Two Early Tibetan Ritual Diagramsfor Cakra Meditations

Amy HellerNyon

In the context of the seminar organized by the Library of Tibetan Worksand Archives in recognition of India’s generosity in the 20th century, maythis research be viewed as a gesture of homage to the countless Indianartists and pa��itas who travelled to the Land of Snows in the dawn of theprevious millennium and the profound impact of their work on Tibetancivilisation. This article proposes to bring to the attention of tibetologiststwo drawings which have recently been published in relation to the historyof Kashmiri painting by Pratapaditya Pal, curator emeritus of Asian Art atthe Norton Simon Foundation.1 When first studied, the art-historicalsignificance of these drawings was emphasized in relation to works of artattributed to the school of Kashmiri artists in western Tibet ca 1000-1100.As the content of the historical and ritual inscriptions in Tibetan and Sanskritwas not discussed in detail, here we propose to present these inscriptions intheir context and attempt their analysis. Stemming from ancient Indiansystems of yoga, these two drawings illustrate the Abhidharmic universe,represented in symbols and as cakras of the human body in an anatomicalchart of an anthropomorphic cosmic being; they are painted on the rectoand verso of a single sheet of paper with accompanying ritual indications inTibetan and mantra in Sanskrit. These diagrams reflect the introduction toTibet of these Indic materials, their adaptation and translation while a briefand enigmatic historical inscription appears to indicate their transmissionwithin the royal family of the kingdoms of Gu.ge-Pu.hrang, intriguingly namingZhi ba ’od. The sheet of paper has been subject to radio-carbon analysisyielding a firm date of 11th century; this early date appears to be corroboratedby the style of the painting which relates to early schools of Kashmiri styleart in western Tibet and by archaic orthography present in the inscriptions.

1 Pal, Pratapaditya. The Arts of Kashmir, Asia Society and 5 Continents Editions,New York and Milano, 2007, 105-106, illustrated as figure 116, “CosmicVajravarahi Dakini, eleventh century, paper, painting on both sides, 80 x 30 cm. Mrand Mrs. Chino Roncoroni.” The diagram of the anthropomorphic deity has thefacial characteristics typical of the Kashmiri school of art in Tibet, with broadalmond-shaped eyes, tiny nose, a “rose-bud” mouth, while the knees are renderedin a particular stiff mode, the knee-cap perfectly spherical.

60 Amy Heller

These factors indicate that the drawings and their ritual instructions wereco-eval with the vast program of translation and diffusion of Indian tantrictexts, Buddhist and Hindu, in the Land of Snows.

I. Physical Description

The page measures 80 x 30 cm. It is a light beige color, with slight striations.It is evenly cut but at present there are small tears along the edges; the thicknessvaries slightly. The plant composition of the paper has not been subject toanalysis but the color and consistency of the paper conform to Tibetan andHimalayan paper made of the white inner bark, the bast, of the shrub daphne.2

The color and surface texture of the paper resemble leaves of manuscriptscollected at the Tholing monastery by Giuseppe Tucci, now conserved in theTucci archives of IsIAO library, Roma and the Los Angeles County Museum:thick, and semi-smooth, to slightly coarse, glazed.3

The inscriptions at the center of the cakra are written in dbu can, theritual inscriptions surrounding the cakra diagrams are written in dbu medas is the historical inscription. Frequently, there is the superabundant a chung(bde’ ba chen po’i tsa kra); gi gu log is infrequent, there is no instance ofda drag. The punctuation is somewhat erratic: around the diagrams, thereis total absence of punctuation at the beginning of phrases; at the end ofphrases, there is either no indication (i.e. omission of shad) or single shador double shad. There is no page number or any binding holes traced onthe sheet to indicate that it formerly was part of a manuscript; it is thereforeunderstood to be conceived as an independent leaf, however, there is noindication which side of the sheet is to be read first.

