Pabongkha Hermitage (Pabongkha Ritrö)

Pabongkha, one of the largest and most important of the Sera hermitages (ritrö), lies about eight kilometers northwest of downtown Lhasa on the southern (Lhasa-facing) slope of a peak known as Mount Parasol (Udukri), northwest of Sera. It takes a little over one hour to walk from Pabongkha to Sera. Pabongkha is the starting point for the “Sixth-Month Fourth-Day” (Drukpa Tsezhi) Sera Mountain Circumambulation Circuit (Seré Rikhor) pilgrimage. To see images of the circumambulation taken in 2002, click here.

The site has a long history that is said to go back to the time of the first Buddhist king (of Tibet) Songtsen Gampo (Chögyel Songtsen Gampo).2 Although originally the site of his castle (kukhar) or fort, it appears that Pabongkha was quickly converted into a monastery, perhaps as early as the reign of the second great Buddhist king (of Tibet) Trisong Detsen (Chögyel Trisong Detsen). The monastery was partially destroyed as part of King Langdarma’s (d. 842) campaign to dismantle monastic Buddhism. During the so-called “later propagation period” (chidar), Pabongkha was taken over by members of the Kadampa school. Later, Tsongkhapa (1357-1419) lived at the site as a hermit, and it eventually became a Geluk institution.

Before 1959, Pabongkha was apparently an autonomous institution that belonged to no other monastery, although at various times it has had informal ties to Sera through the person of the various Sera lamas that served as its abbots. The monastery suffered considerable destruction from 1960 to the mid-1980s. Sera monks began renovating the buildings in the mid-1980s, and today the monastery belongs to Sera. Since the mid-80s, all of Pabongkha’s monks are Sera monks, and the hermitage is managed by a senior Sera monk. As was the case before 1959, and as is typical of the Sera hermitages in general, Pabongkha is principally a ritual institution. It maintains its own tradition of monthly and yearly ritual cycles.3 The most important of these yearly ritual events (at least for the laity) are:

the six-day (three sets of two-day) Avalokiteśvara fasting rituals (nyungné) that take place during the time of the Tibetan New Year (Losar) celebrations, the sixteen-day (eight sets of two-day) Avalokiteśvara fasting rituals that take place during the fourth Tibetan month. This attracts many (especially elderly) people from Lhasa and the surrounding area, and the ritual and other events that take place during the “Sixth-Month Fourth-Day” pilgrimage.

Location and Layout

Various kinds of rhetoric have been used to portray Pabongkha as a sacred site – metaphysical, historical, archival, and so forth. In the more metaphysical accounts, Pabongkha is depicted as a site that is sacred by its very nature – that is, sacred by virtue of the fact that from among the twenty-eight sites in the world associated with the deity Cakrasaṃvara (Demchok), Pabongkha is one of the Four Principal Sites (Nyewé Né Zhi): “the one called Debikoṭi (Debi Koti).”4 In these accounts, then, Pabongkha is depicted as sacred at a deep or ontological level because it is a part of the body of a deity, Cakrasaṃvara.

But other discourses on the sacredness of the site exist alongside the metaphysical one. As is typical of many Tibetan religious institutions, various auspicious self-arisen images (rangjön)5 and rock formations are believed to exist on the mountains behind Pabongkha. The parasol has already been mentioned in other contexts; there is also a famous rock formation that resembles a conch. These various magical properties of the landscape are considered signs of the “purity of the site” (sajang). [Click here to read a discussion of the metaphysics of sacred space at a site like Sera.]

Pabongkha is located on a rise above the fields in the Lhasa suburb of Nyangdren. Just east of the monastery is a cemetery (durtrö) that is in use even to this day. The cemetery is identified as one of the cemeteries in the maṇḍala of Cakrasaṃvara. Informants report that before 1959 only fully ordained monks could be brought here for “sky burial.” Today no such restriction exists, and the bodies of lay people are also disposed of here. Inside the main temple at Pabongkha there is a small stone statue of a Buddha6 said to have magically emerged self-arisen image out of a stone as Songtsen Gampo was gestating in his mother’s womb. By the time the king was born, the statue, which was slowly emerging from the stone over the nine months he was in his mother’s womb, took its final and present form. The image faces the cemetery, and – like the Maitreya statue at Keutsang Hermitage (Keutsang Ritrö) that gazes down upon the eastern cemetery of Lhasa – this statue too is said to effectuate the “transition of consciousness” (powa) to the pure land for any deceased person whose remains are brought to this cemetery.

