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The Sacred Crystal Mountain in Dolpo:Beliefs and Pure Visions of Himalayan Pilgrims and Yogis

K l a u s - D i e t e r M a t h e s

When I first crossed the “flower-meadow pass” (Tib. me tog Idih la) on my way to Shey (Tib. ses) Gompa in Dolpo, I was deeply impressed by the natural beauty and bizarre rock formations of “Crystal Mountain Dragon-Roar”1 (Tib. sel gyi ri bo 'brug sgra). Without being aware of it, our expedition team started a circumambulation (Tib. ’khor ba) of Crystal Mountain2 while descending to Tsakhang (Tib. btsag khahf Gompa, where we were microfilming the huge library of the Shey Tulkus. During my stay at the foot of Crystal Mountain, Lama Wangdu from Shey Gompa and the current abbot o f Tsakhang, Lama Tsondru, explained to me the mountain’s significance for Dolpo. Since it is an abode of the Buddhist Tantric deity Cakrasamvara, a ’khor-ba around it is considered to earn as much religious merit as a pilgrimage around Mount Kailash. In fact, they held Crystal Mountain Dragon-Roar to be the brother o f Mount Kailash, and every twelve years, during the dragon year,4 many pilgrims from the Buddhist Himalaya and Tibet are attracted by this most “sacred place” (Tib. gnas)5 o f Dolpo.6 The lamas proudly drew my attention to a clearly visible hole in the rock near the peak which was caused—according to the legend—by the supernatural flight o f the Drikung Kagyu master Ri-khrod dban-phyug, who is also called Grub-thob Sen-ge ye-ses (1181-1255), on his way to the top of the mountain.

The Biography o f Ri-khrod dbah-phyug alias Grub-thob Seh-ge ye-ses

A detailed and relatively old life story of Grub-thob Seh-ge ye-ses is contained in a collection of biographies of successive masters belonging to the Drikung transmission lineage in the Nepalese-Tibetan borderlands. This particular lineage is centred on Grub-thob Seh-ge ye-ses,

'“Dragon-roar“ (Tib. ’brug sgra) normally stands metaphorically for thunder. In fact, I experienced a lot of

thunder and lightning during my stay at Tsakhang Gompa in 1994. On the other hand, the guides (dkar chag) to

Crystal Mountain Dragon-Roar explain that water emptying from a lake on top of the mountain causes a continuous

roar of “dragon-sound“ (the sound of thunder is not continuous!), and this is why the mountain is called that. Given

its name, a pilgrimage to Crystal Mountain Dragon-Roar is considered especially favourable in a dragon year.

2For a detailed description o f this circumambulation see Jest 1975: 358-61.

’The present abbot o f Tsakhang Gompa, Karma bTson ’grus, gave the meaning of the name as “house in the

red rock” (Goldstein (1983: s.v.) has “red ochre” for btsag, and the Bod rgya tshig mdzod chen mo defines it as sa-dmar and rdo-sman zig).

‘Because, it is said, Grub-thob Sen-ge ye-Ses opened the sacred place of Crystal Mountain in an iron-dragon year. See Jest 1975: 358-9.

’The literal rendering “place” would not do justice to the Buddhist (or Bon) perception of a site which has become “sacred” or “spiritually powerful” through the deeds of a saint or the yogic powers o f a practitioner. Ramble

(1997: 133ff.) suggests rendering gnas as “sacred site.” Dowman (1988: 1-7) prefers “power-pla.ce.“

6See also Schicklgruber 1996: 118.

62 K l a u s - D i e t e r M a t h e s

whose full name is given in the introduction of the b K a ’ brgyud m am thar chen mo7 as ’Jig-rten-gsum gyi mgon-po Chos kyi rgyal-po Bla-ma Rin-po-che Ri-khrod dban-phyug. It is under his monk’s name, Sen-ge ye-ses,8 however, that this famous Drikung yogi is nowadays mostly known in Mustang, Dolpo and Lemi (Tib. sle mi). rDo-rje mdzes-’od, who is mentioned as the author of the biographies in the colophon, claims to have received a direct transmission o f instructions from Grub-thob Sen-ge ye-ses. The colophon, like so many other things in this text, is misleading, however, in that the author o f the first ten life stories and the greater part of Grub-thob Sen-ge ye-ses’s biography is another disciple of the latter, Don-mo-ri-pa (b. 1203). In the mid 1240’s, when Grub-thob Sen-ge ye-ses stayed in Lemi (north-west Nepal), he permitted his “heart-son,” Don-mo-ri-pa, to write down the biographies of the Kagyu lamas, exactly as he had told them to him.9 The last nine years (1246-1255) of Grub-thob Sen-ge ye-ses’s life story and the few remaining biographies, including the second part of Don-mo-ri-pa’s ,10 were then written by rDo-rje mdzes-’od. The original dbu-med manuscript was found in the monastery mDzans-’phel-rgyas-glin in Lemi. The publisher D. Tsondu Senghe and the writer of the camera-ready copy, Karma Monlaiq, decided to leave the original spelling when they did not recognize or understand words. The authors, Don-mo-ri-pa and rDo-rje mdzes-’od, frequently used their dialect, which is still spoken in the north-west of Nepal. I have to thank my Tibetan assistant Lama Rangrig, the son of the famous Tulku Tsewang, for reading together with me the biography of Grub-thob Sen-ge ye-ses and briefly introducing me to the dialect o f Lemi.

Grub-thob Sen-ge ye-ses was born in Yar-’brog near Shigatse in 1181.“ He was a very close disciple of Chos-rje ’Bri-gun-pa (1143-1217), the founder of the Drikung Kagyu school. The latter is otherwise also known as ’Jig-rten-gsum mgon, but this title is exclusively used

7rDo-rje mdzes-’od: bKa ’ brgyud kyi mam thar chen mo rin po che'i g ter mdzod dgos ’dod 'byuh

gnas , p. 11, 1. 4.

*Ibid., p. 434, 11. 4-5. The bidgraphy of Ri-khrod dbaň-phyug alias Grub-thob Seň-ge ye-šes is on pp. 427-89.

9Ibid., pp. 472-3.

l(>The life story of Don-mo-ri-pa, who is also called Dus-gsum mkhyen-pa (ibid., pp. 489-505), is continued by rDo-rje mdzes-’od in the following way: “As [already] mentioned above, Bla-ma Rin-po-che Ri-khrod dbaň-phyug

had many disciples, but the only son who holds the family lineage in particular is . . . the great Don-mo-ri-pa. [. . .]Even though he himself has composed his own biography above, I [, rDo-rje mdzes-’od,3 ] will describe here . . . only a fraction this lama’s qualities.” (// de Itar goh du smos pa biin du / bla nia rin p o che ri khrod dbah

phyug la / slob ma maň du yod kyah / khyad p a r du gduň rgyud ’dzin pa 7 sras gcig pu ni / . . . don

mo ri pa chen po yin no / . . . goh du hid kyi mam thar hid kyis mdzad pa yin yah / "dir bdag gis kyah / . . . / bla ma de'i yon tan gyi cha zur tsam zig brjod p a r bya'o //, ibid., p. 494, 1. 6—p. 495, 1. 4.3 The gloss rdo rje mdzes 'od has been mistakenly made, by a series of dots, to refer to the name Don-mo-ri-paabove it rather than to the personal pronoun bdag below it. That Don-mo-ri-pa cannot be the same rDo-rje mdzes-’od

becomes also clear from p. 473, 1. 3, where it is said that “Don-mo-ri-pa has composed [the b K a ' brgyud mam thar chen mo] up to here.“

"Ibid., p. 429, 1. 1 and p. 431, 1. 1.

T h e S a c r e d C r y s t a l M o u n t a i n in D o l p o 63

for Grub-thob Seň-ge ye-šes in the b K a ' brgyud rnam thar chen m o }1 The reason for this could be that this particular transmission in the north-west of Nepal focuses on Grub-thob Seň-ge ye-šes as its starting point rather than on the founder of the Drikung Kagyu.

At an early age Grub-thob Seň-ge ye-šes had already the strong wish to practise in solitary mountain retreat. Having related this wish to his teacher, he was told to go to any mountain he liked, except to Mount Kailash and La-phyi. When he was about to leave for Kutang,13 Chos-rje ’Bri-guň-pa called him by the honorary name spyan-sha and told him that he had great hopes for him .14 Tib. spyan-sha is the honorific form o f “before,” or “in the presence o f,” and here refers to ».disciple or attendant very close to the Chos-rje. Later on, the Grub-thob worked as a personal attendant of the Chos-rje for six years and was then called sPyan-sňa Seň-ge ye-šes.15

It was only after his teacher Chos-rje ’Bri-guň-pa had passed away, in a fire-ox year (1217),16 that Grub-thob Seň-ge ye-šes left for Mount Kailash, and from there he went for the first time to Dolpo in the fall o f the year 1220.17 He remained for five years in mountain solitude in a hermitage called “Vajra Fortress” at Shey.18 During this first retreat he spent a summer at Roň chuň, the name of a particular rock halfway along the winter path skirting the river Tar Khola to Samling Gompa.19 After some time in Drikung and other places in Central Tibet he returned to Dolpo in the autumn of the year 1228 (?), where he stayed another four years. The only information the biography provides us about his second sojourn in the Vajra Fortress of Shey is that he refused a generous invitation to visit the seat o f dGe- bšes Dvags- po in Kham, and that his sponsor during both o f his retreats in Dolpo was a

llIbid., p. 11, 1. 5.

