Love and Liberation: Autobiographical Writings of the Tibetan Buddhist Visionary Sera Khandro 9780231519533

Table of contents :
Contents
List of Illustrations
Preface and Acknowledgments
Technical Note on Tibetan and Sanskrit Words
Abbreviations
Chronology
Maps
INTRODUCTION
1. THE LIFE AND TIMES OF SERA KHANDRO
2. A GUEST IN THE SACRED LAND OF GOLOK
3. ?AKINI DIALOGUES
4. SACRED SEXUALITY
5. LOVE BETWEEN METHOD AND INSIGHT
EPILOGUE: LOVE AFTER DEATH
Spelling of Key Tibetan Names and Terms
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Citation preview

LOVE AND LIBERATION

LOVE AND LIBERATION Autobiographical Writings of the Tibetan Buddhist Visionary

SERA KHANDRO

SARAH H. JACOBY

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS NEW YORK

A special thanks to the Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation for crucial financial support for the publication of this book. Columbia University Press Publishers Since 1893 New York Chichester, West Sussex cup.columbia.edu Copyright © 2014 Columbia University Press All rights reserved Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Jacoby, Sarah, author. Love and liberation : the autobiographical writings of the Tibetan visionary Sera Khandro /Sarah H. Jacoby. pages em Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-231-14768-2 (cloth: alk. paper)- ISBN 978-0-231-51953-3 (electronic) 1. Bde-ba'i-rdo-rje, 1880-1929. 2. Buddhist womenChina-Amdo (Region)-Biography. 3. Women religious leadersChina-Amdo (Region)-Biography. I. Title. BQ942.D427J33 2014 294.3 '923092-dc23

[B] 2013043777

Columbia University Press books are printed on permanent and durable acid-free paper. This book is printed on paper with recycled content. Printed in the United States of America c 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Jacket design: Jordan Wannemacher Jacket image: Sera Khandro scroll painting from the region of Getse Tralek Monastery in eastern Tibet, photograph of painting courtesy ofTralek Khenpo Tendzin i:izer References to websites (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing. Neither the author nor Columbia University Press is responsible for URLs that may have expired or changed since the manuscript was prepared.

This book is dedicated to the lineage of Sera Khandro Ki.inzang Dekyong Chonyi Wangmo, and to all the ~akinfs of Tibet whose voices we can no longer hear.

CONTENTS

List of Illustrations ix Preface and Acknowledgments xi Technical Note on Tibetan and Sanskrit Words xix Abbreviations xxi Chronology xxiii Maps xxvi INTRODUCTION

