The materials in this chapter are concerned with the local history of Tibetan kingdoms—tracing ancient lineages, glorifying rulers for living up to the religious and civil ideals of Tibetan society (which occasionally included putting down rebellions against high taxes and attacking neighbors), protecting the resources of local rulers—as well as the history of Buddhism in India. These historical texts were written during or after the end of over a century of Mongol occupation of Tibet (1240–1340s) and show the influence that this integration into the Mongol empire had on Tibet. Moreover, because the authority of many of these writers and the institutions they represented had flowed initially from the Mongols, their prestige lingered on even after the Mongols were driven from Tibet and China. The Mongol edicts so carefully preserved into the twentieth century offer incredible detail as to the workings of the local economy (and how the government extracted resources from such activity), allowing us to gain a sense of the rights and responsibilities of monasteries under Mongol rule.
The ruling families put into place by the Mongols got involved in history writing partly because this was a period of struggle for control of Central Tibet. These texts, which asserted past claims on land, resources, or legitimacy, were critically important and multiplied at this time of competing claims. And those who continued to hold power after the fall of the Mongols were sure to argue for their place in history (e.g., Butön on behalf of the lord of Zhalu, his sponsor). The Indic influence on Tibetan culture did not vanish, as is clear from the first and last selections here. But Tibet was placed into a much broader context beyond Indian history and the spread of Buddhism; it entered into world history through its connection to the Mongol empire and assumed a new place in East Asian geography and politics.
For the purposes of introducing Tibetan historical writing of the postimperial period, we have passed over most of the earliest histories (c. 1175–1350), which are mainly concerned with the imperial Tibetan period discussed in
chapter 10, such as
The Clear Mirror. These early Tibetan records can be divided into religious histories (
chöjung), which describe the spread of Buddhism from India into imperial Tibet, like the earliest such text by Nyangrel (c. 1175) or the later one by Butön (1322), and more politically oriented works, such as two that have the same title,
The Royal Genealogy of Tibet (
Bö kyi gyelrap), both written by Sakya lamas, Drakpa Gyeltsen and Lama Pakpa, in the late thirteenth century.
The focus here is on the next several centuries of historical writing, which were marked by a sharp break from the ealier focus upon Indian and imperial Tibetan history. For instance, The Testament of Tai Situ Jangchup Gyeltsen (Situ kachem) of 1350, written by the Pakmodrupa ruler who took power away from the Sakya and controlled Central Tibet from the year the book was written, is exceptional in being concerned especially with contemporary affairs. Part of the dramatic shift away from earlier traditions can no doubt be credited to the 1285 translation into Tibetan of the Book of China (Gyanak debter), an annalistic history of China. This served as a new model for Tibetan history, as evidenced by Tselpa Künga Dorjé’s 1363 Red Book (Depter marpo). This first instance of a Tibetan depter (using the Persian word daftar for “book”) pays great attention to East Asian dynastic lineages. In this account, the Chinese, Minyak (Xixia), and Mongolian royal lineages interrupt the traditional Tibetan narrative, which in previous sources had proceeded directly from Indian to Tibetan royal lineages. The Tibetan royal lineage was thus narrated not directly after that of India but in a nonchronological sequence, listing the rulers of India, China, Minyak, and Mongolia before discussing Tibetan royalty of the imperial period. The selection below on the Mongol royal lineage is given as an example of this new trend.
These early local histories of Tibetan polities became an important source for narrating the continuity of power down to new rising forces (such as the Gelukpa), as we see in the New Red Annals of Paṇchen Sönam Drakpa, which summarizes major events of the period 1480 to 1530. After the coming of the Mongols and the centralization of power in the hands of a few under their rule, there was a renewed sense that Central Tibet could and should be unified. Thus, there were constant struggles from the time of Sakya dominance until the Gelukpa took control in 1642, and many of these accounts record the competitions and the assertions of authority that accompanied them. GT
This text was written in 1278 by Lama Pakpa Lodrö Gyeltsen (1235–80), who had served as the first imperial preceptor to the Mongol dynasty ruling from Beijing. The Elucidation of the Knowable was composed to edify Qubilai Khan’s second son, Prince Jingim (1243–85, Ch. Zhenjin, “true gold”), who accompanied the lama part-way back to Tibet in 1275, just after being declared the crown prince. The prince had requested the text at that time, but Pakpa was delayed in writing it by the 1277 council he organized (said to have hosted almost 100,000 attendees). The Elucidation of the Knowable is meant as a compendium to guide Buddhist laymen. It is an excellent example of the Tibetan understanding of the Abidharmic literature and its relevance for organizing a Buddhist worldview. The approach is methodical, laying out the origins of the world from its most basic elements to its highest elaborations. In the course of these explanations, a complete set of measurements of time and space is presented, the scale of which is typical of Indian thought. Humans were tainted by eating a certain kind of food and their originally long life spans became shorter and shorter. The shape of the known world is described according to an Indic model that was transferred wherever Buddhism went, as a way of explaining Buddhist conceptions. The center of the human world is thus placed in India, with other Buddhist countries such as China and Sri Lanka serving as the main geographic reference points. At a later point in the text, the listing of relevant countries reflects a more East Asian-centered worldview, including frontier kingdoms between Chinese and Tibetan realms, such as the Jang Kingdom (Nanzhao, the capital of which was in present-day Lijiang, in Yunnan province) and the Minyak Kingdom (also known as the Western Xia empire, between Kokonor and the Ordos). The narrative focus narrows from the origins of the universe and living beings down to the birth of the Buddha and all the kings who have supported his teachings. Not surprisingly, this lineage of kings culminates in the rise of Chinggis Khan and the Mongols. When Pakpa describes his patron, Qubilai Khan, he says that he had been appointed Khan and that he ruled over greater domains than any of his predecessors. Neither of these statements was exactly correct, as Qubilai had taken the leadership of the Mongols from his younger brother and ruled only the easternmost portion of what had been the unified Mongol empire. This text was translated into Chinese by one of Pakpa’s disciples and can be found in the Chinese Buddhist canon. By the late sixteenth or early seventeenth century the text was also translated into Mongolian. GT
INVOCATION
To Him, Who had clear insight into the Knowable and Who, out of loving-kindness, taught it so well to the beings, and Who is the one with the most excellent analytical understanding, to Him I pay homage and explain the Knowable.
CHAPTER 1: THE INANIMATE WORLD
The factors of existence (dharma) are collected in five [subjects], which are: the Inanimate and the Animate World, the Path and its Fruit, and the Uncomposed Factors [selections concerning the first two of which—the Inanimate and Animate World—are given here].
Now, the Four Great Elements [earth, water, fire, and wind] are the cause from which the Inanimate World is produced. When these exist and appear, it comes into being.
Earth is what is hard; water is what is liquid; fire is what is hot; wind is what moves.
The very finest part of these is the particle; it does not have parts because it cannot be broken down. Seven of these form an atom; seven of them an iron atom; seven of them a water atom; seven of them a hare atom; seven of them a sheep atom; seven of them a bullock atom; seven of them a sun ray; seven of them are the size of a louse egg; seven of these the size of a louse; seven of these the size of a barleycorn; from the combination of these the Inanimate World as well as the body are produced.
Seven grains of barley are the size of one inch; 24 inches are one full fathom; 500 fathoms are “calling distance” (
krośa); eight of them are one mile (
yojana).
1 This [calculation] fits the measures of the world and of bodies.
The Condition by Which the World Sphere Comes Into Being
It comes about from the power which the sentient beings who come to birth there have accumulated in accordance with their deeds (karman).
The condition by which it is produced: In the sphere of empty space the Circle of the Wind, called the Soft One, becomes firm and motionless, as it is moved by winds from the ten directions which push one another; it is light blue in color and very hard, 6,000,000,000 miles high and immeasurable in extent. On top of that the Ocean below appears, from a great stream of water which is descended from a cloud called Hiraṇyagarbha (“the golden matrix”). Having the Essence of Gold which has risen from the wind-stirred heat, and which is supported by the wind …
The Circle of the Wind is the Ground of the World of Suffering, our world sphere; the Circles of Earth and Water form the Ground of each of the Four Continents.
On top of this, in the same manner as before, since a stream of rain [that] has flowed down and which has become the Great Ocean is stirred by the wind, Mount Sumeru arises, from the most condensed element; from the middle [kinds of condensed element] the Seven Golden Mountains arise, from the least condensed kinds the Iron Wall [arises], and from various condensed kinds the continents [arise]. Now, the material of Mount Sumeru is made of pure silver in the East, lapis lazuli in the South, ruby in the West, and pure gold in the North.
The other seven mountains are gold only; as for the continents, they are mixtures with earth predominating; the Surrounding Wall is made of pure iron.… The eight mountains and seven oceans lie in a square. On its outside is the Salt Ocean.…
The size of its perimeter is 3,600,750 miles. On its outside is the Iron Wall, which measures 3,602,625 miles. On its south side is Dzambuling [Jambudvīpa, the continent we live on, essentially our world]; it has the shape of a chariot.… Magadha [situated to the West of modern Bengal, on the right bank of the Ganges] is the Middle Country of this Dzambuling; it is the place where the Buddhas of the Three Times appear.
Then, in the North, beyond nine chains of black mountains, there are the majestic Snow Mountains (Himālaya). Beyond that, the Pökyi Neden (Gandhamādana) mountain. Between the two [mountain ranges is] Lake Madröpa (Anavatapta), abode of the nāga King Madröpa, which is square in shape; with sides of 50 miles each it is also 50 miles deep and 200 miles around, and full of water having the eight qualities.
From this lake the four great rivers descend: the Ganges comes from the East, from a rock shaped like the face of an elephant; it carries silver sand and flows with 500 tributaries to the Eastern Ocean. From the South the Indus from a rock like the face of a bull; carrying lapis lazuli sand, it flows with 500 small rivers into the Southern Ocean. From the West the Paksā (i.e., the Oxus [River in Central Asia] of antiquity); it carries crystal sand and flows with 500 small rivers into the Western Ocean. From the North the Sītā (Tarim River [in Eastern Turkestan]) descends from a rock like the face of a lion; carrying golden sand, it flows with 500 tributary streams into the Northern Ocean.…
Moreover, on the West side of this continent there is the place of the Knowledge Holders called the Great Vajra Palace of Orgyen (Oḍḍiyāṇa [i.e., the Swat Valley in northern Pakistan]); Vajrayāna for the most part came from there.
On an island in the Southern Sea is the Potala Mountain; on the top is the residence of the Lord Avalokiteśvara and at the foot the residence of the Reverend Lady Tārā.
On the Five-peaked Mountain (Wutai shan [in Shanxi, China, about 150 miles west of Beijing]) in the East is the residence of the Lord Jampel (Mañjuśrī). Further it is said that there are 16 great countries, 1,000 small ones, 360 different peoples, and 720 different languages.…
The islands Singala (Si
ṃhala = Sri Lanka), Serling (“Golden Island,” Suvar
ṇa-dv
īpa, perhaps Sumatra), Dawé ling (“Moon Island,” Candradv
īpa) and other small islands, of which there are very many on the Iron Wall near Dzambuling, belong to Dzambuling; it is exactly the same way with the other small islands of the other continents.
In space, 40,000 miles upwards from here, the Sun, Moon, Planets, etc. rest on the Circle of the Wind which is very pure, without obscuration and very firm; they move around from the right to the left and on them live the Gods who roam in space.
Now, the disc of the Sun is made from fire-crystal … it is the palace of the Sun with his retinue.
Since it is put into motion by the course of the wind, the Sun goes round the Four Continents in one whole day; when by its own motion it goes North, the days are long and then it becomes summer; when it goes South the days are short and it becomes winter. When it goes from the Southern [to the Northern] and from the Northern [to the Southern] circle, day and night are equal. In consequence of the rays of light which proceed in that way, there is the regular occurrence of the seasons, hot, cold, summer, winter, etc.
The Sun goes six months to the North and six months to the South; the dividing point is called “point in time of going back.” Going once round the circle of the planets is called one year.…
In such a way the Four Continents, Mount Sumeru, the seven mountains, the Iron Wall, the six resorts of the Gods of Desire, up to the first Absorption, are called the World Sphere of the Four Continents. A thousand of these form a so-called Small Chiliocosm; it is surrounded by a big Iron Wall. A thousand of these small chilicosms form the Second Middle Chiliocosm, also surrounded by an Iron Wall, and a thousand of these form the Third Big Chiliocosm, with a big Iron Wall around it. There are a billion Four Continent World Spheres; they are scattered here and there.
Between these walls is the Intercontinental Darkness without day or night, so that you don’t even see your outstretched hand.…
CHAPTER TWO: THE ANIMATE WORLD
Now, we come to the description of the sentient beings in the Animate World. In this there are six classes: the beings of Hell, Hungry Ghosts, animals, humanity, Titans (
asura), and Gods (
deva). The meaning of their names: the beings of Hell are the Cut-to-pieces, since their bodies are cut up; the Hungry Ghosts are those whose mind is attached to food; animals are those which walk bent down; humanity are those in whom mind predominates; Titans are those whose bodies and goods for enjoyment are for the most part like [those of] the Gods, although somewhat inferior.… The Gods are those who are born of a Brahm
ā body, since they enjoy bliss and are worthy of worship; that is the meaning of
deva.
Now the Hells lie under this Dzambuling, in an empty cave which measures 20,000 square miles; they are made of iron which is incandescent with fire; the Eight Hot Hells are in there successively.…
Now, the beings in Yangsö [Saṃjīva, “Revival,” the first of the Hot Hells] hold all sorts of sharp weapons in their hands, by the power of their former deeds. Since they have the notion that the others are enemies, they hit one another with the weapons. Having been hacked to pieces, they lie as in a faint. Then there comes a voice from space which says: “Revive!” The beings become well again and fight again with one another. As for the length of their lives: one life of the Four Great Heavenly Kings is counted as one of their days and they experience suffering up to 500 of their own years.… [The descriptions of the eight hot and eight cold hells continue in this vein in gruesome detail.]
