Chapter 20

ENCOUNTERING OTHER CULTURES

During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Tibet’s relations with neighboring and more distant countries and peoples were transformed in several important ways. These changes were in part due to wide-ranging political and economic developments in Asia and in Europe, but also reflected the shifts of power within the Tibetan world that accompanied the rise of the Ganden Podrang government of the Dalai Lamas (chapters 17–18).

Of immediate import for Tibetan affairs was the decline of the Ming dynasty in China and the accompanying rise to power of a north Asian people, the Manchus, whose leaders succeeded in winning the Chinese throne and establishing China’s last imperial dynasty, the Qing (1644–1911). At the same time, there was a resurgence among the Mongols, whose chiefs began to reaffirm the ties with Tibetan Buddhism that their ancestors had cultivated earlier, during the Yuan dynasty (chapter 11). The renewal of Tibet–Mongol religious relations had important repercussions in several respects: this paved the way for the interventions of Mongol powers in Tibet itself, while the close ties as well as competition between Mongols and Manchus drew the latter into Tibetan religious and political affairs.

The political landscape in China and Mongolia was reconfigured as more distant forces entered the Asian stage. The expansion of the Russian empire in Siberia created new contacts between the czarist state and the Mongolian peoples. Some of them, such as the Buryats of Siberia and the Kalmyks, who settled near the Caspian Sea in the region of Astrakhan, were politically incorporated into Russia’s expanding domain and thus became the first Tibetan Buddhist subjects of a European power. South of Tibet, India too became subject to European colonialism, so with Britain’s rise to dominance on the subcontinent in the latter part of eighteenth century, the Tibetan relationship with India came to be transformed as well. Nepal, with new political and military prominence following the rise there of the Shah dynasty (1769), intervened in both Sino-Tibetan and Anglo-Tibetan affairs.

The present chapter examines some of the ways these developments were reflected in Tibetan writing about peoples and places outside Tibet. However, due to precisely these developments, the writers themselves were not all Tibetans. For one result of the internationalization of Tibetan religious culture in Inner Asia was that the Mongols and sometimes other peoples, such as the Monguor of Qinghai, began to use Tibetan as their language of education and culture. Though some Mongol authors of Tibetan works were read only by fellow Mongols, the writings of the most notable scholars, including those whose words are given here, were widely distributed, in some cases even printed in Lhasa itself. MTK

IMPRESSIONS OF NEPAL AND INDIA

A JOURNEY TO KATHMANDU BEFORE THE RISE OF THE SHAH DYNASTY

The Travel Guide to the Kathmandu Valley follows the trail of a Tibetan pilgrim, Chökyi Wangchuk (1584–1630), who was the Sixth Zhamar, the second most important reincarnation line of the Karma Kagyüpa school, and a major religious leader in both eastern Tibet and Tsang. The Tsang King Tenkyong Wangpo ordered him to make the trip to Kathmandu, so we may think of the journey as primarily a diplomatic mission even when the guide focuses on ethnography, philosophy, and religious centers in the valley. One of only a few of its kind, this account offers a unique first-person perspective on the southern side of the Himalayas and the cities of the Kathmandu Valley. Chökyi Wangchuk holds philosophical debates with a Hindu scholar, rides an elephant on a tour of holy sites, and meets with wealthy kings of urban Kathmandu and the humble faithful of mountain villages. Along the way he presents a cultural history of the rich religious life in the Himalayas, presenting Buddhism as a vibrant, complex phenomenon enmeshed in the cultural and social life of Tibet, Nepal, and the mountains and valleys in between.

In the following excerpt, Chökyi Wangchuk describes the city of Kathmandu, its buildings, its inhabitants, and their customs. He offers an ethnographic portrait of the valley’s social life and culture, deemed to be sufficiently different from his Tibetan homeland as to warrant detailed description. The religious practices of Kathmandu are particularly noteworthy for the Tibetan traveler, especially the practice of satī, or the immolation of wives upon their recently deceased husband’s funeral pyre. At the end of the passage we see why Chökyi Wangchuk is so interested in the religious practices of the urban Kathmandu Valley as he assesses the receptivity of the Nepalese to Buddhism. Can the Buddhist tradition flourish in Nepal, as it did in times past? For Chökyi Wangchuk the answer is a qualified yes, and one wonders what sorts of missionary activity he undertook as he jotted down notes for his travel guide. KRS

THE GEOGRAPHY AND CULTURE OF NEPAL

The country of Nepal has even terrain surrounded by lines of snowy mountains such as Jomo Trashi Tseringma [Mount Gauri-Shankar]. Even though great rivers do not fall there, rivers do meander through. All the mountains on the perimeter and most hills in the area are handsome with forests. Monkeys wander with care amid forests of fruit trees, and are kind. Fields of sal trees and sugarcane flourish.

After seeing such good qualities of the environment, [let us consider] in particular the city [of Kathmandu]. Up to now in this life of mine, I have seen nothing with my eyes that measures up to this great city. For others, I understand that compared to the great cities of India, even if one combines the three cities [of the Kathmandu Valley] they do not equal a fraction. Still, it seems to me that the rows of brick houses are not inferior to others. [To characterize the life here, we may speak of four aspects: the enjoyments of the world and the people, their wealth, law and politics, and religion.]

[First, the enjoyments of] the world and the people: The men and women are a mix of Tibetan and Indian, with the Indian aspect predominating. The men are generally tall and fair. They only wear white clothing, and they are thus clean and handsome. They do not have a great variety of jewelry, just gold necklaces and the like, but whatever they have is good quality. Even the children wear ankle bracelets that ring with the sound of small bells. Because flowers of various sorts bloom throughout the four seasons, they adorn themselves with plaits of flowers. Such are their enticing physical features. There are pipes, flutes, tambors, cymbals, round drums, copper drums, and many more besides. They have very many types of music that I did not hear. There are white and red sandalwood, many ointments mixed with other ointments as fragrant medicine, and incense. There are many types of fruits, grains, vegetables, and food and drink. The inhabitants wear smooth and soft cotton clothing and take baths that are neither cold nor hot. They have all kinds of combinations of tangible objects. Such are the qualities of the aspect of their enjoyments.

Because there are many valuable commodities from the valley like grain, sugar, silver, copper, iron, and many valuables of Indian and Tibetan origin, they are very wealthy. They are ready to enjoy food, drink, and clothing, but their customs are not excessively grandiose. Such are the qualities of their wealth aspect. They have all sorts of means for making a living, such as trade.

In particular, all people of the country provide corvée labor and pay taxes, with the exception of a few. There is little need to establish a tax for carrying or escort, so even when [workers] are building temples and palaces, they are given food and drink, and thus engage in the work. They always live at ease. Therefore even when theft or disputes occur, having been asked for the truth, the faulty are banished, punished financially, and imprisoned for a time, or in other cases their bodies are flogged. These are done only in proportion to the deception. If royal ministers, messengers, servants, and the like commit an act that is unbecoming, they are disciplined. The common people take their petitions regarding all issues of justice concerning their own actions in person before the king, and thus do not fall under the power of falsity. Such are the qualities of the aspect of law and politics.

As for the religious aspect: Some kings distribute gifts in great amounts. I have also heard tell of great offerings, such as [those made by] certain householders who offer the weight of their own body in gold, silver, and jewels. I did not see very much at all the custom of spontaneously giving to beggars. There are also deluded traditions, such as a living woman entering the fire together with her husband’s corpse. While people take refuge under all manner of worthy objects, they generally do so under heterodox gods such as Gulang. There are quite a few live offerings, in which living beings such as birds are killed, as well as offerings of flesh and blood, and performers in front of stone images of gods, liṅgas, and the like. But these should not be performed by Brahmans or most other people. Because the region is hot, the people are traditionally assiduous in bathing. In particular, the Brahmans perform their own activities, bathing, and purification. They read a little of the Vedas, study some grammar, and the like. They perform burnt offerings. They certainly do not consume alcohol or beer, or kill oxen.

There are many Brahmans born in India permanently settled in Nepal, as well as indigenous Nepalese Brahmans. There are various linguistically skilled scholars who know those two scriptural traditions [of the Indian and Nepalese Brahmans]. Except for the Brahmans themselves, there are very few who have entered the door of Dharma at all, [that is to say, they hold] the view and tenets of the others [i.e., non-Buddhist systems]. Artisans such as the goldsmiths who come to Tibet have the greatest faith in the Buddha. Apart from that, service and shrine offerings at Buddhist temples, or adherence to the Buddhist Dharma are rare. Previously there were very many Buddhist temples, distinctive shrine offerings, and stūpas. These days there is no tradition of spreading the Buddhist teachings. The circumstances do not arise either for meeting spiritual friends or for understanding the rationale [of Buddhism]. Tibetan pilgrims and the like do not inspire them to confidence in the practice of giving. While it is possible that there are secret yogins, I do not know [of any]. I did not meet a spiritual friend who was cultured, well read, or learned in skillful means. Such is the case in terms of those qualities. Because the people are small of mind but clear in their senses, by reason of qualities such as these, they express their faith in the king every month and every year. I see a situation in which they will be easy to lead, if they are guided with skillful means. When [the people] first see us, [they think it is] nothing more than an illusion, after which their expression is somewhat pleased, and finally they make prostrations. It is impossible for a person not to have an attitude of faith, as I have seen. Such are the qualities of the religious aspect.

[Bal yul du bgrod ba’i lam yig nor bu spel ma’i ’phreng ba, 48 folios. Nepal-German Manuscript Preservation Project, Reel No. L387/3. Folios 42b–45a.4. Trans. KRS.]

A TRIP TO THE BROKEN HEARTLAND OF BUDDHISM

For centuries Tibetan Buddhists looked to India as the homeland of Buddhism, for it was there that Tibetan intellectuals, translators, and religious revivalists traveled in the eleventh and twelfth centuries to work with Indian Buddhist scholars in translating classic Buddhist scriptures from Sanskrit into Tibetan (chapters 6–7). These travelers also went on pilgrimage to the places in northern India where the Buddha lived and taught. None was more famous than the location traditionally held to be the site of the Buddha’s enlightement, Vajrāsana, or the “Diamond Throne,” in Bodhgayā in the present-day Indian state of Bihar. Vajrāsana celebrates the singular act that began the Buddhist tradition, the Buddha’s complete liberation and transformation of consciousness. No other site could serve so well as a focal point for the Buddhist tradition, reminding Tibetans of their glorious Indian Buddhist heritage. Tibetan travelers journeyed to Vajrāsana continously from the twelfth through the sixteenth centuries, as travel accounts show, long after standard histories of Buddhism date the decline of the tradition, in the early thirteenth century. (See, for example, the account of Ra Lotsawa in chapter 6.) Yet by the mid-eighteenth century Vajrāsana had passed into legend even for Tibetans, and very few appear to have made the trek down through the Himalayan range to the plains of India. One late traveler did make it to Vajrāsana in the early 1740s, only to find that the once exalted source of the Buddhist tradition had faded into distant memory. His 1742 account of the journey and what he beheld, Cluster of Faith: Travelogue of Garsha Yogin Sönam Rapgyé’s Good Encounter with Glorious Vajrāsana, Center of the Noble Land, portrays a land fallen from glory in Tibetan eyes. At the end of his account, Sönam Rapgyé draws an important moral from his tale: Tibetans are the sentinels of Buddhism, for the tradition is long gone in India. KRS

So, I will write a brief place guide for Vajrāsana in India. First, our Teacher, the totally perfected Buddha, came into the world, and then turned the Dharma wheel of the four truths three times at the apex of Jambudvīpa, Vajrāsana in India, and thus made that place into a totally pure field for disciples. Finally, he passed into a state of space and wisdom. From that time up to the present day, translators have successively come and translated the holy Dharma of India into Tibetan, and also described in detail the good conditions of Glorious Vajrāsana. Even so, in the present day there is no one who has gone to visit, and based upon the rare people who have described conditions of dilapidation and so forth, there is need to go. On the order of Glorious Omniscient Drukpa,1 I, Garshapa Sönam Rapgyé, prepared to go, and set out on the fifth day of the seventh month of the water-monkey year (1742).

