni me'i dngos por 'gyur la/ ...

Sarah Harding, tr., “Part 3. Heart Essence of Profound Meaning: The Quintessence of All Source Texts and Esoteric Instructions on Severance, the Perfection of Wisdom,” contained in: Chöd: The Sacred Teachings on Severance, compiled by Jamgön Kongtrul, Snow Lion (Boulder 2016). As Harding points out, this work of Jamyang Gönpo (b. 1208) may be one of the earliest commentarial texts on Chöd practice. This is a translation of the root text, and not of the much longer autocommentary where the word lcags-mag is found. The longer work has sometimes been mistakenly published as a work composed by Longchen Rabjampa (1308-1363/4), with a brief colophon identifying him as the author.

Arthur H. Hayward, Colonial Lighting: A New and Revised Edition, Little, Brown & Co. (Boston 1927), pp. 160-161. Here you can read a humorous story of a back-&-forth about chuck-mucks. The book is old enough it is freely downloadable at archive.org.

Henryk Jankowski, A Historical-Etymological Dictionary of Pre-Russian Habitation Names of the Crimea, Brill (Leiden 2006), pp. 390-391. Although it’s about the place name, this is one of the most useful discussions of the word “caqmaq” I’ve found so far.

Kun Chang, “Sino-Tibetan ‘Iron’: *Qhleks,” Journal of the American Oriental Society, vol. 92 (1972), pp. 436-446.

Berthold Laufer, “Historical Jottings on Amber in Asia,” American Anthropological Association Memoirs, vol. 1, no. 3 (1907), pp. 211-244, with thanks to Mike Walter for suggesting it:

The Sanskrit term tṛṇagrāhin (‘attracting grass’) proves the same for India, and in Persian and Arabic we have the word kahrubā with a similar meaning... (note 3 on p. 218).

The usual name for it, spos shel (pronounced pö-shel or pö-she; in Lepcha, po-she), means literally “performed crystal”...  Another, a literary, designation is sbur len, or sbur long, which appears simply as a literal translation from the Sanskrit tṛṇagrāhin (“attracting straw”).  (p. 231)

———, “Loan-Words in Tibetan,” contained in: Hartmut Walravens, ed., Sino-Tibetan Studies: Selected Papers on the Art, Folklore History, Linguistics and Prehistory of Sciences in China and Tibet, Aditya Prakashan (New Delhi 1987), vol. 2, pp. 483-643. I use an old photocopy of the original publication in the journal T'oung Pao, vol. 17 (1916), pp. 403-552 (for the Turkish loans, see pp. 474-483). The Turkish-donated Tibetan terms he discusses I’ll list here (for variant spellings, go to the source publication):  

yam-bu, chu-ba, bol-gar, lcags-mag, lcags-phra, top, tu-pag, pi-chag, u-lag, ar-gon.

 

click to enlarge

Maitreya, Bhavasaṅkrāntiṭīkā (Srid pa ’Pho-ba’i Ṭī-ka).  Tôh. no. 3841.  Dergé Tanjur, Dbu-ma vol. TSA, folios 151v.7-158r.7.  Translated by Paṇḍi-ta Zla-ba-gzhon-nu, or to make an educated guess at the Sanskrit, Paṇḍita Candrakumāra. This commentary on a work by Nāgārjuna contains the relevant passage at fol. 152 recto.  

དེ་ལྟར་མ་ཡིན་པ་འབྱུང་བས་ན་འབྱུང་མི་སྲིད། མེའི་ནང་དུ་ས་བོན་བཏབ་ན་སྐྱེ་མི་སྲིད། དངོས་པོ་མེད་པ་དེ་ལ་ནི། །སྐྱེ་བ་བླངས་པ་སྲིད་པ་བསྟན་པ་ནི། ཇི་ལྟར་ཆུ་དངས་པས་གང་བའི་མཚོ་ལ་ཟིམ་དང་པདྨ་སྐྱེས་པ་བཞིན་ནོ། །གཙུབ་ཤིང་དང་ལྕགས་མག་ལས་མེ་འབྱུང་བ་བཞིན་ནོ།

de ltar ma yin pa 'byung bas na 'byung mi srid / me'i nang du sa bon btab na skye mi srid / dngos po med pa de la ni // skye ba blangs pa srid pa bstan pa ni / ji ltar chu dngas pas gang ba'i mtsho la zim dang padma skyes pa bzhin no // gtsub shing dang lcags mag las me 'byung ba bzhin no //

Pratapaditya Pal et al., Tibet: Tradition & Change, The Albuquerque Museum (Albuquerque 1997), p. 188, has a photo of the single most-marvelous example of a “flint purse” I’ve ever laid eyes on.

Precious Deposits: Historical Relics of Tibet, Morning Glory Publishers (Beijing 2000), vol. 5, pp. 141-5.  Some remarkable examples are illustrated here, called by the odd but oddly suitable name “fire sickles.” Note also the similar-looking sewing kit on p. 145.

John Myrdhin Reynolds, The Oral Tradition from Zhang-zhung, Vajra Publications (Kathmandu 2005). On p. 89 is an interesting reference to the use of flint and steel for starting fires in a Bon biography of a master of the Zhangzhung Oral Transmission. I ought to trace the words used in the Tibetan source text, but haven’t yet.

William Woodville Rockhill, Notes on the Ethnology of Tibet Based on the Collections in the United States National Museum, an extract from Annual Report of the Smithsonian Institution for the Year 1893, Government Printing Office (Washington 1895), pp. 665-747.  Plate 9 illustrates what he called “tinder and flint pouches,” and “strike-a-lights.”  The text on pp. 695 reads like this:

Another article, frequently most elaborately ornamented and worn by all Tibetans and hanging from the same chatelaine to which the needlecase is attached, is a tinder* and flint pouch on the lower edge of which is a steel. These are called mé-chag (written mé lchags) and are in common use all over Tibet, China, and Mongolia. The Chinese style of tinder pouch shown in Dr. Hooker's work (Himalayan Journals. II, p. 219) as existing in Sikkim, has been found by other travelers in Bhutan and even among the Abors and Mishmis. The Tibetan mé-chag is of two styles, the Dergé and Pomäd forms. The first is always decorated with silver bosses, coral, and turquoise beads, and is of either red cloth or leather (pl. 9, fig. 2). The Pomäd kind, as shown in the specimen in the Museum collection, is a beautiful piece of work in open gold and silver, in which are set 3 large beads, 2 of coral, and 1 of turquoise. The pouch is of red cloth, and is 5 1/2 inches long and 2 1/2 inches broad. An embroidered cloth case fits over it to protect it from the weather (pl. 9. fit. 4). In pl. 8, fig. 3, and another specimen not here illustrated are mé-chag of Mongol manufacture, and were probably made in eastern Mongolia among the Halhas, although the former is Tibetan in its style of decoration.”**  

(*Note: I’ve omitted Rockhill’s interesting footnote on tinder.  **Rockhill understood me-lcags to refer to the entire fire-starting kit, although modern Tibetan tends to call this me-cha. I believe moderns understand me-cha to be a reduced form of me-yi cha-lag, hence meaning fire items or fire tools, although it is also possible to read me-cha as meaning fire piece. Understanding me-lcags presents problems of its own, since its proper spelling is rather likely to be me-lcag, with meaning of fire striker, rather than me-lcags meaning fire iron. The use of syllable-final -s has been a problem with Tibetan spellers throughout history, even though it can completely change the meaning sometimes, like in rig and rigs, or rtog and rtogs. I won’t go further into that. What would be the point here?)