Now the Hungry Ghosts: at a distance of 500 miles under the city of Rājagṛha (Rajgir in Bihar, India) lies Kapila, the city of the Hungry Ghosts. The chief of the Hungry Ghosts, the Dharma King Yama, lives there with 36 attendants. There are those who have the suffering of the outer obstacle, [which is] that they don’t even hear the sound of eating and drinking, and those who have the suffering of the inner obstacle, [namely] that even if they obtain some food, it doesn’t get in, since their mouths are as small as the eye of a needle; even if it gets in, it cannot pass, since their necks are as thin as [a hair from] a horse’s tail [and so forth].…
These are the beings who live in the place of the Hungry Ghosts. The length of their lives is, that one month is reckoned as one of their days, and their own years come up to 500, which makes 15,000 human years. Scattered among humans there are some Hungry Ghosts; these are reckoned as Flesh Eaters, etc., in cemeteries.
The animals live mostly in the Outer Ocean, hidden in the depths like dregs in beer; since the big beings eat the small ones, and the small ones eat the big ones, they fear one another, and since they are moved about by the waves, they are without fixed dwelling places. They exist also scattered among humans and Gods. As for the length of their lives, the longest is like that of the nāga Kings, which lasts for one medium eon; the shortest is that of flies, etc., which lasts but an instant. The size of their bodies varies.
Humans live in the four big and eight minor Continents, twelve all together, and in the islands. Their life span: the people of Dzambuling of the first eon had lives of innumerable years; thereafter [life] decreased [until] nowadays it is sixty years; afterward it will diminish gradually, until, in the future, life will be ten years long. It is not certain if it will again increase much.…
Now the Titans: in an inner cavern, at a distance of the equivalent of 11,000 miles downward under the level of the sea near Mount Sumeru, the Lord of the Titans R
āhula lives, with his retinue, in his city of Light [and so forth for the other Titans]…. The Titans come out of the cavern in Mount Sumeru because of [envy of] the Thirty-three Gods, the Titan Lady [the god Indra’s consort], and the nectar of the Gods [to attack the Gods].…
The Four Great Heavenly Kings and their host of four kinds of troops, having donned hard armor of different kinds of jewels and grasped different kinds of weapons, give battle, and mostly the Four Great Kings will be victorious. If they are also unable to hold them back, they go to the Thirty-three and say: “Please report to the Lord of the Gods that now the time has come to drive back the army of the Titans, since we, the five [Groups] of Protectors,
2 cannot do it.”
If in fights like these, Gods and Titans have their heads and waists cut off, they will die; but if their arms, legs, noses, ears, etc., are cut off, these will grow again.
Furthermore, at a time when a Buddha Bhagavat, a Solitary Buddha, or a Universal Monarch (cakravartin) appears in the world, the Titans don’t think of fighting the Gods. But if they do fight, the Gods will be victorious. If there is much meritorious action in the world, the Gods will be victorious; if there is the opposite, the Titans will gain the victory. Hence the Gods will protect those who lead a meritorious life.
Now, there are six kinds of Gods who have the Realm of Desire as their scope, seventeen kinds in the Realm of Form, and four in the Formless Realm.…
The length of their lives: one of their days is reckoned as one hundred human years, and their own years amount to one thousand; the size of their bodies: 1/8 mile.
Upward from there are the Gods who don’t fight [with the Titans].…
Upward from there are the Tuṣita (“Having Happiness”) Gods. There the Protector Maitreya (predicted by the Buddha Śākyamuni to be the next Buddha in this eon) rules over the world and the Dharma; because they have the bliss of the Mahāyāna Dharma they are called thus. Their life span: one of their days is counted as 400 human years and their own years amount to 4,000. The size of their bodies is ¼ mile.… So the Realm of Form extends from the Brahmakāyika to the Gods who are inferior to none, because they have no desire for the Realm of Desire; but they do have a desire for the Realm of Form. The Formless Realm: because there are no embodied beings, there are no “places” or body sizes, but by distinction of the mental concentrations, there are four states.… The life of the first state has a duration of 20,000 Great Eons, the others of 40,000, 60,000, 80,000 [Great] Eons.…
The shortest stretch of time is one instant; 120 of these make one second; 60 seconds one minute; 30 minutes make one hour; 30 hours make a full day. Thirty days make one month, and 12 months make one year. Now there are six kinds of eons.…
Now the origination eon begins first with the Circle of the Wind, until the time when the first being is born in the lowest hell. It has been explained that the Inanimate World originates during one Medium Eon.
After the destruction by fire of the Three-thousandfold Big Universe the sentient beings of the Animate World were born [again], from the Clear Light Gods downward. A God of that state died when his life span was exhausted and was born [by his karma] in the empty palace of Brahmā. Being all alone, he thought: “Well! Couldn’t others of the same fate as I also be born here?” And although this did not happen by the force of his thinking, afterward again [other] Clear Light Gods died because their God-life was exhausted; having been born there, those who were born in the first Brahmā Heaven thought: “These have come forth from my wish.” Hence, in this connection, the world’s great ancestor is called Brahmā, so it is said.
Then they came down successively among the [various] Gods, until they came to the Company of the Four Great Heavenly Kings; and after that successively in the Northern, Western, and Eastern Continent, and in the Southern Continent, Dzambuling.
At that time the life of the people of Dzambuling lasted for innumerable years; for food they ate the bliss of Absorption and they were miraculously born. Their bodies were luminous, they walked in the sky by miraculous power, and they were like the Gods of the Realm of Form.
At that time, there were some sentient beings whose nature desired taste and they ate [a heavenly food called] Earth-essence which was white in color and which tasted like honey; they also told others, and [these] other sentient beings ate it also.
Then the luminosity of their bodies disappeared totally because they had partaken of food, and from the general karma of the beings Sun and Moon were formed which have the task of shining in the Four Continents.
Then, when the Earth-essence had vanished, there appeared something called Earth-fat, yellowish-red in color and tasting like honey, which the people ate. When that also was finished, they ate wild creepers which had appeared. When those were also gone, there appeared wild rice which had not been sown, and humans ate that.
Now, because the food was coarse, the impurities were secreted, for which organs formed.
And when the beings ate wild unsown rice, which they too ate when they wanted it, some lazy ones took the portion which was [meant] for the next day then and there, and hoarded it, and since others did the same, the wild rice was also finished.
Then they took up agriculture. Fields which had been sown by one were harvested by another, so they quarreled in disharmony. At that time, they appointed an honest man as overseer of the fields; because he was honored by many people he became known as King Mah
āsa
ṃmata [the “Greatly Acclaimed”]. In his lineage there have been many dynasties…. [Lists them down through 129,000 kings followed by:] Then the 15,000 Magadha Kings, then the lineage of the 10,000 Tamaliptaka Kings; their last son was Gautama, and his son was called Ik
ṣv
āku.
In the lineage of his last son the 1,000 kings of the Āikṣvāka Dynasty appeared.… They are known as the Śākya family. The sons of King Śuddhodana were Our Lord (Śākyamuni, “Sage of the Śākya”), also called Gautama, and his reverend brother Nanda.… These are the kings of the Śākya family. Kings who have issued from other families and who were pious have also performed what was to be done for the Teaching.
One hundred years after the Nirvana of the Tathāgata [the Buddha] the Dharma-King Aśoka appeared in the Middle Country [India]; he was the ruler over the greater part of Jambudvīpa. Under his patronage the Middle Buddhist Council was held and propagated the Teaching of the Sugata [the Buddha].
Two hundred years later King Kaṇiṣka appeared in the Northwest of Dzambuling, and he was the patron of the Third Council who spread the Buddha’s Teachings widely. On the other hand, those among the rulers of India, Kashmir, Khotan, Kucha [in the Tarim Basin], Nepal, China, Jang [Nanzhao], Minyak [the Xixia dynasty], etc., who were pious kings promoted the Teaching, each in his own country.
A thousand years after the Buddha, the first of the Tibetan Kings, Nyatri Tsenpo, appeared in the country of Tibet.
3 After the passing of twenty-six generations came King Lha Totori Nyentsen. That is the time of the beginning of the Teachings in Tibet.
The Vimaladattadārikāvyākaraṇasūtra says: “Twenty-five hundred years after my Parinirvāṇa my Teachings will come to the country of the Redfaces.” This is as it is taught.
Five generations of Kings afterward, King Songtsen Gampo appeared. At that time Paṇḍita Ānanda and Translator Tönmi Sambhota translated texts [from Sanskrit] into Tibetan. In Lhasa and other places monastic institutions were built, and the practice of the Holy Dharma was introduced.
In the fifth generation after him King Tri Songdetsen appeared. He invited
Āc
ārya
Śāntarak
ṣita, Padmasambhava, Kamala
śīla, and other Pa
ṇḍitas and heroic Siddhas. Vairocanarak
ṣita, Khön Lüi Wangpo Sungwa [an ancestor of Pakpa], and others of the group of Seven Tested Men [the first Tibetans to be ordained] who were translators translated a great many texts and caused the custom of the Three Vows [H
īnay
āna, Mah
āy
āna, Vajray
āna] to spread.
Then, after the passing of three generations, came King Relpachen. He ruled over a very great kingdom. Jinamitra, Śīlendrabodhi, and other Paṇḍitas and Translators like Kawa Peltsek and Chokro Lü Gyeltsen revised their earlier translated texts and verified them. The ones which had not been translated were translated in a thorough fashion, and they spread the Teaching very extensively.
Thereafter there was no overlord over the whole of Tibet, but petty kings and dynasties which there are now also. Because many Paṇḍitas, Translators, and Spiritual Friends appeared, the Teaching of the Sugata is nowadays properly established.
Three thousand two hundred and fifty years after the Buddha’s Nirv
āṇa, Chinggis became King (= Khan) up North in Mongolia (Hor);
4 he enjoyed the fruits of his merit which had been stored up in former lives.
Beginning from the North he brought many countries of different languages and races under his power, and by his strength he became like a Cakravartin (Wheel-turning) King. His son Ögedei, widely known as Khan, succeeded him and the dominions became even more extensive than before.
His son was Güyük Khan; he also ruled as King over the realm.
Chinggis’s younger son was Tolui; he also obtained the rank of Khan and ruled supreme.
His eldest son was called Möngke; he as well obtained the highest rank and ruled supreme.
His younger brother is known as Qubilai. He too was appointed Khan and ruled over far more dominions than his predecessors and, after entering the Door of the Precious Teaching, he has protected his realm according to the Dharma, and also manifested the Teacher’s Teaching.
His eldest son is Jingim (Zhenjin), who is endowed with all the glory of Heaven and who is also resplendent with the Ornament of the Precious Dharma. His brothers are Manggala, Nomuqan, and others. Each one is provided with his own virtues and riches and has his own sons and lineage.
So I have told [the history], beginning with the Śākya royal lineage up to the imperial dynasty of our own time.
COLOPHON
The noble, handsome, and wealthy Prince Jingim, whose analytic understanding is excellent, has time and again exhorted the venerable Lodrö Gyeltsen Pelzangpo [i.e., Pakpa] and so he has written this treatise, designated as
Quintessence of the Sun of the Application of Mindfulness, which is a study book following the work
Abhidharmakośa [of Vasubandhu].
The Maṇḍala of this text contains, in five chapters, the sentient beings, although they are boundless like the Realms of existence. It is a text which comprises in five sections the Inanimate and Animate Worlds, the Path and its Fruit, and the Uncomposed [factors]. May you, after seeing the Elucidation of the Knowable, teach it to others. May learned people and he who caused it to be written [i.e., Prince Jingim] bear patiently with the mistakes in the words as well as in meaning, with the faults caused by the long delay which postponed it, and the indolence of the author.
May I as well as the sentient beings, who are endless like Space, reach Supreme Enlightenment by the good which has been produced from this.
So this treatise, the Elucidation of the Knowable, was written, on the instigation of Prince Bodhisattva Jingim, by the monk Pakpa Lodrö Gyeltsen Pelzangpo, who takes upon his head the dust of the feet of the Lama Dharma-Lord Śri Sakya Paṇḍita.
It was finished in the year 1278, on the 23rd day of the middle autumn month, a day under the constellation Gyelwa, in Glorious Sakya Great Monastery.
[Prince Jiṅ-gim’s Textbook of Tibetan Buddhism: The Shes bya rab gsal by ’Phags-pa Blo-gros rgyal-mtshan dPal-bzaṅ-po of the Sa-skya-pa, trans. and annotated by Constance Hoog (Leiden: Brill, 1983), 11–82. Edited by GT.]
After the fall of the Tibetan empire, Tibetans were not able to rely on any unbroken continuity of dynastic lineage until the Mongols arrived. With the intrusion of Mongol power in Tibet and the insertion of the Mongol Yuan dynasty into the series of dynasties that had ruled China, Tibet could tap into a narrative tradition that linked its imperial period with the fourteenth-century present. That is precisely what happens in The Red Book, one of the earliest texts in the Tibetan historical tradition for which we have reliable dates. Tselpa Künga Dorjé started writing this work in 1346 and finished in 1363, the year before he died. For knowledge of Chinese history, he relied on the translations of Chinese dynastic histories done at Shingkun (Ch. Lintao, Gansu province) in 1285 by a Chinese translator and edited by the National Preceptor (Ch. Guoshi) Gushi Rinchen Drak in 1325. This volume may have been relatively widely available, as it was one of the earliest Tibetan-language books printed with wood blocks, an important technology introduced during the period of Mongol over-lordship. In any event, the author himself notes that Tibetan translations of the Chinese Tang annals dealing with Tibet were an important source for his work.
In typical Tibetan historical fashion, this work opens with the origins of the world, moving quickly to the important events of the Buddha’s life. Then the narrative of the Buddha’s life and teachings is extended through time relative to the enumeration of dynastic lineages, initially in India and then in China. This is the earliest extant Tibetan historical survey to include the Chinese dynastic lineages as relevant to Tibetan Buddhist history. By appending the Chinese royal lines to those in Indian history, Tselpa Künga Dorjé was able to create an unbroken narrative down to his own time, which took priority in his account even over the Tibetan imperial dynastic lineage. After discussing the calculations of the time elapsed since the Buddha’s death, which served as the basis for most dates in Buddhist history, the author briefly surveys the Chinese royal lineages from the Zhou (1045–256
B.C.E.) to the Tang dynasty (618–907), when Tibetans first encountered the Chinese. The next chapter deals with the Tibetan translations of Tang Chinese sources on Tibet. Then the narrative returns to the successive Chinese dynastic histories, treating the period from the (Later) Liang (907–923) to the Southern Song (1127–1279) dynasties and the contemporaneous Minyak (Ch. Xixia) dynasty (1038–1227), which ruled the territory bordering the north-eastern Tibetan regions. The continuous lineage of China’s rulers ends with the Mongol (Ch. Yuan) dynasty (1279–1368). This was not the first Tibetan historical source to list the Mongol dynastic lineage, as Pakpa had already done so in his
Elucidation of the Knowable of 1278 (see the preceding selection). However, because this was the first thorough account of all the ruling dynasties of China to appear in Tibetan, it would become a major source for later historians.