1

1. THE LIFE AND TIMES OF SERA KHANDRO

23

2. A GUEST IN THE SACRED LAND OF GOLOK

76

3. !)AKIN[ DIALOGUES

131

4. SACRED SEXUALITY

188

5. LOVE BETWEEN METHOD AND INSIGHT EPILOGUE: LOVE AFTER DEATH

319

Spelling of Key Tibetan Names and Terms 325 Notes 337 Bibliography 379 Index 395

249

ILLUSTRATIONS

Map 1

Sera Khandro's journey from Lhasa to Golok in 1907

xxvi

Map 2

Central sites of Sera Khandro's life in Golok and Serta

xxvii

Fig.1.1

Lhasa street scene

26

Fig. 1.2

Contemporary nomad tent made of yak hair in Golok

41

Fig. 1.3

Kelzang Monastery in Dartsang, Serta

49

Fig. 1.4

Benak Monastery in Perna County, Golok

53

Fig. 1.5

Tashi Gomang Monastery in Perna, Golok

57

Fig. 1.6

Sera Tekchen Chonkhor Ling Monastery in Serta

67

Fig. 2.1

Yeshe Tsogyel

88

Fig. 2.2

Padmasambhava's Copper-Colored Mountain Buddhafield

93

Fig. 2.3

Drongri Mukpo, resident land deity ofDrong Mountain in Serta 104

Fig. 2.4

Anye Machen Mountain

105

Fig. 2.5

Drongri or "Wild Yak Mountain" in Serta

113

Fig. 2.6

Annual Washiil Serta Drongri Mukpo propitiation

118

Fig. 3.1

Vajrayoginl

134

Fig. 3.2

Sera Khandro statue from Tralek Monastery, Kandze

136

Fig. 5.1

Hayagrlva and Vajravarahl in union

250

Fig. 5.2

Vajrasattva yab yum, with Samantabhadra and Samantabhadri

Fig. 6.1

yabyum Namtriil]ikme Pilntsok and Tare Lhamo

320

Fig. 6.2

Khandro Rinpoche and Choktriil Rangrik Dorje

322

251

PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

about relationships-between people and the land they inhabit, between religious seekers and the divine presences with whom they interact, between women and men dedicated to spiritual liberation, and between lover and beloved. The main protagonist in the stories and conversations that fill this book is the Tibetan female visionary Sera Khandro Klinzang Dekyong ChOnyi Wangmo (1892-1940 ). She would have described these relationships using the language of auspicious connections (rten 'brei), the matrix of conditions including specific times, places, and persons that must constellate in order for an individual cog in the larger wheel of life to accomplish her purpose. Auspicious connections extend through space and time beyond the meaningful synergies bound within Sera Khandro's texts, touching us here and now. In particular, specific auspicious connections have made this book possible; without them I could never have written it. The catalyst for this project came during my undergraduate years on a Tibetan Studies junior semester abroad program administered through the School for International Training. In Nepal while conducting fieldwork about Nyingma Buddhist laywomen, I had the good fortune to meet Semo Saraswati, who introduced me to her father,Jadrel Sangye Dorje Rinpoche

THIS IS A BOOK

(b. 1913 ), the seniormost living lineage master within the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism and also a direct disciple of Sera Khandro. Meeting)adrel Rinpoche and his daughter would change the course of my life, but at the time, I could barely figure out how to offer him a ceremonial scarf (kha btags) properly, let alone understand his deeply resonant, Kham dialect-inflected Tibetan speech well enough to inquire about his extraordinary female guru. After graduating from Yale College, I remained fascinated with Tibetan civilization, and dedicated myself to studying Tibetan language, religion, and culture both in Asia and in graduate school at the University of Virginia's Department of Religious Studies. It took me five years of returning annually to visit )adrel Rinpoche to gain the courage and the linguistic proficiency to ask him for permission to read his copy of Sera Khandro's autobiography, which was unavailable elsewhere. During our conversations, )adrel Rinpoche described Sera Khandro with the utmost reverence, telling me how she set the course of his future religious training when he first met her at the age of fourteen (fifteen in Tibetan years) in 1927. At this meeting Sera Khandro prophesied that his root lama would be Khenpo NgawangPelzang (Khenpo Ngakchung, 1879-1941) from Katok Monastery, prompting him to go straight there to study with him. Receiving )adrel Rinpoche's permission and a copy of his manuscript set this project in motion, but the help of many other teachers and friends have made it possible to complete. In particular, Lama Tsondru Sangpo of Rangbul, India, aided me from the beginning, as did my friend Heidi Nevin, who was by my side in spirit and also sometimes in person through this story. Learning how to read Sera Khandro's auto/biographical works, consisting of more than six hundred folios of cursive Tibetan handwriting filled with abbreviations and Golok colloquialisms from nearly a century ago, many unfindable in any dictionary, proved to be a major challenge. It was only through the kindness of Khenpo Sangye from Gyalrong (Khenpo Tupten Lodro Taye), who painstakingly read both Sera Khandro's autobiography and later her biography ofDrime Ozer with me over the course of several years and endless hours, that I understood anything of her writing. Khenpo Sangye's insights into Tibetan language, idiom, andreligion opened up a new world of thought for me. I will always be grateful for this enrichment, as well as for the congeniality and hospitality of all in the Gyalrong House in Boudhanath, Nepal, the site of our Sera Khandro reading marathons.

