ON THE ROAD TO SHANGRI-LA: Following in the footsteps of the 10th Karmapa and Karma Kagyu in Lijiang, Shangri-la, Dechen Tibetan region and seeing the great Khawa Karpo Tibetan mountain (Part 1: Highlights and research review))

Introduction: the 10th Karmapa and Karma Kagyu in Lijiang (Jang), Yunnan

This is the first in a new set of original research articles about my recent two-week pilgrimage to Yunnan, South China to visit Lijiang, Shangri-la (Gyalthang) and Dechen Tibetan Autonomous region, and the famed Tibetan mountain there, Kawa Karpo.

For a while now, I have been very interested in the life-story of the 10th Karmapa, Choying Dorje (1604-1674), his artworks and what happened to him after the brute, violent Mongolian military invasion of Tibet which imposed the Gelugpas and 5th Dalai Lama as the authoritarian, dictatorial ruling powers of Tibet. This Gelugpa institution ruled over (and suppressed and censored) all the main Buddhist lineages there for the next three centuries, who all suffered from huge theft and destruction of monasteries and shedras, suppression and injustice by the ruling Gelugpas as a result (some worse than others).

The narrative is written by the ‘victors’ and nowhere is this more true than in the case of what happened during this key era in 17th century Tibetan history.  The 17th Gyalwang Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje, has been teaching about the history and teachings of the Karmapas, the Kagyu encampment and their amazing level of study and shedras instituted by the 7th and 8th Karmapas in Tibet, as well as their strict policy of vegetarianism, even in tantric rituals. The Karmapas were extremely powerful in Tibet at that time and were courted by Chinese Emperors, as well as the Tibetan Kings and Queens of central Tibet, Tsang.

The 17th Gyalwang Karmapa recently also explained how the Mongolian invasion led to an almost complete destruction of all the Karma Kagyu shedras in central Tibet. Thousands of Karma Kagyu monastics and laypeople were brutally slaughtered (including the imprisoned King of Tsang). The Mongolian army tried to murder the 10th Karmapa several times too, but he managed to escape and was forced to live in exile like a beggar in a cave, often going hungry. This was not a ‘civil war’, which then led to a ‘peaceful unity’ as many western and Tibetan scholars, and pro- Gelugpa people describe, it was an all-out foreign invasion, mass slaughter of monastics and civilians and complete domination and takeover of other lineage monasteries and shedras, that were either destroyed or taken over and converted to Gelugpa.

The 10th Karmapa was forced to flee for his life, but also for the preservation of the Karma Kagyu into exile in Lijiang (where the Karmapas and Karma Kagyu had built monasteries and had patrons of the Naxi Mu Kings for centuries before). The 10th Karmapa stayed in the Lijiang area for over twenty years, and he and other Karma Kagyu rinpoches, such as the 8th Tai Situpa and 6th Gyaltsab Rinpoche maintained and preserved several monasteries there. In addition, the 10th Karmapa, a prolific and original painter and sculptor also studied and created many of his most famous and unique artworks (which have survived) while in Lijiang.  Thus, the area held a great fascination for me and I wanted to visit there personally.

This first article is in introduction and summary of some of the highlights of the short trip, as well as an overview of current research and publications (Tibetan and English) on the 10th Karmapa, which proved to be a rich source of information for the trip.

I plan to compile all the photos, observations and articles written about this pilgrimage, into an e-book to be downloaded. My wish is that this new research and pilgrimage not only inspires people to visit the same places, but also to know and understand more about the amazing life, talents and activities of the peace-making, eccentric, bird and animal lover, 10th Karmapa who refused to tell people to take up arms against the Mongolians and Gelugpas, despite knowing he (and the Tibetans) would ‘lose’ everything. Like the 8th Karmapa before him, ethical integrity meant more to the 10th Karmapa than worldly power.

I was travelling on a budget, with a very small amount of baggage (not many changes of clothes for me ha ha), and the trip itself was made possible by the kind and generous donations of two main sponsors of my work and website, without whom I would not have been able to survive financially this last year or so, never mind go to these places! So I am eternally grateful for their understanding, support and appreciation of my work and activities and the merit is very much theirs as well.

