“This Khawa Karpo, the tsen of the Rong [country], is the palace of both, mundane and transcendental deities. There is even a pilgrimage guide (lam yig) of [Mount] Khawa Karpo, the tsen of the Rong [country]. རོང་བཙན་ཁ་བ་དཀར་པོ་གངས་རི་དེ།་ཡེ་ཤེས་པ་དནས་འཇིག་རྟེན་པ་རྣམས་ཡི་ཞལ་ཡས་ཁང་དང་ཕོ་བྲང་ཡིན་བར་འདུས།་རོང་བཙན་ཁ་བ་དཀར་པོའི་ལམ་ཡིག་གཅིག་ཀྱང་ཡོད།”
“When you don’t know everything is in mind. Places – outside and in – aren’t much use.” ཐམས་ཅད་སེམས་སུ་མ་ཤེས་ན། ཕྱི་སྣང་བའི་ཡུལ་གིས་དགོས་པ་ཆུང།
–excerpts from writings of 3rd Karmapa, Rangjung Dorje
“In degenerate times, bodhisattvas
Practising the essential accomplishment [siddhi]
Should rely on the condition of support, solitude,
As taught in accordance with the sūtras.
The abodes of the rocky mountains and vast borderlands
are praised everywhere as the twenty-four sites.
Thus it was taught in the supreme tantras.”
–excerpt from Praises to Khawa Karpo by the 3rd Karmapa
“If you can generate a powerful effort in dark times, if you can stay in isolated places and dedicate yourself to dharma,
then even though these are dark times, your qualities will be clarified. As the Buddha praised them, these (sites) will help you transform.”
–3rd Karmapa, Rangjung Dorje from When I Met Ogyenpa in a Dream
After the visit to Shangri-la city and the 5th Dalai Lama’s Little Potala, I felt like going back to Lijiang. despite being on the road for months, I was becoming tired and weary as a solo, female traveller in foreign land, with an unreliable internet, very basic Chinese language skills and a still blocked bank card (meaning all my transactions had to be in cash, when most in China are on Wechat or Alipay). The creature comforts of Lijiang beckoned me again. I booked a train and hotel to return the following day.
However, after a good night’s rest, I changed my mind. I realised that I may not get the chance again to visit Dechen, Tibet and the famed Khawa Karpo (ཁ་བ་དཀར་པོ་) mountain again. Khawa Karpo at 6,740m is the highest mountain in Yunnan province and regarded as one of the most sacred mountains of Tibet by Tibetans. So I cancelled my train and hotel bookings and went to the bus station to take the five hour public bus to Dechen. As I boarded the bus a photo of the 17th Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley was directly above the driver (see below for details of the trip). It was a great sign and I was glad I went there as it was an unforgettable trip of a lifetime. Even though it was rainy season and cloudy skies, the sun came out in the afternoon I arrived, enough to get a glimpse of the magnificent peaks of the mountain range.
Pilgrimage is about the energy of the place, previous masters who have been there and its sacred geography, and aspirations made there than beautiful photos to share with others though. Below is a record of my personal pilgrimage there.
First, I share historical information about the mountain itself, the importance of the 2nd and 3rd Karmapas in opening up the place/route as a pilgrimage site and the mandalisation of the mountain by the 3rd Karmapa in a praises he wrote while there. The 7th Karmapa also spent time in retreat there. I also share my own translation (with the original Tibetan) of some of the opening verses from Praise to Khawa Karpo by the 3rd Karmapa. I had planned to write and translate some of this text a couple of years ago when I first read about it, but things got in the way, as we say. Little did I know then, that I would be visiting the mountain in person. So here it finally is, this time with the blessings of the mountain itself!
I spontaneously penned my own poem/song to the mountain, which I have recorded with images and voice here. As the 3rd Karmapa himself sang in his ode to the mountains, I conclude this introduction here with his words:
“I say these things, to encourage my own depressed mind.
