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HER BIRTHPLACE, PARENTS, AND BIRTH

From Tibetan Buddhist Encyclopedia
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by Sarah Harding



There is a village called Tsomer in lower Tamshod in Ei Gangwa of Lapchi?3 The lord of that village was called the ranchers’ minister or chief or elder, or by his name Chokyi Dawa. He would be her father. Her mother, the daugh¬ter of a wealthy family, was named Bumcham. Both father and mother were of noble birth, attractive, and wealthy. They were well-mannered and treated all subjects and their own servants

with kindness. Whatever they did was in harmony with the Dharma, and they gave all of their possessions over to it. With faith in the Three Jewels, they were especially meticulous in serving the Sangha. As they themselves followed their own spiritual advice and

trans¬formed their body, speech, and mind in the Dharma, so they encouraged others to do so as well. This lord and lady with control over five hundred vil¬lages were the best kind of bodhisattvas.

Just past midnight on the fifteenth, at the time of conception, Bumcham had a dream that four white dakinls carrying four white vases came and bathed her from head to foot, leaving her radiant and clean. Then she dreamed of red, yellow, and green dakinls, seven of each,

presenting many offerings and say¬ing, “Offerings to the mother. Please be our mother.” Then she dreamed of a blue-black dakinl with wrathful attire, wearing bone ornaments and bran¬dishing a hooked knife, surrounded by four sky-blue dakinis holding hooked knives and

skull cups. The four dakinls in the front, back, right, and left were standing up in the manner of greeting. The blue-black dakinl brought down the hooked knife from one cubit away down to the center of her breast and said, “We will draw out your dark heart of ignorance and devour it.” So say¬ing, she laid open Bumcham’s breast and pulled out her heart. The spilling blood filled the skull cup of the dakinl in front, and they all drank it. Then the main dakinl blew on a white, right-spiraling conch shell that the whole world could hear just by

thinking of it. In the center of this conch the white syllable ah shone with five-colored lights. Saying, “I will replace your heart with this luminous conch,” the dakinl nestled it into the heart cavity. Then it seemed that a five-colored light ray emanated from [the

dakinis] heart and dissolved into her head. The light of the four blue dakinls pervaded her Tody. Then they dissolved into light and were absorbed into the black one, who then also seemed to vanish within the light-filled space.


During this whole dream Bumcham was not worried or frightened. Even when her heart was removed she felt no pain or suffering but actually felt happy and blissful in body and mind, with lucid awareness. Many unprece¬dented joys had developed in this dream and continued even after she awoke.

The next day, just as the sun’s light was spreading, a village woman named Amen came by and announced, “I’ve come to report an auspicious dream I had about the chief s household.” She was invited inside and shown into the large shrine room, where she

continued: “I had a Yery wonderful dream. The merit of the chief s family has not diminished for many generations, and now it will become equal to the sky.”

Lady Bumcham thought to herself, “Last night I also had an unusual dream, and even now my body and mind and all my perceptions are joyful and blissful. I wonder what this woman Amen has dreamed.” So she summoned the rest of the family, gave the woman an excellent commission, and asked her to describe the dream.

“It was yesterday around dawn. This mansion of yours appeared to be three times its height, and the golden finial was also three times as big. On the top of it there was a three-tiered umbrella. Around it in the four directions were four silver mirrors the size of moons. As the wind stirred them, their light filled all the realms with radiance. Four girls identifying themselves as dakinis appeared in the four directions and blew four white conches that could be heard as far as the 6^' continents. On the four corners of the house were four big white banners blowing in the foac directions. Many butter lamps were arranged along the sculpted ledges all around, and their bright blazing light illuminated everything, A red ray of light from the sky penetrated the mansion. I was on the upper, back part of the house,

so I asked one of the conch-blowers what was going on. ‘We are preparing the mothers residence,’ she said, as music resounded from the shrine room. ‘What is going on here, and who is this mother?’ I wondered, and tried to find a way to go inside. But as soon as I stood up, I awoke from the dream.”

