Brill’s Encyclopedia of Buddhism
Volume II:
Lives
Editor-in-chief
Jonathan A. Silk
Editors
Richard Bowring
Vincent Eltschinger
Michael Radich
Editorial Advisory Board
Lucia Dolce
Berthe Jansen
John Jorgensen
Christian Lammerts
Francesco Sferra
LEIDEN | BOSTON
For use by the Author only | © 2019 Koninklijke Brill NV
Contents
Prelims
Contributors .............................................................................................................................................................
xi
Editors and Editorial Board .................................................................................................................................. xxxiii
Primary Sources Abbreviations........................................................................................................................... xxxv
Books Series and Journals Abbreviations ......................................................................................................... xxxvii
General Abbreviations ..........................................................................................................................................
xlii
Introduction .............................................................................................................................................................
xliv
Section One:
Śākyamuni: South Asia ..........................................................................................................................................
Barlaam and Josaphat ............................................................................................................................................
3
39
Section Two:
South & Southeast Asia:
Ajātaśatru ..................................................................................................................................................................
Āryadeva....................................................................................................................................................................
Āryaśūra.....................................................................................................................................................................
Asaṅga/Maitreya(nātha).......................................................................................................................................
Bhāviveka ..................................................................................................................................................................
Brahmā, Śakra, and Māra ......................................................................................................................................
Buddhaghoṣa............................................................................................................................................................
Buddhas of the Past: South Asia .........................................................................................................................
Buddhas of the Past and of the Future: Southeast Asia ...............................................................................
Candragomin ...........................................................................................................................................................
Candrakīrti................................................................................................................................................................
Ḍākinī .........................................................................................................................................................................
Devadatta ..................................................................................................................................................................
Dharmakīrti ..............................................................................................................................................................
Dharmapāla ..............................................................................................................................................................
Dharmottara.............................................................................................................................................................
Dignāga ......................................................................................................................................................................
Early Sarvāstivāda Masters ...................................................................................................................................
Gavampati in Southeast Asia ...............................................................................................................................
Gopadatta .................................................................................................................................................................
Guṇaprabha..............................................................................................................................................................
Haribhadra................................................................................................................................................................
Haribhaṭṭa .................................................................................................................................................................
Harivarman...............................................................................................................................................................
Harṣa ..........................................................................................................................................................................
Hayagrīva...................................................................................................................................................................
Indian Tantric Authors: Overview ......................................................................................................................
Jñānagarbha .............................................................................................................................................................
Jñānapāda .................................................................................................................................................................
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70
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81
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92
95
109
121
125
132
141
156
168
173
179
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191
196
198
204
209
211
214
218
228
261
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Contents
Jñānaśrīmitra ...........................................................................................................................................................
Kamalaśīla ................................................................................................................................................................
Karuṇāmaya .............................................................................................................................................................
Kṣemendra ................................................................................................................................................................
Kumāralāta ...............................................................................................................................................................
Mahādeva..................................................................................................................................................................
Maitreya.....................................................................................................................................................................
Mārīcī .........................................................................................................................................................................
Mātṛceṭa ....................................................................................................................................................................
Nāgārjuna ..................................................................................................................................................................
Paccekabuddhas/Pratyekabuddhas in Indic Sources ...................................................................................
Phra Malai in Thailand and Southeast Asia.....................................................................................................
Prajñākaragupta ......................................................................................................................................................
Ratnākaraśānti.........................................................................................................................................................
Ratnakīrti ..................................................................................................................................................................
Saṅghabhadra ..........................................................................................................................................................
Śaṅkaranandana .....................................................................................................................................................
Śaṅkarasvāmin ........................................................................................................................................................
Śāntarakṣita ..............................................................................................................................................................
Śāntideva ...................................................................................................................................................................
Sarasvatī/Benzaiten................................................................................................................................................
Śāriputra ....................................................................................................................................................................
Scholars of Premodern Pali Buddhism .............................................................................................................
Seers (ṛṣi/isi) and Brāhmaṇas in Southeast Asia ............................................................................................
Siddhas.......................................................................................................................................................................
Śrīlāta .........................................................................................................................................................................
Sthiramati .................................................................................................................................................................