George Roerich et al., trs., Blue Annals, p. 922, for what would seem to be yet another example of Padampa’s symbolic usage of the tinder bag.  I checked the Tibetan and found that the word pouch (khug-ma) is indeed used, and nearby is the word me-cha (not me-lcag[s]), which in this context I believe could refer to the flint alone and not the tinder bag as a whole (but see the Tshul-khrims-blo-gros book). This wonderfully complex and obscure passage deserves closer study.

Tshul-khrims-blo-gros, ed., Bod-kyi Srol-rgyun Tha-snyad ris-’grel Ming-mdzod, Si-khron Mi-rigs Dpe-skrun-khang (Chengdu 2016). Composed by a committee in Chengdu, this is in effect a visual dictionary of the material culture of traditional Tibetan nomads and farmers (including domestic animals), with 1,212 illustrations.

Its illustration (p. 167) of what it calls me-cha — that means the entire assemblage of fire-starting items including the pouch — comes with labels identifying 13 parts, but concentrating on the decorative aspects. The steel striker is called me-lcags. An interesting item attached to it yet hanging separately is called me-rgyug / me-’then. I’d like to know more about its use. It may be a tiny pouch with an accelerant of some kind. The items that are presumably inside the pouch are neither shown nor identified.

Wikipedia, “Chuckmuck.”  

If you don’t mind the language, the German Wiki has a shorter but more nicely done entry entitled “me-lcags.”

•

• Acknowledgement: Mike Walter helped me out a lot with this as well as the previous blog on Persian loanwords, and much of the discussion here took shape under his emailed instigations, suggestions on what to read, which dictionary entry to look at, and so on. I’d like to dedicate this blog to Sangyela who years ago asked me if I knew of any Turkish words in Tibetan.

• PS: I recognize that this paper neglects to argue historical situations that would help to explain the borrowing of words and objects from the Turkic realm north and northeast of Tibet. Some contact situations have already been demonstrated or indicated by others, a subject for another time.

•

From an email message of Charles Ramble (January 7, 2025), posted here with permission:

I much appreciated your piece on lcags mag! I knew the term only from Nepali, and had no idea either that it had a Turkish origin or that it had found its way into Tibetan. In Nepali, it denotes one of the two little knife-like things that are included in the sheath of the khukri: one is the karda, which I think is used as a sort of penknife, and the other is the cakmak, which is a small file used for sharpening the main blade. Keep up the good work!

•

Try to see this brief video for a khukri sharpening demonstration.

±   ±   ±

Add-on, January 31, 2025

H.A. Jaeschke, Mor[avian] Missionary, Romanized Tibetan and English Dictionary, Kyelang in British Lahoul (1866). For curiosity’s sake, I supply the entry from the original form of Jaeschke’s dictionary where the word is clearly marked as being of Turk[ic] origins, proving once more that we are only reporting (very)  

old news.  First download the PDF, then go to the page marked 7.

Seven Women, a Unique Padampa Text from Bhutan

Guru Rinpoche, with Nyangrel and so on
(see below) HAR 160.

 

• I’ve written before about how there were in the 11th-12th centuries, several popular Buddhist movements that virtually disappeared from history, yet may have had some impact. Led by laypeople, including laywomen, their memory has survived in what amounts to little more than lists, lists that represent different ways of grouping them. Despite or because of the fact that their Buddhist orthodoxy was and still could be framed in different ways, they become all the more important for historians in our contemporary world. I mean in particular historians who need to factor them into some broader understanding of the emergence of the Buddhist schools or sects that were at that very time beginning to take shape and eventually gaining broader social recognition.  And they demonstrate that women could indeed achieve leadership roles in those times.

   

While in Rome last winter, one of the Tucci Collection’s Tibetan texts seized my attention more than any other. It contained Guru Rinpoche Padmasambhava’s individual teachings to seven different women.* It took me some time before I remembered that I had already encountered another text that similarly contained answers to questions asked by a set of seven women. Only in that case it was not Padmasambhava, but Padampa in the role of Teacher. It looks as if this Padampa work uniquely survives in two sets of Cutting and Zhijé teachings transmitted by Drubtob Ngödrub (Grub-thob-dngos-grub) to Nyangrel Nyima Özer and preserved in manuscripts kept at Tsakaling and Drametsé in Bhutan. Knowing that the two persons just named are the very same ones commonly awarded the lion’s share of responsibility for revealing the Mani Kambum, we might expect to find a thing or two in common.**

(*I talked about this Tucci manuscript and its parallel in Mani Kambum in a very recent blog entry, “Seven Women: The Padmasambhava Text from Rome.” **A parallel passage was found by simply searching for "bu khyo" in BUDA etext repository, nothing more mysterious than that.  Bu khyo means ‘child[ren] & husband[s].’)

The two seven-fold sets of Tibetan women have no members in common, as you may observe in this chart allowing you to compare their names with ease and to observe the total mismatch. Well, one thing that does match, and I believe this is significant, is the sevenness of the women.

Chart for comparing the names of the seven women in
the Padampa and the Padmasambhava texts

As I said, there are two existing manuscripts of the Padampa Seven Women text. Neither has been published in any form to the best of my knowledge, although both have been posted on the world-wide web (the specific titles were not cataloged or otherwise listed there, and for that reason are not accessible through any internet search tool; I've listed those titles below in Appendices A & B). Both were preserved in the eastern half of Bhutan, one in the Nyingma monastery of Drametsé, the other in Tsakaling. Here is the one from Drametsé:

The Drametsé manuscript. Full transcription appended below

The Drametsé colophon you see here below belongs to the text that comes immediately before the one on the women. 

I put it on display here because it states clearly the names of those two Buddhist masters traditionally known for revealing the Mani Kambum, but also because it says its scribing took place at the main site of Nyangrel’s activity in his later life, Mabochok ( སྨྲ་བོ་ཅོག ). I suppose this information ought to apply to all the texts in the set. As I said, complete title outlines for both of the Bhutan collections are appended below for the sake of Tibetan readers curious about what else may be found in them. Also, the seven women texts from both the Drametsé and Tsakaling manuscripts have been typed in Roman transcription below. I placed them in adjacent paragraphs for ease of comparison. I haven’t managed to supply full English translations, and I apologize for that. I hope to return to this task another time. In the meantime, feel free to try your hand at it. Or, if you believe it will return a good enough result, try the automated translation service of Dharmamitra.

