by Jean-Luc Achard
(CNRS, CRCAO)
1. The identification of Zang zang lha brag
According to Se ston Padma dbang chen’s Byang gter spyi bcings,1 the sanctuary where Rig ‘dzin rGod ldem’s Five Treasuries (mDzod lnga) were discovered is known as a rocky mountain similar to a heap of snakes (brag ri lto ‘phye spungs ‘dra).2 It is located in the north-west direction from Bu le glacier (Bu le gangs), close to a large river flowing to the north.3 It is to be found north-east of rGyal thang, in a location which is famous for being a place where Sa bdag and Klu gnyan gather together, and where the eight categories of gods and demons (lha srin sde brgyad) roam. It is also styled as a mountain where abide the five classes of bTsan spirits (btsan rigs sde lnga). It is actually called “the Rock of the Gods” (lha brag) because it is a place where serpents (lto ‘phye) present offerings to the gods. And since it is a region where the four categories of “naked earth lords” (sa bdag zang ma) abide, it is called “Northern Zang zang” (byang gi zang zang).
So, in a certain sense, the meaning of the mountain’s name would be something like “The Rock of the Naked Gods” if we interpret zang zang as zang ma. Some dictionaries give zang zang as a variant of zang zing which either means something like material wealth, trouble, or unrest. Both meanings might fit if we extend the interpretation of the “wealth” to refer to the Treasures or of the “unrest” as pointing to the potentially disturbing activities of local earth lords and demons. Whatever the case may be, the tradition says that Padmasambhava saw it as a perfect place for hiding Treasures since he regarded it as a frightful location where wrathful activities were taking place, owing to the presence of numerous Yakśas (gnod sbyin), carnivorous animals, including meat-eating birds, and so forth.4
2. The manner in which the Treasures were concealed
The traditional narrative relating the manner in which the Treasures were concealed in Zang zang lha brag appears in The Second Scroll of the White Whetstone (‘Dzeng rdo dkar po’i shog dril gnyis pa), as quoted in the General Presentation of the Northern Treasures.5 It basically takes the form of a dialogue between Padmasambhava and prince Mu khri btsan po, starting as follows:
Prince Mu khri btsan po asked ācārya Padmasambhava:
Kyema! O precious master!
At the end of times, this lineage of these sons of mine
Will fall among the populace in Gung thang of Mang yul.
When the royal succession nears its annihilation,
This Treasure trove protected by the Compassion of the ācārya himself,
In which hidden sanctuary will it be situated?
To which oath-bound Guardians of Treasures will it be entrusted?6
Padmasambhava had three particularly excellent Treasure troves (khyad par ‘phags pa’i gter mdzod gsum) which he intended to hide individually, in three different places. Regarding the first location—the one that should retain our attention here—Padmasambhava is said to have uttered the following prophetic statement:
In the rocky mountain similar to a heap of poisonous snakes,
The fourfold Treasure trove protected by the king7
Will be hidden in the belly of a black poisonous snake
And entrusted to the four powerful Treasure Lords;8
As to the (favorable) moment, it should be hidden at the peak of the day
And will shine like the sun and the moon for the benefit of Mang yul.9
The keys (lde mig) used for opening the treasures are said to have been made of various materials: the first one was made of stone (rdo); the second one, of copper; and the third, of bronze. All three were hidden in their specific coal clump (sol ba’i tshas) and hidden in Ri bo bkra bzang. Here, the main Guardian of these keys is explicitly mentioned under the name of Bu le Nor bu bzang po.
