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Palden Lhamo: Supreme Guardian Goddess of the Dalai Lamas

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Supreme Guardian Goddess of the Dalai Lamas


Miranda Shaw


Your body blazes like a world’s end fire, Yours is the power of magical creation.


Your dance fills the sky, shaking the three worlds.


Your voice is like a thousand thunderclaps, Laughing HA! HA! Howling a terrifying HŪṂ!


Churning the bottom of the ocean to the top of Mount Meru.


BHYOḤ! Your mind knows everything in essence and in detail; You never leave the sphere of emptiness, but out of compassion You tame enemies and obstacles, every method at your command.


I praise you, conquering female with a glorious body, voice, and mind.1 Palden Lhamo (dPal-ldan Lha-mo) is by any measure a frighteningly fearsome female. Her face displays a smoldering glare, with bared teeth, lashing tongue, and an impaled corpse dangling from her fangs. Her skin of midnight hue glis- tens with flecks of fat and blood.

She sits astride a donkey that carries her fear- lessly across seas of blood and gore, amid dense smoke and flames of cremation pyres. Wreathed with snakes, crowned with skulls, she shows her readiness for combat. Her tools of divination make it impossible to conceal misdeeds in her presence. Palden Lhamo brandishes a flaming weapon in one hand and with the other raises a skull bowl brimming with the blood of vanquished enemies. An impregnable castle fashioned of black onyx and corpses held in place by magical incantations, high on a storm-lashed mountain, is the forbidding fortress of this indomitable lady.


It is no wonder that early scholars considered Palden Lhamo to be a “hideous black monster” and “great she-devil,” the very portrait of evil.2 Tibetan Buddhists, however, vest in her a unique ministry and consummate protective powers. For them she serves as the supreme guardian of their nation, their faith, and the Dalai Lamas. Palden Lhamo, whose name means “Glorious Goddess,” is a “transcendent protector” (’jig rten las ’das pa’i srung ma), that is, a fully enlightened being, en- tirely free of malice and selfish intent. She manifests her astonishingly menacing appearance not to frighten the faithful but rather to confound and terrify demonic beings and evildoers who are driven by hatred, anger, and greed to inflict harm on others and increase suffering in the world. Such beings flee in terror at the awe- some sight of Palden Lhamo. Giving chase on her intrepid steed, she applies her arsenal of weaponry and magical devices to subdue and transform them, removing the danger they pose to human well-being.


Palden Lhamo is the goddess with the most enduring, historically visible, and deeply personal relationship with the Dalai Lamas. One may wonder why Tibet’s sacral rulers might require such a wrathful protector. They are, after all, religious leaders of vast scholarly and spiritual accomplishment, revered for their wisdom, regarded by their followers as living embodiments of Chenrezig, the lord of com- passion.

The holders of the office have nonetheless been besieged by intrigue and danger. A Dalai Lama was surrounded by all manner of persons who wished to do him harm to advance their own interests. Necromancers, political officials, de- fenders of the old faith, sectarian rivals, foreign governments, and even traitors in his own circle might unleash curses and spells against him or plot his poisoning, kidnap, or murder. His leadership took root in the treacherous terrain of a medi- eval feudal kingdom. Buddhist sects vied for regional dominance, backed up by the troops of their warlord patrons. Contending hierarchs raided and seized one another’s monastic strongholds.

On some occasions, a Dalai Lama had to vacate his abode, put on the run by the soldiers of competing sectarian forces. Demons, too, posed an ever-present threat, whether impelled by their own sinister motives or instigated by the dark arts of his enemies to afflict him with illness, mishap, and other obstacles. The Dalai Lamas required mighty protector deities to combat this array of natural and supernatural threats.


After introducing the form of Palden Lhamo in which the Dalai Lamas envi- sion and propitiate her, I will examine her special relationship with them and her role as their supreme guardian goddess.


Palden Lhamo as Warrior Queen Palden Lhamo takes numerous iconographic forms in which she appears in varied Tibetan lineage pantheons, meditations, and ritual practices. The epiphanies share many features in common but display different numbers of arms (two or four), handheld attributes, and identifying details of attire and adornment. Palden Lhamo is most commonly dark blue or black, two colors designated by the same Tibetan term (nag) and held as symbolically equivalent and largely interchangeable in Tibetan iconography.3 She also appears in deep red and reddish brown manifes- tations. Her most prevalent form is known as Magzorma and Magzor Gyalmo, translatable as “Warrior Queen,” or “Queen Armed for Combat,” with reference


to her magical weaponry (zor).4 She is expert in the battle both of demons and of armies. Magzor Gyalmo is a prominent presence in the Tibetan pantheon, serving as a protector of lineages and monasteries across the Buddhist sectar- ian board and even adopted into Bon.5 Most importantly for the present essay, Magzor Gyalmo is the form of Palden Lhamo that the First Dalai Lama took as his personal protector and that has remained in place as the guardian of the Dalai Lama lineage.


