The Tibetan Book of the Dead — ed. W. Y. Evans-Wentz

The Block-Print account is as follows :

‘This has been brought from the Hill of Gampodar (Tib.
Gampo-dar), on the bank of the Serdan (Tib. Gser-ldan,
meaning ‘ Possessing Gold’ or ‘Golden’) River, by Rigzin
Karma Ling-pa (Tib. Rigs-hdzin Kar-ma Gling-pa).

Rigzin, as herein given, is a personal title, and Karma Lingpa the name of a place in Tibet meaning ‘Karma Land’. The translator has pointed out that Rigs is an erroneous spelling of Rig; for, if Rags were correct, the name Rigzin would mean Class-Holder (Rigs+Zin). That Rig is intended—thus making the name mean Knowledge-Holder (Rig + hdzin), a caste or class designation’—was confirmed by a small section of a Bardo Thédol manuscript in the possession of the translator, in which Rigzin Karma Ling-pa is otherwise called Terton (Tib. Gter-bston), or ‘Taker-Out of Treasures’. The Bardo Thodol is, therefore, one of the Tibetan Lost

1 Rig-hdein, a translation into Tibetan of the Sanskrit term Vidya-Dhara, used, as herein, of a learned person, such as a pandit, also denotes a class of supernatural beings like certain orders of fairies.

3069 L

p. 74

Books recovered by Rigzin of Karma Ling-pa, who is held to be an emanation or incarnation of Padma Sambhava, the Founder of Lamaism.

It was in the eighth century A.D. that Lamaism, which we may define as Tantric Buddhism, took firm root in Tibet. A century earlier, under the first king to rule over a united Tibet, King Srong-Tsan-Gampo (who died in A.D. 650), Buddhism itself entered Tibet from two sources: from Nepal, the land of the Buddha’s ancestors, through the Tibetan King’s marriage with a daughter of the royal family of Nepal ; and from China, through his marriage—in the year 641— with a princess of the Chinese Imperial Family. The King had been nurtured in the old B6n faith of Tibet, which, with its primitive doctrine of rebirth, was quite capable of serving as an approach to Buddhism ; and under the influence of his two Buddhist wives he accepted Buddhism, making it the state religion; but it made little headway in Tibet until a century later, when his powerful successor, Thi-Srong- Detsan, held the throne from A.D. 740 to 786. It was Thi- Srong-Detsan who invited Padma Sambhava (Tib. Pédma Jungné, ie. ‘The Lotus-Born’), better known to the Tibetans as Guru Rin-po-ch’e, ‘The Precious Guru’, to come to Tibet. The famous Guru was at that time a Professor of Yoga in the great Buddhist University of Nalanda, India, and far-famed for expert knowledge of the Occult Sciences. He was a native of Udyana or Swat, in what is now a part of Afghanistan.

The famous Guru was at that time a Professor of Yoga in the great Buddhist University of Nalanda, India, and far-famed for expert knowledge of the Occult Sciences. He was a native of Udyana or Swat, in what is now a part of Afghanistan.

The Great Guru saw the wonderful opportunity which the King’s invitation offered, and promptly accepted the call, passing through Nepal and arriving at Samye (Sam-yas), Tibet, in the year 747. It was to Samye that the King had invited him, in order to have ecxorcized the demons of the locality ; for as soon as the walls of a monastery which the King was having erected there were raised they were overthrown by local earthquakes, which the demons opposing Buddhism were believed to have caused. When the Great Guru had driven out the demons, all the local earthquakes ceased, much to the wonder of the people; and he himself supervised the completion of the royal monastery, andp. 75 established therein the first community of Tibetan Buddhist lamas, in the year 749.

During his sojourn in Tibet at that time, and during subsequent visits, Padma Sambhava had many Tantric books translated into Tibetan out of Indian Sanskrit originals— some of which have been preserved in the monasteries of Tibet—and hidden away with appropriate mystic ceremonies in various secret places. He also endowed certain of his disciples with the yogic power of reincarnating at the proper time, as determined by astrology, in order to take them out, along with the treasures hidden away with them and the requisites needed for properly performing the rites described in the texts. This is the generally accepted tradition; but according to another tradition the Zertous are to be regarded as various incarnations of the Great Guru himself. According to a rough estimate, the religious texts already taken out by such Tertons, from century to century, would form an encyclopeedia of about sixty-five volumes of block-prints, each, on an average, consisting of about four hundred ordinary-sized folios.

Our text, the Bardo Thédol, being one of these recovered apocryphal books, should, therefore, be regarded as having been compiled (for the internal evidence suggests that it was a Tibetan compilation rather than a direct translation from some unknown Sanskrit original) during the first centuries of Lamaism, either—as it purports to have been—in the time of Padma Sambhava or soon afterwards. Its present general use all over Tibet as a funeral ritual and its acceptance by the different sects, in varying versions, could nct have been the outcome of a few generations; it testifies rather convincingly to its antiquity, bears out the pre-Buddhistic and at least partially B6n origin which we attribute to it, and suggests some validity in the claims made for the Zerdons.

Weare well aware of the adverse criticisms passed by European critics on the Zerton tradition. There is not lacking, nevertheless, sound reason for suspecting that the European critics are not altogether right. Therefore, it seems to us that the only sound attitude to assume towards the Zerton problem is to keep an open mind until sufficient data accumulate top. 76 pronounce judgement. Though the Zerton claim be proven false, the fact that the Bardo Thodol is now accepted as a sacred book in Tibet and has for some considerable time been used by the /amas for reading over the dead would, of course, not be affected; only the theory concerning the textual compilation of what, in its essentials, is apparently a prehistoric ritual would be subject to revision.

As for Padma Sambhava’s own sources, apart from such congenial traditional teachings as no doubt he incorporated in some of his Tibetan treatises, we are told, by oral tradition now current among the /amas, that he had eight gurus in India, each representing one of the eight chief Tantric doctrines.

Ina Tibetan block-print, which belonged to the translator, purporting to record the history, but much mixed with myth, of the Great Guru, entitled Orgyan-Padmas-mzad-pahi-bkahthang-bsdiid-pa (pronounced Ugyan Padmay-zad-pat-ba-thangdii-pa), meaning ‘The Abridged Testament made by Ugyan Padma’ (or ‘ by the Lotus-Born Ugyan’—Padma Sambhava), consisting of but seventeen folios, there is recorded on the twelfth folio, sixteenth section, the following passage, confirming the historical tradition touching the origin of the Bardo Thodol text:

‘Behold! the Sixteenth Section, showing the Eight Lingpas, the Leaders of Religion, is [thus] :

‘The Eight Incarnations of the Great Bodhisattvas are:
‘ Ugyan-ling-pa, in the centre ;
‘ Dorje-ling-pa, in the east ;
‘Rinchen-ling-pa, in the south ;
‘ Padma-ling-pa, in the west ;
‘Karma-ling-pa, in the north ;
‘Samten-ling-pa and Nyinda-ling,
‘[And] Shig-po-ling (or Terdag-ling).
‘These Eight Great Tertons shall come ;
‘Mine own incarnations alone are they.’

Padma Sambhava himself is herein represented as declaring that the Zertons, or ‘Takers-out’ of the hidden books, are to

ORIGIN OF THE BARDO THODOL v7