So, after finishing with the Tibetan territory, we came to Nepalese soil. These days Yambu and Gorkha are at war in Nepal, and we encountered this.² We two fell into the hands of the Gorkha, and they stripped us naked. They took a very important rosary—the pledge of the Venerable Omniscient Drukpa—on my arm; the gold, silver, clothing, silk, cloth, and cooking and eating utensils that we had on us; and finally our salt, fat, and butter, and then left. Nevertheless, since it said that one sacrifices even life for the Dharma, according to the instruction of our precious master, we finally came to Svayambhū Stūpa in the Kathmandu Valley and made prayers.

Then we turned to look south and went on. From Tausiri we crossed a pass, and then went through Magakhusa, Khani, Tangnyen, and then the Nepalese territory was finished. We crossed a very big pass, then went to Sauri, where they said, “A road tax is mandatory.” Then we went through Dzudzur and Bamani, and the valleys and ravines were all finished. There was not even a bump of a hill. We arrived in Bhayapur, and there as well they said, “A road tax is mandatory.” “We do not have it,” we replied. So they fleeced us, made all our long hair thin [from searching through it for valuables], and we went on. Then a bad yogin at times took our leopard skin and at times took a rosary and would not give it back. Again and again he struck the ground and gave us grief. Many villagers assembled and said, “Don’t do that. Let’s send them on their way.” So being sent, at about midday we hit the road. From there we did not go on the main road to Rirahuri, as the risk was great. Instead we took the short route.

For about two days after that, we traveled amid empty hills with only grass, and there was a great fear of tigers. It was rumored that “unless you have eight or nine companions, you will not be able to go.” Because we had only found one companion, an ācārya, he said, “I want to go, but I am not able.” Deceiving him with special means, I said, “You must be certain of the road; I possess an instruction to ensure that one will not be harmed by tigers.” He was confident, and we took up company and went on.

So we arrived at Bhila, where we were again fleeced. Still we looked onward. From there we traveled one day, and came upon a ferry. “If you do not have silver or gold for the ferry fee, you will not be allowed,” said the boatman. Everything we had left was exhausted, and we could not continue. We begged for alms for two days and spent it all on the boat fee. Still, we were carried on the ferry. Then at Muridhari they said, “You need to pay a road tax.” “We do not have it,” we replied, and they unloosed our hair and made it thin. Still we looked onward.… Beyond that we went half a day and again met a ferry. We spent two days’ provisions on the ferry fee and were carried across.

Then we went through Surjapo, and then to Mepi. Here were many people with no virtue distinguished from sin standing around, assembled at the foot of a tree. When they saw us two, like a hunter seeing a deer, all dispersed and came over. They fleeced us and searched us closely. “Tell us where the gold is!” they said. “If you do not show us, we will throw you into the water.” They bound us with an animal rope and prepared to throw us into the water. Then they led us a little way from the group and repeatedly said, “Show us!” “Well then,” they said, “we will cut your throats!” And they put a sword close to our necks. Then they knew we had no gold, and they stole our meditation belts, our sashes, and our small knives. The tips of our staves had iron, so they also stole those. Our Manggar knife also cut wood, so they stole that. After stealing our things, they said, “If you are lucky, we will kill you!” Two held me tight and did not release me, and they beat my companion many times. “I cannot bear the beating, I’m done for!” I said, and they threw dust at my head. Then they searched us three more times, but the people searching could not keep it up. Again we came to a riverbank, and there again they said, “You need to pay a road tax.” For one day we were not released from the checkpoint.

Then we arrived at Lalagan. From there onward there were no robbers. Then Hajipur, and then we came to the river Ganges. The Ganges flows from west to east. Just at the ferry departure is the royal gate to Magadha. Previously, when the Buddha lived, it was called Magadha. These days it is called Pathan. For a half-day’s travel in all directions, it is completely [inhabited by] Hata people. We inquired about the name Magadha, but there was not even an elder anywhere who could identify it. At present, the chief of Pathan is an outsider [Muslim] Nawab.

Then we asked about Vajrāsana, but again could find no one who could explain where it was. Then we turned south and traveled for four days. We questioned an old Brahman, and he said, “You wander west somewhat, then you need to go east.” Well, we asked him to explain in detail, and he replied, “Now from here beyond, the names of the regions are Bharacakan, Bitho, Manpur, Barapur, and then Gaya. There are very powerful Hata fortresses and the like. Then in half a day you will come to Vajrāsana.” And just as he said, we arrived at Vajrāsana and our thoughts were joyful.

But everything except the central gandhola temple was destroyed.3 We were depressed! The entry vestibule was three-tiered, and about half of the first story was extant; the upper two had fallen and were not there. From the right and left of the entry vestibule upward there was a stone staircase of about thirty-seven steps. Above that there is a place for performing circumambulation of the gandhola. West, behind the body, i.e., the gandhola, stands the wonderful, one and only bodhi tree. At the four corners of the gandhola there were four gandholas like the central gandhola. Two were about half there, and of the other two there was no trace. Inside the gandhola there was a stone statue of Buddha Śākyamuni, but in the front of that as a replacment stands an ill-formed one-story-tall statue of Jagannātha, a god of the ācāryas’ [i.e., Hindus’] tradition. These days the landlord of Vajrāsana is an Indian ascetic, a sannyāsin, with great qualities. In his entourage there are about seventy sannyāsins.…

On the east side of that gandhola is the Nairañjana River, where Buddha practiced austerities, but even the stone statues of him teaching these have been destroyed by heretics and no longer exist. If one travels four days east of Vajrāsana, one comes to the glorious Nālandā University, but there is nothing there apart from some broken bits of brick and mounds. At Vulture Peak [in Rajgir] there is the Buddha’s throne, which is self-created, and many stone statues made by artisans. In the temple there is a non-Buddhist statue of a liṅgam and yoni, and people pray to that. As for the city named Serkya [in Tibetan], or Kapilavastu [in Sanskrit], there was no one who could explain it. These days the place names are translated into vernacular, and that is what is in use. If one travels eight or nine days west of Vajrāsana there is Vārāṇasī, where the Buddha turned the wheel of religion. The non-Buddhists call it Banarashi [Benares]. The insider Buddhists say Kāśī. There are also amazing places there. Furthermore, according to the pilgrims at Vajrāsana, the conditions in Magadha are not good compared to other regions in India.…

At first India was called Hetha; these days it is called Madhyadeśa [the Central Land]. At first insiders were on the path to enlightenment; these days they are called Hindu. At first the outsiders were on Siva’s path, and these days they are called Muslims. Thus, broken statues and stūpas cover the ground in Vajrāsana.…

Alas! Buddhism has faded.

When the sun fades it shines once again, but

When Buddhism fades, revival is difficult.

We in Tibet must be the sentinels of the Teaching.…

[’Phags pa’i yul dbus dpal rdo rje gdan du garsha’i rnal ’byor pa bsod nams rab rgyas kyis legs par mjal ba’i lam yig dad pa’i snye ma. Manuscript held at the Toyo Bunko Library, Tokyo. Composed 1742. Trans. KRS.]

JIKMÉ LINGPA’S INDIAN DISCOURSES

Among the most influential and colorful religious leaders of eighteenth-century Tibet, Jikmé Lingpa (1730–98) was a scholar, poet, and visionary “treasure revealer” (tertön) of the Nyingmapa order, to whom disciples flocked from the length and breadth of the Tibetan world. Such was his reputation as a master of tantric rites that the Tibetan government sought his assistance to ritually dispel the military threat posed by the rising power of the newly founded Shah dynasty in Nepal. The inspired system of religious practice that he promulgated, entitled the Seminal Heart of the Great Expanse (Longchen Nyingtik), remains the fundamental approach to spiritual discipline for many Nyingmapa in all parts of Tibet today.

Although Jikmé Lingpa did not travel beyond Central Tibet, he attentively recorded information gleaned from his widespread network of students and religious associates. One of these was a highly placed member of the Bhutanese clergy, Jangchup Gyeltsen (b. ca. 1716), who had traveled in India, including the growing colony of the British East India Company in Bengal. His testimony about the places he visited, and some he only heard about, became the basis for his master’s work Indian Discourses, from which the present selections are drawn. Reflected here, as also in several of the texts given later in this chapter, is an apparently growing interest among the eighteenth-century Tibetan intelligentsia in expanding their knowledge of neighboring countries and lands farther afield. Particularly noteworthy are lists of products that may have been attractive to Tibetans, or at least aroused their curiosity, often mentioned in the original text using their Indian names. MTK

Now this southern continent of Jambudvīpa is in the shape of a shoulder blade, or a chariot, [close to] whose larger edge [on the north is situated] Mount Sumeru and [around] whose smaller edge [to the south] is the encircling rim of the ocean. The manner of this has been explained in the Kūṭāgarasūtra as follows:

“Ānanda, do you see Jambudvīpa?”

“Oh reverend one, I see it.”

“The continent of Jambudvīpa is seven thousand yojanas⁴ in width and also seven thousand yojanas in length, the width to the north being greater [than the width to the south]. The shape of the southern [continent] is a chariot.”

So it is said, and moreover India, Kashmir, and Persia, these three, are the “handle” of the scapula; the Tibetan regions are the concave center of the scapula; China, Nanzhao [in Yunnan], and the Hor [Mongolian] regions are the upper edge of the scapula; and on its perimeter are situated the thirty-six barbarian frontier regions.

Among these [barbarian frontier regions] is the so-called Southern Mön [country of] Four Approaches (i.e., Bhutan) on the borders of India and Tibet, and its frontier trade marts are as follows, reckoning Punakha as the center: Dungsamkha in the east, Paksamkha in the south, Dalingkha in the west, and Taktsekha in the north. From the first three of these four there are many points of access to India, and so on.

Proceeding directly south from Amratalla, [one arrives] at the borders of Assam where there is a sacred site called Singri whose outer form is a stūpa, and within the stūpa there appears a lake in the center of which there is a stone image of the Teacher [Śākyamuni]. Although formerly the image was actually visible, in later times it sank into the lake so that if one searches for it with one’s hand its head ornament is touched. In the center of the nearby [courtyard] of paving stones there is an embellic myrobalan tree which is said to have been born from a single hair left there by the Buddha.

East of that place are the districts of Assam, which consist of both hills and plains wherein are found elephants, wild buffaloes, snakes, and so forth. And the special products of the inhabitants include Indian silk bearing the designs of wheels, elephants, and flowers; copper products including dishes, water pitchers, round-bottomed pots, drinking pots, also narrow-waisted spittoons; and objects of bone including shields made of ivory, fans, back scratchers, little boxes with many compartments, elephant tusks, and the like; and parasols and fans made of peacock [feathers]—[these and] other things are produced. Although gold is said to be produced in their country, there is much movement of all the Tibetan gold to the annual border trade marts. There are even people with tails and large ears on the borders of Ngari [western Tibet].

The Lohitya [tributary] of the Brahmaputra flows from Gyala in Kongpo to the Lopa country and to Greater and Lesser Pemakö, and then it circles round Tsari.5 On the border of India and China it flows down to the central region of Assam through the country of the Lo Khaptra. On a certain path in the lower country Indians are to be seen from across a great seasonal river going to and fro on a hillside opposite.⁶

In the rocky mountains where the eastern borders of Assam come to an end [there live] the [tribes] of the Lopa called Khaptra and Gidu, whose sons cut off the heads of their mothers as wedding gifts for their brides when they get married. They use the mithan [a type of ox] as their principal object of wealth and sustenance.

