Future of Learning in the Himalayas

Patan Durbar, Nepal

“That which discloses to the wise and disguises from the foolish their lack of understanding.”

- Entry for ‘Education’ from Ambrose Bierce’s Devil’s Dictionary.

Tibetan intellectuals are passionate about promoting education. Practically every person in the Himalayan world that has managed to receive a higher level of education is guaranteed to be concerned with the educational possibilities of people back home. I’ve seen this to be true so many times both inside Tibet and in neighboring countries with Tibetan populations. Inside Tibet, especially, they are bound to support schools taught in Tibetan-language medium, or at least those offering classes at suitable levels of Tibetan literacy. Until a few years ago a large number of Tibetan parents, including Party cadres in Lhasa, were willing to risk sending their children over the Himalayas to Dharamsala, to the Tibetan Children's Village in particular, as their only hope for the children receiving an education with real Tibetan content. The alternative? Culturally alienated Sinified children. These days not only is it more and more strongly forbidden to send the children to Dharamsala, it has also become much more difficult and dangerous with the increasingly strict border controls. Now it is all the more vital that Tibetan medium education be promoted in Tibet. And moves by the PRC authorities in recent years have been going in very discouraging directions.

In Nepal, at large, education is a huge concern. I remember 20 years ago they used to say that the number of Nepalese  unable to read stood at 70%. Now I understand it’s more like 50%, which seems to me like a woefully inadequate improvement, especially given the requirement of reading for most reasonably good occupations available in the early 21st century. Still poor after all these years, this gradually developing democracy has been preoccupied for the last decade with a Maoist insurgency. Now they, the Maoists, have been brought into the government, and if for this reason only there would be hope of more positive developments. Still, the fighting against them took so much energy and resources away from much-needed infrastructural improvements that these days Nepal can only produce half as much electricity as it needs (explaining those daily hours of “load shedding”),* and public education is so abominable that nobody wants their children to waste their time with it. Part of the problem with education in Nepal is just that so many parents are too poor to allow their children to spend much if any time on it. Their earning power, although small, is more important. Child labor can still be seen everywhere these days, especially in the metalworking shops. Forbidding child labor won’t help much to get at the root of the complex of problems. Education would seem to come much closer.**

(*By way of contrast, nearby Bhutan has plenty of extra hydroelectric power, and makes much profit diverting the excess to the Indian grid. The dams and generators were, I believe, largely built with Indian financing.  **Don’t be too surprised if I say that education can also be a source of certain kinds problems. For example: It’s well known that successful rural education programs promote migration to urban areas leading to increased unemployment, housing problems...)

I’m still trying to remember ever once meeting a learned Ladakhi who didn’t have a hand in building or managing one or more schools. I haven’t been in Ladakh myself, although I’ve visited neighboring valleys just south of it. I haven’t been to Bhutan, either. Of course I’d love to go. Who wouldn’t?

So this is what I have in mind. I’ve found out about two schools, one in Nepal and one in Ladakh, both of them intent on instilling Buddhist values, both run by intelligent, idealistic and trustworthy people, and both much in need of help. Actually, the Ladakhi school, which I haven’t seen, appears to be in much sadder shape financially than the one I visited in Kathmandu.* Its classes are taught mainly in Ladakhi-Tibetan (there are classes in Hindi, Urdu and English), while the Kathmandu school, like very many private schools there, is taught in English medium. If you also feel the concern and see the need to act, I’d like to ask you to conspire with me, not only with the idea to help them out financially if possible, but also to visit the schools and try to find out more about their conditions and needs and then, of course, to spread the news to a few other people so that more can get done.

(*Both schools already have well established physical buildings and have been in existence for some decades by now.)

All you have to do is send a comment in the comment box below. I won’t publish your comment (I screen comments... they never go up automatically). But if you will send me an email contact, I will write back with the details of what I know about one or both schools and we will form an informal email group that will share information and ideas about how we can help these children in a more private way, without any fanfare and without a penny wasted on overhead or administration (I won’t be handling anyone’s money for them). I’d especially like to hear from you if you are planning to travel to Ladakh or Nepal in the near future. Helping is important, but it’s also important to do it in a smart way.

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An open door at Oxford?

If you are interested in supporting an organization that builds new schools in the Himalayan region (meaning primarily eastern Tibet and Nepal), I’m particularly impressed by what Karuna-Shechen has been doing, especially their support for Bamboo Schools in Nepal (read this story). Of course there are other school support organizations at work.

I recommend this page at Cultural Survival website.

Catriona Bass has written up some solid research on the state[s] of education inside Tibet during the late 20th century. If you are seriously interested in the topic, try her book Education in Tibet: Policy and Practice since 1950, TIN and Zed Books (London 1998).

For some insight into the state of Nepalese educational institutions, both public and private, look here.

People sometimes succeed by chance,

yet no one would think of them as wise.

When the worm is finished with its meal,

if letters appear it's still no scribe.

ma dpyad pa las don grub pa //

byung yang mdzangs par su zhig brtsi //

srin bu dag gis zos pa'i rjes //

yi ger byung yang yig mkhan min //  



མ་དཔྱད་པ་ལས་དོན་གྲུབ་པ༎
བྱུང་ཡང་མཛངས་པར་སུ་ཞིག་བརྩི༎
སྲིན་བུ་དག་གིས་ཟོས་པའི་རྗེས༎
ཡི་གེར་བྱུང་ཡང་ཡིག་མཁན་མིན༎

- Sa-skya Legs-bshad, ch. 3, v. 27

Been Serving Leniently, Have You?

Fixing the Peacock Pedestal at Swayambhu Nath
('Phags-pa Shing-kun, Spring 2011)

I spent some time in Nepal at the IBA this Spring reading through a Sakya commentary on the famous 12th-century work, the Mind Training in Seven Topics (Blo-sbyong Don-bdun-ma) by Chekhawa (Mchad-kha-ba). Of course, being that old, the root text is full of those outdated ‘old vocabulary’ items that Tibetans call da-nying (brda’-rnying), which may at times make the reading a little difficult, even if it was quite simple language for people living then. But one line in particular has often been translated so badly it is hard to even begin...  “Do not serve the central object leniently.”