Śubhagupta...............................................................................................................................................................
Tantric Buddhist Deities in Southeast Asia .....................................................................................................
Thera/Therī in Pali and Southeast Asian Buddhism .....................................................................................
Udbhaṭasiddhasvāmin ..........................................................................................................................................
Upagupta ...................................................................................................................................................................
Vāgīśvarakīrti ...........................................................................................................................................................
Vasubandhu ..............................................................................................................................................................
Vināyaka ....................................................................................................................................................................
Yama and Hell Beings in Indian Buddhism .....................................................................................................
269
272
279
286
293
298
302
325
332
335
348
357
363
366
371
374
378
382
383
391
398
409
420
437
443
452
456
458
463
474
479
481
490
492
507
513
East Asia:
Ākāśagarbha in East Asia ......................................................................................................................................
Arhats in East Asian Buddhism ..........................................................................................................................
Aśvaghoṣa (East Asian Aspects) .........................................................................................................................
Avalokiteśvara in East Asia...................................................................................................................................
Dizang/Jizō ...............................................................................................................................................................
Jianzhen (Ganjin) ...................................................................................................................................................
Mahākāla in East Asia............................................................................................................................................
Mahākāśyapa in Chan-inspired Traditions......................................................................................................
Mañjuśrī in East Asia .............................................................................................................................................
Maudgalyāyana (Mulian)......................................................................................................................................
Musang (Wuxiang) .................................................................................................................................................
Tejaprabhā ................................................................................................................................................................
Yinyuan Longqi (Ingen) ........................................................................................................................................
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529
540
546
562
571
576
586
591
600
608
612
616
Contents
vii
China:
Amoghavajra ............................................................................................................................................................
An Shigao ..................................................................................................................................................................
Chengguan ................................................................................................................................................................
Daoxuan ....................................................................................................................................................................
Falin ............................................................................................................................................................................
Faxian .........................................................................................................................................................................
Fazun ..........................................................................................................................................................................
Hanshan Deqing .....................................................................................................................................................
Hongzhi Zhengjue ..................................................................................................................................................
Huihong (see Juefan Huihong)
Huineng (see Shenxiu)
Huiyuan (see Lushan Huiyuan)
Jigong..........................................................................................................................................................................
Juefan Huihong .......................................................................................................................................................
Liang Wudi................................................................................................................................................................
Lokakṣema ................................................................................................................................................................
Luo Qing ....................................................................................................................................................................
Lushan Huiyuan ......................................................................................................................................................
Mazu Daoyi...............................................................................................................................................................
Mingben (see Zhongfeng Mingben)
Nāgārjuna in China ................................................................................................................................................
Nenghai......................................................................................................................................................................
Ouyang Jingwu ........................................................................................................................................................
Ouyi Zhixu ................................................................................................................................................................
Paramārtha ...............................................................................................................................................................
Qian Qianyi...............................................................................................................................................................
Qisong ........................................................................................................................................................................
Shenhui (see Shenxiu)
Shenxiu, Huineng, and Shenhui .........................................................................................................................
Śubhākarasiṃha......................................................................................................................................................
Wumen ......................................................................................................................................................................
Wuxiang (see East Asia: Musang)
Wuzhu ........................................................................................................................................................................
Xiao Ziliang...............................................................................................................................................................
Yinshun......................................................................................................................................................................
Yixing .........................................................................................................................................................................
Yuan Hongdao .........................................................................................................................................................
Yuanwu Keqin ..........................................................................................................................................................
Zhanran .....................................................................................................................................................................
Zhi Qian .....................................................................................................................................................................
Zhili.............................................................................................................................................................................
Zhixu (see Ouyang Zhixu)
Zhiyi............................................................................................................................................................................
Zhongfeng Mingben...............................................................................................................................................
Zhuhong ....................................................................................................................................................................
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662
668
673
679
684
689
700
707
711
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735
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752
759
764
768
777
782
787
791
795
800
806
810
814
818
826
833
839
844
Korea:
Chinul.........................................................................................................................................................................
Hyujŏng .....................................................................................................................................................................
Ich’adon .....................................................................................................................................................................
