b ed on
tradItIOnal
sources.
Dudjom Rinpoche - Fundamentals and History of the Nyingmapa
to the Grub
1321 1322
1323
See pp. 512-16.
On Gongpo ('gong-po) spirits, see Nebesky-Wojkowitz, Oracles and Demons of Tibet, pp. 168-70. For Tamsi (dam-sri) demons, ibid. , pp. 119, 284, 300-1, 469, 577-8. On Gyelpo (rgyal-po) and Senmo (bsen-mo) spirits who respectively manifest through anger and attach- ment, refer to the same source, pp. 233-6 for the former, and pp. 385, 396 for the latter.
Cf. Santideva, Introduction to the Conduct ofa Bodhisattva, Ch. 1, vv. 35-6.
1310
1311 1312
1313 1314
1315
1316
15-16,
' t h e discovery of the tre
emptiness
A S hool 0 pas: c .
u I f the Amencan . ' d C lon" Journa 0 Buddha Wtthw; an f'
" (gzhan-stong , l ' ts accor 1 . 83 f B ddhist Onto oglS . Oriental Soctety
mtha' sel gyl ;;e_91 ; S. Rookham, Fundamentals, pp. (1963), pp. B ddhafrom Dolpo. Cf. . s detailed treatmen f
Stearns, Th; u'f que of Tolpopa Gold in the Essence 0 Tsongkapa s cn 1 Khapa's Speec 0
, R. A. F. Thurman, Tsong nt of Tibetan Buddhist Ept-
True Eloquence. 'butions to the Developme K " Contrt
' The asures are found m
HISTORY: PART EIGHT
1324 On the Auspicious Aeon (bskal-pa bzang-po, Skt. Bhadrakalpa) and the reason why the Teacher, Sakyamuni Buddha, is referred to as the Fourth Guide, see p. 409 and nn. 378-9 above.
1325 The Gelukpa tradition identifies Vasubandhu's Conquest of Objections with Commentary on the Hundred Thousand Line Trans- cendental Perfection, and maintains that the author of this work was solely Cf. Lessing and Wayman, Mkhas Grub Rje's Fun- damentals of the Buddhist Tantras, p. 97. In the Nyingmapa view these are regarded as two separate treatises (Nyoshul Khenpo).
1326 One great aeon is said to contain eighty smaller aeons. See also n. 1380 below.
1327 The "third wheel of definitive significance" is explained at length in Fundamentals, pp. 169-217.
1328 The dating given here for Sakyamuni Buddha and all dates from the Indian period follow the Kalacakra reckoning which is based on scrip- tural authority and prophetic declaration. Thus there is a divergence of approximately four hundred years between this traditional dating of the Buddha's life and that favoured by modern historical scholars, i. e. c. 563 to 483 BC. A. Bareau, "La Date du Nirval). a" Journal Asiatique (1953), pp. 27-52, tabulates over fifty traditional calculations of the year ofthe Buddha's nirval). a, ranging from about 2100 BC to 265 Be.
1329 (chu-stod) is the sixth month of the Tibetan year, corresponding to July/August.
1330 According to the Kalacakra system of astrological calculation, earth- time is divided into cycles of sixty years known as rab-byung. Each of the sixty years within a single cycle has a distinctive name, but may also be referred to by a combination of twelve animals (hare, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, bird, dog, pig, mouse, ox and tiger) with the five elements (fire, earth, iron, water and wood). This latter system accords with elemental divination ('byung-rtsis) derived from Chinese traditions. Thus don-drub or the earth sheep year is the fifty- third within the sexagenary cycle. See Schuh, Untersuchungen zur Ge- schichte der Tibetischen Kalenderrechnung, pp. 144-5.
1331 The month of Vaisakha (sa-ga) is the fourth month of the Tibetan year, corresponding to May/June.
1332 drag-po or the iron monkey year is the fifty-fourth in the sexagenary cycle. See Schuh, Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der Tibetischen Kalen- derrechnung, pp. 144-5.
See UllP, stemology, pp. UnidentifIed.
. 619ft See also, Prophecies Padmasambhava, Pt. Pfrom a Bibliograph- Life and Considerations Ansmg d Tulku Thondup
"Some Prehmmary " pp 256-60; an Prats, h Early Gter-ston , .
ical Study of n Teachings of Tibet.
Rinpoche, H1 e 1 of this, see Karmay,
of the Irs
228' "were able to ,IS
guish the pro Ita Cf. also Snellgrove, ,
For a good examp e
T t" d
fi
t way of pon, who,
Earliest ex . , refers to the a
Phyva-gshen. ThIS, The Religions ofTtbet, p. d to functlOn as according to from the dangeroUS, an The Nine Ways of Bon,
1317
1318 1319
Treasures; for :reasures, e. g. Dorle to tWO trad- pon and Buddhi the treasure-finde:s 'dei rim1gter-ston. ,
For accounts of allo studio ? wgraf1coe i t general ments itions, see also prahts, -dang ho-shang.
a-nag-na ha-s ang Chakme n-chos m s 'd 'and 'InsIder, rgy 'h Karma " 'OutSI er " b t
,ka-Mahavadm, who
cetlC Satya hough f his followers t r
the Buddha's skIlful mean. , T t'" and
11. 10-16. " dzogs-chen in its earhest, Traditions of the
Cf Karmay, The R f the Tibetan Rel,lg 241 also remarks
'd Early Developme? t ,0 T'betan p. d'the technical an , n" Stem m 1 tenes an ,
Great PerfectlO . odelled their 'those of BuddhIsm. that the ponpo oso hy and on radition, were per-
vocabularyfor :;ch to Storeof Some ponpo wor s are also represente who recovered bot
diviners or augur.