There were many other excellent dreams as well. Bumcham’ sixteen-year- old daughter Burney described a dream from the previous night: “A white light from the sky came over Mother and illuminated the whole house. Then an eight-year-old girl holding a vajra appeared and

said, ‘Sister, are you well?’ When I asked whence she came, she replied, ‘I have come from Pota'i.’ ‘Where is Potari?” I asked, and she said, ‘I am from India.’ I asked who she was and she replied, ‘Don’t you know me? I am Tara/Just as I was trying to grab her to see if this was true or not, she escaped into Mother’s lap and vanished. Then I woke up.”

These and many other _ good omens occurred. Bumcham, although she had reached the age of forty-eight, started to loqk younger and more radiant; even her wrinkles cleared up. Everybody said, “Lady Bumcham is benefiting from the blessings of her virtuous religious work; now she has become young again and you can’t tell her apart from her daughter Burney.” The mother herself felt physically light. All her

perceptions were pleasant, and she had incredible, pure visions in her dreams. Even at night she could see everything without obscurity as if the lights were on. At times she could intuit all the good and bad qualities of others, and everyone talked of the Lady’s vivid dreams. From the 2$th day of the rabbit month (which was the second month of the Sheep year), Bumcham could feel the sounds of ah and ha ri ni sa. On the morning of the third day of the dragon month she could hear [her unborn] child calling, “Mother, what I need is a new white cloth

smoked with incense and frankin¬cense, and anointed with saffron.” So Bumcham got the cloth ready. Then, on the fifteenth day (of the third month of the Sheep year),24 at the first light of dawn, she gave birth. The house filled with rainbow lights and the fragrance of saf¬fron and incense. The melodious sounds of many instruments reverberated through the sky and flowers rained down. All the local people

spoke of how the offerings to the family deities had caused a .rain of flowers and rainbow lights and sweet music from the sky. As soon as the baby was born, she sat up with one leg drawn in and one leg extended, surrounded by rainbow light, and said, “Mother, are

you all . right?” and intoned the sound of ah. A spinning, radiating red syllable hrih appeared on her tongue, and in her forehead an eye shone with fine hairs of five-colored lights like a rainbow. On the crown of her head there was a white light about the size of the little fingernail, with a single white syllable ah marking it. Her sister Burney wrapped her in the cloth and held her on her lap for awhile, and

the hrih syllable on the baby’s tongue was absorbed and no longer manifest. She was given sweetened white butter, but she regurgitated and didn’t wish to eat, and just gazed up into space with her three bright eyes. After a while the light on top of her head subsided and the

five-colored lights on her fore¬head dissolved back into the eye. Then she lowered her head a little and stared directly into her sister’s face. After a while she began to smack her lips, so she was again given the butter. She ate it nicely and then, suddenly acting like a regular baby, she looked at her .mother and smiled and then fell asleep in her sister’s lap. The mother was unharmed [from the birth] and filled, with joy and happiness.

In the morning Burney found the child looking up brightly and called her mother. “Mama, this girl is looking right at me with her beautiful three eyes. Isn’t this wonderful for us?” she said in great delight. But she heard, “Father is coming! Burney, hide the girl!”

She wrapped her in cloth and placed her behind the door. The father came into the shrine room and Burney told him, “Lord of the family, sir, mother has given birth to a bad girl with three eyes. We got rid of.it!” The father said, “Where is she? Bring her here.” So Burney picked up the baby girl and brought her to him.^ He examined her carefully and declared, “This girl’s middle eye has a hair-thin white ah

in ' the middle. She has all the signs of a dakinl (such as the slightly webbed fingers, slightly reddish fingernails luminous as mother of pearl with various colored lights like a rainbow, and the appearance of the syllables om ah hung}. Look after her carefully. Burney, don’t you take this girl outdoors, and don’t go into the village. Keep her a secret.”




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