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860
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viii
Contents
Kihwa .........................................................................................................................................................................
Kim Sisŭp ..................................................................................................................................................................
Kyŏnghŏ.....................................................................................................................................................................
Kyunyŏ .......................................................................................................................................................................
Muhak Chach’o ........................................................................................................................................................
Musang (see East Asia)
Pou ..............................................................................................................................................................................
Tosŏn ..........................................................................................................................................................................
Ŭich’ŏn .......................................................................................................................................................................
Ŭisang ........................................................................................................................................................................
Wŏnch’ŭk ..................................................................................................................................................................
Wŏnhyo......................................................................................................................................................................
Yi Nŭnghwa ..............................................................................................................................................................
869
873
877
882
887
891
895
900
903
908
913
918
Japan:
Amaterasu Ōmikami ..............................................................................................................................................
Annen.........................................................................................................................................................................
Benzaiten (see South and Southeast Asia: Sarasvatī)
Dōgen .........................................................................................................................................................................
Dōhan.........................................................................................................................................................................
Eisai (see Yōsai)
Eison ...........................................................................................................................................................................
En no Gyōja ..............................................................................................................................................................
Enchin ........................................................................................................................................................................
Ennin ..........................................................................................................................................................................
Ganjin (see East Asia: Jianzhen)
Genshin .....................................................................................................................................................................
Hachiman .................................................................................................................................................................
Hakuin .......................................................................................................................................................................
Hōnen ........................................................................................................................................................................
Ikkyū Sōjun ...............................................................................................................................................................
Ingen (see East Asia: Yinyuan Longqi)
Ippen Chishin ..........................................................................................................................................................
Jakushō ......................................................................................................................................................................
Jiun Sonja ..................................................................................................................................................................
Jizō (see East Asia: Dizang)
Jōjin.............................................................................................................................................................................
Jōkei ............................................................................................................................................................................
Kakuban ....................................................................................................................................................................
Keizan Jōkin .............................................................................................................................................................
Kōmyō ........................................................................................................................................................................
Kūkai ..........................................................................................................................................................................
Kūya ............................................................................................................................................................................
Menzan Zuihō .........................................................................................................................................................
Monkan .....................................................................................................................................................................
Mugai Nyodai ...........................................................................................................................................................
Mujaku Dōchū .........................................................................................................................................................
Musō Soseki ..............................................................................................................................................................
Myōe ...........................................................................................................................................................................
Nichiren .....................................................................................................................................................................
Nōnin..........................................................................................................................................................................
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998
1002
1006
1011
1016
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1026
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1057
1062
1066
1071
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Contents
Raiyu...........................................................................................................................................................................
Ryōgen........................................................................................................................................................................
Saichō .........................................................................................................................................................................
Saigyō .........................................................................................................................................................................
Shinran.......................................................................................................................................................................
Shōtoku Taishi .........................................................................................................................................................
Tenjin .........................................................................................................................................................................
Tenkai .........................................................................................................................................................................
Yōsai/Eisai .................................................................................................................................................................
Zaō ..............................................................................................................................................................................
ix
1094
1097
1102
1107
1111
1117
1122
1128
1134
1139
Tibetan Cultural Sphere
Atiśa and the Bka’ gdams pa Masters ................................................................................................................
Ge sar of Gling .........................................................................................................................................................
Gter ston: Tibetan Buddhist Treasure Revealers .............................................................................................
Gtsang smyon Heruka ...........................................................................................................................................
Lcang skya Rol pa’i Rdo rje ...................................................................................................................................
Mi la ras pa................................................................................................................................................................
The Mongolian Jebdzundamba Khutugtu Lineage .......................................................................................
Padmasambhava in Tibetan Buddhism ............................................................................................................
The Sa skya School’s Five Forefathers................................................................................................................
Spirits of the Soil, Land, and Locality in Tibet ................................................................................................
Ston pa Gshen rab: The Bön Buddha .................................................................................................................
Tibet's Crazy Yogins ................................................................................................................................................
Tsong kha pa and his Immediate Successors ..................................................................................................
Worldly Protector Deities in Tibet .....................................................................................................................