41
h
the nirgrant a as
.
was brought s See Sutra 0) t e
pp 24-
This perhaps fold with six Bouquet, p. 277,
1320
alo 't "father-lor, h 95 translates 1 h rophets w 0
, ld pon priests, t e P
knew the ongl
, d by Padmasambh 'n treasure-finders
mitte erecertal . aSeep.
791 above.
comparison WIt , 11 1 5' "In IndIa they (h -shang), and m Tl e 3 2 6 especia Y . ' d 'BuddhIst 0 d"
fol. 2 a -, "(h -shang) an 11 connecte .
in China " a , All of these are causa yCanto 82, p. 489.
'Buddhist' pon,po '1Padmasambhava, Pt. lld_bell made of bronze, The Life and Ltberatwn ponpo religioUS s d'une c\ochette The shang M. Helffer, "Note a , ','
with a wooden chIme. ! 21 3 (1981), pp. : Tibetan C1Vlit- "ObjetsetMon s , headofafamiY· rnofrespect
The ntle ,
applied to the 0 'bid, p. 231. the three worlds, 1 '
zatWn, p,
, ' "The Rdzogs-chen m Its
"Ph'" indicates the d" It was also a ter , 'n of
d' tin-
History: Part Eight 93
94 Notes
1333 On the conste auo . . , h . th corresponding to November/
period of non-returners and the third, the period of stream-entry. Those three periods together are called the Age of Fruition or enlighten- ment. In the fourth period there is a predominance of discriminative awareness, therefore it is so called. The fifth is called the period of contemplation and the sixth, that of moral discipline. Those three periods together are called the Age of Attainment. The next three periods of Abhidharma, Sutra and Vinaya are collectively known as the Age of Transmission. The tenth and final period is called the Age of Convention or symbols because at that point the actual practice of the path will be lost, and only conventional tokens of the renunciate ordination (pravajyii) will remain. See Rikdzin Lhtindrup's Hindi translation of the History, Ch. 8, n. 21; HBI, pp. 210-22; and Ober- miller, History ofBuddhism by Bu-ston, Pt. 2, pp. 102-5.
1350 There is much disagreement in Tibetan and other sources concerning the year of birth and life-span of King Songtsen Gampo. A fine survey of the problem is given by H. E. Richardson in "How old was Srong btsan sgam po? " Bulletin of Tibetology 2, 1 (1965). Richardson con- cludes that the king was born in the period from 609 to 613 and died in 650. For the traditional account of his longevity, see also Dudjom Rinpoche, rgyal-rabs, pp. 129-51.
l351 As stated below by the Author, p. 959, the absence of systematic accounts of the period between the fall of the dynasty (846) and the revitalisation of the teaching in the late tenth century has led to consid- erable confusion in Tibetan dating of the imperial period. In essence, the problem consists in determining just how many sixty-year cycles elapsed during the Age of Fragmentation. To compensate for past miscalculations, one must subtract sixty years from each of the dates given for the period from 790 to 953. Thus, Trhisong was born not in 790 but in 730, i. e. 90 and not 150 years after Songtsen Gampo had founded the Jokhang. In 750 Samye was founded. In 767 the "seven who were tested" were initiated. In 804 Guru Padmasambhava left Tibet. In 806 Trhi Relpacen was born. In 832 Lacen Gongpa Rapsel was born. In 841 the persecution began. In 846 Langdarma was assassinated. In 869 the kingdom disintegrated; and in 893 Lume returned to Central Tibet. The Author concurs in this respect with Shakabpa and other modern Tibetan historians who have made this adjustment. Even with this adjustment, however, the dating for the period remains problematic - e. g. Stein, Tibetan Civilization, p. 60, gives 775 as the foundation of Samye; and Richardson assigns the reign of Langdarma to the period from 836 to 842. For a compendium ofthe traditional chronologies, see Tshe-brtan Zhabs-drung, bstan-rtsis kun-las btus-pa.
1352 Cf. Blue Annals, pp. 60-7. It is clear that Lacen did not visit Central Tibet in person, and that Lume is intended. Six men of Central Tibet and Tsang are usually spoken of, rather than ten. As Roerich indicates in the same source, p. xviii, the date, whether calculated as 893 or 953 is problematic.
1353 The Shangpa Kagyti historical tradition maintains that Khyungpo Nel- jor was born in a tiger year and lived for 150 years. The tiger year in question is usually said to be 978 or 990. In any case, Khyungpo was certainly active as late as the early twelfth century. See Kapstein, "The
1334 1335
11 ' n pusya see n 1088. Karttika (smin-drug) IS the tent mon ,
December. . the twenty-second year in the kun-'dzin, or the earth mouse year, IS
sexagenary di'ded into twelve two-hour periods, known as
1336 The days are er f th twelve animals in the aforementIOned
1337 1338
1339
1340
1341
1342 1343
1344
1345
1346
1347
1348 1349
1 e the recise duration of each promul-
or dus-tshad, and nafmthe a fall approximately between midnight and
uenceThehour0 eox . D" 89 seq . . G D . Tibetan Elemental Divinatwn razntzngs, p.
. 2a. m. chartm d)'. one,-fifthofatwo-hourperiod,i. e. twenty-four
A ghafIka (chu-tsha IS one minutes:
For vanoUs attempts to cadlcu 1 wPheel see Obermiller, History of . ingofthe octnna, 1 h
gatIon or turn
Buddhism by Bu-ston, Pt.
2 46-52 puton himself rejects al suc ,pP·. .
1 king any authontatIve source. d' efforts as ac. . h f the Tibetan year, correspon mg to
Caitra (nag) IS. the thIrd mont mid-spring month (dpyid-zla 'bring- April/May: It IS also known as t e f calculation. The chart of the po) accordmg to the Phukpa Systr 0 zur Geschichte der Tibetischen
twelve months in between their
Kalenderrechnung, p. 1 . ' seasonal names, the ammals
and the constellations.
