Himalayan Hermitess: The Life of a Tibetan Buddhist Nun KURTIS R. SCHAEFFER OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS Himalayan Hermitess This page intentionally left blank Himalayan Hermitess The Life of a Tibetan Buddhist Nun kurtis r. schaeffer 1 2004 1 Oxford New York Auckland Bangkok Buenos Aires Cape Town Chennai Dar es Salaam Delhi Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi Kolkata Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Mumbai Nairobi Sa˜o Paulo Shanghai Taipei Tokyo Toronto Copyright ᭧ 2004 by Oxford University Press, Inc. Published by Oxford University Press, Inc. 198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016 www.oup.com Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Schaeffer, Kurtis R. Himalayan hermitess: the life of a Tibetan Buddhist nun / Kurtis R. Schaeffer. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-19-515298-0; 0-19-515299-9 (pbk.) 1. Orgyan Chokyi, 1675–1729. 2. Buddhist nuns—China—Tibet—Biography. 3. Tibet (China)—Religious life and customs. I. Title. BQ7950.O74S33 2004 294.3'923'092—dc21 2003012367 987654321 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper Acknowledgments The initial research for this book was conducted in Kathmandu un- der the patronage of a Fulbright-Hays Fellowship in 1998–1999. Mi- chael Gill, Director of the Fulbright Kathmandu Office, was a gra- cious host. While in Kathmandu I had the good fortune to work at the Nepal Research Centre and benefit from the work of the Nepal- German Manuscript Preservation Project (NGMPP). Many of the manuscripts translated and studied here, including the Life of Or- gyan Chokyi itself, have been made available by the NGMPP. In par- ticular I would like to express my thanks to Klaus-Dieter Mathes, di- rector of the NGMPP from 1993 to 2001, for so generously offering his time and expertise to me. I would also like to acknowledge my debt to the work of Franz-Karl Ehrhard, director of the NGMPP from 1988 to 1993, whose groundbreaking essays on the history of Himalayan Buddhism have located much of the material used in this book upon the map of contemporary scholarly concern. Finally, I would like to thank Tenzin Norbu for painting the image of Or- gyan Chokyi that appears on the cover of this book, as well as Peter Moran for introducing me to Mr. Norbu’s work. Janet Gyatso first suggested that I translate the whole of Orgyan Chokyi’s Life. I thank her for encouraging me to undertake this proj- ect, for introducing me to issues of women and gender in Tibetan literature, and for reading drafts of the work on several occassions. A summer retreat on the banks of the Salmon River, Idaho, with my friends Keri Evans and Andy Klimek provided the perfect setting to draft a translation of the Life of Orgyan Chokyi. Susanne Mrozic read an early version of the essay that became this book and offered help- ful criticism and encouragement. E. Gene Smith has provided me with more advice than I can recount and more texts than I can read, vi acknowledgments and for this I thank him. Leonard W. J. van der Kuijp mentored me for almost a decade, and although this book began after I left his presence, his voice continually rang in my ear as I wrote it. Russell T. McCutcheon has been a generous Chair and a great conversation partner. David Germano offered help- ful suggestion and literary references. Bryan J. Cuevas has talked with me about this book far more than he wanted to, but that is what friends are for. And if one’s friends also happen to be colleagues then all the better. Heather L. Swindler contributed to this book in ways so fundamental that it simply would not exist without her, as has my family in general. Himalayan Hermitess is dedicated to my mother Shirley A. P. Schaeffer, my father Philip R. Schaeffer, and to the loves of my life—my wife Heather and my daughter Ruby Marguerite. Contents Introduction, 3 Part I. The Buddhist Himalaya of Orgyan Chokyi 1. The Religious World of the Hermitess, 15 Buddhism in Dolpo around the Year 1700, 15 Hard Times in Buddhist Himalaya, 19 The Career of Orgyan Tenzin, 23 The Trials of Tenzin Repa, 26 Lamas, Hermits, and Patrons, 31 Religious Women in Dolpo, 34 2. The Life of the Hermitess, 45 The Life of Orgyan Chokyi, 46 Lives of Saints, Lives of Women, 49 Writing the Life of Orgyan Chokyi,53 A Tibetan Folk Heroine, 59 An Indian Nun’s Fast, 62 A Female Mentor, 66 3. Sorrow and Joy, 69 Sorrow and Society, 69 Tears of a Saint, 76 Tears of a Hermitess, 81 Joy and Solitude, 83 4. Women, Men, Suffering, 91 Women and Samsara in Tibetan Lives,91 viii contents Suffering Society, 96 Suffering Sexual Difference, 98 5. Religious Practice, 105 Body, Speech, and Mind, 105 Fasting, 107 Pilgrimage, 110 Meditation, 113 Visions, 117 Relics, 123 Part II. The Life of Orgyan Chokyi Introduction, 131 One. Sufferings of Youth, 133 Two. Herding Goats, 137 Three. Herding Horses, 141 Four. Looking at Mind, 147 Five. Pilgrimage to Kathmandu, 155 Six. In the Kitchen, 157 Seven. Leaving the Bustle, 163 Eight. Solitude and Joy, 169 Nine. Religious Commitment, 175 Ten. Death and Impermanence, 181 Appendix: Characters in the Life of Orgyan Chokyi, 185 Notes, 187 Bibliography, 201 Tibetan References, 201 Other References, 206 Index, 215 Himalayan Hermitess [...]