XII

PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Auspicious connections sometimes operate in subtle forms and other times in dramatic ones. In the early days of 2002 I was staying at )adrel Rinpoche's monastery complex in Salbari, India, trying to figure out when and how to ask permission not just to read, but to translate and publish Sera Khandro's autobiography (this study is the first part of the project; the full translation of her long autobiography will be the second). )adrel Rinpoche is famous for his discretion in granting access to his precious manuscripts and teachings; I had good reason to fear making this request. In doubt, I phoned Lama Tsondru Sangpo in Rangbul, who urged me that I must go ahead and ask)adrel Rinpoche everything that very day without fail. Later that afternoon, I found the right chance to speak with Rinpoche privately and received his blessing to accomplish these endeavors. The very next day, circumstances changed and access to private audiences with )adrel Rinpoche was severely restricted, as it has remained to this day. Had I not followed Lama Tsondru-la's advice, I might never have had the chance again. Another dramatic auspicious connection electrified the possibilities for my research on Sera Khandro, this one beginning in the U.S. graduate school context and ending in eastern Tibet. My main dissertation adviser, David Germano, invited Alak Zenkar Rinpoche Tupten Nyima of Dartsedo, Tibet, to a symposium at the University of Virginia in the spring of 2004. David requested Zenkar Rinpoche to write me a letter of introduction for my upcoming research trip to eastern Tibet, where I planned to follow in Sera Khandro's footsteps through the regions of Serta and Golok in which she lived. Several days of flights and dusty bus rides later, I ended up in the town of Serta knowing no one, armed only with my letter of introduction from Zenkar Rinpoche to a man he had identified only by first name, Khedrup. What to do? How to find the mystery man? In Sera Khandro's day the treeless, rolling alpine grasslands dotted with yak herds and black nomads' tents in the Washlil Serta and Golok territories were infused with religious masters, but they were also dangerous places to travel without the proper local alliances. A century later, I found some of the same to be true as a foreign woman often traveling alone. Luckily Serta is small, and word gets out fast when an American is looking around an eastern Tibetan town for someone. Zenkar Rinpoche's letter opened the door to Khedrup and Kyachung's hospitality and to many in the Serta community for me, without which my research would have been much more difficult.

PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

XIII

Khedrup brought me to his birthplace in rural Serta called Dartsang, where Sera Khandro first arrived from Lhasa with her guru, Drime bzer, whose descendants still live there today. He introduced both me and my colleague Holly Gayley, with whom I traveled briefly, to a contemporary Treasure revealer from Nyenlung, Serta, named Namtrtil Jikme Ptintsok (1944-2011), whose late consort, Tiire Lhamo (1938-2002), was renowned as Sera Khandro's incarnation. Unbeknownst to us, the day we arrived at Nyenlung was r;>akini Day, the twenty-fifth of the Tibetan month, which Namtrtil Rinpoche took as an auspicious sign that he should give both of us copies of his revelations and invite us to join him and his community on a pilgrimage they had scheduled to begin the very next day. On pilgrimage with Namtrtil Rinpoche, we visited many sacred sites associated with Sera Khandro in Golok, including mountains from which she revealed Treasures (Solung Drakar, Drakar Dreldzong, and Chakri Ombar) and monasteries affiliated with her, including Tashi Gomang and Benak Monastery, all located in what is today Perna County, Golok. En route we met Namtrtil Rinpoche's cousin Tulku Thondup, who was and has continued to be a wellspring of information and translation expertise for me. Though any remaining mistakes in my translations are my fault alone, they are considerably fewer thanks to Tulku Thondup's unfailingly generous editorial advice. Another lama whom I met with Namtrtil Rinpoche was Gelek Perna Namgyel Rinpoche of Perna County, Golok, whose deep knowledge of the Benak Monastery area where Sera Khandro lived for many years has enriched this book. On later trips to Golok, Lama Gelek not only found the time to answer my many questions and take me to Nyenpo Yutse Mountain, among other places, but also gave me a rare copy of the autobiography of one of Sera Khandro's teachers, Gara Terchen Perna Dtindtil Wangchuk Lingpa. Integral to many of these trips was my friend Britt-Marie Alm, whose fascination with asking people in Golok about their mountain deities changed my perception of Tibetan religion. I will never forget our "short" circumambulation of Drong Mountain in Serta, where we observed the annual Washtil Serta propitiation rites, arranged, like so much else, by Khedrup and his family. These are only a few of the auspicious connections with people in Tibet and its diaspora that have fortified this study over several years of research funded in part by a year-long Foreign Language and Area Studies Grant in Lhasa and another year-long Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Disser-