II. The diagrams

The term cakra is the Sanskrit word for “wheel, circle, or disc”; byextension, in Indian vedic medical systems, cakra has the specific meaningof the psycho-physiological energy centers conceived as vortices whichfacilitate the circulation of the winds and energies within the body organizedinto a coherent system by Patanjali in the Yogasutra.4 One side of this paper

2 Imaeda, Yoshiro. “Papermaking in Bhutan”, Acta Orient. Hung. XLIII(2-3),409-414 (1989).

3 Harrison, Paul. “Notes on some West Tibetan manuscript folios in the Los AngelesCounty Museum of Art” in B. Kellner et al. (eds) Pramā�akīrti�. Papers dedicatedto Ernst Steinkellner of the occasion of his 70th birthday. WSTB, vol. 70.1.Arbeitskreis fur Tibetische und Buddhistische Studien, Vienna, 2007: 229-245.

4 Meyer, Fernand. Gso ba rig pa, le système medical tibétain, Editions duCNRS, Paris, 1981, 61 passim.

61Two Early Tibetan Ritual Diagrams for Cakra Meditations

presents a drawing with eleven geometric shapes and symbols; at the centreof each, there is a mantra syllable. These shapes and mantra are specificallyrelated to the cosmos in the Abhidharmic universe5 which is extrapolated inmicrocosm as the cakra system within the human body illustrated on thediagram of anthropormorphic shape drawn on the other side of this paper(see below).

The main correlations of shapes of the component elements of theuniverse are indicated from top to bottom:

1) a white circle, center syllables: a li ( the heavens : the moon disc)2) a red circle, center syllables: ka li (the heavens: the sun disc)6

3) a black vajra, center syllable: bam (the summit of the vajra palace)4) a black viśva-vajra, hum inscribed at the extremity of the 4 points (the

base of the vajra palace)5) a yellow circle surrounded by 8 red petals, bam at center6) 7 concentric circles in blue, black and white; at the center, five staves

emerge from the rings; underneath the circles, the syllable sum (MountSumeru)

7) 4 successive squares, outlines in red, white, green, and yellow; centersyllable: lam (the earth element)

8) 2 concentric circles, a red circle surrounding a white circle; centersyllable: bam (the water element)

9) a red triangle, with flames at edges; center syllable: ram (the fireelement)

10) a blue bow with red ribbon streamers, above, the syllable yam (thewind element)

11) a red triangle with the letter a clearly visible at center, the vowelgreng bu is slightly effaced but legible, yielding the syllable E; atthe apex of the triangle, a white circle with the syllable bam atcenter, surrounded by a red outline with 4 red petals at the cardinalpoints and 4 blue petals at the intermediary points (emptiness, theair element).

At present, this series of identifications is primarily based on the workof Elizabeth English who studied similar diagrams in the context of

5 English, Elizabeth. Vajrayogini Her visualizations, rituals and forms.Wisdom Publications, Boston, 2002: 144 -151. I thank Dan Martinfor this reference.

6 Ibid, p.152. The two discs represent the polarity of male and female, thewhite representing semen and the red blood; further English notes that atcertain stages in the meditations “ the sun disc and moon disc should be seento mingle, ….a simulacrum of sexual union…giv(ing) rise to great bliss.”

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Vajrayogini meditations.7 While it has not yet been possible to correlate thisseries of the syllables and all shapes with a specific text, whether Vajrayoginior Kalachakra, it is nonetheless certain that this series of shapes correspondsto a representation of the cosmos as found also on Hindu examples of theMahapuruśa, the “Great Being” of ancient India.8

On the opposite side of the paper, it is the diagram of the human bodywith inscriptions describing the ritual function of the cakra and drawings ofthe cakra. While the cakra correspond to those of the human body, thepresence of a head of a boar emerging from the human head is an immediateclue to the identification of this figure as a form of Vajravarahi, who isherself an aspect of Vajrayogini. This identification is corroborated by thepresence of the name Buddha�ākini in some of the mantra on the chart, asBuddha�ākini is yet another name of Vajrayogini.

