Section 6
of 6
Copyright © 2006
by José Ignacio Cabezón and THL.
by José Ignacio Cabezón and THL.
Notes
[1] Ser smad spom ra dge bshes ye shes dbang phyug, Ser smad thos bsam nor gling grwa tshang gi chos ’byung lo rgyus nor bu’i phreng ba [A History of the Sermé Tösam Norling College: A Garland
of Jewels] (Bylakuppe: Sermey Printing Press, 1984), 35-36.
[2] Lists of the SeraSe ra hermitages vary. For a list from 1820
(found in the Extensive Explanation of the World [Dzamling Gyeshé’Dzam gling rgyas bshad]), see Turrell Wylie, The Geography of Tibet According
to the ’Dzam-gling-rgyas-bshad (Rome:
IsMEO, 1962), 82-83.
[3] Other words are also used – for example, ensadben sa or enédben gnas, literally “solitary place” or
“solitary site”; see the discussion that follows.
[4] Among the SeraSe ra hermitages, it
appears that only one (GaruGa ru) was not originally the meditational
retreat of an individual monk but was instead founded as an
institution – in this case as a nunnery – from the beginning. See, for example,
Bshes gnyen tshul khrims, Lha sa’i dgon tho rin chen spungs rgyan [A Catalogue of the Monasteries of Lhasa: A
Heap of Jewels] (Bod ljongs mi dmangs dpe skrun khang, 2001), 30-31.
[5] Nuns tended to be more wary about living alone in
isolated locations for fear that they might be attacked or robbed; at least that
is the rhetoric that we find in both the oral and written sources. Hence, when
nuns retreated to the mountains, they tended to do so in groups. None of the
hermitages we study here, even those that are nunneries, were founded by
women.
[6] This includes such things as prostrations,
ritual offerings of the universe (maṇḍala offerings), recitations of the hundred-syllable mantra (ngaksngags) of Vajrasattva (Dorjé SempaRdo rje sems dpa’), water-bowl offerings, guru devotion practices, and so
forth.
[7] These are retreats that involve
mantra (ngaksngags) accumulation of a
specific deity and that allow one to subsequently engage in a variety of ritual
actions with respect to that deity.
[8] At least two variant spellings of the word
commonly pronounced dodé exist: dog bde and rdo gter. The spelling
rdo gter is also
preferred by Lha sa dgon tho, passim.
Phun tshogs rab rgyas, Phur lcog rigs gsum byang chub gling gi byung ba mdo tsam brjod pa dad gsum ’dren pa’i lcags kyu [A Brief History of
Purchok Riksum Jangchup Ling: A Hook to Draw in the Three Types of
Faith; hereafter Phur byung], Bod ljongs nang bstan [Tibetan
Buddhism] 1 (2004), 55, gives the etymology: dang
po ltar na phu dog cing mda’ bde bas na dog bde dang / phyi ma ni yul ’dir rdo
rigs sna tshogs kyi gter kha yod pa’i cha nas rdo gter zhes ’bod srol
yod/. The author prefers the first spelling and etymology. He also states
that excavations have shown that this was an area of “several tens of thousands of
households during the imperial period,” but cites no source for this other than
oral tradition.
[9] Dung dkar blo bzang ’phrin las,
Dung dkar tshig mdzod chen mo [The Great Dungkar Dictionary] (Krung go’i bod rig pa dpe skrun khang, 2002), 92.
[10] This
entitled them, for example, to the money offering to monks (gep’gyed) made to the college and regional-house monks.
[11] In 1959 there were only two
nunneries: GaruGa ru and NegodongGnas sgo gdong. Today there are four
nunneries (ChupzangChu bzang and TaktenRtags bstan were taken over by nuns
after liberalization permitted the rebuilding of religious institutions in the
1980s).
[12] There are
actually twenty hermitages on this map, but what is labeled “New Keutsang” is the
newly built version of “Keutsang West.” This accounts for the discrepancy.
[13] There is a tradition
that TsongkhapaTsong kha pa also meditated at PabongkhaPha bong kha, and in a small cave
between Keutsang
West and Keutsang East (this cave no longer exists), but these
sites are not as important in the TsongkhapaTsong kha pa biographies and oral lore as
the three just mentioned.
