Two Early Tibetan Ritual Diagrams for Cakra Meditations Amy Heller Nyon
In the context of the seminar organized by the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives in recognition of India’s generosity in the 20th century, may this research be viewed as a gesture of homage to the countless Indian artists and paitas who travelled to the Land of Snows in the dawn of the previous millennium and the profound impact of their work on Tibetan civilisation. This article proposes to bring to the attention of tibetologists two drawings which have recently been published in relation to the history of Kashmiri painting by Pratapaditya Pal, curator emeritus of Asian Art at the Norton Simon Foundation. 1 When first studied, the art-historical significance of these drawings was emphasized in relation to works of art attributed to the school of Kashmiri artists in western Tibet ca 1000-1100. As the content of the historical and ritual inscriptions in Tibetan and Sanskrit was not discussed in detail, here we propose to present these inscriptions in their context and attempt their analysis. Stemming from ancient Indian systems of yoga, these two drawings illustrate the Abhidharmic universe, represented in symbols and as cakras of the human body in an anatomical chart of an anthropomorphic cosmic being; they are painted on the recto and verso of a single sheet of paper with accompanying ritual indications in Tibetan and mantra in Sanskrit. These diagrams reflect the introduction to Tibet of these Indic materials, their adaptation and translation while a brief and enigmatic historical inscription appears to indicate their transmission within the royal family of the kingdoms of Gu.ge-Pu.hrang, intriguingly naming Zhi ba ’od. The sheet of paper has been subject to radio-carbon analysis yielding a firm date of 11th century; this early date appears to be corroborated by the style of the painting which relates to early schools of Kashmiri style art in western Tibet and by archaic orthography present in the inscriptions. 1 Pal, Pratapaditya. The Arts of Kashmir, Asia Society and 5 Continents Editions, New York and Milano, 2007, 105-106, illustrated as figure 116, “Cosmic Vajravarahi Dakini, eleventh century, paper, painting on both sides, 80 x 30 cm. Mr and Mrs. Chino Roncoroni.” The diagram of the anthropomorphic deity has the facial characteristics typical of the Kashmiri school of art in Tibet, with broad almond-shaped eyes, tiny nose, a “rose-bud” mouth, while the knees are rendered in a particular stiff mode, the knee-cap perfectly spherical.
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These factors indicate that the drawings and their ritual instructions were co-eval with the vast program of translation and diffusion of Indian tantric texts, Buddhist and Hindu, in the Land of Snows.
I. Physical Description The page measures 80 x 30 cm. It is a light beige color, with slight striations. It is evenly cut but at present there are small tears along the edges; the thickness varies slightly. The plant composition of the paper has not been subject to analysis but the color and consistency of the paper conform to Tibetan and Himalayan paper made of the white inner bark, the bast, of the shrub daphne.2 The color and surface texture of the paper resemble leaves of manuscripts collected at the Tholing monastery by Giuseppe Tucci, now conserved in the Tucci archives of IsIAO library, Roma and the Los Angeles County Museum: thick, and semi-smooth, to slightly coarse, glazed.3 The inscriptions at the center of the cakra are written in dbu can, the ritual inscriptions surrounding the cakra diagrams are written in dbu med as is the historical inscription. Frequently, there is the superabundant a chung (bde’ ba chen po’i tsa kra); gi gu log is infrequent, there is no instance of da drag. The punctuation is somewhat erratic: around the diagrams, there is total absence of punctuation at the beginning of phrases; at the end of phrases, there is either no indication (i.e. omission of shad) or single shad or double shad. There is no page number or any binding holes traced on the sheet to indicate that it formerly was part of a manuscript; it is therefore understood to be conceived as an independent leaf, however, there is no indication which side of the sheet is to be read first.