Even during the kalpa that has not been abandoned by the Sage [Śākyamuni],7

There are those who devour their mothers’ flesh and who have the mentality of animals,

Taking no pleasure in the coming of the Buddha,

And the karmic result of this maddens those who have full mental faculties.

In connection with this the Gidu declare: “We were originally of the race of demons and so we enjoyed human flesh and blood. However, the Teacher Guru [Padmasambhava] prohibited it, and so our chief and the Guru had a contest of magic. When they fired arrows at rocks there was no difference [between them. However,] when the Teacher Guru departed [flying] into the sky, [our chief] could not compete, and it is said that the binding of our leg calves and forearms with thread made of the long hairs of the yak is a symbol of our having been forced to take an oath [of allegiance to the Guru and the Buddhist teachings]. When we were being bound to the command not to eat human flesh, we said we would not find any food. So the Teacher Guru fetched the seed of the male and female mithan from the sky and saying, ‘Enjoy its milk!’ he gave it to us for our allotted food. From then on [the mithan] proliferated.”

A high price is paid for it [the mithan], and on spreading through the trade marts of the eastern border [the cow-mithan hybrids] are called “jatsa.”

Due [south-]west of Singri are the presently renowned Kuśinagara [Hajo, near the Assamese capital of Gauhati] and Gṛdhrakūṭa. If one goes three days’ journey due north of Kuśinagara one arrives at the place called Dewatang [in] Dungsam. A forest having all of the three fruits including the chebulic myrobalan, also eaglewood, fir, Bengal quince, and the like [is to be found there]. The river valley of the Lohitya runs by the place called Dewatang [in] Dungsam even up to the major trade marts of Assam existing there called Banska or Kāmrūp. In those Indian frontier districts grow the Bengal quince, Indian laburnum, marsh nuts, … pomegranates, malabar nuts, bananas, black pepper, long pepper, cubeb, creepers, moonseed, hemp, hellebore, and so forth.

In a rocky fastness to the south [reached] by traversing Assam there is a petty kingdom called Garo. The large dishes made of bronze which show [a design of] the heavens come from there. On the borders of their country a great river valley runs westward from the east.

At the point where [that river] arrives at Calcutta, the British [Ferengi, lit. Franks] take to round ships which are not fixed with iron nails but instead bound with strips of bamboo twenty spans in length, and they depart for trade to China. Although the Chinese do not let them proceed to Beijing, they have given them a place [at Canton] for the transaction of their trade, and so at that place there is a meeting of both India and China. On account of that it is said that in India there are all the products of China.

[Michael Aris, ’Jigs-med-gling-pa’s “Discourse on India” of 1789: A Critical Edition and Annotated Translation of the lHo-phyogs rgya-gar-gyi gtam brtag-pa brgyad-kyi me-long (Tokyo: The International Institute for Buddhist Studies, 1995), 17–23. Edited by MTK.]

INTERSECTIONS WITH MONGOLIA AND CHINA

THE RENEWAL OF MONGOL-TIBETAN RELATIONS: DHARMATĀLA’S HISTORY OF BUDDHISM IN MONGOLIA

In 1889 the Mongol monk Dharmatāla wrote A Rosary of White Lotuses: Being the Clear Account of How the Precious Teaching of Buddha Appeared and Spread in the Great Mongol Country. It is a teleological account of the successful diffusion of the Gelukpa teachings, incorporating important figures in the history of Buddhism from the time of the Buddha through the Tibetan, Mongol, and Chinese Ming imperial periods and up to the end of the nineteenth century. The spread of Buddhism is clearly described here as missionary activity, converting peoples who previously practiced barbaric, shamanistic rituals to a virtuous new religion. The earlier practices are described twice here as the sacrifice of live animals to ongghod, the images used in Mongol shamanism to represent the ancestral spirits. The first time concerns the period after the retreat of the Mongols, during the reign of Toghon Timur, from their empire based in Beijing (which ended in 1368), where the Mongol rulers had supported Tibetan Buddhism wholeheartedly. Once the Mongols returned to the grasslands of Mongolia, they reverted to the shamanic practices.

Since this work was written by a Mongol lama of the Gelukpa order, he particularly celebrated the growth of the Gelukpa, or Yellow Hat, tradition, paying special attention to the role of Shakya Yeshé (1354–1435), also known as Jamchen Chöjé, who was a close disciple of the founder of the tradition, Tsongkhapa (see chapter 16). Jamchen Chöjé traveled twice to Beijing to serve the emperor, establishing Sera monastery in Lhasa between journeys. He died in Beijing on his second trip. For Dharmatāla, his ability to teach people to say the maṇi prayer (dedicated to Avalokiteśvara) and the Miktsema (a salutation to Tsongkhapa that has been called the creed of the Gelukpa) marked his time in China as the beginning of the successful spread of the faith.

The author then traces the connections between Buddhist teachers and the Mongol royal family to Altan Khan (1507–82), who met the Gelukpa lama Sönam Gyatso near Kokonor in 1578. For Dharmatāla, Mongolia (Tib. Hor) included the regions around Kokonor, which are now mostly seen as culturally Tibetan and described as part of Amdo. In this religious narrative, Altan Khan’s heritage linked him not only back to Chinggis Khan but also all the way back to the time of the Buddha, and then continuously through the Tibetan, Mongol, and Chinese Ming rulers (such as the Yongle emperor, r. 1403–25) who had supported Tibetan Buddhism. The chief mechanism of connection between lamas and royalty is described here as the Preceptor-Protector bond, in which the secular ruler supports and protects Buddhism in return for being educated and legitimized by the Tibetan lamas. GT

The year in which Jamchen Chöjé went to Beijing (= 1414) was the fourth year of the Telbik Khan of Mongolia, the seventh of the twenty-one kings who followed Toghan Temür after his loss of the capital of China [1368]. The petty kings never invited the precious incarnates from Tibet to continue the great work for the Teaching. Instead, most of them worshipped ongghot and gloated over their customs—which were the ones of both the living and the dead—and included such practices as ritual killing of living beings etc., all of them non-virtuous. However, by the compassion of Jamchen Chöjé and his spiritual sons and disciples, they eventually took to the Gelukpa faith and teachings, and the beliefs of Jé Rinpoché [Tsongkhapa] triumphed. Many appeared who made efforts to recite the maṇi and the Miktsema. Also, step by step, many [converts] decided to set up temples and [shrines of the] Three Indispensables [representations of the Buddha’s body, speech, and mind]. The time of the greatest spread of the precious teachings of the Second Buddha [Tsongkhapa] was nigh.…

The Heaven-Appointed King Chinggis was followed by twenty-seven or twenty-eight greater and lesser kings. The sixteenth in that succession was Batu Möngké Dayan [Khan], who had eleven sons. The third of them was Barsu Bolod, from whose lineage there descended Altan Khan of Mongolia, the ruler of the twelve tribes of Tümed and the manifestation of Vajrapāṇi. During the reign of the Tümen Jasak [Altan Khan], the nineteenth king of Mongolia, Sönam Gyatso the Third Gyelwang [Dalai Lama]—He Who Held the White Lotus in his Hand—was invited from Tibet the Snowland to Mongolia. It was he who laid the foundations for the spread of the Yellow Hat teachings.

The one who invited him, Altan Khan the Great Protector of the Teaching, was himself the secret and mighty Lord Vajrapāṇi, manifested in this country in human shape, ever caring for the Teaching and sentient beings [from the time of the Buddha, when he was a king, through to the Tibetan imperial period when he was twice a royal prince and later the man who killed the last “anti-Buddhist” emperor, Lang Darma, to the period of the second diffusion of Buddhism in Tibet, when he was both a disciple of Atiśa and a treasure discover, and then to the Mongol imperial period, when he was Qubilai Khan, and finally to the early days of the Gelukpa tradition, when he was the teacher of the Second Dalai Lama].8 Thus, Altan Khan was first Chinggis Khan, and had the Preceptor-Protector relationship with Sakya (Paṇḍita) Kunga Gyeltsen, therefore starting the spread of the Teaching.⁹ Later on he became Qubilai [Khan], entered the Preceptor-Protector bond with Pakpa the Protector, and worked for the spread of the Teaching. Then he became Yongle, entered the Preceptor-Protector relationship with Jamchen Chöjé, and laid the foundations for the [subsequent spread of the] Gelukpa teachings. Still later, having entered the Preceptor-Protector relationship with the Gyelwang Rinpoché (= The Third Dalai Lama), he made great efforts to spread this teaching. These efforts are described herein.…

In particular, in days of old, he (The Third Dalai Lama), was Sakya (Paṇḍita) Kunga Gyeltsen and held the Preceptor-Protector bond with King Chinggis the Turner of the Wheel of Power. He thus started the spread of Teachings in the Mongol lands. By [the power of] of his compassion, this spread has been ever-progressing, greater and greater, and has continued until this day. This process, however, had its ups and downs, as the Mongols continued to worship, and made sacrifices with killing to the ongghod. In order to terminate these abominable customs, he took birth as the Gyelwa Sönam Gyatso, went to Mongolia, and entered the Preceptor-Protector bond with Altan Khan, thus causing a great flourishing of the Teaching.

[Damchø Gyatsho Dharmatāla, Rosary of White Lotuses, being the Clear Account of how the Precious Teaching of Buddha Appeared and Spread in the Great Hor Country, trans. and annotated by Piotr Klafkowski (Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1987), 219–222.]

A DESCRIPTION OF CHINA

This is the earliest example of a relatively modern Tibetan geography of the world, in that it deals with places and nations across Eurasia. However, there remains a clear emphasis on traditional elements of sacred geography, such as the importance of China’s being associated with the abode of the bodhisattva Mañjuśrī, also known as Mañjughoṣa. Thus, the description of China opens with scriptural quotations that describe this association, as well as the more recent prophecy that led Tibetans to identify the Manchu emperors of China with the bodhisattva. However, Sumpa Khenpo, a Mongol from the royal family ruling in the Qinghai or Kokonor region (called here the Blue Lake), had actually traveled to China and brought to light new information on its divisions and geography, and the habits and lifestyle of the Chinese. In this context, it is especially interesting that the lama fails to mention the province of Gansu, newly created in 1667, but only gradually converted from a system of military garrisons into regularly administered counties, especially after 1724. At the time Sumpa Khenpo wrote this text, the new territories were for the most part not yet under the jurisdiction of the civil administration. Thus, his failure to mention Gansu may well reflect the lived experience of Mongols from the border regions, who encountered Chinese state garrisons but did not live under regular Qing imperial civil administration. In fact, the division of China into thirteen provinces and the breakdown of these that Sumpa Khenpo actually provides reflect the Ming dynasty’s organization of the Chinese empire, whereas the modern Qing division of the empire into eighteen provinces is mentioned without specifying just what these eighteen were.

