After the fall of the Tibetan Empire, Buddhism returned to central Tibet in the eleventh century, reimported from remote eastern regions of the Tibetan Plateau and abroad. One important figure in this renaissance was the monk Drapa Ngonshe, who founded holy sites, taught medicine, and gave tantric initiations. Historian Roberto Vitali investigates murals in the only surviving monastery attributed to him, which reveal the cultural networks that informed Buddhist revival in Tibet.
The Cultural Revolution was a political and social movement in communist China from 1966 to 1976. During this time, traditional culture across all of China came under violent attack, and almost all religious institutions were shut down and many were physically destroyed. In minority areas, ethnic differences and indigenous cultural practices, such as use of Tibetan language or dress, were seen as backward and subject to persecution, adding an additional racial dimension. Hundreds of thousands of Tibetans fled to India or Nepal, and many Himalayan artworks were destroyed or scattered abroad.
The Kagyu are a major Later Diffusion tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. The Kagyu trace their lineages back to the Mahasiddhas, the great tantric masters of medieval India. The Kagyu are known for their yogic practices, as well as the teaching of Mahamudra, or the “Great Seal.” The Kagyu tradition includes many different branches, such as the Karma, Drukpa, Drigung, Tselpa, Pakmodru, and others. The most influential leaders of the Karma Kagyu are the Karmapas, a tulku lineage associated with that Kagyu branch. In Bhutan, the Drukpa Kagyu tradition serves as the state religion. A follower of the Kagyu is called a Kagyupa.
The “early diffusion” refers to the first period in which Buddhism entered Tibet, roughly from the seventh to the ninth centuries CE. This period roughly corresponds to the age of the Tibetan Empire, and came to an end with the chaos and destruction of the empire’s fall. The Nyingma or “ancient” tradition of Tibetan Buddhism traces its teachings and doctrines to this early diffusion. The “later diffusion” refers to a second period, roughly from the late tenth to the fourteenth centuries CE, when Buddhism re-entered Tibet, the Mahayana and Vajrayana canon was fully translated into Tibetan, and monasteries grew to cover the land. The Kagyu, Sakya, Jonang, and Geluk traditions of Tibetan Buddhism all trace their origins to this period.
A practice of hiring and commissioning artists to create works of art. In religious context patrons were often rulers, religious leaders, as well as ordinary people. (see also donor)
Historically, Tibetan Buddhism refers to those Buddhist traditions that use Tibetan as a ritual language. It is practiced in Tibet, Mongolia, Bhutan, Ladakh, and among certain groups in Nepal, China, and Russia and has an international following. Buddhism was introduced to Tibet in two waves, first when rulers of the Tibetan Empire (seventh to ninth centuries CE), embraced the Buddhist faith as their state religion, and during the second diffusion (late tenth through thirteenth centuries), when monks and translators brought in Buddhist culture from India, Nepal, and Central Asia. As a result, the entire Buddhist canon was translated into Tibetan, and monasteries grew to become centers of intellectual, cultural, and political power. From the end of the twelfth century, Tibetans were exporting their own Buddhist traditions abroad. Tibetan Buddhism integrates Mahayana teachings with the esoteric practices of Vajrayana, and includes those developed in Tibet, such as Dzogchen, as well as indigenous Tibetan religious practices focused on local gods. Historically major traditions of Tibetan Buddhism are Nyingma, Kagyu, Sakya, and Geluk.
In Buddhism, the Vinaya is the code of conduct for members of the Sangha, that is, monks and nuns. While there are different versions of the Vinaya texts and ordination lineages, generally, monks take a different number and types of vows according to the tradition and their individual level of ordination. Vinaya as a set of rules are used in all Buddhist monasteries and nunneries, although nuns are required to take more numerous vows than monks.
The temple of Dratang with its awesome murals is a telling sign of the fertile context responsible for their execution. A product of the culture of eleventh-century central Tibet (U-Tsang) that transcended local boundaries, Dratang is a representation of cosmopolitanism in an environment that was local. The people of the land opened themselves to a wider Buddhist world that created the conditions for the introduction of the Later (and definitive) Diffusion of in U-Tsang.