’’Nowadays in Gorkha District in Nepal.

'4rDo-rje mdzes-’od: op. cit., p. 443, 11. 1-5.

"Ibid., p. 453, 1. 7 —p. 454, 1. 1.

l6Cf. “Chos rje’i rnam thar bžugs so," ibid., p. 426, 1. 3.

"See Vitali 1996: 379.

l8Shey is spelled šes instead of šel throughout the text. It is interesting that the word for crystal (šel) occurs, in fact, only in the description of Mount Kailash (“dPal Idan Ri khrod dbah phyug rnam thar,” p. 460, I. 2.: šel; and p. 461, 1. 3, 463, 1. 3, and p. 480, 1. 5: šes).

l5Tib. roň literally means “deep valley,” “gorge” or “ravine” (Goldstein 1983: s.v.). In Dolpo it is used to designate deeply fissured rocks or mountains, such as the sMug-po’i roň, “the purple deeply fissured [mountain]" near Bijer Gaon (cf. Snellgrove 1961: 111). According to Lama Tenzin Gyaltsen from Bijer Gaon. Roň-chuň is the

abode ot the local ndga deity (Tib. klu btsan) dGe-bsňen Ron-chuh, which is still worshipped by the Bonpos of Samling Gompa.


certain Mon-chun, a son o f the Buddhist (ban de)20 dPal-grags, probably from the village sPrad,21 which is a one-day ride to the north of Shey near Samling Gompa.

Of great interest is the following short narration of tragic events within the dPal-grags family. It reflects a conflict between older indigenous religious Tibetan practices of “sorcerers” (Tib. mthu ban or mthu mkhan)22 and Tibetan Buddhism, which was brought to the borderlands by Tibetan yogis or great meditators (Tib. sgom chen) in search o f peaceful mountain retreats. The father o f Ban-de dPal-grags was such a mthu-mkhan. He felt that his power was being repelled by the Buddhist yogis, and cast a spell over them, predicting that three sgom- chens would die in the next three years. His grandson Mon-chun, the patron o f Grub-thob Sen-ge ye-ses, pondered this and dreamt that a huge fire occurred in front o f Grub-thob Sen- ge ye-ses, who escaped by flying through the sky. The lama then had to recapture his mala, which had been carried away by tadpoles. Sometime after this dream a sgom-chen died, and a monk dreamt that a scorpion was biting his back while he was meditating on AvalokiteS- vara. It was Grub-thob Sen-ge ye-ses who saved him by removing the scorpion. Shortly thereafter the sorcerer died.23 This story implies, according to Lama Tenzin Gyaltsen, that Grub-thob Sen-ge ye-ses directed the negative force of the sorcerer’s black magic fatally back towards the sorcerer himself—a common concept underlying protective practices and rituals. The narration of the first dream could in fact be the source of the later legend that Grub-thob Sen-ge ye-ses flew (in reality, not in a dream!) to the top of Crystal Mountain.

rDo-rje mdzes-’od, who wrote the part of the biography covering the last ten years, relates that his master was staying in Lemi when he received an invitation to return to Dolpo. Grub- thob Sen-ge ye-ses reached the Vajra Fortress o f Shey in 1248 and remained there till he passed away in 1255. During his last stay in Dolpo he was accompanied by a crowd o f followers and attendants and was frequently visited by local lamas and practitioners. He was able to collect many precious offerings and send them to the main seat o f Drikung in 1249 and 1252.24

This 13th-century biography of Grub-thob Sen-ge ye-ses, written by his disciples Don-mo-ri- pa and rDo-rje mdzes-’od, contains a host of convincing details, such as that he was given five or six horses on his first trip to Mount Kailash, and that two sick horses had to be left

20In Dolpo and Lemi the word ban-de is a general term for a Buddhist as opposed to a Bonpo.

21Lama Tenzin Gyaltsen, the head lama of the Sakya monastery in Bijer Gaon, told me that Gomoche Gompa, which was built at the Vajra Fortress o f Shey (see below), is still in possession o f a field called g.Yan khug in sPrad.

22Lama Tenzin Gyaltsen told me that such mthu-mkhans are still found in Dolpo. Their practice is mainly

centred around a phur-pa (‘dagger’) cult, similar to the one found in the Nyingma school. See also the life story

of Milarepa (Rus-pa’i rgyan-can (i.e., gTsan-smyon Heruka): rNal ’byor gyi dban phyug chen p o mi la ras

p a ’i mam mgur, p. 31), where it is said that Milarepa joined five men from mNa’-ri dol[-po] who came to dBus- gtsan in order to study chos and witchcraft (Tib. mthu).

23rDo-rje mdzes-’od: “dPal Idan ri khrod dban phyug rnam thar," p. 463, 1. 2—p. 464, 1. 4.

uIbid., p. 478, 1. 2—p. 489, I. 2.

T h e S a c r e d C r y s t a l M o u n t a i n i n D o l p o 65

behind, or that he was surprised by robbers on his way from Dolpo to Drikung in 1224.25 This is in sharp contrast to some later accounts which have it that Grub-thob Sen-ge ye-ses travelled from Dolpo to Mount Kailash on the back of a flying snow-lion (see below). Although Grub-thob Sen-ge ye-ses spent altogether 16 years in the Vajra Fortress of Shey, there is no mention of pure visions during this period, or the opening o f this sacred place. Even Crystal Mountain itself is not mentioned at all. But it is not that the biography completely lacks any account of pure visions. After Grub-thob Sen-ge ye-ses had spent one and a half years in meditation at Mount Kailash, just before he went to Dolpo for the first time, he saw Mount Kailash in the form of a crystal stupa with many entrance gates of good luck. At these entrances were five hundred Arhats. He saw further that the deities of the Bhagavan-Sri-Cakrasamvara-Mandala resided inside the stupa.”16

The Guides (dkar-chag)27 to the Crystal Mountain

My Tibetan assistant Lama Rangrig provided me copies o f two guides (dkar chag) to the Crystal Mountain which his father, Tulku Tsewang, collected in Mugu (north-west Nepal). Both of them are written in dbu-med. Quite a few words and spellings are typical o f the Dolpo dialect. The older of the two texts (text A) has the title Ses kyi ri bo ’brug sgra'i (text: g ra ’i) dkar chag mthoh (text: mthohs) ba don Idan and was composed by bSes-gnen Chos-dpal and Blo-gros kun-span in accordance with what Grub-thob (Sen-ge yeses) had told them (A 17b2).28 The title o f the second dkar-chag (text B) is gNas chen ses19 kyi ri bo ’brug sgra’i dkar chag mthoh ba don Idan (text B).30 The colophon is the same as in A, but gives the additional information that the text was copied by O-rgyan bstan-’dzin, the Third Shey Tulku, from a text of sKu-zabs Phrin-las chos-’phel, who was a lama of Nangtse Gompa in Dolpo. Both o f them, O-rgyan bstan-’dzin and Phrin- las chos-’phel, were students of the Fifteenth Karmapa (1871-1922). A third dkar-chag, with the title gNas chen sel gyi ri bo 'brug sgra’i dkar chag mthoh ba don Idan dad p a ’i sky a rehs (text C), was microfilmed for the Nepal-German Manuscript Preservation Project by my predecessor F.-K. Ehrhard.31 It was written in 1938 by Sans Rinpoche (d.

“ ibid., p. 459, 11. 4-6 and p. 461, 1. 4.

2iIbid . , p. 460, 11. 2-3.

“ Lit. “register” (Tib. dkar chag) ; see Martin 1996: 500-514.

“ See also NGMPP Reel No. D 111/28, 17 fols.

2T h e text in unclear here, but the following genitive particle kyi suggests such a reading.

“ See also NGMPP Reel No. D 111/30, 18 fols.

“ NGMPP Reel No. E 2756/15, 18 fols.


1958),32 a disciple o f Phrin-las chos-’phel. His information about Crystal Mountain seems

to be mainly based on the texts A and B.