Even if there are no other listeners, to you, the empty sky, I speak.” དེ་ལྟར་ངག་ཏུ་བརྗོད་པ་འདི། སྐྱོ་བའི་ཡིད་ཀྱིས་རབ་བསྐུལ་ནས། གཞན་དག་་ཉེན པར་མི་འགྱུར་ཡང། ནམ་མཁའ་སྟོང་པ་ཁྱོད་ལ་སྨྲས།
“For those who understand, may it be precious instruction. For those who don’t understand, may it be enjoyable.” གོ་བ་རྣམ་གྱིས་གདམ་ངག་མཛོད།་ མ་གོ་བ་རྣམ་ཉམས་དགའ་མཛོད།
Music? Here is a Tibetan song called Dechen Kawa Karpo by Dukhar Gyal and the soundtrack for my trip there, the joyful (and yogic) Mountains by Prince, and Long Distance by Tibetan exile musician and rapper, GTashi.
Dedicated to the Gyalwang Karmapa, the Karma Kagyu and to all those ‘mountain yogis’ meditating in isolated places. May the light of your example, like the peak of Kawa Karpo, shine in the moon and sun of a clear, cloud-free space!
Written and compiled by Adele Tomlin, 27th July 2024.
I: The History and Importance of Khawa Karpo as a major pilgrimage site and its connection to the Chakrasamvara Tantra and the Karmapas
Khawa Karpo is a mountain range that forms the divide between the Mekong and Salween river basins on the border between Yunnan and Tsawa Rong. In Chinese it is referred to as the Meili Snow mountain range, and is made up of 13 peaks, including several over 6,000m. The highest peak in the range is 6,740m Khawa Karpo which means “The White Snowy Mountain”, and most locals call the entire mountain range by this name. The surrounding region is home to monasteries of the Kagyu and Khatog tradition.
The Khawa Karpo mountain is said to be “unconquered”: various expeditions that tried to climb it in the 1980s and in the 1990s never reached the top due to difficult weather conditions. A major accident occurred in 1991 when a joint Sino-Japanese team of seventeen climbers perished, killed by an avalanche (here is an article I found about that tragedy). Buffetrille (2010: 198) writes that:
“Tibetans explain all these events as the result of Khawa Karpo’s anger at the violation of his territory.”
As I detail below, the Khawa Karpo became a major pilgrimage site for Tibetans, from the 14th century onwards, visited by both the second and third Karmapas who were said to have written the first pilgrimage travel guides ‘path-guide’ (lam-yig) and ‘place-guide’ (ney-yig) about the mountain. They wrote texts and praises about the mountain, as did the First Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Thaye.
Khawa Karpo is also claimed to be is one of “the twenty- four sites,” or pīṭha, that are associated with the Cakrasamvara Tantra. As chapter 4 explained, this tantra’s subjugation myth portrays these sites as the twenty- four places in which Cakrasamvara and his consort Vajravārāhī defeated the demonic gods Bhairava and Kālī, and in so doing replaced what were demonic maṇḍalas with awakened maṇḍalas. By the time the 3rd Karmapa, Rangjung Dorjé arrived at Khawa Karpo, three of Tibet’s sacred mountains had already been re- visioned as pīṭha: Tsari as Cārita (or sometimes Devīkoṭṭa), Lachi as Godāvarī ,and Kailash as Himavat.
Recently a modern pilgrimage guidebook with relevant rituals to perform at Mount Kawa Karpo in Yunnan, southeastern Tibet was written by Rinchen Dorje (20th cent.). This book also contains editions of the 3rd Karmapa and 7th Karmapa texts on the mountain mentioned below. There is said to be an English translation of this by Katia Buffetrille, but I have not seen it.
The ‘place-openers’ of Khawa Karpo: Khatog monastery master, and the 2nd and 3rd Karmapas
Buffetrille (2010: 198) also writes that:
“According to several written sources, the individual responsible for “opening” the pilgrimage is Khawa Karpo is Namkha Choki Gyatso (ནམ་མཁའ་ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྒྱ་མཚོ་དཔལ་བཟང་པོ་). (a 14th Century Tibetan master from the Khatog monastery)… A great master of meditation, he was the first one to open the door of Khawa Karpo. He also established numerous religious foundations in the area, among others a new retreat center in Khawa Karpo where he brought the Jowo Namkha Tashi (ཇོ་བོ་མམ་མཁའ་བཀྲ་ཤིས་) which became its central icon.”
