WIENER STUDIEN
ZUR TIBETOLOGIE UND BUDDHISMUSKUNDE
GEGRÜNDET VON
ERNST STEINKELLNER
HERAUSGEGEBEN VON
BIRGIT KELLNER, HELMUT KRASSER,
HELMUT TAUSCHER
HEFT 70.1
WIEN 2007
ARBEITSKREIS FÜR TIBETISCHE UND BUDDHISTISCHE STUDIEN
UNIVERSITÄT WIEN
PRAMÞѐAKĈRTIЮ
PAPERS DEDICATED TO ERNST STEINKELLNER
th
ON THE OCCASION OF HIS 70 BIRTHDAY
EDITED BY
BIRGIT KELLNER, HELMUT KRASSER, HORST LASIC,
MICHAEL TORSTEN MUCH
and HELMUT TAUSCHER
P ART 1
WIEN 2007
ARBEITSKREIS FÜR TIBETISCHE UND BUDDHISTISCHE STUDIEN
UNIVERSITÄT WIEN
Cover painting "die bunte hoffnung" (detail) by Arik Brauer, ¤ by Arik Brauer
Copyright ¤ 2007 by
Arbeitskreis für Tibetische und Buddhistische Studien
ISBN:
978-3-902501-09-7 (Part 1)
IMPRESSUM
Verleger: Arbeitskreis für Tibetische und Buddhistische Studien
Universitätscampus AAKH, Spitalgasse 2-4, Hof 2, 1090 Wien
Herausgeber und für den Inhalt verantwortlich:
Birgit Kellner, Helmut Krasser, Helmut Tauscher
alle: Spitalgasse 2-4, Hof 2, 1090 Wien
Druck:
Ferdinand Berger und Söhne GmbH, Wiener Straße 80, 3580 Horn
Contents
Ernst Steinkellner – Imprints and echoes
Publications of Ernst Steinkellner .
xi
...................................
.......................................
xxvii
Katia Buffetrille, “Pays caché” ou “Avenir radieux?” Le choix de Shes rab
rgya mtsho . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
......
Gudrun Bühnemann, ivaligas and caityas in representations of the eight
cremation grounds from Nepal. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
.....
23
Christoph Cüppers, Die Reise- und Zeltlagerordnung des Fünften Dalai
Lama . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
.....
37
Elena De Rossi Filibeck, The fragmentary Tholing bKa’ ’gyur in the IsIAO
Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
.....
53
Max Deeg, A little-noticed Buddhist travelogue – Senghui’s Xiyu-ji and its
relation to the Luoyang-jialan-ji. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
.....
63
Hildegard Diemberger, Padmasambhava’s unfinished job: the subjugation of
local deities as described in the dBa’ bzhed in light of contemporary
practices of spirit possession . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
.....
85
Georges Dreyfus, Is perception intentional? A preliminary exploration of
intentionality in Dharmakrti . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
.....
95
Franz-Karl Ehrhard, The biography of sMan-bsgom Chos-rje Kun-dga’ dpalldan (1735–1804) as a source for the Sino-Nepalese war. . . . . . . . . . . . .
....
115
....
135
........
163
th
1
th
Vincent Eltschinger, On 7 and 8 century Buddhist accounts of human
action, practical rationality and soteriology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Eli Franco, Prajñkaragupta on prattyasamutpda and reverse causation
Toru Funayama, Kamalala’s distinction between the two sub-schools of
Yogcra. A provisional survey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
....
187
.....
203
...................................
213
Richard Gombrich, Popperian Vinaya: Conjecture and refutation in practice
Michael Hahn, In defence of Haribhaa .
Paul Harrison, Notes on some West Tibetan manuscript folios in the Los
Angeles County Museum of Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Jens-Uwe Hartmann, Der Sattvrdhanastava und das Kranadstra
....
229
..........
247
Guntram Hazod, The grave on the ‘cool plain’. On the identification of
‘Tibet’s first tomb’ in Nga-ra-thang of ’Phyong-po . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
....
259
x
Contents
Harunaga Isaacson, First Yoga: A commentary on the diyoga section of
Ratnkaranti’s Bhramahara (Studies in Ratnkaranti’s tantric
works IV) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
....
285
Takashi Iwata, An analysis of examples for the interpretation of the word
ia in Dharmakrti’s definition of the thesis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
....
315
David Jackson, Rong ston bKa’ bcu pa – Notes on the title and travels of a
great Tibetan scholastic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
....
345
Christian Jahoda, Archival exploration of Western Tibet or what has remained of Francke’s and Shuttleworth’s Antiquities of Indian Tibet,
Vol. IV? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
....
361
.....................
395
Muni r Jambvijayaji, Dignga’s Nyyapraveakatra
Shoryu Katsura, Dharmakrti’s proof of the existence of other minds .
...........
Deborah Klimburg-Salter, Tradition and innovation in Indo-Tibetan painting.
Four preaching scenes from the life of the Buddha, Tabo mid 11th
century. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Taiken Kyuma, Marginalia on the subject of sattvnumna
407
....
423
...................
469
Horst Lasic, Placing the Tabo tshad ma materials in the general development
of tshad ma studies in Tibet. Part one: The study of the Nyyabindu . . .
....
483
Christian Luczanits, Prior to Birth II – The Tuita episodes in Early Tibetan
Buddhist literature and art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
....
497
WIENER STUDIEN
ZUR TIBETOLOGIE UND BUDDHISMUSKUNDE
GEGRÜNDET VON
ERNST STEINKELLNER
HERAUSGEGEBEN VON
BIRGIT KELLNER, HELMUT KRASSER,
HELMUT TAUSCHER
HEFT 70.2
WIEN 2007
ARBEITSKREIS FÜR TIBETISCHE UND BUDDHISTISCHE STUDIEN
UNIVERSITÄT WIEN
PRAMÞѐAKĈRTIЮ
PAPERS DEDICATED TO ERNST STEINKELLNER
th
ON THE OCCASION OF HIS 70 BIRTHDAY
EDITED BY
BIRGIT KELLNER, HELMUT KRASSER, HORST LASIC,
MICHAEL TORSTEN MUCH
and HELMUT TAUSCHER
P ART 2
WIEN 2007
ARBEITSKREIS FÜR TIBETISCHE UND BUDDHISTISCHE STUDIEN
UNIVERSITÄT WIEN
Cover painting "die bunte hoffnung" (detail) by Arik Brauer, ¤ by Arik Brauer
Copyright ¤ 2007 by
Arbeitskreis für Tibetische und Buddhistische Studien
ISBN:
978-3-902501-09-7 (Part 2)
IMPRESSUM
Verleger: Arbeitskreis für Tibetische und Buddhistische Studien
Universitätscampus AAKH, Spitalgasse 2-4, Hof 2, 1090 Wien
Herausgeber und für den Inhalt verantwortlich:
Birgit Kellner, Helmut Krasser, Helmut Tauscher
alle: Spitalgasse 2-4, Hof 2, 1090 Wien
Druck:
Ferdinand Berger und Söhne GmbH, Wiener Straße 80, 3580 Horn
Contents
Klaus-Dieter Mathes, Can stra mahmudr be justified on the basis of Maitrpa’s Apratihnavda? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
....
545
Claus Oetke, About the assessment of views on a self in the Indian philosophical tradition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
....
567
.............
587
Patrick Olivelle, The term vikrama in the vocabulary of Avaghoa
Parimal G. Patil, Dharmakrti’s white lie – Philosophy, pedagogy, and truth
in late Indian Buddhism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
....
597
Ole Holten Pind, Ngrjunian Divertimento – A close reading of Mlamadhyamaka-krik VII 30cd and VIII 7cd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
....
621
Karin Preisendanz, The initiation of the medical student in early classical
yurveda: Caraka’s treatment in context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
....
629
Ernst Prets, Implications, derivations and consequences: prasaga in the
early Nyya tradition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
....
669
........
683
Charles Ramble, The Aya: Fragments of an unknown Tibetan priesthood
Ludo Rocher, Commentators at work: Inheritance by brothers in Hindu law
......
721
Rosane Rocher, Henry Thomas Colebrooke and the marginalization of Indian
pandits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
....
735
Cristina Scherrer-Schaub, Immortality extolled with reason: Philosophy and
politics in Ngrjuna. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
....
757
.......
795
Lambert Schmithausen, Problems with the Golden Rule in Buddhist texts .
Walter Slaje, Werke und Wissen: Die Quellensammlung (AD 1680) des
Kaschmirers nanda zum Beweis der Superiorität der karmajñnasamuccaya-Doktrin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
....
825
Per Sørensen, Restless relic – The rya Lokevara icon in Tibet: Symbol of
power, legitimacy and pawn for patronage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
....
857
Tom J.F. Tillemans, On bdag, gzhan and the supposed active-passive neutrality of Tibetan verbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
....
887
Toru Tomabechi, The extraction of mantra (mantroddhra) in the Sarvabuddhasamyogatantra . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
....
903
Raffaele Torella, Studies on Utpaladeva’s varapratyabhijñ-viv ti. Part IV:
Light of the subject, light of the object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
....
925
.....
941
Kurt Tropper, The Buddha-vita in the skor lam chen mo at Zha lu monastery .
vi
Contents
Helga Uebach and Jampa L. Panglung, A silver portrait of the 6th wa-dmar
Karma-pa (1584–1630) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Käthe Uray-K halmi, Geser/Kesar und seine Gefährtinnen .
....
975
...................
989
Leonard W.J. van der Kuijp, *Ngabodhi/Ngabuddhi: Notes on the Guhyasamja Literature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
...
1001
Roberto Vitali, The White dPyal: Early evidence (from the 7 century to the
beginning of bstan pa phyi dar) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
...
1023
Chizuko Yoshimizu, Causal efficacy and spatiotemporal restriction: An
analytical study of the Sautrntika philosophy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
...
1049
Kiyotaka Yoshimizu, Reconsidering the fragment of the B hak on
inseparable connection (avinbhva). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
...
1079
th
The Aya: Fragments of an unknown Tibetan priesthood
Charles Ramble, Oxford
Introduction
When Srong btsan sgam po was building the first of his Buddhist temples, the
construction work was impeded by a five-headed nga-demon inhabiting a
nearby lake. The large crowd that was present included the following people:
gNam grags and ’Byung grags of the Tshe mi clan; ’Brug snang of the lCog ro
clan and his sons, the Aya Bonpos (a ya bon po) Co tshug and Sra tshug. These
two transformed themselves into sparrowhawks with razor-sharp wings and
took to the air amid a sound of thunder. Swooping down on the monster they
sheared through its five necks at a stroke, killing it. The rumbling of thunder
was heard from inside the water, which had turned deep red with the creature’s
blood, and the temple was subsequently named “Hawk Thunder” (Khra ’brug).
They then performed a ritual to atone for the killing, after which a group of
four priests, among them at least two Ayas, magically drained the lake. The
king subsequently built a set of stupas on top of the lake, and the Ayas performed the consecration ceremony. When the king and queen eventually died,
their tombs were built for them by Aya Bonpos.
Who were these Ayas? The eleventh-century bKa’ chems ka khol ma, from
which this account is taken,1 attributes to them a role of considerable signifi1
This paper was originally presented at the Eighth Seminar of the International
Association of Tibetan Studies, held in Bloomington, Indiana, in 1998. I would like to
take this opportunity, a decade on, to express my appreciation of the hospitality and
hard work of its convenor, Eliot Sperling.