At present it is not possible for me to identify the two authors bSes-gnen Chos-dpal and Blo- gros kun-span, who are supposed to have written the first two dkar-chags (texts A and B) in accordance with what Grub-thob Seh-ge ye-ses had told them. All I can say at this point is that they do not seem to have been contemporaries of the latter, given that they are mentioned neither in the biography of Grub-thob Seh-ge ye-ses nor in the biography o f his close disciple Don-mo-ri-pa, o f whom it is also said that he wrote down the life stoiy of his master, just as he told it to him, without adding or leaving out anything (see above). The two dkar-chags o f bSes-gnen Chos-dpal and Blo-gros kun-span, far from being a consistent text, are an accumulation o f different, partly overlapping and partly contradictory, accounts o f Grub-thob Seh-ge ye-ses’s visits to and visions o f Crystal Mountain. To give an example, the phantastic story that the Chos-rje ’Jig-rten-gsum mgon (Chos-rje ’Bri-guii-pa in the biography) sent Grub-thob Seh-ge ye-ses together with 55,525 monks to the sacred places of Mount Kailash and Crystal Mountain33 is in sharp contrast with the more realistic account that Grub-thob Seh-ge ye-ses was asked to stay in Bijer Gaon (Dolpo) and offered food etc. while on his way to Crystal Mountain. He refused and requested the village people to serve members of the sahgha who might follow later instead.34

In the middle o f dkar-chag A, just after the description of the stupa containing the relics of Grub-thob Seh-ge ye-ses, is an interesting colophon according to which the author(s) had access to an older and longer version o f a dkar-chag of Crystal Mountain with about thirty folios, the wood block prints having had the length of an arrow. It was borrowed by Ga-ga nu-nu (a minister of Mustang?),35 but not returned, since the king and minister quarrelled and Ga-ga nu-nu had to escape to southern Mustang. The notes, which were sent back by him, did not arrive but were lost. The author of the colophon states that he summarized the most important “blessings” (i.e ., activities, visions etc. related to the sacred place) of both the lama (i.e ., Chos-rje ’Jig-rten-gsum mgon) and the great meditator ( i .e . , Grub-thob Seh-ge ye-ses). He adds that the old script with the biography of Grub-thob Seh-ge ye-ses is not complete, though he did find the first pages, which contain most o f his life story.36

32Sans Rinpoche enthusiastically engaged in revitalizing Buddhist traditions in Dolpo (see Ehrhard 1998: 4). His reincarnation is now the head of the Karma Kagyu Dharma Centre in Singapore.

33A lb l-3 .

34 A 2bl-3.

35I have problems identifying ga-ga nu-nu, but nu-nu could come from no-no, the Ladakhi title of young

noblemen (see Jàschke 1881: s.v.). Khenpo Menlha Phuntsok thinks (oral information) that ga-ga stands for dge-

dkar, which would then mean “noblemen from gho dge-dkar. “

36A 9b 1-5, B 10a6-10bl. If this was the same biography which was recently found in Lemi, the author of the

first colophon in the dkar-chags must have been puzzled by die lack of information on Crystal Mountain, and thus

could have concluded that the biography was incomplete.


After a line with the incomplete account of Grub-thob Sen-ge ye-ses arriving at Crystal Mountain, a versified praise of Crystal Mountain and its surrounding area, the story of rTsa- ri Ron-chun (see below) and an account of how Grub-thob Sen-ge ye-ses opened the sacred place, the dkar-chag is formally ended at the beginning o f folio 15, still three folios away from the actual end of the text.37 After a dedication of merit, it is mentioned that Sakya’i btsun-pa Dharmabhadra composed the praise of the king o f mountains Dragon-Roar (i.e ., Crystal Mountain), as prophesied by the Buddha in the sutras.38 It is very likely that this is the famous Indian Mahasiddha Dharmabhadra, who died in Muktinath and whose reincarnation is considered to be the Drugpa Kagyu master bsTan-’dzin ras-pa (1644/46-1723).39 The latter is said to have founded Sumdo Gompa at the foot o f Crystal Mountain, just half an hour’s ride from where Grub-thob Sen-ge ye-ses had meditated. In Dolpo, some believe that the Shey Tulkus are reincarnations o f Mahasiddha Dharmabhadra and bsTan-’dzin ras- pa.40

This second more or less formal end of the dkar-chag is followed by a lengthy account of the fillings of the stupa housing the relics of Grub-thob Sen-ge ye-ses. The stupa is said to contain, among other things, some bones and hairs of Kun-mkhyen Dol-po-pa (1292-1361), Bu-ston (1290-1364) and the Fourth Karmapa Rol-pa’i rdo-rje (1340-1383). This account seems very unrealistic in view of the fact that Grub-thob Sen-ge ye-ses passed away in 1255, and that such stupas are usually not opened every few decades to add some more blessings (fillings).

It seems that the final compilers of the dkar-chag (bSes-gnen Chos-dpal and Blo-gros kun- span) collected different material, transmitted in written form or orally, and put it together randomly without any attempt at editing. The result contains older strands which reach back to the beginning of the 17th century (as the second colophon suggests) or even further. This is supported by the fact that an older extensive dkar-chag is mentioned which was lost some few hundred years ago in Mustang. Karma Blo-bzan (b. 1592/3?) also writes in his autobiography about older material related to Crystal Mountain (see below). A few accounts, especially those of Grub-thob Sen-ge ye-ses’s journey to Crystal Mountain, seem to be very realistic, dkar-chag B has left out the discordant remnants of the older strands; some other accounts, however, are more complete in B.

37This colophon is completely missing in dkar-chags B and C.

38See A 15al-4.

39See Ehrhard 1998: 8; and bsTan ’dzin ras pa: rJe btsun bstan ’dim ras pa de did kyi gsah ba'i mam

thar sa khyis phan gyis / mgur m a ’i kha ’gros gnas ho zuh tshul my a nan ’das tshul dkar chag daň

bcas ma chos mtshan lha bzugs so , NGMPP Reel No. L 410/10, 52 fols., fols. 2b5 and 13a5-13bl.

^For example, Meme Wangdu, the present lama of Sumdo Gompa.


Travels to Dolpo and Mount Kailash according to the dkar-chags

Both dkar-chags start with the odd and highly superficial story that Chos-rje ’Jig-rten-gsum mgon (i.e ., Chos-rje ’Bri-gun-pa in the biography) sent rDor-’dzin g.yag-ru dpal-grags to rTsa-ri in Kon-po, rDor-’dzin mgon Rin-po-che to La-phyi and Grub-thob Sen-ge ye-ses to Mount Kailash and Crystal Mountain. Each o f them led 55,525 monks to meditate at what was considered to be the sacred places of mind, speech and body emanations o f Cakra- samvara.41 The account is already found, however, in Karma Blo-bzan’s autobiography (see below). In this “symmetric” picture it is disturbing that two sacred places, Mount Kailash and Crystal Mountain, are attributed to the body emanation, whereas the speech and mind emanations are related only to a single place, rTsa-ri and La-phyi respectively. In the La phyi gnas yig (description of the sacred place La-phyi), for example, only Mount Kailash is taken to be the sacred place o f the body of Cakrasamvara, while the speech and mind of the Tantric deity are again respectively ascribed to La-phyi and rTsa-ri (Huber 1997: 242). It thus seems likely to me that Crystal Mountain only later became the equal of Mount Kailash in being a body emanation.42 In dkar-chag A ,43 the story was put in front o f the dkar-chag’s initial homage to the Kagyu lamas. The scribe of text B must have felt the awkwardness o f such a beginning and interpolated the story after the homage, in a not less disturbing way.44 Moreover, this account contradicts the biography written by Don-mo-ri-pa: it is not only that Grub-thob Sen-ge ye-ses went to Mount Kailash only one year and to Crystal Mountain only three years after the passing away of his teacher, but Chos-rje ’Jig- rten-gsum mgon also had explicitly told him not to go to La-phyi and Kailash on solitary mountain retreat.45 A possible explanation is that the authors of the dkar-chag have wrongly attributed to our Grub-thob Sen-ge ye-ses the deeds of another Drikung master with the same name, who stayed in western Tibet from 1214 to 1219, meditating for three years at Ti-se Sel-’dra (Mount Kailash).46

Against the background of Grub-thob Sen-ge ye-ses’s realistic account o f a trip from Drikung to Mount Kailash and thence, about two years later, to Dolpo in his biography (see above), the presentation in the dkar-chags seems incomplete. Moreover, different fragments of the story are found randomly ih different parts o f the text, dkar-chags A and B agree that at Drikung, Grub-thob Sen-ge ye-ses was received and guided by the local deities of Kailash

4lThe guides read only emanations of body, speech and mind, which could theoretically be those o f other deities.

42A contemporary writer from Dolpo, 'Jigs-med khro-rgyal, a student o f Bya-bral Rin-po-che who has recently

completed a traditional three-year retreat in Tsakhang Gompa on Crystal Mountain, integrates the crystal mountain in a more elegant way: he introduces a quality and activity emanation and identifies Kailash as the body, La-phyi as the speech, rTsa-ri as the mind, rTsibs-ri as the quality and Crystal Mountain as the activity emanation of the

Buddhas (see ’Jig-med khro-rgyal: Na mo guru . . . (no title), fol. la4-6).

43A lb 1-3.

"B 2a2-2b2.

45rDo-rje mdzes-’od: “dPal ldan ri khrod dban phyug rnam thar,” p. 443, 1. 3.

'‘‘A similar confusion is found in the ’Bri gun ti se to rgyus (see Vitali 1996: 404 and fh. 664).