Magzor Gyalmo is deep blue or black, a coloration associated with wrath- fulness and subjugation in Tibetan Buddhist imagery. She holds a vajra-tipped, flaming club in her right hand and skull brimming with blood in her left. The fol- lowing passage from a Sakya liturgy vividly evokes her ominous appearance and accoutrements: Blue-black, with one face and two hands, The right hand holding a club topped with a vajra and human head, Poised over the brain of a vow-breaker, The left holding the skull of an ill-begotten child, Filled with blood and magical potions.


Her face sparkles; She gnashes her sharp teeth, munching on a human corpse.


Her laughter roars like thunder, A! LA! LA!

Her three bulging eyes glare and flash like lightning, Her forehead is furrowed, her auburn hair flies upward.

Her eyebrows and upper lip blaze like a world’s end fire.

She has . . . a crown of five dried human heads and A necklace of fifty freshly severed heads oozing blood.

Her body is splattered with flecks of fat and drops of blood And smeared with cremation ashes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .


A pouch of diseases is tied to the reins in front of the saddle, And behind is a ball of magical thread.

A notched tally stick is slung at her waist, Along with a red bundle of curses.


A pair of white and black dice hangs in front; Above her head is a canopy of peacock feathers.6 Many of these iconographic features are shared by various forms of Palden Lhamo, making them readily recognizable as manifestations of the same goddess.


Mythic accounts explain how these bodily traits and implements came into her possession. The narratives of her origins and past lives are too elaborate and varied to recount here.7 Therefore, I will focus on several key elements of her persona and weaponry in order to clarify how they reflect her character, vocation, and awesome protective powers.


Her appearance itself is part of her arsenal. The source of her astonishingly macabre persona finds varied explanation in her complex legendry. By several ac- counts she was once the most beautiful female in the universe. The king of demons coveted her as his queen and abducted her to his hellish realm, where she was forced to reign at his side. There she assumed a diabolical appearance and diet of flesh and blood. During her sojourn among the demons she learned many meth- ods of slaughter and acquired her swift steed and tools of magical subjugation.

When she finally escaped, she found her way to Śākyamuni Buddha, allied herself with him, and pledged to devote herself to the benefit of humankind. The Buddha affirmed, “You know how to slay demons, evildoers, and malignant spirits. You should become a Dharma-protector. Today I prophesy that henceforth you will be a

guardian goddess who has the power to conquer all negative forces and uses it to protect those who follow the Buddhist path. You shall remain in this role until the end of time.”8 At that time, Palden Lhamo was a worldly protector, but through her meritorious deeds in defense of others and deepening insight into reality, she eventually attained enlightenment, becoming a transcendent protector.

As a divine being, Palden Lhamo can assume any bodily form she chooses. She retained her ferocious appearance by choice. Her former beauty had caused her great torment, and her murderous visage would serve her well as an intimidator, terrifier, and destroyer of demons and evildoers. She also retained the powerful possessions she had accrued. Her mount, a seemingly unprepossessing donkey, is the very steed that helped her abscond from the demon kingdom with fiendish minions in hot pursuit, proving its ability to outrun any foe.

The legends describe how Palden Lhamo came away with the flaming sword of the demon king. Magzor Gyalmo, however, holds a club topped with a vajra end-piece and an impaled head. The vajra represents wisdom and truth; it car- ries the power of indestructibility. She wields her cudgel against “vow-breakers,” those who misuse magical rites and spells to harm others. The vajra tip imbues the club with invincibility, while the severed head signals the demise of its victims. The skull cup from which she sups is a nal thod, which Robert Beer helpfully characterizes as that of a “misbegotten child,” explaining that such skulls have extraordinary ritual potency.

9 The child in this case was conceived during the rape of Palden Lhamo’s servant and accomplice, Rematî, in the demon kingdom. The ladies killed and consumed the ill-conceived offspring, and Rematî gifted the skull to her mistress to use for a bowl. Its presence proclaims Lhamo’s thirst for the life-blood of demons.

From it she drinks a bloody brew of magical potions that enhances her demon-taming powers. Palden Magzor’s special weaponry includes a ball of colored thread, notched tally stick, bundle of mantric curses, pair of dice, and sack of diseases. She keeps a ball or two of magical thread at the ready for the capture and binding of demons.