II. The diagrams The term cakra is the Sanskrit word for “wheel, circle, or disc”; by extension, in Indian vedic medical systems, cakra has the specific meaning of the psycho-physiological energy centers conceived as vortices which facilitate the circulation of the winds and energies within the body organized into a coherent system by Patanjali in the Yogasutra.4 One side of this paper 2 Imaeda, Yoshiro. “Papermaking in Bhutan”, Acta Orient. Hung. XLIII(2-3), 409-414 (1989). 3 Harrison, Paul. “Notes on some West Tibetan manuscript folios in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art” in B. Kellner et al. (eds) Pramāakīrti. Papers dedicated to Ernst Steinkellner of the occasion of his 70th birthday. WSTB, vol. 70.1. Arbeitskreis fur Tibetische und Buddhistische Studien, Vienna, 2007: 229-245. 4 Meyer, Fernand. Gso ba rig pa, le système medical tibétain, Editions du CNRS, Paris, 1981, 61 passim.
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presents a drawing with eleven geometric shapes and symbols; at the centre of each, there is a mantra syllable. These shapes and mantra are specifically related to the cosmos in the Abhidharmic universe5 which is extrapolated in microcosm as the cakra system within the human body illustrated on the diagram of anthropormorphic shape drawn on the other side of this paper (see below). The main correlations of shapes of the component elements of the universe are indicated from top to bottom: 1) a white circle, center syllables: a li ( the heavens : the moon disc) 2) a red circle, center syllables: ka li (the heavens: the sun disc)6 3) a black vajra, center syllable: bam (the summit of the vajra palace) 4) a black viśva-vajra, hum inscribed at the extremity of the 4 points (the base of the vajra palace) 5) a yellow circle surrounded by 8 red petals, bam at center 6) 7 concentric circles in blue, black and white; at the center, five staves emerge from the rings; underneath the circles, the syllable sum (Mount Sumeru) 7) 4 successive squares, outlines in red, white, green, and yellow; center syllable: lam (the earth element) 8) 2 concentric circles, a red circle surrounding a white circle; center syllable: bam (the water element) 9) a red triangle, with flames at edges; center syllable: ram (the fire element) 10) a blue bow with red ribbon streamers, above, the syllable yam (the wind element) 11) a red triangle with the letter a clearly visible at center, the vowel greng bu is slightly effaced but legible, yielding the syllable E; at the apex of the triangle, a white circle with the syllable bam at center, surrounded by a red outline with 4 red petals at the cardinal points and 4 blue petals at the intermediary points (emptiness, the air element). At present, this series of identifications is primarily based on the work of Elizabeth English who studied similar diagrams in the context of 5 English, Elizabeth. Vajrayogini Her visualizations, rituals and forms. Wisdom Publications, Boston, 2002: 144 -151. I thank Dan Martin for this reference. 6 Ibid, p.152. The two discs represent the polarity of male and female, the white representing semen and the red blood; further English notes that at certain stages in the meditations “ the sun disc and moon disc should be seen to mingle, ….a simulacrum of sexual union…giv(ing) rise to great bliss.”
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Vajrayogini meditations.7 While it has not yet been possible to correlate this series of the syllables and all shapes with a specific text, whether Vajrayogini or Kalachakra, it is nonetheless certain that this series of shapes corresponds to a representation of the cosmos as found also on Hindu examples of the Mahapuruśa, the “Great Being” of ancient India.8 On the opposite side of the paper, it is the diagram of the human body with inscriptions describing the ritual function of the cakra and drawings of the cakra. While the cakra correspond to those of the human body, the presence of a head of a boar emerging from the human head is an immediate clue to the identification of this figure as a form of Vajravarahi, who is herself an aspect of Vajrayogini. This identification is corroborated by the presence of the name Buddhaākini in some of the mantra on the chart, as Buddhaākini is yet another name of Vajrayogini. In this diagram, the inscriptions near the circles on the drawing of the human body describe five cakra positions and provide the name of the body part associated with each cakra. The genital cakra is not shown as a disc but instead is represented by a triangle shape, on which the letter E is clearly legible. This