Right now I will limit myself to the second of the seven women, Gyatingma, the most interesting and useful figure for making some significant points. Her name, meaning ‘China Blue,’ is listed among all the groupings of leaders of popular movements active in Tibet during the post-imperial pre-Mongol era. This lends her a special significance, even if she is scarcely traceable in the literature otherwise (try conducting a BUDA etext search for her if you like). And, as we’ll show, the teachings given to her by Padampa in this early text do indeed closely echo teachings attributed to those popular movements in subsequent polemics. Here is the passage, translated with the help of both Bhutanese manuscripts (I added underlining for emphasis):

To Zhangmo Gyatingma he said, “The view is free of expectations. Free yourself of the bondage of your thoughts. Meditate, but do it without any mental focus. Don’t settle your attention on a mental object. The conduct is free of lust and compulsion. Perform crazy actions, and abandon the social mind. The goal means to have no connection between thoughts and things. Recognize sangsara as a label, act without anxiety over outcomes, while rightly dividing thoughts and things. Persist in your Dharma practice and regardless of being a woman don’t get lost in the dharma, you need to divorce from desire and thoughts. When you become a yogini you need to do without ordinary friends. To create a rift with sangsara, you need to leave children behind and leave. A warrior woman entering the occupied zone must have cut loose all modesty and shame. If she does so, Gyatingma will become a sterling yogini.”

The most pertinent thing to observe about this passage, for present purposes, is the idea to entirely separate thoughts and things. This passage could have really served as the reference point for the 13th-century polemical passage from the Single Intention. Two of the Four Children of Pehar were women, and notice that it attributes the “disconnection of thoughts with things” idea not to Gyatingma, but to the other woman, Gyacham. We may accept that this is a simple confusion of identities, as we are so used to such switching of identities of women in these early centuries. Simply put, the Padampa Seven Women text is very likely a source for the polemic. It’s the only possible source I know of.

•

If you are interested in the broader question of popular lay Buddhist movements in pre-Mongol era Tibet, I have a few essays I could recommend. I cannot cover all of that now, so give this chart a quick look:

 

 

By tossing my various sources together I deliberately made the chart look messy hoping to reflect the uncertainty we face in dealing with such an under-documented phenomenon. I admittedly tend toward accepting the categorizations of Nyangrel, as his is the only somehow sympathetic source. Each in its own way, all the others place them outside the pale of Buddhist orthodoxy. Well, our Seven Women text, in the case of only one of the Four Children of Pehar, gives support to his positive valuation, and this may not be unexpected, knowing that all the Seven Women texts were in some way produced or transmitted by him and his circles.

Here is a translation of the passage on the Four Children of Pehar from the Single Intention:

There were four people captured by spirits by the names Shel-mo Rgya-lcam, Zhang-mo Rgya-'thing, 'O-lam Bha-ru and Bso Kha-'tham. Each of these four had their own particular philosophical claims.

The first believed that thoughts and objects are not interconnected. When Shel-mo’s husband was killed by another man, she felt great grief but did not want to weep in front of others. So she went to a cave with people carrying tsha-tsha and remained there for a long time crying. When she got exhausted, Pe-kar came from the sky and said to her,

“Do not cry. There is absolutely no connection between your thoughts and external objects. If there were, since you cry thinking about your husband, he ought to return to you as before; you cried and called out, but still no husband.”

Hearing these words, she thought about them and decided they were true. She went into a meeting at the lower end of that same valley, where a teacher was explaining Dharma to five hundred students and started dancing.

“Thoughts and things have no connection. 

The very idea must be rejected—

by teacher, student and teaching three—

that they are the least bit interconnected.”

she said as she danced, and everyone, teacher and students included, got up and started dancing all at once. They became her followers, calling the cave where she had stayed Prophecy Relic Cave.

Now I fully realize that the identities of the two women among the Four Children have been exchanged, and the teaching about thoughts and things having no connection is ascribed first to one and then the other. We just have to learn to live with this kind of problem. It’s something we see quite often in accounts of Tibetan women, the confusion between Zhama and Labdrön being only the best-known example (see Lo Bue’s essay), and these are by far the two most prominent women religious leaders of the time.

It would make sense, as much as it might seem unnecessary, to underline that what we have here are very significant early documents for women’s studies that have so far been unknown or unrecognized.* This neglect is not at all surprising, since their manuscripts have never been edited or published in ways that would have made them accessible to researchers. That’s no longer true, as of today.

(*Of course they were well hidden in monastic collections in eastern Bhutan with very limited access, and Karma Phuntso deserves the lion’s share of the credit for bringing these rare and precious texts out of their retirement.)

A lot of issues are tugging at us from the peripheries but we ought to overlook them and finish up for now. My main aim has been to point out the various “Seven Women” texts as a type of small sub-genre of early Tibetan literature. I have and will put the material out there for further study as it has significance for future histories of women and popular religious movements. I haven’t “mastered” it or analyzed it in detail, I leave the main part of that for others. 

I believe I’ve been able, in recent blogs, to demonstrate previously undetected textual relations between the Nyingma and Zhijé schools in the 12th century, and more specifically relations implicating the revealers of the Mani Kambum. I’ve suggested a few lines of research that might prove worthwhile to pursue, avenues that with luck will see their way clear to brighten our shared Tibeto-logical future of burgeoning knowledge and personal fulfillment for all...

and to all a good night.

Suggested reading

Cathy Cantwell, “Myang ral Nyi ma ’od zer (1134-1192): Authority and Authorship in the Coalescing of the rNying ma Tantric Tradition,” Medieval Worlds, vol. 12 (2020), pp. 68-79.

Daniel Hirshberg, Remembering the Lotus Born: Padmasambhava in the History of Tibet’s Golden Age, Wisdom (Somerville 2016). If you are too pressed for time to read entire books, read Cantwell’s essay or Hirshberg’s own “Nyangrel Nyima Wozer” in Treasury of Lives website.

Erberto Lo Bue, “A Case of Mistaken Identity: Ma-gcig Labs-sgron and Ma-gcig Zha-ma,” contained in: Per Kvaerne, ed., Tibetan Studies: Proceedings of the 6th Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies, Fagernes 1992, The Institute for Comparative Research in Human Culture (Oslo 1994), pp. 481-490. Look here if you need a good example of women’s identities getting mixed around.

Dan Martin, “Lay Religious Movements in Eleventh- and Twelfth-Century Tibet: A Survey of Sources,” Kailash (Kathmandu), vol. 18 (1996), pp. 23-55.

——, “The Star King and the Four Children of Pehar: Popular Religious Movements of Eleventh- to Twelfth-century Tibet,” Acta Orientalia Hungarica (Budapest), vol. 49, pts. 1-2 (1996), pp. 171-195.

Nyangrel’s History:  Nyang Nyi-ma-’od-zer, Chos-’byung Me-tog Snying-po Sbrang-rtsi’i Bcud, Gangs-can Rig-mdzod series no. 5, Bod-ljongs Mi-dmangs Dpe-skrun-khang (Lhasa 1988). TBRC no. W7972. 