Following these reference points for Buddhist history outside of Tibet, Tselpa Künga Dorjé gives a continuous narrative of Tibetan history, based first on the imperial lineage and then shifting to the former and latter diffusions of the Dharma. His work is especially thorough in describing the various sectarian lineages (Sakya, Kadam, and Kagyü being the best known), which afforded convenient rubrics for organizing Tibetan history.
Since the dates given in this text do not always correspond to currently accepted dates for the historical events mentioned, the Tibetan dates are given as in the original (e.g., water-male-tiger year) and the dates for events and regnal years accepted by historians today are given in brackets. The same is true of the reign dates given for the Mongol Khans, which thus do not necessarily correspond to the number of years stated in the text. Well-known Mongol names, such as those of the Khans, have been given according to the conventions adopted in this volume for Mongol terms and names, rather than according to the Tibetan transliteration, with the exception of the names of Chinggis Khan’s ancestors, the interpretation of some of which is doubtful. (The forms of these names as derived from the
Secret History of the Mongols are given in brackets.) The reign titles of Mongol Khans have been converted to modern Chinese pinyin phonetics. The appearance of non-Mongol derived names among the Mongol nobility as the Mongols encountered the Buddhist cultures of China and Tibet is noteworthy. Qubilai’s first three sons, for instance, were given a variety of Buddhist names: Dorjé, Jingim, and Manggala. The first is a Tibetan Buddhist name, the second a Chinese Buddhist-inspired name, and the third a Sanskrit Buddhist name, as are his grandson’s names: Kamala and Dharmap
āla. Only Qubilai’s fourth son, Nomuqan, was given a properly Mongol name, though one that may have been intended as a translation of the Sanskrit Dharmar
āja, “Righteous (or Religious) King.” Some of Qubilai Khan’s great-grandsons are known only by more mainstream Chinese-inspired names like Deshou (“Virtuous Longevity”). Of course, all of these men were also known by their Chinese dynastic titles, but those are rarely used in this Tibetan source. A phonetic rendering of Chinese reign titles, which marked distinct periods within each Khan’s rule of the empire, is recorded more often.
Another interesting feature of this text is the evidence of Tibetan historiographic methods. Although the dates do not always correspond to currently accepted dates, the sequence of the Mongol rulers is remarkably close to our current understanding as derived from the collation of numerous sources from several different languages (mainly Persian and Chinese). In addition, Tselpa Künga Dorjé as well as a later writer who added to this text cite their sources and, in the case of the Mongol retreat from Beijing, compare them with an eyewitness report by a Tibetan who was at court at that time; the eyewitness is taken as the most reliable source. The later writer also cites a contemporary history written in 1376, just a few years after the events: The Religious History of the Lord [of Yarlung]. So, while this account may read as a dull list of names now, it is clear that to Tibetans in the late fourteenth century, matters at the Mongol court—until 1368 ruling the largest land-based empire in world history up to that point—were of great concern. GT
THE ABBREVIATED MONGOL ROYAL GENEALOGY
As for the Mongol Royal Genealogy, first, the son of heaven, Bubor Daché [Börte Chino]; his son, B
ād
ārch
īgan [Batachiqan]; his son, Tamchak [Tamacha]; his son, Khyiji Merkhan [Qorichar Mergen]; he is now also said to have been the Lotus-Born One, the one who suppresses demons; his son, Laurjang Borolol [A’ujam-Boro’ul]; his son, Peka Nidun [Yeke Nidün]; his son, Sem Zauji [Sem Sochi]; his son, Khachu [Qarchu]; after his son, Dobun Merkhan [Dobun Mergen], passed away, from his wife Alan-khola [Alan Gho’a], the being born from the light of the sun and moon, Bodonchar [Bodonchar] Mungkhan [Mungqaq was next in the lineage]; his son, Gaichi [Qabichi-ba’atur]; his son, Bekhir [?]; his son, Manen Todon [Menen Tudun]; his son, Gaitu gan [Qaidu]; his son, Baishing [Bai-shing]; his son, Khordokshing [Qor-doqshin];
5 his son, Dumbinai Khan [Tumbinai Sechen]; his son, Gabula Khan [Qabul Khan]; his son, Bartan Badur [Bartan Ba’atur]; his son, Yesurga Badur [Yisügei Ba’atur]; his and Queen Holun [Ö’elün]’s son, Taizu Chinggis Khan was born in the water-male-tiger year [1160s] and had five brothers. From the time when Chinggis Khan was thirty-eight, having brought together this powerful [Mongol] kingdom, he was made king [in 1206] for twenty-three years. In the fire-male-tiger year, which (in accord with his birth year) should be understood as the water-male-monkey year, on the twelfth day of the first autumn month of his sixty-first year, in Ga of Minyak, he died [1227] and went to heaven. He had nine sons, Jochi, Cha’adai, Ögedei, Tolui, Noyan, and so forth. When [Chinggis] Khan was alive, he gave his two eldest sons the edict that the realm should not be divided and appointed [them] to the right and left wings [to oversee the more distant parts of the empire]; their younger brother Ögedei Khan ruled the empire for six years [1229–41]. Jochi had eight sons. Cha’adai had nine, Duba [?], and so forth. Ögedei Khan’s eldest son, Güyük, was made king for six months [1246–48]. He had seven younger brothers, Köten, Qashi, Qadan, and so forth. Köten had three children. Because Tolui Noyan was not given [control of the empire in] the previous edict, there was conflict in the empire. [His wife, Empress] Sorqaqtani Beki’s son Möngke Khan ruled for nine years [1251–59]. [Tolui] had eleven sons: the fourth son, Qubilai Shizu Sechen Khan, was born in the wood-male-pig year [1215]; the sixth, Hüle’ü; the seventh, Ariq-Böke; and so forth. Sechen Khan and [Empress] Chabui’s four sons: Dorjé, Jingim, Manggala, Nomuqan; [Qubilai Khan’s queen] Zhwagongma had six sons, [a total of] ten sons. The one son [Qubilai Khan’s queen] Nambui gave birth to died quickly. From the iron-male-monkey year, Sechen Khan ruled for thirty-five years [1260–94]—five years [under the Chinese reign title] Zhongtong, thirty years [under the Chinese reign title] Zhiyuan—and died in the wood-male-horse year [1294].
Köten had three sons, Jibik Temür [Zhibe Tiemuer Wang] and so forth. Qashi’s son was Qaidu; and there were other [descendants of Chinggis Khan] beyond number. The above essential lineage was copied from the booklet
Topchi [the
Secret History of the Mongols]. Sechen’s son Dorjé had no sons. Jingim and Egechi Taihou [Queen Mother] Kökejin’s eldest son was Kamala; her second son, Dharmap
āla, was dumb;
6 her third son, Temür Öljeitü, was made Khan for thirteen years [1294–1307]—two years [under the Chinese reign title] Yuanzhen, eleven years [under the Chinese reign title] Dade. His son, Deshou, quickly passed away. Prince Dharmap
āla and Taihuang Taihou [Queen Mother] Tanggi’s eldest son, Qaishan Külük Khan, [ruled for] four years [under the Chinese reign title] Zhida [1307–11]; their second son, Ayurparibhadra [Buyantu, Ayurbarwada], was Khan for nine years [1311–20]—two years [under the Chinese reign title] Huangqing, seven years [under the Chinese reign title] Yanhu. Buyantu Khan’s son Siddhip
āla reigned as Yingzong Gegen Khan [under the Chinese reign title] Zhizhi for three years [1320–23]. Kamala’s son, Yisün Temür Qingwang, ruled for four years [under the Chinese reign title] Taiding and one year [under the Chinese reign title] Zhihe [1323–28]. His son “Goat-dog-pig” [Rakhyipak = Rinchenpel (1332)] was on the throne for forty days when he was killed by Uruk Temür, son of
Ānanda, son of Manggala. It is said that Külük Khan had two sons. His eldest son, Ku
śala Gutuk [Mong. Khutugtu] Khan, was on the throne for one month [1329]; his second son, Tuq-Temür Jiya’atu, reigned [under the Chinese reign title] Tianli for three years and [under the Chinese reign title] Zhishun for two whole years [1328–32]. Ku
śala’s younger son, Rinchenpel, reigned [under the Chinese reign title] Zhishun for one month.
7 The throne was empty for six months. The kingdom was comprehensively governed by El Temür Taishi [d. 1333]. The elder son [of Ku
śala] Toghan Temür came to the throne in the water-male-bird year and reigned as Khan Toghan Temür for thirty-seven years [r. 1333–70]—one year [under the Chinese reign title] Zhishun, two years [under the Chinese reign title] Yuantong, six years [under the Chinese reign title] Zhiyuan, three years [under the Chinese reign title] Zhizheng.
8 After that, having been banished from Dadu [Beijing], he went to the Mongol lands in the sixth month of the monkey year [1368].
According to Taktsangpa Pakshi Künga Rinchen, who stayed in Dadu when Khan Toghan Temür abandoned the capital, when the mutinous army had come, a great noise arose. He said that, in a great hurry, on the eleventh day of the fifth month of the sheep year, [Toghan Temür] left for the Mongol lands. This was surely true. According to the
Religious History of the Lord [of Yarlung, 1376], the aforementioned period during which there was no king on the throne was because of divination done then that said: “If Ku
śala’s eldest son, Toghan Temür, waits until after the sixth month of the bird year to be elevated to the throne, then his reign will be just like that of Sechen [Qubilai Khan].” To this, the leaders responded, “Who can bear the responsibility of the kingdom being settled [thus] with the throne empty for so long?” El Temür responded, “Your household’s prediction was made correctly and if it is true, then especially due to the fact that it will extend the emperor’s life, until that time, I will bear the responsibility of the duties of the kingdom.” While the throne was empty, El Temür handled the legal activities [of the state]. Thereafter, on the eighth day of the sixth month of the bird year, [Toghan Temür] was elevated to the throne in the great palace in Shangdu [a capital city of the Mongols, known in the West as Xanadu] and remained there for four years. Thirty-eight years after he was elevated to the throne, in the earth-male-dog year, Dishi [the imperial preceptor] Künga Gyeltsen died [1358], the Mongol officials rebelled and set fire to the imperial palace at Shangdu, and the eyetooth, the religious robes, and the begging bowl of the Thus-Gone-One [i.e., the Buddha’s relics] disappeared without a trace. In the evening of the twenty-ninth day of the eighth month of the earth-male-monkey year [1368], the emperor and his sons fled from Dadu’s great palace, and having lost the kingdom, they returned to the Mongol lands; thus it is said.
[Tshal pa Kun dga’ rdo rje, Deb ther dmar po rnams kyi dang po Hu lan deb ther (1981; reprint, Beijing: Mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 1993), 28–32. Trans. GT.]
This edict, a typical example of many still preserved in Tibet today, represents the protection and support the Mongol empire granted to many religious institutions. This tolerant approach, which could be extended to Buddhist monks of all types, Nestorian Christians, Daoist priests, and Muslim clerics, was no doubt partly a strategy for gaining the support of the local religious institutions in accepting Mongol rule. In the Tibetan context, this effort was especially successful and also benefited specific Tibetan Buddhist monasteries, as this period marked the rise to real political dominance of a host of religious institutions (including Sakya, Drigung, the Pakmodrupa seat at Densatil, etc.) that then ruled Central Tibet for centuries. This document lists some of the resources these monasteries commanded: land, water (essential for irrigation), wood-lots, tenants, and livestock (probably valued in that order). Similar edicts included protection of monasteries’ millstones, inns, mattresses, warehouses for storing security deposits on loans, bathhouses, grazing lands, farm tools, draft donkeys, and sheep. Through such records, we start to get a picture of how crucial monasteries were to all aspects of economic life in Tibet. They were like small towns unto themselves, running the hostels, banks, mills, fields, and nearby grazing lands. All of these, as well as any trade undertaken by the monasteries, were protected from taxation, one form of which was the labor that local common people were expected to render to those who ruled over them. Common people on the monastic estates were exempt from having to serve the imperial representatives. These monasteries and their holdings were also specifically protected from the empire’s officials who passed through the area on their duties. The U.S. Bill of Rights declares that “No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house”; an apparently similar right not to have to provide housing or food to soldiers or other government officials was an important protection these edicts tried to guarantee, but only on behalf of specified monastic institutions. Of course, the fact that these edicts exist is also testament to the reality that imperial officials and soldiers frequently violated such laws. For, as was the case in most premodern empires, those posted very far from the center were never provisioned with all the resources they needed and often lived or supplemented their allowances by requisitioning labor and supplies from the locals. The issuance of edicts such as these, mostly to monastic centers of power and, more rarely, to lay civil leaders, suggests that the monasteries were growing stronger in this period.
This particular edict was issued in 1305 by Qayishan (Ch. Haishan [reign title: Wuzong], Tib. Heshen) who at the time was a prince of the dynastic family ruling the Yuan empire. By 1307, he had become the ruler of the empire, known as Qayishan Külük Khan, though he reigned for only four years. It is interesting that this Mongol prince would have taken such a specific interest in a particular form of Buddhist practice (in this case, prayers directed to Avalokite
śvara), for which he ordered the necessary provisions. The monastery that was the beneficiary of this edict, Zhalu, in western Tibet not far from modern Zhigatsé, was a renowned center of learning and expertise in tantric ritual that had been founded by members of the Ché clan, an ancient Tibetan aristocratic lineage, early in the eleventh century. Its fame among China’s rulers continued to grow during the fourteenth century, as will be seen in selections from its renowned abbot Butön Rinchendrup later in this and the following chapter.