(Tib. ti se rdo rje 'bar ba) and Crystal Mountain (Tib. sel gyi lha btsan), who assumed the form of white snow-lions accompanied by a retinue o f lions. The story suddenly stops with the confusing statement that “he first went to this very sacred place” (to Crystal Mountain or Mount Kailash?).47

A detailed account o f Grub-thob Sen-ge ye-ses’s arrival in Dolpo and opening o f the sacred place follows in dkar-chag A .48 We are told that he did not pay the toll at the huge rDo-ra bridge near Yangser, which means that he took the normal route from the Tibetan plateau to Dolpo via ’Khruns-la ( ’khruhs pass).49 Grub-thob Sen-ge ye-ses proceeded to Kyi-than (near Sug-rtser), where he was invited to remain. He politely refused, explaining that he had to fulfill the orders of his lama and open the sacred place o f Crystal Mountain. Also in Bijer Gaon, where he went next, he was hospitably received and urged to stay. Again he refused, but said that it would be his new home (Tib. gnas tshah gsar pa), calling it gnas- gsar.50 On his way to Crystal Mountain he came to the small village o f sPrad (near Samling Gompa), where he prayed for the growth and welfare of the village. An old man from this place told my informant Lama Tenzin Gyaltsen that Gomoche Gompa (the place where Grub- thob Sen-ge ye-ses stayed nine years in retreat) still possesses a piece o f land called g.Yan- khug in sPrad. Thus this could be the village where the dPal-grags family which supported Grub-thob Sen-ge ye-ses lived. The name of the landlord, Zan-khan, does not accord, however, with the names given in the biography. From sPrad, Grub-thob Sen-ge ye-ses proceeded to the mountain ridge gZigs-pa-sgan, from where he had a pure vision of Crystal Mountain. He made his monk robes into wings and flew to the top of Crystal Mountain, leaving a hole in the rock close to the peak.

Before this supernatural flight from gZigs-pa-sgan, which is missing in dkar-chag B, Grub- thob Sen-ge ye-ses met three children tending cattle at “’Gren” (B “ ’Gran“), which is, according to Lama Tenzin Gyaltsen, just below gZigs-pa-sgan. This incomplete story was included in dkar-chag A after the second colophon.51 In B it is complete and forms part of the second narration of Grub-thob Sen-ge ye-ses’s arrival in Dolpo.52 Upon Grub-thob Sen-ge ye-ses’s request, the three children offered him the land around Crystal Mountain and renounced their worldly life in front o f him.

dkar-chags A and B agree that Grub-thob Sen-ge ye-ses saw Mount Kailash from the peak of Crystal Mountain. While B has it, however, that the master together with his disciples mounted a snow-lion and flew to Mount Kailash and back, dkar-chag A states that Grub-

4?A 2a5, B 3a2-3. This lack of clarity could have resulted from the local deity o f Crystal Mountain having been incorporated into the original story later.

48A 2a5-3a6.

49According to Lama Tenzin Gyaltsen from Bijer Gaon.

50I.e., the village gompa of Bijer Gaon, whose present abbot is the Sakya lama Tenzin Gyaltsen.

51A 9b5; see above.

52B 13b4-14a4.


thob Seh-ge ye-ses mounted a snow-lion, flew around Crystal Mountain53 and landed at Lha lun on the pilgrim’s way around Crystal Mountain.54 It is interesting to note that dkar-chag A goes on to say that Grub-thob Sen-ge ye-ses went again to Mount Kailash and returned to the “Vajra Cave of Shey” (sel rdo rje phug) to build a chapel.55 This contradicts the biography, according to which he first went from Drikung to Mount Kailash and from there to Dolpo. And even though he left Dolpo two more times he never returned to Mount Kailash.

Grub-thob Seh-ge ye-ses, an Emanation o f the Indian Mahasiddha Savaripa

In order to emphasize the continuity of the Indian Mahayana and Vajrayana traditions, the dkar-chags identify the founder of the Drikung Kagyu school Chos-rje ’Jig-rten-gsum mgon and his closest disciple Grub-thob Seh-ge ye-ses with the Indian Mahasiddhas Nagarjuna and Savaripa. The story in the dkar-chags starts in Drikung, where the servants of Chos-rje ’Jig- rten-gsum mgon complain that Grub-thob Seh-ge ye-ses never returns with offerings, while the lamas of rTsa-ri and La-phyi do so all the time. The Chos-rje replied that Grub-thob Seh- ge ye-ses was coming every morning and evening to make prostrations and offerings. As the servants did not believe him, they were told to come and see for themselves. The following morning they saw a huge vulture landing in the comer of Chos-rje ’Jig-rten-gsum mgon’s bedroom. When they came closer, they further saw, next to Rinpoche, two frightening lions baring their teeth. They retreated and Rinpoche told Grub-thob Seh-ge ye-ses to stop his frightening magic. The two lions became one and turned into Grub-thob Seh-ge ye-ses. The servants prostrated and asked Chos-rje ’Jig-rten-gsum mgon if Grub-thob Seh-ge ye-ses was his emanation. Chos-rje ’Jig-rten-gsum mgon Rin-po-che explained that before, when he had been Nagarjuna in South India, he and his teacher Saraha met the dancer Sa ba ri dban phyug, alias Savaripa, and his two sisters. When the three performed a dance for them, they recognized that they would be proper disciples, and bestowed empowerments and instructions on them. Supreme realization arose in them and they achieved all siddhis. They told them to go south to the mountain Srl-Parvata (in Andhra Pradesh) and work for the welfare of sentient beings in the outfit of a hunter. Savaripa and his two sisters were still now living on the three mountains of Sri-Parvata. By virtue of having been master and disciple, ’Jig-rten-gsum mgon and Grub-thob Seh-ge ye-ses associated with each other to spread the teaching in Tibet. Nagarjuna’s spiritual son Savaripa had emanated as Grub-thob Seh-ge yeses and come there.56

53B describes the flight around the mountain after Sen-ge ye-ses’s pure vision of Vajravarahi (6a5).

54I.e., a one-hour walk from Sumdo Gompa, where the pilgrimage around Crystal Mountain starts. At Phyag- ’tshal-sgan, pilgrims prostrate three times to Crystal Mountain and take a holy bath in the spring Chu-mig yan-lag close by.

55A 2a5-3a6.

56A 4b5-5b4, B 4a4-5b2.


The frame of this story fits well the account of Chos-rje ’Jig-rten-gsum mgon having sent three main disciples to Mount Kailash and Crystal Mountain, rTsa-ri, and La-phyi. It thus belongs to the strands of the dkar-chags which are at odds with the early biography in mentioning Crystal Mountain at all and having Grub-thob Seh-ge ye-ses reach the Vajra Fortress of Shey (supposedly the Vajra Cave on Crystal Mountain) only in the fall of 1220, three years after the Chos-rje had passed away. And it, together with the account establishing a linkage between the Indian Mahâsiddha tradition and the two early Drikung masters, is already mentioned in Karma Blo-bzan’s autobiography.57 The dkar-chags take up the account and also try to establish a relationship between the South Indian mountain Srl-Parvata with Crystal Mountain.58 This is in accordance with the narration of Grub-thob Sen-ge yeses’s cremation, which is presented with reference to the older dkar-chag lost in Mustang (see below).

People in Dolpo say that Grub-thob Sen-ge ye-ses’s display of magic at Drikung was caused by his dance with dâkinïs at mKha’- ’gro bro-ra, a place at the pass Yal-men la above Vajra Cave. Pilgrims dance there on their way around Crystal Mountain.59

The “Opening ” o f the Sacred Place and the Pure Visions

The “opening” of a sacred place usually goes along with the taming or subduing o f local deities and other more or less unruly forces. In fact, the dkar-chags paint the most dreadful picture of Shey before the arrival of Grub-thob Sen-ge ye-ses: it had been haunted, nonhuman beings harming and going so far as to eat humans there.60 In order to discipline these entities, the lama transformed this haunted place into a great evam-dharmodaya61 made out of space and earth, and emanated three lions, which were body, speech and mind. Another 108 lions arose from them. Their dance and play controlled the local gods and demons to the extent that they made a promise not to harm anyone and took the Buddhist lay vows. This place is called Pha-bon sen-rjes, ‘the rock with [footjprints of lions’. Lama Tenzin Gyaltsen told me that Pha-bon sen-rjes is a one-hour walk from Sumdo Gompa on the way to Tarab, where two huge rocks are purportedly covered with the lions’ footprints. Even now pilgrims circumambulate them a hundred times to remove fear of harmful hindrances.

57In the bKa' brgyud mam thar chen mo, Grub-thob Sen-ge ye-ses is mainly called Ri-khrod dban-phyug, one

of the Tibetan names o f Savaripa, Seh-ge ye-ses being his monk’s name only (see above).

58See also below, where seven disciples o f Savaripa from Sri-Parvata turn into a-tsa-ras and fly to Crystal Mountain to cremate the body of Grub-thob Seh-ge ye-ses.

590ral information from Lama Tenzin Gyaltsen.

“ A 4a6-4b4, B 3b3-4a4.

61A Tantric symbol o f two interwoven triangles, usually standing for the union of opposites.