In any case, it is clear from this account that Amdo and Central Tibet were not thought of as parts of China in any way. The status of some Mongols (such as the Oirat of the Blue Lake region, who lived “on the west side of China”) in relation to the Chinese state is more ambiguous, a reflection of their history as a group that submitted to the Qing in the seventeenth century and was defeated militarily after an uprising in the early eighteenth, yet still lived outside any regular Chinese province and under the rule of their hereditary leaders. But most of the Mongols are clearly stated to live outside China. Sumpa Khenpo sometimes calls the rulers of China by their ethnonyms, Manchu and Jurchens (the original name of the Manchus before they took the ethnonym that so closely resembled the name of the bodhisattva Mañjuśrī). At other times, he simply calls them Chinese, for instance when he describes how the “Chinese” (meaning the Manchu rulers of China) forced the hairstyle of the long braid (and shaved forehead) known as the queue on all direct subjects of China proper, but not on the frontier peoples such as the Mongols and Tibetans. Finally, those here called “Mongwol,” who lived in Mongol-style yurts as “houses,” must be synonymous with the people now known as “Monguor,” who live in a band stretching from north of Xining to west of Lanzhou. This area was considered to be beyond, that is, outside of both China and Amdo; thus it was a frontier region between the neighboring cultural and political entities. GT

As for China, in the Mañjuśrī Tantra it says: “Reigning throughout the entire country of China, is the king Heart of Wealth …” and so forth, adding that “the great Bodhisattva Hero Mañjughoṣa in that pure country is directly perceived as a great light and resides [there] in the form of a child.” According to the prophecies: “The chief lord [i.e., the emperor of China], identical with Mañjughoṣa, explicitly acts for the benefit of beings in that place.” In another sūtra it also says, “In the far east, there is the Clear and Cold Mountain [Ch. Qingliang shan],” and “There is the mountain known as ‘The Five-Peaked Mountain’ [Ch. Wutai shan].”

With respect to that Chinese country, there are two, a greater and a smaller. The residence of its king is not fixed, and although previously whether kings were Chinese or Mongol was also not fixed, nowadays, since the Manchu Jurchen king resides in the three-ringed fortified city of Beijing, he controls China. These days, Beijing’s palace has been made the center of the domain of China: to its east—Shandong and Zhejiang; in the southeast—[Fu]jian; in the southern uplands—Guangxi; to the south—Nanjing [capital of Jiangsu province], Jiangxi, and Guangdong; in the southern lowlands—Huguang and Henan; to [Beijing’s] southwest—Shanxi, Sichuan, Guizhou, Yunnan, and so forth; these are called the thirteen, and nowadays the eighteen, provinces.10

From ancient times up to the present, there have been four great palaces as dwellings for the respective royal dynasties, five middle-sized ones, and seven smaller ones. In that land, there are five great mountains, four great exalted mountains, four river valleys with unfordable rivers, five great lakes, and many other amazing mountains and rivers. There are the great, middling, and small-size cities, two thousand in all, for the benefit of the two races [Manchu and Han]. In that country, trade is carried out with gold, silver, and bronze tamkha [coins]; silk fabric; soft cotton; and tea and tobacco. Although previously, unshorn locks were worn by the Chinese, now everyone wears the queue. The summer heat is also great, but in China the winter is definitely mild. They wear various satin, soft cotton, or woolen clothes, and leather. They take pleasure in the foodstuffs of meats and vegetables: garlic, onions, radishes; tea and “tobacco water.”¹¹

As for religious traditions, the Jina’s teachings [Buddhism], Bön [Daoism], and the worldly teaching tradition [Confucianism] have spread. Wutai, one of the four exalted mountains, being about seven days’ journey to the west of Beijing, called “Cool,”¹² the actual abode of Mañjuśrī Lion [i.e., King] of Speech, is the Five-Peaked Mountain. There the King of Religion who had passed beyond suffering [Aśoka] caused many great and small stūpas to appear, the chief of which was the white stūpa. Moreover, there are excellent holy objects of worship in the many temples of the Tibetan venerable ones and the Chinese monks. In that place, even in public, the faithful and fortunate ones have personally encountered Mañjuśrī or seen visual appearances of varieties of manifestations. This is a place of extremely great blessings, immeasurable distinctive qualities, such as sightings by most people of the radiance of Venus-like night lights.

West of there, near the fortified city of Ningxia, there are also said to be the Prophetic Bull Horn Mountain and Masāla Stūpa. However, with respect to the reality of the above statement, it is also said that they are on the border of Nepal and Tibet; with respect to those places, the sūtras say the same and that is the way things are.

On the west side of China, in the Blue Lake country, there is the Right Wing of the Oirat Mongols.13 From the boundary of that community’s western side, up to the limits of Ü-Tsang [Central Tibet] there is more than a month’s passage across a wilderness unpeopled except by wild yaks, yellow bears, antelope, wild ass, Hodgson’s gazelle, and ravens.

Beyond China and Amdo, the majority of the Mongol people shelter in clusters of small tents, but there are also the Mongwols¹⁴ who keep houses, the Forty-nine Great Tribes; these days they gather in six great assemblies. There is also the remaining part of Chinggis Khan’s community, the eight Tribes of Chahar, who all revere the teachings of Jé Tsongkhapa. Beyond those, there are the seven tribes of four communities of Khalkha, who have faith in the Geluk and also the Jonang traditions. West of them outside the wall of China’s border regions, there are the four Tribes of Oirat Mongols. They belong to the same lineage as those Mongols of the Blue Lake and Alak shan (Mong. Alashan, in western Inner Mongolia), and they only venerate the Yellow Hat tradition.

[Sum pa mkhen po, ’Dzam gling spyi bshad (Bod rang skyong ljongs spyi tshogs tshan rig khang, 1986), 28 l. 3–30 l. 5. Trans. GT.]

FROM A GUIDEBOOK TO THE FIVE-PEAKED MOUNTAIN

This passage is drawn from the second and later of two extant Qing-period Tibetan-language guidebooks to the Chinese Buddhist mountain and sacred abode of the bodhisattva Mañjuśrī known as Wutai shan (Five-Terrace Mountain when translated from the Chinese, since the “peaks” are actually flat-topped). Because of its high altitude and pristine environment, the mountain was also known as Mount Clear and Cool, from the Chinese Qingliang shan. With its highest altitude over 10,000 feet, it was a popular site for Tibetan Buddhists at the court in Beijing, where summer weather was unpleasantly warm and humid. The mountain is also famous for its unusual displays of lights, associated with Mañjuśrī, as are well attested in this passage. An earlier account, started (if not finished) by the Monguor lama Changkya Rölpé Dorjé (1717–86), is justifiably famous, but seems to have been modeled on, if not completely translated from, earlier Chinese versions. The passages translated here are more innovative in that they describe the contemporary visits of Tibetan Buddhist lamas to the mountain as late as 1827, which seems to be around the time this work was completed. Unfortunately, we know little about the author except what can be guessed from the colophon, which mentions his association with monks with the (Chinese-derived) surnames Yang and Ci. Tibetan Buddhists (whether they be ethnically Tibetan, Mongol, Monguor, or even Chinese) with such surnames are most commonly found on the frontier of China proper and in Amdo, from Xining in an arc east and south to Coné in southern Gansu. Thus, this author was probably from Amdo, which is also the origin of most of the incarnations described here as having visited the mountain. Lamas such as the Mindröl Nominhan of Serkhok (Tsenpo) monastery, north of Xining, and Rakho Khutugtu from Kumbum monastery, south of Xining, held important bureaucratic posts in the Qing imperial state, with estates in both Amdo and Beijing. Other lamas without such positions, such as the Minyak Khutugtu, also from Kumbum, and the Dewa Khutugtu from Labrang monastery also made the journey.

One of the remarkable aspects of this mountain was its power to attract pilgrims from distant lands, such as the Jibzundampa, the leading lama of Outer or Khalkha Mongolia (described here as the Tāranātha Trülku Rinpoché, as he was considered an incarnation of the famous teacher and historian Tāranātha, on whom see chapter 11) and an important incarnation from Ngari in western Tibet, near the border with India. Qing nobility with such titles as Wang, Beile, Beise, Jasagh, and Gong also participated in pilgrimages. Such wide-ranging travels were a distinct feature of the Pax Manchurica (the peace created by the Qing empire’s efforts at consolidating their rule) from around the end of the eighteenth century until the Muslim rebellions of the later nineteenth century. Tibetan Buddhist lamas engaged in long-distance pilgrimage and trade during this period, especially traveling through the old capital of eastern Mongolia, known in Tibetan as Blue Fort (Tib. Kharngön, Mong. Hohhot, Ch. Guihuacheng). The lamas, especially those who had official Qing positions, were welcomed in imperially funded monasteries on the mountain. It is interesting to note that the temple names are generally recorded in Chinese phonetics, such as Pusading, the leading monastery, which was put under the control of Tibetan Buddhists by the Shunzi emperor in 1659 and made into a royal palace under the Kangxi emperor. Most remarkable is the real engagement we see between these lamas and the local communities, whether the destitute in the area or the resident Chinese monks. GT

Mindröl Nominhan, the supreme crown ornament who walks among the gods, came to the Five-Peaked Mountain in the sixth lunar month of the twenty-third throne year of the Jiaqing emperor (1818), and stayed at Pusading. He bestowed a great quantity of extensive offerings to the various monasteries. He made a great offering to the impoverished people in the vicinity. It is said that when he went to the five tai (terraces) on pilgrimage, major auspicious signs appeared. Having stayed on each of the peaks, he returned to the great palace [Pusading].

Also, the former great accomplished scholar, the previous incarnation of Rakho Khutugtu Rinpoché, arrived at Mount Clear and Cool. He made extensive respectful offerings of many donations and so forth to the many large and small monasteries such as Pusading, etc. He performed immeasurable virtuous acts, such as conferring the Mahāmudrā tradition for the sake of nurturing the best of the Chinese monks [heshang] of each of the temples, such as Xiantong monastery.

Also, on a later occasion, Minyak Khutugtu Tsültrim Tenpé Nyima once came from Amdo to this mountain. He gave donations of tea for the assembled monks at Pusading and so forth. He made a distribution of gifts to the poor and performed many virtuous acts such as circumambulation.

In the spring of the twenty-second year of the Jiaqing emperor (1817), Labrang Trashikyil’s Dewa Trülku Jamyang Tupten Nyima came to this mountain and made respectful offerings to each of the large and small monasteries. It is said that marvelous lights were seen. Then he went to Outer Mongolia.

Also, in the autumn of the seventh year of the Jiaqing emperor’s reign (1802), from the direction of the Khalkha [Mongols], the venerable Tāranātha Trülku Rinpoché [the Jibzundampa] together with his lamas, officials, and many servants came through the Blue Fort to the Five-Peaked Mountain. They set up their tents on the land just below and to the east of Shuxiang Temple and stayed there. Having gone to see the holy objects of each of the temples, such as Pusading, he made a vast service of many offerings to the assembly [of monks]. Shortly after staying in this place, having become gravely ill, his bodily appearance (form body) seemed to dissolve into the Dharmakāya (the Buddha’s “body of truth,” i.e., he passed away). Thereafter, once again, his essential nature [in the form] of precious relics was welcomed back to the Khalkha region via the Blue Fort.

In the sixth year of the Jiaqing emperor (1801), Ngari Trülku Rinpoché together with his servants came from the Snowland of Tibet’s great region of Upper Ngari to Mount Clear and Cool via the Khalkha region and the Blue Fort. He reverently made abundant offerings of many donations to each of the monasteries, such as Pusading and Xiantong. Also, when he was making circumambulations while prostrating to the blessed holy relics, it is said that various delightful appearances of the radiance of wondrous lights in the colors of the rainbow were seen. After that, he turned his horse back to the center of his own country. In similar manner, also from every country having faith, the holy beings and so forth, the great lamas, people of the lineages of Wang, Beile, Beise, Jasagh, Gong, and so forth, and high-ranking persons of official lineage, and besides them, moreover, the faithful both great and small, by the power of faith having been on the path for years and months—this entire continuum of people arrives at and spreads over this Five-Peaked Mountain at the peak of the autumn harvest. Some go on pilgrimage to the five tai; and others make prostrations, circumambulating the blessed holy objects; and yet others make vast offerings to the various monasteries, and so forth—there are many extraordinary degrees of reverence, but fearing prolixity I will write no more.