Here’s the line in Wylie:

gzhung bzang po ma bsten /




Now the same in real Tibetan letters:


གཞུང་བཟང་པོ་མ་བསྟེན།

The main sticking point here is the expression gzhung bzang-po, not found in many dictionaries.* You might want to understand the gzhung to mean a governing center, a capital city, a main textbook for a particular subject, or the like. But when you say that a person has a good gzhung you are referring to her or his long-term character in conjunction with behavior, I think something very like what we mean by integrity in English. In modern Tibetan gzhung bzang seems to be a near-equivalent to gzhung drang, which might mean an ‘honest core,’ which again suggests the English word integrity. Some more recent translators of the Seven Topics have opted for loyalty, which might also work. Others translate as consistency or sense of duty (I’ll have to look more into this and think about it some more; I’m not pretending to cover the whole range of possible translation choices). These other translations aren’t necessarily less right, let alone wrong. I’m not sure enough to pass judgment on them. But yes, choosing one over the other does make a difference in the meaning. 

(*Try the Dag yig gsar bsgrigs [reprinted at least eleven times since 1989], part 5 of the entry for gzhung on pp. 680-681, where gzhung is defined as mi'i rang gshis dang kun spyod kyi ming ste : mi gzhung bzang / khrel gzhung can / mi gzhung drang zhes pa lta bu.)

What I am sure of is that not serving the central object leniently is very, very misleading. To then go on and make a commentary on the English as if it made any sense at all, is wrong on an even deeper level. It simply compounds the error. But then for later translators to simply copy it, or pretend to improve on it by shifting the wording toward a meaning they prefer, is mind-bendingly deceptive for both the translator and the translation consumer. Both we the translators and they the consumers deserve better. 

To translate the commentary passage written by the famous Khampa scholar Ngagga (or Ngogga):

gzhung bzang po ma bsten / zhes pa ni / pha rol pos rang la gnod par byas pa 'khon du bzung nas 'khon 'dzin de las nam yang mi ldog pa / dper na 'jig rten pa'i mi gzhung bzang po can des dus tshod ji tsam song yang rang la ltos pa mi brjed pa dang 'dra bas 'khon 'dzin spangs la ma bsten pa / gnod pa'i lan du slar yang phan 'dogs pa'i bsam sbyor dang ldan par bya'o //

“When the opposing party has done something to injure you that resulted in your holding a grudge against them there is no way you will ever get out of the feuding that will result from it. To give an example, a worldly person who is regarded as one with integrity, no matter how much time has gone by, will never forget his obligations. Therefore give up feuding and don’t make use of it. Rather, in response to injury you must time and again react with good plans about how you can help the other person.”

I imagine that most persons who have sadly found themselves seriously under-exposed to the logic of Lojong won't understand the more subtle point of this commentary, but rather imagine they see a contradiction in it, ‘How can the person of integrity who repays good deeds be used as an example that applies to a person who holds a grudge?’

It’s saying that the person who has harmed you has done you a great favor that needs to be repaid if you are (in fact) a person of good character, and not just what this-world-lings regard as a person of good character. (If you didn’t follow the reasoning here, try reading the commentary again more slowly, or explore its context.)


Lojong is sustained, and even made to thrive, under negative circumstances (rkyen ngan). Its serious practitioners (not those who proudly proclaim themselves practitioners) are beholden to the people who contribute to their attempts to realize non-self, since the bad things done to them serve as expedients on the Path to Enlightenment (lam 'khyer).*

(*One response often heard from the incredulous this-world-ling who first hears about Lojong is, ‘Impossible! This is just inviting people to walk on you!’ While in a sense true, bear in mind that Lojong practitioners are not supposed to let other people know they are practicing it, so it isn't as if they are tempting fate and saying, ‘Go ahead. Come and get me. Give it your best shot!’  Also, they aren’t masochists who seek ego gratification from provoking their own suffering. Everyday life presents ample opportunities. I doubt the truth of this requires much reflection.)

Now when we look back at the root verse and read, perhaps in a new way, the line “Don't make use of a good character,” we are forced to rethink it.


It’s actually telling you not to hold grudges, isn’t it?

There is no contradiction. Still, your understanding heads in one direction, then the other, and back again...  Perhaps the theory that translation is impossible is attempting to prove itself true. Perhaps its very falsehood proves its truth?

Sun setting above Nagarjun Hill
(Glang-ru Lung-bstan-pa)

Here is one of the coolest and most fun Tibetan Buddhism websites ever. No joke! One student told me about it, but it was too difficult for me to access in Nepal. It allows you to instantly compare seven different translations of the Seven Point Mind Training. Go here and try it for yourself. If you want to go directly to this particular line, try pressing here once or twice. Once there, wave your mouse over the seven boxed letters next to the following words "Do not serve the central object leniently." By doing this you will quickly see seven different translations for the line flash in front of your eyes one right after the other. Now try it with some of the other lines and see how consistent (or not) the translations are with each other. One thing you might discover to your amazement is that often people seem to have worked on the English translations that have already been done in the past rather than approaching the Tibetan freshly. This is a shame. But I suppose we are all guilty of it in some degree since our ‘readings’ of the Tibetan texts may be consciously or unconsciously affected by our past readings of translations. I know it has happened to me.


Khenpo Appey (Mkhan-po A-pad Rin-po-che), Blo syong don bdun ma'i bka' khrid, a pamphlet published in Nepal in 45 pages, distributed free of charge, with the date given in the Tibetan Royal era year of 2137, which would correspond to 2010 CE.  On p. 25, you may read what he has to say about our line:

gzhung bzang po ma bsten / ces dper na mi gshis ka bzang po zhig yin na rang la phan btags pa de ga dus yin kyang mi brjed pa sems la nyar sdod kyi red / de bzhin du gnod pa byas pa de 'khon du bzung nas ga dus yang ma brjed par sems kyi nang du nyar sdod kyi red / de lta bu gzhung yun ring du ma bzung zhes pa'i don red //

Khenpo Ngagga (Mkhan-po Ngag-dga’ — the colophon names him as Mkhyen-rab-blo-ldan), Blo sbyong don bdun ma'i rtsa ba'i 'bru 'grel skal bzang rkang drug rol ba'i pad tshal, an unpublished pamphlet based on a computer printout (this might have appeared in a Manduwala 1985 publication that I haven’t seen yet). The author and the late Ven. Khenpo Appey were contemporaries, well known to each other, both being disciples of Ajam Rinpoche.

Chekhawa’s work is certainly to be counted in the handful of Tibetan texts that might be described as most translated, together with the Love Songs of the Sixth Dalai Lama. Practically every last Tibetan Buddhologist has tried their hand at it, although not quite every attempt resulted in a major Snow Lion or Wisdom publication. I think the interest could be explained in several ways. One is that it is a very popular teaching text employed by Tibetan Buddhist teachers wherever they might be and regardless of their tradition. Another is just the high level of psychological insight it displays, something you appreciate more and more each time you go back to it. How can a text so simply (in its times) and abruptly stated contain such sophisticated understandings of the ways the human mind works? By being so old it defies evolution and makes us consider the possibility that here, at least, intelligent design has been at work.