In this diagram, the inscriptions near the circles on the drawing of thehuman body describe five cakra positions and provide the name of the bodypart associated with each cakra. The genital cakra is not shown as a discbut instead is represented by a triangle shape, on which the letter E is clearlylegible. This corresponds to the base level of the cosmos in the precedingdiagram, the “air” element or the “emptiness” from which all arises. Thehip cakra is represented by the bow which is the “wind” element, the syllableyam is visible in between the red bowstring and the limb of the bow. Abovethis is the circle for the next cakra which has a yellow snake in-betweentwo long red and white curving elements, these are respectively the mainveins, white for male energy (semen) and red for female energy (blood).The two veins and the snake are positioned on a triangle which is partiallycovering a red swastika. Careful observation by Dan Martin reveals thatthe snake’s mouth is clamping the main veins, which is an element of Hindutantra, hitherto not documented for Buddhist tantra9. The mantra along thesides of the triangle are individual syllables, not totally legible but along theouter edge of the circle on can read Om Om Om Sarva Buddha dakini Ye

7 Ibid, see diagrams on p. 145 and p. 151. For similar symbolic representationsof the universe see Martin Brauen’s discussions on the analogy between theperson and the cosmos in relation to Kalachakra (Brauen, Martin. Mandala,Sacred Circle in Tibetan Buddhism, Rubin Museum of Art, New York, 2009,p. 155 passim).

8 See Hindu representations of the Mahapuruśa from India illustrated byRawson, Philip. The Art of Tantra, Thames and Hudson, London, 1973, figs.134-136; a Mahapuruśa from Nepal illustrated in Müller-Ebeling, Claudia,Rätsch, Christian, Shahi, Surendra Bahadur. Shamanism and Tantra in theHimalayas, Inner Traditions, Rochester, 2002: 115-117.

9 Dan Martin, personal communication, January 2005.

63Two Early Tibetan Ritual Diagrams for Cakra Meditations

Bazdraā pani ye bee ro tsa ni ye hum hum phat phat phat sva ha, a mantrawhich, upon reconstruction, refer to Vajrayogini, Vajrapani, and Vairocana.At left the inscription reads: phyi g.yu ru ’khyil pa’i ca kra, the “cakra ofthe whirling turquoise (exoteric)”, and at right the inscription reads lte (?lto)ba ye shes kyi ’khor lo, “the circle of wisdom of the belly” or “circle ofwisdom of the navel”. The implication here is that there has been, to borrowthe expression of Robert Meyer, not only transmission and translation ofIndian texts in Tibet, but a “ Tibetan reformulation of Indic materials” wherebycertain Hindu elements were incorporated with the Buddhist tantric ritual.10

Henceforth, in this diagram, rather than give names for each cakra asin an anatomical system, the cakra are associated with different ritualphases. Beside the right elbow, which is raised so that the right handappears to hold the cakra over the heart, the inscription reads phyi gtorma’i ca kra, the cakra of the exoteric gtor ma offering. To the right ofthe heart cakra, snying ga chos kyi ca kra , “the cakra of Dharma, theheart”. In the center of the heart cakra there are two red inversedtriangles and the syllable hri at center. There are eight petals surroundingthe heart cakra, and on each red petal, a letter may be seen: shri, hum,da, rdo (?); among the syllables of the heart cakra mantra, a ki li ki laya (the mantra to Vajrakila) but at present not all is may be discerned.At the throat cakra, there is the red triangle where at present only a fewmantra syllables can be read, among which Om Buddha dakini ye svaha….Bee ro tsa na hum hum phat phat svaha. To the left of the neck,phyi mchod pa’i ca kra, “the cakra of the exoteric offering”. To theright of the neck, the inscription reads, me long yees (> ye shes) dpunggi ca kra, “the cakra of the arm, mirror-like wisdom” which appears torefer to the disc (i.e. the mirror) held in the right hand, adorned by theemblem of the red swastika.11

Above the boar’s head, the inscription refers to the mantra syllablesgrouped in the square above the deity’s head, phyi yi gi btu’ ba’i ca kra,“the cakra of the assembly of letters of the exoteric ritual”. It is to benoted that there are 49 squares, 7 x 7 in the diagram. This is themantroddhara (sngags btu-bu) as defined by Robert Mayer, wherein,following the standard Indic convention, the mantras are reduced to asimple code which preserves precisely the mantra and at the same time

10 Mayer, Robert. A Scripture of the Ancient Tantra Collection. The Phur-pabcu-gnyis. Kiscadale publications, Oxford, 1996, p. 135. I thank Dan Martinfor this reference.