The notched tally stick (khram shing) strapped to her waist or the bridle of her steed is an implement of pre-Buddhist provenance originally used for numerical recordkeeping. The stick lends itself to several uses, such as calculation of the sins and punishments of wrongdoers, the exorcism and destruction of demons, and the


counteraction of curses.10 Lhamo, however, has her own repertory of death-deal- ing curses, bundled into a small manuscript with reddened edges and bound in red silk. The dice are ancient Tibetan tools of divination, diagnosis, and healing.11 Used in Buddhism for prognostication, the pair of black and white dice places des- tiny in Lhamo’s hands, to mete out the fate she chooses. The pouch full of diseases reflects her power over illness, which she can use both to inflict sickness and to offer protection from pathogenic spirits.


In sum, her appearance and accoutrements show Magzor Gyalmo to be a for- midable protector, consummately equipped for the destruction of demons, coun- teraction of black magic and evil spells, and conquest of enemy armies. As an enlightened being of nondual wisdom, the goddess recognizes no enemy and per- ceives the illusory nature of adversarial conflict. She enters the fray on behalf of those who fall prey to profoundly deluded beings that attack and torment others with vicious cruelty, casting themselves as destroyers of life and foes of truth in the drama of worldly existence.


Palden Lhamo and the Dalai Lamas The Dalai Lamas invoke many divine allies in their meditations and ritual prac- tices, but the primary guardians of their lineage are a pair that has come to be known as the Srung-ma dMar-nag, or “Red and Black Protectors.”12 When the Thirteenth Dalai Lama designed the Tibetan

national flag early in the twentieth century, he featured red and black or deep blue lines radiating boldly from the sun-crested snow peak at the center to represent the two deities who have watched over the country’s rulers and safeguarded spiritual and secular life in the land of snows.13 Amy Heller documents how the identity of the red, male protector has shifted over the centuries.14 The identity of the black, female protector, however, has never been in question.

Palden Lhamo, in her Magzor Gyalmo form, was the special guardian of the First Dalai Lama and retained that role for all his succes- sors. Her presence is interwoven through the visionary experiences, ceremonial life, pilgrimages, written works, and incarnational searches of the supreme Tibetan hierarchs. She has appeared in their dreams to deliver crucial messages and mani- fested in person to intervene at times of danger. To her they entrust their safety and their lives. When the Dalai Lamas speak or write of “Palden Lhamo” or even simply “Lhamo,” it is to her they refer, and I follow suit here.


The First Dalai Lama, Gendun Drub (1391-1474), felt a strong personal con- nection with Palden Lhamo forged during his previous lifetimes. His autobiogra- phy records that the goddess appeared to him during his childhood, when he was asleep out of doors with his father and a monk accosted him during the night. Lhamo rode up on her mule, descended from her mount, and drove the monk away with her cudgel. This event impressed on the future lama her personal concern for and nearness to him.15 Palden Lhamo also manifested before the First Dalai Lama after he took monastic vows at age nineteen and in dreams throughout his life.16


Desiring to resume the practices he had performed in his former lives, he traveled to the seat of the Sakya master Bodong to receive initiations and detailed oral instructions in all her rites and meditations. After founding Drepung Monastery, which he made his primary residence, he installed her as its main Dharma protec- tor.17 When his beloved teacher, Sherab Sengge, passed away, the weeping voice of his tutelary told him something grievous had happened and reassured him that she would follow him to the discovery and protect his followers. This drew him even closer to her and strengthened his devotion.18 When his second and final major building project was nearing completion, he was pondering what to call the complex when Lhamo spoke to him and provided the name, Tashilhunpo, meaning “Heap of Blessings.”

When the leader fell ill in 1473 and tried various means of cure in hopes of recovery, he again heard Lhamo weeping and knew that the end of his life drew near, affording him opportunity to give parting instructions before passing away the next day.19 The First Dalai Lama’s autobiography portrays a remarkably

intimate relation- ship between mortal and goddess, as she remained near to him to counsel, console, and protect. By his own telling, Palden Lhamo became his “unique, chief protec- tor” in a “close bond of mutual commitments,” and “she became a unique, close and committed protector” of his lineage.20 The Second Dalai Lama, Gendun Gyatso (1475-1542), maintained intensive practice of the goddess. He recited her root mantra a thousand times daily, reach- ing, according to one of his biographies, a total of ten million recitations.

When he was driven by the Karmapa’s forces from Tsang to Central Tibet and took resi- dence at Tashilhunpo, he commenced to offer tormas (ritual cakes) to her three times daily, in addition to a morning and evening rite, no doubt calling on her for intercession. During an armed conflict between supporters of the

Drikung and Gelug sects, Lhamo caused the ropes of the enemy tents to break and raised a strong wind to carry the tents away, then continued to afflict the forces with myste- rious turns of misfortune.