The order contained in the edict that violence against monks is not allowed deserves some elaboration. Since this is repeated in several earlier and later edicts from Mongol rulers, it does seem to have been a general rule, though the punishment for disobeying it is not specified here. However, in 1309 the administrative office that oversaw Tibetan and Buddhist affairs in the Mongol empire requested from Qayishan and was granted an imperial edict that stipulated that anyone who beat a Tibetan monk (Xifan seng) was to have his hand cut off, and anyone who insulted a Tibetan monk was to have his tongue cut out. (Such punishments may have been inspired by Tibetan legends concerning the draconian laws enacted by the eighth-century Tibetan monarch Relpachen in order to protect the clergy.) Within months, Qayishan’s brother, who would be the next emperor, had reviewed this law and recommended that it be abolished as too extreme, to which Qayishan agreed. From his edicts then, we might gather that Qayishan was in general a firm supporter of Tibetan Buddhist monks, though as we can see from the threatening tone at the end, it is clear that the Mongol dynasty also sought to exercise real power over Tibetan monasteries, which had responsibilities to the empire in addition to the rights here granted. The original was written in Mongolian, using the vertical seal script invented by Lama Pakpa at Qubilai Khan’s order. This script used letters that resembled the Tibetan script to transcribe Mongol sounds and was sometimes used to transcribe both Chinese and Tibetan. GT
The order of Heshen, Prince of Huaining, who governs with the assistance of the great power of everlasting Heaven and the protection of the emperor.
Make the following known to all darughaci [from Persian, meaning a commander or governor] of the fortified towns, civil officials, military officials, soldiers, and men and government messengers in transit:
Chinggis Khan and Emperors Ögedei and Sechen [Qubilai] stated in their edicts, “Buddhist monks and Christian and Taoist priests are exempt from being assessed any tax or labor service. They invoke the blessing of Heaven upon us.” This was written to request that the Khans’ edicts—that monks not be assessed any tax or labor service and that they invoke the blessing of Heaven on the basis of the teachings of
Śākyamuni [Buddha]—may be observed. Having reiterated this, Zhalu monastery in Tsang under the charge of Kuzhang Dorjé Wangchuk Drakpa Gyeltsen should be supplied with the necessary offerings for butter lamps for prayers to the noble Avalokite
śvara. You [government officers] in transit shall not stay in their monastery and other buildings or demand free horse service or provisions from them. Grazing on their manorial estate lands is prohibited. No taxes shall be levied on land and trade. Monastery land, rivers, forests, commoners, and livestock shall not be infringed upon. Violence against monks is not allowed. Likewise the monks of the monastery shall not abuse the rights I grant them in this order. Dare they risk punishment by doing anything unreasonable?
Written in Jiramutu on the 30th day of the 9th month of the Year of the Snake (1305).
[Preserved by the Historical Relics Administration of the Tibetan Autonomous Region in: Archives of the Tibet Autonomous Region, ed., Xizang lishi dang’an hui cui. A Collection of Historical Archives of Tibet (Beijing: Wenwu chubanshe, 1995), #14. Trans. GT.]
This letter was issued in 1316 by Künga Lodrö Gyeltsen Pelzangpo (1299–1327), a monk-official in the Yuan imperial court in Dadu, which later became Beijing. The Imperial Preceptors (Dishi) were the conduits through which imperial orders were issued to local Tibetan leadership under Mongolian imperial jurisdiction. In its essence, the letter reiterates provisions like those we have seen above, granting the monastery of Zhalu privileged exemptions from taxes, requisitions, and corvée labor. The letter is in Tibetan and was kept at Zhalu monastery in western Tibet. KRS
By the King’s order, the words of Künga Lodrö Gyeltsen Pelzangpo, Imperial Preceptor:
To the officials of Pacification Commissioner rank, to generals, soldiers, administrators of the nang so, to judges, holders of golden letters, chiefs of districts, laymen and monks who collect taxes and go and come, to myriarchs, to dignitaries, a command:
From the religious communities dwelling on this land and from the lay communities, the wing officials and the wing men, existing in the territory formerly subject to Zhalu, namely Möndro Dorjé Me-ö, Gyapa, Runtsam, Gyatso Nyi, Dröl, Yen, Mönkhang Chödé, Ngoser, Künga Rawa, Tsetsa Tsepo, Shetsur, Tönbuda, Tsurpu, and Do Gönpa, according to the order contained in the imperial diplomas, let no taxes be collected, nor any foodstuff and forced labor, which did not formerly exist. Let nothing be stolen by force, let no duties be exacted, let anger not be given way to the point of bringing false charges, let no violence be done, let herds of cattle not be requisitioned, let
dzos [yak-cow hybrids] and horses not be fattened. Let mills (where roasted barley is ground) not be compelled to work by force.
According to the Emperor’s command, let there be no quarrels concerning old taxes, old affairs, and old cases. Let religious and lay communities belonging to this territory of Zhalu not be carried off by force, into subjection and slavery.
Do not take possession by force of what you need. All that has been taken before, let it be restored so that the territorial division in centuries and chiliarchies may not be infringed; do not abuse your authority, or cause grievances, let all be in peace.
Thus having been commanded, this official document was issued. After having seen this letter, will you not fear to do anything against it? Let him also not do anything against the law.
This letter has been written in the great monastery Metok Rawa, in the Taitu [= Dadu] royal palace, in the year of the bird, on the twelfth day of the fourth month.
[Giuseppe Tucci, Tibetan Painted Scrolls (Rome: Libreria dello Stato, 1949), vol. 2, 671.]
The Pakmodrupa government in Central Tibet was firmly established between 1349 and 1354, when Tai Situ Jangchup Gyeltsen (1302–64) successfully challenged Sakya’s right to administer Mongol rule. The foundations for the new polity, however, were laid as early as the twelfth century, when Pakmodrupa Dorjé Gyeltsen (1100–70) founded a new subsect of the Kagyü school of Buddhism (
chapter 7). The Pakmodrupa territory was originally defined by the lands distributed by the Mongol leader Möngke Khan (ruled 1251–59) to Hülegü Khan, ruler of the Il-khan dyansty in Iran. This consisted primarily of the Yarlung Valley and regions extending north. The monastery of the Pakmodrupa school was located on the northern bank of the Tsangpo River. The administrative center of the polity was the Neudong castle, located in what is now the modern city of Tsetang. Both Pakmodrupa monastery and the Neudong castle are now in ruins.
At the time of its victory over Sakya, the Pakmodrupa polity had no legal right to rule under the Yuan dynasty, even though by 1354 it had achieved de facto rule over Central Tibet. It was largely Jangchup Gyeltsen’s political acumen that kept control until his death in 1364. Not until 1365 did the Yuan emperor give Jangchup Gyeltsen’s successor, Shakya Gyeltsen, control of the three major regions of Central Tibet, Ü, Tsang, and Ngari. Just four years later, in 1368, the polity witnessed the fall of the Yuan dynasty, by which time it was strong enough to survive as a centralized government in the post–Mongol period. Jangchup Gyeltsen had major fortresses constructed throughout Central Tibet in most of the myriarchy centers, and these became the administrative network through which he controlled the myriarchies originally under the Sakya government. At least two of these castles, at Rinpung and Zhigatsé (anciently Samdruptsé), would play major roles in the struggles between rival polities in the centuries to come.
Despite its phenomenal success at uniting Central Tibet in the wake of the Yuan dynasty’s collapse, the Pakmodrupa government ruled only eighty years. The inherent instability of the network of semiautonomous administrative centers anchored by the castles throughout the region eventually allowed the branch of the administration at Rinpung to challenge Pakmodrupa authority, much as the Pakmodrupa had done to the Sakya in the 1340s. The Pakmodrupa came to be dominated by the Rinpungpa in 1434, which ushered in a new era in Central Tibetan politics. Jangchup Gyeltsen is credited with reintroducing a Tibetan legal system after the fall of the Yuan, and thereby ensuring law and order throughout Central Tibet. The Pakmodrupa polity is remembered to this day as a precursor to the Dalai Lama’s government, which ruled from 1642 to 1959. Although two Central Tibetan polities separated it from the Dalai Lama’s government, the Fifth Dalai Lama maintained that, aside from the Tibetan empire, the Pakmodrupa was the most important Tibetan government save his own. KRS
The Tai Situ was born in the year of the water tiger (1302). At the age of seven he asked the Chennga Tsezhi for the rules of the lay devotee and was called Jangchup Gyeltsen. At the age of nine he was ordained by Tsüldarpa who acted as the ordinating abbot, and by Purangpa who acted as the ordinating master. This Tsüldarpa had acted also as ordinating abbot when the Chennga Tsezhi had been ordained and was a dignitary of the Chonggyé family. Lama Lhakhangpa gave him the initiation and opened the door of the Buddhist teachings to him. Tai Situ made great worship to [the deity] Hayagrīva and it is said that a callus was produced in his thumb (by the rosary used in his continuous prayers).
When he was fourteen, he went to Sakya, and he met the Great Man Zangpopel. When twenty years of age, in the year of the iron bird (1321) the great emperor Togan Temur gave him the jewel of third class with the tigerhead [seal], and he was invested as myriarch. He extended and raised still higher the palace of Neudong, and around it he erected the famous great wall. On the river Sham that flows in front of it he built a marvelous big bridge. He ruled according to the Buddhist teachings and he therefore avoided alcohol and afternoon meals. He also enjoined his officers to do the same.
Once the Pönchen Gyelwa Zangpo led the armies of the myriarchies of Ü and Tsang against Yarlung. Tai Situ and he met at the head of the big bridge, but while they were talking of an agreement, Tai Situ was taken prisoner by the Sakyapas, who had resorted to deception. Then, leading Tai Situ in front of the army, they tried some tricks in the hope that his Palace might surrender. But the Pönpo Zhönnu Zangpo, Pönpo Shakya Zangpo, and other officers did not listen and said that their government had greater importance than a representative. When Tai Situ was being conducted to Sakya he mounted on horseback with his face turned towards his servant, who took this for a good omen that he should come back.
When he reached Sakya, many monks and laymen collected handfuls of dirt and threw it on his face. He said that this was an excellent omen that he would gobble up Sakya. While he was staying there, many pains were heaped upon his body. Nevertheless he endured them in a manner that is beyond comprehension.
Then, having known that the king of the Hor [Mongols] had given the investiture of Pönchen to Wangtsön, Gyelwa Zangpo came secretly to an agreement with the Situ and, as if he had escaped, the Situ was let free. Afterwards, Wangtsön took charge of the office of pönchen and repeatedly led the armies of the thirteen myriarchies against Yarlung, but he had no success and, in the end, Tai Situ won. Thus, in the year earth-female-ox (1349) the greater part of Ü came into his hands. [In this year] six years had passed since the Khetsün had died in Sakya. It has been suggested that Tishi Künga Gyeltsen was the occupant of the see then, but this is not clear from the documents.
After three years, in the year water-dragon (1352), Tai Situ laid the foundations of the great monastery of Tsetang, but in the Blue Annals it is said that it was founded in the year iron-hare (1351). This is the year when the Dorjé Gyelpo Nyergyepa, having passed away in Drikung, one year after, the king of the Law was elevated to the see, in his seventeenth year of age, one hundred and ninety-four years after the year earth-tiger (1158) in which the see of Pakmodru was founded.
Tai Situ built a veranda at the front of the old temple which went back to the times of the Great Lümé and whose upper story was decaying. To the west of that he built a temple with the door facing east and forty big seminaries surrounded by walls. He then invited from various monasteries many monks, masters, and disciples. As a means of sustenance for those who needed to teach Buddhist doctrine or listen to it, he gave fields as endowment and established three rules relating to the common property of the community: those of providing food, soup and tea. Thus he greatly developed the colleges of Buddhist teaching.
In the year wood-horse (1354) there were internal troubles in Sakya. Gyelwa Zangpo was imprisoned by the (chief of the) Eastern Palace. Then Tai Situ threatened Sakya with a large army, at the head of which was Rinchen Zangpo. Thus Gyelwa Zangpo was set free. In this way Tai Situ became master of the greater part of Tsang. From that moment, the thirteen myriarchies appointing the caretakers and officers in Ü and Tsang gave these the seal (of investiture) with the approval of Tai Situ. As to the author of the internal decay of the Sakyapas, according to Tai Situ himself, “In former times the glorious Sakyapas had a power which reached to the sky. They had perfection of glory. The Pönchen Namkha Tenpa was young; that is the cause.” It thus seems to have been this Namkha Tenpa.
As regards the works concerning the religion of this leader, he founded, as stated above, the college for debate on logic in Tsetang. He also provided support to the meditation college of Thel. He ordered a new worship hall to be constructed where the many-doored stūpa of Tsezhipa and the Kumbum stūpa were situated. He also ordered many copies to be made of the Kangyur written in golden letters, and he listened to the Buddhist teachings from many masters such as Butön Rinpoché, Gyelsé Thokmé, Lama Dampa Sönam Gyeltsen, Chennga Drakpa Gyeltsen, Karmapa Rölpé Dorjé, Tokden Daseng, and Lama Nyammé. He honored them greatly. Among the above-mentioned masters, he chose the first three as his principal lamas, and he built separate habitations for them in the hermitage of Samten Ling in Tsetang.
Since he had planned to wage many wars, [through] a man possessing magic power named Gangpa Shakbum [Tai Situ] asked Butön, Dölpopa, and Sherap Senggé if he was to be killed. One remained indifferent, and the other two agreed that he would not be killed since he was a man supported by the power of the Buddhist teaching. Moreover, it was said that Orgyen Rinpoché and Ami Jangchup Drekhöl had prophesied him as an incarnation.
As regards wordly affairs, from below the place called Dokar he founded many dzong [district castles] such as Chaktsé Drigu, Olkha Taktsé, Gongkar, Neudong, Drakkar, Rinpung, Samdruptsé, Panam, and Lhündruptsé, and appointed a district chief in each place to be changed every three years. He himself composed an account of his feuds, and due to this he was famous everywhere as Tai Situ. If nowadays the Desi [Governor] of Pakmodru is important on account of the golden yoke that equally applied to everybody, high and low, this is a result of the deeds of that leader.
At the age of sixty-three, in the year wood-dragon (1364) on the twenty-seventh day of the tenth month, he passed away. A memorial has been celebrated without interruption since then, every year on the twenty-seventh day of that month in Neudong Tsé.
[Giuseppe Tucci, trans., Deb ther dmar po gsar ma: Tibetan Chronicles by bSod nams grags pa (Rome: Istituto Italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente, [1538] 1971), 206–210.]