XIV

PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

tation Research Grant in Golok and Nepal. Other Tibetan experts whose help has been invaluable include Kyapje Triilku Sonam Chompel of]omda, Lama Dorje of Chamdo, Khenchen Tashi of Lhagang, Khamtriil Rinpoche of Lhasa, Tsiiltrim Dargye of Serta, Perna Osel Taye of Serta, Tsedrup Gon of Serta, Lama Gonpa Kyap of Dartsang, Khenpo Tendzin Ozer of Tralek Monastery, Khandro Rinpoche ofDarlak, Lama Tharchin Rinpoche of California, Perna Bhum of New York, and many others. Auspicious connections don't just make things happen in faraway Himalayan locales; under other names such as strategic relationships, conducive circumstances, and good timing, they make things happen in the U.S. university context as well. All of these factored favorably into the initial version of this study, which was my doctoral dissertation, funded by a Charlotte W. Newcombe Doctoral Dissertation Writing Fellowship. The present version has been greatly augmented by the feedback from my dissertation committee at the University of Virginia, including David Germano, Karen Lang, Kurtis Schaeffer, and Nicolas Sihle. Special thanks to Janet Gyatso for taking the time to participate in my defense as an external committee member from Harvard University. Her ongoing encouragement and constructive criticism have made this a much better book. After graduate school, my sojourn as a postdoctoral fellow at Columbia University's Society of Fellows in the Humanities was important for the present shape of this project. Productive and inspiring conversations with fellows and faculty affiliated with the Heyman Center have informed my work in positive ways. Columbia's resident titans of Tibetan Studies, especially Robert Thurman, Gray Tuttle, Robert Barnett, and Lauran Hartley, were excellent colleagues. I am grateful to both Gray and Robbie for allowing me to ply various drafts of these chapters upon them, which has led to considerable improvements. Also central to my years in New York was proximity to the Tibetan Buddhist Resource Center and its founder, the late Gene Smith, whose brilliance shed light on this project as on so many others' studies of Tibetan texts. Most recently this book project has found fertile ground at Northwestern University, fostered by congenial colleagues in the Department of Religious Studies as well as a year-long research leave funded by an American Council of Learned Societies Fellowship. My focus on Sera Khandro's relationships with other members of her communities and spiritual presences

PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

XV

in the Tibetan earth and sky has been influenced by my colleague Robert Orsi's approach to thinking about relationships in religion developed in his book Between Heaven and Earth: The Religious Worlds People Make and the Scholars Who Study Them (Princeton University Press, 2005). The workshop organized in 2010 by my colleague Christine Helmer titled "Relationships in Religion" inspired me to consider this theme further. My participation in the five-year-long biannual American Academy of Religion seminar on "Tibetan Religion and the Literary;' organized by Andrew Quintman and Kurtis Schaeffer, has also been valuable to my process of thinking through Tibetan literature. At Northwestern, special thanks to Robert Linrothe, Barbara Newman, Susan Phillips, the members of the East Asian Research Society, and my fellow Religious Studies faculty for reading various parts of the manuscript. Hubert Decleer, Wendy Doniger, Barbara Rosenwein, and Paola Zamperini have also graciously provided feedback at various stages of the writing process. Many thanks to Hildegard Diemberger and Anne Klein for reviewing this book, to Tsering Wangyal Shawa for his cartographic skills, and not least to my editor, Anne Routon, for her patience and persistence in ushering this book into print. Integral to this process were generous publication subventions from The Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation and The Graduate School at Northwestern's University Research Grants Committee. Additionally, many friends have supported this endeavor, including Lynna Dhanani, Gyalrong Lama)ikme Dorje, Gyalrong Tsultrim Yarmpel, Christina Monson, the Nevin family, Pam Novak, )ann Ronis, Carol Schlenger, and many others. I would never have had the chance to even begin this journey without the steady backing of my parents, George and Lee jacoby, nor would I have been able to continue it without my husband and partner in all things, Antonio Terrone, who has sustained me throughout the process of writing this book in every way. May our daughter, Isabella, not hold it against me for having spent so many hours hard at work on this project instead of playing with her. And may our son, Adrian, who so considerately waited to begin the process of being born until an hour after I sent this book to press, one day grow to appreciate its contents. Auspicious connections bring people and resources together to make things happen. They tie Himalayan lands with American academic centers, generations past with those currently living. Religious knowledge was transmitted orally in Tibet, through not dead letters on a page but the living breath of lineage masters speaking directly to their disciples. To