According to The Seven Principles making up the Crucial Precepts of the Heart Drops [Teachings] (sNying tig10 gnad kyi man ngag don bdun),11 the Treasure texts were placed in a square box and divided into four categories. All were written on Indian paper (rgya shog) and transcribed into the symbolic runes of the Ḍakinīs (mkha’ ‘gro’i brda’i yi ge). The scrolls were then sealed and rolled into their individual cloth covers made of precious Indian silk before being inserted in the casket (sgrom bu). A similar account is given in The Three Kinds of Lamps(sGron ma rnam gsum).12
At the same time that the box was hidden, numerous artifacts were also buried, such as various kinds of phur padaggers,13 small pieces of hair14 belonging to Padmasambhava, the monk Nam mkha’i snying po, Ye shes mtsho rgyal, Khri srong lde btsan and his sons, as well as rDo rje bdud ‘joms. Moreover, blessed substances were added to the Treasure box, together with further scrolls containing oral instructions (zhal gdams shog dril).15 Finally, a bronze representation of a poisonous black snake was placed on the box, serving as a seal. The whole was hidden in the middle section16 of the “Rocky Mountain Looking like a Heap of Poisonous Snakes” (Brag ri Dug sprul spungs ‘dra). At that point (p. 16), Se ston quotes from The Lamp Clarifying the Itinerary Pathway (Lam byang gsal sgron) and then again from The Seven Principles (p. 17), introducing details about the actual location where the Treasure was hidden and the depth to which the Treasure Revealer is supposed to dig in order to excavate it.
The hiding of the box and its accompanying implements took actually three days during which Padmasambhava and an entourage of devoted disciples engaged in the necessary rituals before entrusting the whole thing to the Treasure Lords (gter bdag). Thereafter, Padmasambhava gave numerous oral instructions to the king (Khri srong lde btsan) and his main disciples, eventually announcing his decision to leave Tibet and to travel to rNga yab gling (Cāmaradvīpa). When the time came, a large party including the king, the abbot Śākya bsod nams, the translator Vairocana, gNub(s) Sangs rgyas ye shes, sNa nam rDo rje bdud ‘joms, and the ḍākinī Ye shes mtsho rgyal decided to accompany him back to Gung thang, bSam yas and eventually Lha sa. There, on the top of Mount Has po ri, Padmasambhava opened the maṇḍala of the sGrub chen bka’ brgyad to his faithful devotees.
After departing from Lha sa, Padmasambhava travelled back to Gung thang where he gave his final Testament (zhal chems) and the famed prayer known as the bSam pa lhun grub ma to the prince Mu khri btsan po. He assessed the results of his activities in Tibet and then, riding a ray of the sun, flew off in the sky with a party of heroes and heroines who had come to escort him. According to Se ston (p. 21), Mu khri btsan po and sNa nam rDo rje bdud ‘joms then bid farewell to Padmasambhava and hid scrolls and cycles of practice17 in the temple of rGyang in Ru lag, entrusting them to the Treasure Lords Lha mo dre’u zhon ma18 and Jo bo Bu le.
Bibliography
Herweg, Jurgen Wilhelm
The Hagiography of Rig ‘dzin Rgod kyi ldem ‘phru can and Three Historic Questions Emerging from it, MA thesis, University of Washington, 1994, 329 pages.
O rgyan gling pa (b. 1323)
dPal bka’ ‘dus kyi rig ‘dzin brgyud pa’i gsol ‘debs ‘bring po, in Rin chen gter mdzod chen mo, New Delhi, Shechen Publications, 2007-2018, vol. 15, pp. 325-344.
Padma dbang chen (Se’i grub chen, d.u.)
Byang gter spyi bcings: Byang gter chos skor rnams kyi spyi chings rin chen ‘phreng ba ces bya ba, manuscript from Ladakh, scanned in TBRC W23375, 110 pages.
Thubten K. Rikey,
“The Nature-Deities of Tibet: A Discussion on the Tale “The Subduing And Putting Under Oath of Tibet’s Malignant Lha ‘dre” in Padma bka’ thang”, in E. Sandman & R.J. Virtanen (eds.), Himalayan Nature Representations and Reality, Studia Orientalia 109, Finnish Oriental Society, Helsinki, 2011, pp. 119-140.
Wangdu, Pasang & Hildegard Diemberger (transl.)
Shel dkar chos ‘byung: History of the “White Crystal”, Religion and Politics of Southern La stod, Wien, Verlag derÖsterreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1996.
