Thursday, May 31, 2012

The Bell and the Sound Symbols of Dharma


Bell and Vajra.  From the British Museum
© The Trustees of the British Museum

Today's blog entry is a continuation of this one.


"The world is sound.  Immediately the question arises: What kind of sound?" 
— Berendt, p. 19.
Just after the Buddha Śākyamuni attained Enlightenment on the Vajra Seat (Vajrāsana) beneath the Awakening Tree, He was hesitant to speak, certain that He would not be understood. He was even thinking to live out the rest of His days in a lonely forest retreat. The gods Brahma, famous for his melodious speech, and Indra, famous for his power, came to convince Him that it would be worth the effort to begin teaching His insights in the form of the Dharma. The Wheel is one common symbol of the Dharma, since the Buddha is said to have ‘set the Wheel of the Dharma in motion.’ As a symbol of the same thing, Indra presented to the Enlightened One a Conch shell. 


The sūtras, when they describe the Buddha’s first acts of teaching, prefer sound metaphors (or couldn’t we in fact call them auditory symbols?) that emphasize a pealing or booming quality, sounds that are clearly identifiable and sustained and that carry for a long distance. Such metaphors as the Conch, the Large Drum, Melodious Brahma Voice, the Cymbal, the Lion’s Roar and the cry of the Kalapinka Bird are common in many sūtras.[1] Less common is the Thunder, and later on we even find the cry of the Cuckoo Bird as a symbol of Buddha Word. These sounds are unified by their startling quality, communicating not only the Buddha’s act of vocalization as a kind of ‘wakeup call’ to greater awareness, but also the revolutionary nature of His revelation which, in His time, seemed to be coming right out of the blue... In a time when Indian religious teachers were emphasizing the ultimacy of the Self or Atman, His revelation announced to the world that there is no such thing. In other words, these metaphors (they were never simply metaphors) served as symbols not only of the quality of the Buddha’s voice, but of the content of His message, with deep sounds to correspond to His depth of insight. But there is still one further step to the symbolism that might be a little difficult to follow. It is nevertheless essential for a fuller understanding of these symbols. Since the Buddha’s expression of the Dharma tells us the way things are, the ‘things,’ i.e., the elements of apparent existence as Buddhistically conceived, are also called dharmas.[2] Hence, our sonorous symbols of Buddha Word are, besides being identified with the Buddhist scriptures which preserve His Word, equally identified with the world of phenomena.
The Bell as such (Ghaṇṭa in Sanskrit and Dril-bu in Tibetan[3]) is not listed among these metaphors of Dharma in the Mahāyāna Sūtras we have consulted. Bells, in the plural, appear there rather as a meritorious offering which came to form a permanent fixture of the Buddhist reliquaries called Stūpas. These bells, probably rather small ones equipped with cloth hangings attached to their clappers that made them ring when the wind blew, were evidently hung in strings attached to Stūpas. 

Even without being explicitly identified with the Dharmas (scriptural or phenomenal) in the Mahāyāna sūtras as far as we know at present,[4] the brief explanations of the symbolisms of the Bell in its entirety and in its parts all identify the Bell as the Transcendent Insight Sūtra, as well as the Voidness of all phenomena which is the main message of that Sūtra. The head of Transcendent Insight even looks out at us from the center of the Bell’s handle.[5] Tsong-kha-pa, in his most famous work on the stages of the tantric Path, directly states, “The Bell’s sound symbolizes the proclamation of the masses of Dharma.”[6]
And  Dragpa Gyeltsen says on the symbolism of the Bell in its entirety: “Its empty interior means Voidness, the main point of the Transcendent Insight [Sūtra]. The center [of the Bell] is the reality of Full Knowledge of awareness. Its sound indicates Voidness.”
Following closely  Dragpa Gyeltsen’s brief explanations of the individual parts of the Bell, we start with the handle. The handle is composed of (in descending order) [1] a half-Vajra, [2] a Lotus (or Crown?), [3] a face, and [4] a vase of plenty. Although less common, some Bell handles incorporate a ring, below the face, which seems not to have any special symbolism, but serves the utilitarian purpose of a thumb-ring to keep a better grasp.[7] This ring I think to be more common in Newar Buddhist examples. About the half-Vajra,  Dragpa Gyeltsen says,
“As for the Vajra, its use as a decorative covering is a symbol of Insight being ornamented by Method.”[8]
Like the prongs of the complete Vajra, the prongs of the half-Vajra are also supposed to be supported by a lunar disk resting on a Lotus, although the Lotus is not always clearly distinguishable in every example, frequently looking more like a crown for the face below.[9] The face is one element which is clearly present in nearly every example of the Tibetan Bell (if they have any designs on them at all) and, in nearly every explanation known to us,[10] this face is identified as the face of Insight or Transcendent Insight, sometimes simply as the Mother (Yum), while some authorities call it the face of Dharma[11] (I would say the latter is, given our earlier discussion, entirely apt, even if not directly supported in our particular Tibetan-language sources). 

For an enlargement of the "thumbnail," look here.
© The Trustees of the British Museum
Here is  Dragpa Gyeltsen’s explanation of the face:
“Above [the vase] is a face of Transcendent Insight that indicates Dharma Body [and] Voidness.”
Dharma Body, usually understood to belong to the doctrinal category of Three Bodies of the Buddha, is also interpretable in some contexts as ‘the corpus of [Buddhist] teachings,’ while Voidness is the quintessential message of the Transcendent Insight Sūtra. The face looks somewhat different in different examples. Usually it has a meditative expression, and very often a look of amusement, and what we are tempted to call a ‘knowing smile,’ such as the Buddha often has in the Transcendent Insight sūtras when He knows what His questioners really have in mind when they ask their questions, or when He knows what the future will bring for them. She faces east, the direction of the rising sun (increasing light), and so in direct alighnment with the seed-syllable of Tārā, TAṂ, in the eight-petalled lotus below.

