5   History of the Kālachakra Tantra

According to traditional, sacred history, on the fifteenth day of the third month, a year after his enlightenment, Shākyamuni Buddha appeared at Vulture Peak in the attire of a monk, setting forth the Perfection of Wisdom Sūtra in One Hundred Thousand Stanzas, and simultaneously he appeared at Dhānyakaṭaka in South India as Kālachakra, setting forth the Kālachakra Tantra.⁵⁸ The tantra was preached inside a huge, many levelled monument (mchod rten, chaitya); the location, Dhānyakaṭaka, is identified by George Roerich as Amarāvati in the Sattenpalle Tāluka of Guṇṭūr District, Madras, South India.⁵⁹

The tantra was expounded at the request of King Suchandra,⁶⁰ an emanation of Vajrapāṇi, who thereupon compiled the tantra in its long form, said to be twelve thousand stanzas. King Suchandra was from Shambhala, which G. Tucci⁶¹ says “tradition places near the river Sītā (viz. Tarim),” East Turkestan.⁶² After hearing the tantra, the King returned to Shambhala, wrote a long exposition of it, and propagated Kālachakra Buddhism as the state religion.

The next six kings of Shambhala maintained the tradition, and the eighth king, Mañjushrīkīrti (’jam dpal grags pa) initiated so many persons (reportedly thirty-five million seers)⁶³ into the Kālachakra mandala that he, and subsequent kings, were called kulika (rigs ldan), “one who bears the lineage”. Based on the long root tantra, Kulika Mañjushrīkīrti composed a shorter tantra of five chapters, which has one thousand forty-seven stanzas.64 Named the Condensed Kālachakra Tantra (bsdus rgyud, laghutantra), it is what is currently called the Kālachakra Tantra, the longer version not being extant.

Kulika Mañjushrīkīrti was followed by Kulika Puṇḍarīka who composed the currently most famous exposition of the tantra, commonly called the Great Commentary on the “Kālachakra Tantra”, the Stainless Light (’grel chen dri med ’od, vimālaprabhā). It is still extant and most likely served as the basis for the subsequent literature.

Another eight hundred years after Kulika Puṇḍarīka, a Moslem invasion weakened the kingdom, this being in 624 A.D.⁶⁵ Nevertheless, the lineage of Kulika Kings continued such that the Indian master Chilupā⁶⁶ from Orissa travelled to Shambhala and became an expert in the tantra and in Kulika Puṇḍarīka’s Great Commentary. He returned to India in 966 A.D., and disseminated the teaching, bringing it to prominence there. The author of The Blue Annals, the Translator from Gö, Shön-nu-el (’gos lo tsā ba bzhon nu dpal, 1392-1481) argues cogently that the Kālachakra Tantra had reappeared in India long before that time, since, among other reasons, Chilupā:⁶⁷

           . . . had read (it) in the vihāra of Ratnagiri (Rinčhen ri-bo) which had been left undamaged by the Turuṣkhas, and was of the opinion that, in general, for the (attainment) of Enlightenment the Mahāyāna Guhyamantra (gsaṅ-sṅags) was necessary, and that the text had to be studied with the help of the commentary by the Bodhisattvas. Accordingly he proceeded in search of the Kālacakra (so the Kālacakra must have been in existence at that time). Thus it has to be admitted that the system of Kālacakra seems to have reached Āryadeśa [India] at an early date and that (the system) became known to many people in the time of Kālacakrapāda, father and son.

It is likely that Kālachakrapāda the greater (“Kālacakrapāda, father” in the above reference) is Chilupā himself.68 Helmut Hoffman reports that Chilupā defeated in debate “Pandit Nādapāda, called Nā-ro-pa by the Tibetans” who was then abbot of Nālandā, “which was, together with Vikramashīlā, the most important centre of Buddhism in those days.”⁶⁹ Chilupā initiated Nāḍapāda, who became known as the Lesser Kālachakrapāda.⁷⁰ Hoffman concludes:⁷¹

           It would seem that the whole further tradition of Kālacakra derived from these two, not only in India but also in Tibet.

Nāḍapāda, in turn, initiated Atīsha into the Kālachakra system, and among Atīsha’s students was the famous Kālachakra master Pi-to-pa, also called Pindo Āchārya.⁷²

In the histories, there is agreement that the Kālachakra Tantra came to be widely known in India from 966 A.D. with Chilupā’s return and “became effective in India under King Mahīpāla of Bengal (c.974-1026.)”⁷³

That even according to the traditional, sacred history the Kālachakra Tantra was absent in India for such a long period of time has led to the suspicion that it was written in a Central Asian country. Lokesh Chandra says:⁷⁴

           The Kālacakra is one of the last Sanskrit works to have been written in a Central Asian land whence it is said to have travelled into India.