. the fourteenth in the sexagenary The iron dragon year (rnamh-gno ) IS Geschichte der Tibetischen Kalen-
n cycle; see Schuh, Untersuc ungen zur
derrechnung, p. 144. P Obermiller, History of Buddhism by Bu-ston,
2
On the ml -spn? -g fif h th of the Tibetan year, correspondmg
107
to June/July. . f 2839 2815, 2744 and The Author concurs. that the hs are'accurate and that 2743 given here and m the follo:vmg par g . P 2838 2814, 2743 and
the calculations given in the TIbetan text, l. e. ,
2742 years, are at fault: A' ka came to the throne in about 269 According to recent estImates, so I d' 53 The most thorough Be. See Basham, The was n l a , p. ·L. E ermont, The
treatment of the remams of Asoka's
Chronology of the ReIgn of AsokAa Mo Yd'in n 1328 above, the dating
rule is given as 268-233 BC. s .
. .
b ed on tradItIOnal sources.
given m our text IS as h ld read 401st year (not 400th).
'd . month see n. 1339 above.
.
(snron) IS the 1 t mon
The Author that ou Nagarjuna's florUlt IS consldere Y mos
t modern historians to have occurred during the second held to precede the birth of
1 BC is, of course,. the assimilating the Christian Jesus, not that ofhIS. deat. T'b phasis on the date of death, calendrical convenuon to the 1 etan em
o
erroneously reads 'das-lo for 'khrungs-l . C rected with the Author'S
The text erroneously reads 619 years. or
approval. . . the duration of Sakyamuni Buddha's According to thIS calculauon, d' 'd d into ten periods of teaching is held to be five was a profusion of
five hundred years each. In The second is called the arhats, so it was called the peno 0 ar .
t.
,p.
.
History: Part Eight 95
96 Notes -
the madman of Central Tibet (b. 1458). For the madman of Tsang, Sangye Tshencen's death, however, he suggests 1495 in Sans-pa gser- 'phren, p. 6.
1367 Pawo II, Tshuklak Trhengwa lived not from 1454 as stated in our text, but 1504 to 1566. Hence he was in his 4th year (not 54th) when the nmth cycle began in 1507. Correction made with the Author's approval.
1368 On the kings of the Tsang administration (1565-1641) in Tibet, see pp. 682-3,783; and Shakabpa, Tibet: A Political History, pp. 89-113.
1369 The date for Lhodruk Zhapdrung Ngawang Namgyel's death is usually given as 1651. His death was originally concealed until 1705 approx- imately with the pretense that he remained in a secret retreat. See Aris, Bhutan, pp. 233-42.
1370 The role played by the Qasot Mongols under Gusri Qan in the estab- lishment of the Dalai Lama's temporal power is alluded to on pp. 682-3 and 823. See also Ahmad, Sino-Tibetan Relations in the Seventeenth Century; and Shakabpa, Tibet: A Political History, pp. 131-7.
;-' 1371 In 1717 the Dzungars occupied Lhasa and killed Lhazang, the leader of the Qasot Mongols who had previously murdered the regent Sangye Gyamtso and helped the Chinese to remove Dalai Lama VI in 1706. A great persecution of Nyingmapa monasteries followed, resulting in the deaths of Locen DharmasrI, Cangdak Perna Trhinle and others. This is certainly one reason for the subsequent shift in Nyingmapa activity to East Tibet from the eighteenth century onwards. See espe- cially Petech, China and Tibet in the Early XVlllth Century.
1372 On the setting of Pemako, the Author's native place, see J. Bacot, Le Tibet Revolte: vers Nepemako) la terre promise des Tibetains, pp. 10-12; also TH, pp. 407-8. Rikdzin DorjeThokme is probably to be indenti-
fied with Bacot's "grand lama nomme Song-gye Tho-med. "
1373 Gyelse Zhenpen Thaye of Dzokcen was born not in 1740, as the original text states, but in 1800. The date of his death is presently
unidentified. See Tulku Thondup Rinpoche, The Tannic Tradition of
the Nyingmapa, p. 95.
1374 On the Gurkha invasion of 1855, see Shakabpa, Tibet: A Political
History, pp. 156-66. This was their second attack upon Tibet. On the first, see p. 838. The 1846 Tibet-Nepal Treaty is given in Richardson, A Short History of Tibet, pp. 247-9.
1375 Jamgon Kongtrtil passed away either in 1899 or 1900 according to different systems of calculation; see nn. 1191 and 1201 for an explana- tion.
1376 1888 marks the Tibeto-British conflict over the boundaries of Sikkim, at which time the British invaded the Chumbi valley. It was a confronta- tion which led to the Younghusband expedition and treaty of 1904, the year of the Author's birth. For a detailed study of these events, see, e. g. , P. Mehra, The Younghusband Expedition. Many useful refer- ences and a good overview of the conflict in its wider historical contexts may be gathered from D. Woodman, Himalayan Frontiers; and A. K. Jasbir Singh, Himalayan Triangle.
1377 In 1910 the troops of Chao Erh-feng occupied Lhasa, and Dalai Lama XIII was temporarily driven to seek refuge in India. See Shakabpa, Tibet: A Political History, pp. 225ff.
1354 1355
1356
1357
1358 1359
On Khon . , Kesar of Lmg IS the legendhar
y
hero of the Tibetan epic. See especIally L;/: . FGesaro. (Ling' Stein, Recherches
' brgyud' an Unknown Tradition of Tibetan Buddh- Shangs-pa bKa - .
ism". . . . . ' 0 (i e Luwangsungwa), see also pp. 515 and
'd N 1 The Super uman A. DaVl - ee, .