Since the paper was delivered, a translation of the passage cited above has been published in Sørensen and Hazod’s Thundering Falcon (2000: 155–56), and I have therefore made do with a simple paraphrase here. For a lucid translation, and further
information on the versions of the source text, the reader is referred to this fine study.
Some of the references to Ayas contained in this article I stumbled across by chance.
Others I owe to the vigilance and thoughtfulness of friends and colleagues. I am espeB. Kellner, H. Krasser, H. Lasic, M.T. Much, H. Tauscher (eds.), Pram akrti . Papers dedicated to Ernst Steinkellner on the occasion of his 70th birthday. Part 2. (Wiener Studien zur
Tibetologie und Buddhismuskunde 70.2) Wien 2007, pp. 683–720.
684
Charles Ramble
cance in the ritual complex surrounding Srong btsan sgam po, but leaves many
issues unclear.
The main question to be addressed by this article is whether the name Aya2
designates a category of priest with distinctive attributes, performances and
traditions, or is simply a name applied to a wide range of unconnected offices.
The sources used are both literary and ethnographic: priests called Aya are still
to be found in Tibet and the Himalaya, but only an examination of the evidence
will enable us to decide if they have anything to do with the Ayas who feature
in the literature of past centuries. While the title of this article begs the question
of whether we are dealing with a priesthood as such – or whether it is even
Tibetan – it is at least honest with regard to the fragmentary nature of the material. The first section will present parallel passages from a number of
historiographic accounts – mainly chos ’byung – in some of which the protagonists are identified by the title “Aya.” This will help us to obtain a sense of the
degree of consistency with which they are described. Some of these passages
have been translated into European languages in the past, but I present them
here again, with the Tibetan text, for convenience of comparison. The excerpts
relate to two occasions in the dynastic period: first, the appearance of the first
king, and secondly, the restoration of the dynasty in its ninth generation following the assassination of the reluctant usurper, Lo ngam rta rdzi.
The second section will set out half a dozen excerpts from a range of works
in which Ayas make cameo appearances. We are told very little about the
priests in question in any of these excerpts, but the passages will contribute to
the overall picture that will be discussed in the conclusions.
cially grateful to Hildegard Diemberger, Larry Epstein, Guntram Hazod, Samten Karmay, Dan Martin, Robert Mayer and David Templeman for the leads, references and
suggestions they have given me, only some of which I have had the space to include
here. My understanding of the more intractable passages of Tibetan cited below has
been possible thanks to the patience of Samten Karmay, though any remaining errors
are of course my own.
Most of the research for this article was carried out in the context of a project based
at the University of Vienna and generously supported by the Austrian Fonds zur
Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung.
2
Except when quoting primary or secondary sources, the term “Aya” will be presented throughout this article in this form. It should be emphasised that this rendering is
also intended to cover apparently related terms, such as Aga and Ala. As a general rule,
personal names and familiar toponyms will be presented in roughly phonetic transcription unless the Tibetan orthography is relevant to the context.
The Aya: Fragments of an unknown Tibetan priesthood
685
The third and final section will consider some ethnographic material concerning Ayas in modern and recent times in Tibet and Nepal. In certain
instances the activities of these priests have been discontinued, and information
was obtained from interviews with people who had observed or taken part in
the cults concerned.
The conclusion will review some of the literary and ethnographic material
that has been presented in order to assess the general features of Ayas that
emerge from the sources, and to make some tentative suggestions concerning
the etymology of the term itself.
Part 1: Ayas in the dynastic period
1.1. Ayas at the time of the first king
A possible reference to a priest with a name resembling “Aya” as a contemporary of gNya’ khri btsan po occurs in a number of chos ’byung. Superficially,
the line implies that once the first king had built his castle, he went on to defeat
a Bonpo of the Sumpa named A yong(s) rgyal ba. The form of this line, and the
context in which it appears in the various chos ’byung, is worth examining. Let
us begin with dPa’ bo:
…mtshan du gnya’ khri btsan po zhes byung grags / sku mkhar thog ma yum bu bla
sgang mdzad / sum pa’i bon po o (sic) yong rgyal ba btul (p. 160).
He was named gNya’ khri btsan po. He made Yum bu bla sgang(,) his first castle;
he subjugated O yong rgyal ba, a Bonpo of the Sumpa.
No mention of this character is made in the corresponding section in lDe’u,
which states simply:
…de nas phar po zo brang du gshegs so / de nas sku mkhar yun bu bla sgang brtsigs
te / sum pa shang gi rgyal po btul ste rdzu ’phrul dang ldan no /
From there he went to Phar po zo brang. Then, after building his castle Yun bu bla
sgang, he subjugated the king of Sum pa shang, and was endowed with magical
powers (pp. 237–38).
In his important study of the Can lnga texts, Karmay adds the following footnote to his gloss of this passage:
The line sum pa’i bon po a yong rgyal ba btul / “A-yong rgyal-ba, the Bonpo of
Sumpa, was subdued (by gNya’-khri btsan-po)” first occurs in [Bu ston chos
’byung] (p. 181) and then was repeated in several chos ’byung e.g. [Deb dmar] (p.
30)…. It did not make sense to me, but now [lDe’u chos ’byung] shows that it has
got nothing to do with a Bonpo of Sum-pa (Karmay 1998: 303, fn. 76).
686
Charles Ramble
As Karmay states, a form of this problematic line does indeed occur in the
Lhasa blockprint edition of Bu ston, of which two published versions are
known to me: Bu ston H1 and Bu ston H2. In the following quotation, the asterisk marks the point at which a gloss has been added, and then the intercalated text itself:
mi bzhi’i gnya’ ba la khur nas ’di la kho bo cag gi jo bo bya’i zer te ming yang
gnya’ khri btsan por* btags rgyal po snga shos yin no /
*sku mkhar yum bu bla sgang brtsigs pas mtsho mi gshin gyi dbu (H2: dpu) rgyal
gyis bon bsgyur zer / sum pa’i bon po a yongs rgyal ba btul lo // (Bu ston H2: 181).
After he had built the palace of Yum bu bla sgang, the dbu (H2: dpu) rgyal of
mTsho mi gshin promulgated (or transformed) Bon, and subjugated A yongs rgyal
ba, a Bonpo of Sumpa.
(H2’s variant reading here may well represent a wish on the copyist’s part to
align the term dbu rgyal with the familiar name spu rgyal.)
In his critical edition of Bu ston chos ’byung, Janoš Szerb notes that the line
occurs in only one version of the six that were available to him: the Lhasa
blockprint (H, the abbreviation I have adopted here), which was prepared as
late as 1921 under the auspices of the Thirteenth Dalai Lama. This suggests
that the line may have been interpolated from elsewhere – possibly a work
dating from later than Bu ston’s original composition. The likeliest candidate of
which I am aware is Deb dmar, where the relevant episode in the story of the
first king reads as follows:
… rje gnya’ khri btsan po zhes grags te / bod kyi rgyal po la snga ba yin no / / des
(B: des) las thabs su sku mkhar un bu bla sgang brtsigs / tshe mi gshen (B: bshen)
gyis (B: gyi) dmu rgyal gyi (B: gyis) bon bsgyur / sum pa’i bon po a yongs rgyal ba
btul lo / (Deb dmar G: fol. 15b; Deb dmar B: 33).
Known as the Lord gNya’ khri btsan po, he was the first king of Tibet. As [one of
his] acts he built a castle, Un bu bla sgang. The gshen Tshe mi promulgated dMu
rgyal bon. [ – ] subjugated A yongs rgyal ba, a Bonpo of Sumpa.
The sentence concerning the A yongs remains as obscure as ever, but the significant point is that, contrary to the context provided by dPa’ bo, it is not a
non-sequitur: it is preceded by a phrase – apparently garbled by Bu ston’s
commentator – concerning the priestly attendants of gNya’ khri btsan po.3 I
3
The Fifth Dalai Lama’s history of Tibet preserves the line concerning Tshe mi, but
omits the subsequent one about the a yongs and the subjugation of the Sumpa. Curiously, this work substitutes don for bon (Bod kyi deb ther: 12), but this may be a
straightforward typographic error. Thus Ahmad’s translation: “He changed the mean-
The Aya: Fragments of an unknown Tibetan priesthood
687
would tentatively suggest that the line, as it was available to the author of Deb
dmar, was a conflation of two distinct issues: the identity and activities of the
king’s priests on the one hand – omitted completely in lDe’u – and his military
conquests.4 In most accounts of the first king the attendant priests are mTshe
mi and gCo’u (variously spelt), though at least one version, the Ya ngal gdung
rabs, adds a third: the eponymous founder of the clan, Ya ngal himself.5 It may
be the case that Deb dmar has preserved another tradition according to which
the first priests included mTshe mi and another named A yong(s).
1. 2. Ayas during the reign of sPu lde gung rgyal
The excerpts compared in this section are taken from the following works:
rGyal rabs; dPa’ bo; lDe’u; Nyang; rGyal po bka’ thang. The Tibetan text of
each excerpt, with the variant readings, will be followed by an English translation, and discussion of the content deferred until all the passages have been
presented. Certain excerpts contain untranslated passages that will be subjected
to closer scrutiny in the discussion.
1.2.1. rGyal rabs
…bu de kun las rgyal zer kyang spu de gung rgyal du grags so / rgyal po ’dis rgyal
sa bzung ste / blon po ni ru la skyes kyis byas so / rgyal blon ’di gnyis kyi dus su /
g.yung drung gi bon byung ste / ston pa gshen rabs mi bo bya ba stag gzig ’ol mo’i
lung rings su sku ’khrungs / khams chen po brgyad la sogs pa bon po’i chos thams
cad / zhang zhung gi yul nas bsgyur te / dar zhing rgyas par mdzad / bon la rigs dgu
ru phye ste / rgyu’i bon po la rigs bzhi / ’bras bu’i bon po la rigs lnga’o / ’bras bu’i
bon rigs lnga ni / g.yung drung theg pa bla na med pa la zhugs pa ste / bde ’gro
mtho ris kyi lus thob par ’dod do / rgyu’i bon po rigs bzhi ni / snang gshen bal thod
can / ’phrul gshen bal tshon can / phya gshen ju thig can / dur gshen mtshon cha can
no / de la snang gshen bal thod can gyis phya dang g.yang ’gug / lha dang sman
gsol / dge legs dang dpal bskyed nas mi nor rgyas par byed / … (p. 57).
Because that young man was victorious over all (bu de kun las rgyal) he was known
as sPu de gung rgyal. This king occupied the throne, and Ru la skyes acted as his
minister. It was during the time of this king and this minister that gYung drung Bon
ing of the rMu-rGyal of TSHe-Mi gŠen” (Ahmad 1995: 10). On other variants, see
Haarh 1969: 105.
4
It may be worth noting that a Bonpo of Sumpa does make an appearance shortly
afterwards in lDe’u’s account, just before the live burial of ’Bro snyan lde ru (lDe’u:
251).
5
sku gshen dag tshangs yang ngal tshe bco gsum gyis mdzad / (Ya ngal fol. 21r).