A Full Pot from Amaravati, 2nd century CE
© The Trustees of the British Museum
Beneath the face is a vase or pot, which  Dragpa Gyeltsen calls “an elixir pot, as a symbol of the origination [or emergence] of all [magical and spiritual] attainments.” The attainments or siddhis may mean either ‘common’ magical powers or the ‘Supreme Siddhi’ which is just another way of saying Complete Enlightenment. Elixir often stands as a metaphor for the siddhis. The Indian artistic motive of the Full Pot, the Pūrṇa Ghaṭa (or Pūrṇa Kumbha), is generally a symbol of wealth and abundance, but to follow  Dragpa Gyeltsen, we would have to say that when it occurs on the handle of the Bell, it must refer to a wealth of spiritual attainment much more than secular riches.[12] The vase is not always clearly distinguishable on every Bell. Like the Makara faces on the Vajra’s prongs, the vase has often become artistically distorted or reinterpreted to the point that it is no longer clearly recognizable as such. At times it is simply absent, or replaced by the ring. Since it has been persuasively argued[13] that the ‘inverted pot’ found near the tops of Indian pillars (including the famous Aśokan pillars) represents the pouring down of the heavenly waters, with all the crystal clear agrarian connotations of abundance and fertility that this entails, the upright overflowing pot has a similar symbolic meaning, if for the opposite reasons — it is not emptying out from above, but has been filled from above.
Proceeding down from the handle to the lower part of the Bell which is the Bell proper (Tāranātha calls it the belly of the Bell), we will divide it into two main parts, the dome and the slope: [1] the dome at the top of the Bell encircling the point where the handle is attached (Tibetan texts on occasion refer to this part as the shoulder) and [2] the slope, or the external surface of the Bell which slopes down from the ‘dome’ to the ‘lip.’ The surface of the dome is always decorated with an eight-petalled lotus flower design.[14] Within each of the eight petals is a ‘seed syllable,’ a Sanskrit letter represented in Tibetan transcription, each letter with a circle above it representing the Sanskrit anusvāra (in English transcriptions, represented as ‘ṃ’ usually pronounced like the ‘ng’ in ‘sung’). The tops of the letters are pointing outward, away from the point where the handle is attached.[15] These eight syllables are the ‘seeds’ of eight female Buddhas, which might be used as a basis for fully generating their forms in contemplative visualizations. These eight Buddhas are, to give their names according to their meanings in English (but the feminine grammatical endings are not translated here) with their seed syllables: Buddha Eye—laṃ; Mother Mine—maṃ; White Robe—paṃ; Commitment Saviour—taṃ;[16] Flowing Wealth—vaṃ, here represented in Tibetan as baṃ; Encourager—cuṃ, here represented in Tibetan as tsuṃ; Furrowed Brow—bhriṃ; Vajra Rosary—maṃ, repeated.[17] The presence of these female Buddhas on an instrument identified as being feminine in gender is significant.
Moving down to the slope of the Bell, we encounter first a circular band of horizontal Vajras. At the bottom of the slope, circling the outer part of the ‘lip,’ is still another circular band of Vajras that stand vertically. Both of these are protective circles; the upper band of Vajras is called the Vajra Rosary, while the lower one is called the Vajra Wall in the Tibetan texts. Between these two bands is the greater portion of the surface area of the slope, and it is here that we find interesting differences in the designs which allow us to categorize various types of Bells. 

To end for now with a few of the interesting details... The following typology of Bells is provided on the basis of an eighteenth-century Tibetan text,[18] since Dragpa Gyeltsen doesn’t mention the designs on this part of the Bell.[19] 
There are six types of Bells. The first, called the Hero Bell, may have either five- or nine-pointed Vajra,[20] while the remaining five, named for the five Buddha Families, always have five points; hence we have the Tathāgata Family Bell, the Vajra Family Bell, the Jewel Family Bell, the Lotus Family Bell, and the Deed (or Sword) Family Bell. It is not entirely clear which presently-available type of Bell the Hero Bell might be intended to designate.[21] The most commonly encountered type of Bell has eight different symbols depicted around the central part of the slope.[22] These eight symbols include the emblems of the five Buddha Families, although the symbols are not always distinct enough to identify them with certainty, and there appears to be a certain amount of variation. The Tathāgata Family has as its heraldic emblem the Wheel of the Law, and so the Tathāgata Family Bell has a number of Wheels arrayed around the upper side of the slope. The Vajra Family Bell has Vajras, the Jewel Family Bell has Jewels, the Lotus Family Bell has Lotuses, and the Deed Family Bell has Swords.






[1] For examples of all of these, see the life of the Buddha as told in the Lalitavistara Sūtra, Chapter 26 entitled “Turning the Wheel of the Dharma.”
[2] The lack of initial capital on the word dharma when used for the constituents (or qualities) of apparent existence is a Buddhological convention used when translating Buddhist texts into western languages. The original languages — Tibetan, Sanskrit, Pāli etc. — have nothing comparable to capital letters, and so the observance of this convention has nothing to do with Buddhist conventions. For believing Buddhists, the distinction between Buddha Word[s] and constituent[s] of apparent existence is an unnecessary one.
[3] Although this might create some confusion, the Bell is often called in the texts Dorjé Drilbu (Rdo-rje-dril-bu), or Vajra Bell, since the Bell possesses a Vajra at its top. There are some places in the texts where the conjunctive syllable may be dropped (often for reasons of meter), and “Rdo-rje-dril-bu” may have to be read as meaning Vajra and Bell. Furthermore, Rdo-rje-dril-bu may appear in an abbreviated form as Rdor-dril. The ritual Bell of the Bon religion is quite different from that used in the other Tibetan schools. It is a very shallow, and might look more like a cymbal, except that it is equipped with a clapper. For a study of this Bon Bell called, in Tibetan, gshang, see Helffer (1981). It is evidently of Persian or Turkish origin. Mention of this instrument is not limited to Bon texts of the tantric types, but is also found, together with the drum, as a metaphor for the proclamation of the Golden Light Radiant Jewel (Gser-’od Nor-bu ’Od-’bar) Sūtra, and it is explicitly called one of the ‘symbols of the Word’ (bka’ rtags, the other symbols being the drum, conch and something called slang, possibly a metal bowl used as a ‘gong’ or some other cymbal-like instrument) in the apparently eleventh-century biography of Lord Shenrab, the Condensed Scripture (Mdo-’dus), to give two examples. It occurs in Bon religious art as an attribute of deities both peaceful and wrathful. That Bonpo teachers might nevertheless make use in rituals of the usual Buddhist Vajra and Bell is proven by photographs in Tucci (1989: 182, and text on p. 184), although this would seem to be a characteristic of New Bon (Bon Gsar). One further interesting use of the Bell ought to be mentioned. Certain groups of non-Buddhist peoples in northern Assam, people who gained their livelihoods through hunting and gathering, employed the Bell in a secular way, as a form of ‘currency’ which they used in bartering. The Tibetans who originally supplied them with the Bells would remove the handles before using them to purchase goods from the Assamese. Evidently, Bells devoid of their half-Vajra-tipped handles were no longer viewed as sacred objects.
[4] We can be fairly certain of what we are saying here on the absence of Bells-as-symbols-of-Dharma, since we were able to consult the texts of the Transcendent Insight and a number of other important Mahāyāna sūtras in electronic versions prepared by the Asian Classics Input Project. This makes it possible to locate quickly every occurrence of a word in the text of the sūtra (of course one still must take care to consider the possibility of wrong or unusual spellings and typographical errors as well as synonyms, epithets, etc., which computers have not been trained to ‘catch’). These days, we also have the Vienna site, subject of this Tibeto-logic blog page. I haven’t had time to look into the several hundred occurrences of the word Dril-bu in the Kanjur texts, but my impression is that in nearly all cases they are the strings or networks (dra-ba) of bells used to decorate stūpas.  The word dril-bu is frequently used together with g.yer-ka in the sūtra contexts. A quite typical phrase is gser-gyi dril-bu g.yer-ka'i dra-ba.  There is often a mention of how they make their sounds when the wind blows, which does tend to make us think of wind chimes more than bells. In any case the material on bells in the Tibetan canon overall is so great that I hope some ambitious person will take up the challenge of studying it all. I haven’t.
[5] For the symbolism of the Bell and its parts, we are fortunate to have a set of excellent contributions by Mireille Helffer (1982, 1985a, 1985b), and our discussion is in some degree based on them, but with our emphasis given to the Tibetan-language work by  Dragpa Gyeltsen.
[6] Tsong-kha-pa (n.d.: 564).
[7] According to Rong-tha (n.d. 79), the ring is placed here on no other authority than the craft tradition itself (meaning it isn’t justifiable from scriptural and commentarial works). Kun-grol-grags-pa (1974: 533) says that the hole (bug-pa) is not taught in any transmission lineage (brgyud, but I think he intends rgyud, ‘tantra’). One example of a remarkable Ming Dynasty Bell (a Chinese inscription in its interior identifies it as belonging to the reign of Yongle) which includes a ring in its handle has been published (Precious Deposits 2000: III 224-5), but it seems that the handle could have been added to the Bell at a later date. Many Bells with rings seem to be of Nepalese origin. Even much more rarely, Phurpas may have rings attached (a purportedly 12th-century example from the Dali Kingdom of presentday Yunnan Province was offered for sale in Rossi & Rossi 2002), and probably with a similar motive, to keep the implement from flying out of the hands during ritual usage.