'. . dG
d . d L'epopee tibetazne e esar
l)eo) 'J sur l'epopee et Ie barde au an 1 em,
dans sa version lamai"que Lmg. d t in 1071 (iron pig) but in
The birth of Ngok Blue Annals, p. 328, and
1059 (earth pig). ThIS IS correctly st H' 795 Further- K r edition of the present lStory, p. .
1363
1364 1365
1366
f 1349 to 1435. See the accounts m a , 203-19. rom dG T i Debt'erdmarpogsarma,pP·
History, pp. 73-90; an . . d in the dating of Thangtong Gyelpo, Concerning the problems mvo ve
refer to n. 1078. , . t ation successively governed Tibet Four kings of the Rinpung A Political History, pp. 86-90. from 1435 to 1565. See Sha a pa, 1 Lhlindrup Gyamtso, the founder
The Three Gyamtsos were Phukpa G nd Sangye Gyamtso. of the old Phukpa school, h Tibetischen Kalender-
in the old a more, on p. 646, It IS state
d h t Dropukpa was sixteen years younger t a
th. an . Ngok. . '
Lmgje Repa Perna DOdfJe Our text here places him in the fourth
. 24 96 explanation. . Ch"
from 1128 to 1188, on which see Blue .
Annals, pp. 659-64 an n. cycle; see also n. 1359 . belo
nn. 1002 and 1022. SImIlar y mgje h l' d from 1161 to 1211 h'l T' pa Gyare, WOlve
third cycle, ": 1e he fifth cycle where he has been mistakenly bel? ngs here, mstead 0 m t . 664-70; and Aris, Bhutan, p. 165. The
w Nyang-rel's dates are eIther 11 - 0
r 1136-1204; see n. 995 for an
ng and Como Menmo here in Our text wrongl:, in the fifth, as explained in the fourth cycle, 1 L' . Repa has been reassigned to the
assIgned. See Blue Annals:. pp latter was a teacher of Gotsangpa
(1189-1258), who, in turn, taught
Orgyenpa (1230-1309k k ' 'nvasion given erroneously in the third 1360 The episode of Dorta a po s 1 h f 'th cycle' see n. 1009. This of
1361
cycle should be transferred to t e our. l'
, M 1rather than Chmese ru e.
course refers to ongo d from 1235 to 1349. See The Sakya ascendancy ifTibet . 148-9; C. W. Cassinelh and Richardson, A l"tY'-}ie Political System of Sa
andR. B. Ekvall,A 'History,pp. 61-72. Forthe
sKya' and Shakabpa, Tlbet. A . W r "The First Mongol , f h riod in partlcular, see y Ie, . .
chronology 0 t. e p e . d'" H Franke, "Tibetans in Conquest of TIbet Mongol Rule; and Shoju
China"inJ. D. LangOlS e . , ACha teroftheRedAnnals" Inaba, "The Lineage of the Sa skya pa, P, Bunko 22 (1963), pp. in Memoirs of the Research Department of Toyo
150-63 . sivel governed Tibet and Kham 1362 Eleven hierarchs of Phakmotru succes. lh kabpa Tibet: A Political
See Schuh, Untersuchungen zur
esc lC
L Chandra (ed. ), The Life of the
rechnung, pp . . 81, . 83. ' 86·
.
d
E. G. Smith m hIS mtro . uctlon 'f< the death of Klinga Zangpo,
Saint of Gtsan, p. 3, prOVIdes no ate or
History: Part Eight 97
98 Notes
. History: Closing Statement 99
IS M v B " s tals, et. aI, The Lueratures ofIndia. See also Fundamen-
This is based on the Ie end f . embodIes the River Gan b . g 0 . the ? "oddess Ganga, who
vara (lord Siva) and so m the locks of Mahes- It is said of Siva in this the ocean.
head, he brought into his 0 mg t anges on his world. " Quoted in A. t·edme;n; of lIberation of the
Basham, The Wonder that was India p. 215. Cf. also
holders' see Fundament Z ' '78 . n t e term "awareness-
1378
1379
mdzes-byed or the water hare year is the thirty-seventh year in the sexagenary cycle; zad-pa or fire tiger is the sixtieth.
It is recorded that the Rudrakulika will be a future emanation of the
Author. The wheel (cakra) of power, or force, turned by Rudrakulika is of iron. It symbolises the authority of a universal monarch (cak- ravartr), and may also be fashioned of gold, silver or copper (Khetsun
Zangpo Rinpoche). According to Longdol Lama, Collected Works, Vol. Ja, fol. 12a, and Stein, Recherches sur l'epopee et Ie barde au Tibet, pp. 525-6: "he was invested as a universal monarch by a sign which
fell from the sky, viz. a wheel of iron. " Cf. also Bernbaum, The Way to Shambhala, pp. 238ff.
On Buddhist cosmology in general, see Kloetzli, Buddhist Cosmology. The temporal scheme of the universe presupposed here is similar, though in specifics not identical, to that of the Hindu Puranas, accord- ing to which, as summarised by Basham, The Wonder that was India,
pp. 320-1, each aeon (kalpa) is divided into:
. . . fourteen manvantara, or secondary cycles, each lasting 306,720,000 years, with long intervals between them . . . Each manvantara contains seventy-one Mahayuga, or aeons [great ages], of which a thousand form the kalpa. Each mahayuga
is further divided into four yugas or ages, called Krta [rdzogs- ldan] , Treta [gsum-ldan] , Dvapara [gnyis-ldan] and Kali [rtsod-ldan]. The lengths of these ages are respectively 4800,
3600, 2400, and 1200 Brahma-years of the gods; each of
which equals 360 human years.
These four successive ages represent a gradual decline in positive attributes. For the special meditative practices and vehicles associated with these particular ages, see Fundamentals, p.
