3. Kachem Kaholma [Tib: bKa' chems ka khol ma]

Another important widely quoted text believed to be authored by King Srongtsan Gampo is Kachem Kakholma [Tib: bKa' 'chems ka khol ma]. The text was said to be a testament left by Srongtsan Gampo to his grandson Mangsrong mangtsan, queen Mongza Khricam, ministers and the public and it was hidden under the pillar in Lhasa Tsuglag khang. It was discovered by Atisha Dipamkara Shrijana in 1049 CE through the inspiration of a mad woman in Lhasa. According to the text^[1], when there was no human in Tibet, Avalokisteshvara [Aryapalo] instructed Hanuman of the Indian Ramayana epic to practice and meditate in Tibet. While doing so, a rock-ogress [Tib: Brag srin mo], entreated him for a marital relationship. He consulted Avaloketishvara, who consented to the relationship and gave blessings that their descendants will be the cause of Buddhahood to many. Goddess Tara also commended the decision. From their union came a son who neither resembled the father nor the mother. There was no hair on his body and no tail. Red-faced, he lived on meat and blood. Fearing that the rock-ogress would eat the child, the father took him to Maja tsogs can forest where there were many monkeys.

After sometime, the monkey father found that his son had mated with the monkeys and some four hundred offsprings had been born. But the young monkeys were in a poor condition. Avalokiteshvara comforted the monkey father and explained the positive qualities of the children who had acquired the father's traits and the negative quality of those of mother's traits. He gave the monkey father five seeds of barley, wheat, coarse barley, bean and small bean^[2].

Avalokiteshvara gave him a handful of gold dust also. The monkey father went back to Tibet and sowed the seeds, and a good harvest came and the monkeys had enough to eat. He scattered the gold dust in the land and Tibet abounded in gold mines. But later the monkeys fought with each other and they segregated into four groups, which became the four original Tibetan tribes: Se, sMu, lDong and sTong. lDong tribe which further divided into eighteen (rus chen bco bryad); sTong tribe with twelve divisionof rJe bzhi and khol brgyad; Se tribe with nine division of 'jugle spyen dgu; and sMu tribe with eight sub-division of Kole'i phra brgyad. As the tribes were fighting among each other, the monkey father divided the land dBus gtsang into four regions. lDong clan was given g.Yuru; gTsang g.Yas ru was given to sTong. Se was given gTsang g.Yon ru and sMu got dBu ru region. This was how the origin of Tibetan people was explained in the Kachem Kakholma text. Other Tibetan authoritative texts like, Nyangral's Chos 'byung metok snyingpo sbrangrtsi'i bcud, Sakya bsod nams gyal mtsan's sGyal rabs gsal ba'i me long, Dondam smra ba'i senge's bShad mzod yid bzhin norbu [15th century text], Fifth Dalai Lama's dPyid kyi rgyalmo'i glud byang, dPa' bo gtsug lag phren ba [1504-1566] etc were equally inspired by Manikabum or Kachem Kakholma or by both. They adopted whatever was convenient to their inclination and need of the time from the texts. Nyangral firstly cited Lha las phul 'byung gi bstod pa and discussed Rupati and his flight to Tibet as the origin of Tibetans in Ngari region. Secondly, he went into elaborate explanation of what was said in Manikabum without mentioning his source. dPa bo gtsug lag phreng ba also subscribed to Manikabum but it has remarked in a bracket that Kachem Kakholma speaks of only one son^[3].

In Manikabum, it was Buddha of infinite light who instructed Avalokiteshvara to be the guardian of Tibet and its inhabitants. A Bodhisattva monkey appeared from the rays generated from Avalokiteshvara's left hand. Goddess Tara, in order to fulfill the wishes of Avalokiteshvara, emanates as a rock-ogress to assist the Bodhisattva monkey. Six offspring were born to them, who when left at rMaja tsogs-can multiplied and they achieved human form following the teaching on ten virtuous deeds from a young lad, who appeared from the right palm of Avalokitesvara. Manikabum does not elaborate on the origin of the four tribes. But the question here is that if Goddess Tara was aware of this noble mission of the Bodhisattva monkey, what was the need to turn herself into a rock-ogress and plead with him. They could have agreed on a more convenient arrangement. Also, how could the offspring who acquired the mother's traits be negative as described in the text, because the rock-ogress was after all Goddess Tara [Tib:Je tsun sDol ma].

In Kachem Kakholma, it was Hanuman of Indian Ramayana mythology, who under the instruction of Avaloketishvara came all the way from Sri Lanka to Tibet. Here the rock-ogress was not the emanation of Goddess Tara. The Goddess only approved the marital relationship between Hanuman and the rock-ogress. Only one strange son was born [reminiscent of Bhim and Hadimpa and their son Gatokacho in Mahabharata]. The text further mentions that father Hanuman was afraid that the son would be eaten by the rock-ogress [mother], so he left the son with the monkeys in Maja tsogs-can and where it multiplied into a great numbers.

Avalokiteshvara's blessing them with five seeds of grains and gold dust was same as mentioned in the Manikabum. Here it says that later the monkey offspring fought and disintegrated into four tribes and divided Tibet into four regions among them. The difference in the exposition of origin myth in Manikabum and Kachem Kakholma as reflected above is enough to tell us that the authors of the two texts are not the same person. Srongtsan Gampo could not be blamed for the inconsistencies.

This confirms Alison Melnick and Bell's statement,

"While we cannot therefore point to one specific "author," we can understand that the collection was developed with the help of the mythologized Imperial King Songtsen Gampo, three Renaissance treasure revealers, and an unknown number of contributors and redactors to the popular Tibetan historical narrative."^[4]

It is also said that some of the original folios of Kachem Kakholma was missing, and Lhasa Temple caretaker [Tib: dKon gnyer] wrote it down out of his memory^[5]. Replacing the Bodhisattva monkey with Ramayana‘s Hanuman was an ingenious idea to persuade the natives to believe in the sacredness of their origin as descendants of Indian gods. But as we can see, there is no episode in Ramayana of Hanuman going to Himalaya or Tibet for this mission of populating the land. Therefore, the veracity of the facts mentioned in the two texts is doubtful.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

bKa'-chems ka-khol-ma, p-48

[2]:

bKa'-chems ka-khol-ma,IBID p-54. " nas, gro, so-ba, sran-ma and sran-chung"

[3]:

dPa' bo gtsug lag phreng ba, mKhas pa'i dga' bston, p-154

[4]:

Alison Melnick and Christopher Bell, Mani Kabum,

[5]:

Dung-dkar tshig-mzod chen-mo, stod-cha, p-1