In this letter Butön Rinchendrup (1290–1364), the great scholar of Zhalu monastery in west-central Tibet, the institution favored by the edict given above, addresses the man who would soon become the most powerful leader in Tibet, Tai Situ Jangchup Gyeltsen (1302–64), and seeks to defend the prince of the Zhalu estates, the Kuzhang, or Lord, Kunga Döndrup, against charges of conspiracy and possible exile. Butön became abbot of Zhalu monastery in 1322 and was a major religious figure of his day. He was also, as this letter shows, deeply involved in politics.
The letter appears to have been composed in 1330, for it indicates that during the preceding year the Yuan imperial official Situ Darma Gyeltsen oversaw a sort of tribunal in which lands were restored to Jangchup Gyeltsen’s polity, the Pakmodru. According to the letter, Darma Gyeltsen suggested that all the Zhalu leaders be sent into exile. Butön develops his defense of the Kuzhang in several stages. He first attests to his impeccable ancestry, showing that he belongs to a noble lineage stretching back to the golden age of the Tibetan emperor Tri Songdetsen. His ancestors were all good patrons of religion, and in more recent times had been officially recognized by the Yuan empire. Earlier the Mongol Emperor Öljeitü (reigned 1294–1307) had invested the Zhalu leader Drakpa Gyeltsen with an official rank in the Yuan administrative hierarchy, a position that came with judicial powers over significant tracts of land. This status was also conferred on Drakpa Gyeltsen’s son, none other than Künga Döndrup. Second, Butön argues that Künga Döndrup remained above suspicion in the recent political machinations against Tai Situ Jangchup Gyeltsen, in which some of Künga Döndrup’s dependents conspired; the prince himself remained firmly loyal to both Jangchup Gyeltsen and the Sakya school of Tibetan Buddhism, in which Jangchup Gyeltsen had been in part trained, and with which, at the time the letter was probably written, he had not yet broken. Finally, Butön appeals, in an oblique way, to Jangchup Gyeltsen’s Buddhist sensibility, suggesting that he look at the facts of Künga Döndrup’s case and make his decision fairly, without partisanship. Butön’s letter illustrates that the activities of a monastery abbot often went far beyond the management of monks and could extend to major political issues. KRS
Your letter with presents was delivered to me by your official Zhönnu Zangpo. And I have its meaning well in mind. From a general point of view it must be said first of all that this Kuzhang [lord] comes of a good lineage. In the times of the king of Samyé, Tri Songdetsen, when wicked Ministers opposed the practice of religion, Jñānasiddhi of Ché, who had entered into the King’s favor, was sent to invite the master Bodhisattva [Śāntarakṣita] and the master Padma Jungné [Padmasambhava], and Jñānasiddhi belonged to his family. As he was the king of Tibet’s chief collaborator, he was invested with lordship over the territory of Nyangro. In the intermediate period between the old and new diffusion of the faith, although there were various ups and downs of fortune and decline, this clan did nothing wrong.
Then, at the time of the second diffusion of faith, this district was founded and the temple was built; it was the womb of the 100 chapels having at their head Khyung. Great sees like those of Nartang
9 were branches which spread only out of the teaching of this clan which ruled over this monastery with the succession of its lamas. In a second period, when the Mongols became patrons of the Sakyapa doctrines, its members collaborated as
pönpos [chiefs] of Sakyapa and as
pönpos of king Sechen [Qubilai]. Thus the precious family had an abundant series of Kuzhang. Now you, o peerless
chöjé [Dharma master], you who have no rivals on the face of the earth, you well know that this is the Kuzhangs’ progeny.
Now you also know that he is a prince possessing, by imperial command, the second-class gem with a tiger’s head; he is of good lineage and has an office. If we commit errors, it is no use glorying that we come of a good family. Nevertheless he of such a family, in the past, committed no acts against good behavior. Lately, when the Sakyapa and the Drigungpa vied for supremacy [during the 1280s], although the Zhalupa of the Sharpa branch sided with the Drigungpa, this Kuzhang followed the Sakyapa’s fortunes and although, through various events, difficulties ensued, he kept faith with the Sakyapa; then, when the Sakyapa lama and the pönchen [great chief, i.e., governor] disagreed, although the Chumik myriarchy, the Jang myriarchy and the Zhalupa of the Sharpa branch sided with the pönchen Künzang, the Kuzhang, with all his influence, used his triple energy in the Lama’s favor. At that time the Mongol king and the chief were in good harmony, and as a recognition of his deeds the King gave the prince Möndro; later the hostile excitement of the Eastern and Western regions grew greatly, but the Kuzhang was partial towards none.
Last year, great excitement having arisen due to the wars waged by the pön [lord] Özer Sengé against the Zhitok, the Kuzhang Drakgyel fled to Dam and was not mixed up in any bad enterprise. Then, when the Tai Situ Dharma Gyeltsen arrived, in his letter he said that all the members of the families should be sent into exile, except those addicted to religious life. And even when the chiefs were deprived of power, the Kuzhang Künga Döndrup was not mixed up with any bad counsel. Since last year, times have not been quiet; there has been no possibility of access to justice. As his dependents were not straight, there was no one who had less authority that he, hence he became the lowliest of the low. Being so unassuming, even if they insulted him, meditating on the virtue of patience he adapted himself to his humble condition. For this reason the religious and lay communities under him were taken from him by those whose hands were longest, and he was left with scanty influence. Nevertheless, it is clear from official documents that he had no part at all in the plots of Khangsar and the others, and even those who sided with him of Khangsar did not intend to commit any special iniquity towards him. Sometime back Machikpa, etc., fled, but before this, motives for adverse anticipations having arisen, the officers though in secret, quite willingly rendered him service; this they know. In brief, as regards this Kuzhang, not the least trace of guilt can be found; nevertheless, although he was guiltless, persons actuated by a revengeful spirit caught him, and it was impossible to set him free without his suffering reprisals.
But even if he had been flayed, the Kuzhang would in no wise have moved even the tip of a hair. Whether he or Rinchengang kept his promise or not, you know. Last year, when Tsön of Kham came to loot, you said “collect your servants”; when he had gathered a group of ragged peasants, after the Lama was caught, and it was said that it was necessary to go for troops to Kharring, then there was no shepherd who did not say that the servants ought to be gathered, to meet there Tsön. The Kuzhang said he would go to speak, and he went; after this, being driven out of control by the
nangpa [steward] Ringyel and by the
pönpo Netso, he came to your door. Besides the damage resulting to himself, no one else was harmed. This fact and the necessity of the troops going to Yarlung were both provoked by a man out of his power. But when a powerful person enjoins something, those less powerful cannot but go. An
aide-de-camp appointed by the Tai Situ came to meet him in Tsöndü; he did not refuse to come into his presence and offered him explanations. It was as when there is no choice between drinking poison and swallowing dust. But in all those works of theirs the Kuzhang did not interfere. I beg you, o peerless, precious lord of the Law, to carefully see that a thorough absolution be met from the officers of the palace; the Kuzhang is like a son of yours, o precious lord of the Law; I ask you, o lord, that, thus considering the state of affairs, the facts as they are, but you, incomparable lord of the Law, will decide. As the things of the Law are now declining, according to the saying “where I go, it is not fit for you to go,” I beg you to consider whether it is not therefore a case for stopping. I offer a white kerchief, as a gift accompanying the letter; presented on the eleventh day of the year of the horse. May it be well-omened.
[Giuseppe Tucci, Tibetan Painted Scrolls (Rome: Libreria dello Stato, 1949), vol. 2, 673–674.]
The Rinpung government was established in 1434, later dubbed “the year in which the Pakmodrupa collapsed.” The rise of the Rinpung represents the rise of a new region of power in Central Tibet, namely Zhigatsé in Tsang. From this town, the Rinpung government successfully wrested control of the region from the Pakmodrupa and began a century of conflict between Ü and Tsang. Earlier the Pakmodrupa leader Drakpa Gyeltsen (1377–1440) had appointed Namkha Gyeltsen as the local leader of the Rinpung fortress and estates, located west of Zhigatsé. Namkha Gyeltsen took Rinpung as his family name, and from this the government took its name. When Drakpa Gyeltsen died in 1440 (or 1442 according to some sources), the young nephew of the Rinpung leader Norbu Zangpo (1403–66) was appointed head of the Pakmodrupa. Norbu Zangpo had already taken full advantage of his influence at the Pakmodrupa court, and by 1434 had successfully shifted power from Pakmodru to Rinpung. In 1435 the Rinpung family moved its administration from the family seat of Rinpung to the fortress of Samdruptsé, located in present-day Zhigatsé. This was to remain the center of the Rinpung government throughout its reign. During the 1430s the Rinpung began to take control of other estates throughout Tsang. Relations with the Pakmodrupa continued to be strained despite, or perhaps because of the fact that Rinpung family members now controlled both the Pakmodrupa central government, whose leader was called the
gongma, and the expanding Rinpung estates.
In the wake of Norbu Zangpo’s death in 1466, his younger brother Tsokyé Dorjé (1452–1510) took control of Pakmodru. This was an important step for the Rinpungpa, for Tsokyé Dorjé favored the Rinpung factions of the family. The increasing family control laid the ground for Norbu Zangpo’s grandson, Donyö Dorjé (1462–1512, the son of Künzangpa), to significantly increase Rinpung’s control of Tsang in 1480 and launch a major offensive against the Lhasa area in 1481. In 1485 he attacked the Gyantsé polity, but was defeated when the Pakmodrupa and Lhasa allied with Gyantsé. In 1492 Donyö Dorjé successfully took control of several districts around Lhasa, and in 1498 he held such power over Lhasa that he was able to forbid Gelukpa monks and religious leaders from attending the Lhasa Great Prayer festival, control of which he had given to the Karmapa sect. The ban against the Gelukpa was to last until 1517.
The sixteenth century saw the rise of a new power from within the ranks of the Rinpung administration. Zhingshakpa Tseten Dorjé (mid-sixteenth century) was appointed stable minister at Zhigatsé. Through a series of intrigues, Tseten Dorjé rallied the existing Pakmodrupa factions against the Rinpung family and eventually took full control of the Samdruptsé fortress. With him the Rinpung government came to an end and the Tsangpa government began. Almost nothing is currently known about the administrative system of the Rinpung government, or about the extent of its landholdings. In 1830 Rinpung remained an administrative district within the Ganden government, and it may be possible to get a rough sense of its former extent through examination of its nineteenth-century status. As is the case with so many of the premodern polities in Tibet, there is almost no available literature that describes the Rinpung government in depth. Scholars are thus left to piece together an outline of its shape and scope through scattered references in historical texts, while what documentary evidence there might be is preserved in the official archives in Tibet, where it is still inaccessible to scholars.
This selection from the well-known political and military history of Central Tibet, the
New Red Annals of Pa
ṇchen Sönam Drakpa, summarizes major events of the period 1480 to 1530. It begins with the takeover of the Ü region by Dönyö Dorjé of the Rinpung estate. Rinpung rule over Central Tibet would last only four decades, until internal divisions led to the overthrow of the Rinpung polity and the establishment of the Tsang polity. The
New Red Annals is ordered in a strict chronological fashion, moving steadily from event to event and pausing occasionally to remind the reader of the time elapsed from the events described to the date of the work’s composition, 1538. Sönam Drakpa also provides some limited context for his principal narrative by mentioning select events in the lives of great people of the time or the histories of major Central Tibetan institutions. Thus we get a glimpse of the intense warfare, the political maneuvering, and the fights for power and status that characterized Central Tibetan regional politics at the end of the fifteenth and beginning of the sixteenth centuries. The text makes use of numerous administrative titles, the exact significance of which remains in most cases obscure, for which reason they have been left in Tibetan by the translator. Bracketed approximations of their meanings have been added on the first occurrence of each such term here, whenever an interpretation has seemed plausible. KRS
Then after seven years, in the year iron-mouse [1480], Dönyö Dorjé of Rinpung and Tsewang of Yung, the chief and the officers, led a great army and joining the troops of Yargyap and Göngkar reached the very core of Yarlung, dismissed the two kazhipas, the Eastern and Western, from their office, and marching into Kyishö, restored order in the state of affairs of Drakkar and took many districts, such as the Chushül Lhünpotsé, etc.; then the chief of the fief of Neu and his brother made peace.
Then the chiefs of Rinpung, the uncle and the nephew, Dubensha Sönam Gyelpo, Rinchen Gyelchok of Chonggyé, Sichö Gyelpo of Drakkar, Nordzin Chögyel of Ölkha, Künga Trashi of Panam, Lhanam Gyelö of Samdé, Rinchen Gyelpo and his brother of Yargyap, Lhawang Künga of Göngkar, Trashi Dargyé of Ja, Khamsum Namgyel of Butsel, Tsewang Drakpa of Horkhang, the chief of Gyelchentsé [i.e., Gyantsé], the chief of Kyishön and his brother and many other officers met in Nedöng, at the beginning of the year iron-female-ox; and the rumor spread that the two princes, the uncle and the nephew, had come to an understanding. The chennga Ngakgi Wangpo was invited to Lhokha and the gongma [superior] was invited to Gönsar; the chennga himself was elevated to the see of the Palace and married the daughter of Dzongkhapa; at that time the chennga was forty-three. In this year the lotsawa [translator] of Gö [i.e., Gö Lotsawa Zhönnupel, the author of the Blue Annals] died in Selkhangtsé in lower Ön, one hundred and nine years after the death of the Tai Situ, forty-nine after that of Drakpa Gyeltsen and thirty-six after that of Drakpa Jungné; from that year iron-ox [1481] down to this year earth-dog [1538], fifty-eight years have elapsed. Then the nangso Tsokyé took over the office of lönchen [chief minister] and Rinchen Dargyé of Tön that of kazhipa.