[Dznyā na shrī man (Ye shes dpal ldan), Ri bo rtse lnga’i dkar chag rab gsal me long (Zi ling: Mtsho sngon mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 1994), 189–192. Trans. GT.]

DREAMING OF CROSS-CULTURAL ENCOUNTERS AT THE QING COURT

The following passages are drawn from the biography of one of the most important Tibetan Buddhist lamas ever to serve at the court in Beijing, Changkya Rölpé Dorjé (1717–86). He was a Monguor, from a people among whom those who trace their ancestry to the Mongols of the thirteenth century have been notably predominant. When he was just a boy, recently recognized as the reincarnation of the previous Changkya Lama, a teacher of the Qing emperors Kangxi and Yongzheng, the Mongols ruling Amdo rose up against the Qing and were defeated. The emperor Yongzheng ordered the young trülku brought to Beijing, where he was educated alongside the emperor’s own son, the future Qianlong emperor. Thus was born an important friendship as well as a bridge connecting very different cultures: Chinese, Mongol, Manchu, and Tibetan. Changkya’s biography reflects this multicultural and multilingual environment, especially in his records of dreams, where his biographer had more latitude to express opinions about the karmic status of various actors at the court, including Chinese Buddhist monks and even Manchu princes of the royal family.

Up until this period in Chinese and Tibetan relations, records of contact between common Chinese monks and Tibetan Buddhist lamas are fairly rare. In this passage we see that Changkya had a Chinese monk as his servant, and also that he studied with at least one Chinese Buddhist master, while others spoke to him in his dreams. Probably the most remarkable aspect of this excerpt is the overt critique of some royal family members, who are described as suffering in the hell realms (for greater or lesser lengths of time, depending on their karma). Though their status is narrated through a dream Changkya had, the idea that imperial family members had been reborn in hell was a potentially dangerous one to express, even for a court lama. This suggests that Tibetan literature like this biography was not censored in the same way that Chinese materials at the time were. A bit of historical background is helpful in understanding why Changkya and his biographer, Tukwan, might have depicted princes of the Manchu royal family being reborn in hell. Although the Manchus consistently allied themselves with the Dalai Lamas and the Gelukpa order to which they belonged, the prince Yunli (1697–1738) was a devoted follower of the Gelukpas’ rivals, the Karmapa and Zhamarpa hierarchs of the Kagyüpa order. As a youth, in 1732, Changkya had even assisted in rites of sorcery aimed at obstructing a visit by these figures to Beijing at Prince Yunli’s invitation, following which the Karmapa and Zhamarpa died en route, never reaching Beijing. Changkya’s dream may therefore reflect a mature understanding that the political rivalries between the Gelukpas and Kagyüpas, in which Prince Yunli and indeed Changkya himself became entangled, did not negate the genuine religious motivations of the prince’s Buddhist faith. Yunli may have been condemned for his politics, but in the end was saved by his devotion.15 The passage closes with a metanarrative reflection in which Changkya’s disciple and the author of the text, Tukwan Lama, notes the problems of memory and recollection in Buddhist practice and in the writing of such narratives. GT

One of the Lord’s servants, a Chinese monk who always enjoyed [drinking] alcohol, was tormented for a long time by illness. On the verge of death, he went to a village and died there. Everyone chattered, saying, “His consciousness is certainly destined for a lower realm.” The Lord himself said, “I made him the object of my meditative practices and so forth, considering this [fate about which others spoke]. One evening, I had the following dream: Within a palace built of flowers in a beautiful flower garden, that Chinese monk was settled quite happily. Someone said, ‘This is the realm of the gods. The Chinese monk was steadfast in his complete faith in the Jewels [of Buddhism] and having died, through the power of your actions purifying his obscurations, he was reborn here.’”

[Lcang skya also said]: “When I was young, there was one dream I had over and over again: I dreamed of beings in the spectacle of the several hell realms; some who boasted of being able to guide others to improve themselves, some doers of great and lofty good deeds. However, having arrived there [in hell], they were instead woefully tormented, not at all in accord with the way in which they had spoken.”

Another dream occurred thus: “One night, by going into and seeing the hell realms, I saw that the seventeenth prince [Yunli (1697–1738), son of the Kangxi emperor] and Huang Taizi [Yunqi, his older brother] were there. Someone with the likeness of a guardian of hell said, ‘Although the seventeenth prince has come here for a short time due to previous slight residual [karma], his thoughts are good, he has faith in the Jewels, and by exerting himself in the practice of the fortune of the gods, in a short time he will be liberated from here and even now suffers very little. The other of the pair has wicked thoughts, and because at the moment of death he died with great rage, he will not be liberated for a while and will suffer very greatly.’”

[The Lord also said]: “One night in a dream a majestic hesheng (Ch. for Buddhist monk) sitting on top of a high throne, waving a yak-tail fan and commenting on the Avataṃsaka Sūtra, appeared in my dreaming mind.16 The next day, while I was with some lamas telling them about the dream, a heshang appeared at the door of the house, saying he was seeking an audience. Once he entered, [I could see that] the shape of his body, the tone of his voice, and so forth were exactly as they had been in the dream. I asked, ‘Where are you from? What need do you seek to fulfill here?’ He answered, ‘I am from a place near the shore of the southern ocean and came to see the relics of one of my teachers who has passed into nirvāṇa here in this country.’ I asked, ‘Can you expound on the Avataṃsaka Sūtra?’ He said, ‘I can.’ I said, ‘Well then, expound on it.’ He replied, ‘If an exposition is necessary, prepare a high throne. With you sitting thus elevated, having me sitting on a lower seat to explain the Dharma would be disrespectful.’ Then a high throne was arranged for him. The monk said, ‘I need a yak-tail fan,’ so one was given to him. Having sat on the throne, and waving the yak-tail fan, beginning with Sudhana obtaining the enumeration of phenomena from the bhikṣus (fully ordained Buddhist monks) and great gods, his explanation was concise, elegantly spoken, and profound. I gave him an image of the Conquerer [Buddha] and some excellent thick cloth, but the monk did not so much as glance at the cloth. He slipped the image up the sleeve of his robes and departed. Since that time, he vanished without a trace. He really must have been some kind of emanation!”

Another time, while repeatedly recollecting the buddha Candraprabha (Moonlight) and reciting the dhāraṇī [the mnemonic formula associated with this buddha], Changkya had the following dream: in the sky, the orb of the moon was very large and without blemish, and from within its luminosity a Chinese heshang said in Chinese, “Yueliang pusa guangji zongsheng,” which translates into Tibetan: “The bodhisattva Candraprabha’s compassion is universal.” As he said that again and again in a loud voice issuing from the orb, the moon slowly descended in the sky until, coming nearby, it vanished. Thus he spoke of what arose in his dream. It is said that the benefit of this dhāraṇī is [that through its use one does] not forget the thought of enlightenment throughout all [future] lifetimes. By virtue of his luminous presence, how could one like the Lord Lama ever forget the thought of enlightenment? Nevertheless, even in the case of the experiences of ordinary [people], the Tathāgata Candraprabha appears as an extraordinary blessing, compassionately caring for all creatures without forgetting the thought of enlightenment throughout all lifetimes.¹⁷

I heard many wondrous stories like these directly from [the Lord’s] mouth. However, some have vanished from the realm of my memory. These few respective [stories] arose directly [in my memory].

[Thu’u bkwan Chos kyi nyi ma (1737–1802), Khyab bdag rdo rje sems dpa’i ngo bo dpal ldan bla ma dam pa ye shes bstan pa’i sgron med dpal bzang po’i rnam par thar pa mdo tsam brjod pa dge ldan bstan pa’i mdzes rgyan (Lanzhou: Kan su’u mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 1989), 307–309, Chinese translation, 190–191. Trans. GT.]

A TIBETAN VIEW OF CHINESE RELIGIONS

Prominent among the several outstanding luminaries associated with Monguor populations during the eighteenth century, Tukwan Chökyi Nyima (1737–1802) was one of the leading disciples of Changkya Rölpé Dorjé (1717–86) and the author of the magnificent biography of the latter from which selections are given above. Tukwan’s biography of his master, owing to its refined and graceful poetic style, is prized as one of the masterworks of Tibetan literature. The text for which Tukwan is most renowned, however, is his Crystal Mirror of Philosophical Systems, virtually an encyclopedia of Buddhist and other systems of thought and belief.

The Crystal Mirror was the last of three major compendia of philosophical systems composed by eighteenth-century scholars from Amdo. The first, the Great Treatise on Philosophical Systems by Jamyang Zhepé Dorjé (1648–1721), is a work of sprawling dimensions treating the major Indian philosophical traditions, with particular emphasis upon the manner in which they were interpreted (or, according to Jamyang Zhepé Dorjé, misinterpreted) by thinkers in Tibet. His focus on Tibetan understandings of Indian Buddhism was implicitly challenged by Changkya Rölpé Dorjé, whose Ornament of the Mountain of the Sage’s Teachings was concerned above all to examine the properly Indian expositions of the Buddhist philosophical schools. Finally, Tukwan, in his Crystal Mirror, adopted a new approach by focusing on the Tibetan Buddhist schools, not so much in respect to their interpretations of Indian sources, but rather in terms of their identities as distinct Tibetan religious traditions. To his ample surveys of the main lines of Tibetan Buddhist teaching he added chapters on Indian philosophies, the Tibetan Bön religion, and, in the selections given here, from the fourteenth and fifteenth chapters of his work, a study of the major religious and philosophical traditions of China. His treatment of these is strongly indebted to the Chinese concept of the Three Teachings (sanjiao)—Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism—and their fundamental harmony, which served virtually as official doctrine during the Qing dynasty. By including this material in a major text devoted principally to the varied facets of Tibetan Buddhism, Tukwan is lending his tacit assent to the Pax Manchurica that arose with Qing rule and to the brand of cosmopolitanism that it promoted. Under the Qing, Tibetan Buddhism came to be regarded in some respects as the Inner Asian complement of the Chinese religions. It is noteworthy, in this context, that the Daoist religion is considered a sort of Chinese parallel to Tibetan Bön, and hence even called by the same name. It will be seen, moreover, that Tukwan was particularly eager to demonstrate to his Tibetan readers a fundamental harmony between Tibetan Buddhist and Chinese ways of thought. MTK

This great country, China, is called Shenzhou in the native language and is known far and wide as “the sacred continent.” There are also those who identify Shenzhou with the continent of Videha. The Indians call it Mahācīna. Mahā means “great” and cīna is a corruption of the Chinese Qin. Among the Chinese kings, there was, during the Qin dynasty, a mighty and powerful king named Shihuang (255–210 B.C.E.) who conquered many countries on the frontiers and in the central regions. On account of this the people of the frontier applied the name of his kingdom to the larger country, calling it “the realm of Qin.” Apparently, the pronunciation of Qin gradually became corrupted, so that it came to be pronounced as “Cīna.” The Tibetans call it Gyanak, because the Chinese people mostly wear black-colored (nag) clothes, and they call the Holy Land [of India] Gyagar, because the people of the Middle Country mostly wear white (dkar) cotton cloth. However, when writing it, Tibetans do not write rgya dkar but rgya gar, because in the vernacular it is customary to read dkar po as gar po. Some scholars offer other etymologies, but these are just figments of their own imagination.

HOW VARIOUS TRADITIONS AROSE AMONG THE PHILOSOPHICAL SYSTEMS IN THIS GREAT COUNTRY

A reliable Chinese history explains it thus:

Although a number of miscellaneous minor traditions appeared in this land, they were of short duration; there are, however, three great traditions that clarify the ultimate nature of things: Ru, Dao, and Jing. Of those, the first is like a star, the second is like the moon, and the third is like the sun.