1321 1322
1323
See pp. 512-16.
On Gongpo ('gong-po) spirits, see Nebesky-Wojkowitz, Oracles and Demons of Tibet, pp. 168-70. For Tamsi (dam-sri) demons, ibid. , pp. 119, 284, 300-1, 469, 577-8. On Gyelpo (rgyal-po) and Senmo (bsen-mo) spirits who respectively manifest through anger and attach- ment, refer to the same source, pp. 233-6 for the former, and pp. 385, 396 for the latter.
Cf. Santideva, Introduction to the Conduct ofa Bodhisattva, Ch. 1, vv. 35-6.
1310
1311 1312
1313 1314
1315
1316
15-16,
' t h e discovery of the tre
emptiness
A S hool 0 pas: c .
u I f the Amencan . ' d C lon" Journa 0 Buddha Wtthw; an f'
" (gzhan-stong , l ' ts accor 1 . 83 f B ddhist Onto oglS . Oriental Soctety
mtha' sel gyl ;;e_91 ; S. Rookham, Fundamentals, pp. (1963), pp. B ddhafrom Dolpo. Cf. . s detailed treatmen f
Stearns, Th; u'f que of Tolpopa Gold in the Essence 0 Tsongkapa s cn 1 Khapa's Speec 0
, R. A. F. Thurman, Tsong nt of Tibetan Buddhist Ept-
True Eloquence. 'butions to the Developme K " Contrt
' The asures are found m
HISTORY: PART EIGHT
1324 On the Auspicious Aeon (bskal-pa bzang-po, Skt. Bhadrakalpa) and the reason why the Teacher, Sakyamuni Buddha, is referred to as the Fourth Guide, see p. 409 and nn. 378-9 above.
1325 The Gelukpa tradition identifies Vasubandhu's Conquest of Objections with Commentary on the Hundred Thousand Line Trans- cendental Perfection, and maintains that the author of this work was solely Cf. Lessing and Wayman, Mkhas Grub Rje's Fun- damentals of the Buddhist Tantras, p. 97. In the Nyingmapa view these are regarded as two separate treatises (Nyoshul Khenpo).
1326 One great aeon is said to contain eighty smaller aeons. See also n. 1380 below.
1327 The "third wheel of definitive significance" is explained at length in Fundamentals, pp. 169-217.
1328 The dating given here for Sakyamuni Buddha and all dates from the Indian period follow the Kalacakra reckoning which is based on scrip- tural authority and prophetic declaration. Thus there is a divergence of approximately four hundred years between this traditional dating of the Buddha's life and that favoured by modern historical scholars, i. e. c. 563 to 483 BC. A. Bareau, "La Date du Nirval). a" Journal Asiatique (1953), pp. 27-52, tabulates over fifty traditional calculations of the year ofthe Buddha's nirval). a, ranging from about 2100 BC to 265 Be.
1329 (chu-stod) is the sixth month of the Tibetan year, corresponding to July/August.
1330 According to the Kalacakra system of astrological calculation, earth- time is divided into cycles of sixty years known as rab-byung. Each of the sixty years within a single cycle has a distinctive name, but may also be referred to by a combination of twelve animals (hare, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, bird, dog, pig, mouse, ox and tiger) with the five elements (fire, earth, iron, water and wood). This latter system accords with elemental divination ('byung-rtsis) derived from Chinese traditions. Thus don-drub or the earth sheep year is the fifty- third within the sexagenary cycle. See Schuh, Untersuchungen zur Ge- schichte der Tibetischen Kalenderrechnung, pp. 144-5.
1331 The month of Vaisakha (sa-ga) is the fourth month of the Tibetan year, corresponding to May/June.
1332 drag-po or the iron monkey year is the fifty-fourth in the sexagenary cycle. See Schuh, Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der Tibetischen Kalen- derrechnung, pp. 144-5.
See UllP, stemology, pp. UnidentifIed.
. 619ft See also, Prophecies Padmasambhava, Pt. Pfrom a Bibliograph- Life and Considerations Ansmg d Tulku Thondup
"Some Prehmmary " pp 256-60; an Prats, h Early Gter-ston , .
ical Study of n Teachings of Tibet.
Rinpoche, H1 e 1 of this, see Karmay,
of the Irs
228' "were able to ,IS
guish the pro Ita Cf. also Snellgrove, ,
For a good examp e
T t" d
fi
t way of pon, who,
Earliest ex . , refers to the a
Phyva-gshen. ThIS, The Religions ofTtbet, p. d to functlOn as according to from the dangeroUS, an The Nine Ways of Bon,
1317
1318 1319
Treasures; for :reasures, e. g. Dorle to tWO trad- pon and Buddhi the treasure-finde:s 'dei rim1gter-ston. ,
For accounts of allo studio ? wgraf1coe i t general ments itions, see also prahts, -dang ho-shang.
a-nag-na ha-s ang Chakme n-chos m s 'd 'and 'InsIder, rgy 'h Karma " 'OutSI er " b t
,ka-Mahavadm, who
cetlC Satya hough f his followers t r
the Buddha's skIlful mean. , T t'" and
11. 10-16. " dzogs-chen in its earhest, Traditions of the
Cf Karmay, The R f the Tibetan Rel,lg 241 also remarks
'd Early Developme? t ,0 T'betan p. d'the technical an , n" Stem m 1 tenes an ,
Great PerfectlO . odelled their 'those of BuddhIsm. that the ponpo oso hy and on radition, were per-
vocabularyfor :;ch to Storeof Some ponpo wor s are also represente who recovered bot
diviners or augur.
