The Epic of Gesar of Ling

by Robin Kornman

  188. In other words, it is no shame to have assistants.

  189. “Pacified in its own place” is a very literal translation for the Tibetan rang sar zhi—which could also be translated as “naturally pacified.”

  190. In the section that begins here, Padmasambhava contemplates the map of all Tibetan-speaking regions, trying to decide the place most suitable for Thöpa Gawa’s manifestation as Gesar. He reviews the geography of Tibet following traditional categories that can be found in annals of Tibetan royal dynasties and early histories of Tibet. There is a great deal of room here for interpretation in the translation, because the reception of this passage differs widely among Tibetan informants.

  191. This is a confusing line in the Tibetan: tsha rong rma zla chu bzhi’i gling. But traditionally the four great rivers are those of Kham: the Dri Chu (Tib. ’bri chu, the Yangtze River), the Ma Chu (Tib. rma chu, the Yellow River), the Gyalmo Ngül Chu (Tib. rgyal mo ngul chu, the Salween River), and the Da Chu (Tib. zla chu, the Mekong River). The Salween or Gyalmo Ngül Chu is sometimes referred to as the Tsharong because of the metallics salts (tsha is “salt”) that it contains.

  192. “Four farms” translates the Tibetan rong bzhi which could literally be the “four cultivated valleys.”

  193. The problem here is that although the passage then says there are thirteen myriarchies (Tib. khri skor), they do not add up so. This could be another bardic misenumeration; the bard simply losing track of the numbers as he chants them.

  194. Serpa, Ombu, and Muchang are the names of three branches of the Mukpo tribe who settled the area in which the epic takes place. In this version of the epic they form, respectively, the three orders of Elder, Middle, and Lesser Lineages of the tribe.

  195. Prosperous Wealth Enclosure of the River Ma (Tib. rma g.yang nor gyi ra ba): The river Ma, or Yellow River as it is known today, has always been referred to as a river of wealth, a treasure of prosperity.

  196. Modern-day historians of the Gesar epic have made two assertions concerning the term Kyidsö (skyid sos), “happiness and leisure” (taking sos as short for sos dal, “leisure”). One is that this is the name of an area in eastern Tibet that is close to the Shechen Monastery. Tsab Tsa Kuchen Pakya Rinpoche built a temple to Gesar and his warriors on the site that is said to be the birthplace of Gesar. However, though the name of the place is logical, according to geography and the locale of the Ma River, it is not possible that this could be the correct location. Another assertion is that the term skyid sos simply refers to Gesar’s birthplace in terms of the qualities of the land rather than the geographical location. His Holiness Jigme Phuntsog recognized the palace of Gesar to be close to the Ma River. See glossary: Kyidsö Yag-gi Khado.

  197. “Paternal and maternal families” (Tib. rus and rigs): Tibetan nobility can name two sorts of family lineages. One, the rus, or bone lineage, relates to the line of paternal descent. The other, the rigs, is a more inclusive term for family but is often used to refer to the tribe, clan, or family of the mother.

  198. “Changmoza” (Tib. spyang mo bza’): Ordinarily za would mean that this wife’s natal family was Chang, literally “the family of the wolf.” Here, however, the word “wolf” (Tib. spyang) probably does not refer to the father’s family but instead to the fact that she is descended from the Lesser Lineage of Ling. The founder of the Lesser Lineage married a grandson of the founder of the Mukpo family. In some versions she married Lama Phen (Tib. bla ma ’phen), the son of founder Ratra (Tib. ra kra). In other versions she married Chöphen Nagpo, another grandson. In any case, she was given her name based on the fact that she found a wolf ’s tail as a totemic object when she was sent on a quest to Lower Ling by her grandfather. Thus she came to be known as Changza (Tib. spyang bza’), “the wolf wife.” Apparently the mother of Chipön, Trogyal, and Senglön is a descendant of Changza and belongs to the Mu family of the Lesser lineage. And according to this version of the epic, she is a daughter of a mountain god named Dzagyal Dorje Phenchug (Tib. rdza rgyal rdo rje phen phyug). This is confusing, because there is a myth in which the three lineages of the Mukpo clan are based on three granddaughters of Ratra, who are descended from Mount Magyal Pomra. This is three generations too early to be Muza, the mother of Senglön, the paternal grandmother of Gesar. The confusion may come from a lacuna in the oldest version of this text.