[8] Feminist thinkers may find it cause for delight or dismay that here Dragpa Gyeltsen makes Father Method subservient (‘ornamental’) to the face of Mother Insight. She wears the Vajra of Voidness as Her crown, since Voidness is Her ultimate insight.
[9] The face is often described in the non-Tibetan-language literature as being ‘crowned,’ but among our Tibetan texts only Rong-tha (n.d. 78) states this explicitly. Ignoring the texts, and basing ourselves entirely on visual aspects, it often does look as if there is a crown, but a crown ought to have five ‘lobes’ for the five Buddha Families. On the example in hand, there are eight ‘lobes’ entirely encircling the handle. Therefore we prefer to interpret these ‘lobes’ as being rather lotus petals intended to ‘support’ the Vajra prongs (as in the symbolism of the Vajra discussed above) rather than to ‘crown’ the face.
[10] Except for a late Dge-lugs-pa text, which says that when the Bells are distinguished by Buddha Families (see below), the face should be the face of the main Buddha of the family to which the Bell belongs (Helffer 1985b: 58). Tāranātha (1983a) suggests that a wrathful Bell ought to have a face with wrathful appearance. Stag-tshang (n.d. 32) refers to the Face as that of the ‘Blessed Lady’ (Bcom-ldan-’das-ma) or, in another place, that of ‘Transcendent Insight’ (Sher-phyin). Dpal-sprul (1994: 187), writing in the nineteenth century, says “The bell bears the image of a face which, according to the outer tantras, is that of Vairochana and, in the view of higher tantras, is Vajradhatvishvari.” (Most surprising here is the possibility of identifying the face as Vairocana’s, Vairocana being a Buddha with male form.)
[11] Olsen (1950: 35), for example, says, “the head of the goddess Dharma or Prajna, ‘Supreme Wisdom’.” One scriptural source, the Sampuṭa Tantra (Derge Kanjur, vol. 79 [ga], fol. 289 recto), is quite explicit about the face at the center being that of ‘Goddess Prajñāpāramitā’ (Lha-mo Shes-rab Pha-rol-phyin), further specifying that it should, in its shape, be beautiful and endowed with qualities. This text also describes a lotus as being above the face, with no mention of a crown. This scriptural evidence strengthens the impression that the globular part at the center of of the Vajra is meant to correspond to the face at the center of the Bell.
[12] On the Indian symbolism of the Full Pot, see Gairola (1954), Rosu (1961), Agrawala (1965: 10-11, 43-46), Coomaraswamy (1971, pt. 2: 61-64), and especially Bhattacharya (2000). Smith (1989) gives evidence for its antiquity in Buddhist architecture in which it is associated with pillars. See as well Harvey (1991: 74-76), where an argument is made for a Buddhist interpretation which would emphasize the ‘fullness’ of the Buddha’s Teachings, the Dharma, which fits nicely with the other symbolic motives found on the Bell. The lotuses or Bodhi tree sometimes depicted growing from the pot would then be a symbol of spiritual growth nourished by the resources of the Buddha’s Teachings. The reference to an ‘elixir pot’ reminds us of the Indian cosmogonical story of the churning of the Milk Ocean that resulted in, among other things, the production of the divine sustenance or ‘elixir,’ a drink of immortality, which was placed in a pot. Pots filled with water, with leaves and other decorations decorating their mouths, have been, and still are, used during deconsecration/reconsecration rituals, as temporary abodes for the deities when images or stūpas are being repaired. I would further suggest that all the elements of the Bell handle above the Full Pot ought to be conceived as emerging out of it.
[13] Vajracharya (1999: 53-64).
[14] See Ronge (1980), where the process of bell-making is described in some detail. The decorations on the ‘dome’ are directly transferred to the mold from the ‘blank’ prototype Bell that is used to form the mold, but the decorations on the ‘slope’ have to be subsequently stamped onto the inside of the mold. This explains why the decorations on the ‘slope’ are often less distinct than the decorations on the ‘dome.’ We ought to emphasize that the names ‘slope’ and ‘dome’ do not come from our Tibetan-language sources, while the term ‘lip’ is in fact used by them.
[15] The ‘garland of letters’ is very deeply rooted in Indian religious history, and we will not attempt to trace its history here. One finds it in the Cakrasamvara tantric system’s visualization of the ‘seat’ of the deity. Here the vowels (for ‘insight’) circle counterclockwise twice and transform into the lunar disk, while the consonants (for ‘method’) circle clockwise twice and transform into the solar disk. The seat being the ‘site’ of the enlightened being that is seated on it, the letters, in this case the Sanskrit letters transcribed into Tibetan, are both the seeds of the sacred scriptures and the initial definition of the sacred space. (See, for example, Beyer 1973: 112.) Quite similar, even with its differences, is the rite that forms a part of Catholic church consecration rituals called the abecedarium, in which two lines of the Latin and Greek alphabets (the alphabets of the two sacred languages used in traditional [pre-Vatican II] Catholic scriptures and sacred chants) are inscribed from corner to opposite corner forming an ‘X’-shaped cross. These alphabets are “the beginnings and basics of sacred doctrine... and the beginnings of the Word of God” (Repsher 1998: 82; see also Bowen 1941: 475). Given the obviously different arrangements of the letters in circles and crosses, nevertheless the similar in their usages of ‘seed’ letters of scripture to define sacred spaces is impressive.
[16] The syllable taṃ is symbolically oriented toward the east, and the Face in the middle of the handle is also supposed to be oriented in the same direction. Stag-tshang (n.d. 33) calls this an ‘Inner Bell.’ He also describes as an ‘Outer Bell’ one that has a ring below the Face as well as the seed syllable or emblem of Buddha Eye in the east. The arrangement of seed syllables in Kun-grol-grags-pa (1974: 531-532) is quite different.
[17] The lists of eight female Buddhas are not always the same. Especially the last four frequently vary from our list, which is derived from  Dragpa Gyeltsen’s work. We have not attempted to sort out the reasons for this variation. The ‘seed syllables’ of these Buddhas are formed simply by taking the first letters of their names (in their original Sanskrit form) and adding anusvāra.
[18] This work by Kun-grol-grags-pa, an eighteenth-century Bon-po teacher in Eastern Tibet, is discussed in Helffer (1985), and we have based our explanation on this.
[19] Although this cannot be accomplished here, it will be interesting in the future to consider how the designs on this part of the Bell might have developed over time. It is a possibility that  Dragpa Gyeltsen doesn’t mention these design elements because they were not commonly in use in his time. One Tibetan text suggests that earlier Bells might have been less decorated. See Khams-ston (1990: 256), where it says that there exist unornamented bronze Bells in Tibet which were made by Indian craftspersons. These are said to be Bells especially meant to be used in dance performances, and are sometimes called ‘old Tibetan’ (Bod rnying) Bells. I have seen a set of relatively unornamented Vajra and Bell offered for sale in Kathmandu at a tremendous cost (300,000 Nepalese rupees, to be exact; perhaps 3,000 US dollars), a price justified by the dealer since, according to her belief, the set had been imported to Tibet from India in the eleventh century. The Bell was unornamented except for the half-Vajra at the top and a few highly-worn decorative bands around the ‘slope.’ Buyers beware, however, especially since nowadays many if not most Bells are manufactured to have a worn appearance, and so the indistinctness of the decorative elements (which may also result from the method of casting, as mentioned in an earlier note) is not in itself necessarily a proof of antiquity.
[20] According to Kun-grol-grags-pa (1974: 530), “Nowadays [most common are the] five-pointed Vajra used in peaceful and extending [ritual actions] and the nine-pointed Vajra used in influencing and overpowering [ritual actions].” Evidently Bells topped by Vajras of like number of points would share the same ritual usage.
[21] The problem is discussed in some detail in the works of Helffer listed below. According to Rong-tha, as well as Dkon-mchog-bstan-’dzin, it has the two Vajra bands as the only decoration on its slope. It lacks the emblems as well as the pearl strings (to be described presently). Sangs-rgyas-rdo-rje (1995: 13) distinguishes three types of Bells. The first is the Vajradhāra Bell (nine-pointed only), the second the Hero Bell (five- or nine-pointed), and the third the Particular Family Bell (five-pointed only). The last one includes the five different Bells belonging to the five Buddha Families. He defines the Hero Bell (on p. 17) as a five- or nine-pointed Bell which has the Vajra Rosary, but in which the latticework of pearl strings is replaced by insets of precious substances (gold, silver or gems).
[22] According to Dkon-mchog-bstan-’dzin (1994: 314), this type of Bell with eight different emblems is called the Vajra Being Full Knowledge Bell (Rdor-sems Ye-shes-kyi Dril-bu).