Note: I used this font converter page to make the unicode Tibetan script out of Wylie input. You can use it, too, especially if Wylie creates obstacles for your reading comprehension.




One alternative text that I located in the Blo sbyong brgya rtsa has the different reading gzhung bzang mi bsten, which I'm tempted to translate — ‘Not all that literally!’ you may object — as ‘Good character (or integrity) isn’t going to cut it.’




Of late Tibetan Buddhists have begun to catch the fever of Translation Studies, which has long been playing in various academic realms. This goes along with huge plans, recently evolving onto a grandiose scale, to translate the entirety of the Tibetan-language Kanjur and Tanjur collections into English, on which we’ll talk some other time, OK?

Love and Loveliness in Lalitpur

Guru Rinpoche

I very recently had the pleasure of visiting what has to be one of the most aesthetically awe-inspiring museums in all of South Asia. I should have gotten a copy of the museum catalog, but it was rather pricey and I didn’t have enough NRS in my wallet at the time. Of course you have to pay for entrance to the museum itself, as well as purchase a tourism admission ticket to the Patan Durbar where the museum is located, and then you really must sit in their very nice garden restaurant (I recommend the saag) and rest up after a few hours of going flat-footed and bleary-eyed in the museum...

Another good thing about this museum is that they allow photographs for noncommercial purposes like, for instance, this blog, where there are no commercial interests at all.

I don’t really have details to tell you about most of the artworks you will see here. Like I said, I didn’t purchase the museum catalog. The frontispiece shows what has to be one of the most pacific forms of Guru Rinpoche ever. Some know him as Padmasambhava. He looks positively serene and friendly for a change. Here’s a slightly different angle.

Another angle

The entrance to the museum

Erotic woodcarving (maithuna, "couple")

Another loving couple in wood

Notice that the man is getting a nice garland,* which means he’ll be getting something else that ought to be nice from this comely woman before too much time has elapsed. I’ll leave it to your imagination.  Did you notice where his right hand is located? 

*To employ the language of Leiden Prof. Jonathan Silk, he is getting ‘garlanded.’

Well, these erotic woodcarvings are next-to-nothing compared to the jaw-dropping scenes you can see among the temple struts of other temples in the Patan Durbar. They show every conceivable pose with every imaginable partner. So much so that it buggers the imagination. You heard me right. Tibetologist Tucci long ago made a picture book on the subject that libraries fortunate enough to have it keep under look and key for the eyes of librarians only.  Since I like to think of Tibeto-logic as a family-friendly blog, I’ll just give you one example that is preserved inside the museum itself, which is this one. Kids, if you need to know (which I sincerely doubt), this is how families are usually made, including most likely your own:

I'm not sure a caption is needed

A bizarre looking couple with only two knees
between the two of them

They look even odder sideways, don’t they?

The royal throne of the kings of Patan

As you probably know, kings no longer rule or even have a ceremonial role in Nepal (since 2008, around the time of the infamous shoe attack), and recently there have been moves to remove from circulation all the coins and currency notes that bear their images. (The royal images are mostly being replaced by images of high mountains, or maps of Nepal...) But here, inscribed on this golden royal throne, is one of the wildest things you can probably ever recall reading on a chair:

“May it be good. On Thursday, the eighth of the waxing moon of the lunar month Shravana, Nepal Era 787 (about August 8, 1666) His Majesty King Shrinivasa Malla was offered an alms bowl and a golden throne attached with Kadamba trees.  Anybody can hire this throne on payment of two rupees to the families of coppersmith and carpenter. Let it be auspicious.”

Well, I thought it was funny. It costs about 200 rupees - or was it more? - to get inside the museum, and it is strictly forbidden to sit on this particular chair. No, I didn’t try to test the patience of the museum guards. It was getting late. I needed to get back to the hard mattress in my unlit (not much electricity in Nepal these days) and cheap Thamel guesthouse before dark, and I still wanted to make a stop at the nearby so-called Golden Temple of Patan. On my way out, in the bookstore where I should have purchased the catalog, I happened to meet a famous Tibetological blogger. It’s not like you see them everywhere, really.  Well, definitely not all the time.

In the Patan Durbar

References:

Here you can get some nice views of the exterior and the interior of the Patan Museum. Go here to see some eye-popping items from the museum's collection, and don't forget to try out the links at the bottom of the page.

Jonathan Silk, Garlanding as Sexual Invitation: Indian Buddhist Evidence, Indo-Iranian Journal, vol. 50 (2007), pp. 5-10. Perhaps you can get a PDF of it for free download if you belong to a subscribing institution... Here is the opening line for a teaser: “In Ancient India, the act of garlanding may indicate a sexual invitation, especially if the offering is from a woman to a man...”

Here’s the Rati-lila book by Tucci, as listed in WorldCat, if you want to check and make sure if your library will let you check it out or not. You can read it in German, French and Italian (not to mention Croatian). I doubt you’ll be looking at the words all that much, I really do.

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Note on the names of the cities: Tibetans call Lalitpur (or Patan) by the name Ye-rang, which must connect somehow to the Newar name for the place, which is Yala. Kathmandu Tibetans know as Yam-bu, while Newars call it Yen. Some say Kho-bom is a name for Kathmandu, but I think there has been some confusion with Kho-bom/Kho-khom, which is definitely a Tibetan name for Bhaktapur (or Bhatgaon, the third historically royal city of the Nepal Valley). Newars know Bhaktapur as Khwopa.  Tibetans have Bal-yul as their name for Nepal. I'm not sure what the explanation for this ought to be, but I imagine that the Tibetan Bal was drawn from the pal in Nepal (?).

Hare Year Greetings

Miniature from a manuscript of the Jataka stories that were written by the Third Karmapa

Well, at long last Losar, Tibetan New Year, is nearly upon us. (Don’t panic. I said nearly. You’ve still got time to deep fry those kabtse.)

It might sound too much like a shampoo commercial if I  were going to wish you a Happy Hare Year. Anyway, in the interest of precision, Tibetans don’t wish people a “happy” year. They like to share both the happiness and the sorrow of their friends and family. What they do wish is something they call tashi (bkra-shis), and we might call auspiciousness. Auspiciousness has to do with auspices, meaning a good outlook from a divination. In Italy they call it Auguri and, so, are wont to say “Buon auguri!”  This makes me think of things auguring well for the future as I believe they must. But Tibetan tashi translates Sanskrit mangala, and I believe it does mean auspiciousness in the sense of sign of good things to come.