Summary/Itinerary of places visited: Kunming, Lijiang, Shangri-La, Dechen Tibetan region

During the 15 day pilgrimage, I first stopped for a night and day’s sightseeing at the main city, Kunming, before travelling by the bullet train (3.5 hours) to Lijiang, where I explored the ancient city on foot, more to come on that! The rest of the trip can be divided into four main sections:

1. Five main Karma Kagyu monasteries

One of the main reasons for my visit to the region was to visit the five main Karma Kagyu Tibetan Buddhist monasteries in the Lijiang area, established and maintained by the 8th-10th Karmapas and/or 8th Tai Situpa. There are nine Karma Kagyu temples listed in the Jang area, and five of the main temples are now all called by their Chinese names.  I have listed their Tibetan names and created a map of their locations below:

1. Tashi Chophel Ling བཀྲ་ཤིས་ཆོས་འཕེལ་གླིང་ (Yufeng Si 玉峰寺)

2. Lhashi Gon ལྷ་ཤིས་དགོན་ (Zhiyun Si 指云寺)

3. Jang Ri Magpo Gon/ འཇང་རི་སྨག་པོ་དགོན་ also known as Sang-ngag Gatsal Ling (Wenfeng Si 文峰寺)

4. Phuntsog Ling/ ཕུན་ཚོགས་གླིང་ (Puji Si 普济寺)

 

5. Og Min Ling འོག་མིན་གླིང་ (Fuguo Si 福国寺)

I was overwhelmed with emotion and tears at these monasteries, in particular the first monastery I visited Tashi Chophel Ling (Yufeng Si) where there was still some original artworks by Choying Dorje on  the wooden exterior walls. Also, at the naturally self-arisen Vajravarahi face in the rock cave at the Sang-Ngag Gatsal Ling (Wenfeng Si) temple and the only three year retreat centre in the region, also named after Vajravarahi.

Photos and statues of the Karmapas, the 16th and 17th Karmapa, the 12th Tai Situpas, and Gyaltsab Rinpoche were all prominently on display in these monasteries without any censorship (as well as photos of the Chinese recognition of the Panchen Lama). However, there did not seem to be many monks there at all. It was great to see such astonishing art, statues and buildings at these Karma Kagyu temples, many of which had to be completely re-built for various reasons, but there were some original paintings and buildings there too. Not many monastics, and I did not see or hear of any nuns at all.  The majority of people spoke Chinese, with only a few speaking Tibetan.

Also, there were zero photos of the 14th Dalai Lama, again proving the point that for the Gelugpas and the Dalai Lama insitution the tables have well and truly turned. From being a country where every monastery was forced to have a prominent photo of Dalai Lama on their shrines and bow down to him as the supreme head of all the lineages, now only photos of the other lineage lamas are allowed in Tibetan areas.  A cruel, yet also very karmic twist of fate indeed, and one which the Gelugpas in exile (desperately clinging onto worldly and spiritual power via the elderly 14th Dalai Lama) show no signs of accepting as their horrendous karmic result.

2. Shangri-La and Little Potala

I also took a brief three day trip into Dechen Tibetan autonomous region by train and bus, to a city called Shangri-la,  (formerly Zhongdian in Chinese,  Gyalthang in Tibetan).  I was delighted that this was my first time in former ‘Tibet’  and the drive there was spectacular indeed (like when I first travelled to Ladakh by bus). Endless huge landscapes of massive mountains, green from the summer rains, and clouds next to the peaks. It felt a joyful land and place. On the outskirts of the city, is home of one of the biggest Tibetan Buddhist monasteries in that region, Songtsangling (“Little Potala”) established by the 5th Dalai Lama and Gelugpas after forcing the 10th Karmapa to flee in fear of his life.

I will write more about the 5th Dalai Lama and what happened to the 10th Karmapa, when the Mongolians took over Tibet, in a future article about my visit to the ‘Little Potala’ in Shangri La, (coincidentally I arrived there on the day after the Dalai Lama’s birthday). This monastery tragically, unlike the Karma Kagyu monasteries, has been turned into a ‘Disneyland’ type tourist attraction with visitors having to pay high entrance fees, and busloads of tourists many wearing national Tibetan dress (predominantly women), spending hours taking personal portraits with professional photographers, with full make-up looking stunning, but no Dharma practice or pilgrimage type activities from what I saw and heard.

For example, one Han Chinese woman in full Tibetan costume and make-up (who did not speak a word of Tibetan) shouted at me when I accidentally brushed past her photographer’s shoulder (they were both taking up the whole path way for many minutes). When I asked her whether she was Tibetan she said she was not but that Tibet is part of China so the monastery was Chinese. She also shouted something in English about ‘white privilege’.