With Chilupā’s efforts, the system was developed in India,⁷⁵ spawning numerous compositions on various aspects of the tantra; beyond Kulika Puṇḍarīka’s Great Commentary, Lokesh Chandra lists forty-seven works by twenty-two authors (including six anonymous works).⁷⁶ Sixty years after Chilupā’s return, the Kālachakra Tantra was introduced into Tibet, this being in 1026,⁷⁷ and quickly gave rise to a flourishing tradition.

The first translation was by Gyi-jo, who studied under Bhadrabodhi, a pupil of Chilupā,⁷⁸ but “he had only four pupils, and even they did not maintain the tradition after him.”⁷⁹ A student of Nāḍapāda, the Kashmiri Somanātha, went to Tibet and, after Ye-hay-chok (ye shes mchog) of yö (gnyos) did not live up to a promise to present him with one hundred ounces of gold, travelled to a region just north of Hla-a, called Pen-o (’phan po) where with the Translator of Dro, Shay-rap-drak (’bro lo tsā ba shes rab grags) he completed a translation of Kulika Puṇḍarīka’s Great Commentary on the “Kālachakra Tantra”, the Stainless Light, and a transmission known as the school of Dro was begun.

The other important tradition was the school of the Translator of Ra, Dor-jay-drak-a (rva lo tsā ba rdo rje grags pa) who studied the Kālachakra Tantra for almost six years in Kashmir with Samantashrī, another former student of Nādapāda. He persuaded his teacher to return with him to Tibet, three hundred ounces of gold being the offering, and the Ra school thereupon became particularly important in the a-ya order of Tibetan Buddhism. Through a-ya Paṇḍiṭa (1182-1251) and then Pak-a (’phags pa) the Ra tradition came to have important influence in the period of heavy Mongolian involvement in Tibet. Bu-ön Rin-chen-drup (bu ston rin chen grub, 1290-1364) and Dol-a-a hay-rap-gyel-tsen (dol pa pa shes rab rgyal mtshan, 1292-1361) of the a-ya order who are called “the two great expounders of the Kālachakra in the Land of Snows”,80 received teachings from transmissions stemming from both the Translator Ra and the Translator Dro.

Bu-ön Rin-chen-drup, in particular, wrote prolifically on the Kālachakra Tantra; the first five volumes of his Collected Works are devoted solely to these expositions, ranging from an annotated version of the tantra called Easily Understandable Annotations For the Condensed Glorious Kālachakra Tantra, Great King of Tantras Arisen from the Supreme Original Buddha (mchog gi dang po’i sangs rgyas las phyungs ba rgyud kyi rgyal po chen po dpal dus kyi ’khor lo’i bsdus pa’i rgyud kyi go sla’i mchan), to Annotations to (Kulika Puṇḍarīka’s) “Stainless Light” (dri med ’od kyi mchan), to numerous texts on topics ranging from the six-branched yoga to astrology to initiation, and so forth.⁸¹

Bu-ön’s disciple, Chö-yi-el (chos kyi dpal), conferred the Kālachakra initiation on zong-ka-a (tsong kha pa, 1357-1419), the founder of the Ge-luk-a order of Tibetan Buddhism, who himself wrote several short works on aspects of the tantra.82 zong-ka-a’s disciple, Kay-drup-ge-lek-el-sang (mkhas grub dge legs dpal bzang, 1385-1438) composed a gigantic work of four volumes in commentary on the Condensed Kālachakra Tantra and Kulika Puṇḍarīka’s Stainless Light, some of it attributed to his students but included in his Collected Works. Kay-drup also composed shorter works on many aspects of the tantra⁸³ among which is the mandala ritual translated in this book, the Mandala Rite of the Glorious Kālachakra: Illumination of the Thought (dpal dus kyi ’khor lo’i dkyil chog dgongs pa rab gsal).

zong-ka-a’s other main disciple, Gyel-tsap-dar-ma-rin-chen (rgyal tshab dar ma rin chen, 1364-1432) wrote a highly cogent and readable exposition of the stage of generation and stage of completion called How To Practice the Two Stages of the Path of the Glorious Kālachakra: Quick Entry to the Path of Great Bliss (dpal dus kyi ’khor lo’i lam rim pa gnyis ji ltar nyams su len pa’i tshul bde ba chen po’i lam du myur du ’jug pa).⁸⁴ The First Paṇchen Lama, o-sang-chö-yi-gyel-tsen (blo bzang chos kyi rgyal mtshan, 1567?-1662) wrote a condensation (one hundred eighty-four folios) of Kay-drup’s huge work,⁸⁵ and many Ge-luk-a lamas have written on various aspects of the tantra.