- P. 9, quoting the Lam byang gsal ba’i sgron ma (p. 9). [↩]
- Se ston’s main sources for this section of his work are the Lam byang gsal ba’i sgron ma and the ‘Dzeng rdo dkar po’i shog dril gnyis pa. [↩]
- Bu le gangs itself is a large mountain in lower La stod. See Wangdu & Diemberger, Shel dkar chos ‘byung, p. 47. See also, Thubten K. Rikey, “The Nature-Deities of Tibet”, p. 136, where Bu le gangs is presented as a place inhabited by gods and demons (lha ‘dre) according to the Padma bka’ thang by O rgyan gling pa. See however the very same O rgyan gling pa’s dPal bka’ ‘dus kyi rig ‘dzin brgyud pa’i gsol ‘debs ‘bring po, in which Bu le gangs is described (p. 337) as an agreeable or charming secluded place (dben gnas nyam dga’ ba). Note also that, as we shall see below, Jo bo Bu le is also the name of the Treasure Lord (gter bdag) to whom scrolls of the Northern Treasures were entrusted. His other name is Nor bu bzang po. [↩]
- Byang gter spyi bcings, p. 10. [↩]
- P. 10-21. The reference to the white whetstone (‘deng rdo dkar po) goes back to the time Padmasambhava stayed on the top of Mount Ri bo bkra bzang where he summoned a red ḍākinī coming from the south-west and who offered him three white whetstones having a length of a finger span (mtho gang pa gsum). See ib., pp. 11-12. The material from these stones served him to shape the three keys (lde mig) for his main treasures. [↩]
- P. 10 : kyee ma gu ru rin po che: bdag gi bu brgyud ‘di dus tha ma la: mang yul gung thang du dmangs su ‘bebs: rgyal rabs chad du nye ba’i dus su slob dpon nyid kyi thugs rjes skyob pa’i gter mdzod ‘di: sba ba’i gnas ni gang na mchis: gter srung dam can gang la gtad: [↩]
- This is an oblique reference to the king of Gung thang who in the future shall be an important donor and supporter of rGod ldem’s tradition. The fourfold Treasure trove refers to the casket that will be found by rGod ldem, containing various scrolls in the four parts (i.e., directions) of the casket (and the center). [↩]
- I have been unable to find a complete list of these four Guardians so far. [↩]
- P. 12 : brag ri dug sprul spung (=spungs) ’dra la: rgyal po skyob pa’i gter mdzod bzhi: dug sprul nag po’i lto bar sbas: gter bdag mthun chen bzhi la bcol: dus tshod nyi ma’i rtse la sbed: mang yul phyogs su nyi zla ‘char: [↩]
- The spellings tig and thig alternate regularly in this kind of literature, without particular differences between the two. [↩]
- Quoted p. 14. [↩]
- Quoted on pp. 14-15. [↩]
- Nearly half a dozen of them are listed, together with their “moniker”, such as the Demon Tamer of the Three Worlds (Srid gsum bdud ‘dul) which was forged in Yang le shod out of seven kinds of iron metal by the Mon blacksmith called dPal brtsegs (see the details in op. cit., p. 15-16). It was given by the latter to Padmasambhava. [↩]
- Correcting dbu skra tshom (p. 16) into dbu skra tshums. [↩]
- The contents of these instructions are not described. They were first given orally (hence their designation as “oral instructions”), before being transcribed. [↩]
- The text reads skyed (p. 16) which is an old reading for sked pa, a variant of rked pa which points to the middle part of something, as well as the waist, the base of the spine, the kidney area, and so forth. In rGod ldem’s biography, the reading sked pa is confirmed with this meaning of “middle” (see Herweg, The Hagiography of Rig ‘dzin Rgod kyi ldem ‘phru can, p. 293). [↩]
- Among these scrolls were the numerous kha byang, lam byang, and so forth, associated with the Northern Treasures. Se ston mentions also two cycles of practice (sgrub skor) associated with Hayagrīva and Avalokiteśvara. [↩]
- I.e., dPal ldan lha mo. [↩]
OpenEdition suggests that you cite this post as follows:
Jean-Luc Achard (April 3, 2023). The Location of Zang zang lha brag according to Se ston Padma dbang chen’s General Presentation of the Northern Treasures and the Concealment of the Treasures. Northern Treasures Histories. Retrieved April 21, 2025 from https://doi.org/10.58079/opeq