41
h
the nirgrant a as
.
was brought s See Sutra 0) t e
pp 24-
This perhaps fold with six Bouquet, p. 277,
1320
alo 't "father-lor, h 95 translates 1 h rophets w 0
, ld pon priests, t e P
knew the ongl
, d by Padmasambh 'n treasure-finders
mitte erecertal . aSeep.
791 above.
comparison WIt , 11 1 5' "In IndIa they (h -shang), and m Tl e 3 2 6 especia Y . ' d 'BuddhIst 0 d"
fol. 2 a -, "(h -shang) an 11 connecte .
in China " a , All of these are causa yCanto 82, p. 489.
'Buddhist' pon,po '1Padmasambhava, Pt. lld_bell made of bronze, The Life and Ltberatwn ponpo religioUS s d'une c\ochette The shang M. Helffer, "Note a , ','
with a wooden chIme. ! 21 3 (1981), pp. : Tibetan C1Vlit- "ObjetsetMon s , headofafamiY· rnofrespect
The ntle ,
applied to the 0 'bid, p. 231. the three worlds, 1 '
zatWn, p,
, ' "The Rdzogs-chen m Its
"Ph'" indicates the d" It was also a ter , 'n of
d' tin-
History: Part Eight 93
94 Notes
1333 On the conste auo . . , h . th corresponding to November/
period of non-returners and the third, the period of stream-entry. Those three periods together are called the Age of Fruition or enlighten- ment. In the fourth period there is a predominance of discriminative awareness, therefore it is so called. The fifth is called the period of contemplation and the sixth, that of moral discipline. Those three periods together are called the Age of Attainment. The next three periods of Abhidharma, Sutra and Vinaya are collectively known as the Age of Transmission. The tenth and final period is called the Age of Convention or symbols because at that point the actual practice of the path will be lost, and only conventional tokens of the renunciate ordination (pravajyii) will remain. See Rikdzin Lhtindrup's Hindi translation of the History, Ch. 8, n. 21; HBI, pp. 210-22; and Ober- miller, History ofBuddhism by Bu-ston, Pt. 2, pp. 102-5.
1350 There is much disagreement in Tibetan and other sources concerning the year of birth and life-span of King Songtsen Gampo. A fine survey of the problem is given by H. E. Richardson in "How old was Srong btsan sgam po? " Bulletin of Tibetology 2, 1 (1965). Richardson con- cludes that the king was born in the period from 609 to 613 and died in 650. For the traditional account of his longevity, see also Dudjom Rinpoche, rgyal-rabs, pp. 129-51.
l351 As stated below by the Author, p. 959, the absence of systematic accounts of the period between the fall of the dynasty (846) and the revitalisation of the teaching in the late tenth century has led to consid- erable confusion in Tibetan dating of the imperial period. In essence, the problem consists in determining just how many sixty-year cycles elapsed during the Age of Fragmentation. To compensate for past miscalculations, one must subtract sixty years from each of the dates given for the period from 790 to 953. Thus, Trhisong was born not in 790 but in 730, i. e. 90 and not 150 years after Songtsen Gampo had founded the Jokhang. In 750 Samye was founded. In 767 the "seven who were tested" were initiated. In 804 Guru Padmasambhava left Tibet. In 806 Trhi Relpacen was born. In 832 Lacen Gongpa Rapsel was born. In 841 the persecution began. In 846 Langdarma was assassinated. In 869 the kingdom disintegrated; and in 893 Lume returned to Central Tibet. The Author concurs in this respect with Shakabpa and other modern Tibetan historians who have made this adjustment. Even with this adjustment, however, the dating for the period remains problematic - e. g. Stein, Tibetan Civilization, p. 60, gives 775 as the foundation of Samye; and Richardson assigns the reign of Langdarma to the period from 836 to 842. For a compendium ofthe traditional chronologies, see Tshe-brtan Zhabs-drung, bstan-rtsis kun-las btus-pa.
1352 Cf. Blue Annals, pp. 60-7. It is clear that Lacen did not visit Central Tibet in person, and that Lume is intended. Six men of Central Tibet and Tsang are usually spoken of, rather than ten. As Roerich indicates in the same source, p. xviii, the date, whether calculated as 893 or 953 is problematic.
1353 The Shangpa Kagyti historical tradition maintains that Khyungpo Nel- jor was born in a tiger year and lived for 150 years. The tiger year in question is usually said to be 978 or 990. In any case, Khyungpo was certainly active as late as the early twelfth century. See Kapstein, "The
1334 1335
11 ' n pusya see n 1088. Karttika (smin-drug) IS the tent mon ,
December. . the twenty-second year in the kun-'dzin, or the earth mouse year, IS
sexagenary di'ded into twelve two-hour periods, known as
1336 The days are er f th twelve animals in the aforementIOned
1337 1338
1339
1340
1341
1342 1343
1344
1345
1346
1347
1348 1349
1 e the recise duration of each promul-
or dus-tshad, and nafmthe a fall approximately between midnight and
uenceThehour0 eox . D" 89 seq . . G D . Tibetan Elemental Divinatwn razntzngs, p.
. 2a. m. chartm d)'. one,-fifthofatwo-hourperiod,i. e. twenty-four
A ghafIka (chu-tsha IS one minutes:
For vanoUs attempts to cadlcu 1 wPheel see Obermiller, History of . ingofthe octnna, 1 h
gatIon or turn
Buddhism by Bu-ston, Pt.
2 46-52 puton himself rejects al suc ,pP·. .
1 king any authontatIve source. d' efforts as ac. . h f the Tibetan year, correspon mg to
Caitra (nag) IS. the thIrd mont mid-spring month (dpyid-zla 'bring- April/May: It IS also known as t e f calculation. The chart of the po) accordmg to the Phukpa Systr 0 zur Geschichte der Tibetischen
twelve months in between their
Kalenderrechnung, p. 1 . ' seasonal names, the ammals
and the constellations.
