“gCod” and its sources in the “bKa’ brgyud” traditions

[Full title Chöd (gcod) and its sources in the Kagyu (bKa’ brgyud) traditions]

While skulls and bone ornaments have been integrated into a diversity of ritual traditions in the Buddhist tantra of Tibet, the rkang gling —or leg flute, frequently translated as thighbone trumpet—is most consistently documented in relation to bdud kyi gcod yul, or the practice of cutting off demons, shortened to gcod. This chapter will explore the iconography of gcod through its two primary teachers and lineage founders Ma gcig lab sgron (1055-1149) and the Indian siddha Pha dam pa Sangs rgyas (d. 1117), and demonstrate how the rkang gling and sādhana of lus sbyin, or the gift of the body as food, were used to visually represent the characteristic practice of this tradition. This work will moreover describe how bKa’ brgyud sources have shaped its historiography and iconographies, and examine gcod as a Tibetan innovation in the methods and instrumentation of ritualized charnel asceticism.

A nineteenth century painting of Ma gcig—produced in the style of the bKa’ brgyud monastery of dPal spungs in Khams—depicts the founder of Tibetan gcod as white ḍākinī (Tbt. mkha’ ‘gro ma), naked and dancing in ardhaparyaṅka with a bell in the left hand and a double-sided hand drum called ḍamaru (Tbt. cang te’u) in the right (figure 3.1). In this image, this instrument is a thod rnga, or skull drum, a form of ḍamaru specialized to charnel ascetic and tantric practice.^[1] Featured above her and to the right is the yoginī deity Vajravārāhī (rDo rje phag mo) in the form of a red ḍākinī with skull, khaṭvāṅga and chopper (gri gug); above and on the left, Ma gcig’s Indian teacher Pha dam pa holds a thod rnga in the right hand and a rkang gling raised in the left. This thang ka —executed with minimal ornamentation and an atmospheric pastoral landscape characteristic to the regional style in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries—illustrates the historical connection between bKa’ brgyud communities and gcod in a number of ways.

When this painting of Ma gcig was produced, dPal spungs was a Karma bKa’ brgyud institution shaped by the presence of the scholar ‘Jam mgon kong sprul blo gros mtha’ yas (1813-1899), an active historian of Tibetan Vajrayāna and gcod in particular. During his life, he produced a compilation of sources on this tradition in which he preserved a commentarial heritage which originates with Karma Pakshi (1204-1283), the second Karma pa, who is seen in fig. 3.1 under Pha dam pa, on the left.^[2] ‘Jam mgon kong sprul also produced a commentary on gcod and a series of feast-offerings (tshogs) based on a sādhana written by the fourteenth Karma pa, Theg mchog rdo rje (1797-1867).^[3] Many of the gcod texts and commentaries available to ‘Jam mgon kong sprul were edited in the seventeenth century by another bKa’ brgyud historian of gcod active in this eastern region of Tibet, Karma chags med (1610-1678).^[4] Moreover, ‘Jam mgon kong sprul’s scholarship incorporates the knowledge of the nearby Karma bKa’ brgyud community at Zur mang, celebrated for their preservation of the oral and commentarial teachings of gcod.^[5] The iconography of this thang ka therefore resonates with a localized interest in gcod and bKa’ brgyud historiography in the nineteenth century.

¹ See chapter 4, section 5 on the history and use of the thod rnga as a specific type of ḍamaru.

Figure 3.1: Ma gcig Lab sgron, dPal spung (Khams), 19th century, now at the Rubin Museum of Art (C2010.3).

However, the sources of these teachings have been represented with an historically dynamic iconography: In the fourteenth century Tsatsapuri—a monument constructed by patrons of the ‘Bri gung bKa’ brgyud and near to the Alchi Chos 'khor in Ladakh—Ma gcig holds the rkang gling and ḍamaru in the same manner as Pha dam pa in the later dPal spungs painting (figure 3.2). Here—as in other representations of Ma gcig from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries discussed below—it is the Tibetan gcod lineage founder rather than the Indian siddha who is featured holding these characteristic instruments. This chapter aims to describe the historical narrative connecting these two paintings and interpret its sources as evidence for the use of rkang gling in Tibetan visual and material culture, including the integration of gcod into the broader traditions of Buddhist monasticism, siddha iconography and the observances of brtul zhugs pa.