Buddhaghosa, the famous 5th-century Pāli commentator (or, as I’ve been told, the committee of commentators that passes under his name), analyzes auspiciousness into three kinds, auspicious sights, auspicious sounds and auspicious scents and textures.  Among the sights that are auspicious to see first thing in the morning he mentions, a bird of prey, a bilva sprout, a pregnant woman, a youth, a full pitcher, a fresh fish, a thoroughbred horse or a carriage pulled by the same, a bull, a cow, and so on.  I wonder if he would consider a rabbit auspicious to see in the morning. Well, of course I mean one that was not running away from what little remains of your lettuce patch.

We’ve discussed already the difference between the hare and the rabbit. Some regard this as quite the crucial distinction. I managed to get myself in over my neck by offering the merest suggestion there may be some truth to rabbit parthenogenesis, as you probably remember (I for one will never forget it). Maybe that was why Ownerless Donkey excited so many comments, not just that rabbits are the most popular of animals.


To go back to the subject of auspiciousness, I once translated a brief explanation of the symbolism of the Eight Auspicious Symbols by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, in which He draws out their more profoundly Buddhist meanings. In my translation I haven’t tried to tone down the tone of it, as you will see. Read slowly.  Slowly, I said.

~  ~  ~

The Eight Auspicious Symbols

The reason and need for putting the eight auspicious symbols in various painted and sculpted forms in temples, in town and countryside, in buildings and homes:

1.         The Parasol made of Precious Substances: a sign of starting an extensive festival of cool shade of comfort and betterment, shielded from the oppressive heat of temporary and longlasting sufferings including, in the present lifetime, unfortunate accidents and obstructions; in future lives, the sufferings of gods and men and the three lower realms -- animal, preta and hell realms.

2.         The Golden Fish: a sign that just as small fish swim through the ocean fearlessly wherever they please, we as well as others are able to move without fear of sinking in the ocean of sufferings and go, on our own power, from comfort to comfort with nothing getting in the way.

3.         The Vase of Great Treasures: a sign of the satisfaction of never seeing the end of all the things for which one wishes, the blessings of cessasion of suffering along with those of life in the three realms (desire, form and non-form), including long life, glory and wealth.

4.         The Lotus: a sign that without any impurity from faults of the ten non-virtues, the petals of pure virtues open free and relaxed while we imbibe at our ease the honey-like sap of resting assured of longlasting comfort.

5.         The Rightwise Spiraling Conch: a sign of goading us into action for the comfort and betterment of ourselves and others, arousing beings from the sleep of unaware ignoring by broadcasting the lovely sounds of Dharma, profound or detailed as it may be to suit the constitutions and inclinations of those capable of spiritual involvement.

6.         The Endless Knot: a sign that religious and secular are joined in an interactive chain, one helping the other along; similarly with the integration of method and insight on the Path to Enlightenment, of Voidness and interdependent origination paired without opposing each other, as well as of knowledge and love in the experience of the Goal of Buddhahood.

7.         The Victory Banner: a sign of the victory of all our own and others' actions of body, speech and mind over the oppressive weight of unfortunate accidents and obstructions, and of the complete victory of the Buddha's precious teachings over the dark delusionary forces.

8.         The Golden Wheel: a sign that, by relying on the precious wheel of the holy Dharma preached and realized by the Buddha which turns unceasingly through all realms of the universe, all beings work for the power and beauty of goodness with no strings attached.

Wherever the eight auspicious symbols are found, it is a sign of the multiplying of good signs and good fortune in that place.

7His Holiness the Dalai Lama

Eight Auspicious Symbols, Mongolian painting; HAR 50808

If you have gone to homes, monasteries or events of the Tibetan communities around the world and haven’t noticed these symbols at every turn, it’s a sign you haven’t been paying very much attention.

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Himalayan Art has a delightful page devoted to a Mongolian hare painting that looks just like this:

See this page; then go here and look in upper left hand corner.

On the Himalayan Art page I just linked there is a very cool graphic showing how you are supposed to see the hare in the moon. Many Americans (I know, I’ve experimented with them) try and fail to see it. They are used to seeing the Man, not the Hare. Funny thing is I’ve always seen a very different hare shadow on the moon (well, at least since I was in highschool), one with two distinct and very tall ears sticking up. I think if we can’t even see the same rabbit (or hare) in the moon (not to mention those poor dears incapable of seeing any rabbit at all), it could be a good analogy to illustrate why it is that any two of us are not seeing the same world despite our appearing to share it.

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Sources of auspiciousness:

Barbara O’Brien, The Jataka Tale of the Selfless Hare.  Look here. If you want to read the complete unedited story, you can't do better than Peter Khoroche’s translation made directly from the original Sanskrit. It’s chapter six in his Once the Buddha Was a Monkey: Ārya Śūra's Jātakamāla, University of Chicago Press (Chicago 1989).

Charles Hallisey, Auspicious Things, contained in: Donald S. Lopez, ed., Buddhism in Practice, Princeton University Press (Princeton 1995), pp. 413‑426. The sutta translated here appears to be Buddhaghosa's source for the list of auspicious sights (see p. 416). There are lots of brief Maṅgalastotra and Maṅgalagāthā texts in the Tibetan Kanjur, but I don't know that anyone studied them, do you?


If you would like a longer, more detailed explanation of the Eight Auspicious Symbols, go to Dagyab Rinpoche's book Buddhist Symbols in Tibetan Culture: An Investigation of the Nine Best-Known Groups of Symbols, Wisdom (Boston 1995).

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The frontispiece has a Tibetan label reading Ri-bong Dben-pa-la Dga'-ba, or, Rabbit who Loves Solitude. It isn’t the same story as the 6th chapter of the Jātakamāla of Āryaśūra.  It’s chapter 43 in the continuation written by the Third Karmapa Rangjung Dorjé (1284‑1339). If I had more energy, I would look it up in this book: The Tibetan Rendering of the Jātakamālā of Āryaśūra, Supplemented with 67 Additional Jātaka Stories by the Third Karma-pa Rang-byung-rdo-rje, "reproduced photographically from a rare manuscript preserved in the library of the Stog Rgyal-po of Ladakh," Kagyud Sungrab Nyamso Khang (Darjeeling 1974), in two volumes.