However, as Buffetrille points out, there is another more ‘popular’ tradition which says the people who ‘opened’ it were the 2nd and/or 3rd Karmapas. In fact, Karma Pakshi was ordained at Kathog monastery where he studied with Pomdragpa (སྤོམ་བྲག་པ་) (1170?- 1249), a disciple of Drogon Rechen (འགྲོ་མགོན་རས་ཆེན་ ) (1148-1218), who was a disciple of the 1st Karmapa Dusum Khyenpa Dus gsum mkhyen pa (1110- 1193). This is not only confirmed by texts they wrote about the mountain (see below) but other physical evidence the Karmapas left there on the circumambulation route:
” The traces of the activities of the 2nd and 3rd Karmapa worshipped at several places along the pilgrimage path of the outer – but also of the inner – kora in the form of footprints, handprints and springs, took place almost a century before the opening by Namkha Cho kyi Gyatso.” Buffetrille (2010: 1199)
The Lam-Yig and Ney-Yig for Khawa Karpo and the 2nd and 3rd Karmapa
It is said that the 2nd Karmapa was the first to have a vision of the route to Kawa Karpo and wrote a lam-yig [2], making it a popular pilgrimage site. He had a strong connection to the Khatog Monastery and that area around Khawa Karpo. Gamble (2018) explains:
“He had begun his monastic career at Kaḥtog Monastery, a Nyingma monastery farther north in Kham….Karma Pakshi left Kaḥtog Monastery with his teacher Pomdrakpa, as a young man, probably to escape Mongol raids, and they traveled around southern Kham. After Pomdrakpa had died, Karma Pakshi went to live near Khawa Karpo, at Mount Pungri for eleven years, and reportedly amassed hundreds of students during this time. It was also while staying at Mount Pungri that he accumulated enough resources to begin repairs at the nearby Kampo Nénang, which had become derelict after Düsum Khyenpa’s death.”
Written sources attribute the composition of a pilgrimage guide (gnas yig or lam yig) to both Karmapas. In his “Biography of Karma Pakshi”, Rangjung Dorje writes (Buffetrille 2010):
“This Khawa Karpo, the tsen (btsan) of the Rong [country], is the palace of both, mundane and transcendental deities. There is even a pilgrimage guide (lam yig) of [Mount] Khawa Karpo, the tsen of the Rong [country]. རོང་བཙན་ཁ་བ་དཀར་པོ་གངས་རི་དེ།་ཡེ་ཤེས་པ་དནས་འཇིག་རྟེན་པ་རྣམས་ཡི་ཞལ་ཡས་ཁང་དང་ཕོ་བྲང་ཡིན་བར་འདུས།་རོང་བཙན་ཁ་བ་དཀར་པོའི་ལམ་ཡིག་གཅིག་ཀྱང་ཡོད།”
but he does not specify who wrote it. Buffetrille (2010:200) gives further written sources on this topic [3].
3rd Karmapa, Rangjung Dorje: Praises, mandalisation and special role of mountains in his life and songs
It is clear that a young 3rd Karmapa spent a significant amount of time in the mountains in retreat, often marred by local hostility and fighting and even an assassination attempt! As scholar, Ruth Gamble (2011) explains in “Looking over at the Mountains”: Sense of place in the Third Karmapa’s “Songs of Experience” [4]:
“While there were very few people living in the mountains during Milarepa’s time, Rangjung Dorje spends much time either travelling to already established hermitages, or founding new ones. He and his entourage journey to new border areas – Tsari in the south, Khawa Karpo in the south-east and Lha-teng in the mountains of north-eastern Kham – “opening the doors of holy places”, as they put it, through a process of “seeing” the localities’ maṇḍala, living and teaching there, and singing poems in their praise.”