Recognizing this miraculous turn of events as her super- natural intervention, Gendun Gyatso journeyed to view her image in his personal monastery, Chokhorgyal (discussed below), where he saw her body rise about six inches above the saddle and she appeared to be moist and fatigued from her exer- tions. From that time forward, the goddess and the lama “became inseparable as between body and its shadow,” and she “appeared to annihilate all obstacles” in his path.21 Although the First Dalai Lama established Palden Lhamo as the special protector of his lineage,

it was his successor who shaped her official cultus. The Second Dalai Lama penned a history of the goddess and rituals for her invocation.22 He installed Palden Lhamo as a Dharma protector in monasteries that came under his abbotship and put in place liturgies he authored for her worship, making her practice

normative for the Gelug sect.23 An artist as well as a writer, he is credited with the famed “talking painting” (gsung-byon-ma sku) of Magzor Gyalmo that the Dalai Lamas hold as one of their most treasured possessions, serving for them as protective talisman and personal oracle.24 The Second Dalai Lama also devised


a system of dice divination (sho mo) under the divine patronage of Palden Magzor- ma. He formulated the meanings of every possible throw of three dice in answer to queries regarding domestic affairs, property, finances, legal matters, imminent danger, mental health, medical treatment, political and military affairs, business ventures, journeys, and lost objects. His system remains in use today, widely avail- able in an oft-printed and widely circulated text.25 The Second Dalai Lama established the main sacred site associated with the goddess,

a lake known as Chokhor Gyatso, “Lake of the Victorious Dharma- Wheel,” or, more commonly, as Lhamo Latso, “Lhamo’s Spirit Lake.”26 About ninety miles southeast of Lhasa, Lhamo’s Spirit Lake is the turquoise centerpiece of a landscape of stunning beauty, cradled by three valleys and framed by three mountains. The triangle is associated with femaleness in Indic and Tibetan culture, so the triadic features of the sacred locale convey its feminine nature. Its reputation for association with Palden Lhamo drew Gendun Gyatso to the region in 1509 to investigate. Amy Heller translates his account of his visionary experiences of the goddess while gazing at the water’s surface: At first it was completely white, a sign produced by the Glorious Goddess.


Then proceeding to do a ritual invitation for her, I went east whereupon a sudden snowstorm arose, then the lake turned white as before. Some of the men saw rainbows, some saw a palace with turrets, then the lake became blue like the sky, and from the depths, a square tower grew, and a mountain, becoming increasingly large and frightening. I understood these as magi- cal manifestations of the protector Lhamo . . . we all saw these miraculous sights. It is thus certain that this place is protected by Lhamo. When one sees the infinite ways in which she acts, it defies description.27 This experience deepened his devotion to the goddess.


28 The master returned to the area many times, performing Tantric rites that further refined the energies of the landscape and enhanced the visionary properties of the lake. Glenn Mullin observes that the fame of the revelatory powers of the sacred lake has since drawn hundreds of thousands of pilgrims from Tibet and beyond in search of prophecy and guidance and that, among Gendun Gyatso’s numerous accomplishments, he is best known for his connection with Lhamo’s Spirit Lake.29 On the same expedition, the Second Dalai Lama founded a monastery in a val- ley below the lake.

Chokhorgyal Monastery is set in “Flower Meadow” (Metog Thang), so named for its colorful profusion of flowers and blossoming trees. As His Holiness sought a sign of where to build the monastery in this lovely setting, a white dzo appeared and remained motionless at a single spot for many hours, revealing the location.30 Chokhorgyal and a hermitage nearby remained important for the Dalai Lamas as a place of retreat and practice and as a powerful place to conduct Palden Lhamo rituals. At a distance of four hours by foot from the lake, the monastery afforded a place where the leaders could reside and conduct Lhamo rites when they made pilgrimage to the area. A stone throne for the Dalai Lamas


was later erected on a cliff overlook that provides a panoramic view of the lake’s surface from a height of about 165 feet. A small temple dedicated to Magzor Gyal- mo for the Dalai Lamas’ personal use was built on the eastern shore.31 The Second Dalai Lama had occasion to call on Palden Lhamo’s most potent powers of protection when one of his monasteries came under siege. Glenn Mullin vividly recounts the circumstance and what occurred when the savant journeyed to the sacred lake to appeal to the Warrior Queen for intervention: . . . in the autumn of the Fire Bird Year (1537), hostile armies threatened to attack and destroy his monastery at Gyal.

As Konchok Kyab puts it, “Evil demons had caused jealousy of the master’s great works to arise within the hearts of certain sectarian people. Numerous armies began to move toward Gyal from the east. . . . Many negative signs appeared in the Lake of Vi- sions.” The Second Dalai Lama . . . retreated to the Lake of Visions and performed invocations of and prayers to the Dharmapala goddess Palden Lhamo, requesting her to release her spiritual force and restore peace and harmony.