1. The history of the tradition known as the “star-like Ru”

The first of all the kings of China, Fu Xi, was capable of founding on his own the sciences and the principle of distinguishing between what should be adopted and what should be rejected. He bestowed these upon his wise minister, Cang Jie, who was the first to invent Chinese letters, which he established in terms of six types: pictograph, simple ideograph, compound ideograph, phonetic compound, mutual explanatories, and phonetic loans. He also introduced the practice of writing with a lacquer stylus on a bamboo slate. The letters of that time were round in shape and called zhuanzi (seal characters). Later on, Li Si, the minister of the King Qin Shihuang, set to work with the idea of facilitating writing, and invented the letters known as lizi (clerical style). General Meng Tianyong made a brush from the tail of a hare and ink from pine soot, and wrote on silk cloth. Again, in later times, the eunuch Cai Lun (first–second century C.E.) invented paper. Then, the “regular style” of writing called zheng kai and the “running script” called caozi (cursive characters) gradually appeared. Because of their convenience, they gradually spread and writing became an exceedingly easy matter, but for the most part, the caozi conflicted with the six original types. Because of the spread of many treatises that were specious, meaningless, and mistaken, the contributions of Li Si and Meng Tian, while immediately useful, were in the end recognized as highly inadequate. This is the account found in impartial sources of later times.

The origin of the treatises: The first king, Fu Xi, composed a text on the bagua (eight trigrams) called Lianshan; it was the first of the great texts to appear, and it became the principal treatise on the subject. He also composed a work entitled Neijing on the inner principle for clearly knowing the ways things are in reality. Then there appeared what are known today as the wujing, or “five classics:” the Yijing (Classic of Changes), the Shijing (Classic of Odes), the Shujing (Classic of Records), the Lijing (Classic of Rites), and the Chun Qiu (Spring and Autumn Annals). The Yijing was written by the aforementioned Fu Xi; the authors of the remaining four have not been determined. These five texts are the basis for the Ru tradition. However, the five texts themselves are not called Ru but are referred to as Jing (classics). The actual Ru [tradition] consists of those five texts along with their annotations and supplementary literature.

The founding teacher is known as Kongfuzi (Confucius) or Kongzi (551–479 B.C.E.). The Tibetans do not pronounce his name as it is in Chinese but call him Kongtsé. He was born in the country of Shandong, one of the thirteen great provinces of China, toward the end of the dynasty known as Zhou Wang during the time of Zhou Jing Wang, not many years after Buddha’s appearance in the world. Accounts and biographies of him are well known throughout China, and he was regarded as an especially eminent person. The systematic treatises composed by him are the authoritative basis for contemporary Chinese law and for the code of conduct for the three types of persons: the powerful, the weak, and the middling. From his time down to the present, despite many changes of government, it is the system of Kongzi alone that has been regarded as preeminent. Even the royal custom of honoring Kongzi’s portrait and his title of National Preceptor has continued down to the present. From earlier times down to the present, the lineal descendent of Kongzi has been granted the hereditary title of gong (duke), and it is said that the gong of the present day is the seventy-third lineal descendent of Kongzi. The Tibetans call Kongzi “miraculous king” and believe him to have been a king possessed of magical powers. In some Chinese divinatory rituals, the principles of meditating on Kongzi’s higher realization, and so forth, are presented. Some other texts call him “Kongzi the craftsman,” as he was understood to be skilled in craftsmanship. All of this seems to me just groping in the dark.

Now, Confucius was the illuminator of the Ru tradition, but he wrote only a few of its basic verse texts; his disciples and grand-disciples commented extensively upon them in what are known as the sishu, or “four textbooks.” All Chinese scholars first study these later writings and make them the basis of their education. The four textbooks are the Daxue (Great Learning), the Zhongyong (Doctrine of the Mean), the Lunyu (Analects), and the Mengzi (Book of Mencius). The first of them, the Daxue, is a small text by Kongzi that was added to by Zengzi, who put a series of questions to Kongzi. The Zhongyong was written by Zi Si. The Lunyu was edited by Zi Lu, Zi Chang, and Zi Xia. The Mengzi takes its title from the name of its author. These authors were either pupils of Kongzi or pupils of the pupils. Beginning with the establishment of the Zhou dynasty, the number of treatises greatly increased. We also know that both earlier and later on, hundreds of teachers explained the sciences and composed many miscellaneous instructional texts that were added to those earlier texts as appendixes and amplifications.

The tradition of legal writings regulating governmental administration: During Han rule, there was a learned master named Xiao He, who expanded upon the teaching of Kongzi, and so illuminated the Ru way. Later, a scholar named Zhu Xi (1130–1200), who had studied many religious systems, composed numerous treatises that many have regarded as authoritative down to the present day.

2. The history of the moon-like Dharma system, the tradition of Bön called Daoshi

A. ORIGINS

The history of the moon-like Dharma system, the tradition of Bön called Daoshi (Priests of the Dao): The founding teacher of this system was called Laojun (Lord Lao). There seems to be both a divine and a human Laojun. The former, the divine Laojun, is called Taishang Laojun, which, in Tibetan translation, is Most Excellent Chief Lord. It is said that he appeared when, according to the Chinese system, heaven and earth first came into being. According to some, he is identified with the god Brahmā, which I think is acceptable, as it seems to agree with the explanation in the abhidharma and elsewhere that in the beginning, when the world came into being, the immeasurable palaces of Mahābrahmā and Brahmā emerged sequentially, and that his name, Most Excellent Chief Lord, fits with the standpoint of those who say that Brahmā is the creator of the world. It is said that from then on Laojun revealed eighty-one human emanations, among which our teacher the Buddha is counted. This seems to conform with the view of proponents of the principle of the ten avatars of Viṣṇu. The human Laojun is apparently identified as one of the emanations. The time of his appearance is roughly the same as that of Kongzi. Having spent eighty-two years in his mother’s womb, he had white hair when he was born, so he was called Laozi, “Old Man.” Later, it seems, his followers gave him the pleasant name of Laojun.

I have seen an account to the effect that he obtained seventy-two chapters of heavenly Dharma from a cave, studied them, and spread the system of Daoshi. My omniscient lama [Changkya Rölpé Dorjé] said: “Laojun was the same as Shenrap, the teacher of Bön;” I think perhaps xian, in shengxian, or “great man” in Chinese, was called [in Tibetan] shen (gshen) through mispronunciation.

There also appeared Yuanshi Tianzun, who was similar to Laojun. Although I have not seen his history, I think after researching him he may be identified as one of the eighty-one emanations. Thus, the source of the Way of Daoshi is Taishang Laojun, who is identical to the god Brahmā, and in the human realm his emanations Laozi, Yuanshi Tianzun, and others, who spread it extensively.

B. TEACHINGS

The characteristics of the Daoshi Dharma: It is said that they accept what is formless, shapeless, colorless, and unsurpassable as the great self-originated path. Because I have not seen the great Daoshi texts, I do not know the details concerning their standpoints on saṃsāra and nirvāṇa, bondage and liberation, and so forth. According to some small books of selections I have seen, it seems there are many gods with human features, and powerful spirits—the lords of the five great rugged mountains of China, the lords of the four great rivers, and the lords of the wind, rain, lightning, and so forth—in relation to whom various rituals are prescribed. When worshipping them, there are mantras for purifying the body, mouth, and tongue. There are instructions for rites of bathing and purity, and there are a multitude of explanations included in the special instructions on concentration, such as the means for suppressing the breath, praising shen, that is, the vital power of the gods, and remaining with the mind undisturbed. There are histories of the famous badong shengxian, or “eight great men,” and others who attained the worldly supernormal powers, and of the mighty Zhang Dashi, who intimidated many wicked spirits and commanded all the local and guardian deities in the area of the present-day great palace in Beijing. It is known that when his clan descendants approach the palace, the great spirits of that place welcome them. Moreover, there are many about whom stories are told regarding their attainment of supernormal powers, magical powers, and so forth. To judge by that, there are evidently instructions for accomplishing a simple one-pointed concentration of the desire-realm mind, but I think it unlikely that they have a correct method for realizing the path of liberation. There are a great many instructions dealing with the performance of activities related to sacred objects, the analysis of lightning, good-luck ceremonies, and spells and mantras composed by the gods, seers, and others. There are two kinds of practitioners: householders and those who have forsaken family life. The latter take something like vows, which they apparently guard well.

Although I heard it said that the southern Chinese were diligent in their studies and that there were many scholars, I had no useful discussions with them. The north is a great nation, with an excess of diversions, and those who have studied deeply are rare, so that when I questioned those who claimed to be scholars, few could elucidate flawlessly and perfectly the individual traditions without confusing the three systems. Since I, who had not studied Chinese literature, could not read many of the texts myself, I had to listen to what others read, so that I have just a partial view of the origins and standpoints of Ru and Daoshi, and I dare not write more than just this.

[From chapter 15:]

THE ACCOUNT OF HOW THE SUN-LIKE DHARMA SYSTEM KNOWN AS JING, THE PRECIOUS TEACHING OF THE BUDDHA, CAME TO THE LAND OF CHINA

It seems that even before the dissemination of the actual teaching in the land of China, there were some teachings that resembled it in part. The teacher Mozi (ca. fifth–fourth centuries B.C.E.) taught that you should devote yourself solely to the welfare of others without regard for your own body or life, and that the nature of the mind is primordially pure but polluted by adventitious stains and altered by karma. The teacher Liezi taught that everything is dependently originated. At that time, there were no relations with India, so that not even the word buddha was known in this country, yet Liezi, cognizing through his clairvoyance, wrote in one of his texts: “In the west there will appear one who performs great deeds naturally and possesses extraordinary perspicacity, a noble being beyond the realm of expressibility; his name will be Buddha.” This is the first time the sweet name of Buddha was uttered in this country. There is also the story of the teacher Zhuangzi (369–298 B.C.E.?), who dreamed he was a butterfly and, after awakening, reflected upon it and realized that everything that appears is without any existence at all. The teacher Ye Su (Jesus), or Protector of the World, is known to have had a miraculous birth. He composed a treatise that taught a ten-limbed vow of not taking human life, and so forth, that the experience of happiness arises as a result of virtuous actions, that one falls into hell through the ripening of evil acts and suffers agonies there forever, and that deliberately committed misdeeds are purified by confession. All of this is explained in the History of Buddhism in China.18 While it seems these were excellent ways that arose due to Buddha’s deeds, their spread was neither extensive nor long lasting.

On the eighth day of the fourth month of the wood-male-tiger year, in the twenty-sixth year of the reign of Zhao Wang, the fifth king of the Zhou dynasty, a great effulgence of golden light appeared in the southwest border region and pervaded all the land.¹⁹ The king saw it and questioned the oracles, who said it was a sign that a great lord had been born in that direction, and they prophesied that when a thousand years had passed his philosophical system would appear in China. That phenomenon was recorded in the annals.…

The nirvāṇa of the Teacher occurred in the fifty-third year of King Mu. Counting 1013 years from then, the teaching came to China in the eighth year of the Yong Ping era (29–75 C.E.) of King Ming Di of the great Han dynasty.

[Thuken Losang Chökyi Nyima, The Crystal Mirror of Philosophical Systems: A Tibetan Study of Asian Religious Thought, trans. Geshé Lhundub Sopa, ed. Roger R. Jackson, The Library of Tibetan Classics (Boston: Wisdom, 2009), from chapters 14–15.]

INTIMATIONS OF THE WEST

SUMPA KHENPO ON THE FAR NORTH AND MIDDLE EAST

Sumpa Khenpo’s General Description of Jambudvīpa, from which we have already seen selections above (“A Description of China”), was written in 1777, when the author was seventy-three years of age. Besides his Tibetan education, he had cultivated throughout his long life a broad range of Mongol contacts, particularly among the Zunghar, and had lived and traveled in China for extended periods. His experiences of peoples and places outside of Tibet led him to conclude that geographical learning needed to be promoted and improved in Tibet, and his General Description of Jambudvīpa was a first effort in this regard.