² Almost all recent scholars and translators of gcod have drawn from ‘Jam mgon kong sprul’s historiographic corpus: See Jérôme Edou, Machig Labdrön and the Foundations of Chod, (Ithaca: Snow Lion Publications, 1996). On p.195n35, Edou locates many of his sources within the fourteenth volume of ‘Jam mgon kong sprul’s compilation gDam ngag mdzod, or Treasury of Precious Methods (BDRC no. W20877) . See also Giacomella Orofino, “The Great Wisdom Mother and the gcod tradition,” in Tantra in Practice, ed. David Gordon White (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000), 396-416 and Sarah Harding, “Introduction”, in Machik’s Complete Explanation: Clarifying the Meaning of Chöd, A Complete Explanation of Casting the Body out as Food, trans. Sarah Harding (Ithaca: Snow Lion Publication, 2003), 21ff.

³ idem., “The garden of all joy” in Chöd practice manual and commentary, trans. Lama Lödö Rinpoche (Ithaca: Snow Lion Publications, 2007), 34-80; Tbt. Lus mchod sbyin gyi zin bris mdor bsdus kun dga’i skyed tshal. ‘Jam mgon kong sprul records a lineage in which Karma Pakshi is the first of several Karma pas to have received gcod teachings or written commentaries on its methods. This volume also provides a schematic for a visualization resembling the composition of fig. 3.1, with Ma gcig as the central deity framed by Pha dam pa and Vajravārāhī (identified as Vajrayoginī) above her (p. 40).

⁴ Edou, op.cit.,180n11. See also Harding, op.cit., 285n1.

⁵ ‘Jam mgon kong sprul, “The garden of all joy,” 36. The Zur mang monastic community was founded in the fifteenth century.

Figure 3.2: Ma gcig with rkang gling and ḍamaru at Alchi Tsatsapuri sPyan ras gzigs Lha khang, 14th century. Image by Rob Linrothe.

Ma gcig’s iconography and the interpretation of lus sbyin as the definitive tantric practice of gcod is supported by early sources: The earliest bKa’ brgyud commentators received oral transmissions on this sādhana from Ma gcig’s descendent and disciple Thod smyon bsam grub (c. 12th century), recorded by’Jam mgon kong sprul as the lineage of gcod feast-offering (gcod tshogs rgyud pa) which was transmitted to Karma Pakshi as well as Rang byung rdo rje (1284-1339).^[6] The third Karma pa’s Zab mo bdud kyi gcod yul gyi khrid yig explains that lus sbyin should be practiced as teachings on Prajñāparāmitā (Shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa), and he furthermore produced some of the earliest documentation for the oral transmission of Ma gcig’s teachings and a classification of those demons to be cut off through the practice of gcod based on obstacles to Buddhist goals such as an attachment to self or perceptual thought.^[7]

⁶ ibid., 19. See also Janet Gyatso, “The development of the gcod tradition,” in Soundings in Tibetan Civilization, eds. Barbara Nimri-Aziz and Matthew T. Kapstein (Delhi: Manohar Publications, 1985), 335 and Edou, op.cit., 90.

⁷ Rang byung rdo rje, “Zab mo bdud kyi gcod yul gyi khrid yig,” in Rang byung rdo rje gsung ‘bum, BDRC no. W30541, vol. 11, fols. 303-316, accessed 18 June 2019. Among these texts are the earliest datable references to the bka’ tshoms (spoken teachings) of Ma gcig, also found in ‘Jam mgon kong sprul’s gDam ngag mdzod, vol. 14. See also Edou, op.cit., 89. For a discussion of the ambiguous identity of the author Rang byung rdo rje as Karma Pakshi or the third Karma pa of the same name, see Kapstein, The Tibetan Assimilation of Buddhism, 97ff.