The temple near the bank of the —midway between and , the cradle of the ancient Tibetan kings’ dynasty—was the opus magnum of the great master Drapa Ngonshe (1012–1091). Its murals, including the “conversation” between and depicted here, are firmly attributed to his patronage.
The Background
Cosmopolitanism was the outcome of the import of Buddhist practice based on monastic observance—and thus on the bestowal of the vow—from the lands of northeast Tibet and beyond, where the Tangut Kingdom was a prosperous center of the religion.
A few antecedents favored the rebirth of Buddhism in U-Tsang, where the religion was languishing at the time. One was the activity of Gongpa Rabsel, a propagator of the religious resurgence in and (eastern Tibet) in the tenth century. He availed himself of the teachings he received from Tibetan expatriates and the instructions on “Monastic Observance” () under Gorong Senggedrak at a holy place outside the plateau in the future Tangut Kingdom.
An ancient manuscript from Central Asia proves that the region that became the Tangut Kingdom—known then as the land of the Bhata Hor—was a center of uninterrupted Tibetan Buddhist practice from the mid-eighth century until when Buddhism was brought back to central Tibet. Local practice was the precondition for the future integration of Buddhism into the heart of the Tibetan highlands.
Another antecedent was the return from Kham and Amdo to central Tibet of the masters (the Men of U-Tsang) who had traveled as far as the limits of the highlands in the northeast to study Buddhism under Gongpa Rabsel. The event marked the reintroduction of Buddhism and its monastic practice in U-Tsang. Its date is disputed, year 978 being a serious possibility, but the diffusion of the second wave of Buddhism was slow. It took off around the time when Drapa Ngonshe, the founder of Dratang, was born in 1012. Lume, the most important of the Men of U-Tsang, built his first temples in the area around —the sphere of his activity—from 1009 on, about thirty years after he returned from the east. The delay was due to difficulties the Men of U-Tsang faced locally.
The Life and Deeds of Drapa Ngonshe
Drapa Ngonshe did not receive an education as a child. He was an illiterate shepherd for five years in his youth, which gives the wrong impression that he was of humble origins. In fact, Drapa Ngonshe hailed from a noble family. His uncle Zhangton Chobar (993–1055) later trained him in the knowledge of the and , so that his education eventually reached the highest peaks.
Drapa Ngonshe’s monastic initiation gives evidence of the heights he reached in his education. The initiation was administered by Yangshu Gyelwawo, a close disciple of the great Lume and a major propagator of monastic observance that came from northeast Tibet and beyond. This led Drapa Ngonshe to work with his teacher Yangshu Gyelwawo to maintain the monastic centers they established, like other major masters of their tradition. He and his disciples contributed several of them. The literature includes Dratang among the impressive network of vinaya temples founded, owing to the impetus from Kham, Amdo, and the Tangut region.
Cosmopolitanism was one trait of Drapa Ngonshe’s personality. His work, like that of other great masters of the period, stands out for his eclecticism, too. He was an expert on the theory and practice of medical science, which he studied under Zhu, a great master of the discipline and a terton (“textual archaeologist”). His rediscovery at Samye of the Four Medical Tantras (Gyuzhi), the fundamental text of Tibetan medical science, was epochal.
Later in his life Drapa Ngonshe perfected under the Indian sage Somanatha the Guhyasamaja Tantra and the knowledge of imparted to him by his uncle in his youth. He was an adept of the “Pacification Method” (), for he was a disciple of Padampa Sanggye, the extraordinary Indian personality who visited Tibet three or five times to impart the doctrine he personally devised. As the teacher of Machik Labdron, Drapa Ngonshe gave indirect impetus to “Cutting of the Ego” practice(chod).
Legends hold that Drapa Ngonshe founded 108 holy sites in expiation of the death of his teacher Zhu. He practiced piercing Zhu’s heart—a form of ancient angioplasty—because medications did not solve the medical problem. The surgery went wrong and Zhu died. In any event, he kept pursuing the common task of diffusing Buddhist practice by building monuments. One of them, the little-known Cheye, was renowned for the purity of its monastic observance.
The Temple of Dratang
Despite the conspicuous number of holy institutions built in central Tibet during the , Dratang is a lone survivor of several temples in eleventh-century U. Decay caused by time and ravages has emptied the land of practically all of them.