corresponds to the base level of the cosmos in the preceding diagram, the “air” element or the “emptiness” from which all arises. The hip cakra is represented by the bow which is the “wind” element, the syllable yam is visible in between the red bowstring and the limb of the bow. Above this is the circle for the next cakra which has a yellow snake in-between two long red and white curving elements, these are respectively the main veins, white for male energy (semen) and red for female energy (blood). The two veins and the snake are positioned on a triangle which is partially covering a red swastika. Careful observation by Dan Martin reveals that the snake’s mouth is clamping the main veins, which is an element of Hindu tantra, hitherto not documented for Buddhist tantra9. The mantra along the sides of the triangle are individual syllables, not totally legible but along the outer edge of the circle on can read Om Om Om Sarva Buddha dakini Ye 7 Ibid, see diagrams on p. 145 and p. 151. For similar symbolic representations of the universe see Martin Brauen’s discussions on the analogy between the person and the cosmos in relation to Kalachakra (Brauen, Martin. Mandala, Sacred Circle in Tibetan Buddhism, Rubin Museum of Art, New York, 2009, p. 155 passim). 8 See Hindu representations of the Mahapuruśa from India illustrated by Rawson, Philip. The Art of Tantra, Thames and Hudson, London, 1973, figs. 134-136; a Mahapuruśa from Nepal illustrated in Müller-Ebeling, Claudia, Rätsch, Christian, Shahi, Surendra Bahadur. Shamanism and Tantra in the Himalayas, Inner Traditions, Rochester, 2002: 115-117. 9 Dan Martin, personal communication, January 2005.
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Bazdraā pani ye bee ro tsa ni ye hum hum phat phat phat sva ha, a mantra which, upon reconstruction, refer to Vajrayogini, Vajrapani, and Vairocana. At left the inscription reads: phyi g.yu ru ’khyil pa’i ca kra, the “cakra of the whirling turquoise (exoteric)”, and at right the inscription reads lte (?lto) ba ye shes kyi ’khor lo, “the circle of wisdom of the belly” or “circle of wisdom of the navel”. The implication here is that there has been, to borrow the expression of Robert Meyer, not only transmission and translation of Indian texts in Tibet, but a “ Tibetan reformulation of Indic materials” whereby certain Hindu elements were incorporated with the Buddhist tantric ritual.10 Henceforth, in this diagram, rather than give names for each cakra as in an anatomical system, the cakra are associated with different ritual phases. Beside the right elbow, which is raised so that the right hand appears to hold the cakra over the heart, the inscription reads phyi gtor ma’i ca kra, the cakra of the exoteric gtor ma offering. To the right of the heart cakra, snying ga chos kyi ca kra , “the cakra of Dharma, the heart”. In the center of the heart cakra there are two red inversed triangles and the syllable hri at center. There are eight petals surrounding the heart cakra, and on each red petal, a letter may be seen: shri, hum, da, rdo (?); among the syllables of the heart cakra mantra, a ki li ki la ya (the mantra to Vajrakila) but at present not all is may be discerned. At the throat cakra, there is the red triangle where at present only a few mantra syllables can be read, among which Om Buddha dakini ye svaha ….Bee ro tsa na hum hum phat phat svaha. To the left of the neck, phyi mchod pa’i ca kra, “the cakra of the exoteric offering”. To the right of the neck, the inscription reads, me long yees (> ye shes) dpung gi ca kra, “the cakra of the arm, mirror-like wisdom” which appears to refer to the disc (i.e. the mirror) held in the right hand, adorned by the emblem of the red swastika. 11 Above the boar’s head, the inscription refers to the mantra syllables grouped in the square above the deity’s head, phyi yi gi btu’ ba’i ca kra, “the cakra of the assembly of letters of the exoteric ritual”. It is to be noted that there are 49 squares, 7 x 7 in the diagram. This is the mantroddhara (sngags btu-bu) as defined by Robert Mayer, wherein, following the standard Indic convention, the mantras are reduced to a simple code which preserves precisely the mantra and at the same time 10 Mayer, Robert. A Scripture of the Ancient Tantra Collection. The Phur-pa bcu-gnyis. Kiscadale publications, Oxford, 1996, p. 135. I thank Dan Martin for this reference. 11 See Orofino, Giacomella. “ Divination with Mirrors. Observations on a simile found in the Kalachakra Literature” in P. Kvaerne (ed) Tibetan Studies, The Institute for Comparative Research on Human Culture, Oslo, 1994: vol.2: 612-628.