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postscript

You may not have noticed over in the sidebar, but PSz of Thor-bu blog gave Tibeto-logic one of those highly coveted Liebster awards. This is a kind of pyramidal scheme, which is to say you are supposed to pass it on to 3 or 5 (there seems to be no agreement) of your favorite (or most loved, as I believe the name means) small blogs with less than 300 followers (Tibeto-logic certainly meets this last qualification). I decided to pass mine on to only two blogs that I believe deserve more attention. I mean first of all The Lost Yak blog by Geoff. Go there and have a look. Geoff has a talent for writing directly to the subject, no messing around. I would also recommend you aim your browser at a special blog that sees Tibetan culture as something that bears weight, that is made up of all kinds of marvelous or even auspicious substances. The name itself, Sitahu, is one of those substances. It has a very useful collection of links. And if you are the writer of the Lost Yak or of Sitahu, Hey! This badge is for the two of you! You don’t have to pass it on to anyone if you don’t want to.  Nothing bad will happen. Just the contrary, you should take it as a sign that good things will be coming your way.

The Magical Medical Bag Texts

An instructional chart showing the positions of some of the internal organs

A library in Copenhagen, the Royal Library in fact, has what I once believed to be a unique manuscript of a medical collection that is attributed to the authorship of Padampa. When I noticed it in a catalog, I was a little more than just intrigued, I immediately wrote away to the city of the Tivoli Gardens and still other amusements in order to eventually acquire a copy of it for my personal perusal. I can’t say I was disappointed at what it contained, since I already had some idea of what it was about. I was much more surprised, even on the verge of shock when, several months later, I saw a manuscript of what appeared to be a text from the same cycle of medical texts on e-Bay. I couldn’t resist my immediate impulse to place a bid on it. I felt that I was saving it. At the time, at least, I thought so.

Now there are several reasons not to buy Tibetan texts on e-Bay. Without going into all of them all at once, one reason is that not so many people are able to tell how valuable these things are. This goes not just for buyers but also, or perhaps even more so, for the sellers. Sometimes texts that are extremely common are priced sky high, while rare or seldom encountered texts are sold for practically nothing. The latter was the case with our medical text. I think to most e-Bay buyers one page of Tibetan writing is as good as the next.

If you will allow me to pass on a lesson hard learned, there is yet another reason not to buy Tibetan texts on e-Bay. That is: You never know if you are getting the whole complete text, and anyway, the dealers might actually feel encouraged to split up texts into several batches to sell one batch at a time thereby squeezing more out of their money cow. They believe the buyer will never know. So why not? Although I can’t be sure, I believe this is what happened with this magical medical text, which is complete as far as it goes, but then stops very abruptly. I must confess, as a buyer of this e-Bay artifact I might have unwittingly aided and abetted this practice. And of course, there is the broader issue of the stripping of Mongolia and Tibet of their traditional Buddhist cultural items. Tourist-market fakes along with legitimate reproductions come in to meet the demand, with the positive effect of leaving the real things alone (if, that is, there are any real things left).


Now that I’ve no doubt succeeded in making you think less of me as a person, I would like to go on to talk about the text itself, albeit in the form of a different manuscript, at least enough to make much different sorts of points.  


The text in the Copenhagen library is listed in the Tarab - Buescher catalog, no. 983 at page 474 of volume 1.  Here the title is quite accurately given (I only fixed one small thing) as

Grub pa'i dbang phyug chen po dam pa sangs rgyas kyi rten 'brel dang bla ma brgyud pa'i gsol 'debs sogs dang man ngag 'khyug dpyad dkar nag khra gsum kha 'thor gyi 'khyug dpyad dang bcas pa phyogs gcig tu bkod pa me tog phreng mdzes zhes bya ba gzhan na med pa dge'o.  

The description of the content given here is also not 100% non-misleading. It says “Prayer related to the lineage of Pha Dam pa saṅs rgyas, followed by instructions on spiritual practices such as guru-yoga and on a number of (magical) practices expedient in all kinds of adversities.”


The first third is correct. There is a (but surely not the) lineage of Padampa there. The last third is correct, it's all about magical practices against various adversities (but primarily medical ones). The middle part is a little misleading. True, there is something there (on folio 4) that might be called guru-yoga, but very little. Really, it’s all about the magic — magic mainly against illnesses of the human body, but at the same time no reason not to include magic for solving social problems like gossip, or elemental disturbances in the environment, like floods. All very pragmatic. All very  much on the level of magic (and medicine), not spirituality.


The catalog entry tells us it was dictated to the scribe and disciple Rinchen Dargyé by his disciple Pel Wangchen Gargyi Wangchug Gyerab Dorjé.* 

(*In Wylie these names are Rin-chen-dar-rgyas and Dpal Dbang-chen-gar-gyi-dbang-phyug-rgyas-rab-rdo-rje — I think this last part should read dgyes-rab-rdo-rje. I have no idea who these people are, do you?).

The loose folio pages are numbered from 1 through 27.  Almost all the text, apart from the mantras, is in cursive and scribed in black ink except for occasional use of red ink for emphasis.


Another thing about the text as described there in the catalog that is liable to perk up some peoples’ interests:  “Part of the remaining space on fol. 27 verso has been used by a previous owner for adding, in dBu can script, a short instruction for magically obtaining success in various sorts of gambling.” Are you thinking what I’m thinking? Too bad if you are, because I’m going to try it out for myself first.


One thing the Copenhagen catalog does not tell us is who the Terton (gter-ston or gter-bton) was. Tertons, in case you are not yet aware of it, are treasure revealers. They do Buddhist-inspired archaeology, coming up with items of significance to their traditions. Many of these treasures (gter) are in the form of texts, or coded instructions for generating texts, or for touching off memory of the original teaching scene in the far distant past.


We may know this cycle of texts (or this three-fold cycle of texts) is one of these treasure texts because it is listed in the genre of texts called Teachings Received (Thob-yig or Gsan-yig) pertaining to such highly regarded historical teachers as Terdag Lingpa (1646‑1714), the Fifth Dalai Lama, Akhuching (1803‑1875), and the Tagdrag Regent (1874-1952). I’ve given some of the relevant content of some of these texts in an appended section below.


In the title itself, but also in the listings of contents, we may easily see that the cycle is a three-fold one. The word 'khyud-dpyad may cause problems for many Tibetanists, but the simple answer is that, whatever else it means, it means the medicine bag traditionally carried by Tibetan doctors. The three cycles could be translated as The White Medicine Bag, The Checkered Medicine Bag, and The Black Medicine Bag. I can easily show you what a Tibetan doctor’s bag looks like by pointing you to the Googlebooks version of Rechung Rinpoche's book that you will find here. I hope the link works for you. If not, the very same bag has been uploaded in color to various sites around the internet, so I feel free to pass it on (minus the misleading descriptive labeling).

A Medicine Bag (Wellcome Institute, London?)