The first temple that one sees as one arrives at Pabongkha is the Temple of the Three Protectors (Riksum Gönpo Lhakhang). The temple that presently exists at this site is recent. Before 1959, it seems that only a small shrine to the Three Protectors (Riksum Gönpo) existed at this spot.7 The present temple was built sometime in the late 1980s. In 2004 it was being renovated, and new murals depicting the Eighty Deeds of Tsongkhapa (Tsongkha Gyepchu) were being painted on its walls by a group of artists from Tsang province. The temple contains several important icons:

In the center portion of the main altar one finds the stone self-arisen images of the Three Protectors – Avalokiteśvara, Mañjuśrī, and Vajrapāṇi. On the western portion of the main altar – the left side as one is facing it – there is a miraculous statue of Thousand-Armed Avalokiteśvara, which is said to grow slightly in size every time the yearly fasting ritual of the deity is performed in this temple.

Along the eastern wall of the temple, one finds the famous stone containing the six-syllable mantra (oṃ maṇi padme hūṃ) that was carved into (or that emerged miraculously from) the rock onto which Tönmi (seventh century), the legendary founder of the Tibetan written language, wrote these letters as the first exemplar of Tibetan writing. Proceeding northwest from the Temple of the Three Protectors, one arrives at what is arguably the most important structure in the monastery: the temple called The Boulder House (Pabongkha/ng). Known originally as Maru Castle (Kukhar Maru), it sits atop the largest boulder on the site, the so-called “Female Turtle” (Rübelmo)Boulder (see below). The castle – reportedly the first structure built on this site – is said to date from the time of Songtsen Gampo. It is not clear, however, whether the present temple is (or contains) a remnant of that original building, or whether the castle was completely destroyed and later rebuilt as the temple that exists there today.

The pha bong kha Temple, purportedly the oldest temple at the hermitage, sits atop the Female Turtle Boulder . At the bottom of the boulder (in the center) one can see the small door that leads into srong btsan sgam po’s meditation cave (sgrub phug).

The Pabongkha Temple, purportedly the oldest temple at the hermitage, sits atop the Female Turtle Boulder. At the bottom of the boulder (in the center) one can see the small door that leads into Songtsen Gampo’s meditation cave (druppuk).

One enters this temple building from the north side. The first floor is little more than a vestibule containing stairs that lead to the second story. Ascending the flight of stairs, one arrives at the three chapels that together comprise the second floor:

A small chapel that houses statues of some of the more important figures in the history of the monastery The large assembly hall (dukhang) has room for about one-hundred monks. This is the main meeting hall used by the monks of the monastery today. In a small case on the eastern side of this room, facing the windows overlooking the cemetery, one finds the self-arisen image of the Buddha that emerged from a stone during Songtsen Gampo’s gestation. Behind the main assembly hall is a small protector deity chapel (gönkhang). The third floor contains the private rooms of the lama.

Beneath the main temple, in the interior of this boulder is a cave chapel, the place where Songtsen Gampo remained in retreat in order to pacify the negative forces that were hindering the building of the Jokhang. There is a mortar throne in the middle of the room that is said to be Songtsen Gampo’s actual meditation seat. The altar along the northern wall of this cave contains a self-arisen image rock image of the deity Pel Lhamo, who appeared in a vision to the king while he was in retreat here.

Tsongkhapa’s meditation hut lies just north of the Pabongkha main temple. Tsongkhapa is said to have stayed here when he once took the one-day Mahāyāna Precepts (Tekchen Sojong). Beside Tsongkhapa’s hut is a small chapel containing a self-arisen image stone image of the Medicine Buddha (Menla).

North of Tsongkhapa’s meditation hut are a series of stūpas that are said to date to the time that the site was a Kadampa monastery. And north of these is the building, which contains two chapels:

A small building, and

A large building. This chapel has large clay statues of Tsongkhapa and his two disciples, as well as statues of Tsongkhapa in various forms as he appeared in visions to his disciple Kedrupjé (1385-1438). This set of images of Tsongkhapa is collectively known as the “Five Visions of the Lord (Tsongkhapa)” (Jé Zikpa Ngaden). In the foreground, the (white) meditation hut of tsong kha pa. Behind it are the stūpas that are said to date to the time that pha bong kha was a bka’ gdams pa institution. Behind the stūpas is the Temple of the Five Visions of the Lord (Tsongkhapa).

In the foreground, the (white) meditation hut of Tsongkhapa. Behind it are the stūpas that are said to date to the time that Pabongkha was a Kadampa institution. Behind the stūpas is the Temple of the Five Visions of the Lord (Tsongkhapa).

Northeast of the Temple of the Five Visions of the Lord (Tsongkhapa) is the Male Turtle (Rübelpo)Boulder (see below) with a small structure atop it. Before 1959, there was a stūpa where this small structure now stands.

Finally, to the east of the Male Turtle Boulder are the ruins of what used to be the headquarters of the estate of Lhaptsün Rinpoché (Lhaptsün Rinpoché Labrang).

In addition to the buildings just mentioned there are many other buildings, like the kitchen, as well as minor structures and shrines, and of course various large buildings that contain monastic living quarters.

