A photo found in the cave of the cairn near the edge of our village

Attention Attention: Local Protector Deity Must Be Propitiated

དགོང་དྲོ་བདེ་ལེགས། (Good Evening) fellow villagers,

As many of you already know from the village yak, countless lay people from our village went on an expedition to the nearby caves a few months ago. It has recently been brought to my attention that these lay people discovered something vital to the understanding and workings of our village; cave records. Specifically, they uncovered a text that records the local history of our village and makes note of a location near the edge of our village where there used to be a cairn to our local protector deity. Moreover, they unearthed texts that describe mandala creation and wind horse rituals, among many other central rituals.

Many of you are probably wondering why an amchi such as myself is concerned with the cave expedition and the texts found thereafter. Well, a few villagers have found that the village cairn I previously spoke about in this letter is in ruins and must be rebuilt. In addition to this, our village’s protector deity of this cairn needs to be pacified. If this does not occur immediately, our village will continue to suffer disasters like the recent storm and the haunting of our newly built medicine factory. However, since I am an amchi and not a ritualist, I am unable to aid in this current situation. It is for this reason that I am writing this letter to my villagers and like-minded buddhist practitioners. Considering that my life is surrounded by academics and the world of the scholar, I have done a plethora amount of research about the procedures for building the cairn and rituals involved in activating the site, such as fire rituals, mandala creation, wind horse rituals, and smoke purification. If required, I will yet again make a mandala offering to be used in the ritual, like I have done in the past for our visiting Lama.

An image depicting our wrathful protector deity

I begin the dialogue on my research with the necessity of propitiating local deities. I would like to remind the lay community that an enigmatic aspect of Tibetan Buddhism is the presence of vicious forms of deities known as wrathful deities. Due to their vicious forms, many think these deities are in contradiction to Buddhist ideals. However, they are not personifications of evil or demonic forces. Instead, these wrathful deities are actually benevolent gods who demonstrate the constant and remarkable effort required to vanquish evil in the world, and the violence that is an essential reality of the cosmos. They protect the faithful and those who follow the dharma by instilling fear in surrounding evil spirits. In Tibetan, these wrathful deities are known as “drag-gshed”, meaning cruel, wrathful hangman. Eventually, lay people commenced worshipping these wrathful deities with the help of the Saint Padmasambhava in the 8th century. According to the teaching, Padmasambhava is said to have conquered the malignant and malicious deities in the Tibetan region and forced them to eternally vow to protect Buddhists and the entire Buddhist faith. Therefore, they function as a means of liberation and enlightenment by protecting the followers of the Dharma from the stain of evil.

To continue, the Cairn found at the edge of the village may have contained the ashes of a Buddhist saint or lama. Possibly those of Padmasambhava, but that may be a stretch. In any case, records in the cave texts indicate that this cairn, whether it be built for remains or not, was used to give to this local, wrathful protector deity. With this cairn in ruins and the wrathful protector deity agitated, the villagers along with myself need to contemplate what this means for us and resolve the situation. I believe that without a propitiated wrathful deity, this traditional pact between the deity and the Tibetan Buddhists to protect our Buddhist faith and us may be in jeopardy. We have come so far as a village with the aid of our relentless attitude and the Dharma to guide us. We must unite once more to rebuild this ancient cairn and appease the wrathful deity that will bring us closer to liberation and enlightenment. Otherwise, I am worried of the things to come to our village. But, fellow villagers do not fret! I have a plan and solution to these aforementioned recommendations. Fire rituals, wind horse rituals, the rebuilding of the cairn, and Mandala creations and offerings shall both restore the wrathful deity’s resting space and appease him to want to protect us once again.