The work begins by summarizing Buddhist canonical descriptions of Jambudvīpa, focusing on the regions of India and scriptural lists of peoples and lands. The major tantric places of pilgrimage (pīṭha) are also detailed, followed by remarks on the “barbarians” (mleccha) who live beyond India. Here, Sumpa Khenpo follows primarily the tradition of the Tantra of the Wheel of Time (Kālacakratantra) with its concealed reference to the prophet Mohammed as “Honey Mind” (Madhumati). But a transition begins as the author moves on to Khotan, Nepal, and then Tibet, where his path is forged no longer exclusively by scripture, but by varying degrees of familiarity with the terrain. He takes a brief detour to the north, to mythical Shambhala with its twelve million towns, then swings east to Manchuria, Korea, and Japan. Returning by stages (including a pass through the land of dog-headed men) to China, he gives the description presented above. Leaving China, he enters the Mongol domains and from there takes his readers on the following, unprecedented adventure into the unknown. MTK

Beyond Khalkha, to the north, is Russia, the yellow expanse.20 Concerning that, on the banks of the Caspian Sea, which is at the frontier of Torghut and Russia, there is Russia’s citadel of Astrakhan. On traveling past many citadels beyond that for a month and a half, in the center of Russia, there is [the place] called Moscow, the citadel of a girl-king called the White Khan who belongs to the lineage of Chinggis Khan.²¹ It has three or nine concentric divisions [i.e., walls], of which the outermost is said to be crystal. The palace in the center, with its spire, has pillars and so forth whose surfaces are gilded and decorated with gems. From the sound of the bells at the sides, one knows the changes of time, as well as good or bad tidings. At intervals there are splendid mansions, many-storied houses, cool houses, theaters, and many small bridges.

The men of that land have measureless power and wealth, and their realm is exceedingly great. With silver coin, they trade in such goods as wigs for the bald,²² the flesh and blood of sea monsters,²³ and serge. They are nourished by the flesh of fish and fowl, and various grains. There is a fortress of magnetic iron.

On the banks of the northern ocean that lies beyond is Sweden,24 whose people dwell in small settlements. They are very skilled at the manufacture of various mechanical devices such as clocks. In that country, there are black and red foxes, marten, serge, weapons of fine steel, and utensils made of gold, silver, and crystal. They consume poultry, eggs, fish, tree-milk,²⁵ and various grains.

In Kamchatka and Yakutia in that country [Russia], as well as in [the region of] the Kem Kemchik [river], which belongs to the Torghut territory, and elsewhere, at the height of the summertime, when the sun sets, the red remains in the sky as it rises again and the dawn begins. When the full moon of the fifteenth is still at its height in the west, the sun of the sixteenth rises, and when the sun sets on the twentieth, the moon rises at the same time. In summer and fall, the Swedes and the Russians cross back and forth over the sea in boats, but in winter and spring they travel on the frozen ice, in so-called “tshan” (< Russ. tsane, “sled”) dragged by dogs.…

Again, if you travel … beyond Kokonor and cross the Great Desert [the Taklamakan], then, by stages, there are the fortresses of the “white-headed” Muslims:²⁶ Hami and Barkul, then Yarkand, Kashgar, … and Badakhshan. To the north are Andijan, Namangan, Marghilan, and Tashkent. Then, there are Bukhara and Samarkand, where there is great wealth, with plentiful corals and pearls, carpets woven of silver and gold, and more.…

Concerning the white-headed Muslims, all the others were wearing a long red headdress, but because the teacher called Abdullah made them wrap their skulls in a white turban, or however it was, all the Muslims in this land are called white-heads.27 For the most part, they adhere to various theistic systems and have different sects, and they affirm a future life and [the distinctions of] virtue and sin. In accord with their own tradition, they delight very much in maintaining their vows, liturgical recitation, and ablutions. For this reason, they are ten times better than the two groups without religion described above [the Russians and the Khazakhs], as well as the other frontier folk who have no religion at all, whether of the tīrthikas [i.e., non-Buddhists] or [other] outsiders, and who are thus the worst of the barbarians in that the future life and virtue and sin have not even entered their ears. The Muslims wear gold and silver brocade, and other silks, serge and linen, and hair ornaments, etc. They enjoy animal meats except pork but including fish, poultry, beef and mutton, as well as various grains and fruits.…

To the west of the E jel (Volga) river, after ten days’ march there is the region of the Ottoman king, who in former times in Tibet was known as “Sunbeam.” That group has the name Turk, or, as corrupted, Turuṣka. Their frontiers are enclosed by a stone wall with 360 gates, between any two of which there are 360 li according to their own measure, or 720 Chinese li. Within, there are said to be four great mountains, various lakes and woods, and different sorts of grain. The royal citadel has twenty-four gates, and the central palace has a gilded roof. In the four cardinal directions around it are palaces of brick with porcelain enamel in blue, green, etc. The flaps of the red serge men’s hats, the cuffs of their sleeves, and their belts, etc., are of silk brocade with jewel ornaments, with buckles made of lapis, etc. They wear, too, gem ornaments, bracelets, and very fine gold and silver brocade, serge, and cotton. It is well known in that land that their lord is the king of Jambudvīpa overall,²⁸ and that in a single palace the thrones of thirty-three kings of Jambudvīpa are arranged. In that land, every one or two years, there arrives the fear of a great enemy wind. Because, when this occurs, it is a worry, in order to look out for it there is a great building in the form of a vase that is very tall with a narrow summit, atop which there must be a watchman,²⁹ while in the middle of the other citadels there is a so-called minaret, like a Chinese pestle, whose height is that of five or six long ropes. In the quarters and frontiers there, there are twelve ethnic groups speaking twelve dissimilar languages. The mouths of their wells and their water vessels are made of gold and silver and are bejeweled. They have elephants, walruses, hippopotami,³⁰ and also horses, cattle, sheep, etc., as well as many sorts of precious steel weapons and varied grains and fruits. When the king goes out for recreation, a distribution is made from many carts bearing gold and silver coins to onlookers and those who come to meet [the king]. In this and other ways, they rival the gods in riches. I heard this myself from a Kashmiri Muslim merchant, who really heard it from a native of that land.

To the west from there, in the sea called Ting ting gi sé [Mediterranean?], there are [creatures with] human bodies and horse heads, as well as sea monsters with antlers, etc. There, in glass boats they go to the surface and depths of the sea and so retrieve various gems.³¹

To the south of the Ottomans, at Mecca, the tīrthikas’ shrine, is a blue stone of about a meter, or four or five to around, [held] in space at about the height that can be reached by the hand of a rider on horseback,32 as I heard from a Chinese Muslim who had seen it. Nearby, in a hollow at a distance of five or six arrow shots, there is a tīrthika temple within which there is neither pillar nor beam and there is a so-called “self-manifestation” that is gilded and bejeweled. About a league from that there is their shrine, a white stone with the sign of Īśvara, pierced and touching nothing, above or below, before or behind. So they say.³³

[Sum pa mkhan po Ye shes dpal ’byor, ’Dzam gling spyi bshad, selections trans. in Matthew T. Kapstein, “Where on Jambudvīpa Are We? New Geographical Knowledge and Old Cosmological Schemes in Eighteenth-Century Tibet,” in Sheldon Pollock, ed., Forms of Knowledge in Early Modern South Asia (Durham: Duke University Press, 2010), 336–364. The annotation and some portions of the text have been edited for the present publication.]

SELECTIONS FROM THE GREAT GEOGRAPHY

The project of geographical study initiated by Sumpa Khenpo found its greatest successor in A Full Exposition of Jambudvīpa (’Dzam gling rgyas bshad), completed in 1830 by the fourth Tsenpo incarnation, Tendzin Trinlé (1789–1838), whose chosen title relates it to his predecessor’s work. Here we find ample discussions of Tibet, India, China, and many other lands, with such details in its account of Europe as a carefully transcribed list of the departments of France, and, continuing west, even mention of Louisiana and Cuba. The range of geographical information reflected in Tendzin Trinlé’s text became available to him thanks to his long residence in Beijing, where he became acquainted with several of the Western diplomats in the city and so began to study foreign geography. Despite this, however, Tendzin Trinlé refused to abandon the traditional frameworks of Tibetan learning and continued to employ the ancient conception of the world system of Mount Meru, adapting it to the new knowledge he was acquiring. In this, his work resembled that of early modern European geographers, who struggled to retain the system of Ptolemy while seeking to accommodate new discoveries. Although Tendzin Trinlé stretched the capacity of a traditional system of knowledge to absorb considerable elements of modern learning on its own terms, his efforts, so far as we now know, remained without issue until the early twentieth century, when modernists in the circle of the Thirteenth Dalai Lama sought to make up for lost time and embraced anglophone education, though they were resisted and ultimately defeated by monastic conservatives. In 1938 the controversial artist and scholar Gendün Chöpel (see chapters 22–23) published an article in The Mirror, a Tibetan-language newspaper printed in Kalimpong, West Bengal, that included a sketch-map of the world with an accompanying text that invited his readers to investigate whether the world was flat or spherical.

In order to provide readers with some taste of the challenges faced by a traditional Tibetan author in rendering foreign place names in his own language for the first time, and the challenges in interpreting his renderings, transcriptions based on Tendzin Trinlé’s spellings are generally retained throughout this selection, with proposed English identifications placed in brackets. Readers are invited to try to puzzle out those that remain unidentified, recalling that the political geography referred to seems anachronistically to be that of the American colonial period and that the sources of information were therefore probably Russian and French atlases of the late eighteenth century. MTK

If one goes in a northwesterly direction from the country of Isilanti [Iceland] crossing a large ocean by boat, there is the large continent called Shewirniya Amirika [<Russ. Severnaya Amerika, “North America”], i.e., Northern Jangling,³⁴ which has a measurement of three thousand four hundred miles.

In the northern part of that continent, there is a dé [region] called Su-bi-ra-yār [Superior],³⁵ and some large dé, such as Mikchingkana [Michigan?], Ku-ru-na [Huron?], Si-ri-kra-ta,³⁶ and Sa-ra-sa-sa (?). The people of those regions are large in stature, have light-yellow colored skin, and their facial features are like those of a Mongol. They (wear) coats of the skins of various kinds of beasts of prey, such as the tiger and leopard. They have no religious or social customs whatsoever. They are fierce and savage fools who make their livelihood with livestock, such as cattle and sheep.

Among the regions mentioned above, Si-ri-kra-ta belongs under the control of the Emkiraisi [English], and the other regions are controlled by the people of various (other) countries.

In the southern part of that continent, there is the large region called Karlin [Carolina], and there are many countries such as Lutsiyana [Louisiana], Miksika [Mexico], Phelorita [Florida], Kaliphirniya [California], and Yokhadan [Yucatan]. The people of those (countries) have yellow-colored skin, and they have upper and lower garments of such things as bird feathers and tree leaves (to cover) their nakedness. Since they do not have such things as religious customs or (a system of writing), they are nothing but fools, but rather mild in disposition.

In all those countries, there are many high mountains and large rivers, and (even when) there is no snow or rain, the fear of such things as lightning and hail is great. Such things as sakrakanda [sugarcane], karsi-na (?), makai [maize], and tamtaka [tobacco] grow without being planted, and since there is an abundance of honey and domesticated fowls, which are said to change color, the people of those countries make use of them.