Here is the passage relevant to China Blue at p. 494:

དུས་དེ་ཙ་ན་ཟར་སྟག་སྣའི་ཞང་པོ་རྒྱ་འཐིང་ལས་རྣལ་འབྱོར་སྨྱོན་ཚོ་དང་། རྩི་རིའི་འོ་ལ་འབའ་སུ་ལས་རྣལ་འབྱོར་བྱར་མེད་དང་། རུ་མཚམས་ཀྱི་རྒྱལ་བ་སྲོ་ཁ་འཐམས་ལས་མེ་ཆུ་གོ་ལོག་པ་དང་། དབུས་ཀྱི་ཤེ་མོ་རྒྱ་ལྕམ་ལས། གློང་ནག་པོ་རྒྱ་འཛམ།〔དེ་〕ལ་འཕུར་ཚོ་ཞེས་ཟེར་ཏེ། ཤངས་ཀྱི་རྣལ་འབྱོར་སྟག་ཚོ་དང་། རྫི་ལུང་གི་མགོས་ཚོས་ཁ་བསྐངས་པ་འདི་རྣམས་ལ། རྣལ་འབྱོར་ནག་པོ་དྲུག་ཟེར། ཁོང་རང་གིས་སྒྲུབ་བརྒྱུད་བཟང་པོར་བྱེད། ལོ་པཎ་གྱི་རྗེས་སུ་འབྲེང་བ་རྣམས་ནི་ཁོང་གི་དེ་རྣམས་རྡོལ་ཆོས་སུ་བྱེད། གཞན་ཡང་བོད་ཡུལ་འདིར་མཁས་པ། བཟང་བ། གྲུབ་ཐོབ། འཁྲུལ་ཞིག རྟོགས་ལྡན་ཇི་སྙེད་བྱོན་ན་ཡང་། རྣམ་ཐར་རྣམས་བྲིས་ན་སྤྲོ་བ་སྐྱེ་བར་འགྱུར་མོད་ཀྱི། བསམ་གྱིས་མི་ཁྱབ་པས་འདིར་སྤྲོས་ན་ཡི་གེ་མང་བར་འཇིགས་པས་མ་བྲིས་སོ། བསྟན་པ་ཕྱི་དར་གྱི་ལོ་རྒྱུས་ཞབས་སུ་བཏགས་པའོ།།

• I lament — and apologize for — the momentary unavailability of the Endangered Archives Programme’s texts from Bhutan. This is due to a widely-reported Cyber Incident that created much hardship and wasted energy for so many around the globe, not only the many employees of the British Library.

§   §   §

The Frontispiece  

Said to belong to the 13th century, as it very well might, this painting has the Precious Teacher Padmasambhava as its central figure flanked by his Tibetan and Indian wives (practically mirror images of each other). The somewhat smaller figure beneath them is surely Nyangrel Nyima Özer, and if you look up in the upper right corner there is a set of three figures. The middle of the three is Padampa, with only a minimum of doubt in my mind, making it a very probable Padampa.

§   §   §

The Two Bhutan Manuscripts of the Seven Women

Note: Below please find the Drametsé manuscript typed out in black, while the Tsakaling manuscript is in blue and indented. This was done to make it easy to check one against the other (tables formatting could not be used here). I have put the women’s names in dark red for emphasis (in the Drametsé only). Both transcriptions have been checked a second time for accuracy. Abbreviated spellings have mostly been tacitly resolved, although misspellings were supposed to be given as is (notice bu-med for bud-med and the like), without always pointing them out. Occasionally corrected spellings are suggested in square brackets.

The word cho-lu, or chol-bu in the title is especially significant, as it suggests it belongs to the earliest collection of Padampa texts that was made, the no longer extant collection (called Cho[l]-lu'i skor) by Kunga done in circa 1100 CE. The Drametsé is supposed to be part 16 (as indicated by the keyletter MA) of the larger collection of Padampa-related texts.

The folios of the Tsakaling are marked with the six-syllable mantra instead of folio numbers.  The Tsakaling has a very significant colophon [6r.2] informing us it was scribed by Teacher Sengé based on the personal copy of the Great Nyang (bud med la gdams pa cho lu'i skor / rdzogs so // phyi rabs rjes 'jug la phan par gyur cig / nyang chen po'i phyag yig steng nas / ston seng ges bris / cig zhu). The Great Nyang is of course the famous Nyangrel Nyima Özer. Who else could it be?

The differences between the two manuscripts are mostly minor (they even share some otherwise very unusual misspellings). My reason for respecting the autonomy of the two texts rather than crafting a single critical edition out of them is to try and understand what the two otherwise uniquely existing texts have to do with each other. I suspect that the Drametsé was directly copied to create the Tsakaling, but may need to give the problem more thought. If so, the personal copy of the Great Nyang mentioned in the Tsakaling would be none other than the Drametsé. I’d like to know your thoughts on this problem if anything occurs to you.

 

•

 

TITLE:  MA - Dam pas bu med bdun la gdams pa'i chol lus skor bzhugs.ho [=Bud med bdun la gdams pa'i cho lu'i skor].

[scan photo no. 93, or fol. OM recto, title page] Dam pas bu med bdun la gdam pa'i chol lu'i skor bzhugs s.ho mangga lam [~Dam pas bud med bdun la gdams pa'i cho lu'i skor]. 

[1v] bla ma dam pa rnams la phyag 'tshal lo //

bla ma dam pa rnams la phyag 'tshal lo /

dam pa rgya gar de gang zag rang rgyud pa men ste // sprul pa'i sku byang chub sems dpa' yin ste / skal ldan rnams la thugs rjes gzigs pas 'gro ba'i mgon po // rnal 'byor pho mo lnga bcu tsa bzhi'i grub thob kyi bsnyan rgyud kyi gdams pa mnga' ba / 'jam dpal sgra ba'i seng ge [~smra ba'i seng ge] dang zhal mjal bas / sangs rgyas gnyis pa'i sras su gyurd pa / sgron ma [~sgrol ma] dang rje btsun ma rnal 'byor ma la rtsog pa'i mkha' 'gro ma'i lung bstan thob pa /  [2r]  mchog thun mong gi dngos grub gnyis la mnga' mnyes pa / 'dzam bu gling gi rgyan gcig po // lhag par du bod la bka' drin che ba / a tsa ra nag po chen po gzi mdangs can / chos la bar na lo tsha'i lhad med pa / rang skad du ston pa / dam pa thugs rje can de / las stod ding ri na bzhugs pa'i dus su / bud med las khyad du 'phags pa bdun /