. the fourteenth in the sexagenary The iron dragon year (rnamh-gno ) IS Geschichte der Tibetischen Kalen-
n cycle; see Schuh, Untersuc ungen zur
derrechnung, p. 144. P Obermiller, History of Buddhism by Bu-ston,
2
On the ml -spn? -g fif h th of the Tibetan year, correspondmg
107
to June/July. . f 2839 2815, 2744 and The Author concurs. that the hs are'accurate and that 2743 given here and m the follo:vmg par g . P 2838 2814, 2743 and
the calculations given in the TIbetan text, l. e. ,
2742 years, are at fault: A' ka came to the throne in about 269 According to recent estImates, so I d' 53 The most thorough Be. See Basham, The was n l a , p. ·L. E ermont, The
treatment of the remams of Asoka's
Chronology of the ReIgn of AsokAa Mo Yd'in n 1328 above, the dating
rule is given as 268-233 BC. s .
. .
b ed on tradItIOnal sources.
given m our text IS as h ld read 401st year (not 400th).
'd . month see n. 1339 above.
.
(snron) IS the 1 t mon
The Author that ou Nagarjuna's florUlt IS consldere Y mos
t modern historians to have occurred during the second held to precede the birth of
1 BC is, of course,. the assimilating the Christian Jesus, not that ofhIS. deat. T'b phasis on the date of death, calendrical convenuon to the 1 etan em
o
erroneously reads 'das-lo for 'khrungs-l . C rected with the Author'S
The text erroneously reads 619 years. or
approval. . . the duration of Sakyamuni Buddha's According to thIS calculauon, d' 'd d into ten periods of teaching is held to be five was a profusion of
five hundred years each. In The second is called the arhats, so it was called the peno 0 ar .
t.
,p.
.
History: Part Eight 95
96 Notes -
the madman of Central Tibet (b. 1458). For the madman of Tsang, Sangye Tshencen's death, however, he suggests 1495 in Sans-pa gser- 'phren, p. 6.
1367 Pawo II, Tshuklak Trhengwa lived not from 1454 as stated in our text, but 1504 to 1566. Hence he was in his 4th year (not 54th) when the nmth cycle began in 1507. Correction made with the Author's approval.
1368 On the kings of the Tsang administration (1565-1641) in Tibet, see pp. 682-3,783; and Shakabpa, Tibet: A Political History, pp. 89-113.
1369 The date for Lhodruk Zhapdrung Ngawang Namgyel's death is usually given as 1651. His death was originally concealed until 1705 approx- imately with the pretense that he remained in a secret retreat. See Aris, Bhutan, pp. 233-42.
1370 The role played by the Qasot Mongols under Gusri Qan in the estab- lishment of the Dalai Lama's temporal power is alluded to on pp. 682-3 and 823. See also Ahmad, Sino-Tibetan Relations in the Seventeenth Century; and Shakabpa, Tibet: A Political History, pp. 131-7.
;-' 1371 In 1717 the Dzungars occupied Lhasa and killed Lhazang, the leader of the Qasot Mongols who had previously murdered the regent Sangye Gyamtso and helped the Chinese to remove Dalai Lama VI in 1706. A great persecution of Nyingmapa monasteries followed, resulting in the deaths of Locen DharmasrI, Cangdak Perna Trhinle and others. This is certainly one reason for the subsequent shift in Nyingmapa activity to East Tibet from the eighteenth century onwards. See espe- cially Petech, China and Tibet in the Early XVlllth Century.
1372 On the setting of Pemako, the Author's native place, see J. Bacot, Le Tibet Revolte: vers Nepemako) la terre promise des Tibetains, pp. 10-12; also TH, pp. 407-8. Rikdzin DorjeThokme is probably to be indenti-
fied with Bacot's "grand lama nomme Song-gye Tho-med. "
1373 Gyelse Zhenpen Thaye of Dzokcen was born not in 1740, as the original text states, but in 1800. The date of his death is presently
unidentified. See Tulku Thondup Rinpoche, The Tannic Tradition of
the Nyingmapa, p. 95.
1374 On the Gurkha invasion of 1855, see Shakabpa, Tibet: A Political
History, pp. 156-66. This was their second attack upon Tibet. On the first, see p. 838. The 1846 Tibet-Nepal Treaty is given in Richardson, A Short History of Tibet, pp. 247-9.
1375 Jamgon Kongtrtil passed away either in 1899 or 1900 according to different systems of calculation; see nn. 1191 and 1201 for an explana- tion.
1376 1888 marks the Tibeto-British conflict over the boundaries of Sikkim, at which time the British invaded the Chumbi valley. It was a confronta- tion which led to the Younghusband expedition and treaty of 1904, the year of the Author's birth. For a detailed study of these events, see, e. g. , P. Mehra, The Younghusband Expedition. Many useful refer- ences and a good overview of the conflict in its wider historical contexts may be gathered from D. Woodman, Himalayan Frontiers; and A. K. Jasbir Singh, Himalayan Triangle.
1377 In 1910 the troops of Chao Erh-feng occupied Lhasa, and Dalai Lama XIII was temporarily driven to seek refuge in India. See Shakabpa, Tibet: A Political History, pp. 225ff.
1354 1355
1356
1357
1358 1359
On Khon . , Kesar of Lmg IS the legendhar
y
hero of the Tibetan epic. See especIally L;/: . FGesaro. (Ling' Stein, Recherches
' brgyud' an Unknown Tradition of Tibetan Buddh- Shangs-pa bKa - .
ism". . . . . ' 0 (i e Luwangsungwa), see also pp. 515 and
'd N 1 The Super uman A. DaVl - ee, .