History

Founding Narratives

Pabongkha, also known as Maru Castle, has a history that spans more than thirteen-hundred years. Traditional accounts tell us that the oldest building on the site, the temple known as Pabongkha (“Boulder House/Man”),8 predates the Jokhang, Lhasa’s central cathedral. If this is true – and carbon-14 dating may prove definitive in deciding this, as it has in helping us to fix the date of the interior portions of the Jokhang itself – it would make the main temple at Pabongkha one of the oldest Buddhist monuments in the Tibetan world, dating to seventh century.

There are two distinct narratives of the founding of Pabongkha. The first relates the founding of the hermitage to the building of the Jokhang. The second relates it to the figure of Tönmi, the legendary founder of the Tibetan writing system and literary language. In each case, the founding of the monastery is associated with foundational events in the introduction of Buddhism into Tibet. In both narratives, the turtle spirit, who resides within the giant boulder at the site, is seen as something to be controlled or dominated. But in the second account, it is portrayed as something wondrous rather than as a threat. In neither of these narratives is the turtle gendered, as it will be in the later apocalyptic myths of the Pabongkha site (see below).

Version One

According to many Tibetan sources, the Jokhang – the central cathedral of Lhasa and the first Buddhist temple built in Tibet – is said to have been constructed to house the statue of the Jowo Mikyö Dorjé, brought to Tibet by Songtsen Gampo’s Nepalese queen. But the building of the Jokhang was no easy thing. The site where the temple was supposed to sit was a swamp or lake (tso), and the water of this lake was the heart’s-blood (nyingdrak) of the female demon that lay supine over (or in some accounts that actually was) the landscape of Tibet. The demoness, we are told, had to be subjugated if Buddhism was to thrive in the country.10 And so, the narrative continues, Songtsen Gampo ordered that the area be filled with dirt. The dirt was carried on the backs of goats.11 Once the site had been prepared, construction on the Jokhang began. But the portion of the walls that went up by day would be destroyed by demons at night. The Nepalese queen asked her co-wife, the Chinese queen, to perform an astrological prognostication to determine how to deal with this problem. The Chinese queen determined that an earth spirit, a golden turtle named Ser Maha,12 who lived in the northern mountains of the Lhasa Valley, was the cause of the problem.13 She recommended that the king build a fortress at the site: an edifice that, being placed atop the huge turtle-boulder, would subdue the spirit beneath it, thus clearing away the obstacles that were impeding the building of the Jokhang temple.

The interior of srong btsan sgam po’s meditation cave located in the Female Turtle Boulder . The throne is said to have been srong btsan sgam po’s actual meditation seat. The interior of Songtsen Gampo’s meditation cave located in the Female Turtle Boulder. The throne is said to have been Songtsen Gampo’s actual meditation seat. Songtsen Gampo then built a nine-story fort made of bricks mortared with molten metal on the “back” of the Female Turtle Boulder.14 It was fastened to the boulder in each of the four directions with powerful, magically-blessed chains. He and his two wives then set themselves to meditating in this building for a period of three years. According to an alternate tradition, Songtsen Gampo meditated not in the castle but in a cave inside the huge boulder: a cave that has been preserved to this day.15 While living in this cave he had a vision of a goddess, Pel Lhamo,16 who promised to act as the protectress of the site, and of Buddhism in general. According to another account,17 on the third day of their retreat, the king and his two queens had visions of the Three Protectors, who promised to help the king realize his plan to introduce Buddhism into Tibet. They dissolved into a rock, and the figures of the three deities then emerged spontaneously from the rock-face. These self-arisen images of the three deities are to this day found on the main altar of the Temple of the Three Protectors in the southern part of Pabongkha hermitage. Finally, Pabongkha is said to be the place where Songtsen Gampo and his court created Tibet’s first legal code: the set of “sixteen rules of purity for the populace” (michö tsangma chudruk), which was then spread throughout the empire.18

Version Two

In the alternate narrative of the founding of Pabongkha, the Jokhang has already been built, and the king and his ministers are residing in Lhasa. One morning, while inspecting the Lhasa Valley from atop the roof of the White Palace in Lhasa, they noticed “a large dark shape” (nakril chenpo zhik) in the middle of the trees on the side of Cakrasaṃvara mountain north of Lhasa. The next day they went to inspect the site, and saw that the dark shape was a giant rock shaped like a turtle. Songtsen Gampo thought to himself, “Tönmi is about to return from India, and I should build him a palace that can serve as the headquarters from which he can spread the new written language. This place [[[Pabongkha]]] is a beautiful place, and the turtle is a wondrous thing. I will build Tönmi’s palace here.” The king designed the palace himself. Once the foundation was finished, he had molten metal poured onto it so that the turtle-rock and the nine-story building would be forever fused as one. Once Tönmi arrived, Songtsen Gampo set him up in this palace, and Tönmi began to teach the written language – first to the king and his ministers, and then to others, who in turn spread this knowledge throughout Tibet.20 But before beginning to instruct his fellow Tibetans, Tönmi wrote the six-syllable mantra (oṃ maṇi padme huṃ) for the sake of good luck. According to one account, the king saw these letters, was amazed, and had them engraved onto a rock. An alternative account tells us that Tönmi from the outset traced out the letters onto the rock’s surface, and that they then magically emerged in bas-relief in a self-arisen image fashion. This rock has been preserved, and can be seen in the Temple of the Three Protectors at Pabongkha Hermitage (Pabongkha Ritrö) even to this day.21