An Old Bell in Patan Museum, Nepal

§   §   §

Literary works
V.W. AGRAWALA
Studies in Indian Art, Vishwavidyalaya Prakashan (Varanasi 1965).

Joachim-Ernst BERENDT
Nada Brahma, the World is Sound: Music and the Landscape of Consciousness, tr. by Helmut Bredigkeit, East-West Publications (London 1983).  This book may make you think about sound like you never did before. Each chapter ends with footnotes to recorded music.
Stephan BEYER
The Cult of Tārā: Magic and Ritual in Tibet, University of California Press (Berkeley 1973).
Gouriswar BHATTACHARYA
The Enigmatic Pot, contained in: Maurizio Taddei and Giuseppe De Marco, eds., South Asian Archaeology 1997, Serie Orientale Roma no. 90, Istituto Italiano per l’Africa e l’Oriente (Rome 2000), vol. 3, pp. 1342-1365. For a list of this author's publications in PDF, try this link
Lee BOWEN
The Tropology of Medieval Dedication Rites, Speculum, vol. 16, no. 4 (October 1941), pp. 469-479. Available at JSTOR through subscribing institutions.
Ananda K. COOMARASWAMY
Yakṣas, Part I and Part II, Munshiram Manoharlal (New Delhi 1971).
DKON-MCHOG-BSTAN-’DZIN
Bzo-gnas Skra Rtse’i Chu-thigs [‘The Arts: A Drop at the Tip of the Brush Hairs’] Krung-go’i Bod-kyi Shes-rig Dpe-skrun-khang (Beijing 1994). A modern textbook on Tibetan art history and techniques, ‘Drop of Liquid on the Tip of the [Brush-]hairs.’
DPAL-SPRUL O-RGYAN-’JIGS-MED-CHOS-KYI-DBANG-PO
The Words of My Perfect Teacher:  Kunzang Lama’i Shelung, translated by the Padmakara Translation Group, Harper Collins (San Francisco 1994).
DRAGPA GYELTSEN
See Grags-pa-rgyal-mtshan.
C.K. GAIROLA
Évolution du pūrṇa ghaṭa (vase d’abondance) dans l’Inde et l’Inde extérieure, Arts Asiatiques, vol. 1 (1954), pp. 209-226.
GRAGS-PA-RGYAL-MTSHAN
Rdo-rje Dril-bu dang Bgrang-phreng-gi De-kho-na-nyid [‘The True Reality of Vajra, Bell and Rosary’], contained in: Sa-skya-pa’i Bka’-’bum, Toyo Bunko (Tokyo 1968), vol. 3, pp. 271-2-4 through 272-3-6.
Peter HARVEY
Venerated Objects and Symbols of Early Buddhism, contained in: Karel Werner, ed., Symbols in Art and Religion, Motilal Banarsidass (Delhi 1991), pp. 68-102.
Mirielle HELFFER
— Notes à propos d’une clochette gshang: Tibet et régions de culture tibétaine, Objets et mondes, vol. 21, no. 3 (Autumn 1981), pp. 129-134.
— Du texte à la muséographie: données concernant la clochette tibétaine dril-bu, Revue de musicologie, vol. 68, no. 1/2 (1982) 248-269.
— A Typology of the Tibetan Bell, contained in: B.N. Aziz & M.Kapstein, eds., Soundings in Tibetan Civilization, Manohar (N.Delhi 1985a), pp. 37-41. This is an abstract of the longer study in French in Arts Asiatiques (see below).
— Essai pour une typologie de la cloche tibétaine dril-bu, Arts Asiatiques 40 (1985b) 53-67.
KHAMS-STON
Rgya Bod-kyi Nor-rdzas-kyi Ris Brtags-shing Dpyad-pa’i Dpyad Don Yid-kyi ’Dod-’jo, contained in: Bzo-rig Nyer-mkho Bdams Bsgrigs (Gangs-can Rig Mdzod series no. 14), Bod-ljongs Bod-yig Dpe-rnying Dpe-skrun-khang (Lhasa 1990), pp. 229-262. A treatise on how to recognize highly valued objects in Tibetan material culture, probably composed in the fifteenth century.
KUN-GROL-GRAGS-PA (b. 1700)
Gsang-sngags Theg-pa Chen-po’i Bsten-par Bya-ba’i Dam-rdzas Ji-ltar ’Chang-ba’i Rnam-bshad Rnal-’byor Rol-pa’i Dga’-ston (‘Feast of the Playacting Yogis: An Explanation on How to Hold the Commitment Substances for Use in the Great Vehicle of Secret Mantra’), contained in: Mkha’-’gro Bde-chen-dbang-mo, et al., Yum-chen Kye-ma-’od-mtsho’i Zab Gsang Gcod-kyi Gdams-pa Las Phran dang bcas-pa’i Gsung-pod, Tshering Wangyal, TBMC (Dolanji 1974), pp. 515-599.
Eleanor OLSEN
Catalogue of the Tibetan Collection and Other Lamaist Articles in the Newark Museum: Volume II, The Newark Museum (Newark 1950, reprint 1973).
PRECIOUS DEPOSITS
Precious Deposits: Historical Relics of Tibet, China, Morning Glory Publishers (Beijing 2000), in five volumes.
Brian REPSHER
The Rite of Church Dedication in the Early Medieval Era, The Edwin Mellen Press (Lewiston 1998).
RONG-THA
Rong-tha Blo-bzang-dam-chos-rgya-mtsho (1863-1917), Thig-gi Lag-len Du-ma Gsal-bar Bshad-pa Bzo-rig Mdzes-pa’i Kha-rgyan. An 85-folio treatise on Buddhist sacred arts, purchased in Lhasa in 1996. The printing blocks for this edition were originally kept at Rgyud-smad Grwa-tshang, the Lower Tantra College in Lhasa.
Veronica RONGE and N.G. RONGE
Casting Tibetan Bells, contained in: Michael Aris and Aung San Suu Kyi, eds., Tibetan Studies in Honour of Hugh Richardson, Aris and Phillips, Ltd. (Warminster 1980), pp. 269-276.
Anna Maria ROSSI and Fabio ROSSI
Beyond Lhasa: Sculpture and Painting from East and West Tibet (exhibition catalogue), Anna Maria & Fabio Rossi Publications (London 2002).
A. ROSU
Pūrṇaghata et le symbolisme du lotus dans l’Inde, Arts Asiatique, vol. 8, no. 3 (1961), pp. 163-194.
Mkhas-dbang SANGS-RGYAS-RDO-RJE
Responses to Various Polemical Writings, Sherab Gyaltsen Lama & Acharya Shedup Tenzin (Rewalsar 1985).
R. Morton SMITH
Pots without Pans, contained in: Devendra Handa and Ashvini Agrawal, Ratna-Chandrikā: Panorama of Oriental Studies [Shri R.C. Agrawala Festschrift], Harman Publishing House (New Delhi 1989), pp. 59-64.
STAG-TSHANG LO-TSĀ-BA SHES-RAB-RIN-CHEN (1405‑1477 or 1478)
Rten Gsum Bzhugs-gnas dang bcas-pa’i Bsgrub-tshul Rgyas-par Bshad-pa Dpal-’byor Rgya-mtsho. Microfilm of a 54-folio manuscript in the possession of Gyaltsen (Swayambhunath, Nepal) courtesy of the Nepalese National Archives (reel no. E574/29; running no. E15094). A treatise on Buddhist sacred arts composed in 1459.
TSONG-KHA-PA
Tsong-kha-pa Blo-bzang-grags-pa (1357-1419), Rgyal-ba Khyab-bdag Rdo-rje-’chang Chen-po’i Lam-gyis Rim-pa Gsang-ba Kun-gyi Gnad Rnam-par Phye-ba (=Sngags-rim Chen-mo; =Rje’i Gsung-’bum Ga-pa), Tibetan Cultural Printing Press (Dharamsala n.d.). A very famous treatise on Buddhist tantra in general by Tsong-kha-pa, credited with founding the Dge-lugs-pa School.
Giuseppe TUCCI
Sadhus et brigands du Kailash: Mon voyage au Tibet occidental, Editions R. Chabaud (Paris 1989).
Gautama V. VAJRACHARYA
Symbolism of Ashokan Pillars: A Reappraisal in the Light of Textual and Visual Evidence, Marg (Mumbai), vol. 51, no. 2 (Dec. 1999), pp. 53-78.