Another source from the fourteenth century suggests how Thod smyon’s transmissions of Ma gcig’s teachings further shaped the historiography of gcod: At least the first two chapters of the Phung po gzan skyur gyi rnam bshad gcod kyi don gsal byed —hereafter Phung po gzan skyur rnam bshad —were written by a scholar called Nam mkha’i rgyal mtshan (b.1370) who identifies himself as eighth in a gcod lineage which descends from Thod smyon.^[8] The fifteenth century bKa’ brgyud historian’Gos lo tsā ba writes about Thod smyon as an active tantric practitioner—also called Gangs pa—whose followers established a number of religious institutions in central Tibet in the centuries after Ma gcig’s death.^[9] In his rnam bshad, Nam mkha’i rgyal mtshan records details of Ma gcig’s biography—including her identification at birth as a ḍākinī, education in Prajñāparāmitā and meetings with Pha dam pa—in addition to the instructions on feasts and empowerments (as well as sūtra) received and perfected by Thod smyon.^[10]

Early bKa’ brgyud commentators may also have had access to a biography by the Shangs pa author Sangs rgyas ston pa brTson ‘grus sengge (1207-1278) who encountered a sprul sku or emanation body of Ma gcig in the thirteenth century.^[11] ‘Gos lo tsā ba describes brTson ‘grus sengge as also having received extensive instruction in gcod from a teacher known as Sum ston ras pa (n.d.) who prophesied that his student would play an important role in the spread of Ma gcig’s teachings.^[12] Many prominent details of Ma gcig’s life and teaching in brTson ‘grus sengge’s account reflect the Phung po gzan skyur rnam bshad of Nam mkha’i rgyal mtshan,

⁸ As Harding notes in her translation of Phung po gzan skyur rnam bshad, a colophon at the end of the second chapter identifies the author as Nam mkha’i rgyal mtshan, the eighth in a tantric lineage of gcod descended from Thod smyon, while the colophon at the end of the full text lists gang bdag as the author, which may be someone or allude specifically to a Gangs lineage holder (op.cit., 15-19). The Tibetan text from which these translations have been made is available as “Phung po gzan skyur gyi rnam bshad gcod kyi don gsal byed”, in gCod kyi Chos ‘khor (New Delhi: Tibet House, 1974), fols. 10-410. The first two chapters of this same biography are also translated by Edou, op.cit., 117-139.

⁹ ’Gos lo tsā ba also identifies Thod smyon as Ma gcig’s grandson in The Blue Annals, 986-7. He is elsewhere described as her son and spiritual heir; c.f. Harding, Machik’s Complete Explanation, 286n7 and n8, and Edou, op.cit., 89.

¹⁰ Harding, Machik’s Complete Explanation, 100-1.

¹¹ There are two versions of this text known to me: 1) idem., Ma gcig lab kyi sgron ma’i rnam thar dang gcod kyi chos 'khor ma ‘ongs lung bstan bcas pa, BDRC, no. W1KG1646, accessed 7 June 2019. This copy is a scanned copy printed in dbu can from the National Archives in Mongolia and 2) idem., Phung po gzan skyur ba’i rnam par bshad pa las ma gcig lab sgron ma’i rnam par thar pa mdor msdus tsam zhig, University of Washington East Asia Collection, no. BQ7950.L377 B78 1900z, accessed 30 August 2019. Unfortunately, these two versions are in need of a critical reading which is not feasible within the scope of this dissertation. On the Shangs pa as an independent lineage defined by the oral transmission (bka’ brgyud) of tantra, see Matthew T. Kapstein, “The Shangs-pa bKa'-brgyud: an unknown tradition of Tibetan Buddhism,” in Tibetan Studies in Honour of Hugh Richardson, op.cit., 138-144.

¹² ‘Gos lo tsā ba, op.cit., 744. See also “Sangs rgyas ston pa’i rnam thar”, in bKa’ rgyud pa’i bla ma brgyud pa’i rnam thar khag cig dang khrid yig sogs, BDRC no. W1KG1286, accessed 10 June 2019.

suggesting a common origin or knowledge of the gcod tradition.^[13] In each, Ma gcig is recognized as a ḍākinī and student of Pha dam pa, as well as the source of the gcod sādhana of lus sbyin.