'. . dG
d . d L'epopee tibetazne e esar
l)eo) 'J sur l'epopee et Ie barde au an 1 em,
dans sa version lamai"que Lmg. d t in 1071 (iron pig) but in
The birth of Ngok Blue Annals, p. 328, and
1059 (earth pig). ThIS IS correctly st H' 795 Further- K r edition of the present lStory, p. .
1363
1364 1365
1366
f 1349 to 1435. See the accounts m a , 203-19. rom dG T i Debt'erdmarpogsarma,pP·
History, pp. 73-90; an . . d in the dating of Thangtong Gyelpo, Concerning the problems mvo ve
refer to n. 1078. , . t ation successively governed Tibet Four kings of the Rinpung A Political History, pp. 86-90. from 1435 to 1565. See Sha a pa, 1 Lhlindrup Gyamtso, the founder
The Three Gyamtsos were Phukpa G nd Sangye Gyamtso. of the old Phukpa school, h Tibetischen Kalender-
in the old a more, on p. 646, It IS state
d h t Dropukpa was sixteen years younger t a
th. an . Ngok. . '
Lmgje Repa Perna DOdfJe Our text here places him in the fourth
. 24 96 explanation. . Ch"
from 1128 to 1188, on which see Blue .
Annals, pp. 659-64 an n. cycle; see also n. 1359 . belo
nn. 1002 and 1022. SImIlar y mgje h l' d from 1161 to 1211 h'l T' pa Gyare, WOlve
third cycle, ": 1e he fifth cycle where he has been mistakenly bel? ngs here, mstead 0 m t . 664-70; and Aris, Bhutan, p. 165. The
w Nyang-rel's dates are eIther 11 - 0
r 1136-1204; see n. 995 for an
ng and Como Menmo here in Our text wrongl:, in the fifth, as explained in the fourth cycle, 1 L' . Repa has been reassigned to the
assIgned. See Blue Annals:. pp latter was a teacher of Gotsangpa
(1189-1258), who, in turn, taught
Orgyenpa (1230-1309k k ' 'nvasion given erroneously in the third 1360 The episode of Dorta a po s 1 h f 'th cycle' see n. 1009. This of
1361
cycle should be transferred to t e our. l'
, M 1rather than Chmese ru e.
course refers to ongo d from 1235 to 1349. See The Sakya ascendancy ifTibet . 148-9; C. W. Cassinelh and Richardson, A l"tY'-}ie Political System of Sa
andR. B. Ekvall,A 'History,pp. 61-72. Forthe
sKya' and Shakabpa, Tlbet. A . W r "The First Mongol , f h riod in partlcular, see y Ie, . .
chronology 0 t. e p e . d'" H Franke, "Tibetans in Conquest of TIbet Mongol Rule; and Shoju
China"inJ. D. LangOlS e . , ACha teroftheRedAnnals" Inaba, "The Lineage of the Sa skya pa, P, Bunko 22 (1963), pp. in Memoirs of the Research Department of Toyo
150-63 . sivel governed Tibet and Kham 1362 Eleven hierarchs of Phakmotru succes. lh kabpa Tibet: A Political
See Schuh, Untersuchungen zur
esc lC
L Chandra (ed. ), The Life of the
rechnung, pp . . 81, . 83. ' 86·
.
d
E. G. Smith m hIS mtro . uctlon 'f< the death of Klinga Zangpo,
Saint of Gtsan, p. 3, prOVIdes no ate or
History: Part Eight 97
98 Notes
. History: Closing Statement 99
IS M v B " s tals, et. aI, The Lueratures ofIndia. See also Fundamen-
This is based on the Ie end f . embodIes the River Gan b . g 0 . the ? "oddess Ganga, who
vara (lord Siva) and so m the locks of Mahes- It is said of Siva in this the ocean.
head, he brought into his 0 mg t anges on his world. " Quoted in A. t·edme;n; of lIberation of the
Basham, The Wonder that was India p. 215. Cf. also
holders' see Fundament Z ' '78 . n t e term "awareness-
1378
1379
mdzes-byed or the water hare year is the thirty-seventh year in the sexagenary cycle; zad-pa or fire tiger is the sixtieth.
It is recorded that the Rudrakulika will be a future emanation of the
Author. The wheel (cakra) of power, or force, turned by Rudrakulika is of iron. It symbolises the authority of a universal monarch (cak- ravartr), and may also be fashioned of gold, silver or copper (Khetsun
Zangpo Rinpoche). According to Longdol Lama, Collected Works, Vol. Ja, fol. 12a, and Stein, Recherches sur l'epopee et Ie barde au Tibet, pp. 525-6: "he was invested as a universal monarch by a sign which
fell from the sky, viz. a wheel of iron. " Cf. also Bernbaum, The Way to Shambhala, pp. 238ff.
On Buddhist cosmology in general, see Kloetzli, Buddhist Cosmology. The temporal scheme of the universe presupposed here is similar, though in specifics not identical, to that of the Hindu Puranas, accord- ing to which, as summarised by Basham, The Wonder that was India,
pp. 320-1, each aeon (kalpa) is divided into:
. . . fourteen manvantara, or secondary cycles, each lasting 306,720,000 years, with long intervals between them . . . Each manvantara contains seventy-one Mahayuga, or aeons [great ages], of which a thousand form the kalpa. Each mahayuga
is further divided into four yugas or ages, called Krta [rdzogs- ldan] , Treta [gsum-ldan] , Dvapara [gnyis-ldan] and Kali [rtsod-ldan]. The lengths of these ages are respectively 4800,
3600, 2400, and 1200 Brahma-years of the gods; each of
which equals 360 human years.
These four successive ages represent a gradual decline in positive attributes. For the special meditative practices and vehicles associated with these particular ages, see Fundamentals, p.