  199. In some versions of the epic these three brothers are sons of three different wives, all married to Chöla Bum (Tib. ’chos la bum). The three wives come respectively from the Rong, Ga, and Mu families. Thus Senglön’s mother is Muza, the wife from Mu.

  200. Usually the nāgas are represented as having four castes, which are the same as the Indian castes: the baronial or royal caste (Tib. rgyal rigs), the brahmans (Tib. ’bram ze), the merchants (Tib. rje’u), and the low caste (Tib. gdol ba), the untouchables.

  201. “Tibet” (Tib. bod) here refers to central Tibet—that is, Ü and Tsang—perhaps as if to say that the Yarlung River valley, the home of the ancient kings of Tibet, is quintessential Tibet.

  202. Padmasambhava is engaging in word play in order to “create a rten ’brel”; that is, in order to create an auspicious connection through a kind of pun-magic. First the words happiness and leisure are used as descriptions, and then they become part of the proper name for the region, Kyidsö, happiness and leisure or ease. The name of this valley is Kyidsö Yag-gi Khado. Kyidsö (Tib. skyid sos), “happiness and leisure,” Yag-gi a nominalizing term, and Khado (Tib. kha mdo) is a geographical term that refers to a place where two valleys meet or where the upper and lower parts of a valley or canyon come together. Kha can also mean the open end of a valley, and do (Tib. mdo) the closed end of the valley. The upper open end of the valley, the kha, is a place called skyid, happiness. The lower end, the closed end of the valley, the mdo, is a place called sos, leisure or relaxation. The place where these two geographical features meet is the khado, the conjunction of the two parts of the valley or the conjunction of two valleys.

  203. The Tibetan, mdun ru smon lam brag dkar yod, would give, “In front is Aspiration White Boulder.” However, here ru (“in”) is a misspelling and should be ri (“mountain”), giving us ri smon lam, Aspiration Prayer Mountain.

  204. “Six powers” (Tib. rtsal drug): literally, “the six skills”; things such as fangs, claws, courage, the lion’s ability to leap, and so forth.

  205. Tibetan iconic dragons are shown holding a jewel in their claws. This is the wish-granting gem, which gives the dragon his magical powers, such as the power to fly. When the dragon grows old, he cannot hold his jewel anymore and it drops from his claws, forcing him to become a mere sea monster such as a chu srin, a makara.

  206. “Does not burn terribly” (Tib. kha ru tsha; literally, “hot to the mouth”): Often in Indic literature, poison burns. In theory, the peacock eats poison without harm. The poison gives the colorful “eyes” in the tails of peacocks their unique luster.

  207. “Tarbu berry” (Tib. star bu): The sea-buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides); an edible orange-colored berry that grows in the highlands of Golog and is used to polish tarnished silver.

  208. “Enemy” in this context does not simply mean a person who preaches against Buddhism, but a demon who seeks to eradicate the religion by killing its adherents and enslaving their tribes.

  209. The brilliance of this stratagem lies in the fact that this kind of pollution (Tib. mnol) is the classical irritant that excites the wrath of the dragons or nāgas. As spirits of water, they represent the prehuman purity of the environment. They react against the stains typical of human habitation such as fetid smoke, the smell of rotten meat, human excreta in streams, or the occult pollution created by acts of violence and bloodshed. Padma’s use of black magic to pollute their realm is the perfect attack on the nāgas’ peace of mind.

  210. Literally, the Tibetan ’og ma klu refers to “subterranean nāgas”: The nāgas live in water, which is considered to be the lower realm, beneath the earth. Tibetans believ
e, as a matter of fact, that beneath the earth is water throughout, and therefore the nāgas can live throughout the world beneath the earth, not just where there are visible bodies of water.

  211. The Tibetan, mgo bo par la zhog, literally means, “the beginning of this song is sent far away.” Usually a song begins with an auspicious or happy beginning, but today they are sad and worried and skip the evocation of happy sentiment.

  212. Without a boundary or some other excrescence, there is nothing on which a bird could land in this treeless land. The argument of the proverb seems to be simply that the nāgas must have done something wrong, otherwise they would not be suffering now.