Dratang, too, had its share of disruption. Its temple was reduced to an empty shell during the (1966–1976). Its statues have been destroyed. But the murals have survived, although with damages, because the temple was transformed into a granary for the local commune, the last to have existed in U until the end of the 1980s, when the authorities discovered the potential of Dratang to attract scholars and tourists.
Drapa Ngonshe founded Dratang in 1081. It took thirteen years (1081–1093) to complete the religious complex. Most work was directed by Drapa Ngonshe himself. On his death in 1091, his great opus was on the verge of completion. The last touches were given by his two nephews.
His death was caused—the legends say—by a demonstration to his medical students of the practice of piercing the heart with a golden needle that—a baffling recurrence of fate—went wrong. It is more likely that the demise of his medical teacher Zhu was transferred to him (or vice versa).
Hints on the Source of the Dratang Murals
The temple of Dratang reflects the religious developments of the period. Its wallpaintings are not the outcome of a single cultural situation. Art and architecture accompanied the diffusion of Buddhism to central Tibet. The model for a number of temples in eleventh-century central Tibet was Namgyi Theu, a holy building in Amdo, associated with the Tangut, whose description echoes the structure of Dratang.
Three lines of diffusion to central Tibet of the idiom born in during the time of the Pala dynasty (750–1162) gave stylistic substance to the religious cycles popular in these regions of the highlands during the eleventh century:
One moved directly from Gangetic India to central Tibet (fig. 2);
Another was the peculiar rendition of the style that prospered in the Kathmandu Valley and transferred from there to central Tibet (fig. 3);
A third traveled from Gangetic India toward the southern regions of Central Asia before reaching central Tibet; it also went eastward to the kingdom of Pagan (fig. 4).
Fig. 2
Pala manuscripts photographed by Rahul Sankrityayan in Ngor during one of his visits to Tibet in search of palm-leaf specimens in the 1930s; image after Pathak, S. K., ed. 1986. The Album of the Tibetan Art Collections. Patna: Kashi Prasad Jayaswal Research Institute
Fig. 4 Detail of a Bodhisattva; Abeyadana Temple; Pagan, Myanmar; 11th century; mural; photograph by Bianca Visconti
Situ Chokyi Gyatso (1880–1923/1925) was right in detecting an amalgam of the various variations within the Gangetic style in his description of Dratang:
The ancient wall paintings in the style of Bel[yul] (the Kathmandu Valley) are of excellent quality and with ornamental motifs. In the middle floor, they are likewise in the manner of Bel[yul]. The figures are executed in the rendition of China.
Could this master’s “rendition of China” point toward the transfer of the Gangetic style in its version to the Chinese protectorates near the border of northeastern Tibet, where the Tangut Kingdom was located?
The rendition of the images at Dratang is neither Newar nor Gangetic. It reflects the physiognomies adopted in the style of Central Asia. Situ Chokyi Gyatso sensed this stylistic aspect, which he attributed to an amalgam of the Newar and Chinese idioms.
The theme of the mural depicting the “conversation” between Maitreya and Manjushri found on a wall of Dratang endured during successive periods. A well-known “conversation” is on the first floor of Zhalu Serkhang, painted in the first quarter of the fourteenth century by a Tibetan artist trained at the school of the great artist Arniko (Anige). An earlier and not so well-known “conversation” between Maitreya and Manjushri is found inside the Jokhang of in Kham, executed during the Kagyupa phase—its murals depict saints of the school, including a portrait of Milarepa in his typical cotton attire—before the Gelukpa took over this monastic institution (fig. 5).
Fig. 5.
The “Conversation” between Maitreya and Manjushri; Jokhang Temple, Pasho Monastery; Kham region, Tibet (present-day TAR, China); 13th century?; mural; image after Zhung Wun Pin and Tshe dpag rdo rje, “Chab mdo Dpa’ shod dgon pa’i gna’ bo ldebs ris,” Krung go’i bod ljongs [China’s Tibet], July 2020, p. 50
Jeff Watt, “Tibet: Dratang Monastery (SRG Archive),” HAR: Himalayan Art Resources, 2018, https://www.himalayanart.org/search/set.cfm?setID=1375; Leigh Miller, “Tibet: Dratang Monastery,” in HAR: Himalayan Art Resources, 2022, https://www.himalayanart.org/search/set.cfm?setID=1669.