XVI

PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

learn a text meant first receiving the lung, or reading transmission, from a master who herself had received it from her master. In this way, the meaning of the words lives on in an unbroken chain of connection back to their author or divine inspiration. The echoes of dialogues Sera Khandro fixed in the pages of her prolific auto/biographical writings still resonate today, however faintly, animated through those who maintain her lineage. This book is an endeavor to listen to those words and to transpose them with care into our contemporary conversations. Sarah jacoby Evanston, Illinois

PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

XVII

TECHNICAL NOTE ON TIBETAN AND SANSKRIT WORDS

FOR EASE OF READING, I have phoneticized all Tibetan words that appear in the main body of this book largely in accordance with the Simplified Phonetic Transcription of Standard Tibetan devised by David Germano and Nicolas Tournadre of the Tibetan and Himalayan Library (see http:// www. thlib.org/ reference/transliteration/ #!essay= I thl/ phonetics I s/b 1 for more information). Periodically I write Tibetan words that appear in parentheses in the main body of the book according to the standard Wylie transliteration of Tibetan, which is largely unpronounceable in English but conveys the exact spelling of the Tibetan. In cases in which I include both Sanskrit and Tibetan words in parentheses, I always write the Sanskrit first followed by the Tibetan, for example, (Skt. samaya, Tib. dam tshig). Each time I quote Sera Khandro referring to a Tibetan text by its proper name for the first time, I phoneticize the Tibetan text title and follow it with a comma and my English translation of that title, for example, Khandro Nyingtik, Heart Essence of the pakinis. For those who are interested in the exact spellings of Tibetan names, places, and key terms that I have phoneticized, please see the section "Spelling of Key Tibetan Names and Terms" toward the end of the book.

ABBREVIATIONS

WORKS WRITTEN BY SERA KHANDRO DDNT

Bde ba'i rdo rje. Dbus mo bde ba'i rdo rje'i mam par thar pa nges 'byung

'dren pa'i shing rta skalldan dad pa'i mchod sdong (The Biography of the Central Tibetan Woman Dewe Dorje: A Chariot Leading to Renunciation and a Reliquary of Faith for Fortunate Ones). Unpublished manuscript, DDP

ca. 1934. Dbus bza' mkha' 'gro. "Rnam thar nges 'byung 'dren pa'i shing rta skalldan dad pa'i mchod sdong (The Biography: A Chariot Leading to Renunciation and a Reliquary of faith for fortunate Ones)." In Dbus bza' mkha' 'gro'i gsung 'bum . Chengdu: Si khron mi rigs dpe

SLNT

skrun khang, 2009, vol. 1. Mkha' 'gro bde skyong dbang mo. Skyabs rje thams cad mkhyen pa

grub pa'i dbang phyug zab gter rgya mtsho'i mnga' bdag rin po che pad+ma 'gro 'dul gsang sngags gling pa'i mam par thar pa snying gi mun sel dad pa'i shing rta ra tna'i chun 'phyang ut+pala'i 'phreng ba (The Biography of the Omniscient Refuge Master, Lord of Accomplished Ones, the Precious Sovereign of the Ocean of Profound Treasures Perna Drondiil Sangngak Lingpa: A Chariot for the Faithful That Dispels the Heart's