1145
1159
1165
1171
1175
1181
1191
1197
1213
1226
1233
1239
1246
1254
Appendix To Volume I:
Buddhist Narrative Literature in Japan .............................................................................................................
Poetry: Japan ............................................................................................................................................................
Korean Sŏn Literature............................................................................................................................................
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Ston pa Gshen rab: The Bön Buddha
For Tibetan Bon pos (followers of Bon), Gshen rab
mi bo holds much the same position as the Buddha
Śākyamuni does for Buddhists: he is the founder of
their religion, and the promulgator of its fundamental teachings. If anything, his centrality is even more
crucial in Bon: while Tibetan Buddhists believe that
certain esoteric tenets were taught by buddhas
other than Śākyamuni, Bon pos hold Gshen rab to
be the ultimate source of all their doctrines. The
similarities in the life stories of the two figures are
such that Western authors and Buddhists often represent Gshen rab as a fabrication created in imitation of Śākyamuni. In fact, the story is more complicated than this.
The three main (though not the only) scriptures
that Bon pos regard as authentic accounts of the life
of Gshen rab are, in chronological order, the Mdo
’dus (Mongyal & Shense, 1995–1999, vol. XXX), the
Gzer mig (Tshe ring thar, 1991), and the Gzi brjid (Pa
sangs tshe ring, 2000). The dates of the first two are
not precisely known, but since they are cited in the
work of an author who lived in the 11th and 12th
centuries, they cannot have been produced any
later than his death in 1107 (Karmay, 1975b, 169–170,
n2). They comprise respectively one and two volumes, though several single-volume manuscripts of
the Gzer mig have recently come to light. The Gzi
brjid, a massive work of 12 volumes, is known to
have been composed in the late 14th century (Snellgrove, 1980[1967], 3).
These and other sources have provided the basis
for a number of Tibetan and European language
publications related to the life and identity of Gshen
rab. Among the secondary accounts of Gshen rab’s
life, Tenzin Namdak (1971) is a two-volume compilation of excerpts from the Gzi brjid; a valuable chapter by chapter summary of the Gzi brjid and the Gzer
mig appears in ’O thog (no date); Kvaerne (1986a) is
a study of a collection of thangkas, kept in Paris’s
Musée Guimet, that reproduces the deeds of Gshen
rab according to the Gzi brjid (a brief English language summary is Kvaerne, 1987); a more extended
overview of the biographical sources for Gshen rab
is Kvaerne (2007). An illustrated bilingual account
of Gshen rab’s life, intended for schoolchildren, was
recently published (Shetsu Gyatso, 2017). Although
there is still no full translation of any of the biographies, different sections have formed the subject
of translations or analytical studies. Several chapters of the Gzer mig were translated into English
by Francke in a series of publications (1924–1949);
Clemente examined an episode from the Gzi brjid
in which the young Gshen rab receives his magical
weapons from the warrior gods; the figure of Gshen
rab in sources predating the abovementioned biographies is explored by Stein (1988), Blezer (2008),
and Bellezza (2010), while the most extensive examination to date of the sources of the main biographies – particularly the Mdo ’dus – has been undertaken by Kalsang Norbu Gurung (Gurung, 2011).
Inconsistencies in the spelling of Gshen rab’s full
name invite different interpretations of its meaning. Adherents of Yung drung (“Everlasting”) Bon,
the systematized form of the religion that emerged
after the 10th century, prefer the extended form
Ston pa Gshen rab mi bo che: the great (che) important man (mi bo), the excellent (rab) priest (gshen)
who is the teacher (ston pa). However, gshen is also
the name of a patrilineal clan; some early sources
render rab as rabs, meaning lineage, and in at least
three instances (twice in the Dunhuang document
PT 1136, once in PT 1289) the term rabs is followed
by the genitive particle kyi (Imaeda et al., 2007).
With the orthography Ston pa gshen rabs (kyi) mi
bo che, the name would mean “the great important man who is a member of the Shen clan.” This
reading supports the suggestion that the name may
originally have denoted a class of hereditary priests
before it came to be associated with a particular
individual (Blezer, 2008, 424).