The irony of this incident to a ‘white woman’ who has spent the last fifteen years of her life  in India and Nepal self-funded studying and translating the Tibetan language for the Dharma, by a such a woman was so tragic it was almost comical. I quickly left as it felt like a bit of a ‘demonic’ attack, and the monastery (now tourist attraction) itself clearly has a lot of ‘unaired’ historical demons, and paying a karmic result for them too. I did not see any monastics and very few Tibetan speakers either. Yet, the Karma Kagyu monasteries, in Lijiang, were generally peaceful havens and hardly a tourist in sight. No entrance fees either, and still functioning to some extent as authentic Tibetan Buddhist monasteries. Karma works in mysterious (or not so mysterious) ways!

3. Dechen Tibetan region and Kawa Karpo mountain range

The final stop up northwards was at Dechen TAR and Kawa Karpo (ཁ་བ་དཀར་པོ, 卡瓦格博) the highest mountain in Yunnan) and the mountain range it is part of. Kawa Karpo is one of the most sacred mountains in Tibetan history, praised and visited by several Karmapas (more on that to follow).  It is visited by thousands of pilgrims each year from throughout the Tibetan world; many pilgrims circumambulate the peak, an arduous 240 km (150 mi) trek. It was the rainy season when I was there so no clear gleaming peaks for me, but seeing the clouds and the peaks piercing through, especially at sunset, was magical indeed.

4. Lijiang and Baisha Town: UNESCO heritage ancient murals, parks, temples and Mu’s Palace

The rest of my time in the Lijiang area was spent exploring on foot the exquisite ancient UNESCO heritage towns of Lijiang and Baisha and visiting the Naxi King Mu’s Palace, Dabaojigong Temple, Baisha ancient wall murals, Lion Rock Mountain, and Dragon Lake Park, and spectacular city vistas (such as these in the photos here).

Practicalities: safety, travel, costs, food, language and being a lone, female (non-Chinese speaking) foreigner

In general, as a solo, female budget traveller during  my 15 days of travels in Yunnan and Dechen Tibetan autonomous region, I did not see or hear hardly any foreigners at all, for example, one black person,  a couple of Indians, and maybe one or two white people. It was predominantly Han Chinese, or Asian tourists from Chinese speaking countries. That said, China has just announced 2 week visa free entry for 11 European countries so that may change in the future. People were not wearing masks anywhere and COVID injection proof was not required to enter the country.

Overall, I felt very safe as a solo female there, and got the impression there was almost zero crime (one of the major positives of an authoritarian dictatorship perhaps?) but faced several practical challenges too, which I will write more about in the forthcoming articles.

As a general word of advice though, I would say a) make sure you can eat with chopsticks and b) learn Chinese! I knew some basic Chinese phrases and numbers but I needed more. When, and if, I go back to China again, I will be sure to take a two to three month intensive course on spoken Chinese, because it is very difficult to move around and do even basic things without it. Google Translate helped a lot, but in areas where there was poor internet connection (which happened to me a lot), one is left floundering and rather helpless. Nonetheless, Chinese people were generally very helpful, patient and accommodating. I was even offered help when I had not asked for it.

The cities and roads were clean, well-developed and in Lijiang in particular an abundance of food, cafes, restaurants, beautiful buildings and so on. As a vegetarian I was surprised there were zero vegetarian-only places, but I was able to ask for no meat dishes if I went to Chinese places. Meat again, as in all the other countries I visited in SE Asia was the norm was served with literally everything.  Prices of food and coffee were high though, about three times the price (e.g. cappuccino 20-40 RMB, meal 30-60 RMB) I was paying in Chiang Mai, Thailand, or India. Although hotel rooms, and I was told apartment rents, were comparable and not too expensive (from 100-200 RMB) for a lovely, clean and central hotel room, although of course much more expensive 4 and 5 star options are available too for those with the need and budget!

There was no metro in Lijiang, unlike in Kunming (which was excellent and very easy to navigate and not expensive at all), but once one had set up Wechat or Alipay to pay for Didi, the local cab driving app, then getting around is easy and not too expensive either.. This was not easy for me to do initially, when my bank suddenly blocked my card on the first day for no good reason and did not lift the block for 5 days either! There are buses too, but these are not so easy to find or know where they are going as the bus-stands are all written in Chinese. I tended to get Didi app taxis to the places and then once there, found it easier to grab a lift with other people there (if any) or be directed to a bus going from that location.