2
George N. Roerich, The Blue Annals, 2 vols. (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, (1949) 1979), 90, lines 8–10, for the statements of On Bici, an obscure personality expert in the history of the Later Diffusion in central Tibet.
3
Ch. 0021, vol. 31, fol. 116b, in F.W. Thomas, Tibetan Literary Texts and Documents Concerning Chinese Turkestan (London: Royal Asiatic Society, 1935), 2:85–86.
4
George N. Roerich, The Blue Annals, 2 vols. (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, (1949) 1979), 1086.
5
George N. Roerich, The Blue Annals, 2 vols. (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, (1949) 1979), 95.
6
George N. Roerich, The Blue Annals, 2 vols. (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, (1949) 1979), 74; Dpa’ bo gtsug lag phreng ba, Dam Pa’i Chos Kyi ’khor Lo Bsgyur Ba Rnams Kyi Byung Pa Gsar Bar Byed Pa Mkhas Pa’i Dga Ston [Scholar’s Feast of Religious History] (Beijing: Mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 1986), http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW7499, 474, lines 2–4.
7
Roberto Vitali, “LHa Sa’s Hectic Years ca. 975–1160,” in On a Day of a Month of the Fire Bird Year, Festschrift for Peter Schwieger on the Occasion of His 65th Birthday, ed. Jeanine Bischoff, Petra Maurer, and Charles Ramble (Lumbini: Lumbini International Research Institute, 2020), 856–61.
8
Byams pa ’phrin las, Gangs Ljongs GSo Rig Bstan Pa’i Nyin Byed Rnam Thar [The Story of the Sun of Teachings of Medicine in the Land of Snows] (Beijing: Mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 1990), 93, lines 7–10.
9
Ne’u pandi ta, “Sngon gyi gtam me tog phreng ba [A flower garland of ancient sayings],” in Bod kyi lo rgyus deb ther khag lnga, vol. 9, Gangs can rig mdzod (Lhasa: Bod ljongs bod yig dpe rnying dpe skrun khang, 1990), 43, lines 17–18.
10
Byams pa ’phrin las, Gangs Ljongs GSo Rig Bstan Pa’i Nyin Byed Rnam Thar [The Story of the Sun of Teachings of Medicine in the Land of Snows] (Beijing: Mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 1990), 93, line 11.
11
Byams pa ’phrin las, Gangs Ljongs GSo Rig Bstan Pa’i Nyin Byed Rnam Thar [The Story of the Sun of Teachings of Medicine in the Land of Snows] (Beijing: Mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 1990), 94, lines 7–8.
12
George N. Roerich, The Blue Annals, 2 vols. (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, (1949) 1979), 96.
13
George N. Roerich, The Blue Annals, 2 vols. (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, (1949) 1979), 97.
14
Byams pa ’phrin las, Gangs Ljongs GSo Rig Bstan Pa’i Nyin Byed Rnam Thar [The Story of the Sun of Teachings of Medicine in the Land of Snows] (Beijing: Mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 1990), 93, 17, 94, 4.
15
George N. Roerich, The Blue Annals, 2 vols. (Calcutta: Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal, (1949) 1979), 96.
16
George N. Roerich, The Blue Annals, 2 vols. (Calcutta: Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal, (1949) 1979), 96–97.
17
Padma rdo rje, “Dpyal Gyi Gdung Rabs Gangga’i Chu Rgyun: Bla Chen DPyal Gyi Gdung Rabs Rin Po Che’i Za Ra Tshags Zhes Bya Ba Dang/ GDung Rabs Gangga’i Chu Rgyun Gnyis Gleg Bam Gcig Tu Bris Pa Las/ Kun Gsal Me Long Che Ba Bcud Ldan Bzhugs So” (Unpublished computer edition, n.d.), 7, lines 12–20.
