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ISSN 2753-4812
ISSN 2753-4812

Guide to Vairotsana Site

English | བོད་ཡིག

Translator's Introduction

A Guide to the Vairotsana Practice Place in Dzamnang (ཛཾ་ནང་བཻ་རོའི་སྒྲུབ་གནས་ཀྱི་དཀར་ཆག) concerns the sacred place of Pema Shelpuk (པདྨ་ཤེལ་ཕུག), or Lotus Crystal Cave, near Dzongsar Monastery.[1] This is counted as one of the twenty-five great sites of Kham—indeed, it is described as the most exalted of them all. The site was first opened by Chokgyur Dechen Lingpa (1829–1870) and Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo (1820–1892) at the end of 1856 at the time when the pair also revealed the Three Sections of the Great Perfection (rdzogs chen sde gsum) terma cycle there.[2] That cycle includes a guide or catalogue/inventory (dkar chag) that describes the qualities of the place and the benefits of practising and circumambulating there.[3]

Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö’s own short guide focuses on the Vairotsana cave at the site. The text tells us that this is where Vairotsana practised, that the Three Root deities are actually present there, and that further treasures lie hidden, waiting to be revealed.

The guide first appeared in print in 2005—so it’s not that “recent” a discovery—in a compendium of texts related to pilgrimage sites in Kham. The same collection, edited by Karma Gyaltsen, also includes a two-verse prayer to Pema Shelpuk authored by Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö. Neither text was included in the 2012 edition of the master’s collected works.

What makes the guide especially remarkable is as much its conclusion as its main content. For it is at the end of the text—in its explicit—that we learn that one of the two people who requested the composition was Jamyang Chökyi Wangpo (1893–1908). This was the body emanation of Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo and the main tulku at Dzongsar, whose tragic death in 1908 precipitated Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö’s move from his original seat at Katok.

As far as I’m aware, there is no evidence that the two young tulkus—Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö and Jamyang Chökyi Wangpo—ever met.[4] Indeed, Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche’s biography suggests that Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö was busy with his studies at Katok when Jamyang Chökyi Wangpo passed away.[5] We do know that Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö spent time with Jamyang Chökyi Wangpo’s incarnation, Khyentse Chökyi Wangchuk (1909–1960).[6] But the guide appears to be the only record of any direct connection between the two immediate reincarnations of Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo.

Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche’s The Lamp that Enlightens Narrow Minds describes how Jamyang Chökyi Wangpo spent time in retreat at Pema Shelpuk in 1904—his first ‘obstacle year’ (lo keg). It’s possible that he requested the text at around this time. Since Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö was then only eleven years old, this would make the text his earliest known composition. Perhaps it is more likely, therefore, that the request—and the composition—came later.

Indeed, it’s unclear why Jamyang Chökyi Wangpo, the tulku resident at Dzongsar, would request a guide to a sacred place in Dzongsar’s vicinity from the tulku resident at Katok.

Perhaps the explanation is that the “Jamyang Chökyi Wangpo” of the explicit should really be identified with his incarnation, Khyentse Chökyi Wangchuk, who undertook a three-year retreat at Pema Shelpuk that began in 1924.[7] The relationship between requester and requested would then make more sense—Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö clearly being the senior of the pair. In fact, Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche tells us that Khyentse Chökyi Wangchuk required Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö’s permission to enter retreat there.[8] And maybe it is no coincidence that Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö composed the two-verse prayer to Pema Shelpuk during this same period—in 1925 (Wood Mouse).

A note at the end of the guide states that it was reconstructed from fragments of broken stones on which it had been engraved.[9] This might account for any mix-up of names. Might the “Chökyi Wangpo” of the explicit be a misreading of a barely legible “Chökyi Wangchuk“? To answer that would require access to the original fragments—or at least an image of them.

Yes. Treasures lie hidden, waiting to be revealed.


Bibliography

Dilgo Khyentse. The Life and Times of Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö: The Great Biography and Other Stories. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2017

Gardner, Alexander. “Jamyang Chokyi Wangpo,” Treasury of Lives, accessed November 28, 2023, http://treasuryoflives.org/biographies/view/Jamyang-Khyentse-Chokyi-Wangpo/13653.

Gardner, Alexander. The Life of Jamgön Kongtrul the Great. Boulder: Snow Lion, 2019.

Gardner, Alexander Patten. The Twenty-five Great Sites of Khams: Religious Geography, Revelation, and Nonsectarianism in Nineteenth-Century Eastern Tibet. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Michigan, 2006.

Jamgön Kongtrül. The Life of Jamyang Khyentsé Wangpo. Trans. Matthew Akester. Delhi: Shechen Publications, 2012. Revised online edition, Khyentse Foundation, 2020.

Karma rgyal mtshan (ed.). mdo khams gnas yig phyogs bsgrigs dad bskul rnga dbang lha sgra. Beijing, mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 2005 (BDRC W29295)

Namkhai Norbu. The Lamp that Enlightens Narrow Minds: The Life and Times of a Realized Tibetan Master, Khyentse Chokyi Wangchug. Berkeley: North Atlantic Books, 2012.