After three years, in the year water-hare [1483], the
gongma Küngalek passed away at the age of fifty-one. The Palace ordered then a great memorial ceremony to be set up for the attainment of the perfection of his mind. Then after three years, in the year wood-snake [1485], the chief of Rinpung led the army against the chief of Gyantsé and the chief of Yün was made prisoner; such a disaster took place. The year is called the year of the defeat of Pegya in Gyangro. At the same time there arose trouble in Ü, but the
gongma himself remained the Overlord. In a general sense, he did not like contentions and at the school of Pel Chökyi Drakpa Tisi he listened to many doctrines of the great Vehicle; he held in great consideration the logicians of Tsetang and also greatly patronized the liturgical ceremonies meant to attain mystic realizations held in the Palace and in Tsetang. On the ferry of Nyangpo he erected a great iron bridge; these and other meritorious actions of this kind did he accomplish. When fifty years of age, in the year earth-monkey [1488], in the palace of Jang, the
dunggyü [lineage heir] Ngawang Trashi Drakpa was born to him. In this year, on account of the internal anarchy between the Western and Eastern Palace, Rinpung had the upper hand. The following year, in the year earth-bird [1489], the mother Dzongkhama passed away; it is the same year in which the last
dubensha passed away. The following year, the year iron-dog [1490], the Drungchen Peljor Gyelpo passed away, and the year after that, iron-boar [1491], on the second day of the sixth month, the
gongma himself; therefore, he was called the Tsenyi Rinpoché. He was then fifty-three. At that time three persons of Tel, the abbot, the
āc
ārya and the saintly king, these three, the
chenlé of Tseten, the
chedrek Chötrimpa, the
gelong [ordained monk,
bhikṣu] Samdrakpa of Drakkha, Paknyönpa of Kyisön, Sönam Drakpa of Chö, the
dzongpön [district commissioner] Nyimapa, Sanggyé Dorjé of Ser, etc., the prominent councilors of Yar, Ön and Til asked the
trülku rinpoché [precious incarnate] for his opinion. It was decided that, as long as the
dunggyü was not of age he himself should outwardly appear to be discharging the governmental duties, but in fact it was agreed to invite the
zhelngo of Rinpung, and a man was sent to Tsang as envoy to give explanations. Then the Palace of Dechen advised that Tsokyepa should come: he then came just when the funeral-ceremony was being performed in the open space in the plateau and he issued documents with the seal of regent; on account of that, in the summer of the year water-mouse [1492], all round Yarlung there were minor troubles.
In the autumn of the year water-mouse [1492], an army of Tsang under the leadership of the depa [commander] Garpa and the nangso Künga Trashi came through Yardrok, reached the core of the country and took some districts from the depas of Yargyap, Göngkar and Nel. Then a peace was signed.
The following year water-ox [1493], the Chöjé, the trülku, was elected chennga of Tel. In this year in upper Tsang, Rinchen Pelzang passed away.
The emperor of China thinking that the prince, the
chennga, was still alive, sent him envoys carrying the diploma of Wang [Ch. for “duke”]; the gifts were placed in the treasury and the ambassadors went back; also these things happened in this year. Then after two years, in the year wood-hare [1495], in Kyishö there arose an internal anarchy which led to the killing of the uncle and the nephew of the chief of Nantsé. Then on account of some malicious accusations, which were made in the year earth-horse [1498], the chief of Rinpung drove a great army of Ü and Tsang to Kyishö, and there occurred some mighty events for which the
nangso and his brother were obliged to go to Kyormolung. In the beginning of the year earth-female-sheep [1499], many officers, under the leadership of the chief of Rinpung gathered in Nedongtsé, and then installed on the throne of the Palace the
dunggyü rinpoché Ngawang Trashi, inviting him to come from Drakkha; he was twelve years old. On that occasion the chief of Rinpung, both in Tel and in Tsetang, entertained all the monks of the new school of logic and organized a great feast in which presents were individually offered and gifts to the whole community were distributed and wonderful precious things of various kinds of the time of the Chinese and the Hor [Mongols], etc., silk, tea, dresses, gold, silver, etc., difficult to reckon by common men, were donated. Then, after five years, in wood-mouse [1504], he married a daughter of Rinpung; after four years, in the year earth-dragon [1508], the
dunggyü Drowé Gönpo was born; after him also his Presence the
chennga was born. In the following year, in the year earth-snake [1509], trouble arose, on account of strife between the
desi [commander-in-chief, ruler, i.e., of the Pakmodrupa] and the chieftain and officers of Samdé, but Tsang sent a strong ambassador and the army of the
desi drew back. On account of this, it is said, the cause of the grudge between the prince and the chieftain of Rinpung, the chief and the ministers, was originated. In the following year iron-horse [1510], the
nangso Tsekyé died in Yarlung. When the funeral ceremonies were celebrated, an army led by Ngawang Namgyel was sent against Yela Dring. The Palace made every effort to check it, but the Garpa did not listen; the causes of grudge of the chief and his ministers were somehow increased. The
chennga rinpoché did not bear this and gave the following advice to the
nangso Dönyö: “This
desi of the Pakmodru, in a general sense, loves his people, then in particular the
depön [district commander], but especially you from Rinpung; therefore present him with an important estate; so it is better to find a way to remove all causes of grudge.”
The other feigned to listen, and invited the chennga and the gongma, who were in the relation of chaplain and patron, to Drakda; to them, he made all sorts of usual homage and made a show of great devotion; then as a present he offered Charlungpa. Therefore, the patron and the chaplain were not pleased. The chennga as a man of quick mind, went to Yangpachen and the gongma distributed for the most part among the different dependencies of Samyé the things of various kinds which had been given him, and offered all armors and weapons to the chenzik of the zhidak [lord of the terrain, a type of local protective divinity] and the chökyong [Dharma protector, a protective divinity tied to a particular order or lineage] as if he did not want them. At this the Garpa was dissatisfied. The following year water-monkey [1512], the Garpa died at the age of fifty, and a great funeral ceremony was openly performed. As had been established in the will, Zilnönpa from Nakartsé was called and made zhelngo.
At the end of this year water-monkey [1512], from the Palace of China were sent many Chinshi [envoys], and Goshi officers and servants, and the diploma of Wang was conferred on the Palace. Then in the year water-bird [1513], the Chöjé of Drigung, the saintly king, passed away, and the Wön
rinpoché went to Yarlung and asked the Palace for help; the Palace appointed him as delegate and he administered justice in Tsang, but since he was partial, this fact also became the cause of grudge between the prince and the
zhelngo chima of Rinpung. Then in the year wood-boar [1515], since the chief of Samdé had headed a rebellion, the army of the
desi went to Yartö, and though it was likely that it would turn into a trouble, the chief of Chongyé made a settlement and everything went well. Then the prince of Tsang censured him, saying: “Chonggyé has taken away the office of supreme judge from me, the chief of Rinpung.” He afterwards prepared a powerful army and in the Palace he made to the
desi and his ministers rude requests in a haughty manner. Then the
desi, the chief with his officers, though they were inwardly prepared, for the time being gave mild instructions, with the purpose of proving that they were true to their words; the
chennga especially stated that these disturbances were not good and many officials and noble laymen from Tsang itself presented a petition in that sense. Nevertheless, the prince of Rinpung, the chief and his officers, did not listen, and kept watchmen in the
dzong of Yarlung, beginning with the palace of the saintly king. Therefore, in the year fire-dog [1526], there arose great troubles in Ü and Tsang. At last the
desi won his cause and the boundary was marked between Kharak and Böyül Chö. On that occasion the
chennga rinpoché, the master with his disciples, went to Zadda and Lungpotsé of Chushül was placed as a guaranty of peace. For three years there was peace in Ü and Tsang and though there arose some trouble with Drigung, Khangtok, Gyakhartsé, which sided with Tsang, the peace lasted. Gyakhartsé took back again from Tsang its original territories and sided with the
desi. Then the chief of Rinpung and his followers tried an agreement with Kyishong and other chiefs who had rebelled, and in the following year, in the year fire-ox [1517], in the summer, he sent the army of his district against Gyangkhartsé. When a large force was ready, the
desi ordered a big army led by Chonggyé to be sent in Nyangtö and everything went well. The chief of Penam had sided with the
desi; for this and other reasons those who had rebelled in Ü could not succeed and the peace of one year was concluded.
In the year earth-tiger [1518], in summer, the peace was broken and then the chief of Chonggyé led an army of Ü and, through Nyangtö, went up to Tsöndü. The chief of Ganden led the army of Kyi and Pen and through Zhu and Nyé, went up to Shang. Then he set in order both Gyangtsé and Panam, and made them stable. The chiefs of Chonggyé and of Yung acted as intermediaries; an agreement between Ü and Tsang was reached and the Zilnönpa went to ask for the office of
dzongpön and a kind of settlement was made; but in spite of that the chief of Rinpung and his followers in the year water-horse [1522] gave rise to new disturbances. In the following year water-sheep [1523], no great disturbances were aroused and for many years peace was realized. In the year wood-monkey [1524], the
chennga rinpoché, at the age of seventy-two, passed away in Yangpachen and the
dunggyü, still a boy, was elevated to the dignity of
tsamché of Tel. The prince Drowé Gönpo took possession of Göngkar and, marrying the daughter of Gandenpa, he begot from her a
dunggyü and another son. Then the prince, the Drogön, beside these two sons, begot two other sons from another wife: therefore, there were a few disturbances and in the year wood-monkey [1524], there was fighting between Pakmodru and Taklung. In the following year wood-bird [1525], there was fighting between Taklung allied with Tokkhapa and Pakmodru; in the following year fire-dog [1526], with the exception of a fight between Pakmodru allied with the Yellow Hats [Gelukpas] on one side and Drigung and Taklung on the other, Ü and Tsang were in peace; then in the year iron-tiger [1530], peace was concluded between Tok and Khar on one side and the prince, the
desi, on the other and it was not violated; therefore, in that year in the upper country there arose trouble between the Red [Kagyüpas] and the Yellow Hats, and it appears that, to increase it, the
desi on one side and Tokpa and Kharpa on the other, parted again; there were, in particular, disturbances in Drigung and Ölkha; a small army of the
desi was sent to the help of Ölkha.
In this year earth-dog [1538], when the peace between Ü and Tsang was being broken, the desi did what was needed to prolong the peace, but the chief of Rinpung and his followers did not listen to him and great troubles arose.
However, there was no great acquisition or loss of territory on either side. As regards the offices which in various times were given by this Gongma, he bestowed the office of dzongpön to the Chonggyé brothers, to Gyalu of Samdé, to Ngawang Namgyel and Zilnön Dorjé of Rinpung, to Jampel of Drakkar uncle and nephew, to Dönyo Namgyel Dorjé of Ölkha, to Pema of Panam, to Rinchen Trashi of Yargyap and his brother, to Norbu Trashi of Ja, to the son of the chief of Göngkar and his brother, to Sönam Gyelpo of Ganden, to the chief of Gyelchentsé the uncle and the nephew; according to suitableness he distributed also other offices. As to his ordinary actions, he did not cause useless disturbances, except in case of offenders. He was impartial towards all religious sects and did not take away any private endowment pertaining to any community of monks whatsoever. He ordered a Kanjur to he written in golden letters, a chörten [stūpa] and a big silk tangka [appliqué tapestry] to be made; suchlike good works both as regards religion and state, did he accomplish.
[Giuseppe Tucci, trans., Deb T’er Dmar Po Gsar Ma: Tibetan Chronicles by bSod nams grags pa (Rome: Istituto Italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente, 1971), 224–234.]
The rise of the Rinpung government in 1434 had marked the emergence of a new region of power in Central Tibet, namely Zhigatsé in Tsang. From this town, the Rinpung government successfully wrested control of Central Tibet from the Pakmodrupa and began a century of conflict between Ü and Tsang. There also the Rinpung government lost power to an internal faction led by Zhingshakpa Tseten Dorjé. In the mid-sixteenth century he had been appointed stable minister at Zhigatsé, and through a series of intrigues he rallied the existing Pakmodrupa factions against the Rinpung family, eventually taking full control of the Samdruptsé fortress in 1565. With him the Rinpung government ended and the Tsangpa government began. Tseten Dorjé took the title Tsangpa Desi, under which his family would rule Tsang and major portions of Ü until 1642.
It is not clear when Tseten Dorjé died, but it is known that he had nine sons, who formed the next generation of rulers in Tsang. Three of them, Karma Tutop Namgyel, Künpang Lhawang Dorjé, and Karma Tensung Wangpo (sixteenth to seventeenth centuries) are singled out as early leaders in the wake of Tseten Dorjé’s death, though not much is known about the former two. Karma Tensung Wangpo developed allies for the Tsang government among two important groups. From the Chogthu Mongols he gained military support, and from the Karma Kagyü school he gained political support. In 1605 Karma Tensung Wangpo marched on Lhasa to repel the Tümed Mongol troops that had escorted the Fourth Dalai Lama to the city. The venture was only partly successful, for the Lhasa region remained in control of the major Gelukpa monasteries and their supporters. The ensuing years witnessed a protracted conflict between Tsang and Ü, with the Tsangpa government and the Karma Kagyü school on one side and the Gelukpa school and regional leaders around Lhasa, such as the Kyishö Depa, on the other.
Tensung Wangpo died in 1611 and was succeded by his son. Only fifteen years of age when he took control of the Tsang government, Karma Püntsok Namgyel served until his death in 1621. He also was succeeded by his son, Karma Tenkyong Wangpo (d. 1642), who led the Tsang regime until its fall to the Ganden government in 1642. Tenkyong Wangpo is perhaps the most famous of the Tsangpa Desi. He is particularly known for administering the Tibetan legal code first advocated by the Pakmodrupa leader Tai Situ Jangchup Gyeltsen. The relationship between this code and actual governance or jurisprudence is not understood at present.
Throughout the final decades of the Tsang government, Mongol factions played a continuous and decisive role in the conflict between Tsang and Ü. In 1635 Tenkyong Wangpo secured the military assistance of the Tsogtu Mongol prince Arsalang. Arsalang led troops against Lhasa, but for reasons not fully understood he appears to have had a change of heart and converted from the Karma Kagyü school to the Gelukpa school. This left Tenkyong Wangpo without a strong Mongol ally, and when the Dalai Lama and his political supporters in Lhasa formed a partnership with the Qoshot Mongol leader Gushri Khan, the Tsangpa Desi’s strategic position plummeted. Gushri Khan’s troops defeated his allies in Mongolia and Eastern Tibet, marched on the Samdruptsé fortress in 1641, and won a decisive victory in 1642. Karma Tenkyong Wangpo was imprisoned near Lhasa and executed later that year.
