gNas, retreat and gTer ma: the new local interpretation of Ris med

Ye shes rab rgyas was a dedicated hermit, and sources like Khams sgom sde attribute the initial revival of retreat practice in the sKyo brag area to him. He was the one who re-installed

565 http://jetli.com/jet/index.php?l=en&s=spirit&ss=questions&p=x&date=011013_0221 (accessed 10.12.2010).

Jet Li’s main Buddhist teacher is Lho kun bzang rin po che of the ’Brug pa bKa’ brgyud dPal me dgon in Nang chen Shar mda’.

566 The original tower is located in Lho brag rdzong, TAR.

“summer retreats” for the monastic community (dbyar gnas), re-established two three-year retreat centers and the site for special solitary practice at Nyi zla phug.⁵⁶⁷ His disciple gSal byed continued his master’s tasks after the latter’s death in 1999. Today, there are twelve active meditation training facilities in and around sKyo brag.⁵⁶⁸

Moreover, at the nearby Khang ne dgon pa, an affiliate of sKyo brag, located a 60-minute walk outside the sKyo brag village, there are further 40 retreatants, including the ten in advanced retreat in solitary, sealed cabins. These meditators are also sponsored and instructed by sKyo brag reincarnates and Tshul khrims mthar phyin, whose closest ras pa disciple, dPal ldan chos skyong, has been in solitary, sealed retreat at Khang ne since 2004. Khang ne itself is a huge ’Ba’ rom pa complex that was rebuilt in 1987; it houses 380 monks and includes a new bshad grwa and sgrub grwa. The monastic complex is presided over by the incarnate A bstan phun tshogs.⁵⁶⁹

This young lama, like all sKyo brag leaders, managed to connect with the yogin so important fort he local revival. Karma nor bu seems to be sKyo brag’s guarantee of proper Tantric transmission and “unbroken connection” with the past. Until his death in 1984, Karma nor bu served as the main guru or important instructor to the most important revivalists today:

gSal dga’, Tshul khrims mthar phyin, A bstan phun tshogs and the junior college lecturer dPa’

brtan. ⁵⁷⁰

For all the significant input by Karma nor bu, who transmitted both the Six Yogas and Mahāmudrā in the Karma/ Zur mang bKa’ brgyud school, the necessary ’Ba’ rom pa elements were provided by Ye shes rab rgyas. All the meditation schools of the sKyo brag area pride themselves on upholding the precepts of these transmissions.⁵⁷¹

567 sGa Karma don grub, et al. 1999: 306.

568 Besides La phyi sgom grwa, which is not counted here since it is only loosely associated with sKyo brag, these retreat sites are: Ko rogs rdo rje brag; Ko rogs bkra shis mgo; Co ho nyin phug; rGyam rgyal mgul phug;

Chab brag bde chen phug; sKyo nag chos rje mtshams phug; sPyi ’byams nyi zla phug; Seng ge gnam rdzong;

Bam chung ma (dPa’ ri pad ma chos rdzong) Pad sdong sgrub khang and ’Ba’ rom sgrub khang; they house ca.

15-20 people each. Five of them are for monks, and seven for nuns. Moreover, Bardor Tulku (2009) reports:

“[One more] retreat is also being created now in association with the Kyodrak monastery at the Kyodrak Peak (Kyodrak Utse). It is designed to be what we would call a postgraduate three-year retreat. To enter into that retreat the candidates must have done at least two or more three-year retreats and achieved the status of a retreat master. Thirteen such individuals will be selected and they will undertake this postgraduate retreat. The number is based upon the thirteen accomplished disciples of the dharma lord Sonam Zangpo who did retreat in the cave at Kyodrak Utse and for the sake of that auspicious connection, these thirteen postgraduate retreat masters will be in the [..] retreat.”

569 Khang ne was established in the 15^th century by a local siddha who descended from the clan of Glang ras pa.

sGa Karma don grub, et al. 1999: 312-317.