Also, in Reincarnation in Tibetan Buddhism: The Third Karmapa and the Invention of a Tradition (2018) Gamble describes how the 3rd Karmapa spent time at Khawa Karpo and the praises he wrote about the mountain:
“In 1302, at the age of nineteen, Rangjung Dorjé left Tsurpu monastery to live in the mountains. During the next twelve years, he spent less than eighteen months in central Tibet and even less time at Tsurpu… At Kampo Nénang, the welcome from the local humans was even less cordial, and for unexplained reasons, he did not enter the monastery’s grounds. He did, however, have much to do in Kampo Nénang’s neighborhood. First, he helped stop the fighting that had been raging nearby, and shortly after that, he was invited farther south to visit the magnificent Mount Khawa Karpo. While at Khawa Karpo, he became involved with its maṇḍalization, writing a praise to it and describing its special role in his autobiography.”
During the 3rd Karmapas time at one of the important Karma Kagyu monasteries in the region, Khampo Nenang the 3rd Karmapa speaks about being selcome by a local god, Dorje Pelstseh and then about subduing non-humans who had caused lots of conflict in the area around Khawa Karpo:
“Like many other local gods, Dorjé Peltsek is described as a white man on a white horse, and as Rangjung Dorjé explains events, the god not only invited him to the area but also came to welcome him. “When I was traveling to Kampo Nénang,” he says, “I saw the great lay Buddhist Dorjé Peltsek riding a white horse with a red mane. He gestured to indicate that he was happy to see me and had come to welcome me.”
Despite this celestial welcome, the humans at Kampo Nénang were decidedly less cordial. Rangjung Dorjé does not provide details about what occurred as he approached this monastery, and neither do later redactors. All they acknowledge is that he traveled into the area, was greeted by Dorjé Peltsek, and then left without staying at one of his lineage’s most important monasteries. He never returned to Kampo Nénang.
“Instead, he explains in the Liberation Story in Verse, he traveled farther south “subduing the enemies of the lay Buddhist Rongtsen Khawa Karpo (Spirit of the Ravine, Snow White),” the god who resided on Mount Khawa Karpo. Eventually, Rangjung Dorjé says he was granted a vision of the local god, who appeared to him “a man on a white horse [wearing] a white, silken coat . . . [next to] a divine mansion.”This god, he continues, led him to a village called Kolti, where he came to understand that the “great fight” that had beset its inhabitants for generations “was caused by non-humans.” So, he used his “samādhi to calm them down,” until “they did as I said, and I heard them speaking kind words to each other.”
The death of the 3rd Karmapa’s teacher, Ogyenpa
In the summer of 1309, even though it seemed the 3rd Karmapa had planned to stay longer at Khawa Karpo. he experienced an intense vision of his teacher, Orgyenpa, which was followed by news of his death. He returned immediately to central Tibet, where he stayed for just under a year:
“In the [3rd Karmapa’s autobiography] Liberation Story in Verse, he wrote that he was informed of Orgyenpa’s death by a vision he experienced at Khawa Karpo. In this vision, he saw Orgyenpa directly and continually all the way through sunrise, but as “a sign of [Orgyenpa’s] degeneration, he appeared as if reflected in a mirror.” Determined to fulfill his guru’s wishes by studying the Kālacakra Tantra with Künga Özer, he left Khawa Karpo in late 1308 and traveled to his teacher’s elder student in Nyédo.” (Gamble: 2018).
Gamble (2018: 226: n.32) helpfully explains how the details of this vision have been preserved in the 3rd Karmapa’s Collected Works (Sung Bum) in a text, The Way I Met Orgyenpa in a Dream ཨུ་རྒྱན་པ་རྨི་ལམ་དུ་མཇལ་ལུགས།. The lines discussing isolated places say:
“If you can generate a powerful effort in dark times, if you can stay in isolated places and dedicate yourself to dharma,
then even though these are dark times, your qualities will be clarified. As the Buddha praised them, these (sites) will help you transform.”
Gamble asserts that this idea is a precedent for the idea of the “hidden land,” or bey-yul (sbas yul).