From the just-mentioned Records of Teachings Received we may find revealed the name of the Terton who found the text. It was an obscure person by the name of Khamtön Sherabpel (Khams-ston Shes-rab-dpal) who found it at a place called Longtang Drolma (Klong-thang Sgrol-ma). 

This place in Kham, not too far from Dergé I believe, plays several roles in Tibetan history. Its temple was originally built by Emperor Songtsen Gampo in order to press down the left palm of a restless rakshasi, detected through geomantic methods, who would have wreaked havoc otherwise. It was a place associated with the 1oth-century visit of the Indian teacher Smriti. His story is well known. Although very learned, he couldn’t express himself in the local language and so had no choice but to find work as a shepherd. Eventually he was able to found an Abhidharma teaching school at Longtang. As an imperial period construction, it isn’t very surprising that treasures might be found there, and I’ve noticed another example. That Padampa personally hid the treasure there is an essential part of the story, and I haven’t located in biographical accounts of Padampa any information that he went there but, well, I’m still looking.


The Terton is so obscure I do not find anything about him in the standard histories of the Tertons.  We might guestimate his date by looking at the lineages. These place him 16 generations before the Fifth Dalai Lama (1617‑1682).  Let’s see, that would make him active somewhere around 1370, would it?


I won’t say more about the content of this work today. What you will see at the link that is soon to follow is a scan of the e-Bay version of the text. (Not, I repeat, not the Copenhagen library manuscript, since it is not within my rights to give — I hope they will put it up on their own site.) Those who already know Tibetan and are trained in magic can benefit from its content. Other people can just look at the pages and wonder, like I do, how such a work could ever have become associated with the name of Padampa.


I know it is rather odd and potentially confusing that all this time I have been describing to you one text, the Copenhagen manuscript, but now I send you a download link for a very different manuscript of (part of) the same collection that I have hardly described for you at all.


When you feel you are ready to go there, push here. See you soon, friends.

(If the download link doesn’t work for you at one try, please don’t give in to frustration. I suggest trying again several hours later or on another day. Use the fastest internet connection you can. Then if you still can’t make it work, I’m always ready to hear your complaints.)

§  §  §

From the Record of Teachings Received of the Great Fifth Dalai Lama, vol. 2, fols. 86-88 (based on a digital version of the text produced by Ven. Carola Roloff):

+ rgya gar dam pa sangs rgyas kyis bod du lan gsum byon pa'i mtha' mar man ngag 'khyug dpyad dkar nag khra gsum khams kyi klong thang sgrol mar gter du sbas pa mkha' 'gro'i lung bstan ltar khams ston shes rab dpal gyis bton pa'i dang po

'khyug dpyad dkar po'i skor la /   'khrug pa dang nad zhi ba /   mi kha dang nad ngan phyogs ngan thub pa /   ske nad mkhal nad zhi ba /   mi phyugs kyi nad rgyun chad pa /   sris rmo ba /   snying rlung /   ro stod /   lag pa so dang ldan pa na ba rnams sel ba /   rlung gi mgo na ba /   dpral ba /   mig  /  bad kan gyi nad /   dpung pa /   ro stod /   pus mo /   byin pa /   long bu /   rkang mthil na ba rnams gso ba /   rlung /   tshad pa /   grang ba /   lus tsha hra ba byed pa rnams sel ba /   skyug pa /   'khru ba /   gzer nad /   mgo gcod sel ba /   rgyun du gnod pa'i 'dre zhi ba rnams /  

'khyug dpyad khra bo la /   rta phyugs kyi nad zhi ba /   'dre byed ba /   'thab mo nyung ba /   'dre gnod thog 'tshag 'od 'khrug zhi ba /   bkra shis shing sa dpyad ngan pa zhi ba /   yams nad 'chad cing zhi ba /   sa 'dul /   dag zhi ba /   ngag dang stobs zhi ba /   rlung chen ldang ba /   'dre thams cad thub pa /   mi kha dang dgra nyung ba /   stobs bskyed pa /   chu kha smras /   mes mi 'tshig pa dang [087a] me mched pa zhi ba /   phan gnod gang yang sdeb thub pa /   mi kha zhi ba /   dgra 'dre thub pa /   dgra jag 'thab rtsod zhi ba /   'thab mo mi 'byung ba /   'khrug pa bzlum pa /   rlung gnon /   lhog pa thub pa /   nam mkha'i nad zhi ba /   sel zhi ba /   nad ngan thub cing don 'grub pa /   'de drag po'i gnod pa dang zug gzer gcog pa /   rbad 'dre dang khyi du ba mtshan ma ngan pa rnams zhi ba /   ser ba zhi ba /   rkun jag grol ba /   smyo ba'am kha smras dang nad 'byung ba /   thog bsrung rnams /   nag po'i skor la /   'chi la khad bsos pa /   dmag bzlog pa /   dmag byer ba /   gral dpon 'chi ba /   nad kha bsgyur ba /   dmag dang gnod pa kha smras zhi ba /   gzer gyis 'chi ba /   sngo skam la 'gro ba /   khang pa 'gas pa rnams /   zla ba'i 'khyug dpyad la /   dmag  /  bag ma gtong len /   khyim rtsig 'jig  /  lam 'jug ldog  /  ston mo /   gyod len gang la'ang bkra shis par bya ba rnams /   tshes grangs kyi 'khyug dpyad kyis dmag  /  bag ma /   mkhar las /   lam zhugs /   ston mo /   kha mchu sogs gang la'ang shis par bya ba /   yi ge'i 'khyug dpyad kyis zug gcog cing nad rmang nas 'don pa /   skud pa'i 'khyug dpyad kyis nad rnams zhi ba /   mtshon cha'i 'khyug dpyad la /   thog 'tsheg pa dang /   gdon /   gnod byed zhi ba /   dmag bzlog  /  dgra bgegs zhi ba /   brgyal bar byed pa /   lhas ngan dang gnod pa zhi ba rnams /   'chi blu'i 'khyug dpyad kyis nad bso ba /   sna tshogs pa'i 'khyug dpyad la /   skyug pa gcod pa /   gzer nad zhi ba /   spos pa sel ba /   'khru pa gcod pa /   skran nad gso ba rnams /   drang srong rgyu skar gyi 'khyug dpyad la [087b] gsum gyi dkar po la /   skar ma so so'i zla skar la brten pa'i rten 'brel gyi nad gso ba /  