A great storm erupted, and the skies were filled with terrible sounds. Palden Lhamo had given them a sign; all would be well. The Biog- raphy continues by stating that, as an external condition to fulfilling Palden Lhamo’s magical works, King Nangso Donyopa of Droda suddenly swept down from nowhere upon the invading armies and routed them.32 This account reveals Gendun Gyatso’s profound reliance on his female guard- ian at a time of direst practical need. Her field of activity is writ large. She thunders and conjures a storm in a vast mountainous setting. She has the power to move armies. Her miraculous provision of military intervention surely affirmed that the leader’s confidence in his warrior goddess was well placed.


The Third Dalai Lama, Sonam Gyatso (1543-1588), sustained the close rela- tionship with the protector. His biographer imparts that Palden Lhamo personally transported him to the home of his future mother and purified her womb. He had his first vision of the goddess during infancy, beholding her bearing a sword and skull cup full of jewels.33 He spent the last day of every month praying and prepar- ing a major torma offering for her and on the following morning made the offering on a terrace by the light of the rising sun.

Palden Lhamo appeared in the sky before him and manifested other signs of her presence and blessings. The biographer also records that when “devils” plotted against him, Magzor Gyalmo appeared and de- stroyed them on the spot, and “this was actually witnessed,” suggesting that it was human rather than demonic foes.34 He placed great importance on Chokhorgyal and consecrated a major image of the goddess there.35 This homage to his protector further enhanced the monastery as a site for her propitiation.

The Fifth Dalai Lama, Lozang Gyatso (1617-1682), kept reliance on Palden Lhamo in full force. He had ongoing rituals conducted at Chokhorgyal and trav- eled there regularly to perform them.36 Like the Second, he left a stamp on the Palden Lhamo cultus. Known as the Great Fifth, it was he who, with the help of his


Mongol patrons, held regional and sectarian strife in check and placed himself at the political helm of a unified Tibet. His sway over the Mongol military consolidat- ed his national influence. Apparently, Palden Lhamo had a hand in his deliverance.

Commemoration of her role in victory became part of the New Year festivities in Lhasa. The Dalai Lama and other high officials gathered at the Jokhang to witness a parade of infantry and cavalry costumed in colorful armor, bearing weaponry from centuries past. The “Mongol” soldiers engaged in mock combat with antique swords and guns and sang war songs about Palden Lhamo.37 This annual ceremony honored the warrior goddess for inspiring the soldiery and supernaturally assisting them in battle when Mongol troops enthroned the Great Fifth and bestowed the title of “Dalai Lama” on his lineage.


The Fifth Dalai Lama proclaimed Magzor Gyalmo to be identical to the su- preme goddess of Tibet’s pre-Buddhist cosmology, “Grandmother Queen of the Center of the Highest Heaven.” The latter figure was the divine ancestress of the royal dynasty of Central Tibet. A resonance in the character of the two deities facilitated this equivalence. The “Grandmother Queen” wore the sun and moon as her ornaments, wielded thunder as her weapon, and was identified with the stormy

sky.38 Magzorma is also adorned with the sun and moon and is a stormy figure, with a thunderous voice and lightning-flash eyes, and a raiser of storms when occasion demands. Lozang Gyatso’s equation of the two goddesses may have had political overtones, delivering a unifying yet triumphal message that he had inherited the throne of the theocratic kings before him because the selfsame goddess legitimated his reign.


At the time of his death, Palden Lhamo came to the fore in his final thoughts and parting instructions. His regent, Sangye Gyatso, agonized over whether to keep the leader’s passing a secret in order to complete construction of the Potala and to keep Mongolian and Manchurian incursions at bay. The Great Fifth, who died in a seated meditation posture, revived long enough to commend reliance on his “chief Dharma protector” and that of all the Dalai Lamas before him.

39 He imparted that “on less important matters” the regent could follow his own wisdom, but on “momentous decisions” he should “direct all questions to Palden Lhamo” by performing dough ball and other methods of divination in front of the oracular painting.”40 Thus, his final words directed Sangye Gyatso to consult

Lhamo regarding major decisions to be made during the interregnum and, by implication, in perpetuity. The regent had images of Lhamo and Begtse placed in Lozang Gyatso’s reliquary stupa in the Potala to protect the monument.41 Remarkably, the official kept the leader’s death a secret for fifteen years, keeping the successor in hiding during that period.