The Gendered/Sexual Landscape

There is one other aspect of the site – related to the narrative of the turtle – that must be mentioned. Oral tradition has it that there are in fact not one but two turtle spirits on the site, each associated with its own boulder. The boulder that sits lower on the hill – the one on which Songtsen Gampo built his castle – is said to be the Female Turtle. Northeast of the Female Turtle, farther uphill, there is another larger boulder identified as the Male Turtle. A small structure (before 1959, it was a stūpa) has been built atop it. Oral tradition has it that the Male Turtle is attempting to slide down the hill to unite sexually with the Female Turtle, and that if this event occurs, it will usher in an apocalypse – that is, the destruction of the universe by wind, fire, water, and so forth.

There are two factors that are seen as preventing this. First, each of the two turtle boulders is fixed in its respective location by Buddhist monuments. The Female Turtle is fixed in place by the castle/temple built by Songtsen Gampo, which is said to have a mythic axis/pole running through its middle that pierces the heart of the Female Turtle and holds her in place so that she cannot move.22 The Male Turtle is held in place by the previously-mentioned stūpa. Second, the stūpas that have been built between the two turtles are said to act as an additional barrier – a second line of defense, as it were – between the two boulders/spirits. In one account, there are said to be one hundred and eight stūpas, each one of them containing one bead from Tsongkhapa’s rosary.23

The myth of the turtles both presumes and reinforces aspects of Tibetan gender ideology. First, the relative position of the two turtles is hardly accidental. In the natural world, as in the social world, the male must be located higher. Sexually speaking, as well, the cultural logic requires that the male be in a position to mount the female – yet another reason for situating the Male Turtle on top of (and descending towards) the female. It might seem strange that sexual union, a generative act, should be seen here not only as threatening, but as the very deed that ushers in the end of the world cycle. But we must remember that this was most likely an oral myth created by monks, and that for monks sex is the end of a world – the end of their vows, and therefore of their life/world as celibates. Sex that takes place within the confines of a monastery is, moreover, considered to be a great sin (dikpa chenpo). Sex in a holy place also brings pollution. From several vantage points, therefore, there is an imperative to keep sex from happening within the confines of Pabongkha. Finally, we must not forget that the turtles are in actuality geo-spirits (sadak): the powerful indigenous gods who are the original “owners” of Lhasa. The mating of the two spirits might have been seen as potentially leading to the proliferation of these creatures as a species, or to their reassertion of power over the land that was once theirs. To have allowed this to happen is to have risked the destruction of the world of Buddhism, whose existence on Tibetan soil depends metaphysically on the control of Tibet’s native spirits. The stūpas that separate the turtle spirits in the physical space of the monastery are the physical symbols of Buddhism as the force that controls the indigenous spirits of the country in the meta-physical sphere.

Later History

Although the various accounts agree that Pabongkha was originally built as a fort and not as a monastery, traditional lore has it that the site was converted into a religious center very early in its history. Initially, it is said to have served as the home to “about a hundred tantrikas.”24 According to some accounts, after Tibetans began to get ordained as Buddhist monks, Pabongkha was converted into a residence for the first seven Tibetan monks (semi dün). This would have taken place during the reign of Trisong Detsen). If this is true,25 it would make Pabongkha one of the oldest monasteries in Tibet.

Pabongkha was destroyed during the reign of King Langdarma. There are different accounts of this event. In the more naturalistic version given by Dungkar Rinpoché, the temple on the rock was completely destroyed by the king. According to the more super-naturalistic version current among the monks of the monastery, Langdarma began to destroy the nine-story temple story-by-story starting from the top. After destroying four stories, the deity Pel Lhamo appeared to him and told him to stop.26 A five-story temple then remained. During the Cultural Revolution the temple lost two more stories. This explains how today it is a three-story building.