Primarily, the fire offering ceremony is incredibly popular not only in Tibetan tantric Buddhism but in our village as well (JIN SIE). This offering is one of the many sacrificial rituals for worshiping many diverse deities and divinities. Burning the tributes, crops, tree branches and incantation tallies to pray for peace and harmony in our lives and our village completes this offering. At other times, this fire offering ceremony is used in a funeral setting. It is considered a valuable way to pacify the demons and monster for the soul of the recently deceased in its transition to the afterlife. The family members of the dead write down the name of the person who passed away on a small piece of paper and provide this to the village lama, along with the possessions and photos of the deceased. After this, the lama throws all of those things into the fire and chants the relevant sutras for the offering. Many teachings note that there are five offering rituals in Tibetan Buddhism. These include: pasting incense to the body, burning incense, sacrificing sustenance, lighting lamps and offering flowers. The fire offering ceremony is special since it is believed to be able to accrue comparable meritorious virtue as doing dana in the village.

An image of what our fire offering ceremony would look like. You can see here the stone and sqaure fire altar

More specifically, the fire forms the focus of devotions. It is maintained on wood, dung or other combustibles and is invariably build in a square shape. The fire altar (homa) is usually made of stone or copper vessel and it is usually built for the particular occasion and then dismantled afterwards. Moreover, the square fire altar is centered in the middle of a space, which can either be indoors or outdoors. The main people who are performing the ceremony along with the lamas and ritualists who instruct them through the ritual seat themselves around the altar, while the rest form a larger outside ring around them. The length and procedure of the fire ritual offering depends on the particular purpose of the offering. For our purpose, the veneration and propitiation of our wrathful protector deity, our procedure will not be as extensive as a fire offering at a funeral.

The next ritual that will be of use to our purpose is the wind horse ritual. In Tibetan Buddhism, the wind horse (rlung rta) is the symbol of the idea of well being or good fortune. On prayer flags and paper prints (where wind horses are mostly found) they usually appear in the company of the four animals of the cardinal directions. The wind horse is depicted without wings but carries the Three jewels. Its specific appearance is meant to bring peace, wealth and harmony to all. The ritual aspect of the wind horse usually occurs in the morning and during the growing moon. It is habitually conducted in conjunction with the lhasang, smoke offering ritual, in which juniper branches are burned to create thick and fragrant smoke. This smoke is thought to increase the strength in the supplicator of the four animals. Most importantly, the ritual is traditionally a secular ritual above all. It requires no presence of any singular officiate. Hence, anyone in our village can form a group or complete the ritual on their own. Please keep this fact in mind when deciding how to help our village solve the problem I discussed above.

Tibetan Wind Horse Image

At last, information on the mandala creation and its offering ritual must be provided in attempts to solve the problem at hand. As many in our village know, the Tibetan mandala is a tool used for gaining wisdom and compassion. It is a balanced composition wherein deities typically reside. The principal deity, or the deity the offering is being made to, is housed in the center. Of course, the mandala also serves as a tool for guiding Buddhist practitioners along the path to enlightenment. I feel as if our village should specifically focus on offering a sand mandala. We will go to the site of the cairn and begin with sacred chants and music. Then, we will make a detailed drawing from memory of the wrathful protector deity. Over many days, we will fill in the design with millions of coloured grains of sand. Once the mandala is complete, it is officially consecrated and shall be offered to the wrathful protector deity. After this offering, and the hopeful appeasement of the deity, the lama or monks will enact the impermanent nature of existence by sweeping up the colored grains. Instead of dispersing the grains in flowing water, it may be best for us to disperse them over the newly built cairn.

Here is an image of monk artists at a monastery completing a sand mandala before the ritual demonstrating impermanence

Regrettably, I know that this is a lot of information for our villagers to receive, contemplate and understand. But, considering what is at stake with the village cairn in ruins and the protector deity agitated as a result, we must all take this into consideration and be open to contributing to the overall benefit of the village. If not, our ability to practice the noble eightfold path and follow the four noble truths will become increasingly difficult. And, as the time passes by, so will our chances to reach enlightenment.

As always, remember to keep a pure mind!

Dainin Daeshim