Many of these figures in the early gcod tradition are contextualized by ‘Gos lo tsā ba in the Deb ther ngon po, wherein the bKa’ brgyud scholar emphatically links Ma gcig to Pha dam pa through the transmission of several key teachings from India, including the precepts of Mahāmudrā (Phyag rgya chen po) and Prajñāparāmitā through which she would develop the doctrines of gcod.^[14] However, ‘Gos lo tsā ba’s treatment of Ma gcig, lus sbyin and the innovations of gcod is brief and selective in comparison to his thorough documentation of Pha dam pa’s activities, accomplishments and teachings in both India and Tibet including those of zhi byed sdug bsngal, or the pacification of suffering.^[15] Rather than describing Ma gcig’s recognition as a ḍākinī, ‘Gos lo tsā ba discusses her conditioning and education as a Buddhist religious leader—including her ordination, witnessed by Grwa pa mngon shes (1012-1090) who is opposite Karma Pakshi in fig. 3.1—and the transmission of her teachings.^[16]

Despite being an independent lineage which originates with Ma gcig, these thirteenth to fifteenth century sources set an important precedent for the cultivation of gcod in bKa’ brgyud traditions: As noted by Janet Gyatso, there is no gcod practice in the Sa skya teachings which dominated

¹³ Harding notes this similarity between the bKa’ brgyud traditions and details of gcod ritual practice provided in Phung po gzan skyur rnam bshad; op.cit., 49. Edou further speculates that the two versions of Ma gcig’s biography and teachings were taken from a larger text which no longer survives, but also that parts of Nam mkha’i rgyal mtshan’s text preserves work from the third Karma pa, Rang byung rdo rje, who died in 1339 (op.cit, 196n38). brTson ‘grus sengge’s text however may be the oldest datable version of Ma gcig’s work; c.f. Edou, op.cit., 90. Alternative sources for Ma gcig’s biography are noted at the Library of Tibetan Works and Archive in Dharamsala, in Edou, ibid., 197n44 and another fifteenth century version in Ladakh is mentioned by Heather Stoddard, “Eat it up or throw it to the dogs? dGe ‘dun chos phel (1903-1951), Ma gcig Lab sgron (1055-1149), and Pha dam pa sangs rgyas (d. 1117): A ramble through the burial grounds of ordinary and ‘holy’ beings in Tibet,” in Buddhism Beyond the Monastery: Tantric Practices and their Performers in Tibet and the Himalayas, eds. Sarah Jacoby and Antonio Terrone, (Leiden: Brill, 2009), 30. I have not had access to either of these latter texts.

¹⁴ ‘Gos lo tsā ba, op.cit., 911.

¹⁵ Dan Martin notes that gcod gradually overtakes zhi byed in popularity, though Pha dam pa did not knowingly establish either; these distinctions are rather a product of later—predominantly bKa’ brgyud—scholarship and historiography, see idem., “Crazy wisdom in moderation: Padampa Sangye’s use of counterintuitive methods in dealing with negative mental states,” in Chinese and Tibetan Esoteric Buddhism ed. Yael Bentor and Meir Shahar (Leiden: Brill, 2017), 193-214.

¹⁶ The account of her education in Prajñāpāramitā with Grwa pa mngon shes is also found in other sources of her biography to which ‘Gos lo tsā ba likely had access, including the Phung po gzan skyur rnam bshad and/or brTson ‘grus sengge’s text; see Harding, op.cit., 65 and Edou, op.cit., 110.

central Tibet in the thirteen to fifteenth centuries.^[17] And the fourteenth century history of Buddhism by the Sa skya scholar Bu ston (1290-1364) mentions neither Pha dam pa nor Ma gcig.^[18] Likewise, the monastic reformer and dGe lugs founder Tsongkhapa (1357-1419) authored a commentary on gcod which preserves the central practice of lus sbyin and use of charnel instruments, yet derives in part from a revelatory lineage independent of Ma gcig’s immediate disciples and descendants.^[19] The rNying ma gcod tradition is also informed by later revelatory material, the source of which is not Ma gcig but rather Guru Rinpoche’s consort Ye shes mtsho rgyal.^[20] Similarly, the Bon gcod tradition does not originate with Ma gcig, but is rather an independent corpus of mother tantra (ma rgyud) with a white-bodied ḍākinī as its revelatory source.^[21] It is nevertheless the practice of lus sbyin which is consistent to each of these gcod teachings.^[22]