Concerning those countries, (the one called) Karlin [Carolina] is under the control of the Emkiraisi (= English), and the other countries (i.e., Louisiana, Mexico, Florida, California, and Yucatan) are controlled by Isapāniya (= Spain). In former times, there were no dwellings there, but nowadays, many palaces and villages have been newly built by the Europeans.

At the southern extremity of that continent, there is a road of land which crosses the middle of the ocean like a bridge (i.e., the isthmus of Panama). If one crosses that, going more than a thousand miles, there is Yodzaniya Amirika [< Russ. Yuzhnyi Amerika, “South America”], i.e., “Southern Jangling,” which has a measurement of three thousand five hundred miles.

There are many large and small countries in parts of that continent, such as the large country called Amasona [Amazonia], and Pradziliya [Brazil], Kriwirma (?), Makelāna (?), Srakabi (?), Pheru [Peru], Yojaniya Pheru [South Peru], Kṣila [Chile], Tophinasa (?), Trabikarola (?), and Kaibini (?).

There are high mountains on that continent, such as the great mountains called Anstrasa [the Andes], and since there are a great many rivers without fords, such as the river Amadzé [Amazon], it is very difficult to travel there without using a boat. During the summer and winter, there is no increasing or decreasing (in the length of) the day or night, and due to the excessive warmth, there are many kinds of fruits and many kinds of crops (obtained) without plowing, such as makai (maize). Since there are a great many birds, such as domesticated fowls which change color, and fish and game animals, the people of those countries always have a livelihood and so there is no poverty.

There are many kinds of precious things there, such as precious diamonds, emeralds, and rubies, and there are many sources of the four nonferrous metals. There are many kinds of creatures, such as lions, elephants, and venomous serpents, and many beautiful kinds of birds, such as peacocks and five-colored parrots. This is (all) described by Mesaradza and others,37 and I have also heard it from the Europeans.

The people of that continent have bodies measuring eight or nine cubits, and their skin is a reddish-yellow similar to saffron color. They generally go naked, do not have such things as religious customs, and have few sicknesses during their long life.

In Pheru [Peru], a country belonging to part of that continent, there is a palace of the king of Isapāniya [Spain], which is called Loma [Lima]. (That palace) is made with pillars, beams, and so forth, of such things as coral and various kinds of valuable timber, like yellow sandalwood. It has a roof of gold, silver, and so forth, and many ornamentations of various kinds of precious things. There are as many as five thousand dwellings there.

At a place near there is the large market center called Pinisa,38 where there are thirty thousand dwellings, and the Sahepa [< Arabic sāhib, “master”], who is appointed by Isapāniya (= Spain) to protect the country of Pheru [Peru], resides there.

Not far from these are many villages and towns, such as those called Sotoshira and Kardatsina (?). At Sotoshira [Cuzco], there is a temple of the master of heaven (i.e., the Sun), which is made of nothing but gold. Thus is it explained in the “globe-descriptions” (i.e., geography books) made by the Emkirasi [English].

In the country of Pradziliya [Brazil], there is a palace of the king of Potikesi [Portugal] called Riyeyanar [Rio de Janeiro], and such things as the sources of diamonds.

Also in that continent is the large country called Katsina [Guiana] along with the small country called Sorina [Surinam]; the former is controlled by the Pharasesi [French], and the latter by Holandesi [Holland]. However, the Europeans and the natives, who live in Southern Jangling (i.e., South America), are obliged to accept the commands of the king of Isapāniya [Spain].

In the southern extremity of that continent, there is the country called Neyahili (?). There is a dense forest, in which there are people of gigantic size who live to be a thousand years old. So it is explained by the Portikisi [Portuguese].

Close to Jangling, there are six large islands, such as the island called Kupa [Cuba], and those called Satomangku [Santo Domingo], Tsamayig [Jamaica], Porturiko [Puerto Rico], Trapeyau (Tobago?), and Sākam [San Salvador Island]. For the most part, they are controlled by Isapāniya [Spain], Emkirisi [= England], Speramkṣiya [France], and others.

At the time when Meparadza, that great learned man who was born in the town of Tsinaba [Genoa] of the country of glorious Shambhala, and whose other name was Kalampātsha [Columbus], i.e., “King of the Boots,” went to Jangling (i.e., the Americas), he first arrived at that island called Sākam [San Salvador Island].

[Turrell V. Wylie, “Dating the Tibetan Geography ’Dzam gling rgyas bshad Through its Description of the Western Hemisphere,” Central Asiatic Journal IV (1958): 306–311. Edited for the present publication by MTK.]

1 I.e., the Drukchen Rinpoché, the head of the Drukpa Kagyü order, which has long enjoyed an important presence in Nepal.

² The author was thus a witness to part of the campaigns in which the Shah dynasty of Gorkha conquered the Kathamandu Valley, whose chief city, also called Kathmandu, was known in Tibet as Yambu, after its Newari name.

³ The gandhola is a temple spire. The reference here is to the Mahābodhi temple that was, and remains, the most prominent monument of Bodhgayā, immediately adjacent to the seat of enlightment and the bodhi tree.

⁴ See chapter 11, n. 1.

⁵ See chapter 18, n. 5.

⁶ The term translated as “Indian” here—a-tsa-ra (< Skt. ācārya, “teacher”)—may in fact be used in this case to refer to itinerant ascetics.

⁷ I.e., the present kalpa or eon, when spiritual progress is possible thanks to the appearance in our world of the Buddha.

⁸ The passage within brackets briefly summarizes a lengthy account of Altan Khan’s previous lives.

⁹ Sakya Paṇḍita’s assumed connection with Chinggis Khan is purely a myth.

¹⁰ This larger number is arrived at by counting Huguang as two: Hubei and Hunan; Shanxi as two: Shanxi and Shaanxi; and including the capital prefecture Zhili, the former capital prefecture Fengtian, and Gansu—the most deliberate omission, as the author’s own Tibetan home monastery of Gönlung near Xining is said to have been included in this relatively new Chinese province. Possibly this can be read as an assertion that Gansu, which supposedly incorporated parts of eastern Amdo, was not recognized as part of China.

¹¹ This is probably a reference to the use of water pipes in China, which were very popular in the Qing dynasty.

¹² This term here is silden (bsil ldan), literally “having coolness”; this is also a synonym for Tibet and the Himālayas, but here it is a reference to the Chinese name of this mountain, Mount Clear and Cool (Qingliang shan).

¹³ This refers to the area in Qinghai around the lake Kokonor (Ch. Qinghai hu).

¹⁴ Probably the Monguors of today’s Qinghai province, who have lived mostly as sedentary farmers since the time of the Mongol empire in the regions surrounded Xining (Huzhu and Minhe counties).

¹⁵ Prince Yunli had been a cultured and deeply religious sympathizer of the Nyingmapa and Kagyüpa traditions of Tibetan Buddhism, unlike most of the Manchu aristocracy, who strongly favored the Gelukpa. The partisans of the latter claimed that he died at the early age of forty-one owing to the Gelukpa deployment of sorcery against him, in which Changkya was believed to have been involved. The anecdote recounted by Changkya here, however, suggests that he was not quite comfortable with the unremitting disparagement of the prince in Gelukpa circles.

¹⁶ The Avataṃsaka Sūtra, one of the great canonical works of Mahāyāna Buddhism, though known in Tibet, was seldom actually studied there. In China, it formed the basis of the one of the major Buddhist schools, Huayan. An important and popular section of the Avataṃsaka, referred to below, concerns the long pilgrimage of the merchant Sudhana throughout India in search of the Buddha’s teachings.

¹⁷ The bodhisattva Candraprabha appears in the canonical scriptures as the Buddha’s interlocutor in the Sūtra of the King of Samādhi, where his future enlightenment as a buddha is prophesied. In Tibet, it was believed that Candraprabha incarnated as Gampopa (1079–1153), the founder of the Kagyüpa monastic lineage (chapter 6). In China, the same bodhisattva, under the name Prince Moonlight, became the object of a messianic cult and the hero of several apocryphal scriptures in which the cult was promoted.

¹⁸ This work, written in Tibetan by the Mongol translator Gombojab, has served as the standard Tibetan-language account of Chinese Buddhist history and scripture since its composition during the mid-eighteenth century. It includes a detailed analysis of the Chinese Buddhist canon based upon a comparative analysis of the Chinese and Tibetan Tripiṭakas first compiled in the early fourteenth century under the sponsorship of the Mongol Yuan dynasty.

¹⁹ Chinese sources speak of the king’s twenty-fourth year, not twenty-sixth. The mythical event described here seems to be first mentioned in Chinese Buddhist apocryphal texts of the sixth century C.E. Refer to Erik Zürcher, The Buddhist Conquest of China (Leiden: Brill, 1959), 273.

²⁰ This term, applied to lands north of Tibet, parallels the “black expanse,” i.e., China, and the “white expanse,” India.

²¹ “White Khan” was used by Mongol writers as a title of the czar from the late seventeenth century on. The “girl-king” in question was Catherine II the Great (r. 1762–96). The Golden Horde, under the descendents of Chingghis Khan, had ruled the Russian steppe from the 1240s to 1502, which may be the origin of this connection between the Russian rulers and Chinggis Khan.

²² The eighteenth-century European fashion for wigs may well have struck Central Asians as exotic.

²³ It is not clear whether “sea monsters” refers to sturgeon from the Caspian (together with the caviar they produce) or whale, walrus, etc., from the northern seas.

²⁴ Thousands of Swedes were exiled to Siberia by Peter the Great following the battle of Poltava in 1709. Some of these exiles encountered aspects of Tibetan Buddhism among Mongol populations, and their scientific and technical skills were employed in developing the regions to which they were sent.

²⁵ Probably referring to the fermented sap known as kvass.

²⁶ Kho tan, from Mong. qotang, “Muslim,” is used throughout this passage to refer to Central Asian Muslims generally, though on some occasions it serves as a toponym meaning roughly “Turkestan.” The term derives, of course, from “Khotan.”

²⁷ This probably refers to the conversion of the “red-turbaned” Kizilbash (“red heads”), mystics who were prominent in popular Persian and Central Asian religious life from about the fifteenth century on, to more orthodox brands of Islam.

²⁸ This is no doubt because the Ottoman ruler was the recognized caliph.

²⁹ The Galata Tower in Istanbul fits the description here and was used as a weather observatory briefly during the late sixteenth century.

³⁰ The animals mentioned have no relation to anything one is likely to find in Istanbul except at the zoo. Except for the first, the interpretations of their names are conjectural.

³¹ This recalls the famous and widely distributed tale of Alexander the Great descending into the sea in a glass diving bell. The story was known in Western and Central Asia in Arabic and Persian versions.

³² The “blue stone” is, of course, the Black Stone of the Kaʿba. The measurements given here (a to [mtho] is the distance from the tip of the outstretched thumb to that of the middle finger) are roughly accurate: the length of the Black Stone is variously described as two or three cubits, and it is built into the Kaʿba at a height of about four feet.

³³ The white stone of Īśvara (“the Lord,” usually referring to the Hindu god Śiva) perhaps refers to the pillars at Mina representing Satan.

³⁴ Jangling (byang gling) is the “northern continent,” often identified as the continent of Uttarakuru mentioned in Indian Buddhist works.

³⁵ This is usually Tendzin Trinlé’s way of writing “Siberia,” but in the present context Lake Superior seems the more likely reference.

³⁶ The reference in the following paragraph to English control of Sirikrata suggests that it may be Saint Christopher Island (now Saint Kitts), which alternated between periods of British and French possession. Nevertheless, the separate treatment of the Caribbean islands leaves some doubt about this.

³⁷ Mesaradza is the Meparadza mentioned below and identified as Columbus.

³⁸ The mining center of Potosí was a sufficiently important city at the time and may therefore be intended here.