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Charles Ramble
came into being, with the birth of the teacher known as gShen rabs mi bo in ’Ol
mo’i lung rings in sTag gzig. All the Bonpo religious works, including the Khams
chen po brgyad, were translated from the land of Zhangzhung, and promulgated
widely. Bon was categorised in nine classes: Four Ways of the Bon of Cause, and
Five of the Bon of Effect. The Five Ways of the Bon of Effect belong to the
Supreme gYung drung Vehicle which, it is believed, can lead to rebirth in the
higher realms. The Four Ways of the Bon of Cause, on the other hand, entail the
gShen of Appearance who wear the woollen headdress; the ’Phrul gshen with the
coloured wool; the Phya gshen with their divinatory knots, and the weapon-bearing
Funerary gShen. Among these, the gShen of Appearance with the woollen
headdresses performed phya ’gug and g.yang ’gug rituals, worshipped the gods and
the sman divinities, and caused people and livestock to multiply by generating
virtue and glory. (The specialisations of the other gshen are then detailed.)6
1.2.2. dPa’ bo
The main version cited here is dPa’ bo SP, with variant readings from dPa’ bo
B in brackets.
...sha khri nya khri bya khri gsum yang bltams / de tshe rgya gar yul dang stag gzig
mtshams / gur a wa tra (B: gu ra wa ta) ces bya’i yul khams nas / mu stegs bon po
’a zha zhes pa byung / gnam la phur zhing kha nas mngon shes smra / shing la
’breng ’gra (B: ’dra) rdo la lhu gzug ’dral / rtag du sha chang gis ni dre mchod
byed / de la rgyal pos bla mchod bkur sti mdzad // g.yu yi g.yung drung dpa’ ba’i
stag slag (B: slog dang) / ’ging ba’i ral khas bstod cing mnga’ thang spar (B: sbar) /
khu deng (B: dang) nu bas che zhes a yar (B: yang) bos / mu stegs lta (B: lha) log
bon gyi byin rlabs chungs / (pp. 160–61).
...Also, Sha khri, Nya khri and Bya khri were born. At that time, a heretical Bonpo
called ’A zha came from the region known as Gur awatra, on the border between
India and sTag gzig. He would fly in the air and utter predictions; shing la ’breng
’gra (B: ’dra) rdo la lhu gzug ’dral, and constantly worshipped demons with meat
and beer. The king revered him as his chaplain, honouring him with a turquoise
swastika, a hero’s tiger-skin robe and a grandiose sword, and enhanced his power
and authority. The Khu and the Nu ba7 addressed the so-called Great One as “Aya.”
This heretical Bon, with its false views, offered few spiritual benefits.
6
An annotated translation of this passage is given in Sørensen’s seminal study of the
rGyal rabs gsal ba’i me long (1994: 144–45). I offer my own translation here only for
the sake of consistency with my rendering of the other excerpts.
7
The justification for understanding Khu and Nu ba as priestly lineages is based on
the appearance of Khu as the clan name of two priests in Nyang: the priests in question
The Aya: Fragments of an unknown Tibetan priesthood
689
dPa’ bo subsequently cites a version from another account. In the time of Ru
las skyes:
...gnam bon gshen po che dang bon gzhung byung / gshen yul bon mo lung ring zhes
zer ba dbus kyi ’on du rus gshen gyi byis pa bong bu’i rna ba can byung ba lo bcu
gnyis lon tshe dres khrid nas lo bcu gnyis su mi khyur ma tshud / lo bcu gnyis ’das
nas log byung tshe yul ’di na ’dre ’di yod pa ’di ltar mchod thams cad shes pa cig
byung nas bong bu’i rna ba sgrib pa’i phyir bal thod bcings ste ’dre mchod pa’i rdol
bon dar zhing gzhan yang ’bras bu’i bon rigs lnga g.yung drung bla med kyi theg pa
zhes ’bras bu bde ’gro mtho ris thob par ’dod pa dang / rgyu’i bon rigs bzhi skad pa
snang gshen bal thod can gyis phya g.yang gugs mi nor rgyas par byed / ’phrul
gshen bal mtshon can gyis yas dang mdos gtong ’gal rkyen sel / cha gshen ju thig
can gyis legs nyes ston thag zag bcas kyi mngon shes ’chad / dur gshen mtshon cha
can gyis gson gshin gyi rtsis byed / thams cad rnga gshang gi sgra ’khrol / ’jim pa’i
sha ba nam mkha’ la ’gro ba dang / rnga la bzhon nas ’gro ba sogs zag bcas kyi
rdzu ’phrul mang po yod skad / mdo sde ’byung ba’i ltas su sgrung rnams dar / ro
langs gser sgrub kyi sgrung dang ma sangs kyi sgrung dang / mchil pa’i sgrung sogs
nyan bshad dang / mngon pa’i sde snod ’byung ltas lde’u sprod / srang la them
gnyer lba ba che ci yin / por mgo mgo can skyed cing rgyags ci yin zhes dri ba sogs
ste bon sgrung lde’u gsum gyi tshul lha sa’i gdung rnams la bris nas yod skad / de
yis bod rnams cung zad blo kha bye / (pp. 164–65).
The great gNam bon gShen po appeared, together with Bon scriptures. In ’On, in
the centre of the land of the gShen called Bon mo lung ring, was a child of lineagepriests (or, the gShen clan) who had donkey’s ears. When he was twelve years old
he was taken away by demons and was not seen for a dozen years. When he returned after twelve years he did so as one who knew what spirits were in which
locations, and all the ways in which they should be propitiated. To conceal his
donkey’s ears he wore a woollen turban. The rDol bon, for the propitiation of demons, spread. Furthermore, it was held that the Five Ways (rigs) of the Bon of
Result, known as the Supreme Vehicle of Eternal Bon, would ensure attainment of
the higher realms, while in the so-called Four Ways of the Bon of Cause, the gShen
of Appearance who wore the woollen turban would perform the phya ’gug and
g.yang ’gug rituals and would effect the proliferation of people and cattle. The
’Phrul gshen with the coloured wool made offerings of yas and mdos and dispelled
adverse circumstances. The Phya gshen with the divinatory knots (cha gshen ju thig
can) would reveal good and ill, and utter prognostications of a worldly character.
The Funerary gShen with the weapons would make astrological calculations for the
living and the dead. All these played drums and flat bells. [On] deer made of clay
[they] would travel through the air and ride on their drums, and exhibited many
other such cheap magical tricks. The proliferation of stories augured the coming of
the sutras. Tales of corpses being transformed into gold, of ma sangs spirits, and of
were the chaplains of the kings gNam spu and gZhung btsan lde on the one hand, and
of Khri gNyan gzung btsan on the other (Nyang L: 163, 165).
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birds and so forth, were a portent, provided by the riddle-makers, of the Buddhist
teachings and the Abhidharma that were to come. It is said that questions in the
style of the Bon, the sGrung and the lDe’u, such as: “What has notches like wrinkles and a goitre?” for a set of scales, “What has a head that grows and gets fatter?”
for a grass tussock8 may be found inscribed on roof-beams in Lhasa. They helped a
little to develop the intellect of the Tibetans.
1.2.3. lDe’u
de’i dus su yu ’gur sna sa sna bya ba na mu stegs breg pa’i bon po wa zha bya ba
gcig la bon byung ste / rdzu ’phrul che nas / gnam la lhab lhab phur zhing kha nas
thol thol smra / shing la ’breng du ’dra zhing rdo la lhu gzugs byed pa des / zhugs
bcad kyis btsan la las su mchod do / de la mnga’ thang bstod pa ni / g.yu’i g.yung
drung/ dpa’ bo stag slag / ’ging pa’i ral gas bstod / khu dang bu bas ches bas / a pa
bya bar bos pas / bon byin rlabs chung pa dang /… (p. 244).
At that time, in the land (yu = yul) called Gur sna sa sna a heretical shaven-headed
Bonpo called Wa zha acquired Bon. His magical powers were great: he would glide
through the air and recite torrentially; shing la ’breng du ’dra zhing rdo la lhu gzugs
byed pa des. As his ritual activity he would propiate the btsan in a worldly manner
(zhugs bcad = zag bcad). As for the exaltation of his power and prestige, he was
honoured with a turquoise swastika, a hero’s tiger-skin robe and a grandiose sword.
Because he was [greater than they were], the Khu and the Bu ba addressed him as
“Apa.” The spiritual benefits of [this] Bon were small....
1.2.4. Nyang
In the following excerpt I have used Nyang L as the basic text. There are in fact
numerous differences between this version and Nyang M, but I have indicated
only those that are of particular relevance to the present study. Note that, according to Nyang, the events related occur not during the time of sPu rje (sic)
gung rgyal but of his father, who is identified with Dri/Gri gum himself.
de nas srib khri’i sras gnam phru po gzhung btsan lha’i sku ring la / gnam gyi rdor
(M: rdol) bon byung ste u rgyan gyi tshu rol / kha che’i yul gyi pha rol / stag gzig gi
bar na yul ’gyur snang bar snang bya ba ru sa zha’i bon po / mu stegs nyi tshe ba’i
ston pa / stong pa don dam du ’dod pa dang lta ba mthun pa gcig byung / des ’jig
rten pa’i lha ’dre kun gyi srog snying nas ’dren nus pa / mi dang lha srin du dmangs
dum shes pas kun rdzob tu thams cad sgo nga las skyes bar ’dod pas snga rtags
8
My rendering of these opaque riddles is taken almost verbatim from the translation
given in Norbu 1995: 22. See ibid.: 231, fn. 2, for an explanation of the riddles, and for
alternative translations of the term gdung, which I have rendered here as “roof-beams.”
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691
dangs / phyi rtags dang / da lta ji ltar yin pa rnams thol thol du smra shes pa / lto
khu lto nag bya bag cig lhu dang rdums du ’brel ba / nam mkha’ la ldeb ldeb phur
nus pa / lag cha ni skya mo khugs su bcug / lpags pa ni rla bzhi ’phreng du bkug nas
phub pa ming la nga phod lnga zer / yas btags ni shing dang rus pa la sngon dmar
gyi ri mo bris / gzugs brnyan ni khams (M: kham) sa la byed / nam mkha’ dang
rgyang pu ni btsugs / gson gyi lha bon byed zer nas g.ya’ ri dang gangs ri’i lha ’dre
la zhung shang / srab shang / gser skyems kyis mchod / gshin dur byed zer nas mi shi
ba la mgo gnon dang / skyid kyi lha lug dang rta rgod ma gsod / mi na ba’i glud du
nges pa med zer nas ra lug dang / bya phag dang / yas thag gtong zer nas srog chag
gsod / yang na ’thom stong zhing ’gal dum dang ’dre yas skyur ba / a ya chab nag
bya ba cig byung de rgyal po spyan drangs nas chab nag srid pa rgyud kyi bon bya
ba cig byung / bod yul du gyer bon la snga ba de yin no / de ston pa’i bka’ ni ma yin
skad / (pp. 160–61).