The annals of the succeeding Dalai Lamas tell of the ongoing presence of Palden Lhamo in their visions, personal practices, and public ceremonial life. Even the Sixth Dalai Lama, whose assumption of office was significantly delayed, had a vision of Lhamo at age eleven, made pilgrimages to worship her at Chokhorgyal, received a vision from her in the sacred lake, and was delivered from the hands of captors when the goddess appeared, paralyzed them, and raised a storm for his


escape.42

Over the centuries, Dalai Lamas and their ministers have used various means of divination to seek her counsel when faced with weighty decisions. In the practice of dough ball divination (zan-dbril, “rolling dough”), sanctioned by the Fifth Dalai Lama on his deathbed, possible answers are written on slips of paper that are pressed into balls of dough and set on an altar in a small bowl, where they remain throughout a lengthy ritual invocation of Palden Lhamo. The bowl is then shaken until one of the dough balls rolls out, revealing her answer.43 The revered “talking painting” held, and continues to hold, a central role in the divina- tory process.

The New Year festivities initiated by the Second Dalai Lama and adopted by his successors opened with offerings to Palden Lhamo at the dawn of the first day. On the third day, the sovereign presided over an incense offering to Lhamo in the Potala and a dough ball divination to forecast the fortunes of the leader, the faith, and the nation during the upcoming year.44 The military pageant inaugurated by the Fifth Dalai Lama, described above, took place on the twenty-

fourth day. Another annual public ritual to secure the long life and good fortunes of the Dalai Lama entailed worship of Palden Lhamo in the Jokhang followed by the elaborate stag- ing of a mock dice divination in which the dice are loaded, so the well-being of the leader is assured.45 Chokhorgyal Monastery remained important as a center for the ritual invocation of Palden Lhamo.46 It also became customary for every incarnation of the Dalai Lama to journey to the sacred lake before he assumed the helm of government in order to foresee the events of his career and manner of his death. He also visited the lakeside Magzor Gyalmo shrine, which he alone may enter, to consult the god- dess directly and seek her blessings and receive her prophecies for his upcoming term of leadership.47 Lhamo’s Spirit Lake played a key role in the discovery of successive incarna- tions of the Dalai Lama. The search party ventured to the lake for revelations re- garding where the leader had been reborn. They first made a retreat at Chokhorgyal Monastery, meditating and invoking Palden Lhamo for an accurate vision.

The following account, translated by Glenn Mullin, describes what transpired during the search for the Thirteenth Dalai Lama in 1876: At the time of the group’s arrival it was the middle of winter and the lake’s surface was covered with snow. However, after they had completed their spiritual practices a forceful wind arose and cleaned away the snow, un- til “the surface of the lake became as clear as a crystal mirror polished a hundred times.” Then slowly from

within the lake various images began to form. First they saw a farm with neatly kept terraces above to the east. An ancient stupa stood to the northeast . . . . These and many other images came and then faded. The group also saw the shape of the mountains in the area, as well as the nearby villages, grazing lands and meadows . . . . All of this appeared to them “as clearly as though reflected in a mirror, or as though perceived in a crystal ball.”48


These visions identified the village where the Dalai Lama had been reborn. He was discovered in a hamlet precisely matching the lacustrine scenes. The present Dalai Lama was found in a similar manner. He relates in his auto- biography how the regent journeyed to the sacred lake and on its waters . . . clearly saw the Tibetan letters Ah, Ka and Ma float into view. These were followed by the image of a three-storeyed monastery with a turquoise and gold roof


and a path running from it to a hill. Finally, he saw a small house with strangely shaped guttering. He was sure that the letter Ah re- ferred to Amdo . . . so it was there that the search party was sent.49 Again, the vision proved accurate. In Amdo province, Kumbum Monastery, referenced by the letter Ka, had a three-tiered turquoise roof, so the search party traveled the surrounding villages looking for the hill and distinctive house seen in the vision, finding at last Tenzin Gyatso’s parents’ home with gnarled juniper branches on the roof and the fourteenth incarnation of the Dalai Lama, three years old at the time, living

within.50 The current Dalai Lama has oft stated that Palden Lhamo is his special protec- tor. On the day he was officially recognized as the reincarnation, at age four, a lama pushed through the celebrating throngs and presented the new incarnation with a large red brocade bundle containing the painting of Lhamo by the Second Dalai Lama. On viewing it, the child “was so ecstatic that many of those around him burst into tears.”51 Twenty years later, when he fled from Tibet on horseback, the oracular painting was the only possession he brought with him.52 Lhamo helped him elude the Chinese soldiers who were on the alert for his

flight. Mikel Dunham elicited from firsthand accounts that, just as the leader and his retinue set forth from the Norbulingka on their death-defying journey, the goddess . . . made her contribution to the escape: A wind suddenly whipped up out- side. A sandstorm enveloped the Vale of Lhasa. . . . According to those who escaped that night, this windstorm and the resultant murky veil were singu- larly propitious. Who else but Lhamo could have worked such magic?53 The sandstorm that enveloped the young leader’s escape was blindingly thick, effectively concealing him from patrolling PLA forces. The wind abated precisely as

the Dalai Lama and his retinue set across a river on yak skin vessels, calming the current for their safe passage.54 Although the Fourteenth Dalai Lama no longer has direct access to the sanctu- aries and sacred lake in Tibet, he has the revered painting of Palden Lhamo with him, and he has revived the tradition of the Nechung Oracle in exile. He consults the Nechung trance medium of Dorje Dragden and performs divination in front of the painting on matters of great import, such as the identification of the reincarna- tions of important lineage masters and issues regarding his own religious life and ritual practices.55 Services to the goddess are performed at his new monastic seat


in Dharamsala, India, and a stupa dedicated to Lhamo has been constructed at the site.