Friday, May 18, 2012

The Vajra in Vajrayāna

Sakya Jebtsun Dragpa Gyeltsen,
holding Vajra and Bell


© Trustees of the British Museum

Today’s post is a continuation of this one.

There is a very interesting twelfth-century Tibetan work by Dragpa Gyeltsen (Grags-pa-rgyal-mtshan) that we will summarize here, emphasizing his explanations of the symbolism of the parts of the Vajra. He lists four types of Vajras, but of these he only discusses the Symbolizing Vajra, the physical Vajra that can be held in the hand. He then names four types of Symbolizing Vajras:

[a] The nine-pointed Vajra called the Commitment Vajra.[b] The five-pointed Vajra called the Full Knowledge Vajra.[c] The three-pointed Vajra which is the Vajra used for exorcising inimical forces.[d] The Vajra with open ‘horns’ (prongs) called the Wrathful Vajra.[1]

Dragpa Gyeltsen suggests that the proportions should be (as they seem to be in actual practice) in three equal parts — the two pronged ends and the central part being of equal length. He also recommends, supporting himself with a quote from a tantra, that there should be a bulging part (a ‘globe’) at the center where the Vajra is held (generally between the thumb and fingers of the right hand). One scriptural source, the Sampuṭa Tantra, in fact calls this, “The egg of the three times, at the center, into which the Full Knowledge deity is to dissolve.”[2] 

Although this feature may be difficult to make out on some Tibetan Vajras, they usually show the heads of water-monsters called Makara at the base of each peripheral prong. The prongs themselves may be seen to be made up of a Makara head and its protruding ‘tongue.’[3] It is a curious fact that there is only one of the twelve Indian Zodiac signs that doesn’t correspond exactly with the Greek Zodiac. Indians have the Makara in the place of Capricorn (‘horned goat’). The Makara seems to be a composite of several different aquatic and semi-aquatic creatures, and descriptions as well as representations sometimes suggest crocodiles (perhaps the ‘original’ meaning[4]), dolphins or other fish (possibly whales, while some have even suggested sharks), or even the octopus or squid, as well as semi-aquatic creatures such as the elephant (since it often appears in art with something resembling an elephant’s trunk) or rhinoceros, or the tapir. 

Makara on a temple roof top
A verse, of Indian origins, but cited by a recent Tibetan author, says that it has a lion’s claws, an elephant’s trunk, a makara’s (crocodile’s?) tusks, a monkey’s eyes, a wild boar’s ears and a fish’s body.[5] It lurks beneath the water among the lotus stems, and a lotus stem (or rhizome) is sometimes depicted coming out of its mouth. It is the ruler of the depths of the ocean, that vast and dangerous realm that seems so chaotic to us, or at least subject to totally different norms, an almost entirely ‘other’ world. It may nevertheless be a source of great riches, so much so that one common epithet of the ocean is ‘jewel source.’ The Makara, as a composite creature, embodies all the danger and strangeness, as well as the potentialities, of that separate world beneath the water’s surface.[6] As a crocodile-like monster capable of swallowing whole creatures, including people lost at sea, it represents not only all-consuming passions, but also radical transformation (by way of a process of ‘digestion’), a symbolism that is evident also in the Face of Glory, but becomes especially clear in the case of the Purpa symbolism, a subject we may come to later on. The Makara is responsible for stopping up the flow of waters, but also for releasing them. Its use as a symbol of fertility has often been noted, and it is probably of some significance that Kāma, the divinity of sensual desires, is supposed to hold a Makara banner.[7] Dragpa Gyeltsen says, “Those ‘horns’ [i.e. the prongs, which the Tibetan texts also call ‘points’] emerging out of the mouth of the Makaras are a symbol of being drawn out of the suffering at the root of life. The lunar circle that forms the seat of those ‘horns’ is a symbol of relieving the heat of the vicious circle of saṃsāra of its affliction [with its cooling lunar rays].”

Lalitpur, Nepal 2011
The Makara also has had a usage in India that is broadly architectural, for at least two thousand years. The waterspouts that come at the end of water channels of all kinds (praṇāla), whether for drainage or for water supply, are very often formed of the heads of Makaras or similar composite creatures. Water taps in Makara shape, while not in themselves constituting sacred objects or objects of cult, might be used not only for public water sources for drinking and washing, but also for temple cult, as water source for lustrating divine images.[8] As a sea creature, living in the largest of all bodies of water, an abundant supply emerges from its mouth. The ocean is the ultimate water source, and the water is conveyed to us through the mouth of one if its most remarkable inhabitants.