Within these textual sources the material culture of gcod and use of rkang gling is generally less evident or explicit: In the Phung po gzan skyur rnam bshad, a description of the rkang gling —sourced from a corpse, determined appropriate for use and trimmed to size (see chapter 4, section 4)—is given in the context of Thod smyon’s dialogue with Ma gcig on the practice of lus sbyin from the fifth chapter.^[23] Though the date for this information is ambiguous, it nevertheless frames this material knowledge as a direct communication from Ma gcig on the instrument’s necessity for calling ḍākinī and other demons during the practice of feast-offering;the same text says relatively little about other instruments or materials used in gcod. In ‘Jam mgon kong sprul’s well-researched commentary on the gcod sādhana, the rkang gling is similarly used to

¹⁷ Gyatso, “The development of the gcod tradition,” 337. Gyatso suggests that the Sa skya kusali can be understood as a similar practice and methodology. The bKa’ brgyud traditions’ early dominance of the historiography of gcod and the tantric teachings of Thod smyon is noted by Edou as well, op.cit., 90-92.

¹⁸ Ngawang Zangpo, “Translator’s Introduction,” in Butön’s History of Buddhism in India and its Spread to Tibet: A Treasury of Priceless Scripture (Boston: Snow Lion Publications, 2013), xiv.

¹⁹ Edou, op.cit., 192n50. For a study and translation of Tsongkhapa’s writings on gcod see also Carol Savvas, “A study of the profound path of gcod: The Mahāyāna Buddhist meditation tradition of Tibet’s great woman saint Machig Labdron,” (PhD diss., University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1990).

²⁰ Edou, op.cit., 93. rKang ling nevertheless came to be used elsewhere in rNying ma mahāyoga tantra (see chapter 4 section 4).

²¹ Alejandro Chaoul, Chöd Practice in the Bön Tradition, (Ithaca: Snow Lion, 2009), 27. Though its oldest sources are dated to the twelfth century, the majority of Bon gcod’s textual tradition comes from the fourteenth or nineteenth centuries. On the origins of Bon and its corpus of mother tantras—dated no earlier than the twelfth century—see Dan Martin, Mandala Cosmogony: Human Body Good Thought and the Revelation of the Secret Mother Tantras of Bon (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 1994).

²² Gyatso finds Ma gcig is nevertheless the oldest documented teacher of lus sbyin, idem., “The development of the gcod tradition,” 340.

²³ Harding, op.cit., 140ff. This use of rkang gling is for the initial stage of the sādhana.

invite guests (e.g. demons, deities, ḍākinīs) to the feast-gathering or tshogs by first tapping the mouthpiece and then blowing it three times.^[24]

Other sources reveal that the rkang gling may also have been integrated into Buddhist yoga tantra as an implement for the charnel ascetic yogin as early as the thirteenth century: Grags pa rgyal mtshan, for example, specifies that the dung chen described in the Saṃputa tantra as an instrument for Heruka yoga is in fact made from a human leg.^[25] A source from the Bon gcod tradition dated to the fourteenth century similarly identifies rkang gling as one of the implements of its practitioners in combination with bone ornaments, a bandha (skull) and drum.^[26] After the fifteenth century, the rkang gling came to be associated with the tradition of brtul zhugs spyod pa, or practice of the observance, which was especially cultivated by bKa’ brgyud lineages as an expression of Buddhist tantric orthodoxy through the antinomian and nondual methods and materials of ritualized charnel asceticism.^[27] This integration is noted by ‘Gos lo tsā ba, who suggests the interrelation of the homophones spyod (practice) and gcod (cutting) are an indication of their similarities as tantric methodologies.^[28]

Building on these historiographic narratives and sources, the following sections will address how the practice of gcod and its material culture relate to the historical cultivation of iconographies for Ma gcig and her teacher Pha dam pa beginning in the thirteenth century and specifically through their representation with the rkang gling.

²⁴ ‘Jam mgon kong sprul, “The garden of all joy,” 37. He gives no description of the instrument itself or its construction.