We know little about Pabongkha between the time of Langdarma and the eleventh century. It was then that the site was re-established as a Kadampa monastery by one of the most important masters of that tradition. The great Kadampa master Potowa Rinchen Sel (1027/31-1105) is said to have lived in the so-called “Cave of the Tenth Day” (Tsechupuk),27 for a period of time. Pabongkha is the site where Potowa Rinchen Sel transmitted many of the Kadampa teachings to Geshé Drakkarwa (1032-1111), one of his eight great close disciples (kabap buchen gyé).28 Because Potowa Rinchen Sel was quite old at the time, he regretted that he could not bring Pabongkha back to its former glory, so he entrusted this work to his student. It is Geshé Drakkarwa, then, who is credited with the re-establishment of Pabongkha as a monastic institution.29 He stayed in retreat in the Cave of the Tenth Day for quite some time, and during this period gathered many disciples. He then began the process of reconstruction, and rebuilt at least two stories of the temple that had been destroyed during Langdarma’s reign. He also taught extensively at Pabongkha until his death at around the age of eighty. During his decades of residence at Pabongkha, upwards of three hundred monks gathered around him. The monastery appears to have remained a Kadampa institution for the next two hundreds of years, passing through seven or more abbots, and growing in size to upwards of four hundred monks.30 Many stūpas31 are said to have been built at the site by the successive Kadampa masters who held the throne of Pabongkha, and some of these monuments still exist at the site today. A small clay tablet repository (tsakhang) to the east of the temple of the Three Protectors is also said to have been built during the Kadampa period as an antidote to demonic influences.

After the seventh Kadampa abbot of Pabongkha, the monastery went into a period of decline. It appears that it may have then become a Sakya institution around the time of Pakpa (1235-1280), remaining under Sakyapa control for a period of about two hundred years. At the time of Pakmo Drupa hegemony, Pabongkha once again went into a period of decline. Tsongkhapa, the founder of the Gelukpa school, apparently remained in retreat at Pabongkha for a short period of time. The site was once again revived – this time as a Geluk institution – by Penchen Delek Nyima (sixteenth century). Under Penchen Delek Nyima’s abbacy, Pabongkha thrived, at least for a short period of time, but, like many institutions in and around Lhasa, it suffered as a result of the internecine warfare that plagued Central Tibet as a whole, and Pabongkha once again went into a period of decline.

It was in year 1619 that Pabongkha came under the aegis of the great Gelukpa master Khöntön Peljor Lhündrup (1561-1637). Khöntön was a lama renowned for his ecumenical outlook. He was an important figure in the history of Sera, and one of the teachers of the Fifth Dalai Lama. After the death of Khöntön, the Fifth Dalai Lama had “a three story palace”32 built at Pabongkha. He commissioned an image of his teacher, and endowed the institution generously by providing it with fields, pastures for animals, and many head of yak.33 He also became (at least nominally) the head of Pabongkha, and it seems that he inaugurated a tradition according to which all of the successive Dalai Lamas visited the institution at least once in their lives.

Desi Sanggyé Gyatso (1653-1705), the regent of the Fifth Dalai Lama, lists the following abbots from the time of Khöntön up to his own day:

Peljor Rapgyé (1604-1669)

Serapa Jamyang Drakpa (b. seventeenth century)

Khen Ngawang Tendzin34

Mé Lazur Lozang Döndrup35

Pabongkha has remained a Geluk institution up to the present time. Informants tell us that one of the great lamas of Sera, Lhaptsün Rinpoché, established a lama’s residence (labrang) at Pabongkha at some point in time, but we do not know when precisely this was. This compound now lies in ruins.

The ruins of the Lhaptsün Rinpoché’s estate (lha btsun rin po che’i bla brang) at pha bong kha. The ruins of the Lhaptsün Rinpoché’s estate (Lhaptsün Rinpoché Labrang) at Pabongkha. Before 1959 Pabongkha was an independent monastery, albeit one that had had strong historical and social ties to Sera for several hundred years of its history. According to one informant, before 1959 only fully ordained monks were allowed to live at Pabongkha. While this may have been true in theory, it is difficult to imagine that this rule was strictly observed, given that so much of the menial labor in small monasteries like this one (hauling water, cleaning, serving tea, etc.) is traditionally done by novice monks.

As with many of Tibet’s great monasteries, Pabongkha was forcibly closed after the events of 1959. Many of its important images36 were destroyed. It remained closed until the monks of Sera formally applied for permission to rebuild the site. They began the project of restoring Pabongkha in the mid 1980s. Today Pabongkha is owned and administered by Sera, and all of the monks of the hermitage are Sera monks.

Glossary

Note: The glossary is organized into sections according to the main language of each entry. The first section contains Tibetan words organized in Tibetan alphabetical order. To jump to the entries that begin with a particular Tibetan root letter, click on that letter below. Columns of information for all entries are listed in this order: THL Extended Wylie transliteration of the term, THL Phonetic rendering of the term, the English translation, the Sanskrit equivalent, associated dates, and the type of term. To view the glossary sorted by any one of these rubrics, click on the corresponding label (such as “Phonetics”) at the top of its column.