Brief review of the sources and research on the 10th Karmapa, Choying Dorje

Here is a brief summary of some the main Tibetan and English language sources on the 10th Karmapa I compiled for this article:

1) Tibetan language sources

There are three main autobiographical Tibetan language accounts said to be by the 10th Karmapa (I have shortened the poetic, long titles). These are about the 6th Zhamarpa, his faithful attendant, Kuntu Zangpo and his travels with 6th Gyaltsab Rinpoche, Norbu Zangpo:

• “The Wish-Fulfilling Cow” (Kungi Dopa Jowai Bamo བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའི་རྟོགས་བརྗོད་པ་ཞིང་ཀུན་ཏུ་རང་ཉིད་འོང་བ་གདུལ་བར་བྱ་བ་ཀུན་གྱི་འདོད་པ་འཇོ་བའི་བ་མོ་ ). Deeds of the 6th Zhamarpa.
  
• “The Resounding Dharma Drum” (Dragpai Choki Ngawoche བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའི་རྟོགས་པ་བརྗོད་པ་ངེས་པར་བྱུང་བའི་ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྣམ་གྲངས་སྲིད་པ་གསུམ་དུ་སྙན་པར་གྲགས་པའི་ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྔ་བོ་ཆེ་). A text celebrating the past deed of Bodhisattva Kuntu Zangpo (the 10th Karmapa’s faithful attendant).
  
• “The Travel Song”(Kala Pingkai Lam Lu བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའི་རྟོགས་པ་བརྗོད་པ་ངེས་པར་འབྱུང་བའི་ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྣམ་གྲངས་ཀ་ལ་པིང་ཀའི་ལམ་གླུ་).

Other important biographical historical account on the 10th Karmapa’s life is an 18th Century Karma Kagyu history text by the 8th Tai Situpa, Chokyi Jung-ngey  and famed translator, Bey Lotsawa in a text called:

• the Moonstone Mala (Dawa Chushel gi Trengwa སྒྲུབ་བརྒྱུད་ཀརྨ་ཀཾ་ཚང་བརྒྱུད་པ་རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་རྣམ་པར་ཐར་པ་རབ་བྱམས་ནོར་བུ་ཟླ་བ་ཆུ་ཤེལ་གྱི་ཕྲེང་བ་).

2) English language sources

Due to lack of time, to prepare myself for this pilgrimage trip, I consulted the previous English-language research on 10th Karmapa, and his time in Ljiang in particular. The main individuals who have done the most research on the 10th Karmapa are:

1. Karl Debreczeny, art historian/Tibetologist, now Curator at Rubin Museum of Art, New York, has written several articles and books on the 10th Karmapa.
2. Imgard Mengele, European Tibetology scholar, who used to teach at University of Carolina has written a couple of articles, a biography and a book on the 10th Karmapa.
3. 14th Zhamarpa whose book Golden Swan in Turbulent Waters (2012), is an under-rated yet very interesting and useful translation of the main autobiographical/biographical Tibetan sources on the 10th Karmapa.

I tried to get hard-copies of these books to read but they were either out of stock or ridiculously expensive. Mengele, who also translated the biography of the radical rebel, Gedun Chophel (who openly criticised the Ganden/Gelugpa governing classes and was imprisoned, and died shortly after being released), told me on contacting her, that she no longer had anything to do with academia, and would not be able to send me copies of her books. I hope to write more on Mengele’s work and life in a future post. However, I was able to read her very useful Treasury of Lives biography of the 10th Karmapa.

Fortunately, Debreczeny’s work was easily and freely available online and so were the main source of information on the history and places Karmapa visited in Lijiang (and its environs) as well as his magnificent artworks. However, Debreczeny’s research is mainly focused on the artworks and painting styles, and there is not so much detail, focus or photographs of the monasteries and places themselves, which I will provide here in future posts.

I was able to get an e-copy of 14th Zhamar Rinpoche’s 2012 book, “Golden Swan in Turbulent Waters“, which is a translation and summary of the 10th Karmapa’s autobiographical accounts combined with the Karma Kamtsang historical text Moonstone Mala by Tai Situpa and Belo (Be Lotsawa). It is full of rich anecdotes and information about the 10th Karmapa’s life too. Full citations of these sources are listed below.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Tibetan Language Sources

Chos dbyings rdo rje. 2004. Byang chub sems dpa’i rtogs brjod pa zhing kun tu rang nyid ‘ong ba gdul bar bya ba kun gyi ‘dod pa ‘jo ba’i ba mo (“Wish Fulfilling Cow”). In Rgyal ba‘i dbang po skyabs rje Karma pa sku phreng bcu pa Chos dbyings rdo rje mchog gi gsung ‘bum legs bshad nor bu‘i gtsug rgyan bzhugs/ mGo log khul gna‘ rtsom bya ba‘i gzhung las khang gis ‘tshol sdud dag sgrig byas, vol. 18, pp. 1-333. Chengdu: Sichuan Minzu Chubanshe. Also in Zhwa dmar drug pa chos kyi dbang phyug gi rtogs pa brjod pa. bSod nams rab brtan. Buddhist Digital Resource Center (BDRC), purl.bdrc.io/resource/W3CN412.