Then during the lifetime of gNam phru go gzhung btsan lha, the son of Srib khri,
the rDol (L: rdor) bon of the sky originated. In a land called ’Gyur sna par sna (L:
’gyur snang par snang), between O iyana on the far side and Kha che on the near
side, in the middle of sTag gzig, was a Sa zha’i bon po who held a philosophical position that accorded with that of the insignificant heretical teacher(s) who considered emptiness as ultimate reality. This individual was able to lead all earthly gods
and demons by their life-syllables, and could mediate in disputes between humans
on the one hand and gods and demons on the other. On a conventional level, he held
that everything had been born from an egg and was able to provide torrential recitations of signs about the past and the future, and how things stood at the present. lto
khu lto nag bya ba gcig lhu dang rdums su ’brel ba. He could glide through the air.
(Nyang L: lag cha ni skya mo khugs su bcug / lpags pa ni rla bzhi ’phreng du bkug
nas phub pa ming la nga phod lnga zer / Nyang M: lto khu lto nag bya ba 1 lhu dang
rdum du brel pa / nam-mkha’ la ldeb ldeb ’phur nus pa / lag cha na shing-gi skya
mo khugs-su bcug / lpags pa ni brla bzhi brang du kug nas phubs pa ming du phyed
rnga zer). As for his yas gtags, he would make blue and red paintings on wood and
bone. He would make clay effigies and set up thread crosses and wooden tablets.
Saying that he was a lha bon [priest] for the living, he would worship the gods and
demons of the slate hills and the glaciers with [flat bells know as?] zhung shang and
srab shang, as well as with libations; saying that he performed funerary rituals (L:
gshin dur; M: gshen dur) he would crush the heads of the dead and kill divine sheep
and mares for the happiness [of the deceased?]. Saying that there were no particular
ransoms for those who were ill, and that he would offer goats and sheep, chickens
and pigs and ritual items (yas thags), he would slaughter living creatures, or …(?
’thom stong [M: btong]) and resolve disputes and cast out ritual items for demons
(’dre yas). Such an individual, known as the Aya of Chab nag, was invited by the
king, and the so-called Bon of the Chab nag srid pa rgyud was instituted. This was
the first of the gyer bon in Tibet. It is said that this was not the doctrine of the
Teacher [gShen rab].
The passages I have left untranslated above deserve closer examination, since
they may help to clarify a problematic passage concerning the rituals of the
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early Bon priests that appears in the rGyal po bka’ thang. The passage runs as
follows:
rgyal po gri gum btsan po’i sku ring la / ta zig ’a zha (Hoffmann, B: ’a zha’i) bon po
gdan drangs nas / rdo nag thom do lhu dang sdum du sbral (Hoffmann: sgril; B:
sbrel) / shi lpags skya me’i (B: mo’i) bla gzhi breng (Hoffmann: brang; B: bring) du
’dra / (Haarh 1969: 100; rGyal po bka’ thang B: 115).
Haarh proposes the following translation:
In the lifetime of King Gri-gum-btsan-po, Bon-po were invited from Ta-zig and ’Aža. (They) brought the black stone(s) and the dipper, these two, together with pieces
of meat. The greyish-white skin of the corpse was like the exalted abode of fire.
Hoffmann sensibly avoids translating the last two lines, but provides the following comment in a footnote:
Die folgenden zwei Verse wage ich wegen der mangelnden Kenntnis der zugrundeliegenden Realien nicht zu übersetzen. Hoffentlich werden uns eingehende Studien
über die tibetischen Totengebräuche das Verständnis dieser wichtigen Zeilen
erschließen. Im ersten Vers ist von schwarzen Steinen (rdo nag), von einem Paar
(do) Schöpflöffel (t’om) sowie von den Zwölfteln der Opfertiere (lhu) die Rede.
Der zweite Vers spricht von der “Haut eines Gestorbenen” (ši-lpags); skya me’i bla
gži heißt vielleicht “der hohe Sitz eines Reiters,” da skya-myi in dem Wörterbuch
Brda-yig mi don gsal-bar byed-pa’i zla ba’i od sna mit mong. moritai kümün
wiedergegeben wird (1950: 246, fn. 5).
Let us consider the second line of the rGyal po bka’ thang excerpt in the light
of the other passages (the translations are again Haarh’s):
rdo nag thom do lhu dang sdum du sbral (Hoffmann: sgril; L: sbrel)
“(They) brought the black stone(s) and the dipper, these two, together with pieces of
meat.”
dPa’ bo:
shing la ’breng ’gra (L: ’dra) rdo la lhu gzug ’dral
“On wood he skinned the hide; on stone he ripped open the quartered parts.”
While these two sentences appear to be very different, the presence, in both, of
the rdo, the lhu and the verb sbral/’dral raises suspicions about the possibility
of a common provenance. Although Haarh’s translation of the dPa’ bo line is
convincing – not least because the ritual skinning and quartering of animals is
the sort of thing we would expect of Ayas – it is also worth noting that the alternative readings of sbral – sgril and sbrel – convey the sense of putting
something together. The corresponding passage in lDe’u is ambiguous as it
could signify either making an entire effigy out of stone body-parts, or else reducing a whole to its component parts:
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693
shing la ’breng du ’dra zhing rdo la lhu gzugs byed pa…
Now consider Nyang:
lto khu lto nag bya ba gcig (M: 1) lhu dang rdums su (M: rdum du) ’brel ba (M: pa).
The rdo nag of rGyal po is now lto nag. lTo (ostensibly meaning “food”) is
clearly a misspelling of the term gto, denoting a category of rituals. gTo nag
rituals are a well-known class of mdos and glud rites, and though I have never
encountered gto khu, the context suggests that this, too, is a type of ritual effigy
or performance. The same is probably true of the term ’thom; the context in
which it appears in Nyang indicates that it is some sort of ritual activity (that
may or may not have something to do with spoons or ladles). Significantly the
gto nag ritual involves making anthropomorphic effigies out of clay and other
substances. Now after attesting to the priests’ powers of flight, Nyang L states:
lag cha ni skya mo khugs su bcug / lpags pa ni rla bzhi ’phreng du bkug nas phub pa
ming la nga phod lnga zer /
This opaque passage is significantly clearer in Nyang M:
lag cha na shing-gi skya mo khugs-su bcug / lpags pa ni brla bzhi brang du kug nas
phubs pa ming du phyed rnga zer /
Regarding his accoutrements: he would bend a strip of wood [into a ring] then, taking a hide, he would cover [the ring] by [stretching it across] and pulling the four
limbs in to the breast. This was known as a “half-drum.”
A glance at the last line of rGyal po bka’ thang cited above is enough to
indicate that that mysterious phrase must surely be a garbled version either of
Nyang itself or, more probably, of an earlier source used by the two accounts.
What appears at first sight to imply a funerary or tantric ritual is in fact a
description of the process whereby the priests made their one-sided drums.
Some of the salient points that emerge from a comparison of these excerpts
may now be summarised briefly:
• Bon originates in, and is imported from, a land situated to the west of Tibet;
• There is a higher and a lower form of Bon, but this description is concerned with
the lower, non-soteriological variety that is not gYung drung Bon;
• The promulgator is called ’A zha (etc.), or comes from a land or group of people
of that name;
• The priests’ activities include divinations, lengthy recitations, phya ’gug and
g.yang ’gug rituals, rites (sometimes specified as mdos and gto) involving
effigies, funerals and (possibly) animal sacrifice;
• Some of the priests wear distinctive woollen headdresses;
• The priests are known by a title that is, or closely resembles, “Aya.”
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Some aspects of these excerpts are too well known to require further comment,9
but certain features deserve closer attention.
First, the donkey’s ears that the twelve-year-old boy is obliged to cover with
a woollen headdress: the story appears to be a version of the well-known tale of
King Midas, who was cursed with donkey’s ears by a vindictive Apollo and
had to conceal them beneath a turban. Midas was a Cimmerian king of Phrygia,
in modern Anatolia, but the story of the turban is a relatively late supplement to
representations of him on Greek vases, where he is depicted with donkey’s
ears. In fact, donkey or mule ears were Bronze-Age attributes of royalty that
are likely to have been adopted by the Phrygian kings (Morris 2004).
Secondly, the sacrifices described in Nyang: the text is ambiguous but it is
probable that the various sets of activities listed are meant to be the province of
different specialists. In any event, smashing the heads of corpses during funerals, and sacrificing horses, have a very Indic ring to them. Offerings of pigs and
chickens are more evocative of Himalayan rituals.
And finally, the location of the ’A zha: the balance of evidence suggests that
’A zha is an epithet of the T’u-yü-hun (Tucci 1950: 54–55). Curiously, the references cited above give the ’A zha promulgator of Bon a western location,
whereas the T’u-yü-hun territory lay to the north-east of Tibet. Objections to
the identification of the ’A zha with the T’u-yü-hun were in fact raised by F.W.
Thomas precisely on the grounds that the ’A zha territory extends too far to the
west (Thomas 1927). Chinese sources examined by Molé, however, state that
the T’u-yü-hun territory “abuts on to Turfan to the north and Khotan to the
west” (1970: 74). A discussion of the identity and range of the ’A zha lies well
beyond the scope of the present article, but I shall return to the matter in the
conclusion. For now, we may leave the question open with the observation that,
in spite of the generous reach of the T’u-yü-hun demonstrated by Molé, it still
does not extend to the more westerly location implied by the Tibetan excerpts.10
Part 2: Ayas in Tibetan literature
This part will simply present some appearances of Ayas in an assortment of
Tibetan works.
9
For example, concerning the subdivision of Bon into nine “Ways,” within the
categories “Cause” and “Effect,” see Snellgrove 1980: 9–12; Karmay 1998c: 111–13.
On Chab nag as a ritual system and a toponym see also Karmay 1998a: 215.
10
For a discussion of other hypotheses concerning the identity of the ’A zha, see Molé
1970: 73–75, fn. 22).
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695
2.1. dBa’ bzhed
The dBa’ bzhed (11th century?) contains two references to priests whose titles
may be cognate with the name Aya:
Meanwhile one hundred and twenty-seven Bon po such as A gShen, Byi sPu,
mTshe Cog, Ya ngal arrived from Phan yul in order to celebrate the funeral [of Khri
Srong lde btsan] (Wangdu and Diemberger 2000: 94–95).
These priests are later singled out for criticism by Vairocana, the advocate of
Buddhist reform, as exponents of a benighted religion:
It was said that the view and practice of the Bon as well as the sacred law (gtsug
lag) are good. This, too, is false. Khri ’phang gsum, the king of Zing po, worshipped the compassionless god Thang lha yar lha, the two Ag gshen of ’Phan yul
killed many animals such as sheep (gnag lug) and horses…. (ibid.: 101).
In a footnote to the first excerpt (p. 94, fn. 369) the translators suggest that the
term A gShen “could be a contracted form for A [ya/la] [sKu] gshen,” and consider the possibility that these priests may be connected to the horse-sacrificing
Ayas mentioned in Nyang.
2.2. Padma bka’ thang
Chapter 92 of the Padma bka’ thang contains a series of verses in which Padmasambhava responds to Khri Srong lde btsan’s query concerning the future
discovery of certain treasures. The text is cited from Hoffmann 1950: 360.11
The variant readings refer to the Chengdu edition (1988: 561). Each stanza
begins with the line “He will not remain, but after he has attained
enlightenment…,” a reference to the treasure-discoverer cited in the previous
stanza. One of the verses runs:
de nyid mi gnas mya ngan ’das ’og tu /
byang gi phyi gong ru ba tshub mas ’khyer /
bod ’dir dam chos bstan pa gsum du gyes /
bka’ gter gnyis kyis sangs rgyas stan (Ch: bstan) pa skyong /
gtsang gi ru mtshams sbas pai gter ka ’di
mi bzhag ’don pa’i rtags der bstan nas byung /
’a (Ch: a) ya bon po lha bum zhes bya byung /
He will not remain, but after he has attained liberation
The encampments of Phyi gong, in the north, will be carried away by whirlwinds.