Version: 1.0-20250501


  1. Dzamnang is the name of the valley. Note that Dzamnang is occasionally spelled Dzomnang ('dzom nang). Our edition of the guide uses Dzamnang, as does Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche’s biography of Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö.  ↩

  2. Gardner, The Life of Jamgön Kongtrul the Great, gives the date of the opening as 30 December 1956.  ↩

  3. See Gardner, The Twenty-five Great Sites of Kham, p. 13, n. 30. Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Thayé (1813–1899) also composed a praise of the place as a whole.  ↩

  4. A biography of Jamyang Chökyi Wangpo, written by Jamyang Chökyi Wangchuk and seen by Namkhai Norbu, has not survived.  ↩

  5. See Dilgo Khyentse, The Life and Times of Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö, p. 303.  ↩

  6. See Namkhai Norbu, The Lamp that Enlightens Narrow Minds, passim.  ↩

  7. See Namkhai Norbu, The Lamp that Enlightens Narrow Minds, pp. 22–23.  ↩

  8. See Namkhai Norbu, The Lamp that Enlightens Narrow Minds, p. 3.  ↩

  9. The site was destroyed in 1959 and has since been rebuilt and restored.  ↩

A Guide to the Vairotsana Practice Place in Dzamnang

by Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö

Oṃ svasti!
Blessed by the vajra dance
Of the vajra guru Padma,
This realm of vajra mountains,
Includes countless sacred places, major and minor,
Sources of the vajra vehicle.
Foremost among all these places of renown,
Is the crown jewel of places for accomplishment,
The Lotus Crystal Cave
In the valley of Dzam.

Before it, in the manner of a maṇḍala,
Is the ground on which the Dharma sovereign and his heirs
Presented Samantabhadra’s clouds of offerings
To Orgyen and consort, principal and retinue.

There, in the great cave, the practice place
Of lord Vairotsana, who possessed eyes of wisdom
And had fully perfected realization’s great potential,
The deities of the Three Roots dwell in actuality.
Countless vital treasures and dharma riches
Are hidden there as sources of the teachings.
In future they will be revealed by a vidyādhara,
An illusory emanation and tamer of beings.

There are symbolic drawings on the rocks
And the hand- and footprints of Orgyen and disciples.
Images of the buddhas, bodhisattvas and so on
Appear clearly in symbolic forms.
And there are beautiful trees and plants
That sprang forth at the touch of Vairotsana’s staff.
This whole scene, so especially exalted,
Is directly perceptible, as a nectar for the eyes.

To perform prostrations, circumambulation, maṇḍala offering, feast offering, fulfilment rituals,
Fire ceremonies related to the four activities and such like
Here with intense, one-pointed faith and devotion
Will pacify temporary circumstances, such as illness and harmful spirits,
Create merit that is as lofty as Mount Sumeru,
And cause the clear maṇḍalas of sun- and moonlike wisdom
To spread their radiant light universally,
So that the lotus garden of benefit and happiness may thrive.

Thus, having been requested several times by the resident lama of Dzamnang and more recently by the Khyentse tulku Jamyang Chökyi Wangpo,[1] the vidyādhara practitioner Pema Yeshe Dorje spoke these words in the upper practice cave of Tsogyal, lady of great bliss, and they were transcribed by the one who made the request. May this become a cause of infinite benefit for the teachings and beings. A single circumambulation here is certainly equal to a hundred thousand recitations of the six-syllable mantra, and the recommended number[2] of circuits is 11,110.

'a a ha sha sa ma. Sarva maṅgalam. Let it be virtuous!

(This was reconstructed by gathering and copying engraved stones that had been broken and dispersed.)


| Translated by Adam Pearcey with the kind assistance of Ringu Tulku Rinpoche and the generous support of the Khyentse Foundation and Tertön Sogyal Trust, 2023.


Bibliography

Tibetan Edition

Karma rgyal mtshan (ed.). mdo khams gnas yig phyogs bsgrigs dad bskul rnga dbang lha sgra. Beijing, mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 2005, pp. 117–118

Secondary Sources

Gardner, Alexander. "Jamyang Chokyi Wangpo," Treasury of Lives, accessed November 28, 2023, http://treasuryoflives.org/biographies/view/Jamyang-Khyentse-Chokyi-Wangpo/13653.

Namkhai Norbu. The Lamp that Enlightens Narrow Minds: The Life and Times of a Realized Tibetan Master, Khyentse Chokyi Wangchug. Berkeley: North Atlantic Books, 2012..


Version: 1.0-20231128


  1. Jamyang Chökyi Wangpo (1894–1909) was the body incarnation of Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo. He spent time at Pema Shelpuk in retreat in 1904.  ↩

  2. skor tshad. Stūpas and sacred places often have a recommended number of circuits for circumambulation. (Ringu Tulku Rinpoche)  ↩

Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö

Pema Shelpuk, Lotus Crystal Cave

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