dam pa rgya gar de gang zag rang rgyud pa men ste / sprul pa'i sku byang chub sems dpa' yin ste / skal ldan rnams la thugs rjes gzigs pas 'gro ba'i mgon po / rnal 'byor pho mo lnga bcu tsa bzhi'i grub thob kyi bsnyan rgyud yi gdams pa mnga' ba / 'jam dpal sgra ba'i seng ge [~smra ba'i seng ge] dang zhal mjal bas / sangs rgyas gnyis pa'i sras su gyurd pa / sgron ma [~sgrol ma?] dang rje btsun ma rnal 'byor ma la rtsogs pa'i mkha' 'gro ma'i lung bstan thob pa / mchog thun mo[ng] gi dngos grub gnyis la mnga' mnyes pa / 'dzam bu gling gi rgyan gcig po / lhag par du bod la bka' drin che ba / a tsar nag po chen po gzi mdangs can / chos la bar na lo tsha ba'i lhad med pa / rang skad du ston pa / dam pa thugs rje can de / la stod ding ri na bzhugs pa'i dus su / bud med las khyad du 'phags pa bdun / 

tsi mo rnam kha' gsal [~tsi mo nam mkha' gsal] /

tsi mo rnam kha' [fol. MA] gsal /

zhang mo rgya mthing ma /

zhang mo rgya mthing ma / 

jo zhwa chung ma /

ma jo zhwa chung ma / 

ma jo rje chung ma /

ma jo rje chung ma / 

ma jo rong chung ma /

ma jo rong chung ma / 

ma jo glan chung ma /

ma jo glen chung ma / 

ma jo zhang chung ma /

ma jo zhang chung ma /

skye ba sman kyang mtshan ldan mkha' 'gro mas byin gyis brlabs pa bdun gyis / gser gyi man rdal phul tshogs kyi 'khor lo mdzad nas / dam pa la phyag dang skor ba byas nas zhus pa /

skye ba sman kyang mtshan ldan mkha' 'gro mas byin gyis brlabs pa bdun gyis / gser gyi man rdal phul tshogs kyi 'khor lo mdzad nas / dam pa la phyag dang skor ba byas nas zhus pa /  ±  /  

rje rin po che sprul pa'i sku / a li ka li'i gsung / rig pa'i ye shes kyi thug[s] / bdag cag bu med 'dra ba skye ba sman pas snying rus med / [2v] las ngan pas lus la dgra yod / bya ba mang la g.yeng ba che bas / chos mi khom / 'on kyang dam pas gdam ngag tshig bzhis grol nus pa ci zhu dgos pas / gnang par mdzod ci zhes bu med bdun gyis 'grin ci du [~mgrin gcig tu] zhus pas / dam pas gdams pa re re snang pa'o //

rje rin po che sprul pa'i sku / [insert here? a li ka li'i gsung] rig pa'i ye shes kyi thug / bdag cag bu med 'dra ba skye ba sman pas snying rus med / las ngan pas lus la dgra yod / bya ba mang la g.yeng pa che bas / <chos mi khom> 'on kyang dam pas gdam ngag tshig bzhi bzhis grol nus pa gcig zhu dgos pas / gnang par mdzod cig zhes bud med bdun gyis mgrin gcig tu zhus pas / dam pas gdams pa re re snang pa'o //

tsi mo nam mkha' gsal la / lta ba phyogs lhung mtha' bral yin no // rig pa rten dang phrol la blo'i snems thag chod / sgom pa rang gsal 'dzin med yin no // 

§§  tsi mo nam kha' gsal [~nam mkha' gsal] la / lta ba phyogs lhung mtha' bral yin no / rig pa rten dang phrol la [fol. MA verso] blo'i snyems thag chod / sgom pa rang gsal 'dzin med yin no // 

sems nyid lhug pa ngos zung gcig / spyod pa shugs byung 'gag med yin no // shes pa la 'khris ma bzhag gcig / 'bras bu rang byung ye gnas yin no //

sems nyid lhag pa ngos zung cig / spyod pa shugs byung 'gag med yin no //  shes pa la 'khris ma bzhag cig / 'bras bu rang byung ye gnas yin no // 

re dogs kyi blo sol gcig / chos byed na khyim thab kyi blo ma bstang na sdug bsngal gyi brtson ra las mi thar / 'dod pa'i blo ma bstang na zas nor la chog shes med / gdung sems kyi blo ma bstang na / [3r]  bu khyo'i 'khri ba mi chod / ngo tsha dang khrel 'dzem gyi blo ma bstang na / nam mkha' gsal la rnal 'byor ma dka' por mchi 'o gsung // 

re dogs kyi blo sol cig / chos byed na khyim thab kyi blo ma bstang na sdug bsngal gyi brtson ra las mi thar / 'dod pa'i blo ma bstang na zas nor la chog shes med / gdung sems kyi blo ma bstang na / bu khyo'i 'khris mi chod / ngo tsha dang khrel 'dzem gyi blo ma bstang na / nam mkha' gsal la rnal 'byor ma dkar por mchi'o gsung //  

zhang mo rgya mthing la / lta ba 'dod pa dang bral ba yin no // blo yi 'ching pa khrol gcig / bsgom pa dmigs pa dang bral ba yin no / blo yi yul du ma bzhag gcig / spyod pa chags zhen med pa yin no // 

§§  zhang mo rgya mthing la / lta ba 'dod pa rang bral ba yin no // blo yi 'ching pa khrol cig / bsgom pa dmigs pa dang bral ba yin no / blo yi yul du ma bzhag cig / spyod pa chags zhen med pa yin no // 

smyon spyod gyis la mi'i blo thong / 'bras bu blo dngos 'brel med yin no // 'khor ba ming du shes par gyis la blo dngos gyi shan phye la re dogs med par gyis / nan tar chos byed na bud med yin yang chos la mi sto ste / 'dod pa dang blo 'brel dgos / rnal 'byor ma byed na tha' mal gyi grogs dang 'bral dgos / 'khor ba dang dbyes byed na bu tsha rgyab du 'bor dgos / dpa' mo khrom shog pa gcig byed na / ngo tsha dang khrel shor ba gcig dgos /  [3v] de tsho byas na rgya mthing ma la / rnal 'byor ma gsha' ma gcig 'ong gsung ngo //

smyon spyod gyis la mi'i blo thong / [fol. NI recto] 'bras bu blo dngos 'brel med yin no // 'khor ba ming du shes par gyis la / blo dngos gyi shan phye la re dogs med par gyis / rgyor ma byed na tha mal // nan tar chos byed na bud med yin yang chos la mi lto ste / 'dod pa dang blo 'brel dgos / rnal 'byor ma byed na tha' mal gyi grogs dang 'bral dgos // 'khor ba dang dbyes byed na bu tsha rgyab tu 'bor dgos // dpa' mo khrom shog pa cig byed na / ngo tsha dang khrel shor ba cig dgos / de tsho byas na rgya mthing ma la / rnal 'byor ma gsha' ma cig 'ong gsung ngo // § //

dam pas ma cho zhas chung ma la gdams pa / lta ba mtha' bral rten med yin no // stag chad kyi mtha' la ma bskur gcig / bsgom pa rang gsal rang 'byung yin no // bying rgod kyi dgra la ma bskur gcig / spyod pa rang shar rang grol yin no // tshul 'chos kyi skyon la ma bskur cig / 'bras bu ma bsgrubs rang 'byung yin no  // 