Ka | Kha | Ga | Nga | Ca | Cha | Ja | Nya | Ta | Tha | Da | Na | Pa | Pha | Ba | Ma | Tsa | Tsha | Dza | Wa | Zha | Za | ’A | Ya | Ra | La | Sha | Sa | Ha | A Ka

Notes

[1] The account that follows is based on the narrative of the monastery in Sde srid sangs rgyas rgya mtsho, Dga’ ldan chos ’byung bai ḍūrya ser po [[[Yellow]] Lapis: A History of the Ganden (School)] (Krung go’i bod kyi shes rig dpe skrun khang, 1991), 144; on the “Pabongkha” entry in Dung dkar blo bzang ’phrin las, Dung dkar tshig mdzod chen mo (Krung go’i bod kyi shes rig dpe skrun khang, 2002), 1313-1316; on a Karchak of the monastery made available to me by Pabongkha monks in 2004; and on material from oral interviews with some of the resident monks conducted in August of 2004. The title of the Karchak reads Yul nyer bzhi’i ya rgyal/ de bi ko ṭi dang ming gzhan pha bong kha byang chub shing gi nags khrod du bkod pa’i dkar chag dad ldan padmo rgyas byed gzi sbyin ’od stong ’bar ba’i nor bu (hereafter Pha bong kha’i dkar chag). It appears to be an edited version of a text bearing the same name published in Three Khrid on the Nā ro mkha’ spyod Practice (Delhi: Ngawang Sopa, 1976), 454-532. (I have Gene Smith to thank for making a copy of this latter edition available to me.) References to the Dkar chag in this work are to the edition published in Tibet. The publication of the Tibetan edition of the Dkar chag was sponsored by a contemporary abbot (or perhaps now former abbot) of Pabongkha, Jampa Tupten Rinpoché.

In the colophon the author of the Karchak identifies himself as the reincarnation of a Lama of Kongpojo Dzong, the reincarnation of the Lama of Chökhang Tsewa Monastery (Chökhang Tsewa Gönpa); he also identifies himself as belonging to the Mé College (Dratsang Mé) of Sera, but gives his name only in Sanskrit as Wāginḍamatibhadrapaṭu bandashāsadharasagara (sic).

The introductory verse of the Delhi edition bears identifying marks (dots) under certain syllables. (These are missing in the Tibetan edition.) Those marks spell out “Ngawang Lozang Tupten Gyatso Jikdrel Wangchuk Choklé Nampar Gyelwa.” This resembles the name of the eighth Demo incarnation Ngawang Lozang Tupten Jikmé Gyatso (Demo Kutreng Gyépa Ngawang Lozang Tupten Jikmé Gyatso, 1778-1819), tutor of the Ninth Dalai Lama (Dalai Lama Kutreng Gupa, 1806-1815).

The colophon tells us that the work was written between the female-fire-pig (Memopak) and male-earth-bird (Sapoja) years. In the fourteenth calendrical cycle or Rapjung, this corresponds to 1827-1828. The author of the Dkar chag further states that he based his work on a verse text compiled by Khardowa (mkhan thog brgyad pa kha rdo sku thog bzod pa rgya mtsho’am/ blo bzang sgom chung pas bsgrigs pa tshig bcad ma), as well as on the constitution (Chayik) of the monastery written by Tatsak Yeshé Tenpé Gönpo (1760-1810). On Khardo Zöpa Gyatso (1672-1749) see the Introduction to the Hermitages. On Tatsak Yeshé Tenpé Gönpo, see TBRC P302.

Still unavailable, to my knowledge, are: (1) the Karchak of Pabongkha in six folios written by Khardo Zöpa Gyatso, and (2) another Karchak by Khöntön Peljor Lhündrup (1561-1637). The latter is mentioned in Akhu Rinpoché’s (1803-1875) list of rare texts; see Lokesh Chandra, Materials for a History of Tibetan Literature (Kyoto: Rinsen Book Co., 1981, repr. of the 1963 ed.), no. 11012. Bshes gnyen tshul khrims, Lhasé Gönto Rinchen Punggyen [A Catalogue of the Monasteries of Lhasa: A Heap of Jewels; hereafter Lha sa’i dgon tho] (Bod ljongs mi dmangs dpe skrun khang, 2001), 15, quotes Khöntön’s Karchak, implying, perhaps, that he had the text at his disposal; he gives the date of composition of the work as 1619.

Sde srid sangs rgyas rgya mtsho’s account of Pabongkha in the Baidurya Serpo, 144, is fascinating because it links the flourishing of Tibet to the flourishing of Pabongkha; and vice versa, it links political problems in Tibet with the decline of Pabongkha. Mention of Pabongkha is also found in Turrell Wylie, The Geography of Tibet According to the ’Dzam-gling-rgyas-bshad (Rome: IsMEO, 1962), 83 and 159 n. 400; and Alfonsa Ferrari, Luciano Petech and Hugh Richardson, Mk’yen brtse’s Guide to the Holy Places of Central Tibet (Rome: IsMEO, 1958), 42, 101-102 n. 86, and plates 6 and 7.