[14] Sde srid sang rgyas rgya mtsho, Dga ldan chos ’byung bai ḍūrya ser po [Yellow Lapis: A History of the
Ganden (School)], 142, states
that SeraSe ra had a population of 2850 monks at the time of writing this
work.
[15] See
Luciano Petech, China and Tibet in the Early 18th Century: History of the
Establishment of Chinese Protectorate in Tibet, T’oung Pao Monographie1 (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1972, second ed.), 13.
[16] Petech, China and Tibet,
13. See also Lha sa’i dgon tho, 75, where it states that DrongméGrong smad, the
birthplace of the regent, is about two miles from SeraSe ra.
[17] Petech,
China and Tibet, 24.
[18] Petech, China and Tibet, 34. This is not the first time that SeraSe ra
monks had acted as soldiers. In 1639-1640
the Fifth Dalai
Lama himself used SeraSe ra monks in this capacity. See Zahiruddin Ahmad, Sino-Tibetan Relations in the Seventeenth Century, Serie Orientale Roma, XL (Rome: IsMEO,
1970), 125.
[19] Petech, China and
Tibet, 44.
[20] Apparently, even the monks who acted
as soldiers participated in the sack of LhasaLha sa; see Petech, China and Tibet,
46.
[21] Petech,
China and Tibet, 54.
[22] Petech,
China and Tibet, 77.
[23] His son is credited with having built SeraSe ra’s
largest regional house, the Hamdong Regional House of the
Jé College (Jé Hamdong KhangtsenByes har gdong khang tshan).
[24] The account that follows is based on that found in
Dung dkar tshig mdzod, 431-32, entry for
Khardo Zöpa GyatsoMkhar rdo bzod pa rgya mtsho (Dungkar RinpochéDung dkar rin po che says that he bases his
account on Yongs ’dzin ye shes rgyal mtshan’s
Lamrim Lama Gyüpé NamtarLam rim bla ma brgyud pa’i rnam thar); see the same text, 735-36, for DrupkhangpaSgrub khang pa.
[25] Phur byung, 59, puts the date of his departure for
Ölkhar’Ol khar at the time that DrupkhangpaSgrub khang pa was 59 – that is, in
1699.
[26] The biography of Purchok Ngawang JampaPhur lcog ngag dbang byams pa
states that he met DrupkhangpaSgrub khang pa in 1699, so perhaps DrupkhangpaSgrub khang pa
continued to come back to SeraSe ra even during this time of pilgrimage and
retreat.
[27] Yeshé GyeltsenYe shes rgyal mtshan (1713-1793) began coming to Purchok
Hermitage for retreat and instruction beginning in the year me sbrul (1737). He spent that entire
year in meditation there, living very humbly and receiving instructions from
Purchok RinpochéPhur lcog rin po che. He returned to Purchok Hermitage many more
times over the years, and after Purchok RinpochéPhur lcog rin po che’s death he
continued to look after Purchok Hermitage “as if it were his own”; Phur byung,
64.
[28] The account of
KhardowaMkhar rdo ba’s life that follows is based on Dung dkar tshig mdzod, 431-32. Another account of his life based on
an interview with a former monk of Khardo Hermitage can be found under the
description of that hermitage. (Click here to go to the Khardo
Hermitage site now.) Since I have no access to a biography of this figure, I have
not tried to reconcile the two sources, which vary considerably.
[29] chu dang / rde’u dang / me tog bcud len. A
text on extracting the
nutritive essence from flowers is listed among his known writings.
[30] It is not inconceivable
that he met DrupkhangpaSgrub khang pa while both of them were at SeraSe ra, or even while on
his travels, since both DrupkhangpaSgrub khang pa and KhardowaMkhar rdo ba studied at
SeraSe ra at about the same time, and both were doing pilgrimage and retreat in
similar places at precisely the same time: from 1692-1705/6.
[31] He was a student of the great
scholar and meditator Longdöl Lama Ngawang LozangKlong rdol bla ma ngag dbang blo bzang, who was
in turn a student of Purchok Ngawang JampaPhur lcog ngag dbang byams pa, DrupkhangpaSgrub khang pa’s chief disciple.