570 sGa Karma don grub, et al. 1999: 315; dPa’ brtan & Dam chos zla ba 2007: 91.

571 However, the Karma bKa’ brgyud impact is still present as we shall see in the example of the La phyi curriculum below.

Tshul khrims mthar phyin was the one disciple who was determined to follow in Karma nor bu’s footsteps. He first lived in the Chab sti mountains alone, and in 2005 he established the constantly expanding La phyi sgom grwa. Its development is independent of the life of the monastery below, although by virtue of Tshul khrims mthar phyin’s personal connection to gSal byed and the latter’s support for the hermitage, it is also loosely affiliated with the sKyo brag monastic center.⁵⁷²

All of the ritual actions performed in the locality and described above contributed to the revival of sKyo brag as ritual territory. The history of this region as a pilgrimage destination did not only contain ’Ba’ rom pa influences, but also maintained its status as “contested place.” Today, the same ’Ba’ rom pa, Karma pa, and gTer ma themes again coexist at the gnas of sPyi ’byams, Seng ge rdzong and Chab sti. The sites are extolled by modern local literary production, in oral discourse and celebrated in pilgrimage rites. In fact, much of sKyo brag’s scriptural output is concerned with the local gnas, which are also mentioned in texts connected with the current hermitic activity in the area.⁵⁷³

A walk around the sPyi ’byams and Seng ge rdzong gnas with a prominent local monk, Zla ba bkra shis, and two other locals helped me identify the different strategies used in the reinstallation of the site as a pilgrimage destination. The sPyi ’byams cave is described as the venue where Padmasabhava accomplished the Amitāyus- sādhanā. Lay people as well as monks frequently come here to collect tiny round stones which they claim are long-life pills (tshe ril). The cave is used by a lama who is here in semi-retreat and also teaches the Tibetan alphabet to two children.⁵⁷⁴ The black stūpa, attributed to Padmasambhava and mentioned by mChog gling and Kong sprul as the one that would produce relics after “Tibet and Khams was destroyed and their leaders came to harm” was rebuilt as if to fulfill their prophesy.⁵⁷⁵ All the miraculously arisen images, syllables, gTer revelation apertures (gter sgo), traces of demonic subjugation and supernatural acts performed by Padmasambhava, Chos rje or the 5^th Karma pa are eulogized by the more educated pilgrims and in contemporary chronicles. The cave labyrinth is believed to be endowed with the power to liberate one after death in the bar

572 The exact relationship with the monastery will also be explained below.

573 See gSal byed & dPa’ brtan (n.d.): fol. 96.

574 I have seen hermits tutoring local children in reading and writing more often in Khams.

575 mChog gyur gling pa 1977: fols. 7-9. For the full passage on sKyo brag, see above for the historical descriptions of sKyo brag. As for Kong sprul and mChog gling’s narrative maps, the fragments on sKyo brag are frequently reproduced in the local gnas yig and quoted by contemporary authors.

state, and a pilgrim is expected to crawl through some of them or perform other athletic feats at other caves of Seng ge rdzong.⁵⁷⁶

Through re-activation of mChog gling’s narrative map at sKyo brag, a reconnection with the network of other power places in Khams is possible. In opposition to the official status of sKyo brag on the map of PRC, as the impoverished provincial township of Juela Xiang, sKyo brag has regained its status as the very first point on the narrative map of Eastern Tibet as sacred ground. In the post-Mao era, the register of the twenty-five gnas once again serves as argument in the debate on indigenous value and autonomy. As soon as Tibetan territories became incorporated into China, names for ethnic Tibetan areas were overwritten with Mandarin labels; at times even, monuments of Chinese Communism were employed in the role of topographic reference points.⁵⁷⁷ Thus, mChog gling’s network can be symbolically juxtaposed against the monopoly of Chinese state cartography that has mapped the Tibetan world with the help of its own categories.