Lalitpur, Nepal 2011
The close proximity of the Makaras and Lotuses in the design of the Vajra is clearly a continuation of a long Indian tradition of depicting them together. The Makara very often has a rhizome emerging from its mouth, and this rhizome often leads to an artistic lattice-work of crisscrossing, spiraling or intertwining rhizomes from which lotus blooms emerge, while in still other Indian artistic examples, Lotus-flower medallions are encircled by bands of Makaras. To return to the context of the Vajra, the prongs, as in the iconography of the Buddhas they represent, rest on a lunar seat, and the lunar seat is further supported by an eight-petalled Lotus.[9] While the Lotus as a whole, as we have noted, is generally a symbol of purity (especially purity of conception and birth), here Dragpa Gyeltsen identifies each petal with one of the eight Bodhisattva disciples of the Buddha, or with one of a set of eight goddesses. The rounded bulge at the nave of the Vajra symbolizes the Dharma Realm (Dharmadhātu) in its utter simplicity, completely self-contained. Each of the two sides of the nave is ornamented, says Dragpa Gyeltsen, with a circlet of pearls symbolizing the dawning as play acting — or ornamentation — of all of the vicious circle that is saṃsāra including its transcendence in nirvāṇa.
Alchi (Ladakh) mural. Notice the black
‘spidery’ look of these Vajras, a characteristic of western
Tibetan art a thousand years ago
Each prong symbolizes a male or female Buddha. The five-pronged Vajra is predominantly a symbol of Full Knowledge, since the ‘upper’ set of five prongs symbolizes the five families of Buddhas (as found in many Maṇḍalas) and the five Full Knowledges that they embody. The ‘lower’ set of five prongs symbolizes the immaculate five ‘mothers,’ also belonging to the same five Buddha families.

A later writer of the Tibetan Gelugpa school by the name of A-kyā Rinpoche classifies Vajras (following the Highest Yoga Tantras) into two types: [1] the Meaning Vajra which is the thing symbolized and [2] the Sign Vajra which acts as a symbol. The Meaning Vajra is identified as the Full Knowledge identical to the mind of the Buddha. It is also called the Secret Vajra. The Sign Vajra is symbolic of Full Knowledge. He further distinguishes Sign Vajras on the basis of the number of prongs, on whether or not the outer prongs touch the central prongs, and on whether the prongs are blunt or sharp at the end. Ones with sharp prongs that do not touch the central prongs are wrathful Vajras, while the ones with blunt prongs that do touch the central prongs belong to the peaceful type. He cites one tantra to the effect that Vajras may have as many as one thousand prongs, but he notices only five main types based on the number of prongs, the one-, three-, five-, nine-pronged, and finally the Everything Vajra — sometimes called the Crossed Vajra since it has four sets of prongs arrayed in the four compass directions — which might be 12- or 20-pronged depending on whether there are three or five prongs in each of the four sets.[10]

One Indian text by Advayavajra describes the Vajra in terms similar to those of the Tibetan-authored texts, identifying the bulge at the nave as a symbol of Dharma Proper (chos-nyid, essentially equivalent to the Dharma Realm, chos-dbyings, of Dragpa Gyeltsen), and the five prongs he identifies as symbols of the five Buddha families. This text at least can demonstrate for us that the most important elements of Dragpa Gyeltsen’s symbolic analysis already existed in India.[11] 

To reiterate, the Vajra — in both its name and symbolic, mythological associations — originated in India where in very ancient times it was the weapon of Indra. Still, it is most likely that the form of the Vajra known to Tibetans (and other Buddhist countries) came to India, perhaps somewhere in the second to fifth centuries, in a form known to the Greeks as the Keraunos, weapon of Zeus. In the earlier Buddhist art of Gandhāra the Vajra was portrayed, but in a quite different form. The Vajra as a whole may be described as a symbol of indestructibility, stability and firmness. By extension it became for Buddhists a symbol of particular things characterized as adamantine: the resolution to obtain Enlightenment (usually called the ‘Thought of Enlightenment,’ Bodhicitta), Full Knowledge, and the Buddha’s body, speech and especially His mind. Those particular meanings known and employed in the Buddhist tantras all seem to have found direct inspiration in Mahāyāna sūtras.

Although we have noticed no specific textual source for the idea, it is entirely possible to view the parts of the Vajra as symbolic of the Three Bodies of the Buddha. The two ends appear to be growing outward from the central undifferentiated globe, stated to be a symbol of the the nature of things, that is equivalent to Dharma Body. The circlets of pearls on either side of it would then be a symbol of the Dharma Body ‘with ornamentation’ (in other words, the minimal degree of manifestation and incipient multiplicity), perhaps symbolic of the Perfect Assets Body that displays, to highest level Bodhisattvas only, the richness of the Dharma Body. Then, proceeding still further outward, there are two Lotuses, symbols of the unfolding of Enlightenment, likewise symbols of pure and miraculous conception and birth, which provide the support for the five Buddha Families of the five prongs that may become visible, in the form of Manifestation Bodies, to ordinary human beings. This picture is at least in keeping with the role of the Vajra, in the form of the four-ended Everything Vajra, in Buddhist accounts of cosmogony, underlined by the fact that the Everything Vajra is visible as the ‘ground’ for the manifestation of the Maṇḍala.[12]

The use of the Vajra for protection, especially associated with the early protective role of Vajra Wielder, is quite pronounced in ritual contexts, without in the least excluding or replacing any of the usages we have discussed so far. The contemplative visualization of a Vajra Wall is essential to the inner work of the tantric practitioner, since this Wall (in effect an encompassing three-dimensional sphere), entirely made up of Vajras, protects the mind (as does the mantra repetition known as Vajra Recitation) from distracting or delusive invasions that might otherwise disturb the meditative practice.[13] Other ritual and visualizational uses of Vajras are too numerous to mention. They appear at every turn. During most monastic rituals, the Vajra and Bell are held in the right and left hands while making various ritual gestures, symbolic of the interplay and union of method and insight, the two parents who give birth to Buddhas, as well as the yogic process of dissolving the energies of the right and left psychic channels into the central channel. Some ritual sequences are directly devoted to the Vajra and Bell, such as the ‘Vajra and Bell Blessing’ that often forms a part of the preliminaries of a number of rituals such as the sādhana and the Fire Ritual (Homa). Another such ritual is Vajra Master Initiation, in which initiates are presented with a Vajra and a Bell as signs of their capability to preside at such tantric rituals as Homa, consecrations and empowerments. 