The mountain yogis and the importance of solitude in degenerate times
As Gamble (2011) notes, the 3rd Karmapa wrote many songs about solitude and mountains, one such example she cites is particularly moving, and I have translated it here for the purposes of this article (with the original Tibetan below):
“Mountain yogis like I,
Looking at the expanse of space
Instantly remember empty-luminous clarity,
Manifestly unceasing arisal.
Looking at the stream’s flow,
Instantly remember continuity,
Manifestly free from expression.
Looking at the mountain over there,
Instantly remember immutability.
Manifestly unmoving.” (tr. Adele Tomlin, 2024)
བདག་འདྲའི་རྣལ་འབྱོར་རི་ཁྲོད་པ། ནམ་མཁའི་དབྱིངས་ལ་ཕར་བལྟས་པས། སྟོང་པ་འོད་གསལ་ཏུར་གྱིས་དྲན།་སྐྱེ་འགག་མེད་པ་མངོན་དུ་གྱུར།ཆུ་བོའི་གཞུང་ལ་མར་ལྟས་པས། རྒྱུན་ཆད་མེད་པ་ཏུར་གྱིས་དྲན་།་བརྗོད་དུ་བྲལ་བ་མངོན་དུ་གྱུར།་རི་བོ་འདི་ལ་ཕར་ལྟས་པས།་འགྱུར་བ་མེད་པ་ཏུར་གྱིས་དྲན།་གཡོ་འགུལ་མེད་པ་མངོན་ཏུ་གྱུར།
Two place guides (gnas yig) to Khawa Karpo that are attributed to the 3rd Karmapa are a Secret Guide to Khawa Karpo and a Rain of Siddhi: A Site Guide for the Great Sacred Site Khawa Karpo.
Praises to Khawa Karpo by 3rd Karmapa
In the colophon of the 3rd Karmapa’s Praises to Khawa Karpo (རོང་བཙན་ཁ་བ་དཀར་པོའི་བསྟོད་པ།) [5] it says he wrote it in 1308, at the same time he was traveling in the area. Gamble (2018) gives a helpful translation and some analysis of the Praises, which are interesting to read in full (although she does not always list the original Tibetan with them). Frankly, most people will not have the time or energy to buy or read her (rather expensive) book, so I footnote some of her observations in my own new translation (with the original Tibetan) of some of the verses from the Praises, which I publish here:
“In degenerate times, bodhisattvas
Practising the essential accomplishment [siddhi]
Should rely on the condition of support, solitude,
As taught in accordance with the sūtras.
The abodes of the rocky mountains and vast borderlands
are praised everywhere as the twenty-four sites.
Thus it was taught in the supreme tantras.”
(Tibetan: སྙིག་མའི་དུས་ན་བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ་རྣམས། སྒྲུབ་པའི་སྙིང་པོ་ཉམས་སུ་ལེན་བྱེད་པ། དེ་ཉིད་རྐྱེན་གྱུར་དབེན་བརྟེན་བྱ་ཞིང། མདོ་ལས་བྱུང་བ་དེ་དང་མཐུན་གྱུར་པ། རི་བྲག་བས་མཐའ་ཆེན་པོར་གནས་པ་རྣམས། ཕྱོགས་སུ་བསྔགས་ཤིང་ཉི་ཤུ་རྩ་བཞིའི་གནས༎ རྒྱུད་སྡེའི་མཆོག་ལས་སྙིང་པོར་གསུངས་པའི་ཕྱིར༎)
The Karmapa then goes on to explain the mandala of the site, with Mount Meru, a vajra seat and sacred sites in the different directions (see Gamble (2018) for detailed observations). The 3rd Karmapa then again returns to the identification of the place as that of siddhas (drubthob):
Seventh Karmapa, Chodrag Gyatso: Seven years in retreat at Khawa Karmap
Ther 7th Karmapa, Chodrag Gyatso (1454–1506) also had a strong connection with Khawa Karpo. In 1471, at the age of seventeen, he travelled with his Kagyu encampment monastic camp to the mountain and is said to have entered into intensive meditation for seven years there in order to complete his training.