[2] Shenyen Tsültrim, Lhasé Gönto, 15, gives the date of Pabongkha’s founding as “around 643” but cites no source for this. [3] As with many monasteries, these include both exoteric and Tantric ritual practices that take place on the eighth, tenth, fifteenth, twenty-fifth, and twenty-eighth of the lunar month. Pabongkha monks also do special rituals for important lamas in the tradition every Wednesday. [4] Pabongkhé Karchak, 15b-16a; the author of this text, 57b, gives the Tibetan translation of this as Lhamokhar. [5] For an account of other features of the surrounding landscape and various kinds self-arisen images found at or near the site, many of which are said to date to the time that Songtsen Gampo and his two queens lived at the Pabongkha, see Pabongkhé Karchak, 22af and 29bf. This section of the text also contains a description of the special qualities of the plants and wildlife in the area. [6] This statue has been variously identified by different sources and informants as Avalokiteśvara, Śākyamuni in his kingly or jowo form, Amitāyus and Amitābha. Pabongkhé Karchak, 28a, states that the image is of Amitābha. The same text (26b-27a) also cites The Compendium on the Maṇi [[[Mantra]]] (Mani Kabum) concerning the tradition that an image emerged from a stone as Songtsen Gampo was gestating in his mother’s womb. A believer would see this as proof of the authenticity of the image housed at Pabongkha. A skeptic would see in this an attempt to read events of classical Tibetan mythography into the artistic landscape of Pabongkha. [7] The cult of the Three Protectors at Pabongkha goes back at least to the seventeenth century. For example, in a vision that he had when he was forty-three years old, the Fifth Dalai Lama (Dalai Lama Kutreng Ngapa) is told by Avalokiteśvara that “In Central Tibet, people must recite the six-syllable mantra (ngak) 100,000,000 times and in Pabongkha the ritual method of realization (druptap) of the three divinities, namely Avalokiteśvara, Mañjuśrī, and Vajrapāṇi must be established”; Samten Gyeltsen Karmay, The Secret Visions of the Fifth Dalai Lama: The Gold Manuscript in the Fournier Collection (London: Serindia Publications, 1988), 44. [8] One might image two quite different etymologies of the word “Pabongkha.” The word might be (1) a corruption of pabongkhang, “The house (on) the Boulder”; or (2) a more euphonious form of the word pabongpa, “The Man from the (Site of) the Boulder.” In the first instance, it is the architecture that gives the site its name. In the second instance, it is the first inhabitant. [9] The following account is based principally on Dungkar Tsikdzö [[[Dungkar]] Dictionary], but see also the version found in Pabongkhé Karchak, 20bf, which varies insignificantly. [10] The legend and symbolism of the supine demoness has been discussed by Janet Gyatso in Down with the Demoness: Reflection on a Feminine Ground in Tibet, in Janice Willis, ed., Feminine Ground: Essays on Women and Tibet (Ithaca: Snow Lion, 1987). [11] The original name of Lha sa was Rasa, that is, “Goat Earth.” There are many legends related to goats in Lhasa – from the Great Female Goat [[[Temple]]] (Ramoché) to the statue of the goat inside the Jokhang itself.

[12] Pabongkhé Karchak, 21b: sa bdag gser ma hā gser gyi rus sbal gyi dbyibs. [13] Such a turtle is mentioned in other historical works. For example, the The Clear Mirror: A Royal History (Gyelrap Selwé Melong) states that “in the north at Pabongkha in Nyangdren there is a black turtle”; Sakyapa Sönam Gyeltsen, The Clear Mirror: A Traditional Account of Tibet’s Golden Age, transl. by McComas Taylor and Lama Choedak Yuthok (Ithaca: Snow Lion, 1996), 165. On the relationship of turtle spirits to divination, see R. A. Stein, Tibetan Civilization (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1972), 209-210. [14] Lhasé Gönto, 15, quotes Khöntön’s karchak to the effect that Maru Castle was built by Songtsen Gampo “when he was fifteen years old in the female-water-hare (chumo yö) year,” and that he began meditating there when he was twenty-one years old. [15] Songtsen Gampo’s act of meditating inside the Female Turtle might of course be seen as an act of penetration of Tibet’s natural spirits, a subjugation of the indigenous spirits of Tibet through an act akin to rape. [16] This goddess, who presumably as the same deity later known as Penden Lhamo, came to be considered the protector deity of Tibet. After the rise of the Ganden Palace (Ganden Podrang – the government of the Dalai Lamas) the cult of Penden Lhamo became incorporated into the rituals of the state. Pabongkhé Karchak, 31a, states that this cave is the actual palace (podrang ngö) of the deity. [17] Pabongkhé Karchak, 22a.