11
German and French translations of this stanza are given respectively in Hoffmann
1950: 141 and Toussaint 1933: 378–79.
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Here in Tibet the excellent dharma will be divided into three parts.
The Buddhist doctrine will be protected by two treasures containing teachings.
These treasures [will be] hidden on the border of gTsang.
Signs that they should not be left there but are to be revealed will appear
To one named A ya bon po lha ’bum.
2.3. Kun dga’ bzang po
In his study of the kingdom of Ya tse, Tucci refers to the correspondence of the
Sa skya pa hierarch Kun dga’ bzang po with certain dignitaries of that kingdom
in the early fifteenth century. One of the letters is written to a certain “Ya ts’e
blon po, the minister of Ya ts’e A ya dba phyug, who had sent him a bronze
vase and some medicines” (Tucci 1956: 115). The identity of this figure is uncertain: in any event, even though he is said to have a minister he is not the
ruler, who at that time was Hastirja.12
2.4. Kong po bon ri’i dkar chag
The eighteenth-century pilgrimage guide to the Bon Mountain of Kongpo by
gYung drung phun tshogs contains excerpts and paraphrases from the biographies of several eminent lamas.13 One of these is Blo ldan snying po, the fourteenth-century scribe (born in 1360) of the gZi brjid. This short excerpt is
tantalising: one would love to know more about what is going on, but the Tibetan – especially the prophecy – is gnomic, to say the least; my translation is
partly guesswork, but at least we see that the Ayas are somehow associated
with the propitiation of gods and with rituals concerning phya and g.yang.
lha klu mi ma yin gyi dad gus brtan / a ya bon bzhi drang srong sngon po dang /
rgyal mos lung bstan do gong ’phar (L: mkhar) chen mnos / skal (L: skas) med the
tshom rten mchog gshegs pa’i shul / sa yi bcud nyams gter srung lung bstan nas / a
ya’i lha gsol phya g.yang zhi bde byas / (p. 175)
Then the gods, the serpent-spirits and the non-humans became firm in their devotion. The four Aya Bon, the blue[-robed?] hermit and the queen made a prophecy:
12
For this reference, and to the Aya in the biography of U rgyan pa, I am indebted to
Dan Martin.
13
Two versions of this work are available to me. One is a manuscript that I photographed at Srid rgyal dgon chen monastery on Kongpo Bonri itself in 1986 (hence SG);
the other version is the printed Lhasa edition (L) of 1995. Although the latter is probably based on the same manuscript, it contains several typographic errors that completely alter the meaning of the text.
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“Take the Great Conch [from its place of concealment] this evening; as a record of
[the Teacher’s] passage, it is an excellent sacred support for unfortunate ones who
are beset by doubts; [however,] the potency of the place will be diminished” – so
went the prophecy of the treasure-guardians. The Ayas’ propitiation of the gods,
and their [performance of?] phya and g.yang [rituals] brought about peace and wellbeing.
These Ayas, then, belong to a group of mysterious-sounding local priests who
act as the guardians of the treasures concealed around the Bon Mountain. The
“Great Conch” (’phar chen) is a relic of one of sTon pa gShen rab’s canine
teeth: he had blown it to silence the dismal wailing of the demons he had defeated during his epic battle with Khyab pa lag ring.
2.5. U rgyan pa
In the biography of U rgyan pa, an encounter with an Aya is the prelude to the
master receiving an invitation to teach in India.
de’i dus su mu stegs byed a ya zhes bya ’jal [mjal]14 du byon pas / shin tu dad nas
ral pa bregs te / sangs rgyas kyi bstan pa la rab tu byung zhing / zab mo’i dbang
dang gdams pa gnang nas ’grol bar mdzad / yang mu stegs byed dbang phyug gi
grub mtha’ la gnas pa / lag pa g.yon pa dbang phyug gi rten bzung nas / ras kyis
dkris nas lag pa zha ba gnyis kyang / dad pa thob nas sangs rgyas kyi bstan pa la
rab tu byung zhing / gsang sngags rdo rje theg pa’i lam stan [bstan] / dus phyis mu
stegs byed rab tu byung ba de dag gis / rje grub chen rin po che’i sku’i snyan pa
grags pa las / rgya gar na mu stegs byed bco lngas / bstan rin po che’i sgo ru ’jug
pa’i don du ’ongs pa las / rje grub chen rin po che rgya yul du gdan drangs so /
At that time, an Aya who practised the religion of the Heretics came to visit him.
Filled with faith, he shaved off his matted locks and took the vows of a Buddhist
novice. He was given profound initiations and precepts and was assured liberation.
Then there came another two Heretics, who had clutched images of iva in their left
hands and bound them with cloth, thereby crippling their hands. However, they too
became his devotees and took novitiate vows, and he taught them the Vajrayna of
Secret Mantras. Those Heretics who had become novices subsequently spread word
about the precious master. Fifteen Indian Heretics came to him with a view to converting to the precious Buddhist doctrine, and invited him to India.
14
Orthographic amendments have been made by the editors.
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Part 3: Ethnographic observations
Although I had encountered Ayas in the course of my fieldwork in Mustang
District in Nepal, I had assumed that the name was entirely local, and confined
to the priests of a few settlements in the enclave of Panchgaon. I was therefore
very surprised to learn from Hildegard Diemberger and Guntram Hazod of the
existence of Aya priests in Porong, an area in southern Tibet corresponding
partly with the modern county of Nyelam. We decided to pursue the matter
further during future visits to Tibet by actively seeking out traces of priests
called Aya.
3.1. Aya Pema of Porong15
Aya Pema was the last practising aya of Porong, a semi-autonomous principality in southern Tibet that emerged from the myriarchy of Southern La stod in
the fourteenth century.16 Pema left Tibet in 1959 and settled in Kathmandu,
where there is a large and dynamic Porongwa exile community. In Tibet, the
Aya had enjoyed a position of considerable prestige, and was referred to as “the
one who could put his hand on the shoulder of the rje dbon,” the hereditary
ruler of Porong. Pema implied rather ruefully that this was no longer the case;
cults involving animal sacrifice are something that many in the diaspora community feel were better forgotten in the light of modern international expectations of Tibetan Buddhism.
The principal territorial divinity of Porong, and the focus of the Aya’s ritual
attention, was – and still is – the god Potakyung, who resides on a hill known
as the Copper Mountain (Zangs kyi ri kha). The etymology of the god’s name
is not clear: Po may be a respectful prefix (such as spo bo, “grandfather”), since
he is more commonly referred to simply as Takyung – possibly for rTa khyung
or rTa skyong? Following Diemberger and Hazod 1997, I shall use the latter
spelling. The hill in question is located not in Porong but in the adjacent territory of Nanggong. rTa skyong, Pema explained, originated as a magician-tantrist (mthu rgyab mkhan sngags pa) in U rgyan yul as a manifestation both of
rTa mgrin and of Khro thung, the troublesome uncle of the epic hero Gesar. He
left U rgyan yul with the aim of travelling to Porong, but stopped to watch the
annual horse racing festival in Nanggong. So absorbed was he by the finery and
15
An interview with Aya Pema is published in Diemberger and Hazod 1997: 271–72.
The findings presented here overlap with some of the material presented in that work.
16
For a brief history of Porong and its rulers, see Ramble 2002.
The Aya: Fragments of an unknown Tibetan priesthood
699
the displays of horsemanship that he became rooted to the spot, and never
reached his intended destination.
rTa skyong would receive a blood-sacrifice of a sheep every year on the fifteenth day of the first month. By the time the offerings came to an end in 1959,
Pema said, the god must surely have been very rich in sheep. On these occasions, the Aya and the nobility of Porong – including the rje dbon – would visit
the hill of rTa skyong along with some forty people of Nanggong as their assistants (zhabs phyi). The live sheep was tethered on a brocade belonging to the
rje dbon while the assistants cast lots to determine who would have the honour
of performing the sacrifice. A simple altar was set up nearby. Among the images on the altar was a dough effigy of rTa skyong himself, identified by his
wild tresses (ral ba). The Aya would sing a short invocation to the god. Pema
recited a few lines as an example, saying that the whole text could be obtained
from a handwritten script he permitted me to photograph. What he recited did
not in fact correspond to anything in the transcript. In any event, the last two
lines of his excerpt were:
chibs su rkyang chung kha dkar chibs /
rkyang chung kha dkar gar chams ling se ling /
…riding a small white-faced kyang as your mount;
the small white-faced kyang dances ling-se-ling.
These lines explain a traditional prohibition in Porong against killing kyang
(wild asses): they were regarded as the mount of the principality’s territorial
divinity.
The Aya would then utter a mantra to the sheep: om ma ni mu ri ma so ha,
immediately after which the sheep would begin to totter “as if it were drunk,”
and a vulture would appear, circling in the sky above the gathering. The sacrificer would then kill the sheep by stabbing it, holding the knife in his left hand.
Following the dismemberment, the ribcage would be filled with tsampa and
placed near the altar. The left foreleg was kept separately for the subsequent
performance of the g.yang ’gug ritual, and later given to the Aya. The latter
would carry out a divination for the community by examining the entrails of
the sacrificed sheep. Pema provided only a few examples of how the signs were
interpreted:
• If the bladder was full, there would be drought, while an empty bladder signified
abundant rainfall;
• If the “white” (dkar) – i.e. the small – intestine were twisted, this portended war
from the direction of China (rGya nag);
Charles Ramble
700
• A twisted “black” (nag) intestine, the large gut, indicated war from the direction
of India (rGya dkar).17
The following day the chest containing the tsampa was cut up and distributed
to the people as a blessing (byin rlabs). The remaining meat was mixed with
rice and boiled up to make soup.
Contrary to the case of the Aya of Kyar (see below), whose divination operates according to homology, the principle of prognostication in Porong is that
of opposites. This is borne out by another divination that the Aya would carry
out annually for the community. Every year, the Aya would place inside a cave
in the mountain of rTa skyong a clay pot filled with grain topped with a single
coin. The pot was covered with a flat stone and left for one year. Pema listed
the various possible transformations of the pot’s contents (caused mainly by
rodents) and how these were to be interpreted.
Condition of pot
Interpretation
1. Completely empty
Best possible outcome
2. Completely full
Worst possible outcome
3. Only grain remaining, but no coin
Higher taxes in the coming year
4. Only coin remaining, but no grain
A mediocre year to come
5. A dead mouse
Problems for children
6. Small bones present
Problems for the elderly (see no. 10)
7. Yak dung present
Problems for yaks
8. Horse dung present
Problems for horses
9. Sheep and goat dung present
Problems for sheep and goats
10. White hair present
Problems for the elderly (see no. 6)
11. Black hair present
Problems for the young
Aya Pema would – and indeed still does – propitiate rTa skyong on other occasions with libations that do not involve sacrifice. He himself is not literate, but
his recitation had been written down on a single sheet of paper by someone
else. The many orthographic irregularities of the text make certain passages
difficult to understand, but a few excerpts may be cited here. The opening of
the text bears out the association between rTa skyong and Khro thung with the
line “Here in this land of Khrom, in Upper gTsang….”
