THIS IS A FREE ARTICLE FROM SACRED HOOP MAGAZINE. Sacred Hoop is an independent magazine about Shamanism and Animistic Spirituality, based in West Wales, published four times a year since 1993. You may share this in any non-commercial way but reference to www.SacredHoop.org must be made if it is reprinted anywhere. To get a very special low-cost subscription to Sacred Hoop please visit : www.SacredHoop.org/offer.html SEIZED by the SPIRIT An interview with the VENERABLE THUPTEN NGODUP State Oracle of Tibet by TSERING TASHI & LOTSAWA TSEPAK RINZIN Like in many ancient societies of the world, oracles remain an important part of the Tibetan way of life, and they rely on them for various reasons; to foretell the future, and sometimes to act as healers. However, their primary function is to protect the Buddha teachings and its practitioners from harm. The Tibetan State Oracle is a tradition many centuries old where the spirit of a Dharmapala (protector of Buddhist teachings) called Dorje Drakden enters into the body of a Buddhist monk, in order to give advise to the Dalai Lama and the S 6 H WINTER 2005 THIS IS A FREE ARTICLE FROM SACRED HOOP MAGAZINE. Sacred Hoop is an independent magazine about Shamanism and Animistic Spirituality, based in West Wales, published four times a year since 1993. You may share this in any non-commercial way but reference to www.SacredHoop.org must be made if it is reprinted anywhere. To get a very special low-cost subscription to Sacred Hoop please visit : www.SacredHoop.org/offer.html Would you tell us something Education opportunity was CONSULTING THE ORACLE about your background and given to all Tibetan refugee children, but T.C.V. accepted childhood? The Oracle’s elaborate costume consists of several only orphans and my parents were reluctant to send me to a layers of clothing topped by a highly ornate robe of I was born in Tibet on July far away place. So for two golden silk brocade, covered with ancient designs in 13th, 1958 in Phari, bordering years I worked as a coolie with red and blue and green and yellow. On his chest he Bhutan. My parents come from my parents. wears a circular mirror which is surrounded by a peasant family. Following the clusters of turquoise and amethyst, its polished steel Chinese occupation of Tibet in What about your early flashing with the Sanskrit mantra corresponding to 1959 my parents lost their Dorje Drakden. Before the proceedings begin, he freedom and experienced education and monastic hardship under the Chinese training? also puts on a sort of harness, which supports four rule. Then in 1966, during the flags and three victory banners. Altogether, this so-called ‘Cultural Revolution’, As a child I had a natural outfit weighs more than seventy pounds and the my parents escaped from Tibet inclination to do anything medium, when not in trance, can hardly walk in it. to Bhutan, with me. l am the religious. I even told my only child in the family but parents of my desire to become The ceremony begins with chanted invocations and have a half-brother who is now a monk, which they agreed prayers, accompanied by the urgings of horns, cymbals living in Dharamsala. In would be worthwhile. So in and drums. After a short while, the Oracle enters his Bhutan, we were temporarily 1969, after our return to trance... Then, as the first prayer cycle concludes and the resettled in a Tibetan refugee Dharamsala from Kulu, I was second begins, his trance begins to deepen. At this point, camp. initially admitted to Gadong a huge helmet is placed on his head. This item weighs My father was a descendant monastery and remained there of a well-known ngakpa2 family for a year. approximately thirty pounds, though in former times it which belonged to the Khon At that time I knew nothing weighed over eighty lineage of the Sakya tradition about Nechung monastery, Now the Oracle’s face transforms, becoming rather of Tibetan Buddhism. My which was then temporarily wild before puffing up to give him an altogether strange mother comes from the located at Nazara Kothi (1km appearance, with bulging eyes and swollen cheeks. His Nanying district of Gyantse, below Gangchen Kyishong, the breathing begins to shorten and he starts to hiss and later got settled in Phari, seat of the Tibetan government violently. Then, momentarily, his respiration stops. At this where I was born. in exile). Every day I had to go point the helmet is tied in place with a knot so tight that Unfortunately, both of them to Nechung monastery for it would undoubtedly strangle the Oracle if something have passed away. pujas (prayers) and study, and very real were not happening. The possession is now My father was a good chod return to Gadong the same complete and the mortal frame of the medium expands practitioner1, and after our arrival evening. This is how I spent in Bhutan, he often told us about a year. visibly. about his ambition to go to India But to be frank, deep down to receive HH the Dalai Lama’s in my heart I started feeling Next, he leaps up with a start and, grabbing a ritual blessings and then leave this closer to Nechung; so my sword from one of his attendants, begins to dance with worldly life to become a hermit. father, knowing the trouble of slow, dignified, yet somehow menacing, steps. He then Later, along with other Tibetan my daily walk between Gadong comes in front of me and either prostrates fully or bows refugees, we left Bhutan for and Nechung, suggested that it deeply from the waist until his helmet touches the ground India to seek our second asylum would be better for me to join before springing back up, the weight of his regalia in exile, and arrived in Nechung, as there is counting for nothing. The volcanic energy of the deity can Dharamsala in early 1969. technically no difference barely be contained within the earthly frailty of the My family found a home near between the two monasteries. Oracle, who moves and gestures as if his body were made the Tibetan Children’s Village. So this is how I joined We were like the present-day Nechung in 1971. of rubber and driven by a coiled spring of enormous power. new arrivals from Tibet. The Tibetan government in Since 1971 I received all the There follows an interchange between Nechung and exile therefore organised a new basic religious training at the myself, where he makes ritual offerings to me. I then ask camp for our group, and we monastery. After completion of any personal questions I have for him. After replying, he worked as road construction the basic training at Nechung, a returns to his stool and listens to questions put by members labourers to earn our living. The monk could chose either of the of the Government. Before giving answers to these the road above the Tibetan two lines: sung-zang (the chant Oracle begins to dance again, thrashing his sword above his Children’s Village, leading to master’s line), or chod-zheng ba head. He looks like a magnificent, fierce Tibetan warrior the Indian village, was (the ritual master’s line). Since I chieftain of old. constructed by us. I was had a natural interest in the As soon as Dorje Drakden has finished speaking, the around ten years old. skills of creative arts and crafts, Oracle makes a final offering before collapsing, a rigid and lifeless form, signifying the end of the possession. Above: Tibetan Oracle’s ritual sword. Simultaneously, the knot holding his helmet in place is Left: 19th painted thangka of Dorje Drakden showing him riding on a black horse surrounded by flames. untied in a great hurry by his assistants, who then carry Insets: Ven. Thupten Ngodup, the State Oracle him out to recover whilst the ceremony continues. of Tibet in his monk’s robes, and during the oracle Extracted from ‘Freedom in Exile’, His Holiness the Dalai Lama ceremony at losar, the Tibetan New Year celebrations. S H WINTER 2005 7 THIS IS A FREE ARTICLE FROM SACRED HOOP MAGAZINE. Sacred Hoop is an independent magazine about Shamanism and Animistic Spirituality, based in West Wales, published four times a year since 1993. You may share this in any non-commercial way but reference to www.SacredHoop.org must be made if it is reprinted anywhere. To get a very special low-cost subscription to Sacred Hoop please visit : www.SacredHoop.org/offer.html I joined the second group and appropriate point - and all of a those dreams, the person in trance gradually rose to the highest rank. sudden - I was possessed by the was not me. It was somewhat like in 1981 I became Cho-pon (the spirit of the Nechung. This was the the previous Medium and ritual leader). first time I was seized by the spirit. sometimes it was even not clearly This incident was immediately recognisable. How and when were you brought to the notice of His recognised as the Nechung Holiness the Dalai Lama by the In 1985, during the Kalachakra abbots, officials and (Wheel of Life) initiation in Kuten or the Medium of the representatives of the monastery. Bodhgaya, I bled a lot from my State Oracle? After two days I was summoned by nose and mouth. The blood I His Holiness and I went to him swallowed was vomited out. In After the passing away in 1984 of with Venerable Thupten Phuntsok.