... picture of the religious life of Himalayan women two hundred years ago Yet perhaps this is the value of the Life It is partial It is particular It is but a single instantiation of Buddhist life and literature in a small part of the Himalaya But it is partial in ways that are unique and interesting The Life of Orgyan Chokyi affords us a view of religious life in the Nepal Himalaya hitherto inaccessible The. .. central government He went to Samye, the central monastery of imperial Tibet He traveled to the hermitage of Rechung Phuk, where Tsangnyon Heruka promulgated the Life of Milarepa, and on through Lhodrak, the heartland of the Milarepa’s great master, Marpa He finally ended up at Sakya Monastery, where he stood in awe of its great halls “As I beheld the large carved pillars of the great temple of Sakya I... bibliography part i The Buddhist Himalaya of Orgyan Chokyi This page intentionally left blank 1 The Religious World of the Hermitess Buddhism in Dolpo around the Year 1700 The great Himalayan mountain range runs 1,700 miles northwest to southeast, separating the vast South Asian peninsula from the high Tibetan plateau Bound at its western edge by the Indus River in Pakistan and by the Brahmaputra in far... communities.17 The Himalayas have long been a crossroads between Indic and Tibetan cultures, economies, and people Although it is obvious that the Himalayan range forms a geographic border between the high plains of the Tibetan plateau and the lowlands of the Gangetic plain in India, the mountains also have helped to maintain cultural, political, and ethnic boundaries The great monastic cities of central Tibet... agricultural pattern,” in which “there are sometimes small communities of trapa [monks] and ani [nuns] but there are rarely monastic gompa [monasteries] of any size The leading religious practitioners are hereditary or (less often) reincarnate lamas, often of the Nyingmapa order Communities of parttime chopa [practitioners of dharma] who are non-celibate and do agricultural the religious world of the. .. from the Tibetan plateau to the north, and in turn trading salt for grains other than barley with the lowlanders to the south The Tibetan culture of Dolpo has been an object of fascination 16 part i: the buddhist himalaya of orgyan chokyi for contemporary European and American scholars for almost five decades Nevertheless, considerably fewer of contemporary scholarly works are dedicated to Dolpo to the. .. the rich particularity that Tibetan hagiography presents to us The complete translation of the Life of Orgyan Chokyi constituting part II of the book is based upon three manuscripts of the Life These are all housed at the Nepal National Archives the preeminent treasure house of Tibetan literature from the Nepal Himalaya Chokyi’s autobiography is episodic in style, and often lacks narrative development... corvee labor spring, ´ summer, winter, and fall without rest As a corvee laborer you would carry ´ water and work all the time Meet the Dharma, take refuge, study: then you will not suffer.” Clearly the threat of a life of enforced labor was as much an incentive as the hagiographic tales of Tibetan saints But if lay life was difficult, what was monastic life like? What did it really offer in the way of retreat... Dolpo in the early 1660s remarked on the great faith of women there: “All of the women have great faith in the Dharma and are very persistent in their efforts in meditation As they walk along a path or gather to plow a field, as they carry something, or do nothing at all [they work on meditation] At the beginning and the end of each furrow they set the plow down and sit in meditation I have neither seen... Dolpopa Sherap Gyaltsen, famous (and infamous) to the present day among Tibetan philosophical circles as the originator of a controversial interpretation of Madhyamaka, or Central Way philosophy But though he hailed from Dolpo, Sherap Gyaltsen left his homeland at the young age of seventeen to seek an education, first in Mustang immediately to the east and then in the great centers of scholastic learning . Himalayan Hermitess: The Life of a Tibetan Buddhist Nun KURTIS R. SCHAEFFER OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS Himalayan Hermitess This page intentionally left blank Himalayan Hermitess The Life of a. in Dolpo, the highland region of the Nepal Himalaya immediately west of Mustang, when a local Buddhist leader told him the tale of a cer- tain woman. Her name, the Tibetan- speaking Buddhist told the an- thropologist,. into useable English. I thus speak of the Life of Orgyan Chokyi, and more generally of the Lives of Tibetan holy figures in general, when I speak of Tibetan namtar as hagiography. 6 himalayan hermitess Tibetan