Darkness, a Garland ofBlue Lotuses and Cascading jewels). Dalhousie: Damchoe Sangpo, 1981. KSL

Dbus bza' mkha' 'gro. "Ku su lu'i nyams byung gi gnas tshul mdor bsdus rdo rje'i spun gyis dris lan mos pa'i lam bzang (The Excellent Path of Devotion: The Short Story of a Mendicant's Experiences in Response to Questions from My Vajra Kin):' In Db us bza' mkha' 'gro'i gsung 'bum . Chengdu: Si khron mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 2009, vol. 5.

OTHER WORKS DLNT

Khrag 'thung bdud 'joms gling pa. "Chos nyid sgyu mar rol pa'i snang lam gsang ba nyams byung gi rtogs brjod gsal ba'i me long (A Clear Mirror: The Biography of My Secret Visionary Experiences of the Illusory Display of Reality)." In Abu dkar lo, ed., Khrag 'thung

bdud )oms gling pa'i rnam thar. Xining: Zi ling mi rigs par khang, 2002. GTNT

Mgar gter chen pad+ma bdud 'dul dbang phyug gling pa. "Rnal 'byor bdag gis sa lam bsgrod pa'i rang bzhin gyi rtogs brjod zol zog med pa'i drang gtam brjod pa (An Account of How This Yogi Traversed the Grounds and Paths Spoken Truthfully Without Deception):' In

Mgar gter chen pad ma bdud 'dul dbang phyug gling pa'i rang rnam . Chengdu: Si khron zhing chen khron lin par 'debs bzo grwa, 2005. YSNT

Stag sham nus !dan rdo rje. Bod kyi jo mo ye shes mtsho rgyal gyi mdzad tshul rnam par thar pa gab pa mngon byung rgyud mangs dri za'i glu phreng (The Biography of the Activities of the Tibetan Lady Yes he Tsogyel: A Garland of Gandharvas' Lute Songs That Reveals What Is Hidden) . Kalimpong: Zang mdog dpal ri Monastery, 1972.

XXII

ABBREVIATIONS

CHRONOLOGY OF MAJOR EVENTS IN SERA KHANDRO'S LIFE

1892

Sera Khandro is born in Lhasa on the first day of the Tibetan water dragon year.

1902-3 (age 10-11) Sera Khandro's father arranges a politically advantageous

marriage for her. 1903 (age 11)

She attempts suicide by drinking a mixture of opium and a leohoi, in despair over her betrothal.

1904 (age 12)

Her mother dies and her father remarries; she has a prophetic dream in which Vajravarahi gives her prophetic guides (kha

byang) and empowers her to reveal two Treasure cycles that will come to her over the course of her lifetime. 1906 (age 14)

Drime Ozer and his religious encampment members arrive on pilgrimage at her brother's house, seeking a place to set up camp.

1907 (age 15)

She escapes from her brother's house in Lhasa to follow Drime Ozer and his entourage back to eastern Tibet.

1907-8 (age 15-16) After arriving in Dartsang, Serta, she works as a maidservant

for a nearby Golok nomadic family in order to afford the winter religious teachings at Dartsang. 1910 (age 18)

Gara Terchen Perna Dlindlil Wangchuk Lingpa of Benak Monastery in Golok summons her to dispel obstacles to his longevity,

but because his consort, Yakshiilza, prevented her earlier arrival, he dies. 1911 (age 19)

She returns to Benak Monastery on account of a prophecy.

1912 (age 20)

Sera Khandro settles with Gara Terchen's son, named Gara Gyelse Perna Namgyel.

1913 (age 21)

Sera Khandro gives birth to her first child, a daughter named Yangchen Dronma; Gyelse disapproves of her Treasure revelations, leading her to try to keep them secret.

1915 (age 23)

Gochen Triilkujikdrel Chokyi Lodro (a.k.a. Gotriil Rinpoche) of Pelyul Dartang Monastery in Golok recognizes Sera Khandro as a khandroma (Skt.