The subduing o f the genii loci is further elaborated in the story of rTsa-ri Ron-chun.62 According to dkar-chag B Grub-thob Sen-ge ye-ses went to Tsakhang63 and then to Rongchung after the area around Crystal Mountain had been given to him by the three children in Dren ( ’Gran).M At Tsari Rongchung, which is about halfway along the winter path from Shey to Bijer Gaon, Grub-thob Sen-ge ye-ses spent some time meditating in a cave called Khun-bu-can. When a poisonous snake coiled around him in the cave, he bound it by oath and the snake took the Buddhist lay vows. The “lord of the place” (gnas bdag) became

known as the great “lay practitioner” (Tib. dge bshen) Rongchung. Moreover, the dkar- chag ,̂ tell us that the “local deity o f [Crystal Mountain] Dragon-Roar” (Tib. ’brug sg ra ’i lha btsan), the gods, demons etc. o f Shey and even Crystal Mountain itself65 swore an oath and took the lay vows. A woman from Guge called Khyun-lun dkar-mo developed faith in Grub-thob Sen-ge ye-ses, who instructed her and placed her under an obligation to protect the Vajra Cave of Shey as a genius loci (Tib. gnas bdag), after she had given up her malicious attitudes and adopted a benevolent mind. He further stopped the mysterious talking, dog barking etc. o f the wretched gods and demons of Shey. All this he achieved by emanating frightening lions.66

It is important to note here that the original quarrel with a sorcerer from the dPal-grags family which led to his death (according to the early biography67) has become the taming of gods and demons of a haunted place. The dkar-chags have thus suppressed the initial conflict between the native religion and its priests, in Buddhist terminology “sorcerers” (mthu mkhan), and the new Buddhist yogis and monks, who probably reached the remote Himalayan valleys in search of politically less troubled, more peaceful surroundings.

There are different accounts of pure visions which partly contradict each other. Both dkar- chags agree that Grub-thob Sen-ge ye-ses had a pure vision of Crystal Mountain from the mountain ridge to the north o f it called gZigs-pa-sgan. dkar-chag A has it that after his ride on a snow-lion around Crystal Mountain, Grub-thob Sen-ge ye-ses landed at Lha-lun,68

62A 13a3-6.

“ Probably the place where Tsakhang Gompa was later built.

MB 14a4-5.

“ A 13b4. Schicklgruber (1996: 120) has observed that the people o f Bijer, for example, do not really distinguish

between their mountain sMug-po ron and their yul-lha or dgra-lha sMug-po ron. Buffetrille (1996: 87) tells us

that, according to the studies o f A. Macdonald, the divinities within non-Buddhist belief systems are the mountains themselves.

“ A 13bl-14al, B 14bl-4.

“ The father of Bande dPal-grags, a local mthu-nikhan, obviously became jealous of the Buddhist practitioner

Sen-ge ye-ses and his disciples, who were materially supported by his son dPal-grags and his grandson Mon-chuh(see above).

“ Jest (1975: 359): Lha luh, "vallon des divinités lha."


where, according to Lama Tenzin Gyaltsen, Phyag-’tshal-sgañ69 on the pilgrimage route around the sacred mountain is located. Being tired and hungry, Grub-thob Señ-ge ye-ses looked for stones to build a stove. He did not find a single one which had not syllables or images of the attributes of deities or the deities themselves on them. Even though he had performed a miracle in riding a snow-lion through the sky, he regretted that he did not complete the circumambulation of Crystal Mountain on foot. It was because o f this exalted state o f mind that he could open the sacred place, and recognize and describe his pure

visions.70

A further account o f pure visions is contained in the “story o f Tsakhang” (btsag khan gi lo rgyus).7i From “Phyag-’tshal-sgañ,” which cannot be the above-mentioned place on the way around Crystal Mountain,72 Grub-thob Señ-ge ye-ses saw in the rocks of Tsakhang the eighty(-four?) Mahásiddhas. As he was looking at them closely, they dissolved into Saraha and Nágárjuna, the former teachers o f Grub-thob Señ-ge ye-ses.73 When he prostrated to his Indian masters,74 they disappeared and he saw how the rock o f Tsakhang turned into a dancing and joking VajraváráhT with four faces and twelve arms. Performing a dance of wisdom of his own, Grub-thob Señ-ge ye-ses entered a state o f high realization (Tib. ñams chen po) and dwelt in the vagina o f VajraváráhT. For twelve days he experienced what is called the great appearance o f clear light (Tib. gsal snah chen po) in a samddhi o f the four joys of bliss and emptiness, having taken on the form of Cakrasamvara (i.e ., Heruka) at the heart o f VajraváráhT.75 All hindrances were purified and qualities completed. He thus became a master of yogis, being like “the white snow-lion” (sen ge dkar mo, i.e ., Mount Kailash). At that time he had a vision that Crystal Mountain and his two brothers (Tib. sel gyi ri bo mched gsum)16 were the body, speech and mind mandolas o f Cakrasamvara.77 In everything around him—stones, rocks, flowers, bushes etc.—he saw only gods, goddesses, yi-dams, Dharma protectors, Buddhas and Bodhisattvas.

“ ib id .: Phyag 'tshalkhah.

™A 3a2-5. This detailed account o f the opening of the sacred place has no equivalent in dkar-chag B.

7IA 5b6-6b2, B 5b2-6a5.

72From Phyag-’tshal-sgah at Lha-lun it is impossible to see Tsakhang. Lama Tenzin Gyaltsen told me that a mountain ridge five minutes’ walk from Sumdo Gompa is also called Phyag-’tshal-sgah.

73A 5b3, B 5a4, see above; Grub-thob Sen-ge ye-ies is considered to be an emanation o f Savaripa.

74This is the reason why the place is called phyag ‘tshal sgah: “the mountain ridge [where Grub-thob Sen-ge ye-Ses] prostrated.”

7SAccording to the dkar-chag written by Sans Rinpoche, Grub-thob Sen-ge ye-ies took on the form of

Cakrasamvara and dwelt in the vagina of Vajravarahi (C llb5-6).

76During my stay at the Tsakhang and Shey Gompa in 1994, Lama Karma Tsondru and Meme Wangdu showedme two mountains to the south of Crystal Mountain that they said were “his brothers.“

77According to Sans Rinpoche (C 12a2). dkar-chag A and B merely state that the three are the mandala o fCakrasamvara.


dKar-chags A and B have two versions o f a further pure vision of Crystal Mountain.78 In the first version the vision is described as follows: Grub-thob Sen-ge ye-ses returned (according to B from Mount Kailash) to the Vajra Cave of Shey to stay there for another four years. He saw the outside surroundings—Crystal Mountain and his four brothers (Tib. sel gyi ri bo mched Ina)—as Mahasiddhas. The inside of Crystal Mountain, which he perceived as a huge crystal stupa, was filled with 25,000 Buddhas, and on the walks around the stiipa he saw 500 Arhats, 16 Sthaviras and 80 Mahasiddhas. The second description is slightly different and gives more details: Crystal Mountain was seen as a crystal stupa of Sakyamuni’s descent from heaven (Tib. lha babs mchod rten) with a circumference of about 500 yojana.19 Inside was a divine palace filled with 20,000 (A: many thousands of) Buddhas, and the walks around the stupa were filled with Sravakas (i.e ., 500 Arhats, 16 Sthaviras etc.) and Bodhisattvas. In the four directions were 21 successive flights o f crystal stairs each (this means that the stupa had 21 levels). Over them the Buddha came down from the realm of the gods to the human world. Grub-thob Sen-ge ye-ses further saw that Crystal Mountain and his two (!) brothers were three crystal stupas, the three South Indian Ven. Mountains (Sri-Parvata), the place where Savaripa and his two sisters obtained supreme realization and are still dwelling today.

At the end of dkar-chag A, just before the second colophon, disciples of Chos-rje ’Jig-rten- gsum mgon are quoted as saying that Grub-thob Sen-ge ye-ses opened the sacred place Crystal Mountain Dragon-Roar with the words: “If the sa-skya’i bdud-rtsi pill, the snigs-ma’i skye-bdun pill and the ’brug-pa’i j a ’-zug pill lose [their] blessed essence, fetch them back from the lake on the top of [Crystal] Mountain,”80 the lake being the same as Lake Manasarovara.81 At another place in the dkar-chag we are told that the lake water roars through an inner gorge of Crystal Mountain uninterruptedly like the sound of a dragon. Thus Crystal Mountain is called Dragon-Roar. Its continuous natural sound is considered to be a symbol of the secret mantras.82

The Vajra Cave o f Shey (Gomoche)

Both the biography and the dkar-chags agree that Grub-thob Sen-ge ye-ses spent first five and then four years in retreat at the Vajra Cave of Shey.83 The different sources are in accord also that he passed away at this place. According to the dkar-chags, Grub-thob Sen-

78A 4a4-6, 7al-6 , B 3b2-3, 7a3-b3.

79 A particular measure of distance, regarded as equal to 4 or 5 English miles (see Monier- Williams 1899: s.v.).

S0A 14a2-3.

81A 14a3.

82A 6b4-6, B 6b5-7a2.

8JA 4a4. B 3b 1: Grub-thob Sen-ge ye-ses returned to this sacred place and stayed for another four years at theVajra Cave of Shey. A 7b2, B 7b5: Grub-thob Sen-ge ye-ses stayed first five and then another four years at the Vajra

Cave of Shey.


ge ye-ses realized that the Vajra Cave was in the heart of the sacred place and erected a chapel there. Nowadays it is known as Gomoche (sgo mo phye)M and used as a retreat by the monks of Tsakhang Gompa. To the right of the cave, according to the dkar-chags, is a rock which looks like a lihga o f Mahadeva, and in which there is an imprint of someone’s upper body (of Grub-thob Sen-ge ye-ses’s?).