§§ dam pas ma cho zhas chung ma la gdams pa / lta ba mtha' bral rten med yin no / stag chad kyi mtha' la ma bskur cig / bsgom pa rang gsal rang 'byung yin no / bying rgod kyi dgra la ma bskur te / spyod pa rang shar rang grol yin no / tshul 'chos kyi skyon la [fol. NI verso] ma bskur cig / 'bras bu ma bsgrubs rang 'byung yin no / 

'dod pa'i blo ma bstang cig / chos byed na rnam rtog tsad bcad na / rig pa'i zhal mthong ste bu med rnam rtog mang / nyon mongs tsad bcad na rang grol gyi zhal mthong te / bud med nyon mongs pa rag / snang ba'i tshad bcad na / stong pa'i zhal mthong ste / bu med mngon zhen che / sems nyid tsad chod na chos sku'i zhal mthong ste / bu med bsam bsno mang / chos byed na bya mthong la [4r] bla ma'i thad du sgoms / sangs rgyas de khad kyis zhal mthong gcig gsung ngo //

'dod pa'i blo ma bstad cig / chos byed na rnam rtog tsad bcad na / rig pa'i zhal mthong ste bud med rnam rtog mang / nyon mongs tsad bcad na rang grol gyi zhal mthong te / bud med nyon mongs pa rag snang pa'i tsad bcad na / stong pa'i zhal mthong ste / bud med mngon zhen che / sems nyid tsad chod na chos sku'i zhal mthong ste / bud med bsam bsno mang / chos byed na bya mthong la bla ma'i thad du sgoms / sangs rgyas de khad kyis zhal mthong 'ong gcig gsung ngo /

dam pas jo mo rje chung ma la gdams pa / lta ba rang 'byung ye shes yin no // rang gsal sems kyi me long ltos gcig / bsgom pa 'od gsal lhan skyes yin no // rang dang lhan skyes 'grogs / spyod pa rang 'byung rgyun gnas yin no shes pa'i rtsi yis zung / 'bras bu lhan gcig skyes sbyor yin no rang ngo shes par gyis / 

§§ dam pas jo mo rje chung ma la gdams pa / lta ba rang 'byung ye shes yin no / rang gsal sems kyi me long ltos cig / bsgom pa 'od gsal lhan skyes yin no / rang dang lhan skyes 'grogs / spyod pa rang 'byung rgyun gnas yin [fol. PAD recto] no shes pa'i rtsa yis zung / 'bras bu lhan cig skyes sbyor yin no rang ngo shes par gyis / 

rje chung ma nan tar chos byed na / bu g.yas su sod na zhe sdang rtsad chod / bu mo g.yon du sod la 'dod chag[s] kyi gshis phyung / snang ba la med chug la 'dod yon rlung la skur / shel rgong glang la skor la sems la nyon mongs pa ma 'jog / nam mkha'i mthongs su sdod la / stong nyid ngang la nyol / skye rgas na 'chi'i chu bo bzhi la skyel ma tshol de [4v] ltar byas na bu med kyi lus 'di bor nas nub phyogs padma can du skye bar gda'i gsung ngo // 

rje chung ma nan ltar chos byed na / bu g.yas su sod la zhe sdang rtsad chod / bu mo g.yon du sod la 'dod chag kyi gshis phyung / snang ba la med chug la 'dod yon rlung la skur / shel rgong glad la skor la sems la nyon mongs pa ma 'jog / nam mkha'i mthongs su sdod la / stong nyid ngang la nyol / skye rgas na 'chi'i chu bo bzhi la skyel ma tshol de ltar byas na bud med kyi lus 'di bor nas nub phyogs pad ma can du skye bar gda'i gsung ngo //

dam pas ma jo rong chung ma la gdams pa / lta ba 'gyur med sdeng ldan yin no // nyam nga med par khyer / sgom pa rang 'byung rgyun gnas yin no // bying sgod grogs su khyer / spyod pa cir snang grogs shar yin no // 'gro nyal 'dug sdod skyongs / 'bras bu spangs thob med pa yin no // rang la gnas pas chog / 

§§ dam pas ma jo rong chung ma la gdams pa / lta ba 'gyur med sdeng ldan yin no / nyam nga med par khyer // sgom pa rang 'byung rgyun gnas yin no // bying rgod grogs su khyer / spyod pa cir snang grogs shar yin no // 'gro nyal 'dug sdod [fol. PAD verso] skyongs // 'bras bu spangs thob med pa yin no / rang la gnas pas chog / 

rong chung ma snying gi dkyil na 'od me long tsam gcig gda'o // de la lta nus na bla ma gcig nang nas 'char ste / bu med gti mug che / mdun gyi nam mkha' la shel gyi mchod rten gda' ste / de la lta nus na bla ma gcig phyi nas ston te / bu med mngon zhen che / byung tshor gyi rtog pa la ngos bzung 'dug gam mi 'dug bltas na / rang grol gyi slob dpon gcig 'ong bar gda' ste / bu med yab  [5r]  yeb che / bya ba thong la lta stog thong dang / bu med yin yang grol te 'ong gis gsung ngo //

rong chung ma snying gi dkyil na 'od me long tsam gcig gda'o // de la lta nus na bla ma gcig nang nas 'char ste / bud med gti mug che / mdun gyi nam mkha' la shel gyi mchod rten gda' ste / de la lta nus na bla ma gcig phyi nas ston te / bud med mngon zhen che / byung tshor gyi rtog pa la ngos bzung 'dug <gam mi 'dug> bltas na // rang grol gyi slob dpon gcig 'ong bar gda' ste / bud med yab yeb che / bya ba thong la lta stog thong dang // bud med yin yang grol te 'ong gis gsung ngo //

dam pas ma jo glan chung ma la gdams pa / glan chung ma lta ba 'gyur med sdeng ldan yin no // rig pa gtsal phyung / bsgom pa smyug ma rang gnas yin no // rnam rtog 'gag du chug / spyod pa skyes grol dus mnyam yin no // nyon mongs pa brtsan chod gyis / 'bras bu sku gsum rang gnas yin no // rang la rang ngo rtogs / 