Tibetan Buddhists revere India as the land where
the Buddha was born and where he taught, and
Sanskrit as the language from which most of their
scriptures were translated. The equivalent land
for the Bon pos is Zhang zhung, a historical polity
located in the western part of the Tibetan Plateau,
but endowed, in Bonpo literature, with vast dimensions extending well into Central Asia, around the
north and south of Central Tibet and into China
and India. Part of Zhang zhung embraces Tazig,
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BEB, vol. II
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Ston pa Gshen rab: The Bön Buddha
and in Tazig lies the sacred land of Ol mo lung ring,
where Gshen rab was born. The various attempts
to link Ol mo lung ring to a geographical location
– some of them as far away as the Near East – have
been reviewed by Martin (1999, 2007), though a
more recent publication has added Almalik, in
China’s Xinjiang Province, to the list of candidates
(Dor, 2014). Gshen rab’s life story begins before his
descent to earth, while he is still living in heaven as
the second of three divine brothers: Dag pa, Gsal ba,
and Shes pa. After a period of study under a Bonpo
sage, the three are charged with the task of acting
as the spiritual guides of living beings for three successive ages. Dag pa is the first in line, followed by
Gsal ba in his earthly form as Gshen rab, and it is
therefore the latter who is the teacher of the present
age. He descends to earth in the form of a cuckoo,
a bird whose blue-grey plumage is cited as the reason why Bon po priests sometimes wear blue robes.
He enters the womb of Yo phyi rgyal bzhad ma, the
queen of King Rgyal bon thod dkar, the ruler of Ol
mo lung ring, and comes into the world from his
mother’s right side (Gurung, 2011, 66ff.), just as did
Śākyamuni.
A significant strand in the subsequent narrative
resembles the life story of Śākyamuni, and while this
aspect is particularly strong in the Mdos ’dus, the
similarities are attenuated in the later Gzer mig and
the Gzi brjid. The main model for the “Śākyamuni
narrative” is likely to have been the Lalitavistara,
which was translated into Tibetan in the 7th century,
but certain names and motifs appear to be derived
from other Indian sources, such as the Jātaka tales –
the stories of the Buddha’s previous births – and the
Mdzangs blun (Sūtra of the Wise and the Foolish, D
341/ P 1008; Gurung, 2011, 155).
Until the Bon po’s own accounts of their history
and doctrines achieved a wider circulation after
the 1960s, Gshen rab was known to Western readers (and to most Tibetans) from brief accounts of
his life contained in the writings of certain Tibetan
Buddhist historians, especially the 18th-century Dge
lugs pa scholar Thu’u bkwan Blo bzang chos kyi nyi
ma (1737–1802; Hoffmann, 1950, 1961). The vignettes
offered in these narratives coincide with the Bon po
scriptures in some respects, but differ widely in others. In some of these works, Gshen rab was born in
Central Tibet, and in others in a land to the west of
the Plateau; he had ass’s ears and wore a woolen turban to conceal them; as a child he was abducted by
demons and instructed by them for up to to 12 years,
before being reintroduced to the human realm.
Thanks to the powers he had acquired, he was
able to determine what kinds of gods and demons
inhabited any given territory, to identify the causes
of various afflictions, and to recommend or perform
the rituals needed to propitiate the earthly powers
that were responsible. These rituals included the
performance of animal sacrifice (Ramble, 2007).
Not surprisingly, followers of Everlasting Bon recognize very little of their founder in these stories,
and we must therefore consider where the accounts
originated. In fact, some of them belong to the
stock of tales that are likely to have traveled freely
along the trade routes between Central Asia and
Tibet, and have clustered around a variety of real
and imaginary persons. The story of the ass’s ears,
for example, is best known to Europeans from the
story of the Phrygian king Midas, whose hypertrophied ears were a punishment inflicted by Apollo in
a fit of pique against the king’s judgment of a musical contest. Variants of the tale (in which the ears
are sometimes replaced by horns) are to be found
throughout Central Asia (Morris, 2004), and its
application to Gshen rab is likely to be the result of
the story being associated with an obscure class of
Tibetan priests called a ya, whose headgear is a turban of white wool (Ramble, 2007). Another significant motif is that of being spirited away for training
in a parallel world. This is a common theme among
the Tibeto-Burman communities of the Himalayan
region, who believe that some of their neophyte shamans are abducted for training by the spirits of the
forest and wilderness (Macdonald, 1966, 122–123: )
The presence of this motif may also be one of the
reasons why some early Western authors describe
Gshen rab as a shaman, and the Bon religion itself
as a form of shamanism.