The dkar-chags describe several holy objects, which have either disappeared or been brought to Sumdo Gompa. First o f all we are told that Grub-thob Sen-ge ye-ses brought a Tara statue from Drikung to the Vajra Cave of Shey. It is said to be the sister of the famous Avalokitesvara statue (Jo bo) in Kyirong (skyid groh).S5 The present abbot of Sumdo told me the story that once a caretaker of Gomoche Gompa did not offer butter lamps to the Tara. When she locked him inside, he banged with his feet against the stone door and left a footprint on it. According to Lama Tenzin Gyaltsen, oral tradition in Dolpo has it further that the Tara statue spoke, complaining that she had not received any butter lamp offerings and that she would escape to her brother, the Jo bo in Kyirong. She first flew to Shechung (ses byuh) on the mountain ridge opposite Crystal Mountain. The caretaker followed her, convinced her to return to Gomoche, and fastened the Tara statue with an iron chain in the chapel.86 It is said that the Tara left a footprint at Shechung.

A statue of a four-armed Mahakala is considered to be of equal importance to the pilgrim. The dkar-chags87 relate to us that it is one o f the 108 Mahakala statues made by Nagarjuna. The Indian Mahasiddha placed a small four-armed Mahakala made o f ivory at the heart of each of the statues. As a model, he used the stone figure of the four-armed Mahakala which had naturally arisen in the cave o f Sitavana (near Bodhgaya) and been brought to Nalanda. Three of these statues, according to the legend, reached Drikung in Tibet, and Chos-rje ’Jig-rten-gsum mgon sent one each to rTsa-ri, La-phyi, and Mount Kailash/Crystal Mountain, since all three o f them took seven steps on their own in these directions at Drikung. One of the wisdom-protectors finally reached the Vajra Cave o f Shey. According to the dkar-chags, only pilgrims who have received the corresponding Tantric initiation are allowed to see the statue.

The stupa containing the relics o f Grub-thob Sen-ge ye-ses is the focus of devotion in Gomoche Gompa. As dkar-chags A and B begin their description by referring to the more extensive dkar-chag, probably lost during a local conflict in Mustang, the following narration seems to pertain to the older strands of material relating to Crystal Mountain: When Grub-thob Sen-ge ye-ses passed away in the chapel of the Vajra Cave of Shey, his dharmakaya heart-wisdom dissolved in the heart of Savaripa, who is even now dwelling at

MKhenpo Menlha Phuntsok: Nepal naň p a ’i gnas yig dňul dkar me Ion, p. 101.

8!A 3a6.

86This amusing story of fastening a material holy object to prevent it from fleeing is not as uncommon in Tibet as one might think. Thus even stupas and mountains have been tied down by iron chains or nails, because they were thought to be able to fly away (see Buffetrille 1996: 77-87).

8,A 3bl-4a2, B 8a3-b5.


Sri-Parvata in the south of India. Seven disciples o f the Mahasiddha from Sri-Parvata transformed themselves into seven a-tsa-ras, came to the chapel, and consigned the body of Grub-thob Sen-ge ye-ses, an emanation of Savaripa, to flames. The relics were brought to “a support o f relics” (gduh rten), that is, a stupa, which was miraculously built in an instant, whereupon the seven a-tsa-ras changed into vultures and flew away. Grub-thob Sen-ge ye-ses’s disciples heard the sound of Dharma teaching from this stupa. They saw that the gduh-rten moved, and that it really was Grub-thob Sen-ge ye-ses, the Mahasiddha Savaripa.88 Since it generates auspiciousness and radiates the brilliance o f blessing, it is called “the support o f relics, radiating auspiciousness” (gduh rten bkra sis ’od ’bar). The stupa is also said to contain the relics o f other great Indian and Tibetan saints. They are enumerated in dkar-chags A and B after the second colophon. The account concludes by stating that Grub-thob Sen-ge ye-ses had acquired a “fast leg”89 and could thus collect relics of all learned and accomplished saints o f India and Tibet.90 As already mentioned above, the list o f relics seems to be relatively late, not only because it comes after the formal end of the dkar-chag A on folio 15, but also because it contains masters who lived a century after Grub-thob Sen-ge ye-Ses, the authors obviously not having been aware any more of the different lifetimes.

Finally, dkar-chags A and B describe a clay statue of ’Bri-gun Chos-rje ’Jig-rten-gsum mgon, erected by his disciple Grub-thob Sen-ge ye-ses in the chapel of the Vajra Cave of Shey. Again some old scripts (the old dkar-chag lost in Mustang?) are referred to when the contents of the statue are enumerated: it contained Grub-thob Sen-ge ye-ses’s hat, Dharma cloth, vajra and bell, skull (kapala) and ritual dagger (vajrakilaya). Moreover, a number of items o f ’Jig-rten-gsum mgon himself had been included. Particularly noteworthy are four volumes o f ’Jig-rten-gsum mgon’s works (zab-chos and dgohs-gcig),91 When the clay statue o f ’Jig-rten-gsum mgon was redone, the last Shey Tulku bsTan-’dzin rdo-rje (d. 1991) did not put back the texts in the statue, because he considered them to be an improper filling. When I microfilmed the manuscripts o f Tsakhang and Sumdo gompas in 1994, I found two o f these four volumes, which proved to be the first two volumes of the collected works o f ’Jig-rten-gsum mgon.92

Oral tradition has preserved a further story relating to Gomoche Gompa: As there was no water when Grub-thob Sen-ge ye-ses first stayed at the Vajra Cave of Shey, he untied his mala and ordered his servants to offer its parts in all directions. This did not help, though.

“ A 7b6-9al, B 8b5-9b6.

89According to Lama Tenzin Gyaltsen, this means that he could move very fast by virtue o f his mastery of the

subtle wind energies in the vajra body.

16b5.

91A 9a2-bl, 9b6-10bl.

^NGMPP Reel No. L 546/1-2, 229+211 fols. As the author is not clearly mentioned in either volume, they were first falsely ascribed to Grub-thob Sen-ge ye-Ses based on information from the local lama. It was Kyabgon

Chetsang Rinpoche, Dehra Dun, who identified the texts as being the first two volumes of the collected works of

’Jig-rten-gsum mgon.


Having seen that one servant had hidden a turquoise of his mala in his belt, he asked if the mala, had been offered completely. The servants answered yes, so Grub-thob Sen-ge ye-ses asked the guilty servant about the turquoise in his belt. He felt ashamed and the turquoise turned into a poisonous snake. Grub-thob Sen-ge ye-ses removed the snake from the servant’s body, and threw it on the slope close by. The snake turned into the small mountain stream between the gompas Tsakhang and Gomoche.93

The Biography o f Karma Blo-bzah

During a recent NGMPP microfilm expedition to Nar, a formerly restricted area to the north of Chame, Manang, I managed to microfilm some works and two biographies of Karma Blo- bzah, a famous lama of the Kam-tshan Kagyu school. The more extensive mam-thar54 was written by Karma Blo-bzah himself when he was 73 years old. The year of birth is not mentioned, but given that his main teachers (rtsa b a ’i bla ma) were Grub-mchog dban-po (1563-1618) and the Sixth Zva-dmar-pa Chos kyi dban-phyug (1584-1630),95 Karma Blo- bzah must have lived in the 17th century. The only precise date o f the whole m am-thar is the wood-dragon year (1664), in which the shrine room of Brag-dkar monastery was consecrated by Zabs-drun bKa’-brgyud sgron-ma.96 From the biography we further learn that Karma Blo-bzah did a five-year retreat at the bSam-grub Cave below sNar-smad (today Nar Gaon).97 Before his retreat, we are told, he had nearly reached the age o f seventy.98 And since it was after the consecration in 1664 that Karma Blo-bzah composed his biography at the age of 73, he must have been between 69 and 73 years old in 1664. Given that the consecration of the shrine room in Brag-dkar was one of the last events during his retreat, we are enabled to cautiously place his birth in the year 1592 or 1593.

The biography of Karma Blo-bzah provides us very useful information not only on Dolpo, but also on various other regions of Nepal. It must have been some ten years before the only fixed date, 1664, that Karma Blo-bzah reached Dolpo from sNye-san via Mustang. His teachings in Dolpo were so popular that some 150 monks and practitioners attended them regularly at Bar-bon, and during initiations (Cakrasamvara etc.) innumerable disciples were on hand. Even lay practitioners followed his instructions when travelling or during the daily work in the fields. Particularly interesting is Karma Blo-bzah’s observation that farmers, for

930ral information from Lama Tenzin Gyaltsen; the story is not contained in the dkar-chags.

^Karma Blo-bzah: mKhas grub chen p o karma bio bzah gi m am thar mchod sprin rgya mtsho, 100 fols., NGMPP Reel No. L 1013/1. F.-K. Ehrhard apparently used a similar text in his paper “Religious Geography and

Literary Traditions: The Foundations o f the Monastery Brag-dkar bSam-gling,” in print.

95Karma Blo-bzah: op. cit., Ib3-2a3.

*Ibid„ 98b4.

91Ibid., 97b2-4. On fol. 94a3 we are told, however, that Karma Blo-bzah went into a three-year retreat atbSam-grub phug-pa. Probably he stayed on for another two years.

n Ibid., 94b2-95a3.


example, sat down to meditate for a while after each line they had ploughed, and that the laypersons of Dolpo were better practitioners than their priestly colleagues."