Palden Lhamo emerges in the annals of the Dalai Lamas as a versatile and dynamic figure, providing invaluable foresight, lending guidance when the way forward is unclear, and offering vigorous support when negative powers are ar- rayed against them. The full story of her roles in their lives and careers has yet to be told and would require extensive research in their voluminous writings and related biographical and historical works. The results would help us better un-

derstand the unique relationship of Tibet’s special lineage of spiritual and secular leaders with their guardian goddess. That relationship is ongoing, as seen in the Fourteenth Dalai Lama’s revelations of the great faith he places in her divinatory counsel.


I close with a prayerful wish that Palden Lhamo and other protector deities will continue to watch over His Holiness and remove obstacles to his long life and Dharma activities, so he may continue to serve the Tibetan people and return to bless the world with his wisdom and compassion for as long as space endures. Endnotes


1. My translation; dPal ldan lha mo ’dod pa khams kyi dbang phyug ma’i phyi sgrub kyi gzhung mchog tu zab pa; sGrub thabs kun btus, vol. 14, fol. 421.6-422.3, 422.5-6, with the refrain represented only once, as the final line. 2. Waddell, Lhasa and Its Mysteries, pp. 370-71, among many such judgments. 3. This equivalence of blue and black is seen also in India, as in the case of the goddess Kālī, “Black One,” who may be shown as blue or black. Thus, Palden Lhamo’s

epithet as Mahākālī, “Great Black One,” nonetheless leaves open the possibility that she might be conceived and depicted as blue or black. 4. In Tibetan, dMag-zor-ma and dMag-zor rgyal-mo. Her name does not yield easily to lit- eral translation. dMag is an adjectival marker of things military; zor refers to magical weap- onry. I construe this primarily as “magical weaponry of military application,” which might apply to their use on behalf of armies or use to defeat armies, while the magical nature of the weaponry suggests its employment against supernatural beings as well. She is invoked in all three capacities, making it

difficult to settle on one meaning. 5. See Ladrang Kalsang, Guardian Deities of Tibet, pp. 30-31, for a range of lineages with Magzorma as a protector. 6. My translation; ’Dod khams dbang phyug dmag zor rgyal mo’i sgrub thabs gtor chog; sGrub thabs kun btus, vol. 1

4, fol. 537.4-538.2. 7. Multiple versions of the legend of Palden Lhamo can be found in Kalsang, Guardian Deities of Tibet, pp. 17-25, and in my forthcoming book, Buddhist Goddesses of Tibet and Nepal. One origin story is related and analyzed in Shaw, “Transcendent Fury of Palden Lhamo.” 8. From the version I collected in oral form from the Sakya lama Khorchag Rinpoche in Kathmandu, Nepal, in the autumn of 1995.


9. Beer, Encyclopedia of Tibetan Symbols, pp. 263-64. 10. On the history of the tally stick: Tas, “Tally-stick and Divination Dice,” pp. 163-70. On its potential uses: Nebesky-Wojkowitz, Oracles and Demons of Tibet, p. 358; Willson and Brauen, eds., Deities of Tibetan Buddhism, p. 567. 11. Tas, “Tally-stick and Divination Dice,” pp. 170-74. 12. Amy Heller, surveying the history of the duo, reports that this title only came into usage in the twentieth century; “Historic and Iconographic Aspects,” pp. 480, 494. 13. Heller, “Historic and Iconographic Aspects,” pp. 490-91. For this and further analysis of the flag, see

the Office of Tibet, London, official website: http://www.tibet.com/flag. html. 14. This is Heller’s primary topic in “Historic and Iconographic Aspects.” The main male protector has variously been Begtse, Mahākāla, and Dorje Dragden, who communicates through the Nechung Oracle. 15. Kalsang, Guardian Deities of Tibet, pp. 26-27, 29. 16. Heller, “Historic and Iconographic Aspects,” p. 486. 17. Kalsang, Guardian Deities of Tibet, p. 29. 18. Kalsang, Guardian Deities of Tibet, p. 26. 19. Bell, Religion of Tibet, pp. 104, 106; recounting these events from a biography, Bell reads lha-mo simply as “goddess,” not recognizing Lha-

mo as a common shorthand desig- nation for Palden Lhamo. 20. Phrases translated from his work by Ladrang Kalsang, Guardian Deities of Tibet, pp. 26, 27, 29. 21. Kalsang, Guardian Deities of Tibet, p. 27; quotes on pp. 27 and 27-28.

