Palden Lhamo

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Palden Lhamo
Palden Lhamo

Palden Lhamo (pronounced: 'Pelden Lhamo')[1], Panden Lamo (Wylie transliteration: dPal ldan Lha mo), Shri Devi (Sanskrit), or Okkin Tungri (Mongolian) is a protecting Dharmapala of the teachings of Gautama Buddha in the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism. She is also called Remati.[2] She is the wrathful deity considered to be the principal Protectress of Tibet.[3]

Palden Lhamo is the consort of Mahakala and has been described as "the tutelary deity of Tibet and its government",[4] and as "celebrated all over Tibet and Mongolia, and the potent protector of the Dalai and Panchen Lamas and Lhasa."[5]

Contents

[edit] Palden Lhamo and the lake Lhamo La-tso

Palden Lhamo
Palden Lhamo

It is said that Palden Lhamo, as the female guardian spirit of the sacred lake, Lhamo La-tso, promised Gendun Drup, the 1st Dalai Lama in one of his visions "that she would protect the reincarnation lineage of the Dalai Lamas." Ever since the time of Gendun Gyatso, the 2nd Dalai Lama, who formalised the system, the Regents and other monks have gone to the lake to seek guidance on choosing the next reincarnation through visions while meditating there.[6]

The particular form of Palden Lhamo at the lake Lhamo La-tso is Gyelmo Maksorma, "The Victorious One who Turns Back Enemies". The lake is sometimes referred to as "Pelden Lhamo Kalideva", which indicates that Palden Lhamo is an emanation of the goddess Kali, the shakti of the Hindu god Siva.[2] Gyelmo Maksorma (rGyal mo dMag zor ma) or Machik Pelha Shiwai Nyamchen (Ma gcig dPal lh Zhi ba'i nyams can) is an unusually peaceful form of Palden Lhamo.[7]

The mountain to the south of Chokorgyel Monastery, Shridevi, is the "blue" residence of the Protectress Palden Lhamo on which a dundro or sky burial site is located.[8] The monastery was originally built in a triangular form to reflect the symbolism of its position at the confluence of three rivers and surrounded by three mountains and also represents the conjunction of the three elements of water, earth and fire, as well as the female principle of Palden Lhamo in the form of an inverted triangle.[9]

[edit] Traditional accounts

It is said that, during the reign of Songtsen Gampo (605 or 617? – 649), Palden Lhamo outdid all the other protector-deities in her promise to protect the king's Trulang shrine. She presented an iron cup and pledged "Erect an image of me, and I shall protect this royal shrine from any future damage by humans and mamo demons!' She is also said to have advised Lhalung Pelgyi Dorje to kill the anti-Buddhist king Langdarma in 841 CE, and is described as the 'Dharma-protectress of Lhasa'.[10]

[edit] Description

She is the only female among the traditional 'Eight Guardians of the Law' and is usually depicted as deep blue in colour and with red hair to symbolise her wrathful nature, crossing a sea of blood riding side-saddle on a white mule. The mule has an eye on its left rump where her angry husband's arrow hit it after she killed her son and used his skin as a saddle blanket, before she became converted to a protector of the dharma. She is considered to be a form of the Hindu goddess Mahakali and also a wrathful emanation of Saraswati.[11] She has three eyes and is often shown drinking blood from a human skull. Moreover, H. C. Beasley claims: "Palden Lhamo was believed by the Tibetans to have been reincarnated in the late Queen Victoria, and as one of the Eight Terribles, arrayed in her full regalia, she lacks nothing of the horrible, and, outwardly at least, lives up to her reputation."[12]

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ Tucci, Giuseppe (1970). The Religions of Tibet. Translated from the German and Italian by Geoffrey Samuel, p. 302. University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles. ISBN 0-520-03856-8 (cloth); ISBN 0-520-06348-1 (pbk).
  2. ^ a b Dowman, Keith. (1988). The Power-Places of Central Tibet: The Pilgrim's Guide, p. 260. Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd., London. ISBN 0-7102-1370-0 (pbk).
  3. ^ Dowman, Keith. (1988). The Power-Places of Central Tibet: The Pilgrim's Guide, pp. 255, 259. Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd., London. ISBN 0-7102-1370-0 (pbk).
  4. ^ "The Boneless Tongue: Alternative Voices from Bhutan in the Context of Lamaist Societies". Michael Aris. Past and Present, No. 115 (May, 1987), p. 141.
  5. ^ Schram, Louis M. J. (1957). "The Mongours of the Kannsu-Tibetan Border: Part II. Their Religious Life." Transactions of the American Philosophical Society. New Series, Vol. 47, No. 1, (1957), p. 21.
  6. ^ Laird, Thomas (2006). The Story of Tibet: Conversations with the Dalai Lama, pp. 139, 264–5. Grove Press, N.Y. ISBN 978-0-8021-827-1.
  7. ^ Dowman, Keith. (1988). The Power-Places of Central Tibet: The Pilgrim's Guide, pp. 78, 260, 344. Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd., London. ISBN 0-7102-1370-0 (pbk).
  8. ^ Dowman, Keith. (1988). The Power-Places of Central Tibet: The Pilgrim's Guide, p. 258. Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd., London. ISBN 0-7102-1370-0 (pbk).
  9. ^ Dowman, Keith. (1988). The Power-Places of Central Tibet: The Pilgrim's Guide, p. 257. Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd., London. ISBN 0-7102-1370-0 (pbk).
  10. ^ Clear Mirror on Royal Geneaology by Sakyapa Sonam Gyaltsen (1312-1375), translated by McComas Taylor and Lama Choedak Yuthok as: The Clear Mirror: A traditional account of Tibet's Golden Age, pp. 173, 265. Snow Lion Publications, Ithaca, New York. ISBN 1-55939-048-4.
  11. ^ Palden Lhamo
  12. ^ Beasley, H. C. (1927). "A Crystal Mask from Tibet", p. 1. MAN: A Monthly Record of Anthropological Science. Vol. 27 (Jan., 1927). Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland.

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