The structure of Gshen rab’s hagiography is provided by the Twelve Major and the Sixty Minor
Deeds. While this scheme clearly recalls the framework of Śākyamuni’s life, the deeds themselves are
not identical. For example, where the first four Major
Deeds attributed to Siddhārtha are the Descent
from Heaven, Entrance into the Womb, Birth, and
Youthful sports and miracles, the corresponding
events in Gshen rab’s case are Birth, Dissemination,
Pacifying, and Leading (Sangye Tandar & Guard,
1992). The precocity of Gshen rab’s dissemination
of his doctrine is explained by later exegetes, who
took an ambiguous passage in the Mdo ’dus to signify that one gshen year is equal to 100 human years
(Mdo ’dus, 221). Curiously, the passage in question
bears several interpretations, among them that 100
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Ston pa Gshen rab: The Bön Buddha
(or eight) human years are equal to one gshen day,
but not the 100-to-one ratio of years that seems to
have become generally accepted. Among other
things, the construction of Bon chronology on the
basis of this interpretation is one of the justifications given by some Bon po authors for the claim
that Gshen rab had a life span of 8,200 years (since
he is said to have died at the age of 82). As for the
period when he lived, chronologies vary, but all situate him in an extremely distant past. For example, a
work from 1804 by the Bon po scholar Tshul khrims
rgyal mtshan places Gshen rab’s birth to 22,799 years
before the time of his writing (Kvaerne, 1990, 160–
161; Bellezza, 2010, 31n2; Gurung, 2011, 19, 22–24).
It is assertions such as these that underlie the
reluctance of most scholars to regard Gshen rab as
a historical person, though opinions on the matter
range from the outright dismissive to the cautious.
For Snellgrove, “the story of gŚen rab’s life is a deliberate fabrication” (1980[1967], 15n1), an opinion
broadly shared by Stein (1988). Others have suggested that the later mythic tradition, including the
Buddhist elaborations, may have accreted around
the kernel of a historical Tibetan figure (Karmay,
1975a, 111; Bellezza, 2010, 33), while at least one
author has suggested that Gshen rab is none other
than Zarathustra (Kuznetsov, 1975). Generally,
however, there is agreement that the absence of
contemporary sources makes it impossible to say
anything at all about whether there was a historical
figure at the heart of the tradition (Karmay, 1975a,
111; Kvaerne, 2007, 83; Blezer, 2008, 425).
The motor for much of the dramatic action in
Gshen rab’s life is furnished by an archrival named
Khyab pa lag ring, “Long-armed Pervader,” a name
that is traceable to that of one of the demons,
Dīrghabāhurgarvita (Lefmann, 1902, 310:20; Hokazono, 2014, 277, n.12; Tib. Lag rings), in the retinue
of Māra, the adversary of Siddhārtha (Gurung, 2011,
83, n.118). Among his numerous hostile acts, Khyab
pa steals six of Gshen rab’s horses and escapes
to southeast Tibet, where he takes refuge in the
demonic land of Kongpo. Gshen rab pursues the
thief, ostensibly to retrieve his horses but in reality
because he recognizes that this will give him the
opportunity to spread his teachings into new territory. Although Gshen rab is vastly superior to the
demons in battle, Khyab pa refuses to cede unless
his opponent can demonstrate his prowess as an
archer by shooting an arrow through a series of nine
iron shields. The arrow pierces all the obstacles, and
from the point where it strikes the hill on the far side
1235
a spring of medicinal water gushes forth. The arrow
is returned to Gshen rab by the local king’s daughter, who becomes one of his brides. While the motif
of the arrow and the spring (and the subsequent
marriage) appear in the biography of the Buddha,
the feat of penetrating the nine shelds may recall a
more distant achievement: Odysseus’s shooting an
arrow through 12 iron axeheads to regain the hand
of his wife Penelope. It has been plausibly suggested
that the motif of shooting an arrow into the cliff
and releasing a spring of water may have Mithraic
antecedents (Kvaerne, 1986b).