§§ dam pas ma jo glan chung ma la gdams pa / glan chung ma lta ba 'gyur med sdeng ldan yin no / rig pa gtsal [~rtsal] phyung / bsgom pa smyug ma rang gnas yin no /  rnam rtog 'gag du chug / spyod pa skyes grol dus mnyam yin no /  nyon mongs pa brtson chod gyis [fol. ME recto] 'bras bu sku gsum rang gnas yin no / rang la rang ngo rtogs / 

glan chung ma / tshe srog tswa kha'i zil pa 'gra ba la / bu med kun chos mi dran par / 'chi bas mi 'jigs pa dpe med / sgyu lus mi stag na bun 'dra ba la / g.yu nor go log la tshis byas nas lus la stag par 'dzin pa dpe med / mi stag pa 'chi bas 'jigs pa myur 'ong pa la / las dang bya ba la yen nas / dge sbyor le lo  [5v]  'jog pa dpe med / 'jig rten 'khor ba'i sdug bsngal mthong tsam na / zhen pa rang log du mi 'gro ba / bu tsha'i sdug bsngal la rgyun du mthong ba dpe med /  rdzogs pa'i sangs rgyas rang la yod pa la / bla ma'i gdam ngag mi nyan par / bu med kyis chos mi 'ong zer ba'i dpe med / de ltar ma byed par bu med la gros thob dang / glan chung ma gsung ngo //

glan chung ma / tshe srog tswa kha'i zil pa 'gra ba la / bud med kun chos mi dran par / 'chi bas mi 'jigs pa dpe med / sgyu lus mi stag na 'un [~na bun?] 'gra ba la / g.yu nor go log la tshis byas nas lus la stag par 'dzin pa dpe med // mi stag pa 'chi bas 'jigs pa myur du 'ong pa la / las dang bya ba la yen nas / dge sbyor le lo 'jog par dpe med / 'jig rten 'khor ba'i sdug bsngal mthong tsam na / zhen pa rang log du mi 'gro ba / bu tsha'i sdug bsngal la rgyan du mthong ba dpe med / sdzog pa'i sangs rgyas rang la yod pa la / bla ma'i gdams ngag mi nyan par / bud med kyis chos mi 'ong zer ba'i dpe med [fol. ME verso] de ltar ma byed par bud med la gros thob dang / glan chung ma gsung ngo //

dam pas ma jo zhang chung ma la gdams pa / lta ba rang lugs chen po yin no // gnas lugs rang la 'dug pa ltos cig / sgom pa rang shar rten med yin no //  rig pa rten med ltos cig / spyod pa ma 'gags zhen med yin no // chags zhen btsan thab[s] su chod cig / 'bras bu ye dag ye grol yin no / rig pa'i rten phur phyung cig / 

§§  dam pas ma jo zhang chung ma la gdams pa / lta ba rang lugs chen po yin no / gnas lugs rang la 'dug pa ltos cig / sgom pa rang shar rten med yin no / rig pa rten med ltos cig / spyod pa ma 'gags zhen med yin no /  chags zhen btsan thab su chod cig / 'bras bu ye dag ye grol yin no / rig pa'i rten phur phyung cig / 

zhang chung ma 'chi ba la dad pa'i bya ra [byar?] zhog / chi 'khar [~'chi khar] 'gyod pa'i zol sog spongs / dge sbyor la  [6r]  brtson grus kyi lcag gis brobs / nam 'chi cha med 'chi khar mi 'tsher rtsi byed gos / dam tshig la rang sems la spang po tshud / dmyal bar ltung dog med / nyon mongs pa rang dgar ma gtang rdzos thob dbang po tshud / bla  ma'i gdam ngag la the tshom ma za / yid ches mos gus kyi dbang po tshud / de ltar byas na 'gyod med bder bde phyi mar kyid de / grag mo tsho chos dang 'gal ba kha na mang bar khyed par mthong na / zhang chung ma bu med kyi khang dpon gyis dang ste / nyan pa dka' bar 'ong pa 'dra na gsung ngo // 

zhang chung ma 'chi ba la dad pa'i bya ra zhog / 'chi khar 'gyod pa'i zol sog spongs / dge sbyor la brtson 'grus kyi lcag gis brobs / nam 'chi cha med 'chi khar mi 'tsher rtsi byed gos / dam tshig la rang sems la spang po tshud / dmyal bar ltung dog med / nyon mongs pa rang dgar ma gtad rjes thob dbang po tshud / bla ma'i gdam ngag la the tshom ma za / yid ches mos gus kyi dpang po tshud / de ltar byas na 'gyod med bder bde [~'di?] phyi mar [s]kyid de / [fol. HUM recto] grag mo tsho chos dang 'gal ba kha na mang bar khyed par mthong na / zhang chung ma bud med kyi khad dpon gyis dang ste / nyan pa dka' bar 'ong ba 'gra na gsung ngo //  //

bu[d] med bdun la gdams pa cho lu'i skor rdzogs s.ho // dge'o // 

bud med la gdams pa cho lu'i skor // rdzogs sho // phyi rab rjes 'jug la phan par gyur cig / nyang chen po'i phyag yig steng nas / ston seng ges bris / cig zhu /

( • | • | • )

Appendix One: Titles in the Tsakaling Manuscript Set

Tsakaling Manuscript (Tsakka glang snag tshang),

Tsakaling Thorbu 005. I don’t believe this has been made available on the website of the Endangered Languages Archive, at least not yet.

KA   Dam pa'i sku'i zhus lan me long rnam par snang ba.  fols. 1-39.  

Col. [39r.3]: e ma 'dzam gling skyes mchog rgya gar rin po che'i / sku'i zhus lan me long rnam par snang / bdud rtsi lta bu dri med zab don 'di / snying po shes rab skal ldan dbang phyug zhes /dus gsum mtshan 'dzin gangs khrod ras pa yi / phyug dpa'i steng nas rgya'i rnal 'byor pa / chu sbrul lug gi zla ba'i yar ngo la / gnam mchog seng ge'i gzims khang chen por bris / mkha' mnyam tshe cig sangs rgyas thob par shog.

BAG [? 'ig?  Vak!]   Dam pa'i gsung gi zhus lan rnam par dag pa.  fols. 1-17.  

GHUN [Guṇa]  Dam pa'i yon tan gyi zhus lan shing lo rgyas pa.  fols. 1-36.  

Col. [fol. 35v.5]: dris lan thun tshogs kyi dum bu zhes bya ba las / yon tan gyi zhus lan / dpag bsam shing gi 'dab ma nam mkha' la rgyas pa lta bu'i gdams pa / bla ma byang chub sems dpa' kun dgas zhus te / byin brlab kyi gnas mchog dpal gyi ding rir yi ger bkod pa // rdzogs so // lan cig zhu dag /

KARMA Dam pa'i 'phrin las kyi zhus lan / gags sel sgron me.  fols. 1-19.  

— Bla ma brgyud pa'i rim pa'o / bla ma brgyud pa'i rim pa'o.  fols. 1-9.

KA  Gnad kyi zhus lan man ngag 'dus pa me long rnam par gsal ba.  1-18.  

KA Zhus lan rnad sel rnad kyi sgron me [Zhus lan gnad sel gnad kyi sgron me].  fols. 1-24.   [photo no. 93]

OM  Dam pas bu med bdun la gdam pa'i chol lu'i skor [Dam pas bud med bdun la gdams pa'i cho lu'i skor]. fols. 1-6 (in place of fol. nos. we get the six syllable mantra).  

Col. [6r.2]: bud med la gdams pa cho lu'i skor / rdzogs so // phyi rabs rjes 'jug la phan par gyur cig / nyang chen po'i phyag yig steng nas / ston seng ges bris / cig zhu.  NOTE: Cho lu'i skor is the name of the original collection of Kunga.

— Rje dam pa'i skye bdun rnam thar ma la ngo mtshar gtam bdun dang bcas pa.  fols. ka-nga [using letters in place of numbers].  

—  Brul tsho drug pa'i lo rgyus.  fols. 1-8.  [at photo no. 129!]

