Sky Symbols of Divine and Cosmic Forces

In any culturally Tibetan area, it is common to encounter a distinctive type of discarded ritual waste, at the edges of remote villages or at busy intersections in urban Lhasa. The debris usually consists of the dough figurines of a man or woman, wooden tablets with arcane symbols, and other items of ritual paraphernalia. Among these items will be one or more small bamboo crosses strung with yarn to form a brightly colored web. Foreign travelers frequently collect these discarded objects as souvenirs, little knowing that the effigies are dangerously polluted representations of sick people, intended as offerings to demons as ransoms for their stolen souls. Another common sight is the object featured in this essay: the cloth-wrapped skull of a dog or sheep, festooned with items that include several small thread crosses, positioned over the doorways of village houses. The construction based on the sheep skull, shown here, is known as a “Sky Door” (namgo), and that based on the dog skull as an “Earth Door” (sago) (fig. 1). Both terms denote inauspicious astrological configurations, and the purpose of these effigies is to protect the household from their effects. 

Namkhas, Dreamcatchers, and God’s Eyes

Thread crosses feature in many cultures around the world, and English-language accounts often refer to the Tibetan variants as “dreamcatchers,” after the well-known Native American constructions that they resemble, even to the extent of including feathers in their composition. The principle of the dreamcatcher is that the meshes form a barrier to hostile forces that become entangled in them. This, however, is an erroneous interpretation of Tibetan thread crosses. While we should certainly keep open the possibility that Tibetan thread crosses, like other sacred motifs, once had a significance that has been transformed in a different ideological climate (by way of a parallel, one has only to think of the fate of the swastika), the orthodox understanding of their meaning is both precise and elaborate, and, perhaps surprisingly, has little to do with ensnaring spirits. Tibetan thread crosses are, if anything, more reminiscent in both form and function to Latin American ojos de Dios, “God’s eyes.” 

The Tibetan term for a thread cross is namkha, meaning “sky.” Namkhas feature in both Bon and Buddhist rituals, but may once have been part of an archaic repertoire of ritual practices that were appropriated by both religions and endowed with new meanings. For the Bonpos (the followers of Bon), the use of namkhas was first taught by the legendary founder of their religion, Shenrab Miwo. Namkhas appear in the first of the Nine Ways of Bon, the Way of the System of Prediction, when Shenrab explains the procedure for performing ransom rituals. This ritual, described as the “‘Exchange’ Rite for transposing two equal things,” requires “the right sized figurine as ransom for the [patient’s] body, a namkha, a wool-wrapped splint, an arrow [for a man], a spindle [for a woman] . . .”1 The purpose of the namkha, however, is not explained. In chapter 39 of the Ziji, the twelve-volume biography of Shenrab, the master instructs the Bon priests of the land of Zhangzhung in a variety of procedures, including the use of “black and white namkhas.” Again, we are given no details about their significance. 

The Basic Construction

Namkhas have a similar function to the dough-and-butter effigies known as tormas, in that they may represent either offerings to divinities or the divinities themselves, as well as certain other functions, some listed below. Namkhas that represent divinities are called zhelnam, “face namkhas.” Like tormas, namkhas are used not alone, but in an assemblage of objects. Some are simple, but others may be highly elaborate, such as the construction known as the namkha khangzang, a “namkha mansion” (fig. 2). Most ritual texts give only brief instructions about any namkhas that are to be made for the performance (fig. 3), but a few works, such as the following, provide systematic details: “The thread where the two sticks cross should be black. Outside that there should be a ring of white thread, then one of red thread, and after that there should be a gap, called ‘the space between the eyes.’ Outside this one may string whatever ‘changing eye’ is required.”2 “Changing eye” refers to the fact that the colors in this ring vary according to the identity of the divinity represented. Thus the goddess Sipai Gyelmo, whose three faces are white, blue, and red, is represented by woolen rings of these colors. The text continues: “Beyond this, there should be a gap called the ‘hollow space,’ and then [three rings] called the dabgyur, the tragyur, and the khatun, that together constitute the ‘perimeter wall.’ . . . Generally speaking, at the crossing point of the sticks, the ‘pupil of the eye,’ the thread should be black; the next band white, and the third red; there are usually three rings of threads, separated by two gaps.”