11 See Orofino, Giacomella. “ Divination with Mirrors. Observations on a similefound in the Kalachakra Literature” in P. Kvaerne (ed) Tibetan Studies, The Institutefor Comparative Research on Human Culture, Oslo, 1994: vol.2: 612-628.

64 Amy Heller

conceals it.12 On the other side of the square of letters, the inscription readsbde’ ba chen po’i ca kra, “ cakra of great joy”. This is may be an allusionto the Sukhavati paradise of Amitabha Buddha called Land of Joy, bde bacan, in Tibetan, or, in the words of Elizabeth English, “ to the sexualsoteriology of the higher and highest tantras where emptiness is describedexperientially as the ecstatic, all consuming great bliss, the tantric metaphorfor which is orgasm.”13 However, in the opinion of Ven. Tsenshab Rinpoche,the 49 squares of letters in combination with the expression bde ba canevoke the 49 days of the bardo period, which implies possibly a post-mortemritual. To thoroughly understand this diagram, in the future, it would beessential to have definitive readings of all the mantra and correlate withspecific texts, which is beyond the scope of the present study. Yet, alreadythe imbrication of Hindu and Buddhist elements is salient and warrantsattention by scholars familiar with both.

The historical inscription is on the page with the diagrams of shapes.Along the left edge of the paper, at left, the one line inscription (inscription1a) reads: rgya’ (rgyal?) slong dgan pas pro mo spyad pa’i bleng bzhisbrgyud ’pa’ lus rgyus.At right (inscription 1b): (line 1) lus gnas yin ’gos rgyus pa’i ’bye zhi ni shud puzhi ba ’od gi bu shud pu ser skya ma de de bzhin (line 2) bshegs pa ’od srungs gidrung du mdo sde sde snod ma lus slabs nas rgya kar shar nub na pra dang tshadma (line 3) nga bas ’khas na med/ shud bu zhi ba ’od tshe’i dus byas ’chi yangbu khyod ’gra’ (’grab?) yod pas lta

In this transcription of the inscription, there are elements of historicsignificance due to the name Zhi ba ’od, which immediately recalls thename of the prince of Guge Pho brang Zhi ba ’od who was a monk andtranslator. The interpretations proposed here below remain tentative, to bere-assessed in the light of future research. These diagrams and inscriptionshave been discussed with Ven. Tsenshab Rinpoche, a dge lugs pa specialistin ritual born in 1935, and Anne-Marie Blondeau, whose studies of rituals aswell as previous studies in Tibetan hippiatric medicine and Tibetan medicalterminology render her advice most precious, as well as Dan Martin.14 The

12 Mayer. op.cit. p. 136-139. See the triangular configuration for themantroddhara for Vajrayogini in English, op.cit, p. 54 and the explanation ofthe organization of the alphabet on p.152.

13 English. op. cit, p. 149.14 Blondeau, Anne-Marie, Dakpa, Ngwang, Meyer, Fernand (eds) Dictionnaire

thématique français-tibétain du tibétain parlé langue standard. Volume1, L’homme, anatomie, fonctions motrices et viscérales, l’Harmattan, Paris,2002; Anne-Marie Blondeau (ed. and tr.): Matériaux pour l’etude del’hippologie et de l’hippiatrie tibétaines (à partir des manuscrits deTouen-houang). Librairie Droz, Geneva, 1972.

65Two Early Tibetan Ritual Diagrams for Cakra Meditations

term which precedes Zhi ba ’od is Shud pu or Shud bu. This is known as aname of an ancient Tibetan clan in central Tibet as of the 8th century, amongwhich were some of the 25 disciples of Padmasambhava15. This clan is wellknown in ancient Tibetan historical accounts. However, it has not beenpreviously recorded that Zhi ba ’od and the Guge royal family were inmatrimonial alliance with this clan. Although possibly the term may be usedhere literally, it does not seem likely. Shud pa, literally, means to “copy atext”. Shud bu might, by extension, be a diminutive expression to refer to aperson who copies religious texts. This could certainly apply to Zhi ba ’od inthe sense of his personal religious studies and functions as royal monk in Gugeduring the 11th century. But it is far more likely that Shud bu/pu is a clan namehere. As far as I have been able to determine, the monastic name Zhi ba ’odwas exclusively used by the royal monk of Guge after his ordination. But histitle pho brang is not present here, nor any other titles which he used, such asbod kyi dpal lha btsan po or dge slong bla ma, shakya dge slong lha bla ma,bod kyi rgyal po pho brang Zhi ba ’od, which are titles used to refer to him intexts he translated.16 The expression in the first line rgya’ (rgyal?) slong dganpa, here understood to mean “aged royal monk,” would seem to refer to theperson who is talking in the following three lines, who is named Zhi ba ’od.However, the paternal clan (rus) of the royal monk Zhi ba ’od is lha, i.e. of divinedescent, not Shud bu. This raises problems as to the identification of theperson Zhi ba ’od in this inscription.