In this excellent place
Is the copper castle sdem se sdem
17
For other auguries, see Diemberger and Hazod 1997: 272.
The Aya: Fragments of an unknown Tibetan priesthood
701
With its turquoise dome lam se lam
And its door of gold and conch-shell khrig se khrig.
And as for the main occupant of the place:
The father-mountain Deep Lake King
And the mother-mountain lake Dharma Queen,
Those two united and their manifested son
Was the divine btsan Po rdi ri re khyung,
Khu!
He is white in colour and holds benign attributes;
He wears a great cloak of red silk
And has a jewelled belt of gold;
On his feet he wears iron boots;
His hair is tied up in a matted topknot
And he wears a silken turban on his head.
He is adorned with precious ornaments of gold and turquoise;
A fearsome, well-tempered sword shines at his waist;
In his right hand he holds a beautiful long spear
And in his left a btsan’s noose;
At his right side is a tiger-skin quiver, and at this left a leopard-skin scabbard;
…(?) khyi ri ri;
He rides a yellow-faced goose;
…
He is surrounded by an entourage of a hundred thousand gods and btsan;
The manifestation of your body is
A red bear sha ra ra;
The manifestation of your speech
The sound ha and the sound so – di ri ri,
And the manifestation of your mind
A black whirlwhind khyi li li!
His entourage includes his consort Zang [bZang?] btsun mdzes ma. The name
rTa skyong does not feature anywhere in the short list, and I have taken the
syllables po rdi ri re khyung to be some form of “Potakyung.”
The text, which will be examined in more detail in a separate publication,
continues with a number of requests (for good weather, protection and so forth)
and a list of items that the god is told he is being offered. The libation concludes with a reminder of the vow he once made to Padmasambhava to protect
the doctrine, and of the secret name the master gave him – rDo rje ’bar ba.
3.2. Aya Tshering of Porong
During a visit to Porong in 1997 we were able to meet Aya Pema’s son, Aya
Tshering, who lives in the village of Ngöndom. Since Tshering had been a
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Charles Ramble
young boy at the time of his father’s departure from Tibet, he had not learned
the rituals and recitations associated with the cult of rTa skyong. The god was
still worshipped annually, he said; older men of the community would recite
the invocations, and although blood-offerings were no longer made, he always
attended since the efficacy of the rite was guaranteed by the presence of an
Aya.
rTa skyong was one of eleven divinities to receive annual live offerings of
“sheep for the gods” (lha lug) from different sections of Porong, including the
monastic community, the rje dbon and certain officials. In the majority of cases
the rites were performed either by Aya Pema or by another Aya who lived in
the village of Bormo. In short, the procedures entailed attaching coloured tassels to the wool of the sheep and daubing various parts of its body with red
ochre and butter, while entreating the divinity to provide protection and
beneficence. Several versions of these recitations were recoded and transcribed,
but these will not be presented here in this general overview.
3.3. The Aya/Aga of Kyar
In October 1998 I made field trip to Southern Tibet in the company of Hildegard Diemberger and Kalsang Yeshe. While in Shelkar we learned of a practising Aya who lived in a village called Kyar near the Phung Chu, the upper
headwaters of the Arun River. After a drive of several hours towards the Kharta
Valley we left our vehicle at the village of Shenkhyung, a small settlement distinguished by two massive rammed-earth towers, the corners of a rectangular
block of which part of the west wall survives. Directly opposite Shenkyung, on
the north-east, left bank of the Phung Chu, was the entrance to the Kyar Valley.
In its alluvial fan, below the little settlement of Semi, is a large area of tombs
that was locally identified as a burial ground (dur sa). The extensive ruins that
punctuate the way from Dingri and the length of the Kyar Valley suggest that
this may once have been a prosperous trade route that avoided the Arun and ran
parallel to the Himalayas before descending from the plateau at a more easterly
point – perhaps along the Chumbi Valley. The imposing structures and the
tombs, so unlike the more humble, rural architecture of the present day, are
attributed to a long-vanished race of giants, the Dangmo Thobgyal (Dang mo
thob rgyal?).
We crossed the Phung Chu by a footbridge and made the two-hour walk up
the Kyar Valley to the settlement itself. Kyar is a village of eleven houses divided into three small clusters: Nyendza, Sele and Aya, at an altitude of around
4,300 metres. Unsurprisingly, Aya Lhundrub lived in the last of these, in a
house that had an air of relative grandeur and prosperity. Aya Lhundrub, a man
in his mid-fifties with six sons and two daughters, had enjoyed the favour of
The Aya: Fragments of an unknown Tibetan priesthood
703
the Communist Party since the days of the Cultural Revolution. After being
made acting leader of the Kyar complex in 1974, he was promoted to being
head of livestock management (brog la stud krang) in 1977 for his collective
(ru khag). When the position became obsolete following decollectivisation in
1981, he was appointed community leader (grong dpon or tsun drang) over
Kyar and several neighbouring hamlets – a total of 31 households – a position
he still held at the time of our visit. His combination of Party associations and
Buddhist ideals inspired him to some pleasing imagery: by way of an apologia
for the Ayas’ preoccupation with minor earth-bound gods, he said that this was
an avenue of access to the transcendent divinities, in the same way as one could
not expect to be received by high-ranking leaders in Lhasa or Shigatse without
first passing via the local and county officialdom.
The role of Aya, Lhundrub told us, passes along the male line (gdung
brgyud), and cannot be transmitted by women. In his case, since the eldest of
his sons was undergoing schooling away from home, his priestly functions
would pass to his second son. The name Aya is used interchangeably with Aga.
Ayas are also commonly referred to by the epithet nam bdag, “lords of the
sky,” because of their power to control the weather. According to “popular superstitious belief” (rmongs dad), he went on, the Ayas were originally a line of
Indian scholars (a tsa ra) who could fly in the sky (nam mkha’ la phur ba’i
brgyud pa) and travel in mid-air (bar snang du ’gro thub pa). One of these
scholars flew to Tibet, where he married a local woman and established the
Aya lineage. Lhundrub had never heard the name Zhangzhung. His father, he
said, had had several ritual artefacts – such as a phur pa, a flat bell (shang), and
a large number of scriptures, but these were destroyed or disposed of during the
Cultural Revolution. The main thing his father passed on to him as a “receptacle of blessings” (byin rten) was his hat, a “mushroom-shaped” (as he put it)
affair that he later showed us. He at first denied that any of the texts had survived but at the end of the interview was kind enough to show us a handwritten
manual for the propitiation of the local gods (bskang gso).
The most important ritual at which Aya Lhundrub officiates is the propitiation of the territorial divinity Phra sngon, whose shrine is located on a nearby
promontory called Chugo Gang (Chu sgo sgang?). The ceremony is held in the
first half of the sixth month. Monks from Shelkar monastery are invited to perform a fumigation rite (lha bsang), while Aya Lhundrub makes a live offering
of a “divine sheep” (lha lug) to the god. The animal is daubed with the “five
kindred colours” (spun mdog tshon lnga), including red ochre, and braided
strips of coloured cloth are attached to its wool. The sheep is also sometimes
referred to as a “divine horse” (lha rta), because it is intended as a mount for its
divine recipient.
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Charles Ramble
Lhundrub did not inherit the full repertoire of rituals performed by his father. All ceremonies came to an abrupt end in 1959, and the father died in
1976, and although Lhundrub recalled the details of the procedures with remarkable clarity, he had not received the initiations that would have empowered him to perform them himself. The repertoire included performances for
the community as a whole as well as for private patrons, and included bla ’gug,
g.yang ’gug, tshe grub and lha gsol ceremonies. These were now carried out by
Lobsang Sherab, an older monk of Shelkar monastery who himself had family
links with the Ayas.
The main public ritual for which Aya Lhundrub’s father was responsible
was the annual blood-sacrifice of a sheep to Phra sngon. (On this occasion two
of the monks of Shelkar would be present to perform the fumigation.) The ideal
offering was a sheep in its first year with a black neck and shoulders but a
white face and body. After the animal had been killed (the method was not
specified), the Aya would examine the entrails. The various organs examined,
and the significance of their appearance, were as follows:
1. Kidneys that felt heavy indicated that the god was pleased.
2. The throat: unusual striations were a portent of snow and hail.
3. The gall bladder: if this was full, the livestock would have a bad year owing to
predators, disease or inclement weather.
4. The lungs: if the lobes were particularly pointed, taxes would be low.
5. The heart: a high blood content was a generally inauspicious sign.
6. The liver: pale patches on the surface were an indication of early snow in autumn.
7. The bladder: a full bladder foretold abundant rainfall, an empty one drought.
The intestines and stomach were not examined. The ceremony was attended by
at least one person from each household in Kyar. Unusually for sacrifices to a
territorial god, women were welcome to attend the ritual, often accompanied by
their children. The carcass of the sacrificed sheep was divided into four quarters, known as gling. The right forelimb was attached to the top of a spear for
the remainder of the ceremony and was known as mdung sha (“spear meat”) or
dgra sha (“enemy-meat”). Details concerning the distribution of the meat were
not clear, beyond the fact that each person who attended the ceremony received
a small portion, while the Aya was given the mdung sha as well as a piece from
each of the other quarters.
Shortly before we left Kyar, Aya Lhundrub asked us if we might know of
any sources of funding that would enable him to build a new house. The cost of
timber for the roof was especially high, he said. When we suggested the obvious solution that he reuse the beams from his present house, since he was
The Aya: Fragments of an unknown Tibetan priesthood
705
planning to abandon it altogether, he became evasive and
said simply that this would not
be possible.
Figure 1: Aya Lhundrub of Kyar with his father’s
priestly hat
We returned to Shelkar and
recounted our trip to Lobsang
Sherab, the monk who was well
acquainted with Aya Lhundrub’s family and had taken
over some of his late father’s
rituals. Among the miscellaneous items of information he
provided us with concerning the
Kyar Ayas was one that explained Lhundrub’s wish to preserve his house intact. Until
Aya Lhundrub’s great-grandfather, the Ayas of every generation had been immured after
death within the walls of the
house. Their remains were an
important blessing (byin rlabs)
that would be lost if the house
were demolished.18
3.4. The Ala of Nyemo19
In 1997 Hildegard Diemberger was carrying out research on the Samding Dorje
Phagmo in Nyemo County, and encountered a type of priest known as an Ala,
whose attributes and activities are broadly similar to those of the Aya/Aga
mentioned earlier. In the course of a conversation with Dr Diemberger, the Ala
emphasised his association with the Bon religion, asserting that the principal
divinity of his lineage was Srid pa rgyal mo. His ritual items included a twosided drum and a flat bell (shang), and his main activity was the ceremonial
protection of the fields when the ears of barley are forming during the summer.
18
Concerning the practice of keeping the bodies of dead male clan members in the
walls of the house, see Ramble 1982; Blondeau 1997.
19
Further information about the Ala of Nyemo may be found in a forthcoming article
by Nicolas Sihlé.