Still other specific usages may be seen in consecrations and in the blessing of sacramental medicines. In these last-mentioned contexts, a relatively small, approximately hand-width sized Vajra is kept tied to one end of a Dhāraṇī Thread that acts as a kind of ritual ‘power line’ to conduct the meditation-generated force from the ritual master to the item/s being consecrated.[14] But not all of the symbolic usages took place on such sublime spiritual and ritual levels. Sitting on my desk as I write are two Tibetan government-issued bank notes of twenty-five and one hundred srang denominations, dating to the last half of the 1940’s. The black seal of the Tibetan government bank (or, after 1937, the seal of the official mint) stamped on the front side of each note is framed by four Vajras, that might also be understood to symbolize the inviolability of the state bank and/or its currency.[15] Well, to wrap up this discussion for the time being, the Vajra and Bell, presented to the tantric practitioner through a ritual initiation, remain for them the most essential implements, and will be kept on the altar of all who are engaged in Buddhist tantra. Next we turn to the Bell.  Until then...
Detail from an 100 Srang Note of the Tibetan Government.
Note the four Vajras surrounding the ’Phags-pa inscription that reads:
Srid Zhi Dpal ’Bar, or
“Blazing Glory of Both Worldly Life and
the Quiescence of Nirvana”
(I know, 4 syllables shouldn’t need 18 in the translation)


_____________________


[1] This four-fold classification of Vajras evidently comes from the chapter on Vajras and Bells in the Vajra Skygoer Tantra (Vajraākanāma Mahātantra Rāja), on which, see Helffer (1985: 55). It is interesting that this classification doesn’t leave room for a one-pronged Vajra, since this type is known to Japanese Shingon art, and a number of later Tibetan writers do mention its possibility. Later on, in our discussion of the Phur-pa, we will see how the Phur-pa might be conceived as a single-pronged Vajra.
[2] Toh. no. 381. Derge Kanjur, vol. 79 (ga), fol. 144 recto: dbus-su skabs gsum sgo-nga-la // ye-shes lha ni thim-par bya. The Sanskrit text of the Sampuṭa Tantra exists in the manuscript form, and a published edition is said to be forthcoming. Three Indian commentaries are available in Tibetan translation (Skorupski 1996). Obviously, a further study of these sources, overcoming the inherent difficulties in dealing with texts of this nature, would reveal important information on Vajras and Bells.
[3] However, we have not noticed that Tibetan sources actually use a word for ‘tongue,’ and in Indian representations of the Makara, it is rather the Lotus rhizome that is depicted coming out of the Makara’s mouth.
[4] See Vogel (1957: 561-564). Note also the early Buddhist examples of Makara portrayals from Bharhut, Amaravati and Sarnath in Vogel (1924 and 1930). Smith (1988) observes how various types and shapes of Makaras occur in different times and places.
[5] Dge-’dun-chos-’phel (1990: I 69).
[6] On the Makara, see especially Coomaraswamy (1971, pt. 2: 47-56) and Darian (1978: 114-125), where it appears in iconography as the ‘mount’ or ‘vehicle’ of the Goddess of the Ganges. Many early Indian examples are given in Viennot (1954, 1958). On a visit to Yamdok Lake on the south side of the Brahmaputra River in Central Tibet, we asked our Tibetan driver if anything lived beneath those deep turquoise waters, the product of millenia of internal drainage (now deplorably slated to be drained and muddied in order to supply a few years of electricity to the city of Lhasa). He told us with considerable conviction that nothing lived there except the Chu-glang. The Chu-glang, or ‘Water Ox’ (perhaps a derivative of the Jalebha, or ‘Water Elephant’ of Indian lore closely related to the Makara), is another hybrid aquatic creature that Tibetan folklore sometimes confounds with the Makara (in Tibetan folklore the Makara, which they call Chu-srin, is the nearly undisputed leader of the underwater kingdom, whose only significant danger comes from the conch). It seems to be something like a lion-faced fish with walrus-like tusks. It doesn’t really resemble descriptions of the Loch Ness monster, but still the analogy might come to mind. It may be of interest to notice here that L. Austine Waddell (1854-1938), while accompanying the Younghusband Expedition invasion of 1903-4 as a ranking officer with an army consisting primarily of Indian sepoys, credited himself with discovering a new kind of carp living in Yamdok Lake, that he was no doubt proud to have named after himself (see Waddell 1905/1988: 304-306, with illustration of the fish opposite p. 306, as well as p. 489, where the Yamdok carp is given the scientific name Gymnocypris waddelli).
[7] See especially Stein (1977: 59, et passim). Stein argues that the ‘prongs,’ which the Tibetan texts usually call ‘points’ (rtse) or ‘horns’ (rwa), ought to be understood to be ‘tongues’ (in Tibetan lce or ljags) of the Makara, and goes on to find something ‘phallic’ in these tongues. He doesn’t supply very much Tibetan evidence for this interpretation (and the unfalsifiability of Freudian interpretations and their cultural embeddedness are well known problems among anthropological thinkers). “Makara Banner” (Makara-dhvaja) is also the name of a long-popular Indian aphrodisiac (Coomaraswamy 1971, pt. 2: 54; Mahdihassan 1991: 88). The use of the term ‘horns’ in some Tibetan texts might recommend comparison with horns of protection in other cultures, especially given the protective role of the Vajra in several of its contexts. The horns on Michelangelo’s famous statue of Moses go back to some early synagogue prayers which interpret the horns of Moses at the time of the revelation of the Torah (based on the ambivalence of the Hebrew word keren, meaning both ‘[light]beam’ or ‘horn’) as being meant to protect him from the Angels zealous of their exclusive rights to close proximity to the deity (see Flusser 1992: xvi, and references given there; with thanks to M. O., Jerusalem, for suggesting the analogy).
[8] For numerous examples, both drawn and photographed, of Makara waterspouts from all periods and regions of south Asian history, see Dhaky (1982). While rich in illustrations, this article is not very strong on symbolc understanding, but note at least the statement on p. 134, “The choice of the makara as the animal for decorating the drain-front could have been actuated by the watery association of the animal.”
[9] Mkhas-grub-rje (199x: 230) observes that the string of pearls that one often sees intervening between the lunar disks and the lotusses is meaningless, since what should be there, according to his Indian authorities, is a design representing the railing or outermost wall of the maṇḍala. This element is often referred to as a sash or girdle (in Tibetan ske-rags).
[10] A-kyā (n.d.) is largely based (and this is so stated in A-kyā’s own colophon) on the much more detailed, early 15th-century work by Mkhas-grub-rje (199x), which has not been directly cited here. For his explanations of the Vajra and Bell, Mkhas-grub-rje relied largely on works written by the Bengali Ānandagarbha, an important figure in the history of the Yoga Tantras. All these Indian works cited by Mkhas-grub-rje and others ought to be studied in some detail in order to know more about the Indian background of Tibetan observances.
[11] For an English translation of the portion of Advayavajra’s (his name itself means ‘Nondual Vajra’) text on Vajras, see Snellgrove (1987: 133-134). It is also interesting that Advayavajra cites (without specifying the source) the tantra passage on Vajra which we have translated above. This Advayavajra was evidently the teacher by that name active in India in the eleventh century.
[12] On some Maṇḍala representations, it may be difficult to make out the tips of the prongs of the Everything Vajra, since the four gateways are flattened outward as a strategy for representing a three-dimensional object in two-dimensional form (see the following note). The gateways usually cover all but the tips of the prongs of the Vajra, and sometimes the outer prongs appear in such a way that they might be mistaken for elephant tusks.
[13] One may also look at a picture of almost any Maṇḍala, and find among the outermost circles (generally just inside the ring of purified elements represented by rainbow colors) a Vajra Wall marked by vertically oriented Vajras. The Vajra Wall in Maṇḍala representations (depicted in two dimensions, but intended to represent three dimensions; although relatively rare, three-dimensional models of Maṇḍalas do exist in some Tibetan temples, but even then the Vajra Wall is left in two-dimensional form, since otherwise it would completely envelop the Divine Palace within its sphere) maintains the inviolability of the enclosed sacred space inhabited by male and female Buddhas. One tantric work explicitly identifies the garlands (rosaries) and barriers (walls) of Vajras in the design of the Bell with the Divine Palace (i.e., the Maṇḍala); see Helffer 1982: 261.
[14] Very often, the Dhāraṇī Thread is held by all the persons participating in the ritual in question, sometimes even including laypersons in the audience, and not just the Vajra Master. I have witnessed this in both Newari and Tibetan ritual practice. For a discussion of its use in the context of consecration rituals, see Bentor (1996: 111 ff.). On the Vajra Master Initiation just mentioned, see the latter work (p. 252, especially).
[15] For illustrations, even if not very clear ones, see Panish (1968).