[32] In several instances they occupied the highest rank in the
lamabla ma hierarchy,
that of “Incarnation of the Great
Assembly Hall (Tsokchen Trülkutshogs chen sprul sku).” This was the case with the PurchokPhur lcog, KhardoMkhar rdo and DrakriBrag ri
lamas, for example.
[33] Ngag dbang sman rgyal, Gar dgon bsam gtan gling gi lo rgyus mun sel mthong ba don ldan [A History of Gargön Samten Ling:
Clearing Away Darkness, Meaningful to Behold; hereafter GarloGar lo] (Lha sa?, 1997), 25-26: rgyugs chen la ha lam dpe cha shog
grangs lnga brgya skor yod.
[34] The monastic confession ritual (SojongGso sbyong) takes
place on the new and full moon, but monks and nuns also do additional rituals on
these days.
[35] At Garu Nunnery,
for example, they do a minimum of eight sets of two-day fasting rituals, and if
there is a sponsor, they will spend the entire month engaged in the practice.
[36] See Stephen Beyer, The Cult of Tārā: Magic and Ritual in
Tibet (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1973).
[37] The oral and written accounts differ here. Both of
these practices were mentioned by one of the nuns in an interview, but the
Gar lo, 25, mentions only the first of these on this particular
date.
[38] Gar lo,
25, calls this Medicine Buddha [Ritual]: Yizhin
Wanggyel (Menla Yizhin WanggyelSman bla yid bzhin dbang rgyal), perhaps a
reference to the title of the actual ritual text that is used.
[39] This is according to the oral account. Gar lo, 25, states
that the protector deity practices take place on the twenty-ninth.
[40] Gar lo,
25, mentions only the second of these
practices – which is there called Naro Kachömé DanjukNa ro mkha’ spyod ma’i bdag ’jug – and it omits Demchok LachöBde mchog bla mchod.
[42] Whether or not all of these were considered official “textual retreats” (petsamdpe mtshams) or “doctrine retreats” (chötsamchos mtshams), by my
reckoning, monks had the opportunity for such kinds of memorization retreats on
six separate occasions that correspond to the following dates (all according to
the Tibetan calendar): 2/17-2/26.
4/8-4/15, 5/2-5/25, 8/1-8/8, 9/7-9/16, 10/17-11/15.
[43] Nomads raised animals – yaks (or yak hybrids),
sheep, goats, and cattle – for meat, dairy products, and wool.
[44] The situation at
SeraSe ra is somewhat different. While there is undoubtedly attrition, it does
not appear to be as high as it is in the hermitages. For one thing, SeraSe ra
monks tend to enter the monastery at a slightly older age. There is also a long
waiting list to become an official SeraSe ra monk, and someone who has attained
this status is not likely to give it up casually. Monks who are studying at
SeraSe ra also have a clear-cut goal (that of receiving a classical religious
education), a goal that has an end-point, and that culminates in a socially
prestigious degree – that of geshédge bshes.
[45] It should be noted that this is not only a problem for
monasteries in Tibet. By some estimates about twenty percent of the monks of
SeraSe ra-India are presently residing
(mostly as illegal aliens) in the U.S. (principally in New York City), working
menial jobs, and living “the American dream.” Anecdotally, I have heard that some
of these monks are now beginning to return to SeraSe ra-India, and to
their former lives as monks. This phenomenon deserves to be studied from a
socio-ethnographic viewpoint. For an account of similar decisions faced by
Tibetan Buddhist nuns in Nepal,
see Alyson Prude’s forthcoming Masters thesis (UCSB).
[46] In SeraSe ra-India, there are several cases of
former SeraSe ra monks returning to retire to the monastery. See also the essay on
ChupzangChu bzang, an institution that before 1959 appears to have been a community of
elderly LhasaLha sa
Tibetans engaged in intensive
religious practice.
#!essay=/cabezon/sera/herm/intro/
An Introduction to the Hermitages of Sera, by José Ignacio Cabezón
Hermitages Home
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Location and Institutional Affiliation to SeraSe ra
- History
- Life in the SeraSe ra Hermitages
- Glossary
- Notes
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