22. Heller, “Historic and Iconographic Aspects,” p. 486. 23. Heller, Tibetan Art, p. 182; in his system, Begtse was the red male counterpart. 24. Heller, “Historic and Iconographic Aspects,” pp. 488-89. The painting was eventually moved from Chokhorgyal to the Potala when the latter became the seat of the hierarchs. Its presence at the Potala is noted during the regnancy of the Seventh Dalai Lama;

Heller, op. cit., p. 488. 25. Radha, “Tibet,” pp. 17-18. The widely circulated text is a summary by Ngawang Ngo- drub of the Second Dalai Lama’s treatise on dice divination. 26. In Tibetan, Chos-’khor rgyal-mtsho and Lha-mo bla-mtsho, Lha-mo’i bla-mtsho, or Lha-mo Lung-mtsho. 27. Translation by Amy Heller in Tibetan Art, p. 183. 28. Brauen, Dalai Lamas, p. 216. 29. Mullin, Selected Works of the Dalai Lama 2, 17; see also pp. 199-201 for prophecies of his discovery of the lake. 30. Heller, Tibetan Art, p. 183. 31. Dowman, Power-Places of Central Tibet, pp. 257, 260-61. 32. Mullin, Second Dalai Lama, pp. 103-4. 33. Brauen, Dalai Lamas, p. 216, citing the biography by the Fifth Dalai Lama.


34. Ladrang Kalsang, Guardian Deities of Tibet, p. 28. 35. Brauen, Dalai Lamas, pp. 53, 216. 36. Brauen, Dalai Lamas, p. 217. 37. Richardson, Ceremonies of the Lhasa Year, pp. 30, 39-41. These battle hymns would make a fascinating study if they have been recorded. 38. Her name in Tibetan, A-phyi gnam-gyi gung-rgyal; Tucci, Tibetan Painted Scrolls, p. 719.


39. From the supplement to the Fifth’s autobiography by the regent; Kalsang, Guardian Deities of Tibet, pp. 28-29. 40. From the description of this event in “Speech Delivered by His Holiness 14th Dalai Lama,” p. 15; the specification of dough ball divination is added from the translated excerpt of the regent’s text in Kalsang, Guardian Deities of Tibet, p. 29. 41. Brauen, Dalai Lamas, pp. 217, 225. 42. Heller, “Historic and Iconographic Aspects,” p. 488; Aris, Hidden Treasures and Secret Lives, pp. 190, 195. 43. The Fourteenth Dalai Lama details his use of this method to determine whether to con- tinue the practice of Shugden; Brauen, Dalai Lamas, p. 175. 44. Richardson, Ceremonies of the Lhasa Year, pp. 11, 20-21. On the Second Dalai Lama’s initiatory role: Brauen, Dalai Lamas, p. 216.


45. Richardson, Ceremonies of the Lhasa Year, pp. 64-65. 46. Amy Heller gathered references to the Dalai Lamasactivities at Chokhorgyal in “His- toric and Iconographic Aspects,” pp. 485, 487-90. 47. Bell, Religion of Tibet, p. 159. Bell notes a folk belief that the early demise of the Ninth through Twelfth Dalai Lamas may have resulted from some fault in their lakeside propitia- tion of the goddess but adds the observation, made by a Chinese

military officer, that Chi- nese envoys in Tibet were familiar with the lakeside visit and might take advantage of the popular belief to choose that time to attempt assassination; pp. 159-60. 48. Mullin, Path of the Bodhisattva Warrior, p. 24. 49. Gyatso, Freedom in Exile, p. 11. 50. Gyatso, Freedom in Exile, p.

11. 51. Avedon, In Exile from the Land of Snows, p. 10. 52. Tenzin Gyatso, Freedom in Exile, p. 138, reports carrying only a rifle as part of his disguise, his eyeglasses, and the painting. He states on pp. 135-36 that, when faced with the heartrending decision of whether to leave his country, he consulted the Nechung Oracle and performed divination (mo). Since Dorje Dragden (communicating through the oracle) and Palden Lhamo are the two protectors he consults on all major

issues, I deduce that to be the case in this instance as well. They directed him to leave immediately. 53. Dunham, Buddha’s Warriors, p. 287. 54. Dunham, Buddha’s Warriors, p. 288. 55. He has reported in various interviews and venues that he consulted the protectors in this manner to confirm the reincarnations of Paltrul Rinpoche and Bodong Rinpoche and to determine whether to continue the practice of Shugden (see note 43 above) and to receive the Phurbu initiation.


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