This central “eye” is a widespread feature of Bonpo namkhas, and the text’s injunction that namkhas “should not be blind” underscores its significance. Buddhist namkhas, by contrast, seem not to require it, as seen in a partially completed Bonpo version and a Buddhist equivalent of an effigy known as tonak gosum, the “Three-Headed One of the Black Rituals” (figs. 4 and 5) According to a myth, this fearsome monster was tamed by the Buddhist or Bonpo hero and commissioned to destroy enemies of the doctrine and of sentient beings. Its three animal heads have different colors, and the Bonpo text specifies simply that the namkhas surmounting them “should be of the corresponding colors.” Even here, however, while the namkhas in the Buddhist effigy are uniformly colored, the Bonpo namkhas feature the ubiquitous central eye.3

Certain pioneering studies of Tibetan ritual refer to thread crosses not as namkha but as do (Tibetan: mdos) (fig. 6).4 While this appellation is technically incorrect, the usage is metonymic insofar as the namkha is the most conspicuous component of do constructions (fig. 7). Do are microcosms of the universe, varying in complexity and with multiple functions, such as offerings to the higher gods and ransom effigies for earthly powers. Both the Sky Door/Earth Door and the Three-Headed One are classified as do. In the Nobeka, a Bon treatise on do rituals, the namkha is the first component to be described and discussed. The following is a selection of some of the features of namkhas that this treatise presents. 

Features Related to Specific Objectives of Namkhas

There are eighty kinds of namkha, subdivided into different categories. The first comprises “wisdom” namkhas, representing the wisdom deities. Since these gods are indistinguishable with respect to front and back, their namkhas should also not exhibit such a distinction; they should be resistant to water and wind, and the gaps should be such that one’s finger can pass through them. They should be constructed with the idea that they emit light for the benefit of living beings. “Action” namkhas should be flexible, as if they were able to walk. Each of the four kinds of virtuous action, too, has its appropriate characteristics; thus “benign” namkhas should have a “smiling” appearance, “subjugating” namkhas should exhibit the power known as jin, while “increasing” and “wrathful” namkhas should likewise express their natures. 

Three inversions should be avoided: the vertical stick should respect the direction of the bamboo’s growth; front and back should not be confused (except of course in the case of wisdom namkhas); and if feathers are used, care should be taken to ensure that their outer surface faces forward. Namkhas of appeasement (kangnam) should be tall, to “reach up to the sky,” while namkhas for repulsion (doknam) should have a large number of gaps. 

Certain defects in the construction are to be avoided; the bamboo joints should be neither too small nor too big, and the bamboo itself should be straight. Hexagonal “parasol” namkhas should not be concave or flat, nor too closed, but gently convex. The threads should be taut and evenly spaced: they should not resemble an avalanche, a torrent of water, or “a pair of sagging breeches.” 

The size of the namkha should be determined by various factors: the scale of the do that they ornament, the height of the room in which the ritual is performed, and the patron’s resources. Generally, they should range in height from one cubit to one fathom (though in practice smaller namkha are commonly used). 

 Namkhas for wisdom beings should use fine silk; those for beings that are manifested in the physical world should use woolen yarn; for haughty demons, yarn made from the fur of tigers, bears, or other carnivores; for worldly people, the wool of antelopes and gazelles; for various categories of obstructive demons, the wool of yaks and yak-cow crossbreeds; and finally, for certain classes of harmful spirits, yarn made from the fur of dogs, goats, and pigs. 

Finally, the text notes that namkhas may be used to represent any of the auspicious symbols required by the instructions for a do ritual, such as swastikas, vases, conches, and the patra, or “knot of eternity.”