In common with all other Karmapa incarnations, Chodrag Gyatsho had a natural affinity with Guru Padmasambhava. In fact, the Karmapa is considered by many as an emanation of Padmasambhava. Having returned after his long retreat to Karma Gon monastery, Chodrag Gyatsho had a visionary experience of Guru Padmasambhava surrounded by Nyingma symbolic deities, Shakyamuni Buddha and lamas of the Kagyu lineage. It is said the Karmapa was prompted by this vision to find certain hidden valleys which would afford safety during the coming conflict he foresaw as inevitable.
II: Getting There and Personal Pilgrimage tales
As I boarded the bus, a photo at the front of the bus, above the driver’s head, was of the 17th Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje. It was a welcoming ‘sign’ to see, and I was happy to have changed my mind and venture further north into sacred Tibetan Buddhist territory. The whole trip I felt as if the 17th Karmapa was there with me in spirit and mind, and did not feel so alone.
I was the only foreigner on the bus, never mind the only white female, yet people were friendly and smiled and I managed to communicate with some of them in English, who wanted to practice their English with me.
As we drove further into Tibetan territory, the Kawa Karpo is positioned in the middle of sacred areas of former Kham, such as Derge and Litang, I was blown away by the breathtaking mountains all around, green from the rains of the summer season. It was like nothing I had seen before. I have been to Ladakh several times this lifetime, and it was similar to that landscape (albeit they are desert/dry mountains).
I switched on my mobile and played Prince’s Mountains internally laughing with joy that I had made it on my own to that Tibetan region, and would soon see the famed Khawa Karpo. Some people around me were sick due to the many bends and turns of the road and the high altitude, but years of travel in India, (particularly the road trip from Dharamsala to Delhi by bus) had prepared me well, and I fortunately did not get travel sick.
Police checkpoint at Dechen: request for ID and phone number
As we approached the Dechen Tibetan Autonomous region area, the bus was suddenly stopped by two very young men (late teens/early 20s) in police clothing who came on the bus and demanded the ID cards of the people sitting next to me and my passport. They took them off the bus with them, we waited on the bus nervously unsure what they were doing and why they needed our IDs. I did some Tara and Guru Rinpoche mantras silently. The young men then came back on the bus with the passport/IDs and requested my phone number in Chinese (this was translated by the Chinese next to me). I was about to give it to them but then I asked them via my Chinese ‘translator’ why they needed my phone number, and I also that I could not remember it (true). After some discussion, smiling and laughter, the young men went off the bus, then told us from the road checkpoint that the number would not be necessary. Phew!
Most of the people on the bus were Han Chinese, and a few Tibetans. When we arrived at Dechen, the nearest town to the mountain range, I got out to get some croissants from the bakery there (luxury item!). The bus then continued on another twenty minutes and arrived at the mountain range (Felai Si in Chinese).
Tibetan-run hotel, Khampa manager: “Oi Bhumo!”
I stayed at a Tibetan-run hotel with a magnificent view of the range. As a pure ‘coincidence’ I arrived the night before the Chokhor Duchen. The hotel was managed by a Tibetan man with a strong Kham accent. He would refer to me as ‘Bumo’ (Tibetan for girl), which was mildly flattering but also kind of impolite too ha ha ha. I realised I was in Kham where people are khari-khatug (very direct) and felt overjoyed by this experience.
He offered to take me to the Karma Kagyu monastery, Dondrub Ling nearby in his car alone the following day, which I really wanted to visit too, and would have been ideal had I not been travelling alone, but I decided it was a bit too much of a risk travelling for an hour or two to an olsiated mountain alone with a man (physically much bigger than me) in a car in a foreign land with no one else around, and decided to decline the kind offer. Prior experiences had taught me to be more cautious with such things.
In any case, in the afternoon of arrival (it turned quite sunny) I was able to gaze at the mountains and do some practice there with it right in front of me. I imagined previous Karmapas and masters before me gazing at this view, albeit not from a hotel room, but was overjoyed to be there this lifetime. Coincidentally the following day was the big Buddhist day of Chokhor Duchen, when Buddha turned the wheel of Dharma, and I was able to practice there in the morning (a very cloudy and cold one) before getting the bus back to Shangri-la again.
