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Birth Anniversary of Karu Drupwang Tenzin Rinchen: Pilgrim, Sage, & Champion of Yungdrung Bön

Yungdrung Phüntsok Ling in the village of Lubrak

The 8th day of the 10th lunar month is the birth anniversary of the intrepid scholar and spiritual master Karu Drupwang Tenzin Rinchen Gyaltsen Dechen Nyingpo, better known as Karu Drupwang Rinpoche. In 2023, this lunar date corresponds with November 20th. Born at sunrise in 1801 C.E. to a wealthy family in Kham, Tibet, his birth was precipitated by miraculous signs and his autobiography recounts that he was urged to take rebirth by a group of deities so that he could benefit beings through his manifestation. Throughout his life, he traveled extensively on lengthy pilgrimages and was a strong advocate for maintaining the authentic history of Yungdrung Bön sacred sites while maintaining a nonsectarian view and having meaningful interactions with a wide range of people from kings to outcastes. Throughout Tibet and Nepal, he became well known for both his intellect and his magical power.

An emanation of the 8th century B.C.E. yogi Lishu Taring, the first of his many visionary encounters occurred at the young age of two years old when he was visited by this sage and given extensive, detailed spiritual instructions. At the age of six, he took monastic ordination and began his studies at the nearby Nor Ling Monastery. He was an excellent student and was highly praised by his teachers for his achievements. However, upon the death of his father when he was thirteen, the family’s wealth, status, and influence quickly began to decline. As such, his position within the monastery also declined and the previous jealousy of his peers turned to outright hostility. After a few years of suffering from insults and ill treatment, he left the monastery in order to undergo a lengthy, solitary retreat. This retreat was interrupted however due to unforeseen circumstances that required him to fulfill his monastic responsibilities at Nor Ling. Again experiencing abuse from his peers, he made the decision to begin a lengthy pilgrimage. This began his lifetime of travel, visionary encounters, and his lasting impact on the the spiritual life and culture of the people of Dolpo and Lubrak in Nepal.

His first pilgrimage brought him to Kongpo Bönri where he had many extraordinary visionary encounters. He continued on to Tashi Menri and Kharna in Central Tibet, as well as many Zhang Zhung sacred sites as he made his way to Western Tibet. During these journeys, he would often discover that a Bönpo sacred site had been subsumed into Buddhist lore and history with no remaining Bönpo relevance. At this, he would fervently go about doing his best to correct the historical and religious record. One of his most well-known compositions is his detailed pilgrimage guide to Mount Tisé [a.k.a Mount Kailash], A Catalogue of Snowy Tisé which was written in 1844 C.E. This is the most detailed pilgrimage guide to this ancient sacred site and details its ancient connection with Yungdrung Bön.

The Southern side of Mount Tisé

He spent a great deal of time in the village of Lubrak and sponsored the construction of a village temple of Yungdrung Phüntsok Ling in 1846 C.E. During this time, he met an impoverished woman and her son. Being a widow, the mother was having great difficulty providing for her child. Moved with compassion and feeling a connection with the young boy, he took him under his care. This boy went on to become one of his main students and the renowned master Drogön Tenzin Nyima.

Karu Drupwang Rinpoche’s other well-known composition is the Mar Ti Duk Nga Rang Drol, Essential Instructions on the Self Liberation of the Five Poisons. He received this dzogchen text as a mind treasure when he was twenty-five years old. During one of his visits to Lubrak, he wrote this text down in order to support the spiritual needs of the community. These teachings continue to be a part of the annual ritual in Lubrak and Karu Drupwang’s original manuscript is still held in the village as one of its great treasures.

“As for mirror-like wisdom, externally, it is the wisdom of not grasping at the self-nature of appearances. Internally, it is the wisdom of not grasping at the self-nature of one’s own identity. Secretly, it is the wisdom of not grasping at one’s own natural mind. Most secretly, it is the wisdom of not grasping at one’s own essential nature.

Every appearance of ignorance and delusion that arises, is in actuality emptiness. This wisdom of knowing emptiness is the wisdom of absolute reality.” 

From the Mar Ti Duk Nga Rang Drol, Essential Instructions on the Self Liberation of the Five Poisons

After spending long periods of time throughout Dolpo and Mustang, he made his way to Kathmandu, Nepal. There, he was often at the stupa of Swayambunath begging for alms. At this sacred site, Karu Rinpoche continued to have vivid, visionary encounters. He traveled throughout the Kathmandu valley encountering a variety of people and cultures. However, in 1852 C.E. he returned to Tibet and became a root lama to the esteemed 23rd Menri Trizin Künkhen Nyima Tenzin. During this time, he also became the Khenpo of his former monastery, Nor Ling.