The submission of Khyab pa and the demons
is shortlived, and they soon revert to obstructing
Gshen rab's mission to propagate his doctrine. The
awesome thaumaturgical feats performed by him do
little more than stiffen their resolve, and Khyab pa’s
resistance is overcome only when, rather late in the
story, Gshen rab abandons his martial exploits and
royal lifestyle to take up the life of a monk. Gshen
rab’s archenemy becomes his disciple, opening the
way for the conversion of all the other demons.
While Gshen rab’s renunciation occurs only
towards the end of the penultimate volume of
the Gzi brjid, all his main doctrines are set forth
in the second, third, and fourth volumes. These
take the form of series of discourses, each corresponding to one of the nine “vehicles” or “ways"
(theg pa) that together make up the ritual and doctrinal system of the Bon pos.
Gshen rab succumbs to illness at the age of 82,
and his earthly remains are cremated. His disciples
consolidate his doctrinal legacy and proceed to disseminate it in various lands. One of these disciples
reincarnates in India as Śākyamuni, hence the
resemblance of so many aspects of Buddhism to
what was taught at first hand by Gshen rab himself
(Ramble, 2013, 210; see also Kvaerne, 1989, 34).
The “authorized” version of the life of Gshen rab
that culminates in the Gzi brjid begins with the Mdo
’dus. But Gshen rab appears in sources that predate
even this work. The texts in question were found
in Dunhuang (PT 1068; PT 1134; PT 1136; PT 1194;
PT 1289; IOL Tib J 731) and in another cache that
was extracted from a large stūpa in southern Tibet
that may date from as early as the Imperial period
(7th to 9th centuries; Pa tshab & Glang ru, 2007).
In these works, Gshen rab is not the omniscient
world-saviour of the later tradition; his name is not
prefixed by the title ston pa (“teacher”), and there is
no suggestion of a soteriological system called Bon.
Gshen rab does not appear as a solitary hero but as
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1236
Ston pa Gshen rab: The Bön Buddha
one of a group of priests who collaborate on the resolution of conflicts that have unsettled society and
nature (Blezer, 2008, 425).
We do not know a great deal about the religious
environment of Tibet before the arrival of Buddhism in the 7th century, for three main reasons:
writing arrived in the country along with Buddhism
itself; accounts from neighbouring countries are
sparse and unreliable, and very little archaeological research has been carried out. However, we are
fortunate that early non-Buddhist ritual texts,
like many later Bon po works, contain a narrative
mythic section from which it is possible to deduce
certain religious beliefs. A recurring theme in these
works is that of a state of harmony between gods
and humans that is upset as a consequence of the
latter offending the former through transforming the land by digging the earth, felling trees, and
building houses. The gods respond by visiting various calamities on humans, who must appease the
gods by making an offering (Stein, 1971). In a variant
of this scenario, different classes of divinities enter
into conflict because one side has offended the
other. In some cases, the compensation demanded
by the aggrieved party is impossibly high, and the
offender is unable or unwilling to pay it.
It is in circumstances such as these that Gshen
rab is invited to intervene in the capacity of a ritual
specialist and mediator. The purpose of these narratives is to legitimize and empower the ritual that
is to be performed in the here-and-now by citing
the paradigmatic occasion on which it was proved
to be efficacious. In these accounts, Gshen rab
may be a specialist of certain types of rituals, but
above all he is a glorified form of a figure that has
always occupied a crucial place in Tibetan society:
the mediator. For most of their history, most parts
of the Tibetan world were not under an effective
centralized judicial authority, and the resolution of
potentially disastrous disputes between individuals and communities depended, as it still depends,
on skillful mediation. Like Gshen rab and the other
priests in these stories, the mediator is invited to
persuade both parties to moderate their respective positions so that an acceptable compromise
can be reached. In the ordinary world, the injured
party is persuaded to reduce the level of compensation demanded, and the offender is induced to
pay it. In the realm of myth, the angry gods desist
from punishing humans in exchange for compensation in the form of symbolic offerings. The religion that emerges from these early works is not a
soteriological system like Everlasting Bon, but fundamentally a legal construction, with the mediatorpriest at its heart. A number of the Buddhist works
referred to above specifically mention, as one of
the attributes of their version of Gshen rab, that he
would mediate in disputes between different types
of divinities and between gods and humans (Ramble, 2007, 691). It is highly likely that these Buddhist
treatises drew partly on early Tibetan myths about
Gshen rab that were rejected by the emerging Everlasting Bon tradition.