Although it was generally cloudy, the trip was well worth it, and I thought perhaps I would come back again during clearer, bluer skies in the spring or autumn.
Here are some photos of the range, daylight hours and later during sunset.
Lucky number 13 and number of circuits of Khawa Karpo
More on the Karmapas at Khawa Karpo below. Buffetrille (2010: 202) also points out that unlike Mount Tsa-ri, another difficult pilgrimage on the border between India and Tibet where one circumambulation (skor ra) is sufficient to be purified from negative actions and defilements, at Khawa Karpo many ritual circuits are required:
“A large number of pilgrims hope to do as many as thirteen skor ra in one lifetime, a number that appears with great frequency in Tibetan non-Buddhist cosmology, history and religion. But whatever the final number, it must always be an odd number because, say the pilgrims, even numbers represent processes that have come to an end and no longer bear fruit. In contrast, odd numbers being “incomplete” are full of potential and continue to produce positive effects. Thus 3, 9, and – above all – 13 are lucky numbers in Tibetan tradition.”
This was interesting to read as in many European countries, the number 13 is considered unlucky – proving that human concepts make their world what it is!
Bibliography
Buffetrille (201o): THE PILGRIMAGE TO MOUNT KHA BA DKAR PO:
A METAPHOR FOR BAR DO? (2010) Searching for the Dharma, Finding Salvation – Buddhist Pilgrimage in Time and Space Proceedings of the Workshop “Buddhist Pilgrimage in History and Present Times” at the Lumbini International Research Institute (LIRI), Lumbini.
Gamble, Ruth (2011): “Looking over at the Mountains”: Sense of place in the Third Karmapa’s “Songs of Experience” Himalayan Nature: Representations and Reality, Studia Orientalia, vol. 109, 2011.
Gamble, Ruth (2018): Reincarnation in Tibetan Buddhism: The Third Karmapa and the Invention of a Tradition, Oxford University Press.
Endnotes
[1] Buffetrille, Katia (2010) see bibliography for citation.
[2] For the differences between a gnas yig and a lam yig, see Vostrikof 1970: 217-232; Wylie 1965: 17; Buffetrille 2000: 3-7; Bründer 2008: 13-14. 19
[3] Buffetrille (2010: 199) : “The 2nd Zhamarpa, Khacho Wangpo (Mkha’ spyod dbang po (1350-1405), in his “The great divine drum” (Lha’i rnga chen, 1978, vol. 2, f. 11b.3) repeats Rangjung Dorje ’s first sentence without referring to any text written by the 2nd Karmapa. The Lhorong Cho-jung (Lho rong chos ’byung) by Ta-tsag Tsewang Gyel (Rta tshag Tshe dbang rgyal. (1446-1451) mentions the 2nd and 3rd Karmapas’ presence at Khawa Karpo but not any text written at that time (1994: 235, 258).
In the “Biographies of the precious lineage of the Karma pa school” (Karma kam tsang gi brgyud pa rin po che’i rnam thar, ’Be lo Tshe dbang kun kyab 1998: 107), Situ Panchen Chos kyi byung gnas (1700-1774) claims that, while he was at Khawa Karpo , Karma Pakshi wrote (mdzad) a lam yig and Rangjung Dorje wrote a ney-yig (gnas yig).
The biography of Karma Pakshi by Sman sdong Mtshams pa Karma nges don bstan rgyas (b. 1770) only mentions the presence of Karma Pakshi at Kha ba dkar po for a few months and the fact that he wrote a lam yig (f. 33a; Epstein 1968: 30)
Lastly, in Dpal karma pa kyi phreng rim byon gyi mdzad rnam, “Successive biographies of the glorious Karma pa” (1997: 68, 84), Ldan ma ’Jam dbyangs tshul khrims repeats exactly what Situ Panchen claimed in the volume quoted above. As far as I know, none of these guides have come to light. “
[4] Gamble, Ruth (2011) in Himalayan Nature: Representations and Reality, Studia Orientalia, vol. 109.
[5] Praises to Khawa Karpo edition in electronic scan see: purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW3PD1288_F1A11B).