18
See Indian illuminated manuscripts cataloged and photographed by Rāhulji Sāṅkṛityāyana in Rāhula Sāṅkṛityāyana, “Second Search of Sanskrit Palm-Leaf Mss. in Tibet,” Journal of the Bihar and Orissa Research Society 23, no. March (1937): 1–57.
19
Si tu Chos kyi rgya mtsho (1880–1925), Dbus Gtsang gnas yig, Gangs can rig mdzod, vol. 33 (Lhasa: Bod ljongs bod yig dpe rnying dpe skrun khang, 1999), 123, lines 19–124, 1.
20
Roberto Vitali, Early Temples of Central Tibet (London: Serindia, 1990), pls. 30, 32–33.
Further Reading
Henss, Michael. 2014. The Cultural Monuments of Tibet: The Central Regions, 1:353–62. Munich: Prestel.
Vitali, Roberto. 1990. Early Temples of Central Tibet, 37–68. London: Serindia.
The Cultural Revolution was a political and social movement in communist China from 1966 to 1976. During this time, traditional culture across all of China came under violent attack, and almost all religious institutions were shut down and many were physically destroyed. In minority areas, ethnic differences and indigenous cultural practices, such as use of Tibetan language or dress, were seen as backward and subject to persecution, adding an additional racial dimension. Hundreds of thousands of Tibetans fled to India or Nepal, and many Himalayan artworks were destroyed or scattered abroad.
The Kagyu are a major Later Diffusion tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. The Kagyu trace their lineages back to the Mahasiddhas, the great tantric masters of medieval India. The Kagyu are known for their yogic practices, as well as the teaching of Mahamudra, or the “Great Seal.” The Kagyu tradition includes many different branches, such as the Karma, Drukpa, Drigung, Tselpa, Pakmodru, and others. The most influential leaders of the Karma Kagyu are the Karmapas, a tulku lineage associated with that Kagyu branch. In Bhutan, the Drukpa Kagyu tradition serves as the state religion. A follower of the Kagyu is called a Kagyupa.
second transmission, second diffusion, new translation
The “early diffusion” refers to the first period in which Buddhism entered Tibet, roughly from the seventh to the ninth centuries CE. This period roughly corresponds to the age of the Tibetan Empire, and came to an end with the chaos and destruction of the empire’s fall. The Nyingma or “ancient” tradition of Tibetan Buddhism traces its teachings and doctrines to this early diffusion. The “later diffusion” refers to a second period, roughly from the late tenth to the fourteenth centuries CE, when Buddhism re-entered Tibet, the Mahayana and Vajrayana canon was fully translated into Tibetan, and monasteries grew to cover the land. The Kagyu, Sakya, Jonang, and Geluk traditions of Tibetan Buddhism all trace their origins to this period.
A practice of hiring and commissioning artists to create works of art. In religious context patrons were often rulers, religious leaders, as well as ordinary people. (see also donor)
Historically, Tibetan Buddhism refers to those Buddhist traditions that use Tibetan as a ritual language. It is practiced in Tibet, Mongolia, Bhutan, Ladakh, and among certain groups in Nepal, China, and Russia and has an international following. Buddhism was introduced to Tibet in two waves, first when rulers of the Tibetan Empire (seventh to ninth centuries CE), embraced the Buddhist faith as their state religion, and during the second diffusion (late tenth through thirteenth centuries), when monks and translators brought in Buddhist culture from India, Nepal, and Central Asia. As a result, the entire Buddhist canon was translated into Tibetan, and monasteries grew to become centers of intellectual, cultural, and political power. From the end of the twelfth century, Tibetans were exporting their own Buddhist traditions abroad. Tibetan Buddhism integrates Mahayana teachings with the esoteric practices of Vajrayana, and includes those developed in Tibet, such as Dzogchen, as well as indigenous Tibetan religious practices focused on local gods. Historically major traditions of Tibetan Buddhism are Nyingma, Kagyu, Sakya, and Geluk.
In Buddhism, the Vinaya is the code of conduct for members of the Sangha, that is, monks and nuns. While there are different versions of the Vinaya texts and ordination lineages, generally, monks take a different number and types of vows according to the tradition and their individual level of ordination. Vinaya as a set of rules are used in all Buddhist monasteries and nunneries, although nuns are required to take more numerous vows than monks.
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