[18] Pabongkhé Karchak, 32b-33a. [19] The account that follows is principally based on that found in Dungkar Dictionary (Dungkar Tsikdzö). The account in Pabongkhé Karchak, 19bf, on the site’s relationship to Tönmi and to the founding of the Tibetan written language, varies only slightly from the one given here. [20] Lhasé Gönto, 15, cites the Fifth Dalai Lama’s The Nāga Song of the Queen of Springtime (Chikyi Gyelmo Luyang) as the source for this tradition. [21] Pabongkhé Karchak, 20a, states that therefore “(Pabongkha) appears to be the site in Lhasa known as the ‘Moon Cliff,’ which is said to be where the first Tibetan letters were engraved.” [22] In this narrative the Female Turtle takes the place of the supine demoness spoken of in the myths of the founding of the Jokhang. [23] There is a certain anachronism here, given that (at least in some versions of the history of the site) the stūpas are said to have been built by the early Kadampa masters who lived at the site, and who predate Tsongkhapa by several centuries.

[24] Lhasé Gönto, 15: “from the time (of Songtsen Gampo) up to the ordination of the seven original monks, about one hundred tantrikas with long locks of hair lived continuously at the site.” [25] The claim is made not only in Dungkar Dictionary (Dungkar Tsikdzö), but also in Pabongkhé Karchak, 33a-b. [26] This is according to the oral account of one of the Pabongkha monks. According to the Pabongkhé Karchak, 34b, Pel Lhamo intervened by calling for Lhalung Pelgyi Dorjé, the monk who assassinated Langdarma. [27] The only cave that exists at Pabongkha today is Songtsen Gampo’s cave located inside the Female Turtle Boulder. And in fact Pabongkhé Karchak, 31a, confirms that it is this cave that is called the “Temple of the Tenth Day” (Tsechu Lhakhang). The cave apparently got its name from the fact that members of Trisong Detsen’s inner circle used to perform rituals inside the cave on the tenth day of the lunar month. Since the monastery is in a fairly flat area, it is difficult to imagine that there was any other cave at the hermitage itself in the past. However, Pabongkhé Karchak, 30f, lists many caves. These, one assumes, are located in the hills above Pabongkha.

[28] Literally, “the eight great sons who received the oral instruction”; also called the “eight great ones who were named to receive the oral instructions” (Kabap Mingchen Gyé). [29] The Fifth Dalai Lama, in fact, does not mention Potowa Rinchen Sel at all, and credits the re-founding of Pabongkha to Geshé Drakkarwa; see Ṅag-dBaṅ Blo-bZaṅ rGya-mTSHo, Fifth Dalai Lama, A History of Tibet, trans. by Zahiruddin Ahmad (Bloomington: Indiana University Research Institute for Inner Asian Studies, 1995), 84.

[30] Lhasé Gönto, 16, mentions a certain “Geshé Pabongkha” (Geshé Pabongkhar drakpa) as having been responsible for increasing the size of the monastery to 400 monks after Geshé Drakkarwa’s tenure. [31] The tradition says that hundred and eight stūpas were built. But it also claims that each stūpa contained one bead from Tsongkhapa’s rosary. This, of course, would be impossible if they were built during the Kadampa period, since Tsongkhapa was not born until more than 200 years after this time.

[32] Pabongkhé Karchak, 44b. It is unclear which (if any) of the present buildings this might be. [33] Pabongkhé Karchak, 44b: rab byung gnyug mar gnas pa’i ja tshul thebs/ snye thang bkra shis gling/ gzhis ka dud ’dzin bcu/ lag ’bab khal drug brgya/ nyang bran ka ma can dud gsum dang/ lag ’bab la khal drug cu skor bstsal/.

[34] Perhaps TBRC P939 or P3188? [35] Perhaps TBRC P162?

[36] Among the more interesting and important images or religious objects mentioned in Pabongkhé Karchak, 47bf, are the following: a set of sixteen arhat statues made by Potowa Rinchen Sel himself, a tooth relic of the Buddha Dipaṃkara, stone statues of Avalokiteśvara and of the protector trakshé blessed by virtue of the deities’ dissolving into them, the self-arisen stone statue that emerged as Songtsen Gampo was gestating in his mother’s womb, the statue of Khöntön Peljor Lhündrup commissioned by the Fifth Dalai Lama as well as the his highly ornamented funerary stūpa that contained his actual body, a silver funerary stūpa and statue of Jamyang Drakpa, a one-story statue of the Buddha made in part from the gold extracted by King Mewön from “Gold Cave,” a speaking statue of Cakrasaṃvara (Demchok) that conversed with the Dalai Lama Kelzang Gyatso (1708-1757) while he was doing the retreat of this deity; the self-arisen stone images of the Three Protectors (mentioned above); Tönmi’s “oṃ maṇi padme hūṃ” stone, statues of Tsongkhapa in the five-visions-forms, a volume of the dhāraṇī that dates to the Sakya period. This, of course, is only a sampling of the more important artifacts; there were many other images and religious objects beside those mentioned here. Most of the images in the hermitage were lost or destroyed after 1959.

[[1]]

Pabongkha Hermitage (Pabongkha Ritrö)

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