Little is known of the Tsang government’s administrative structure, for there is almost no documentary evidence available to contemporary scholars. Most historiography, by both Tibetans throughout the centuries and contemporary international scholars, has focused on the dramatic civil war between the Tsangpa Desi and the religious and secular leaders of the Lhasa region. The general contours of the Tsangpa government’s domain throughout Western Tibet, Tsang, and Ü no doubt conformed to the
dzong system originating in the Yuan dynasty, and the Fifth Dalai Lama, no sympathizer of the Tsang government, states that the Tsangpa Desi controlled all of Ü and Tsang. The precise boundaries of its jurisdiction and the mechanisms of its control will remain unknown until all available literary sources are analyzed and new documentary sources are made available. KRS
THE CASTLE OF THE KING OF TSANG
The central palace of the successive generations of the Kings of Tsang is the righteous mansion of Samdruptsé, the capital. The castle is like Mount Sumeru, or a heap of jewels held aloft by six stone lions at each corner. The outer door has a lioness as a guard. The outer wall with its moat is strong and fierce like a castle of demons. The heads and entrails of enemies and the eyeballs and hands of those who have broken the law are strung, causing fear and trembling. The interior doors have upon them treasuries of precious syllables like good princely houses, and the wide courtyards are paved with stone slabs white like the moon. The vestibules on every side are decorated with roofs and stairs. The central palace is as beautiful as a celestial mansion, with entrancing roofs of gold held aloft by ornate pillars, which are decorated with golden flags, parasols, and banners. The supports for the enlightened body, speech, and mind of the Buddha include all sorts of offerings to the living relics of the Buddha. The sound of the music reaches a full league, such that it is like the Pure Land of Bliss or the Buddha Realm of True Joy. Upon gold or silver thrones, the powerful Dharma King and his host of queens dwell, with an inconceivable court of ministers, vassals, knights, and officials. The castle is like the palace of the Celestial Ruler Indra. Sentinels stand on all sides, and the hosts of envoys from the Indian King Arghapa, the Chinese emperor, the six Mongol tribes, and others are as dense as bees crowded around a sweet flower.
There are four gardens located nearby the four sides of the palace. To the east is White Peak Garden, even and pleasant like the palm of one’s hand. To the south is the Auspicious Virtue Garden, which has houses, bathing pools, and flower-growing meadows, and is sonorous with the sounds of various birds. To the west is the Happy Garden, surrounded by a grove of fruit trees, calm like the Pleasure Grove of the Buddha’s disciples. To the north is the Water and Tea Garden, beautifully covered with a forest of herbs and waterfalls. The mother of this palace is Gyantsé to the east, like a lion soaring in space, and its father is Lhündruptsé, like a bowl imagined to be sitting in mid-air. It is also surrounded by other mansions such as Rinpung and Lhünchak.
Beyond these, like a wall, stand Ölka Taktsé Mansion to the east, unmoving and subduing the regions of Dakpo and Kongpo; Dowo Fort to the south, unmoving and subduing Lowo; Namgyel Lhatsé to the west, subduing Nepal and India; Sanggak Dechen to the north, subduing Mongolia and China; and the Lhasa Temple in the center, surrounded by many strong and fierce fortresses, subduing the geomantic points of the Tibetan realm.
THE FALL OF THE KING OF TSANG
The Oirat Tendzin Chögyel [Gushri Khan] launched an attack on Tsang. Before this, when a Mongol army had come, the Gyeltsap chenpo Drakpa Chokjang, at the request of the Tsang Depa [the ruler of Tsang], was able to turn it back but this time, although the Father and Son gave orders to stop, they were not able to turn them back. Through the Paṇchen Rinpoché they appealed to the Great Fifth. The Paṇchen gave a reply to the Gyelwé Wangpo [the Fifth Dalai Lama] to this effect: “I guarantee that in relations between the Gelukpa and Karmapa there is no disagreement, and I know nothing of such deeds concerning the Karmapa faith.” But although the Karmapa received a written order granting their independence, malicious people caused disturbances, and because a great war broke out the Chöjé [the Tenth Karmapa] went to Lhodrak. He recognized Küntuzangpo as the Pawo incarnation.
To his attendant Küntuzangpo he gave a bowlful of curds, a bell in a case, five pens, and a thousand rolls of paper, telling him he was needed as his personal disciple. The evil deeds of the Tsang Depa once again caused the Chöjé great concern. Although some of the ministers, because of the disgrace brought on the court, explained that they did not agree with the Tsang Depa, his purpose did not change; and when a Kongpo army arrived the Chöjé said, “This happened because you would not keep still before. Now go back and contrive to keep quiet. But if you do not obey, you yourself must bear responsibility to the Karmapa doctrine of which Tsurpu [the monastic seat of the Karmapas] is head. I am going to submit to the Great Fifth.” It was generally said that because a demon was sitting in the hearts of those leaders of the Karmapa way so that they relied on the Tsangpa and abandoned their responsibility to the Karmapa faith, the Great Fifth disregarded his order that the Karmapa faith should be independent. The Chöjé saw that the condition of ruler is like honey mixed with poison, since the Karmapa and the Tsangpa sought to combine religious rule with affairs of state and so brought about the evil deed of war, and that a wound that strikes this way into the center of the faith of one’s heart is in accordance with the repeated pronouncements of Orgyen Chenpo [Guru Padmasambhava] that by the fortunes of men nothing can be achieved.
[Anonymous, “Tsang pa sde srid karma bstan skyong dbang po’i dus su gtan la phab pa’i khrims yig zhal lce bcu drug,” in Bod kyi snga rabs khrims srol yig cha bdams bsgrigs (Lhasa: Bod ljongs mi dmangs dpe skrun khang, 1989), 91–93. Trans. KRS. See also Hugh Richardson, “Chos-dbyings rdo-rje, the Tenth Black Hat Karmapa,” in Hugh Richardson, High Peaks, Pure Earth: Collected Writings on Tibetan History and Culture (London: Serindia, 1998), 507–508.]
The Mustang region of northwestern Nepal is home to the small Buddhist kingdom of Lo Möntang. Today a political part of Nepal, from the fifteenth through the early twentieth centuries Lo Möntang was a largely independent polity with an active royal lineage. As is typical in other royal lines throughout Tibet, the kings of Mustang claim divine descent from a celestial ancestor, the divinity Ödé Gunggyel. The hallmark of a good Buddhist king, however, is not solely his heritage, but the high moral character of his leadership—and specifically his promotion of the Buddhist tradition. The kings of Lo Möntang were thus also praised as heirs to a great tradition of “religious kings” stretching back to the Tibetan imperial period when Buddhism was first introduced to the Land of Snows—benign and powerful rulers who promoted the Dharma even as they controlled and expanded their territory. In the text given here, after a mythic preamble and a genealogy of the Lo Möntang ruler’s imperial ancestry, contemporary history begins with the late fourteenth-century ruler Zhang Sherap Lama, who is credited with establishing the “two types of rule,” secular law and religious morality, in the Möntang region. Yet Zhang’s grandson, Amé Pelzangpo Gyeltsen, is the real hero of the region, for it was during his reign in the fifteenth century that the major Buddhist institutions of Möntang were established. The temples and monasteries built under Amé Pelzangpo Gyeltsen were of the Sakya school, which is understandable given the proximity of Sakya monastery in southwest Tibet to the Möntang region. By the time of the reign of his son, Aham Tsangchen Trashi Gön (d. 1489), Möntang was a major political and cultural center in western Tibet. This royal genealogy is part of a longer work, known as a molla, or roughly an “oral history,” a genre that inspired a popular form of historical writing in the Tibetan cultural regions of the western Himalayas. KRS
THE TSARANG MOLLA HISTORY OF THE LO RULERS
When the kings known as the three lords of the West were alive, they ruled the three districts of Ngari: Purang, Gugé, and Mangyul. Thus there appeared a spotless lineage of kings who, by making the Noble Dharma brightly illuminated like the day, lived up to the name “religious king.” This has been just a little about these kings and how they initiated a succession of excellent deeds that have survived as their legacy.
Concerning the lineage of the Lo kings, in early writings it is said:
Here in this country that contains all needful and desired things without exception,
This land of Lo, which possesses the splendor of perfect abundance,
There appeared this person of widespread fame: Sherap Lama of the Sky-divinity lineage.
And as it was stated there, the genealogical lineage of the Lo religious kings, masters watching over the Tibetan realm, came down from the clear-light gods. The original ancestor was the divinity Ödé Gunggyel. That forebear went from the Lha realm to the realm of the Tsen divinities. As a Tsen he was Gökhaché. From the Tsen he went to the Mu realm of divinities; as a Mu he was Khyiuchung. From the Mu he went to the human world, where he was called Mijé Gunggyel. Looking up at the sky, he saw it as the eight-spoked wheel of the sky. Looking down at the earth, he saw the earth as an eight-petaled lotus.
Looking to the sides, he saw them as an eight-sided jewel. At that time he said, “I am the master of the earth and sky,” and he established a castle on the ground, named the country and divided it into sections and divisions. Consequently, the first country was the “white earth” of Yarlung. The first castle was Ombu Lhakhar. The first clans were the six clans of Zhangzhung. The first divinity was Yarlha Shampo. And the first ruler was the one famed as Namlha Gunggyel, who became the master of both earth and sky.
He had four sons, who spread both human conventions and divine religion. Then there appeared a succession of generations in the royal lineage, and the sixty-first royal generation in this lineage whose extraordinary activities equaled the sky was Takseng Genbum. His son was called Zhang Sherap Lama.
He controlled the activities in the political domains of La and Zhang. In the latter half of his life [circa 1385], Sherap Lama ruled the lands of upper and lower Lo. He established laws of the two systems [i.e., secular and religious]. When Zhang and Shisa came into conflict, Sherap Lama defeated the glorious attacking forces and was victorious in the battle of heroes.
He had two sons, the younger of whom was Chökyongbum, who was like the war-god Gesar. Amé Pelzangpo Gyeltsen, the bodhisattva religious king, was this one’s son. About this king, Amé Pel, it is said in a prophecy by Padmasambhava:
In the land called Lo there will appear the emanation of me, the one from Orgyen.
He will be sustained by Vajrapāṇi, and famed as “Amé.”
That one will subdue many simo demons.
But even having subdued them, men will not be pleased;
Even though the simo try, they will not be able to overcome Amé Pel.
This above-mentioned exalted being had as a youth already become complete in the basic skills of intelligence, and he possessed the wealth of wisdom. From that early age he was victorious in battle. He was wise and powerful both in eliminating harmful opposition and in favoring those who deserved it. He became the master of the Ngari myriarchy. He directed the dominion. He made his headquarters fort at Khachöteng, and he built his palace at Möntang. He appointed people to official duties that were appropriate for great men, such as three to the rank of Tripön Gogo, four to the rank of Bugo, four to the rank of Gyelwa Go, and others to such positions as Lhapön, Dzongpön, and Tsopön. He also founded many towns.
Because he possessed both Buddhist religion and human conventions which contained, respectively, religious and political law, he paid respect to the Three Jewels and kindly protected the terribly destitute. He fostered the livelihood of his own people, and by his magnificence he overawed outsiders. Thus he became the master of the two classes of laws.
In particular, Amé Pel invited Ngorchen Dorjechang Künga Zangpo to Lo, and honored him as his chief religious preceptor. From him, he heard profound and vast religious instructions. Amé Pel founded the Tsarang Tupten Shedrup Dargyé Ling seminary. He established a monastic center that included more than two thousand monks who had the vows of a correct fully ordained monastic. He erected inconceivably many supports of the Conqueror’s body, speech, and mind [i.e., sacred images, scriptures, and stūpas]. He gave respectful recognition to the Buddhist monastic community and discontinued the taxation of his subjects.
Because of his accomplishing such a great service to the Doctrine, even down to the present the Three Excellent Men, the religious master Ngorchen Künga Zangpo, the king Amé Pelzangpo, and the minister Tsewang Zangpo, fill every direction with their fame. He was this excellent king, Amé Pel.
This great king had four sons, from among whom his successor was the religious king Agön Zangpo. In this valiant and heroic great being’s youth, he subdued the three regions: Mön, Ko, and Döl. He attained the position of lord who watches over the realm. He systematically appointed people to thirteen official positions that were suitable for great persons. He honored as his chief religious preceptor the third abbot of Ngor Ewam, Jamyang Sherap Gyatso [1396–1474].
He sponsored the building of the great Maitreya image and temple in Möntang; and he commissioned the making of sacred scriptures, including the Kangyur, the Tengyur, the collected works of the Five Sakya Founders, and the collected writings of Ngorchen Dorjechang Künga Zangpo, all of them being written with only powdered gold.
He sponsored the building of Drakkar Thekchen Ling monastery. He established monastic centers. He was the main force behind the restoration of those monastic centers that had declined and the expansion of those that had not deteriorated.
Because his activities in the political and religious domains were insuperable, he spread the law of the four limits. He ruled men of many different languages; consequently, the line of rulers descending from him was called Aham, and his signet was the A-seal, both of which pervaded everywhere beneath the sun.
He had four sons, from among whom his successor was Aham Tsangchen Trashi Gön [d. 1489]. By the power of his past deeds, this king’s strength was mighty, and his activities in the two spheres, religious and secular, were beyond compare. Because of that his fame permeated up to the far shores of the ocean. He subdued all lands from the three districts of Ngari down to the capital of Dru. He honored the fourth abbot of Ngor Ewam, Gyeltsap Künga Wangchuk [1424–78], and the learned master of Serdokchen, Shakya Chokden Drimé Lekpé Lodro [1428–1507],
10 as well as many other scholars and accomplished yogis, as his chief spiritual preceptors. In particular, many foreign pundits, such as Loktara, the fully ordained Indian monk and pundit who was energetic in observing his vows, came to Lo and were venerated by this king. The king also sponsored the translation of many religious teachings that had never before been translated in Tibet. By virtue of his great merit, he amassed people and many kinds of wealth from all areas within India and China.
[David P. Jackson, The Mollas of Mustang: Historical, Religious and Oratorical Traditions of the Nepalese–Tibetan Borderland (Dharamsala: Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, 1984), 145–148.]