Karma Blo-bzan accepted an invitation from people living in Saldang to visit Crystal Mountain. During the first eleven days he stayed at the Vajra Cave of Shey and gave a public Amitayus initiation according to the Northern Terma (byah gter) tradition. He also sponsored a traditional three-year retreat for 58 practitioners from Shey.100 Of particular interest is the information that Karma Blo-bzan found (Grub-thob Sen-ge ye-ses’s?) life story and the song o f viewing Mount Kailash from the peak of Crystal Mountain, and that he then felt it necessary to write a new description of the sacred place (gnas bsad).m Unfortunately this text has not been found till now, but Karma Blo-bzan gives a rather detailed description o f the sacred place Crystal Mountain in his biography. As in the dkar-chags we are told that Grub-thob Sen-ge ye-ses led 55,000 monks102 to Mount Kailash and Crystal Mountain. Moreover, the “support of relics” (gduh rten) o f Grub-thob Sen-ge ye-ses, the statue o f the four-armed Mahakala and the rock with the footprints o f 108 lions are mentioned. We also find the full stories, almost verbatim, o f Grub-thob’s display of magic in front of Chos-rje ’Jig-rten-gsum mgon at Drikung, and the assertion that ’Jig-rten-gsum mgon and Sen-ge ye-ses are not different from the Indian Mahasiddhas Nagarjuna and Savaripa.103 The descriptions o f pure visions are missing. This is not very telling, however, since Crystal Mountain is already mentioned as a Cakrasamvara site in the biographies of ’Jam-dbyansRin-chen rgyal-mtshan(b. 1466/1470?) anddPal-ldanblo-gros (1527-1596). The fact that Karma Blo-bzan found old material related to Crystal Mountain and described most of the stories o f the dkar-chags in his biography indicates rather that the formation of the main parts o f the dkar-chags must have been completed already in the middle o f the 17th century.

Concluding Remarks

As already pointed out above, there are some disturbing discrepancies between the relatively old and reliable biography of Grub-thob Sen-ge ye-ses and the dkar-chags o f Crystal Mountain. It is remarkable that the biography does not contain any account o f a pure vision in Dolpo or even on Crystal Mountain itself, although Grub-thob Sen-ge ye-ses spent altogether sixteen years at its foot. True, pure visions are usually only described in detail in the literary genre called dkar-chag or gnas-yig, and not in biographies, unless it is a secret biography (gsah b a ’i mam thar). But Mount Kailash is itself described in the biography as being a crystal stupa and a Cakrasamvara site.

"ibid., 73al-76b5.

m Ibid., 82a2-83a4.

m Ibid . , 86a5-b2.

l02To be exact, the dkar-chags quote the figure 55,525.

,0>Ibid . , 84bl-86b4.


As I could not locate any other early records about Grub-thob Seň-ge ye-ses’s stay in Dolpo, it is difficult to say how the narrations centring on Crystal Mountain precisely developed. But the biography o f dPal-ldan blo-gros (1527-1596)104 tells us that this famous lama from Dolpo saw Crystal Mountain as the palace of Cakrasamvara and then paid respect to Vajraváráhí at Tsakhang.105 This fits the first vision in the dkar-chags well: Grub-thob Seň-ge ye-šes saw Crystal Mountain and his two brothers as the mandala o f Cakrasamvara immediately after his vision of the Mahásiddhas and Vajraváráhí at Tsakhang. Also, in the biography of ’Jam-dbyaňs Rin-chen rgyal-mtshan (b. 1466/1470?) Crystal Mountain is mentioned as a Cakrasamvara site, to which ’Jam-dbyaňs Rin-chen rgyal-mtshan fled (from his parents), following in the footsteps of yogis who had gone there before.106

The second and third descriptions of Crystal Mountain in the dkar-chags were probably influenced by Grub-thob Seň-ge ye-ses’s vision of Mount Kailash, in that they, too, describe Crystal Mountain as being a huge crystal stupa with 500 Arhats surrounding it.107 In this context it is important to note that the place-name Shey is always spelled ses (‘knowledge’) and not šel ( ‘crystal’) in the biography. Even the dkar-chags have ses kyi ri bo “the mountain of Shey” in their title.108 The currently more common spelling, šel gyi ri bo, could be influenced by the (later?) perception of the mountain of Shey as being a crystal stupa (šel gyi mchod rten), which would support the notion that Grub-thob Seň-ge ye- ses’s pure vision of Mount Kailash had been later partly transferred to the mountain o f Shey. For while Mount Kailash is covered with ice and snow all year and thus easy to compare with a crystal stupa, it is difficult to see such a crystal stupa in the bizarre rock formations of the mountain o f Shey, which is not ice-capped. Lama Tenzin Gyaltsen gave me a modem (?) explanation, namely that the mountain is so called because there is rock crystal on its top. Jest (1975: 360) was told that Grub-thob Seh-ge ye-ses erected—while in meditation—a crystal stupa above the small lake Bu-chuh bla-mtsho on the way around Crystal Mountain, where pilgrims usually collect small crystal stones.

The pans of the dkar-chags which suggest that Grub-thob Seh-ge ye-šes was sent by his master ’Jig-rten-gsum mgon with many monks to the sacred places o f the body of Cakrasamvara—that is, Mount Kailash and Crystal Mountain—must be a later insertion. This

l04For the dating see Ehrhard 1996: 55.

'“ According to the biography, Lama dPal-ldan blo-gros reached the peak of “(Crystal Mountain] Dragon-Roar” ( ’bm g brag, brag probably being a wrong spelling for sgra) on his way from Phoksumdo Lake and thought that it was the palace of Cakrasamvara (in the text bde mchog, an abbreviation for "khor to bde ntchog).

Marvelling at this palace, he went on to Tsakhang 3 to pay respect to Vajravarahi. See Snellgrove 1967: Vol. 2, 184. 3 Wrongly identified by Snellgrove (1967: Vol. 1, 193) as the meditation house behind bDe-chen bla-bran (near

Namdo) of the lama of Zel.

l06rDo-brag Rig-’dzin Padma ’phrin-las: “’Dus pa mdo dban gi bla ma brgyud pa’i rnam thar,” p. 286, 11. 3-4

(for this reference I am indebted to F.-K. Ehrhard).

I07lnside the stupa, however, are 25,000 (20,000 in the second account) Buddhas instead of Cakrasamvara.

'""Crystal Mountain (set gyi ri bo) is then used consistently, however, in the running text o f the dkar- chags.


becomes particularly obvious in the story of the three Mahakala statues which were sent from Drikung to the sacred places of the body, speech and mind, with only one statue being sent to Crystal Mountain and Mount Kailash (body) together. Apart from the obvious asymmetry of this story, Grub-thob Sen-ge ye-ses arrived at Mount Kailash one year and in Dolpo three years after the death o f ’Jig-rten-gsum mgon. Moreover, Grub-thob Sen-ge ye-ses’s biography has it that ’Jig-rten-gsum mgon even ordered him not to go to La-phyi and Mount Kailash. As already pointed out above, the explanation for the contradiction with the dkar-chags could be that Grub-thob Sen-ge ye-ses was later confounded with another Drikung master of the same name (see above). It is not quite clear when exactly Crystal Mountain was identified with the sacred place of the body of Cakrasamvara and thus put on the same level as the pilgrimage site of Mount Kailash. Given the contradictory visions described in the dkar- chags and the fact that Crystal Mountain is even not mentioned in the biography, it is safe to say that this did not happen at the time of Grub-thob Sen-ge ye-ses. To be sure, I do not want to exclude the possibility that the mountain of Shey was seen as the abode of Cakrasamvara by Grub-thob Sen-ge ye-ses; it is only its recognition as a fully established pilgrimage site equal to Mount Kailash that I take for a later development.

One reason that the Drikungpas had established a second pilgrimage place equalling Mount Kailash could be the rise and fall o f their control over the the Kailash area. In 1220, the year Grub-thob Sen-ge ye-ses arrived in Dolpo from Mount Kailash, ’Bri-gun glin-pa Ses-rab ’byun-gnas (1187-1241) established friendly ties with the occupants of the northern border region of sTod (West Tibet)—according to Vitali (1996: 414-6) probably Jebe’s Mongols. This Mongol support was vital for establishing a bustling Drikung centre o f pilgrimage at Mount Kailash. After 1240 the Drikung firmly controlled West Tibet (mha’ ri stod) with Mongol approval, and monopolized Mount Kailash to such an extent that followers of other Kagyu schools were not allowed to meditate there any more (421). Grub-thob Sen-ge ye-ses probably escaped this strict life of Drikung rule in search of a solitary mountain retreat in Dolpo.109 He never returned to Mount Kailash and spent altogether 16 years at the Vajra Cve of Shey, where he passed away in 1255. This itself would make the place sacred, of course, and by the end of the 13th century, when the control of the Drikungpas over West Tibet and Kailash had weakened,110 Drikung monks and yogis could have been attracted to it. In these troubled years, Drikungpas escaping from the war between Sakya and Drikung (1267-1290)111 probably also preferred to head for the safe haven of Shey in Dolpo rather than to Mount Kailash. This may have led to recognizing Crystal Mountain as an important centre of pilgrimage on a par with Mount Kailash, so that the sacred place of the body of Cakrasamvara could remain accessible in a less troubled area. An interesting parallel, if not

l09See “dPal Idan ri khrod dban phyug rnam thar,” p. 460,1. 5—p. 461, I. 1: Before leaving Mount Kailash for

Dolpo, he tells Ses-rab ’byun-gnas that he does not want to become a head lama with a lot of followers.