  213. A strange three-line proverb that means “there must be a reason for our suffering.”

  214. The dawn is the nāga child, and it is led by the sun, the nāga king, Tsugna Rinchen. The nāga child is helpless not to obey his command, just as light, lead by the sun, must suffuse the world.

  215. The original text has an error: seng (“lion”) should be sang, then kar sang is “yesterday.”

  216. “Blood relatives”: The Tibetan, sha phu nu, literally means “flesh relatives”; phu nu means something like “elder and younger brother” or “brother and cousin.” But it is used to indicate a general relationship of being sworn kinsmen. Sometimes there is a phu nu relationship between two people not related by marriage or blood, the phrase simply indicating that they are as loyal to each other as blood relatives would be. Here the dragon child is saying that the race or species known as nyen, the mountain gods, may dwell in the middle world between heaven and earth, while the lu, the dragons, live in the earth below—nevertheless, they are kin, as we would say, “blood brothers.”

  217. The Tibetan, ma mthun dgu mthun, literally means “nothing accords many (nine) accord.” It means that they are naturally in accord without any external cause.

  218. Another strange expression of the same form as “nothing accords many (nine) accord”: The Tibetan is rtsa rtsi thog mi skye dgu skye.

  219. The term grib in Tibetan that appears here in the original can be understood in many different ways. Here we are translating it according to the result that has occurred, that of deadly disease. The term literally means to render something impure or obscured so that it is no longer clean or clear. This comes about due to root causes and contributing circumstances that are based upon concepts and superstition.

  220. An error in the original text here gives the Tibetan as stong, “one thousand,” when it should be sdong, meaning “grooved.”

  221. This passage, like most of the nāga chapter, has a tone of authorial sarcasm. The divination, of course, is completely fake in these circumstances. Padmasambhava has already secretly ordered the diviner to give a specific divination, no matter what the signs and augury might actually suggest. The bard is probably making fun of the way Tibetans superstitiously ask for a mo, a divination, whenever they must make a serious decision. In fact, this is a characteristic of Buddhist practitioners throughout North Asia.

  222. Pronounced “so,” this exclamation is actually spelled bswo. It is a native Tibetan mantric sound, a sign of Bön or non-Buddhist religion. It may originate from a sort of yodel or victory cry that Tibetans give when they have reached the summit of a mountain: ki! ki! so! so! The fact that the Tibetan bswo contains so many silent letters is a sign of its antiquity and native origins. This is particularly so in the case of the “w,” which is almost never sounded in modern speech. This song is a showcase of Bön and native Tibetan religion, with its many bizarre and anachronistic words: chwa, spelled phywa, or yel, spelled dbal. It strikes the ear much the way references to Celtic literature and culture would in a Walter Scott novel and gives a sort of gothic sense to the passage.

  223. “Yel, Thor, and Dar” (Tib. dbal, ’thor, and bdar): In the Bön religion these are three clans (ru) of gods who incarnate to fight demons out of compassion for sentient beings.

  224. Ibid., endnote 215.

  225. Although the nāgas are high and magical creatures, paradoxically they still belong technically to the animal realm. They are the highest of the animals, but still animals.

  226. Padmasambhava is pretending that the bodhisattva of compassion is his guru and has sent him into retreat. There in his cave he is virtuously practicing and can’t attend to worldly affairs.

  227. An error in the original text here gives the Tibetan as dad (“faith”); it should be ’ded, or ded, meaning “pursue.”

  228. “The wealth god” (Tib. dkor bdag): An epithet of Kubera, the Indic god of wealth. The central term in this section of the song is dkor, which means wealth and riches in general but is also used to refer to monks and religious people who consume religious offerings for their own wealth. This section describes people who use religious terms to appropriate personal riches. They give sermons on compassion but only work for their own good. They invoke deities such as Kubera and the dharma protectors, but just for their own minor benefit.

  229. “Oath-bound protectors” (Tib. bka’ srung), perhaps also could be translated “the guardians of the word.” These are the deities called dharma protectors, wrathful deities who have been deputized by enlightened beings to protect practitioners in their dharma practice. Padma sarcastically describes false gurus calling on these protectors for worldly things instead of the essentially mental or spiritual protection these deities truly offer.