²⁵ Grags pa rgyal mtshan, “He ru ka’i chas drug”, 270. The Sa skya scholar makes no mention of gcod or Ma gcig, however.

²⁶ Donatella Rossi, “An introduction to the ‘mKha’ ‘gro gsang gcod’ teachings of Bon,” East and West 58, no. 1 (2008), 227. On the skull as bandha see chapters 2 and 4, section 1.

²⁷ David M. Divalerio, The Holy Madmen of Tibet (London and New York: Oxford University Press, 2015), 24ff and 54. Divalerio finds that the rkang gling and practice of gcod are included within the methodologies of sixteenth century bKa’ brgyud religious leaders who take up the post-initiatory vows of Heruka yoga in response (at least in part) to dGe lugs monastic reformers and their political allies. Alternatively, Dan Martin finds an early mention of the rkang gling dated to a sixteenth century biography of Ma gcig from the corpus of tantric specialist Thang stong rgyal po (1361-1485) and his disciple gShong chen ri khrod pa (n.d.), “Ma gcig gi rnam thar mdzad par bco lnga ma” in Thang stong rgyal po gsung ‘bum vol 1., BDRC no. W23919, accessed 25 March 2020. My thanks to Dr. Martin for confirming this by email, 13 December 2018. In this text, the rkang gling is one of a set of charnel implements—including rus rgyan and a skull—used to engage ḍākinī.

²⁸ ‘Gos lo tsā ba, op.cit., 980. The fifteenth century historian goes as far as saying that the spelling of gcod yul was originally spyod yul.

Footnotes and references:

[back to top]

[1]:

See chapter 4, section 5 on the history and use of the thod rnga as a specific type of ḍamaru.

[2]:

Almost all recent scholars and translators of gcod have drawn from ‘Jam mgon kong sprul’s historiographic corpus: See Jérôme Edou, Machig Labdrön and the Foundations of Chod, (Ithaca: Snow Lion Publications, 1996). On p.195n35, Edou locates many of his sources within the fourteenth volume of ‘Jam mgon kong sprul’s compilation gDam ngag mdzod, or Treasury of Precious Methods (BDRC no. W20877) . See also Giacomella Orofino, “The Great Wisdom Mother and the gcod tradition,” in Tantra in Practice, ed. David Gordon White (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000), 396-416 and Sarah Harding, “Introduction”, in Machik’s Complete Explanation: Clarifying the Meaning of Chöd, A Complete Explanation of Casting the Body out as Food, trans. Sarah Harding (Ithaca: Snow Lion Publication, 2003), 21ff.

[3]:

idem., “The garden of all joy” in Chöd practice manual and commentary, trans. Lama Lödö Rinpoche (Ithaca: Snow Lion Publications, 2007), 34-80; Tbt. Lus mchod sbyin gyi zin bris mdor bsdus kun dga’i skyed tshal. ‘Jam mgon kong sprul records a lineage in which Karma Pakshi is the first of several Karma pas to have received gcod teachings or written commentaries on its methods. This volume also provides a schematic for a visualization resembling the composition of fig. 3.1, with Ma gcig as the central deity framed by Pha dam pa and Vajravārāhī (identified as Vajrayoginī) above her (p. 40).

[4]:

Edou, op.cit.,180n11. See also Harding, op.cit., 285n1.

[5]:

‘Jam mgon kong sprul, “The garden of all joy,” 36. The Zur mang monastic community was founded in the fifteenth century.

[6]:

ibid., 19. See also Janet Gyatso, “The development of the gcod tradition,” in Soundings in Tibetan Civilization, eds. Barbara Nimri-Aziz and Matthew T. Kapstein (Delhi: Manohar Publications, 1985), 335 and Edou, op.cit., 90.

[7]:

Rang byung rdo rje, “Zab mo bdud kyi gcod yul gyi khrid yig,” in Rang byung rdo rje gsung ‘bum, BDRC no. W30541, vol. 11, fols. 303-316, accessed 18 June 2019. Among these texts are the earliest datable references to the bka’ tshoms (spoken teachings) of Ma gcig, also found in ‘Jam mgon kong sprul’s gDam ngag mdzod, vol. 14. See also Edou, op.cit., 89. For a discussion of the ambiguous identity of the author Rang byung rdo rje as Karma Pakshi or the third Karma pa of the same name, see Kapstein, The Tibetan Assimilation of Buddhism, 97ff.