°  ~  °  ~  °

Literary sources:

A-KYA RINPOCHE
  n.d.   A-kyā Blo-bzang-bstan-pa’i-rgyal-mtshan (b. 1708), Sngags-kyi Brtul-zhugs-kyi Yan-lag ’Ga’-zhig Ji-ltar Bya-ba’i Tshul Bstan-pa Don Gsal Sgron-me [‘Meaning Clarifying Lamp Showing How to Perform Some Ancillary Tantric Activities’].  Contained in his Collected Works (Gsung-’bum), vol. 7 (key-letter ja), in 24 folios.  I used a transcript of the version in the Chicago Field Museum’s Berthold Laufer collection, no. 131.08.
BENTOR, YAEL
  1996   Consecration of Images and Stūpas in Indo-Tibetan Tantric Buddhism, E.J. Brill (Leiden 1996).
COOMARASWAMY, ANANDA K.
  1971   Yakṣas, Part I and Part II, Munshiram Manoharlal (New Delhi 1971).
DARIAN, STEVEN G.
  1978   The Ganges in Myth and History, University Press of Hawaii (Honolulu 1978).
DGE-’DUN-CHOS-’PHEL
  1990   Dge-’dun-chos-’phel-gyi Gsung-rtsom [‘Works of Gendun Chomphel’], Bod-ljongs Bod-yig Dpe-rnying Dpe-skrun-khang (Lhasa 1990), in 3 vols.
DHAKY, M.A.
 1982  The Praṇāla in Indian, South-Asian and South-East Asian Sacred Architecture, contained in: Bettina Bäumer, ed., Rūpa Pratirūpa: Alice Boner Commemoration Volume, Biblia Impex (New Delhi 1982), pp. 119-166.
DRAGPA GYELTSEN
                 See Grags-pa-rgyal-mtshan.
FLUSSER, DAVID
  1992   General Introduction, contained in:  H. Schreckenberg & K. Schubert, eds., Jewish Historiography and Iconography in Early and Medieval Christianity, Van Gorcum (Assen 1992), pp. ix-xviii.
GRAGS-PA-RGYAL-MTSHAN (1147‑1216) 
 1968   Rdo-rje Dril-bu dang Bgrang-phreng-gi De-kho-na-nyid [‘The True Reality of Vajra, Bell and Rosary’], contained in: Sa-skya-pa’i Bka’-’bum, Toyo Bunko (Tokyo 1968), vol. 3, pp. 271-2-4 through 272-3-6.
HELFFER, MIREILLE
  1982   Du texte à la muséographie: données concernant la clochette tibétaine dril-bu, Revue de musicologie, vol. 68, no. 1/2 (1982), pp. 248-269.
  1985b  Essai pour une typologie de la cloche tibétaine dril-bu, Arts Asiatiques, vol. 40 (1985b), pp. 53-67.
MAHDIHASSAN, S.
  1991   Indian Alchemy or Rasayana in the Light of Asceticism and Geriatrics, Motilal Banarsidass (Delhi 1991).
MKHAS-GRUB-RJE DGE-LEGS-DPAL-BZANG (1385-1438)
 199x   Rdo-rje Theg-pa’i Lam-gyi Yan-lag Mi-’bral-ba dang Bsten-par Bya-ba’i Dam-tshig-gi Rdzas Med-du-mi-rung-ba-dag-gi Mtshan-nyid dang / Ji-ltar Bcad-pa’i Tshul la sogs-pa Rnam-par Bshad-pa Rnal-’byor Rol-pa’i Dga’-ston [‘Yogis’ Acting Festival: A Detailed Explanation of Such Matters as the Characteristics and Methods for the Holding of the Indispensible Commitment Substances which are, in the Branch Vows of the Vajra Vehicle’s Path, Never to be Parted from, and Are to be Put to Use’], as contained in: Collected Works of Mkhas-grub-rje, as contained in:  Rje Yab-sras Gsum-gyi Gsung-’bum [impressions from the 19th century Sku-’bum Byams-pa-gling woodblocks] (Kumbum Monastery 199x), vol. 15 (ba), pp. 205-344.  CD digital reproductions supplied by Tibetan Buddhist Resource Center (New York).
PANISH, CHARLES K.
   1968   Tibetan Paper Money, Whitman Numismatic Journal, vol. 5, no. 8 (1968), pp. 467-471; vol. 5, no. 9 (1968), pp. 501-508.
SKORUPSKI, TADEUSZ
  1996   The Saṃpuṭa-tantra: Sanskrit and Tibetan Versions of Chapter One, contained in: T. Skorupski, ed., The Buddhist Forum, Volume IV: Seminar Papers 1994-1996, School of Oriental and African Studies (London 1996), pp. 191-244.
SMITH, R. MORTON
  1988   Using Makaras, contained in: S.K. Maity, Upendra Thakur and A.K. Narain, eds., Studies in Orientology: Essays in Memory of Prof. A.L. Basham, Y.K. Publishers (Agra 1988), pp. 150-155.
SNELLGROVE, DAVID
   1987   Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, Shambhala Publications (Boston 1987).
STEIN, ROLF ALFRED
   1977   La gueule du Makara: un trait inexpliqué de certains objets rituels, contained in:  A. Macdonald and Y. Imaeda, ed., Essais sur l’art du Tibet, Librairie d’Amérique et d’Orient (Paris 1977), pp. 52-62.
VIENNOT, ODETTE
  1954   Typologie du makara et essai de chronologie, Arts Asiatiques, vol. 1, no. 3 (1954), pp. 189-208.
  1958   Le makara dans la décoration des monuments de l’Inde ancienne: positions et fonctions, Arts Asiatiques, vol. 5, no. 3-4 (1958), pp. 183-206, 272-292.
VOGEL, J.P.
  1924   De Makara in de Voor-Indische Beeldhouwkunst, Nederlandsch-Indië, Oud en Nieuw, vol. 8, no. 9 (January 1924), pp. 262-276.
  1930   Le Makara dans la sculpture de l’Inde, “extrait de la Revue des Arts Asiatiques,” Les Éditions G. van Oest (Paris 1930).
  1957   Errors in Sanskrit Dictionaries, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, vol. 20, nos. 1-3 (1957), pp. 561-567.
WADDELL, L. AUSTINE
  1988   Lhasa and Its Mysteries, with a Record of the British Tibetan Expedition of 1903-1904, Dover Publications (New York 1988), originally published in 1905. Download it here for free if you like.


 
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