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conceals it.12 On the other side of the square of letters, the inscription reads bde’ ba chen po’i ca kra, “ cakra of great joy”. This is may be an allusion to the Sukhavati paradise of Amitabha Buddha called Land of Joy, bde ba can, in Tibetan, or, in the words of Elizabeth English, “ to the sexual soteriology of the higher and highest tantras where emptiness is described experientially as the ecstatic, all consuming great bliss, the tantric metaphor for which is orgasm.”13 However, in the opinion of Ven. Tsenshab Rinpoche, the 49 squares of letters in combination with the expression bde ba can evoke the 49 days of the bardo period, which implies possibly a post-mortem ritual. To thoroughly understand this diagram, in the future, it would be essential to have definitive readings of all the mantra and correlate with specific texts, which is beyond the scope of the present study. Yet, already the imbrication of Hindu and Buddhist elements is salient and warrants attention by scholars familiar with both. The historical inscription is on the page with the diagrams of shapes. Along the left edge of the paper, at left, the one line inscription (inscription 1a) reads: rgya’ (rgyal?) slong dgan pas pro mo spyad pa’i bleng bzhis brgyud ’pa’ lus rgyus. At right (inscription 1b): (line 1) lus gnas yin ’gos rgyus pa’i ’bye zhi ni shud pu zhi ba ’od gi bu shud pu ser skya ma de de bzhin (line 2) bshegs pa ’od srungs gi drung du mdo sde sde snod ma lus slabs nas rgya kar shar nub na pra dang tshad ma (line 3) nga bas ’khas na med/ shud bu zhi ba ’od tshe’i dus byas ’chi yang bu khyod ’gra’ (’grab?) yod pas lta In this transcription of the inscription, there are elements of historic significance due to the name Zhi ba ’od, which immediately recalls the name of the prince of Guge Pho brang Zhi ba ’od who was a monk and translator. The interpretations proposed here below remain tentative, to be re-assessed in the light of future research. These diagrams and inscriptions have been discussed with Ven. Tsenshab Rinpoche, a dge lugs pa specialist in ritual born in 1935, and Anne-Marie Blondeau, whose studies of rituals as well as previous studies in Tibetan hippiatric medicine and Tibetan medical terminology render her advice most precious, as well as Dan Martin.14 The 12 Mayer. op.cit. p. 136-139. See the triangular configuration for the mantroddhara for Vajrayogini in English, op.cit, p. 54 and the explanation of the organization of the alphabet on p.152. 13 English. op. cit, p. 149. 14 Blondeau, Anne-Marie, Dakpa, Ngwang, Meyer, Fernand (eds) Dictionnaire thématique français-tibétain du tibétain parlé langue standard. Volume 1, L’homme, anatomie, fonctions motrices et viscérales, l’Harmattan, Paris, 2002; Anne-Marie Blondeau (ed. and tr.): Matériaux pour l’etude de l’hippologie et de l’hippiatrie tibétaines (à partir des manuscrits de Touen-houang). Librairie Droz, Geneva, 1972.