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Charles Ramble
While all the other participants in the circumambulation of the fields were on
foot the Ala was mounted, wearing a white phyu pa. The most distinctive feature of his clothing was his woollen headdress, called the “divine wool” (lha
bal). The wool was in effect the entire fleece of a sheep. At certain points in the
interview, the Ala used the terms Ala and sngags pa almost interchangeably,
and it is clear that there is a degree of overlap between his ritual repertoire and
that of certain tantric priests in the area. It is difficult, however, not to be aware
of the resonance between the spectacular headdress of the Ala and the epithet
bal thod can, “the one with the woollen turban” – applied to the priests of the
early Tibetan kings in the texts examined above.
Among the chos ’byung examined above, Nyang is unusual insofar as it
gives the names of the priests who are said to have “protected the person” (sku
bsrungs) of each of the kings it lists. The set of the six kings, the so-called Legs
drug, who follow sPu rje gung rgyal, and their attendant priests are named as
follows (Nyang L: 163):
King
Priest
A sho legs
Bon po Tshe mi Kun snang
I sho legs
Bon po A la Dun tshe
Go ru legs
Bon po A so gTsug spud
dGe sho legs
Bon po Don rtogs rGyal po
Brang rje legs
Bon po Zhang zhung Khri lde
The sho legs
Bon po A la Dun cug
In the time of the second and sixth kings in this list we see Bonpos who have
the clan name, or some other kind of prefix, “A la.”
3.5. The Ayas of Kyirong
The Ayas of Porong are members of patrilineages within a larger clan of the
same name. We were told in Porong that the clan was also represented in Kyirong, where there were two Aya temples. This information was intriguing, and
we were fortunate enough to obtain permission to visit Kyirong to pursue these
leads in 1998.
The temples in question, we discovered, are situated in the villages of Ne
(gNas) and Dra (Grwa), south of the main town. A stiff uphill walk of an hour
or so from Kyirong town brought us to a pass called the Doring La. Ne, which
lay a short distance beyond the pass in a fertile, woodland-fringed valley is divided into a Western and an Eastern hamlet: Nub and Shar. Nub comprises just
ten households while Ne, which is situated a few hundred yards further on over
The Aya: Fragments of an unknown Tibetan priesthood
707
a stretch of fields, has forty.
Under “the old regime” (spyi
tshogs rnying pa), we were told,
half the households in each part
had been under the jurisdiction of
the Central Government via Kyirong Dzong. The remaining
houses in Shar comprised an
estate of the ruler of Porong, the
rje dbon, while those of Nub
belonged to the monastery of
bKra shis bsam gtan gling,20 two
hours walk to the west. The
second son in each family of Nub
would traditionally join this
monastery in accordance with the
requirements of the “monk tax”
(grwa khral or btsun khral). In
the case of Shar, the eldest son in
each family would join the bTsun
pa’i lha khang, while the second
son would join the A ya lha
khang. In spite of the name of the
Figure 2: The Ala of Nyemo with his luxuriant
former, the priests of neither
woollen headdress (Photo: Hildegard Diemberger, 1998)
establishment were celibate.
Some boys of Shar also joined
bKra shis bsam gtan gling, but this appears to have been a matter of choice
rather than the fulfilment of a tax obligation.
The bTsun pa’i lha khang – which our informant also referred to as a dgon
pa – was built in the 18th century by Brag dkar Chos kyi dbang phyug, a disciple of Rig ’dzin Tshe dbang nor bu. The temple was destroyed after 1959, but
has been rebuilt in a halfhearted way with local funding, and was once more
being used for minor ceremonies. During our visit a dozen elderly women were
sitting in the courtyard, telling their rosaries together. One of these women was
the only daughter of Dorje Gyalpo, the last Aya in Ne. Her only brother had
died without issue, while she herself had had one son and one daughter. The
former had died, and the daughter had taken an inmarrying husband (mag pa).
Even now the house is known as the A ya grong pa.
20
The archives of this monastery are published in Schuh 1988.
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Charles Ramble
On the hill behind the monastery, and close to the western edge of the deep
Langchu Valley, were the ruins of the A ya dgon pa. The walls of this building
had partly collapsed; the pitched roof had fallen in and the remaining timbers
were rotten. Two pillars were left, supporting a single beam, and two poles
propped up what was left of the roof. To the left of the door was a large spray
of reed bamboos held up with rocks and decorated with small coloured flags:
the shrine of the ma mo, the protector of the place. A few murals survived: on
the wall behind the altar, to the right, was a painting of the divinity mGon po
legs ldan. On the right wall were paintings of the Rigs gsum mgon po, other
wrathful protectors, some unidentified clerics, gTer bdag gling pa and Padmasambhava. On the altar was a dpe cha of 100 decaying folios in dbu can script,
a text for the propitiation of dharmaplas. Legs ldan, we were told, is the principal divinity of the Ayas, and the fact that the painting was covered in daubs
of butter indicated that the god still had a lively following in Ne. In view of the
association of Ayas with the epithet mu stegs pa – Hindu heretics – in much of
the literature we have examined above, it is difficult to avoid the reflection that
Legs ldan is a form of iva. A aivite presence in Kyirong is attested to by the
fact that a debate took place here in the thirteenth century between Sa skya
Pa ita and a mu stegs pa by the name of ’Phrog byed dga’ bo, i.e. Harinanda
(Tucci 1949: 626; Everding 2000: 353).
Looking across the Langchu Valley from the shell of the Aya temple, the
building immediately facing us in the village of Dra was the Aya temple of that
community.
As in Ne, the Aya lineage in Dra had come to an end. Descendants of
women of the lineage who still lived in the family house here prefixed their
personal names not with Aya but with the title “Adrong” (A grong) – a contraction of A ya grong pa: “members of the Aya household.” Our main informant in Dra was Adrong Jampa, who had married a woman of the Aya family.
The Aya temple is the highest of four ruined temples at the edge of the valley.
Close to it stood the ruins of the bTsun pa’i lha khang – called ’Dzam gling lha
khang – of which Jampa himself, as a second son, had been a member. His
elder brother had joined the Aya temple. Dzam gling lha khang followed the
Tshal pa bka’ brgyud tradition.
The murals in the Aya temple had disappeared, but Jampa confirmed that
Legs ldan mgon po had taken pride of place on the wall behind the altar. Other
murals had featured the mandala of the 100 peaceful and wrathful deities: the
58 Herukas (khrag ’thung), the 42 peaceful gods (zhi ba) and the 28 vars
(dbang phyug ma). Pe har and the four lokaplas had also been represented
among the paintings. In spite of the fact that the Aya temples of Dra and Ne
were rNying ma pa, Jampa told us, their liturgical and performative traditions
were different. We had been told that the Ne Ayas followed the tradition of
The Aya: Fragments of an unknown Tibetan priesthood
709
sMin grol gling, but Jampa disputed this. However, he added,
both groups of priests performed
rituals that involved the construction of spectacular mdos
effigies.
The connection between the
Aya clan and the Aya temples
remains uncertain. On the one
hand, Aya is the name of a clan
that is found in several communities of southern Tibet, notably the
present-day counties of Kyirong,
Nyelam and adjacent areas. The
clans with which it is associated
include the Se ba, Bar ro, Chags
pa and Ba le, among others. On
the other hand, the term denotes
the priests who belonged to the
Aya temples of Dra and Ne. It
may be the case that these temples were founded by members
Figure 3: Adrong Jampa in front of the ruins of
of the Aya clan, and the name
the Aya temple of Dra, in Kyirong
was subsequently extended to the
whole priesthood, irrespective of their clan provenance. Alternatively, the term
Aya may have a semantic range – at least locally – that included the sacrificial
priest of Porong and certain lineages of tantric lamas in Kyirong.
The only text of which I am aware that contains the term Aya in its title is a
reference cited in the bibliography of Nebesky-Wojkowitz’s Oracles and Demons of Tibet. The work in question is entitled simply: A ya’i mdos kyi zin bris
bkod pa legs so; “Notes about Aya mdos rituals.”21 The content of the work is
exactly that: memoranda for the constructioin of mdos effigies and the performance of the associated rituals, such as libations. A wide range of mdos are
covered in the work, including one for each of the eight categories of the lHa
srin sde brgyad. The text invokes numerous Buddhist divinities – rDo rje
’chang and gShin rje, inter alia – but the specification of the yi dams as Phur
21
I am indebted to Mark Turin, who was able to secure a copy of this work for me
from the Rijksmuseum voor Volkenkunde in Leiden in 1999.
710
Charles Ramble
pa, rTa mgrin and various manifestations of Padmasambhava, as well as the
frequent refrences to the latter throughout the work, leave us in no doubt that
this is a rNying ma pa text.
The significance of the term a ya in the title unfortunately remains a mystery, since it appears nowhere else in the 24 folios of the work. However, we
are fortunate in that the author identifies himself clearly in the opening lines as:
Chos dpal bzang po, a monk of the Rwa family, an adept of both the New and Old
Tantras who belongs to the initiation- and teaching-lineages of rTa mgrin yang
gsang, spiritual mentor to the Dharmarja of mNga’ ris Gung thang, Khri lHa dbang
rgyal mtshan and his son….22
We know something of the two figures mentioned in this excerpt thanks mainly
to the valuable work of Karl-Heinz Everding (2000). lHa dbang rgyal mtshan
came to the throne of Mang yul gung thang in 1419. As for his “spiritual mentor”: in spite of his rNying ma pa background, Chos dpal bzang po (1371–
1439) was educated in Sa skya pa and Bo dong pa monasteries before becoming the sKu rim pa for the royal family; this would presumably account for his
assertion that he was an adept of both the Old and the New Tantras. (Evidence
of his Rwa antecedents may be seen in a particular cham performance with
which he was closely involved. At one point during the dance, an oversized yak
would be transformed into the figure of Vajrabhairava, whose cult his ancestor,
Rwa Lo tsa ba rDo rje grags, was largely responsible for introducing to Tibet
from Nepal.23) His duties included the performance of rituals for the benefit of
the deceased ancestors of the lineage as well as for the wellbeing of its living
members. As a manifestation of rTa mchog rol pa, a form of Hayagrva, he
used his magical powers to repel the sTod hor. Rather less nobly, he intrigued
against Thang stong rgyal po, who had been invited to Kyirong by the royal
22
gsang sngags gsar rnying gnyis ka la mkhas grub tu gyur zhing / rta mgrin yang
gsang gi dbang lung gi brgyud pa la bzhugs pa’i rwa ban chos dpal bzang po zhes
mnga’ ris gung thang chos rgyal khri lha dbang rgyal mtshan yab sras gyi dbu blar
gyur pa…
23
According to the biography of Rwa Lo tsa ba, one of scions of the Sa skya pa ’Khon
family stirs up popular hostility against him with the slur that “This individual called
Rwa Lo started out as the son of a [mere] tantrist; he has seduced everyone by practising the cult of an animal-headed divinity of the Heretics that he received from a Heretic
lama called Bha ro; anyone who meets him shall go to hell!” (Rwa lo bya ba ’di dang
por sngags pa gcig gi bu yin pa la / khos bha ro bya ba’i mu stegs pa gcig la mu stegs
lha dud ’gro’i mgo can zhig zhus nas sgrub pas mi thams cad mgo ’khor nas dug ste /
kho dang phrad tshad dmyal bar ’gro… /) (Rwa rnam: 48)
The Aya: Fragments of an unknown Tibetan priesthood
711
family, and succeeded in preventing the development of close relations between that eminent figure and his own patrons (Everding 2000: 514–19).