Chos dbyings rdo rje. 2004. Byang chub sems dpa’i rtogs pa brjod pa nges par ‘byung ba’i chos kyi rnam grangs ka la ping ka’i lam glu (“Travel Song“). In Rgyal ba‘i dbang po skyabs rje Karma pa sku phreng bcu pa Chos dbyings rdo rje mchog gi gsung ‘bum legs bshad nor bu‘i gtsug rgyan bzhugs/ mGo log khul gna‘ rtsom bya ba‘i gzhung las khang gis ‘tshol sdud dag sgrig byas, vol. 19, pp. 1-117. Chengdu: Sichuan Minzu Chubanshe.

Chos dbyings rdo rje. 2004. Byang chub sems dpa’i rtogs pa brjod pa nges par byung ba’i chos kyi rnam grangs srid pa gsum du snyan par grags pa’i chos kyi rnga bo che (“Big Drum“). In Karma pa sku phreng rim byon gyi gsung ʼbum phyogs bsgrigs, vol. 91, dPal brtsegs bod yig dpe rnying zhib ʼjug khang, 2013, pp. 136–376. Buddhist Digital Resource Center (BDRC), purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW3PD1288_7D30B8.

Gtsang mkhan chen ‘Jam dbyangs dpal ldan rgya mtsho. 1982. Rgyal mchog chos dbyings rdo rje’i rnam thar mdo sde rgyan gyi lung dang sbyar ba. In Poetical Biographies of Dharmakirti and the 10^th Karma-pa Chos-dbyings-rdo-rje with a Collection of Instructions on Buddhist Practice, pp. 148-. Thimphu, Bhutan: Tango Monastic Community.

‘Jam dbyangs tshul khrims. 1997. Karma pa chos dbyings rdo rje.” In Karma pa sku phreng rim byon gyi mdzad rnam, pp. 192 – 204. Lanzhou: Kan su’u mi rigs dpe skrun khang. TBRC W18133.

Karma nges don bstan rgyas. 1973 (1891). Chos rje Karma pa sku ‘phreng rim byon gyi rnam thar mdor bsdus dpag bsam ‘khri shing. New Dehli: Tibetan Bonpo Monastic Center.

Kar sras kong sprul mkhyen brtse ‘od zer and Khra ‘gu rin po che. 1994. Chos rje kar ma pa sku ‘phreng rim byon gyi rnam thar mdor bsdus dpag bsam khri shing, vol. 1, pp. 573 ff. Delhi: Konchog Lhadrepa.

ShAkya rin chen. 1976. Karma zhwa nag chos rdo rje’i rtogs brjod nges par ‘byung ba’i chos kyi dbyangs. In Gsung ‘bum / shAkya rin chen, vol. 2, pp. 345-362. Thimphu: Kunzang Topgey. TBRC W8684.

Si tu paN chen chos kyi ‘byung gnas and ‘Be lo tshe dbang kun khyab. 1972 (1775). Sgrub brgyud karma kaM tshang brgyud pa rin po che’i rnam par thar pa rab byams nor bu zla ba chu shel gyi phreng ba. in Collected Works of Chokyi Jungnge gSung ʼbum chos kyi ʼbyung gnas, vol. 12, Palpung Sungrab Nyamso Khang, 1990, pp. 7–706. Buddhist Digital Resource Center (BDRC), purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW26630_01AA57. 

Yonten Gyatso. 2006. “Skyid shod sde pa’i skor.” JIATS vol 2, pp. 1-48.

English Language Sources

 

Dy-Liacco, Kristina. 2005. “The Victorious Karma-pa Has Come to ’Jang: An Examination of Naxi Patronage of the Bka’-brgyud-pa in the Fifteenth to Seventeenth Centuries.” Master’s thesis, Indiana University.

Shamar Rinpoche. 2012. A Golden Swan in Turbulent Waters: The Life and Times of the Tenth Karmapa Choying Dorje. Lexington, VA: Bird of Paradise Press.