To summarize the inscription, the proposed interpretation is that at left,there is the explanation that this is the account or the diagram made by theaged royal monk and in the right inscription, there is the explanation of whatis the content of this account or diagram, discussed as a preparation forrituals to be made following an imminent death of an aged person namedShud bu Zhi ba ’od.

15 Ven. Tsenshab Rinpoche is of the Shud khud family of rTa nag, gTsang, ( seeCarnahan, Sumner and Lama Kunga Rinpoche, In the Presence of my Enemies,Memoirs of Tibetan Nobleman Tsipon Shuguba, Clear Light Publishers,Santa Fe, 1995). I thank Roberto Vitali for the information that Shud phu isthe family line of Lho brag mkhan chen Nam mkha’ Sen ge, active in Lho bragin 12th century. His lineage continued at the Thig phyi monastery in Lhobrag (see www.tbrc.org). Shud is also a clan name listed among the donorsin the Praj–aparamita volumes of gNas gsar dgon pa, Byi cher village, Dolpo:N. 108, N. 171, N. 188, Shud kye clan in N. 239, N.306, N. 314, N. 354. (seeA. Heller, Hidden Treasures of the Himalayas, Tibetan manuscripts,paintings and sculptures of Dolpo, Serindia Publications, Chicago, 2009:CD of prefaces)

16 See Samten Karmay, “An Open Letter by Pho-brang Zhi ba ’od”, The TibetJournal, 1980, vol 3: 1-28.

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In the left inscription, the transcription of the first line is as follows:rgya (rgyal?) slong dgan pas pro mo spyad pa’i bleng bzhis brgyud ’pa’ lusrgyus. Rinpoche suggested the interpretation and rectification of transcription asfollows: rgyal slong rgan pas pra mo spyad pa’i byung bzhis bskus pa’i lus rgyus:“the body clues (marks/signs) painted (to indicate) the basis of the mirrordivination practice, made/written(?) by the aged royal monk” Mme. Blondeauagreed rgyal slong rgan pas was a probable reading for the initial section, theaged royal monk. However, she suggested different interpretations of the rest,reading lus rgyus as tendons/or nerves of the body, bleng bzhis> gleng bzhis,account: possibly sro mo (heat) instead of pro mo, spyad pa > dpyad ma, thus>sro mo dpyad pa, which would give “Tendons/ or nerves of the body, accountof the examination of heat, made by the aged royal monk.”

The interpretation and rectified transliteration of the three line inscriptionat right is as follows:

Lus gnas (gnad) yin ’gos rgyus pa’i >bskyus pa’i ’bye zhi >byung bzhis ni shud bu zhi ba ’od gi bu shud bu ser skya ma de/de bzhin bshegs (>gshegs) pa ’od srungs gi drung du mdo sdesde snod ma lus slabs byas rgya kar >gar shar nub na pra dangtshad ma nga bas ’khas (>mkhas) na med/ shud bu zhi ba ’odtshe’i dus byas/ ’chi yang bu khyod ’gra’ (’grab?) yod pas lta

The person speaking is Zhi ba ’od, talking to his son,“Concerning the basis of the painted (diagram), understand that

it is the essential points of the body. You Shud bu ser skya ma, sonof Shud pu Zhi ba ’od, because I am close to dying17, look (at thisdiagram)! Having spent my life (as) Shud bu Zhi ba ’od, (now) Ialso die. I studied all the sutra and pi�aka in front of the (teacherwho is like) Buddha Kāśyapa, in all of India east and west there isnone more knowledgeable than me in mirror divination and logic”(pra dang tshad> pra mo and tshad ma).