First pages of the Autobiography of Karu Drupwang Tenzin Rinchen

Upon the insistent urging of a disciple, he wrote an autobiography that was completed in 1845 C.E. which can be found in the temple of Samling in Dolpo, Nepal. Although the exact date of his passing beyond this life is not known, it is generally understood to have occurred some time in 1861 C.E.

Chapters within the Mar Ti Duk Nga Rang Drol, Essential Instructions on the Self Liberation of the Five Poisons:

  • Teachings on the Opportunities and Good Fortunes that are Difficult to Obtain from the Systematic Guidance for the Preliminary Practices of the Essential Guidance on the Self Liberation of the Five Poisons
  • Systematic Guidance Regarding the Difference Between Virtue and Wrongdoing, and Impermanence
  • Systematic Guidance on Going for Refuge
  • Systematic Guidance on Generating a Mind of Enlightenment
  • Systematic Guidance on Purifying Wrongdoing through Admission of Wrongdoing and Purification
  • Systematic Guidance on Completing the Accumulations through the Mandala Offering
  • Systematic Guidance on Receiving Blessings and Self-empowerment through Supplication
  • Teaching and Advice for Calm Abiding by Focusing on AH
  • Teaching and Advice for Searching the Mind and Awareness
  • Teaching and Advice for Introducing and Concentrating on the Mind
  • Teaching and Advice on the Path of the Six Aggregates
  • Teaching and Advice for Enhancing Gek Sel Practice
  • Teaching and Advice for Dark Retreat and Clear Light
  • Teaching and Advice for the Nourishment through Chulen [Extracting the Essence]
  • Teaching and Advice on the Six Important Points of Practice
  • Teaching and Advice for Abiding in the State of the Mind’s Essence
  • Teaching and Advice for Fully Realizing the Bön Essence
  • Teaching and Advice regarding the Result which is All-penetrating Wisdom
  • Teaching and Advice on the Power to Work with Deathless Birth
  • Teaching and Advice for Attaining Buddhahood with No Physical Aggregates Left Behind
  • Practice of the Goddess [Jamma]
  • The Clear Mirror of A Hundred Horoscopes of the Essential Instruction on the Self Liberation of the Five Poisons
  • A Little Song About the Connection Between the Relative and the Absolute
  • Abridged Preliminary Practices
  • Supplication of the Root Lama Drupwang Tenzin Rinchen [Composition of a disciple]
  • Expiation through Offering to the Lama
  • A Letter to the Ghosts and Demons that Suppresses Phenomenal Existence with its Majestic Brilliance

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Pilgrimage to the Center of the World: Gang Tise

mt tise landscape view(Southern Face of Mount Tisé, also known as Mount Kailash)

It is the seat of Shiva according to Hindus.  Many Jains believe it to be the holy site where the founder of the Jain religion, Lord Rishabhdev, attained liberation.  It is the place where Milarepa lived and practiced according to Buddhists who call the mountain Gang Rinpoche, Precious Snow Mountain.  And according to the Bönpos, it is Mount Tisé, sacred dwelling place of deities, the place where Buddha Tönpa Shenrap Miwoché taught and meditated, and where many sages after him, such as the great lama Drenpa Namkha, Choza Bönmo and Lishu Taring, practiced the teachings of the Yungdrung Bön.  For all of them, to make a pilgrimage to this place and to circumambulate the mountain has great spiritual significance.  “Whoever visits Gang Tisé will achieve liberation after three lifetimes.” And, “If you cleanse with the purification waters of the four directions (of the mountain), you will be reborn in a pure realm.”

In Sanskrit and on most English language maps, it is called Mount Kailash.  It is located in far Western Tibet in the Ngari region which is a remote and arid landscape only spotted with vegetation.  With no source of wood, campfires are fueled with goat and horse dung.  Reaching the area through a pass of over 16,000 feet in altitude, the air is thin and the light intensely reflects upon every object in the landscape.  Until recent history, there were no roads in to this region.  The mountain has a 22,028 foot peak that is topped with snow year round.  Each of the four sides of the mountain are distinctively different. It has never been climbed.   For the devout, that would be an unthinkable desecration.  In 1980, Reinhold Messner was given permission to climb it by the Chinese.  However, he declined.  In 2001, a Spanish team led by Jesus Martinez Novas was given permission to climb the mountain.  However, due to international disapproval, the Chinese reversed their decision and banned all attempts to ever climb the mountain.