The older, indigenous form of Gshen rab may not
have been completely eclipsed by his more Buddhist manifestation, but acquired a new identity
among the Naxi people of Yunnan as the mythical
founder of their religion, Dto-mba shi-lo. The plausible suggestion that this name is a deformation
of Ston pa Gshen rab(s) was originally made by
the botanist J. Rock (1937, 7–8), and although the
mechanism of this transmission is still uncertain,
there is growing evidence to support Rock’s conviction that the Naxi religion owes a considerable debt
to a form of Bon that was relatively unmarked by
Buddhism.
Schools of Tibetan Buddhism began to crystallize
in the 11th century, and the appearance of the Ston
pa gshen rab mi bo of the major biographies coincides with the emergence of other figures: to be seen
as authentic, any such movement apparently had to
be able to trace its core doctrines back to a single
charismatic founder. The most significant of these
for the Buddhists was →Padmasambhava, a tantric
master from the Swat Valley. While this figure does
have a certain prominence in the earliest sources
as one of the vectors of Buddhism to Tibet in the
8th century, he acquires superhuman proportions
from the 11th century as the founder of the Rnying
ma school, whose doctrines were based on the
earliest, imperial-period translations of scriptures
from Sanskrit, and which needed a founder-figure
who belonged to that period of literary production.
The hagiographic literature that was to develop
around Padmasambhava finds numerous parallels
in the lives of Gshen rab, but in this case there is
compelling evidence to suggest that the borrowings were not from Buddhist to Bon sources, but
rather the other way around (Blondeau, 1971). Like
the Rnying ma pas, the Bonpos were able to turn to
Old Tibetan literature in their quest for a prototype
for the hero who was to be built up into the figure
of their founder. As noted earlier, Gshen rab always
appears in these texts as one of a group of priests.
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Ston pa Gshen rab: The Bön Buddha
The reason why it was he who was singled out to be
the retrospective founder is not clear, but is likely
to be because he was seen as more polyvalent. For
example, another prominent figure who appears
with Gshen rab in these early works, Dur gshen rma
da, may have been disqualified because his name
identifies him as a specialist of the funerary rites
known as dur.
While the debt that the main biographies of
Gshen rab owe to the lives of Śākyamuni should not
be overlooked, it should not be exaggerated either.
Gshen rab takes up the life of a renouncer late in the
Gzi brjid, and most of his deeds are performed long
before he takes this step during a career far more
reminiscent of that of an adventuring hero than
that of the unworldly Śākyamuni. Not surprisingly,
the salience of this characteristic has elicited comparisons with the story of King →Ge sar of Gling,
the hero of the Tibetan epic (Kvaerne, 2007, 93).
The parallels between the two figures go beyond
their written biographies to inform local folklore.
In parts of Tibet, certain features of the landscape
are explained by Buddhists as being traces of the
exploits of Ge sar – a cliff that he split with his great
sword, for example, or a stone column that serve as
the tethering-post for his horse – whereas local Bon
pos attribute the features to the activities of Gshen
rab (Ramble 1997). The Epic of Ge sar is likely to
have been transmitted by bards before it was ever
committed to writing, and it is tempting to conclude that the Bon pos assimiliated aspects of this
Buddhist hero into the figure of their own founder.
However, we have no way of knowing when the
bardic tradition began, and what the form of the
epic may have been. What is sure is that the earliest
written version is roughly contemporary with the
Gzi brjid, and a good deal later than the Gzer mig.
We should not overlook the possibility that, like
the Padmasambhava of the 14th-century narratives,
the figure of Ge sar himself may owe something to
Gshen rab, the epic hero of the Bon pos.
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