nag po'i 'khyug dpyad la /   sngags kyi kha bsgyur bstan pa /   rta /   bong bu /   glang /   mdzo /   rtol gsod pa /   bu chung ngu ba /   khyi zug pa zhi ba /   mdze 'ong ba /   khyi thams cad sgo la zug pa /   zhing la lo mi skye ba /   lo tog sngo skam la 'gro ba /   chang gtad /   pho mo dbye ba /   khang pa bshig pa /   ltas ngan gtong ba /   'od yong ba /   me 'byung ba /   bya sna tshogs 'bab pa /   gdung thams cad sbrul du 'gro ba /   chu khrag tu 'gro ba /   khang pa 'jig pa /   rmi lam ngan pa sna tshogs 'byung ba /   zhing sel /   bla mtshan nar mar 'bab pa /   lo tog gtan nas mi skye ba /   ljang pa ser skam du 'gro ba /   zhing ri dags kyis mi za ba /   smyo bar byed pa /   gnag thams cad 'gum par byed pa /   'byed pa /   mo mtshan smra bar 'gyur ba /   rabs chad pa /   zhing la ri bong bsrung ba /   dgra thams cad gnyid du 'gro ba rnams kyi lung thob pa'i brgyud pa ni /   'gro mgon dam pa sangs rgyas /   khams ston shes rab dpal /   ston pa chos brtson /   (khams ston shes rab dpal gyis gter ba rton nas ja sig tu bcug smon lam gyi gtad rgya dang bcas bskur ba yin no /   /  ) 'khrul zhig dkon cog gzhon nu /   mtshungs med rin cen shes rab /   'khrul zhig ye shes dpal ba /   rgyal sras shes rab bzang po /   mtshungs med kun dga'i mtshan can /   rtse sgang 'jigs med 'od 'phro /   drin can sangs rgyas bstan pa /   ri khrod pa grags pa bsod nams dpal dbang /   zhi byed bstan pa'i nyi ma karma chos grags /   grub dbang nyi zla grags pa /   rje mgon po lhun grub /   sprul sku sh'akya rin cen /   drin can [088a] gter bdag gling pa /   des bdag za hor bande la'o /   / 

§  §  §

From the Record of Teachings Received of Akhuching:

What follows is a somewhat modified (made into Wylie) version of an extract from the work of Akhuching, dating to 1875, the year of his death, input by the Asian Classics Input Project.  Go here to find the source in its unmodified form.

Lineage of the magical medical text at p. 162v, one that includes Fifth Dalai Lama:

rgya gar dam pa sangs rgyas bod du lan gsum byon pa'i tha mar mkhyud spyad /  gangg'ara 'khyug dpyad zer /  dkar nag khra gsum khams kyi klong thang sgrol mar gter du sbas pa mkha' 'gros lung bstan ltar khams ston shes rab dpal gyis bton pa las /  drang srong rgyu skar gyi mkhyud spyad dkar nag gnyis gangg'ara yod kyang kun mkhyen 'jigs med dbang po'i gsan tho las dpe ma 'byor bas ma thob ces 'dug pa dngos su mthong /  de ma gtogs pa'i pha dam pa'i mkhyud spyad dkar nag khra gsum /  sna tshogs pa'i mkhyud spyad las mtshon cha'i mkhyud spyad kyi gnod byed zhi ba yan chad kyi tho gangg'a dang /  ma dros klong chen dang /  bla ma rdo rje 'chang gi gsan yig shog grangs brgya dang go lnga bar gsal ba ltar rdzogs par thob ba'i lung gi brgyud pa ni /  dam pa sangs rgyas /  khams ston shes rab dpal /  ston pa chos brtson /  'khrul zhig dkon mchog gzhon nu /  rin chen shes rab /  ye shes dpal pa /  shes rab bzang po /  kun dga'i mtshan can /  rtse sgang 'jigs med 'od 'phro /  sangs rgyas bstan pa /  grags pa bsod nams dpal bzang /  karma chos grags /  nyi zla grags pa /  mgon po lhun grub /  sprul sku sh'akya rin chen /  'gyur med rdo rje /  kun gzigs lnga pa chen po /  dge slong 'jam dbyangs grags pa /  bla ma mang thos rgya mtsho /  bla ma rin chen phun tshogs /  dka' chen thabs mkhas rgya mtsho /  rje btsun dkon mchog 'jigs med dbang po /  lcang lung khri rgan dge 'dun bstan 'dzin /  [163a] hor sprul sku blo bzang 'jam dbyangs /  dus 'khor dpon slob dkon mchog dar rgyas /  lha btsun dge legs bstan 'dzin /  rdo rje 'chang dkon mchog rgyal mtshan /  des bdag la'o //

yang na rdo rje 'chang dkon mchog rgyal mtshan /  grub dbang dkon mchog rgya mtsho /  des bdag la'o // mtshon cha'i mkhyud spyad kyi mjug man chad bla mas gsan dus dpe ma 'byor bar snang /  da lta dpe yod kyang lung rgyun btsal dgos /  om swa sti /  sna tshogs cho 'phrul snang ba ma 'gag pas // zhes pa'i dbu can gyi rdzas kyi rten 'brel dkar po brgyad cu /  yang na mo ratna gu ru /  a'a li k'a li'i sgra don bshad pa yis // zhes pa'i dbu can gyi sngags kyi rten 'brel gser gyi char ba gnyis gangg'a dang ma dros klung chen du med kyang tho yig bla ma'i gsan yig tu gsal ba cha tshang bar snga ma dang mnyam du rdo rje 'chang dkon mchog rgyal mtshan pa'i zhal snga nas las thob /

§  §  §

From the Record of Teachings Received of the Tagdrag Regent:

Source:  Works of the Regent Stag-brag Ngag-dbang-gsung-rab-mthu-stobs (1874-1952), vol. 1, pp. 767-775.  This is section NU in a larger title: (ja) Bod kyi mkhas grub rnams kyi gsung rgyun lung gi skor, which takes up vol. 1, pp. 321-858.  For the text of these collected works, see TBRC code no. W29272. I haven’t typed the entire text here, only part, since it is quite long.

(nu) Dam pa sangs rgyas kyi man ngag mkhyud spyad dkar nag khra gsum gyi skor (pp. 767-775). 