  230. “Philosophical dialectics” (Tib. grub mtha’), literally, “philosophical tenet systems.” This is a translation of the Sanskrit term siddhānta. Half the study of Buddhist metaphysics is devoted to learning classical and systematic descriptions of philosophical systems that developed in India and were elaborated in Tibetan schools of philosophical dialectics. In this verse we see a learned lama who upholds one siddhānta and harshly criticizes others, with the result that when he or she meditates they contemplate mere points of philosophical debate and develop emotionality over issues of doctrine, a detour from the path of enlightenment that aims for equanimity.

  231. “When training in the completion stage, to have a focal point” (Tib. sbyangs na rdzogs rim dmigs gtad can): In the developing stage of meditation one focuses the mind on religious visualizations. But in the completion stage one is supposed to meditate resting in openness without having a visualized focal object. This raises a problem sometimes, for there are yogic practices in the completion state that involve control of psychic energies and channels inside the body. Sometimes meditators fail to work directly with these channels and instead simply visualize or imagine them. Padma could be saying that concentrating too much on such visualizations in this case is a mistake.

  232. Remorse is one of the stages in the Buddhist act of confession, which if properly done, sincerely and in a timely manner, may bring a remedy to evil deeds. But at the moment of death it is too late for remorse to operate as one of the powers of confession, for the power of remorse is itself karmic and has a greater effect on the future than the present. Meanwhile, when you are dying, Yama, the god of death, is appearing: conditions far in the past are already in the act of ripening.

  233. Here Padma’s song takes a turn the nāgas must have been dreading. It is comforting to hear a lama denigrate material possessions. It makes him sound unworldly and harmless. On the other hand, as wealth-hoarding magical beings, what the nāgas fear most is the typical rapacious lama whose spirituality is a mere pose. Such a man will charge them dearly for his services as an exorcist. In this song Padmasambhava seems to perfectly fulfill that stereotype.

  234. The word translated as “golden river” here is gser ldan, literally, “the gold-bearing.” This refers poetically to the Tibetan notion that broad rivers have bits of golden sand in them.

  235. “Go wherever he wants” (Tib. brgya ’gro stong ’gro): Literally, “go a hundred paces or a thousand paces.”

  236. The following section is meant to be humorous and probably seems as ridiculous to a Tibetan as it does to the Western reader. Padma has c
ome to cure the kingdom of a plague he secretly started. The nāga king, like all dragons, is attached to wealth. Padma plays the part of a typical corrupt lama who gives pious sermons about self-denial and then expects extravagant fees to pay for the rituals he performs. He is pompous and prolix until the moment comes to bargain for his stipend. Then his language becomes earthy, almost vulgar. The best joke is the sense of irony the reader shares with the bard, for we know that Padma is actually beyond greed, but must play to the nāga’s expectations in order to achieve his goals.

  237. “Are you exhausted from your journey?” (Tib. byon si phebs si ’o re rgyal) is a very formal idiomatic expression. Tsugna Rinchen’s short speech here is very flowery and stylized. It contrasts nicely with the informal, village style of speech that has humorously accompanied most meetings so far in this epic.

  238. Actually, the following verses read more like formal Indic court poetry rather than Tibetan songs. They are full of extended metaphors that can be read at several levels and use classical imagery. And like everything the nāgas say, there are constant references to a nāga sense of reality: the elemental world of water, mountains, and cycles of nature.

  239. As a guardian deity, a zodor is the local proprietor of the region, an “earth lord.” If the zodor becomes angered by pollution or mistreatment of his locality, he may punish the people who live there with hailstorms that destroy their barley crops and harm their livestock.

  240. Zodors can become touchy and irritable if the environment is polluted or mistreated. In this stanza the dharmapālas are regarded as being similarly reactive. Tsugna imagines the anger of such local deities could be the cause of the epidemic. It is interesting, because, if such an epidemic were to happen to humans, they might very well attribute it to the irritability of nāgas.

  241. This probably refers to ransoming (Tib. bslu) ceremonies, in which a shaman or Buddhist priest cures a person’s illness by offering the spirits a ransom for the return of the person’s stolen life essence.