— Gcod brul tsho drug pa.  fos. 9-32.  

Col. [fol. 32.6]: zhes pa gcod kyi gdams pa / rje dam pa rgya gar gyis / yar lungs kyi smag ra ser po can la gnang pa'o // iti / dang po gdams pa 'di la dpe med / phyis [32v] mdzad par gda'o //  // [an interesting lineage follows, in smaller letters]

— 'Dzam gling skyes mchog rgya gar rin po che'i thugs kyi zhal chems pad ma rtseg pa'o.  fols. 1-9.  

— Zhi byed snga phyi bar gsum gyi dkar chag.  fols. 1-10  [photo no. 155]

— Dam pa la pha rol tu phyin pa bcu'i go nas bstod pa.  fols. 1-3.

— Dam pa'i gsung ['Dzam gling mi'i skyes mchog gsung yin no].  fols. 1-3.

— Dam pa'i zhal thems bcu gnyis.  fols. 1-6. Is this a version of the Zhal chems?

— Brul tsho drug pa'i zhal gdams.  fols. 33-37.  

— Dam pa'i gsung rtsad po la gsungs pa.  fols. 1-4 (words in place of numbers).  Text granted by Rten ne (1127-1221) to Myang Ral pa can at Smra'o cog.  

•

Appendix Two: Titles in the Drametsé Manuscript Set

EAP105/1: Drametse Monastery Collection >

EAP105/1/3: gSung thor bu - Miscellaneous titles >

EAP105/1/3/72: dam pa'i zhus len me long rnam par snang ba

http://eap.bl.uk/database/overview_item.a4d?catId=189691;r=12237

KA - Dam pa'i sku'i zhus lan me long rnam par snang ba.  fols. 1-34 (photos 1-23).  

KHA - Bla ma brgyud pa'i rim pa.  fols. 1-9.  

Cololophon at fol. 9r.1:  i ti / nad pa la byin brlabs byed na dam po gtor ma gtang / de nas skyabs 'gro sems skyed bya / de nas gsol ba btab / de nas nad pa mi dmigs / nad mi migs 'dre mi migs / byin brlabs mi dmigs par stong pa nyid do // gang na ba'i sar shing 'am rdo'am gang yang rung ba cig gis cab / cab bya'o / des bzhi bar 'gyuro // i ti /

GA - Brul tsho drug pa'i lo rgyus.  fols. 1-8.

NGA - Gnad kyi zhus lan man ngag 'dus pa me long rnam par gsal ba.  fols. 1-18.  

Colophon fol. 18v.5: gnad kyi zhus lan man ngag 'dus pa me long rnam par gsal ba zhes bya ba / sdzogs s.ho //  //

CA - Zhi byed snga phyi bar gsum gyi dkar chag.  fols. 1-8 (but there are 2 marked fol. 2).  

CHA - Zhus lan rnad sel rnad kyi sgron me.  fols. 1-16.  

Colophon fol. 16r.1: rje btsun dam pa rgya gar gyi zhal nas legs par gsungs pa / rnad sel rnad kyi sgron me ces bya ba / bka' rgya dang bcas pa'i zab don rdzogs so / /

JA - Dam pa'i gsung gi zhus lan rnam par dag pa.  fols. 1-18.  

Cololophon fol. 16v.3: gtsung gi zhus lan rnam par dag pa zhes bya ba khyad nas 'phags pa rdzogs so //

NYA - Dam pa'i 'phrin las kyi zhus lan / gags sel sgron me.  fols. 1-18.  

Colophon fol. 18v.2: gags sel 'phrin las kyi zhus pa lan dang bcas pa rdzogsho / / mangga lam //

TA - Dam pa la pha rol tu phyin pa bcu'i [s]go nas bstod pa.  fols. 1-4.

THA - Dam pa'i gsung bzhugs s.ho / 'dzam gling mi'i skyes mchog gsung yin no.  fols. 1-3.  

Colophon: rje dam pa rgya gar gyis bon po khra tshang 'brug la gnang pa'o // a ti /   A yantra of letters is illus. on a following folio.

DA - Dam pa'i zhal thems bcu gnyis.  [Zhal chems?]  fols. 1-5.  

Colophon: rje btsun dam pa rin po che smon lam bdag gi pha mas gtso byas khams gsum 'gro ba rigs drug sems can thams cad kyi ji ltar gsung ba bzhin grub par gyur cig / bdag sogs dam pa'i drung du skye bar shog /

NA - Gcod brul tsho drug pa.  fols. 1-23.  Precepts given by Dam pa Rgya gar to Smag ra Ser po can [Sma ra Ser po] of Yar lungs.

PA - 'Dzam gling skyes mchog rgya gar rin po che'i thugs kyi zhal chems padma brtsegs pa.  fols. 1-8.  This is the well-known Ding ri brgya rtsa.

PHA - Dam pa'i yon tan gyi zhus lan shing lo rgyas pa.  fols. 1-36 (the order of fols. 12 & 13 is switched).  As you may see in the listing that follows, some of these answers were to questions asked of Padampa by women.

10r.1 rgya'i sgom ma [~rgya sgom ma]. 10r.5 ston ma dar rgyan.  11v.1 'bro lo tsha [~'bro lo tshâ ba].  11v.3 bla ma ram dge ba'i seng ge. 11v.5 rje khri pa. 15v.5 te tshems chung pa.  16r.3 dam pa phyar chung.  16r.6 ston ma byang chub dge.  17v.2 bla ma grub chung pa.  18v.1 ston pa chos kyis seng ge [~chos kyi seng ge].   22r.3 yon bdag mo rgyan ne.  24v.5 ma jo snang gsal.  26r.1 bla ma zhang gsor 'od [~gser 'od?].  

Colophon fol. 36r.5: dris lan thun tshogs kyi dum bu zhes bya ba las / yon tan gyi zhus lan dpag bsam shing gi 'dab ma mkha' la rgyas pa lta bu'i gdams pa / bla ma byang chub sems dpa' kun dgas zhus te  byin brlabs kyi gnas mchog [36v] dpal gyi ding rir yi ger bkod pa rdzogs so / /

BA - Dam pa'i gsung rtsad po la gsungs pa gcig.  fols. 1-4.  Includes a story about how the king of Purang by the name of Brtsad po Khri btsan battled the King of Bri sha (Bru sha!). They fired a catapult at the palace when a nâga tree got broken. The king came to Padampa complaining of being troubled by spirits giving him leprosy (read nad mdze in place of nas 'dze).  

[4v] Dam pa Phyar chung put this text into writing. This ends the Gdams pa Cho lu'i skor. The teacher Grub thob Dngos grub granted these teachings to Myang Ral pa can. It was scribed at Smra'o cog po. It’s especially remarkable for having the giving [to the spirits] as food practice (gcod kyi gzan skyur), a practice not known to the ZC.

MA - Dam pas bu med bdun la gdams pa'i chol lus skor [Bud med bdun la gdams pa'i cho lu'i skor].  fols. 1-6.  

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