Western Tibet, or Ngari, acquired renewed importance as a geopolitical region in relation to Central Tibet and surrounding areas since at least the tenth century. Until the seventeenth century the kingdoms of Gugé and Purang controlled large parts of the area. The story of Namgyeldé (1372–1439) is an exemplary account of the career of a Gugé king. As is typical in the origin tales of most Tibetan rulers, secular or religious, his future good works were foretold prior to his birth, and his coming into the world was greeted with much favor by celestial beings and humans alike. He was an eager student, a quick study in all subjects, and soon became an adept leader once he came of age. Namgyeldé’s rule was marked by the civil society he forged through the judicious application of laws and fair taxes, as well as the success of his military campaigns against neighboring leaders such as the Gungtang Khappas, against whom he fought and won in the 1380s, and the quelling of insurrections. This life of Namgyeldé is part of a larger genealogical history of kings of Ngari, composed by the Gugé scholar Ngawang Drakpa in 1497. KRS
PROPHECY AND BIRTH
Furthermore, according to the dream of Rekyi Lama Zangpo, the younger brother of Maryül Kyi Ngadak Rechen, when the former was at Lhotö Kaling in the Gyelsi [domain] of Ngadak Drakpadé, he predicted that a son was going to be born to the queen, who would have excellent qualities and great merit, who would be beneficial to the teachings of the Buddha and become the protector of the entire kingdom, who would rule the kingdom and exercise royal power in accordance with the three virtues. Later, in the water male rat year [1372], a son was born. His head was like a parasol. His forehead was distinguished. His eyebrows were elongated. His hands were long with lean fingers. In the palms was an auspicious mark. A four fingers high, coiled topknot of white hair was between the two eyes. His eyes and complexion were peculiarly radiant.
Everyone was extremely delighted at his birth. A feast was held, Lama’s blessings were given. Rituals were performed. All kinds of attendants, the women in the mother’s retinue, and the body of secretaries took care of him. By virtue of the absence of obstructions due to the strength of his personal merit, when he entered puberty, as he was made Lhatsün [a royal monk] in the presence of Yongkyi Khenchen Chöpel Zangpo, he was given the name Namgyel Pelzang. After he became his personal disciple, he recited the refuge formula and mantras like an adult.
YOUTH AND EDUCATION
He was gifted with extraordinary bodily strength from his childhood. Even if four children at a time, famous for their strength, would try to drag him away, they could not. When he was a youth, pulling a bow a little with the tips of his fingers, he had the strength to break its string. Also when his body stopped growing, at the time when the Toling bridge was built, he could lift with a single hand stones which not many were able to lift at all. To sum up, in displays of strength, running, jumping, archery and all other physical exercises he was equally outstanding.
He was extraordinarily quick in understanding and discriminative. As he was very rigorous and a fluent speaker, he rejoiced in reading and writing. He strove hard to promote all the religious activities of the temples and to follow the principles of ethics. When a text was written to him he evaluated it in terms of its meaning, calligraphy and implications. All his words and physical acts were in accordance with noble behavior and virtues. Needless to say he greatly respected his Lama, and father and mother, these two. He would not use ordinary words to speak to others, not even to address them with “khyö” [thou].
11 It is said that even when he was a child, his simple acts were extraordinary and always in conformity with good manners. He did not use nasty words, jokes or behave harshly to others. He never performed such actions as doing things at the wrong time, looking down on others, criticizing others, being proud, chatting senselessly, lying, slandering, hunting birds and wildlife, teasing others, being dishonest. Since he did not like
chang [ale], for about twenty-five years he did not even drink water brought from the
chang house. He dwelled only in noble acts.
RULE
On one occasion, as Namgyeldé’s elder brother Drenhardé was selected to be enthroned, he was chosen to be appointed over Purang. When all the auspicious paraphernalia and implements had been prepared and arrangements had been made to enthrone him, it was not possible to bring him to the coronation, because he had left for Tsewa, and the father … [lacuna] …
A system was devised at the borders and at the center of the kingdom and everywhere, combining royal strategy, a protective strategy and a strategy to repulse invasions. A defensive system consisting of military assignments and underground passages filled with weapons was arranged. Namgyeldé’s advice and orders were followed to the letter. Moreover, as for the issuing of laws, he updated the corpus of laws enforced by his ancestors by revising them and exercised political power in this way. Thereafter he held control of his kingdom. The prosperity of all nomad lands in the kingdom greatly increased. The herds multiplied. People often freely got together. There were no plagues or famines. Local trade prospered with an abundance of goods. The times were free from unrest. Extraordinary peace and prosperity were widespread.
In the earth-male-horse year [1379], since Dorgyel and Könchok Gönpo, who were among the Gungtang Khappas, were victorious, they captured Gyelti. While they were making preparations to invade Purang, troops were dispatched by Gugé and all the Khappas were ousted. Purang was entirely brought under the control of the Töpas [i.e., Gugé] and a regent was appointed.
After that, in the earth-female-hare year [1399], when the Leyé Jowo Lhatsün and Ödé’s kinsmen the Sheyewas jointly revolted against the Maryül Ngadak Tritsendé, as Gadak Tritsen ruled only in Zhuyül, Gugé fought its way as far as Sapola. As the rebels were captured from Leyé onwards, after all of them were subjugated, they were brought under the control of Ngadak Tritsen [Namgyeldé].
In this way, while the strict law was the necklace of the kingdom, some people disobeyed the orders of the noble lineage. When looting and stealing occurred, troops were sent and they reinstated the community of the noble lineage. As taxes had been raised higher than previously, despite having been decreased to three hundred, a minor revolt arose, as people opposed the orders. After troops were sent three times, those people were brought under control.
In brief, Namgyeldé ruled the length and breadth of the kingdom. No obscurity and unrest occurred anymore and happiness reigned in his lands. As he mainly used the Gyelpö Podrang [royal palace] at Manam, he resided there. When he had completed sixty-eight years of age he passed away amidst all sorts of auspicious signs.
[Roberto Vitali, The Kingdoms of Gu. Ge Pu.Hrang: According to Mnga’.Ris Rgyal.Rabs by Gu.Ge Mkhan.Chen Ngag.Dbang Grags.Pa (London: Serindia, 1997), 131–132.]
The most famous scholar in the Jonang school of Tibetan Buddhism, Tāranātha (1575–1634), was an expert in all things Indian, and did more than anyone else in later Tibetan history to reignite Tibetan intellectuals’ interest in the details of Indian history. Tāranātha was a critical historian, ever ready to charge his scholarly opponents with ignorance of the facts as he saw them. He also evinces a candid skepticism regarding the very possibility of writing the history of his ancient predecessors. In this it appears he was following his Indian master Buddhagupta’s counsel, for as Tāranātha tells us: “Master [Buddhagupta] says that it is difficult to establish ancient ordination lineages.” This was perhaps an understatement of the difficulties of writing a religious history of classical and medieval India, though it did not dissuade him from completing his history in 1608. In the introduction he tells the reader that he writes on India to correct the many false accounts that have preceded his. The record of the career of the late eleventh–early twelfth-century king of the Pāla dynasty, Rāmapāla, shows that Tāranātha was primarily concerned to establish a context for the lives of such important late Indian Buddhist scholars as Abhayākaragupta. Nevertheless, Tāranātha’s work remains the most significant history of India composed in Tibetan, among the most important in the premodern world. His remarks on art history, for example, continue to influence contemporary scholarship in this field. KRS
REASON FOR WRITING HISTORY
Now, scholars of documents and history
Who engage in writing narratives about the Noble Land [India]
Are like poor folks setting out their wares for sale:
They work so hard, yet we see that the material is poor.
When some scholars explain the origins of Buddhism,
We see many grave errors, so
I shall write a brief narrative to clarify such errors
For the benefit of other people.
The royal genealogies before our teacher, the totally perfect Buddha, lived in the world [are as follows]: the Vinayavastu, the Abhiniṣkramaṇasūtra, and to a certain extent the Lalitavistara should be taken as reliable. While non-Buddhist treatises contain quite a lot of genealogies of kings, teachers, and so forth, in the four ages—the Perfect, the Three-quarter Measure, the Half Measure, and the Age of Strife—they are rather contaminated with false statements, so they are difficult to rely upon in any general sense. And they do not deal exclusively with the history of the holy Dharma, and thus do not appear to be important for those striving for [Buddhism’s] pristine goal. I have not written about them, but if one should ask, What are the textual traditions of their teachers? they are: the Mahābhārata in more than one hundred thousand verses; the Rāmāyaṇa in one hundred thousand verses; the eighteen puraṇas in over one hundred thousand verses; and the Raghuvaṃśa, a treatise in ornate poetry of eighty thousand verses. Here I shall relate the history of the people working for the Buddha’s Teaching.
CHAPTER 36. THE ERA OF KING RĀMAPĀLA
The son of Hastipāla was King Rāmapāla. He was appointed to political authority when he was young, yet he was quite astute and became an exceedingly powerful person. Not long after his appointment, he invited the great master Abhayākaragupta to become abbot of Vajrāsana. Many years passed, and he invited him to become abbot of Vikramaśīla and Nālandā monasteries. During this era the traditional customs transformed. At Vikramaśīla there were approximately one hundred and sixty scholars and one thousand full-time resident monks, while five thousand ordained people might gather there for offerings.
At Vajrāsana the king supported forty Mahāyāna [monks] and two hundred śrāvaka monks as permanent residents, while from time to time ten thousand śrāvaka monks would gather. At Odantapurī one thousand Hīnayāna and Mahāyāna monks resided permanently, while from time to time it is said that twelve thousand monks would gather.
The crown jewel of the entire Mah
āy
āna tradition was Abhay
ākaragupta. The
śrāvakas also praised him, saying that he was a great supporter of monastic conduct. Please learn about the life story of this great teacher from another source. In particular, he instituted a great reformation in the teaching, and his writings subsequently spread quite far. This teacher’s straightforward texts appear even today among the Indian Mah
āy
āna followers, unsullied by the various infelicitous vernaculars of the times between then and now. This teacher and the later teacher Ratn
ākara
śānti were said to be equal in character to the great teachers of old such as Vasubandhu, the only exception being that their benefit to the Teachings and to humanity was comparatively less due to the weight of time: since the death of the earlier King Dharmap
āla, in the kingdom of Bengal, on the north side of the Ganges in such places as Ayodhy
ā, and in all places east and west of the Yamun
ā River, in Pray
āga from V
ār
āṇas
ī to M
ālava, Mathur
ā, Kuru, Pañc
āla,
Āgr
ā, Sagari, Delhi, and elsewhere, non-Buddhists—and in particular adherents of the barbarian dharma [Islam]—had grown and grown. In K
āmar
ūpa, Tirahuti, O
ḍivi
śa, and elsewhere, non-Buddhists had also increased. Only in Magadha had Buddhists increased from previous times, for monastic communities and yogic settlements had grown quite a bit.
The great teacher Abhayākaragupta, learned, compassionate, able, and highly influential, is reputed to be the last of the widely known great teachers who grasped the Teaching in its entirety, and this appears to be correct. He established in writing the ideas of the Victor and his heirs for people of later generations. So one should have more faith in his distinctive treatises than in those of teachers from the intervening period after the Six Ornaments [Nāgārjuna, Āryadeva, Asaṅga, Vasubandhu, Dignāga, Dharmakīrti], for their great eloquence is obviously a fact.
King Rāmapāla held political authority for approximately forty-six years, including some years after the death of Abhayākaragupta. Prior to his death, he appointed his son Yaksapāla to political authority. Rāmapāla died three years later, and Yaksapāla held political authority for only one year after that, until a minister named Lavasena seized power. In this period Subhākaragupta lived at Vikramaśila, and Buddhakīrti lived at Vajrāsana. According to Ga Lotsawa’s accurate history, when Ga was about to travel to Tibet, Abhayākaragupta was still alive. Ga met Abhayākaragupta, but it appears he did not have occasion to remain for any length of time. At the time he was traveling to Tibet, Lavasena held political authority. Following Yakṣasena, many people of unexceptional royal pedigree in the Pāla family arose. They may indeed exist now, yet none of them wields political authority.
CHAPTER 44. ART HISTORY
Long ago human artisans possessed of magical ability developed amazing craft traditions. Paintings of human figures were able to trick people into thinking they were real, as is clearly stated in works such as the Vinayavastu. There were many such artisans for almost one hundred years after the death of the Buddha. Then such people disappeared, and many celestial artisans manifested as humans to create Mahābodhi, Mañjuśrīdundubhīśvara, the eight wondrous holy objects of Magadha, and others. During the time of King Aśoka, demigod artists created the reliquaries of the eight great sites [of the Buddha’s life] as well as the inner circumambulation corridor at Vajrāsana. During the time of Nāgārjuna the serpent demigods produced many art objects that retained for many years the ability to trick people into thinking that they were real. Later, due to the force of time, there was no one like them, no one who understood this distinctive craft.
For a long time people of varied creativity gave rise to many different artisan traditions, yet there was no single innovator to serve as a leader. Subsequently, during the time of King Buddhapak
ṣa, an artist named Bimbas
āra produced quite amazing relief figures and paintings that were on par with those created by the celestial artisans of old. His followers were many. He was born in Magadha, so regardless of where the traditions that followed his style arose, the practitioners were known as Middle Country artists. In the era of King
Śīla, in the Maru region a very skilled artist arose known as Sragdhar
ī. He made drawings and relief sculptures on par with those of the demigods, and his style was known as the Old West tradition. In the era of King Devap
āla and Glorious Dharmap
āla, in Varendra a very skilled artist known as Dh
īm
āna arose. He had a son named Bi
ṭpalo. These two engaged in metal casting, carving, and portraiture in a manner reminiscent of the productions of the serpent demigod artists. Father and son developed distinctive artistic traditions. The son lived in Bengal, so regardless of where his followers were active, regardless of where the artists were born, their metal castings were called Eastern Gods style. As for painting, those who followed the father were known as the Eastern Painters, and those who followed the son flourished primarily in Magadha, and were thus identified as Central Region Painters.
The old artistic tradition of the Kathmandu Valley is similar to the old artistic tradition of western India. Mid-period painting and bell casting in what appears to be local Kathmandu Valley tradition is largely similar to Eastern style. A definitive late style does not appear. The early tradition in Kashmir followed the Old West and Central Region traditions. Later a person named Hasurāja initiated a new tradition of painting and relief sculpture, which these days is called Kashmir style. Wherever the Buddha’s Teaching existed, there were extremely skilled artists. Wherever the barbarians took control, artists dwindled. Wherever non-Buddhists spread, there were unskilled artists. For this reason, the traditions described above are largely nonexistent these days.
[Tāranātha, Dam pa’i chos rin po che ’phags pa’i yul du ji ltar dar ba’i tshul gsal bar ston pa dgos ’dod kun ’byung, in Rgya gar chos ’byung (Chengdu: Si khron mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 1986). Trans. KRS. See also Lama Chimpa and Alaka Chattopadhyaya, trans., Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya, ed., Tāranātha’s History of Buddhism in India (Simla: Indian Institute of Advanced Study, 1970).]