We may tentatively conclude then, that the mdos text by Chos dpal bzang po
was written for the benefit of the Kyirong Ayas, though his exact relationship
with them – and the possibility that he was counted as one of their number –
must remain a matter of speculation until further evidence becomes available.
3.6. The Ayas of Mustang
Commenting on a seventeenth-century lawbook (bem chag) from the settlement
of Kagbeni, in Nepal’s Mustang District, Dieter Schuh remarks:
It should be stressed that, in spite of the purely Buddhist character of the introduction of the bem-chag, the monastery of Kagbeni and its monks played only a minor
role in the ritual life of the village at the end of the 17th century, such as it is reflected in the bem-chag. The monastery itself ( hos-sde), for instance, is only mentioned in connection with a lha-bsas ceremony (fol. 4A) performed during the
closure of the customs post. The monks (dge-’dun) are referred to only in connection with the observance of a bso-rim ceremony (fols. 7A, 9A)…. The main
priestly figure, however, is the a-ya, who had the main role to play in rituals involving animal sacrifice (1995: 24–25).
The text, which is then translated, states that the Aya was invited three times a
year to perform agrarian rituals on behalf of the whole community. The rituals
involved the sacrifice of different animals, though the killing itself was performed not by the Aya but by one of his assistants. The meat was divided up
and apportioned out according to the specifications of the text. For example, in
the case of the annual yak sacrifice (lo g.yag):
The right shoulder blade goes to the rgan-pa [headman], the left (shoulder blade)
goes to the a-ya. A third of a lhu24 of meat goes to the wife of the rgan-pa, a third of
a lhu goes to the a-ya’s assistant, and the third of a lhu goes to the butcher. The
rgan-pa and the a-ya (shall receive) one piece of each of all the types of viscera.
The text then goes on to specify the quantities of cloth and barley that are to be
presented to the Aya and his assistants (ibid.: 33–34).
My own fieldwork enquiries in the area suggest that these sacrifical rituals
continued to be performed by an Aya until the late 1950s, when the community
abandoned them at the instigation of a charismatic lama from Tibet. Although
24
Although most Tibetan dictionaries define lhu as a twelfth part of a carcass, in southern Mustang – at least at the present time – the term denotes one sixteenth.
712
Charles Ramble
Figure 4: A sheep sacrificed by the Aya of Thini. Its heart lies next to it on a bed of birchbark
the text does not says so, the dismemberment of the animals was followed by a
divination based on the Aya’s examination of the entrails: after inspecting the
liver and entrails the Aya would make predictions concerning the type of maladies that might afflict the community’s people, crops and livestock in the
coming year (Ramble 1991–92: 54–55).
This Aya was not a resident of Kagbeni, but came from Thini, a settlement
in the adjacent enclave of Panchgaon, to the south. The Ayas of Thini and other
nearby villages were the subject of a study by Reinhard Greve in the late
1970s. Unfortunately, I have been able to consult just one publication (1981–
82) by this anthropologist in which the Ayas are only of passing relevance,
though Greve’s findings must surely constitute an important record of a
tradition that seems to be in terminal decline. In 1996 I myself was able to film
and record a ceremony performed by an Aya in Thini for a private patron, but
my study of this material has been only superficial. The ritual entailed a
lengthy recitation – in which the Aya accompanied himself on a one-sided
drum – that culminated in the sacrifice of a white sheep. The animal had been
purified by the steam from a heated white stone, supported on a juniper branch,
onto which water was poured. The actual sacrifice was performed by an assistant who made a small incision in the animal’s chest and pulled out the heart.
The Aya: Fragments of an unknown Tibetan priesthood
713
Figure 5: Effigies of wild animals on the altar of the Aya of Taye
The entrails were boiled and examined by the Aya, who then recited his auguries to the patron. (The prognosis was not good: the patron was going to be the
subject of a great deal of malicious gossip [mi kha].)
Most of the settlements in the enclave of Baragaon, where Kagbeni is
situated, feature a village priest known as a lha bon. This term occurs
frequently in Bonpo literature such as the gZer mig, which contains long lists of
different kinds of lha bon; and we have already noted its occurrence in Nyang
either as a priest or as a priestly function. The rituals performed by some of
these lha bon have been discussed elsewhere (Ramble 1998), and I do not
propose to review this material here. I mention these lha bon because there is
evidence to suggest that they are Aya in all but name, and that the term lha bon
may have come to replace “Aya” with the Tibetanisation of the area that has
taken place since the fifteenth century. Two lha bon in the Muktinath Valley
indicated to me that this was the case, while the lha bon of Taye, two hours
walk north of Kagbeni, actually has documentary evidence to this effect. This
priest, Karma Tshering, allowed me to photograph the text of his ritual
recitation that had been written out by this great-grandfather. In this document,
the author refers to himself not as a lha bon but as an Aya.
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Charles Ramble
4. Conclusions
What does the word “Aya” mean? Here I would like to offer a few suggestions
as avenues for future exploration, with the barest discussion of the merits of
each.
4.1. Aya as a kinship term
First, we may consider the possibility that Aya is a kinship term. In this context, two lines cited above, respectively from dPa’ bo and lDe’u, deserve a second look:
khu deng (B: dang) nu bas che zhes a yar (B: yang) bos /
The Khu and the Nu ba addressed the so-called Great One as “Aya.”
And
khu dang bu bas ches bas / a pa bya bar bos pas /
Because he was [greater than they were], the Khu and the Bu ba addressed him as
“Apa.”
These lines might equally be translated as:
Because he was said to be greater than his paternal uncle and his younger brother
(nu ba = nu bo; lDe’u: son), he was known as “Aya” (lDe’u: “Apa”).
This is in fact closer to Haarh’s understanding of the line in dPa’ bo:
“The suckling (nu-ba) now perceived the Khu (paternal uncle) as big (and) called
(him) A-ya” (Haarh 1969: 102).
Enquiries that we made in Kyirong about local kinship terminology provide
some supporting circumstantial evidence. In spite of their proximity the terminologies of Ne Nub and Ne Shar – where one of the two Aya temples is located
– differ in certain respects, as the following list shows.
Kin category
Term in Nub
Term in Shar
Mother’s brother
Aba (sic!)
Aku
Father’s younger brother
Aba
Aba
Father’s elder brother
Aku
Aya
That kinship terms should be shared by religious, military or political offices
(by whatever route) in Tibet is well attested: jo bo, jo mo, a ni, zhang and dbon
The Aya: Fragments of an unknown Tibetan priesthood
715
are five examples.25 As we have seen earlier, “Aya” also featured in the name
of a fifteenth-century official from Ya tse who does not appear to have been a
religious figure.
4.2. Aya, ’A zha and Arya
The features of the present-day Ayas of Tibet and Nepal bear more than a
passing resemblance to those described in the literature, from the types of rituals they perform to the accoutrements and clothing associated with at least
some of them. To err on the side of caution, we ought not to conclude too readily that the modern Ayas represent a continuous tradition with those of the
dynastic period: a relatively late introduction might in principle adapt to the
mould of a pre-existing name and set of expectations. Neither in the literature
nor in the ethnographic record is there much to suggest that the Ayas are shamans: they are, rather, a type of priest concerned with ensuring the protection
and prosperity of their communities. All the accounts, oral and literary, concur
that the Ayas represent a non-Buddhist religion that originated outside Tibet.
However, the term is also used of religious figures other than Tibetan and
Himalayan territorial priests: U rgyan pa’s convert, for example, and the
Nyingmapas of Kyirong. What these figures have in common is a more-or-less
explicit association with aivism. The original designation of the term could
have been extended to include other exponents of religions that were perceived
to have a significant Indic component.26
A Bonpo lama of Mustang with whom I was once discussing the cults of territorial divinities referred to the rituals and recitations of the local lha bon as
“arya’i chos”: the “religion of the Aryas.” Although the term arya is of course
used in Tibetan either as a direct loan or in the calque form ’phags pa to denote
“exalted,” its application in this case clearly had pejorative overtones. While
the terms “Aya” and “Arya” may well be cognate, we should consider the possibility of a relationship between the terms Aya and ’A zha. In nearly all
appearances of the former, the first syllable is the true vowel a, but one version
of the rGyal po bka’ thang cited above does have the letter ’a. (This letter,
25
The military significance of dbon is less well known than its more familiar religious
application as a category of astrologer-priest. In fact the title dBon/’Bon ’A zha was
used of certain ’A zha leaders in the Tibetan army in the seventh and eighth centuries
(Molé 1970: 74).
26
A similar development can be seen in the case of the term mu stegs pa itself, insofar
as its primary application to mean trthika was enlarged to encompass other perceived
heretics such as Bonpos.
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Charles Ramble
which is now pronounced as a low-toned vowel a in Central Tibet, probably
originated as a glottal fricative – hence its inclusion among the consonants of
the Tibetan alphabet.)
As for the second syllable, it is worth noting that the fricative zh is pronounced as the glide y in the dialects of Western Tibet: there would be practically no discernable difference in pronunciation between ’a zha and a ya.27 This
brings us once more to the debate surrounding the identification of the ’A zha
with the T’u-yü-hun. The objection raised by Thomas to this equation was sustained in part by his argument that ’A zha corresponded to the Kharo Ajha,
denoting the Ach-chan valley to the south-east of Keriya: the dates do not coincide with those of the T’u-yü-hun (Molé 1970: 74). Whatever the merits of his
argument, there is at least clear evidence of a relationship between the words
aya and ajha. Dan Martin has kindly referred me to an article by Janoš Harmatta that examines traces of the Saka language found in Kharo and Brhm
inscriptions. As we might expect – the Saka were after all the invaders – many
of the terms are military and administrative titles. The first term in Harmatta’s
list is aya, a Gandhri form of the Saka *aza-; the word is cognate with the
Kharo term -ajha (Harmatta 1989: 300, 305).
The literary and ethnographic evidence presented here is clearly insufficient
to provide us with definitive answers to the origins, functions and distribution
of the Ayas. Although I have referred to them as a “priesthood,” there is certainly no sense among any of the people interviewed that they form the sacerdotal community of a shared, identifiable religion. On the contrary, most were
very surprised to learn of the existence of other Ayas outside their immediate
locality.
Reconstructing a puzzle from which most of the pieces are missing entails
the risk of producing a tidy picture that may be largely false: it is all too probable that some of the pieces are in the wrong order, or belong to a different
puzzle altogether. For this reason, the connections I have proposed among the
Ayas that appear in the literary excerpts, and between these and the Ayas who
were interviewed, have been left tentative. Nevertheless, I hope that the findings presented here will remain somewhere in the back of readers’ minds, and
keep them alert to further clues that may help to fill in some of the empty
spaces.
27
In this context it is worth signalling the name Aye La (A ya’i la < ’A zha’i la?), a
high pass in mNga’ ris that effectively marks the western limit of the Tibetan Plateau.
The Aya: Fragments of an unknown Tibetan priesthood
717
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