[8]:

As Harding notes in her translation of Phung po gzan skyur rnam bshad, a colophon at the end of the second chapter identifies the author as Nam mkha’i rgyal mtshan, the eighth in a tantric lineage of gcod descended from Thod smyon, while the colophon at the end of the full text lists gang bdag as the author, which may be someone or allude specifically to a Gangs lineage holder (op.cit., 15-19). The Tibetan text from which these translations have been made is available as “Phung po gzan skyur gyi rnam bshad gcod kyi don gsal byed”, in gCod kyi Chos ‘khor (New Delhi: Tibet House, 1974), fols. 10-410. The first two chapters of this same biography are also translated by Edou, op.cit., 117-139.

[9]:

’Gos lo tsā ba also identifies Thod smyon as Ma gcig’s grandson in The Blue Annals, 986-7. He is elsewhere described as her son and spiritual heir; c.f. Harding, Machik’s Complete Explanation, 286n7 and n8, and Edou, op.cit., 89.

[10]:

Harding, Machik’s Complete Explanation, 100-1.

[11]:

There are two versions of this text known to me: 1) idem., Ma gcig lab kyi sgron ma’i rnam thar dang gcod kyi chos 'khor ma ‘ongs lung bstan bcas pa, BDRC, no. W1KG1646, accessed 7 June 2019. This copy is a scanned copy printed in dbu can from the National Archives in Mongolia and 2) idem., Phung po gzan skyur ba’i rnam par bshad pa las ma gcig lab sgron ma’i rnam par thar pa mdor msdus tsam zhig, University of Washington East Asia Collection, no. BQ7950.L377 B78 1900z, accessed 30 August 2019. Unfortunately, these two versions are in need of a critical reading which is not feasible within the scope of this dissertation. On the Shangs pa as an independent lineage defined by the oral transmission (bka’ brgyud) of tantra, see Matthew T. Kapstein, “The Shangs-pa bKa'-brgyud: an unknown tradition of Tibetan Buddhism,” in Tibetan Studies in Honour of Hugh Richardson, op.cit., 138-144.

[12]:

‘Gos lo tsā ba, op.cit., 744. See also “Sangs rgyas ston pa’i rnam thar”, in bKa’ rgyud pa’i bla ma brgyud pa’i rnam thar khag cig dang khrid yig sogs, BDRC no. W1KG1286, accessed 10 June 2019.

[13]:

Harding notes this similarity between the bKa’ brgyud traditions and details of gcod ritual practice provided in Phung po gzan skyur rnam bshad; op.cit., 49. Edou further speculates that the two versions of Ma gcig’s biography and teachings were taken from a larger text which no longer survives, but also that parts of Nam mkha’i rgyal mtshan’s text preserves work from the third Karma pa, Rang byung rdo rje, who died in 1339 (op.cit, 196n38). brTson ‘grus sengge’s text however may be the oldest datable version of Ma gcig’s work; c.f. Edou, op.cit., 90. Alternative sources for Ma gcig’s biography are noted at the Library of Tibetan Works and Archive in Dharamsala, in Edou, ibid., 197n44 and another fifteenth century version in Ladakh is mentioned by Heather Stoddard, “Eat it up or throw it to the dogs? dGe ‘dun chos phel (1903-1951), Ma gcig Lab sgron (1055-1149), and Pha dam pa sangs rgyas (d. 1117): A ramble through the burial grounds of ordinary and ‘holy’ beings in Tibet,” in Buddhism Beyond the Monastery: Tantric Practices and their Performers in Tibet and the Himalayas, eds. Sarah Jacoby and Antonio Terrone, (Leiden: Brill, 2009), 30. I have not had access to either of these latter texts.

[14]:

‘Gos lo tsā ba, op.cit., 911.