Mt Tise map

Mount Tisé was at the center of the ancient kingdom of Zhang Zhung.  Tisé is a Zhang Zhung word referencing the mountain as the source of many waters.  It was the soul mountain of both the Zhang Zhung king and the kingdom and was considered the center of the world.  The Zhang Zhung deity, Walchen Gekho and his 360 emanations,  reside at its summit.   It is described in many historical Yungdrung Bön texts in great detail.  “In the center of the phenomenal world is Mount Tisé, the Nine-storied Yungdrung Mountain.  From it, four rivers flow towards the four directions.”  These four great rivers which originate in the area surrounding the mountain are the Karnali, also known as the Ganges which flows Southward, the Sutlej also known as the Punjabi which flows Westward, the Brahmaputra which generally flows Eastward, and the Indus which generally flows to the Northwest from the area.  The texts say that Mount Tisé will survive the fires that will destroy the world at the end of the current eon.  The texts describe it further:  “It looks like a crystal chorten.  It’s four sides are like four equal squares in the four directions.”  And, “It has the four kinds of qualities: peaceful, expansive, powerful and wrathful.  It is an immeasurable shrine with great blessings”

Tise North side edited(Northern face of Mount Tisé)

Pilgrimage season is generally May-September.  The circumambulation, or korwa, begins at Tarchen, a small settlement on the South-side of the mountain.  Until the Chinese invasion, it was a major center for the region’s trade.  Now, although the summer continues to be the busy trade season, it is much diminished from the past.  By the time a pilgrim reaches this starting point, it is possible that they have spent years getting here, often prostrating the entire journey.  Once here, if a pilgrim is unable to undergo the hardship of the korwa, here at Tarchen someone can be found to be sponsored to go in their place.  In that case, the merit generated by the virtuous activity is shared between the sponsor and the one actually doing the korwa. For the Bönpo and the Jain, the korwa is counter-clockwise.  For Buddhists and Hindus, it is clockwise.  The path is marked by many sacred places of veneration where great sages meditated or where the power and blessings of deities reside.  There are also four places designated for prostrations along the way.  These are areas large enough for the pilgrims to stop and spend time prostrating and paying homage to the sacred mountain.  However, there are those practitioners who choose to perform full prostrations the entire length of the thirty-two mile circuit around the mountain.  Doing this, a single circuit takes about two weeks.  These pilgrims must carry their provisions with them and wear thick, leather aprons and mittens to protect their body from the stoney ground.  For those who walk around the mountain, most choose to finish within three days.  Others choose to begin hours before dawn so that they can complete the journey in a single 13-15 hour day.  The pilgrim’s path rises in the thin air to an altitude of 18,500 feet at the Dolma la Pass, the highest point of the route.


Pilgrims Prostrating Themselves(Pilgrims prostrating around the mountain.)

In general, pilgrims perform three circumabulations of the mountain.  If the pilgrim is completing the circuit in a single day, they will take a day of rest in between the three korwa of the mountain.  Some make a commitment to complete 1o8 circuits.  This takes two pilgrimage seasons.  From the starting point at Tarchen, there is also an inner korwa.   Several miles North of Tarchen past a couple of monasteries, there is a smaller mountain, called Nandi, whose korwa brings the pilgrim close to the very face of Mount Tisé.  This inner korwa is forbidden until one has completed at least thirteen circumambulations of the outer korwa.

Mt Tise outer and inner korwa edited

Just seeing the mountain is a blessing.  And undergoing the arduous task of its korwa is said to purify one’s negativity.  It is vitally important in the history of Yungdrung Bön.  According to the text, “Mount Tisé, the crystal chorten, soul mountain of Yungdrung Bön, is like nine stacked yungdrungs.  Externally, it is like a chorten made of crystal snow.  Internally, it is like the palace of the three tutelary deities.  Secretly, it is the vast and profound gathering place for the mother and sister khandro.”  “Having washed away karmic traces by purifying oneself with the healing waters, you will be reborn in a joyous realm of the gods.  Having reversed obstacles and adverse circumstances by performing the korwa through prostrating, you will be able to live out the full extent of your lifespan.”  Thus it is said.

Mt Tise East face by Rikdzin lama(Eastern Face of Mt. Tisè.  Photo by Rikzin Lama)

To read more about Mount Tisé see Sacred Landscape and Pilgrimage in Tibet by Geshe Gelek Jinpa and Charles Ramble.  The Light of Kailash by Chogyal Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche.  Or The Sacred Mountain of Tibet by Russell Johnson and Kerry Moran. And in Tibetan, Gangs Tise’i sKor by HE Menri Yongdzin Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche.

 

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