,10According to Vitali (1996: 420-2), the Drikungpas lost the region of West Tibet when the gnam-sa dpa'-si in mNa’-ris skor-gsum was assassinated between 1277 and 1280. They were finally defeated at the hands of the

Sakyapas in 1290.

m See Snellgrove & Richardson 1995: 149.


too far-fetched, is the old Tibetan belief that the local god (yul lha) can follow a community when it is migrating to another place."2

A further, not less important reason is that the newly arrived Buddhist yogis and practitioners had to compete with the Bonpos and other forms of local belief, so that the equation of Crystal Mountain with Mount Kailash must have been very useful. The stories of Grub-thob Seň-ge ye-šes flying on a snow-lion must be seen in this context of local religious competition. As the snow-lion is explained to be an emanation of the “local god of Crystal [Mountain]” (Tib. šel gyi lha btsan), the account demonstrates that Grub-thob Seň-ge yeses is the undisputed master over the local gods. Seeing and even flying from the top of Crystal Mountain on the šel gyi lha-btsan to Mount Kailash and back also emphasizes the close relationship between the two sacred places in the sense mentioned above. Again the early biography is more realistic in having Grub-thob Seh-ge ye-šes flying, if at all, then only in a dream. The account of a real flight to the top o f Crystal Mountain, like those of the other flights, was probably a later invention. An interesting parallel to this story is gTsah-smyon Heruka’s (1452-1507) narration o f Milarepa’s flight to the top of Mount Kailash when he was engaged in competition with a Bonpo lama.113 The entire story is, however, missing in the older Bu chen bcu ghis version of Milarepa’s songs and biography, which was probably composed by Bodhirája, a disciple of Milarepa, and according to G. Smith it was a source for gTsah-smyon Heruka."4 Thus it seems likely that the account is, like the account of Grub-thob Seh-ge ye-ses flying to the top of Crystal Mountain, a later addition.

References

Tibetan texts

Karma Blo-bzahmKhas grub chen po karma bio bzah gi mam thar mchod sprin rgya mtsho, NGMPP Reel No. L 1013/1, 100 fols.

Khenpo Menlha PhuntsokNepal naň p a ’i gnas yig dhul dkar me Ion. Kathmandu 1996

Jigme Throgyal: Na mo guru . . . (no title). Tsakhang (?) 1996.

"2See Blondeau 1996: x.

"’Milarepa flew to the top of Mount Kailash in order to reach there before the Bon priest Naro Bhun Chon (see

Chang 1970: 106).

IHBodhiraja (?): rJe btsun chen po mid la ras p a ’i mam thar zab mo bzugs so. This text was recently

identified in the Newark Museum, Tibetan Book Collection folio #36,280; (see Tiso 1997: 994, fn. 24). I am

indebted to Hubert Decleer, Kathmandu, for providing me a copy of the manuscript.


Bstan-’dzin ras-parJe btsun bstan ’dzin ras pa de ňid kyi gsah ba 7 mam thar sa khyis phan gyis / mgur m a’i kha ’gros gnas ňo zuh tshul mya nan ’das tshul dkar chag daň bcas ma chos mtshan lha bzugs so, NGMPP Reel No. L 410/10, 52 fols.

rDo-rje mdzes-’odbKa ’ brgyud kyi mam thar chen mo rin po che 'i gter mdzod dgos 'dod ’byuh gnas. Published by D. Tsondu Senghe. Delhi: Jayyed Press, Ballimaran 1985. “Chos rje’i rnam thar bžugs so .” In ib id ., pp. 374-427.“dPal ldan ri khrod dbaň phyug mam thar bžugs so .” In ibid., pp. 427-89.

rDo-brag Rig-’dzin Padma ’phrin-las“’Dus pa mdo dbah gi bla ma brgyud pa’i rnam thar no mtshar dad pa’i phreh ba.” In b K a’ ma mdo dbah gi bla ma brgyud p a ’i rnam thar, pp. 1-425. Smanrtsis Shesrig Spendzod, 37. Leh 1972.

Bodhirája (?)rJe btsun chen po mid la ras p a ’i rnam thar zab mo bzugs so, 245 fols. Newark Museum, Tibetan Book Collection #36,280

Rus-pa’i rgyan-can (=gTsan-smyon Heruka)rNal ’byor gyi dbah phyug chen po mi la ras p a ’i rnam mgur. mTsho shon mi rigs dpe skrun khan 1989.

Šaňs Rin-po-chegNas chen šel gyi ri bo ’brug sg ra ’i dkar chag mthoh ba don ldan dad p a ’i skya rehs, NGMPP Reel No. E 2756/15, 18 fols.

bŠes-gňen Chos-dpal & Blo-gros kun-spaňsŠel gyi ri bo 'brug sg ra ’i dkar chag mthoh ba don ldan, NGMPP Reel No. D 111/28, 17 fols.

O-rgyan bstan-’dzingNas chen šel gyi ri bo ’brug sgra’i dkar chag mthoh ba don ldan, NGMPP Reel No. D 111/30, 18 fols.

Other works

Blondeau, A.-M. 1996. “Foreword.” In Blondeau & Steinkellner, eds. (1996), vii-xi.

Blondeau, A .-M ., and Steinkellner, E., eds. 1996. Reflections o f the Mountain: Essays on the History and Social Meaning o f the Mountain Cult in Tibet and the Himalaya. Vienna: Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften.


Buffetrille, K. 1996. “One Day the Mountain Will Go A w ay.” In Blondeau & Steinkellner, eds. (1996), 77-89.

Chang, C.C. 1970. The Hundred Thousand Songs o f Milarepa. Abridged edition. New York: Harper & Row.

Dowman, K. 1988. The Power-Places o f Central Tibet. London: Routledge & Kegan.

Ehrhard, F.-K. 1996. “Two Further Lamas o f Dolpo: Ngag-dbang mam-rgyal (born 1628) and rNam-grol bzang-po (bom 1504).” Journal o f the Nepal Research Centre 10: 55-75.

. 1998. “Sa-’dul dgon pa: A Temple at the Crossroads of Jumla, Dolpo and Mustang.”Ancient Nepal 140 (Feb.): 3-21. “Religious Geography and Literary Traditions: The Foundations of the Monastery Brag-dkar bSam-gling,” in print.

Goldstein, M. 1983. A Tibetan-English Dictionary o f Modern Tibetan. Kathmandu: Ratna Pustak Bhandar.

Huber, T. 1997. “A Guide to the La-phyi Mandala." In Macdonald, ed. (1997), 233-286.

Jâschke, H. A. 1881. A Tibetan-English Dictionary, London: Prepared and published at the charge of the secretary of state for India in council.

Jest, C. 1975. Dolpo: Communautés de langue tibétaine du Népal. Paris: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique.

Macdonald, A. W ., ed. 1997. Mandala and Landscape. New Delhi: D. K. Printworld.

Martin, D. 1996. “Table of Contents (dKar chag)." In Tibetan Literature: Studies in Genre, edited by José Ignacio Cabezôn and Roger R. Jackson, 500-514. Ithaca, New York: Snow Lion.

Mathes, K.-D. (in press). “The Srî-Sabarapâdastotraratna of Vanaratna.” In Essays and Studies on Buddhist Sanskrit Literature. Indica et Tibetica, 36. Swisttal- Odendorf.

Monier-Williams, Sir Monier. 1889. A Sanskrit-English Dictionary. Etymologically and Philologically Arranged with Special Reference to Cognate Indo- European Languages. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Ramble, C. 1997. “The Creation of the Bon Mountain of Kongpo.” In Macdonald, ed. (1997), 133-232.

Schicklgruber, C. 1996. “Mountain High, Valley Deep: The yul lha of Dolpo.” In Blondeau & Steinkellner (1996), 115-132.


Snellgrove, D. L. 1961. Himalayan Pilgrimage. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

. 1967. Four Lamas ofD olpo . 2 vols. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Snellgrove, D. L., and H. Richardson. 1995. A Cultural History o f Tibet. Boston: Shambala.

Tiso, F. V. 1997. “The Death of Milarepa.” In Proceedings o f the 7th Seminar o f the International Association fo r Tibetan Studies, edited by Helmut Krasser, Michael Torsten Much, Ernst Steinkellner, Helmut Tauscher, Vol. 2, 987-995, Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften.

Vitali, R. 1996. The Kingdoms o f Gu.ge Pu.hrang. New Delhi: Indraprastha Press (CBT).

Zhäng, Yisün, ed. 1985. Bod rgya tshig mdzod chen mo. Zäng-Hän Däcidian. 3 vols. Beijing: Mi rigs dpe skrun khan.

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Plate 2 Vajra Fortress or Vajra Cave (Gomoche), built amidst the rocks of the second mountain ridge 011 the left

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Plate 4 Tsakhang Gompa, built in the rocks which Grub-thob Sen-ge ye-ses had seen as eighty Mahasiddhas. On the left side three chortens with the relics of the Shey Tulkus can be seen.

Plate 5 Sumdo Gompa (Shey Gompa), seen from the trail leading to Tsakhang Gompa

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klaus-dieter mathes - the sacred crystal mountain in dolpo - beliefs and pure visions of himalayan...

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