[15]:

Dan Martin notes that gcod gradually overtakes zhi byed in popularity, though Pha dam pa did not knowingly establish either; these distinctions are rather a product of later—predominantly bKa’ brgyud—scholarship and historiography, see idem., “Crazy wisdom in moderation: Padampa Sangye’s use of counterintuitive methods in dealing with negative mental states,” in Chinese and Tibetan Esoteric Buddhism ed. Yael Bentor and Meir Shahar (Leiden: Brill, 2017), 193-214.

[16]:

The account of her education in Prajñāpāramitā with Grwa pa mngon shes is also found in other sources of her biography to which ‘Gos lo tsā ba likely had access, including the Phung po gzan skyur rnam bshad and/or brTson ‘grus sengge’s text; see Harding, op.cit., 65 and Edou, op.cit., 110.

[17]:

Gyatso, “The development of the gcod tradition,” 337. Gyatso suggests that the Sa skya kusali can be understood as a similar practice and methodology. The bKa’ brgyud traditions’ early dominance of the historiography of gcod and the tantric teachings of Thod smyon is noted by Edou as well, op.cit., 90-92.

[18]:

Ngawang Zangpo, “Translator’s Introduction,” in Butön’s History of Buddhism in India and its Spread to Tibet: A Treasury of Priceless Scripture (Boston: Snow Lion Publications, 2013), xiv.

[19]:

Edou, op.cit., 192n50. For a study and translation of Tsongkhapa’s writings on gcod see also Carol Savvas, “A study of the profound path of gcod: The Mahāyāna Buddhist meditation tradition of Tibet’s great woman saint Machig Labdron,” (PhD diss., University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1990).

[20]:

Edou, op.cit., 93. rKang ling nevertheless came to be used elsewhere in rNying ma mahāyoga tantra (see chapter 4 section 4).

[21]:

Alejandro Chaoul, Chöd Practice in the Bön Tradition, (Ithaca: Snow Lion, 2009), 27. Though its oldest sources are dated to the twelfth century, the majority of Bon gcod’s textual tradition comes from the fourteenth or nineteenth centuries. On the origins of Bon and its corpus of mother tantras—dated no earlier than the twelfth century—see Dan Martin, Mandala Cosmogony: Human Body Good Thought and the Revelation of the Secret Mother Tantras of Bon (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 1994).

[22]:

Gyatso finds Ma gcig is nevertheless the oldest documented teacher of lus sbyin, idem., “The development of the gcod tradition,” 340.

[23]:

Harding, op.cit., 140ff. This use of rkang gling is for the initial stage of the sādhana.

[24]:

‘Jam mgon kong sprul, “The garden of all joy,” 37. He gives no description of the instrument itself or its construction.

[25]:

Grags pa rgyal mtshan, “He ru ka’i chas drug”, 270. The Sa skya scholar makes no mention of gcod or Ma gcig, however.

[26]:

Donatella Rossi, “An introduction to the ‘mKha’ ‘gro gsang gcod’ teachings of Bon,” East and West 58, no. 1 (2008), 227. On the skull as bandha see chapters 2 and 4, section 1.

[27]:

David M. Divalerio, The Holy Madmen of Tibet (London and New York: Oxford University Press, 2015), 24ff and 54. Divalerio finds that the rkang gling and practice of gcod are included within the methodologies of sixteenth century bKa’ brgyud religious leaders who take up the post-initiatory vows of Heruka yoga in response (at least in part) to dGe lugs monastic reformers and their political allies. Alternatively, Dan Martin finds an early mention of the rkang gling dated to a sixteenth century biography of Ma gcig from the corpus of tantric specialist Thang stong rgyal po (1361-1485) and his disciple gShong chen ri khrod pa (n.d.), “Ma gcig gi rnam thar mdzad par bco lnga ma” in Thang stong rgyal po gsung ‘bum vol 1., BDRC no. W23919, accessed 25 March 2020. My thanks to Dr. Martin for confirming this by email, 13 December 2018. In this text, the rkang gling is one of a set of charnel implements—including rus rgyan and a skull—used to engage ḍākinī.

[28]:

‘Gos lo tsā ba, op.cit., 980. The fifteenth century historian goes as far as saying that the spelling of gcod yul was originally spyod yul.