The implication is that this person Zhi ba ’od is telling his son to look atthe diagram to prepare for post-mortem rituals for himself as he is nearingthe end of his life, having accomplished vast studies in religious topics. Isthis indeed the scion of the kingdom of Guge? The royal monk Zhi ba ’od(1016-1111) was ordained as a monk in 1056 at age 4118, thus he could have

17 ’gra’ yod pa is possibly to be read ’grab for grabs “to be close, to be near”.grabs yod pa is given in the Tshig mdzod chen mo ( vol. 1: 396, col 1) with theexample “to be close to death” (’chi grabs yod pa). I thank Mme. Blondeau forthis reference.

18 Vitali, Roberto. The Kingdoms of Gu.ge Pu.hrang, Tho.ling gtsug.lag.khang logcig.stong ’khor.ba’i rjes dran.mdzad sgo’i go.sgrig tshogs.chung, Dharamsala, 1996: 296

67Two Early Tibetan Ritual Diagrams for Cakra Meditations

married and had children prior to his vows. The names of any spouse or offspringhave not been preserved in history as far as I know.19 However, if Zhi ba ’od’sstudies in religious topics - both Sanskrit language and logic - were well knownand he translated many texts for many Indian pa��itas during their visits toGuge, there is no text on divination or cakra meditations per se attributed to hispatronage or his translation as far as I have been able to determine.20

In the interpretation of Mme. Blondeau, it is possible to reconstruct lessand stay closer to the actual grammar of the text, albeit correcting thespelling somewhat. For the first sentence of the second inscription shesuggested, “As for the distinction of the tendons/ nerves, such as the essentialpoints of the body (lus gnas> lus gnad)”, which might be construed torefer to the diagrams of the mandala of the body. However, for the rest,she agreed with the gist of the proposed translation of the discourse of Zhiba ’od to his son. The question remains: is the person Zhi ba ’od in this textindeed the royal monk Zhi ba ’od? If so, these inscriptions raise questionsabout the teachings transmitted by Zhi ba ’od, those he translated and thosehe practiced. I am indebted to Dan Martin for the information that amongthe numerous texts he requested and translated was a text of a mandalaobtained from a Kashmiri master, J–ā–aśrī (Ye shes dpal), in which some ofthe content relates to aspects of the charts on this page, although the text inquestion is not specific to Vajrayogini. 21

To conclude, these elegant diagrams are visually quite simple yet extremelysophisticated in their ritual significance. Their inscriptions raise multiple questionsabout the process of introduction of Indic materials, both Buddhist and Hindu,to Tibet, their transmission in Tibet and perhaps within the royal family of Guge,and how these Indic materials were adopted and eventually reformulated duringthe initial periods of their transmission and practice in Tibet.

19 See full list of the names of all royal family members in Vitali, ibid. p. 145.20 See Vitali, op. cit. pp. 66-67 for Tibetan text and pp. 119-120 for translation of the

text of the mNga’ ris rgyal rabs which describes Zhi ba ’od and Atisha’s collaborationon translation as well as his translations of texts on tshad ma, additional translationswith other masters and his translation of tantric work as well.

21 Dan Martin, personal communication, January 2005. The text is the Toh. No1539, Sahajama��alatryāloka (lhan cig skyes pa’I dkyil ’khor gsum gsal bar byedpa), written by the Kashmiri J–ā–aśrī at the request of Zhi ba ’od, who thentranslated it: lhan cig skyes pa’i dkyil ’khor gsum gsal bar byed pa zhes bya bamkhas pa chen po dznya na shris mdzad pa rdzogs so // bod kyi rgyal po phobrang zhi ba ’od kyis gsol ba btab nas bsgyur ba’o.See also Samten Karmay, op.cit. 19-29 for the discussion of the different royaltitles used by Zhi ba ’od in his translations.

68 Amy Heller

Diagram for Cakra Meditations (recto)

69Two Early Tibetan Ritual Diagrams for Cakra Meditations

Diagram for Cakra Meditations (verso)

70 Amy Heller

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