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term which precedes Zhi ba ’od is Shud pu or Shud bu. This is known as a name of an ancient Tibetan clan in central Tibet as of the 8th century, among which were some of the 25 disciples of Padmasambhava15. This clan is well known in ancient Tibetan historical accounts. However, it has not been previously recorded that Zhi ba ’od and the Guge royal family were in matrimonial alliance with this clan. Although possibly the term may be used here literally, it does not seem likely. Shud pa, literally, means to “copy a text”. Shud bu might, by extension, be a diminutive expression to refer to a person who copies religious texts. This could certainly apply to Zhi ba ’od in the sense of his personal religious studies and functions as royal monk in Guge during the 11th century. But it is far more likely that Shud bu/pu is a clan name here. As far as I have been able to determine, the monastic name Zhi ba ’od was exclusively used by the royal monk of Guge after his ordination. But his title pho brang is not present here, nor any other titles which he used, such as bod kyi dpal lha btsan po or dge slong bla ma, shakya dge slong lha bla ma, bod kyi rgyal po pho brang Zhi ba ’od, which are titles used to refer to him in texts he translated.16 The expression in the first line rgya’ (rgyal?) slong dgan pa, here understood to mean “aged royal monk,” would seem to refer to the person who is talking in the following three lines, who is named Zhi ba ’od. However, the paternal clan (rus) of the royal monk Zhi ba ’od is lha, i.e. of divine descent, not Shud bu. This raises problems as to the identification of the person Zhi ba ’od in this inscription. To summarize the inscription, the proposed interpretation is that at left, there is the explanation that this is the account or the diagram made by the aged royal monk and in the right inscription, there is the explanation of what is the content of this account or diagram, discussed as a preparation for rituals to be made following an imminent death of an aged person named Shud bu Zhi ba ’od. 15 Ven. Tsenshab Rinpoche is of the Shud khud family of rTa nag, gTsang, ( see Carnahan, Sumner and Lama Kunga Rinpoche, In the Presence of my Enemies, Memoirs of Tibetan Nobleman Tsipon Shuguba, Clear Light Publishers, Santa Fe, 1995). I thank Roberto Vitali for the information that Shud phu is the family line of Lho brag mkhan chen Nam mkha’ Sen ge, active in Lho brag in 12th century. His lineage continued at the Thig phyi monastery in Lho brag (see www.tbrc.org). Shud is also a clan name listed among the donors in the Praj–aparamita volumes of gNas gsar dgon pa, Byi cher village, Dolpo: N. 108, N. 171, N. 188, Shud kye clan in N. 239, N.306, N. 314, N. 354. (see A. Heller, Hidden Treasures of the Himalayas, Tibetan manuscripts, paintings and sculptures of Dolpo, Serindia Publications, Chicago, 2009: CD of prefaces) 16 See Samten Karmay, “An Open Letter by Pho-brang Zhi ba ’od”, The Tibet Journal, 1980, vol 3: 1-28.
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In the left inscription, the transcription of the first line is as follows: rgya (rgyal?) slong dgan pas pro mo spyad pa’i bleng bzhis brgyud ’pa’ lus rgyus. Rinpoche suggested the interpretation and rectification of transcription as follows: rgyal slong rgan pas pra mo spyad pa’i byung bzhis bskus pa’i lus rgyus: “the body clues (marks/signs) painted (to indicate) the basis of the mirror divination practice, made/written(?) by the aged royal monk” Mme. Blondeau agreed rgyal slong rgan pas was a probable reading for the initial section, the aged royal monk. However, she suggested different interpretations of the rest, reading lus rgyus as tendons/or nerves of the body, bleng bzhis> gleng bzhis, account: possibly sro mo (heat) instead of pro mo, spyad pa > dpyad ma, thus> sro mo dpyad pa, which would give “Tendons/ or nerves of the body, account of the examination of heat, made by the aged royal monk.” The interpretation and rectified transliteration of the three line inscription at right is as follows: Lus gnas (gnad) yin ’gos rgyus pa’i >bskyus pa’i ’bye zhi > byung bzhis ni shud bu zhi ba ’od gi bu shud bu ser skya ma de/ de bzhin bshegs (>gshegs) pa ’od srungs gi drung du mdo sde sde snod ma lus slabs byas rgya kar >gar shar nub na pra dang tshad ma nga bas ’khas (>mkhas) na med/ shud bu zhi ba ’od tshe’i dus byas/ ’chi yang bu khyod ’gra’ (’grab?) yod pas lta The person speaking is Zhi ba ’od, talking to his son, “Concerning the basis of the painted (diagram), understand that it is the essential