Thus, in the Ge-luk-a order the Kālachakra Tantra has received considerable attention despite its not being their central tantra. In the Ge-luk-a order, the focal Highest Yoga Tantra is the Guhyasamāja Tantra, the tantric colleges of upper and lower Hla-a having as their foremost purpose its exposition and practice. In Ge-luk-a, Highest Yoga Tantra is studied mainly in the context of the Guhyasamāja system, which is considered the “general system” of Highest Yoga Tantra through which most other tantras of that class are understood. The Kālachakra Tantra is an exception, as it presents a somewhat parallel but interestingly different system for transforming mind and body into purity.

With respect to other Tibetan works on Kālachakra, the a-ya author, the Translator ak-tsang-hay-rap-rin-chen (stag tshang lo tsā ba shes rab rin chen, born 1405) wrote a famous commentary on the Kālachakra Tantra called The General Meaning of Kālachakra: Ocean of the Teaching (dus ’khor spyi don bstan pa’i rgya mtsho), and the later eighteenth and early nineteenth ying-ma scholar Mi-pam-gya-tso (mi pham rgya mtsho, 1846-1912) wrote a two volume work, including an edition of the tantra itself and a commentary on the entire text called Clarifying the Meaning of the Words of the Glorious Kālachakra Tantra, Illumination of the Vajra Sun (dpal dus kyi ’khor lo’i rgyud kyi tshig don rab tu gsal byed rdo rje nyi ma’i snang ba). A select bibliography of a hundred works on the Kālachakra is offered by A-ku Shay-rap-gya-tso (a khu shes rab rgya mtsho, 1803-1875).86

This huge number of indigenous Tibetan works indicates the importance that the Kālachakra Tantra assumed in Tibet and its cultural region, which includes the Himalayan regions of Nepal, Sikkim, and Bhutan as well as the Mongolian areas – Outer Mongolia, Inner Mongolia, the Kalmuck lands, and areas of Siberia. Aside from these areas, however, it appears not to have spread to China, Korea, Japan, or Southeast Asia, and thus the only practitioners today with a full transmission of initiation are in the Tibetan cultural region. Within that, due to Communist takeovers, the only lamas giving initiation are among the Tibetan refugees or in Bhutan and Sikkim.

The tantra has become particularly associated with the Dalai Lamas, some of whom have given the initiation to huge masses of people. The present Dalai Lama has given the initiation eleven times in large public gatherings. For many Tibetans, receiving the Kālachakra initiation from the Dalai Lama or another lama is a major event in their lives. The present Dalai Lama gave the Kālachakra initiation twice in Tibet at his summer palace, the Nor-bu-ling-a, in 1954 and 1956, each time to approximately one hundred thousand persons. He has given it seven times in India – at Thekchen Choeling, Dharamsala, in 1970 to thirty thousand; in Bylakuppe, Karnataka State, in 1971 to ten thousand; in Bodh Gaya, Bihar State, in 1974 to one hundred thousand; in Leh, Ladakh, in 1976 to forty thousand; in Derang, Bomdila, Arunachal Pradesh, in 1983 to ten thousand; and again in Bodh Gaya, Bihar State, in 1985 to two hundred thousand persons. The Dalai Lama also gave the Kālachakra initiation twice in the West, near Madison, Wisconsin, in 1981 to fifteen hundred persons; and in Rikon, Switzerland in 1985 to three thousand. The commentary that accompanies the translation of the initiation ritual in this work is largely taken from the event in Madison. It indispensably serves to bring the initiation to life so that the audience can visualize, feel, and reflect on the principles of the process.

SHAMBHALA IN THE FUTURE

The current, twenty-first, kulika is said to have ascended to the throne in 1927, and the reign of the twenty-fifth and last Kulika, called “Rudra With A Wheel”, will begin in 2327 – the reign of each Kulika being one hundred years.87 In the ninety-eighth year of his rule, the year 2425, which according to the Kālachakra calendar is 3304 years after Shākyamuni Buddha’s passing away, a great war will be waged from Shambhala during which the barbarians will be defeated.⁸⁸ After that, Buddhism will again flourish for eighteen hundred years; thus, in the 5104th year after Shākyamuni Buddha’s passing away the period of his teaching will finish, the length of time being 104 years longer than in the Sūtra system.

Although Chilupā travelled to Shambhala, it is sometimes described as like a pure land, a place beyond the reach of ordinary travel, a land that appears only to those of great merit. Through making prayer-wishes persons can be reborn in Shambhala whereby they can enjoy the Kulikas’ continual preaching of doctrine. Also, initiation is said to establish predispositions for rebirth in Shambhala not only for the sake of maintaining practice of the Kālachakra system but also for being under the care and protection of the Kulika Rudra With A Wheel when the great war comes. Thus, Shambhala is a beacon of hope in a world of tragedy for many Tibetans, Mongolians, Bhutanese, Sikkimese, Nepalese, and Ladakhis.