[fol. 224r]

NU / 'dir dam pa sangs rgyas kyis bod du lan gsum byon pa'i tha mar man ngag mkhyud spyad dkar nag khra gsum / khams kyi klong thang sgrol mar gter du sbas pa / mkha' 'gro'i lung bstan ltar khams ston shes rab dpal gyis bton pa'i dang po mkhyud spyad dkar po'i skor la / 'khrug pa dang nad zhi ba / mi kha dang nad ngan phyogs ngan thub pa / ske nad mkhas nad zhi ba / mi phyugs kyi nad rgyun chad pa / sris rmi ba / snying rlung / ro stod / lag pa so dang ldan pa na ba rnams sel ba / rlung gis mgo na ba / dpral ba mig / bad kan gyi nad / dpung pa / ro stod / pus mo / byin pa / long bu / rkang mthil na ba rnams gso ba /

rlung / tsha ba / grang ba / lus tsha hra ba byed pa rnams sel ba / skyug pa / 'khru ba / gzer nad / [224v] mgo gcong sel ba / rgyun du gnod pa'i 'dre zhi ba rnams /

[The Checkered Medicine Bag:]

+ mkhyud spyad khra bo la rta phyugs kyi nad zhi ba / 'dre byer ba / 'thab mo nyung ba / 'dre gnod / thog 'tshe ba / 'od 'khyug zhi ba / bkra shis shing sa dpyad ngan bzhi pa / yams nad cha cing zhi ba / sa 'dul / dgra zhi ba / dgra jag 'thab rtsod zhi ba / 'thab mo mi 'byung ba / 'khrug pa bsdum pa / rlung gnon pa / lhog pa thub pa / nam mkha'i nad zhi ba / sel zhi ba / nad ngan thub cing  don 'grub pa / 'dre drag po'i gnod pa dang zug gzer gcod pa / rbad 'dra dang / khyi ngu ba'i mtshan ma ngan pa rnams zhi ba / ser ba zhi ba / rkun jag grol ba / smyo ba'am kha smras dang nad zhi ba / thog bsrung rnams /

[The Black Medicine Bag:]

+ nag po'i skor la /

... ... ... ... text omitted ... ... ...

[226v, line 6]

+ sngags kyi rten 'brel gser gyi char pa'i skor la / 'gor / na mo ratna gu ru / â li kâ li'i sgra don bshad pa yis / [227r] sogs sho lo ka gnyis dang /

rten 'brel dngos la / bla ma'i thugs la 'dogs pa / shes rab me ltar 'bar ba / blo rno ba / rmi lam gsal ba / bud med dbang du bya ba / mi thams cad kyi snying du sdug pa / don grub pa / bdag la nyan pa / don thams cad grub pa / chu'i steng du 'gro ba / mkha' la bya bzhin 'gro ba / dgra zun thams cad kyis gsang tshigs smra ba / lha 'dre thams cad mthong zhing gtam smra ba / sa 'og gi gser mthong ba / sbrul mi 'ong ba / phyogs ngan bzlog pa / rlung mi skye ba /

... ... ... ... text omitted ... ... ... ...

Padampa in his Cutting form, with damaru rattle-drum and bell.

Biblio Notes:

Hartmut Buescher and Tarab Tulku, Catalogue of Tibetan Manuscripts and Xylographs, Det Kongelige Bibliotek (Copenhagen 2000), in two volumes. A PDF of the TOC and introduction of this pricey book may be downloaded without fee here.

The Royal Library in Copenhagen has kindly made freely available digitized versions of some most remarkable Nyingmapa texts from the collection of a famous Manchu prince by the name of Yunli (subject of an amusing yet educational book by Vladimir Uspensky of St. Petersburg that is warmly recommended), but more on that another time. Have a look here. These manuscripts are mainly in very beautifully executed cursive calligraphy, so worthwhile seeing even if you aren’t as eager to read them as you ought to be.


If you need to be introduced to the magic and mystery of Tibetan Tertons, there is nothing out there that can quite match Tulku Thondup Rinpoche's book Hidden Teachings of Tibet: An Explanation of the Terma Tradition of the Nyingma School of Buddhism. Read it if you dare. (It has photos.)

If you liked the frontispiece, and you have an hour to spare, go explore the fascinating Tibetan medical charts at Himalayan Art. Here is a good place to start. If you are wondering about the Tibetan labels in cursive script, they are, starting from the bottom, grod pa, stomach; snying, heart; glo ba, lungs. Then on your right brang rus, chest bone (sternum), and on your left brang khag, chest area (i.e. thoracic region; although you can’t see it here the lower part of the chart is labeled mtshang khag, pelvic region... Well, I like to think of this as a family friendly blog ...  Well, most of the time...). 

Hmm... I got all the way to the end of this blog without once alluding to, let alone paraphrasing or parodying, a famous song by James Brown? 

May all beings find themselves magically freed from every illness
(and never need to see doctors or magicians).




&  &  &

A P.S. for S.P.

re the discussion in the comment section below —

Here is a cutout of something I noticed in the January picture of the Wisdom Tibetan Art Calendar of 2011. I quote it here for commentarial purposes only. To see the complete picture you'll have to consult the calendar itself.  Oh, wait a minute. Somebody put up the entire thangka here. You'll still need to find the physically present calendar to find out what Olaf Czaja has to say about it.  The original is supposed to be in the Joachim Baader Gallery in Munich. The central figure is the Arhat Abheda.

You might expect Arhat paintings to be in an Indian setting, but in fact the figures in them tend to be rather international. Stylistically speaking, they tend to adhere more than Tibetan paintings usually do, to certain Chinese conventions (this is the thesis of Rob Linrothe's beautifully done book Paradise and Plumage: Chinese Connections in Tibetan Arhat Painting, Rubin Museum of Art [NY 2004]).  Still, I'd expect this turbaned figure with travel bags tied to each end of his stick would probably be an Indian sadhu type, perhaps the type known in more recent centuries as a Gosain (?).  He's got two green parrots (?) also, which makes him even more likely to be an Indian.  This is how I imagine Padampa's traveling provisions bag to look like, minus the birds.  Here's a little bigger quote from the same painting:

Notice near the sadhu the monkey entertainer
and the construction worker there next to the Arhat's robes.
I think all three of them are supposed to be Indians.
There must be a story concealed in this delightful detail.

P.P.P.S.


Here's another example of a sadhu's travel kit, taken from a Mongolian or Amdo blockprint that has been reproduced a number of times in publications like Alice Egyed's The Eighty-Four Siddhas (Budapest 1984), and more recently in A Terentyev's Buddhist Iconography Identification Guide (St. Petersburg 2004).  

The label says he is number 53 of the 84 Mahâsiddhas, and his name is given as Dzo-ki-pa, which is to say Yogipâ.  I guess his name doesn't mean much besides that he is a Yogin. His story is that his teacher sent him on pilgrimages to the 24 holy places, which took him twelve years. This nicely explains why he is depicted here on the road. I think this at least supplies a little bit more evidence for what the sadhu’s traveling bag would have looked like.  Speaking of bags, I’ve got a few of my own to pack.