points of the body. You Shud bu ser skya ma, son of Shud pu Zhi ba ’od, because I am close to dying 17, look (at this diagram)! Having spent my life (as) Shud bu Zhi ba ’od, (now) I also die. I studied all the sutra and piaka in front of the (teacher who is like) Buddha Kāśyapa, in all of India east and west there is none more knowledgeable than me in mirror divination and logic” (pra dang tshad> pra mo and tshad ma). The implication is that this person Zhi ba ’od is telling his son to look at the diagram to prepare for post-mortem rituals for himself as he is nearing the end of his life, having accomplished vast studies in religious topics. Is this indeed the scion of the kingdom of Guge? The royal monk Zhi ba ’od (1016-1111) was ordained as a monk in 1056 at age 4118, thus he could have 17 ’gra’ yod pa is possibly to be read ’grab for grabs “to be close, to be near”. grabs yod pa is given in the Tshig mdzod chen mo ( vol. 1: 396, col 1) with the example “to be close to death” (’chi grabs yod pa). I thank Mme. Blondeau for this reference. 18 Vitali, Roberto. The Kingdoms of Gu.ge Pu.hrang, Tho.ling gtsug.lag.khang lo gcig.stong ’khor.ba’i rjes dran.mdzad sgo’i go.sgrig tshogs.chung, Dharamsala, 1996: 296
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married and had children prior to his vows. The names of any spouse or offspring have not been preserved in history as far as I know.19 However, if Zhi ba ’od’s studies in religious topics - both Sanskrit language and logic - were well known and he translated many texts for many Indian paitas during their visits to Guge, there is no text on divination or cakra meditations per se attributed to his patronage or his translation as far as I have been able to determine.20 In the interpretation of Mme. Blondeau, it is possible to reconstruct less and stay closer to the actual grammar of the text, albeit correcting the spelling somewhat. For the first sentence of the second inscription she suggested, “As for the distinction of the tendons/ nerves, such as the essential points of the body (lus gnas> lus gnad)”, which might be construed to refer to the diagrams of the mandala of the body. However, for the rest, she agreed with the gist of the proposed translation of the discourse of Zhi ba ’od to his son. The question remains: is the person Zhi ba ’od in this text indeed the royal monk Zhi ba ’od? If so, these inscriptions raise questions about the teachings transmitted by Zhi ba ’od, those he translated and those he practiced. I am indebted to Dan Martin for the information that among the numerous texts he requested and translated was a text of a mandala obtained from a Kashmiri master, J–ā–aśrī (Ye shes dpal), in which some of the content relates to aspects of the charts on this page, although the text in question is not specific to Vajrayogini. 21 To conclude, these elegant diagrams are visually quite simple yet extremely sophisticated in their ritual significance. Their inscriptions raise multiple questions about the process of introduction of Indic materials, both Buddhist and Hindu, to Tibet, their transmission in Tibet and perhaps within the royal family of Guge, and how these Indic materials were adopted and eventually reformulated during the initial periods of their transmission and practice in Tibet.
19 See full list of the names of all royal family members in Vitali, ibid. p. 145. 20 See Vitali, op. cit. pp. 66-67 for Tibetan text and pp. 119-120 for translation of the text of the mNga’ ris rgyal rabs which describes Zhi ba ’od and Atisha’s collaboration on translation as well as his translations of texts on tshad ma, additional translations with other masters and his translation of tantric work as well. 21 Dan Martin, personal communication, January 2005. The text is the Toh. No 1539, Sahajamaalatryāloka (lhan cig skyes pa’I dkyil ’khor gsum gsal bar byed pa), written by the Kashmiri J–ā–aśrī at the request of Zhi ba ’od, who then translated it: lhan cig skyes pa’i dkyil ’khor gsum gsal bar byed pa zhes bya ba mkhas pa chen po dznya na shris mdzad pa rdzogs so // bod kyi rgyal po pho brang zhi ba ’od kyis gsol ba btab nas bsgyur ba’o. See also Samten Karmay, op.cit. 19-29 for the discussion of the different royal titles used by Zhi ba ’od in his translations.
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Diagram for Cakra Meditations (recto)
Two Early Tibetan Ritual Diagrams for Cakra Meditations
Diagram for Cakra Meditations (verso)
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Inscription 1b
Inscription 1a
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