Monastic and Lay Traditions in North-Eastern Tibet Brill’s Tibetan Studies Library Edited by Henk Blezer Alex McKay Charles Ramble VOLUME 33 The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/btsl Monastic and Lay Traditions in North-Eastern Tibet Edited by Yangdon Dhondup, Ulrich Pagel and Geoffrey Samuel LEIDEN • boSTON 2013 Cover illustration: Four Tantric practitioners who have completed a three-month retreat near Rgyal bo chu ca, Reb kong. Photo: Yangdon Dhondup, October 2010. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Monastic and lay traditions in north-eastern Tibet / edited by Yangdon Dhondup, Ulrich Pagel, and Geoffrey Samuel. pages cm. — (Brill’s Tibetan studies library, ISSN 1568-6183 ; VOLUME 33) Includes index. ISBN 978-90-04-25569-2 (hardback : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-90-04-25642-2 (e-book) 1. Buddhist monasticism and religious orders—China—Amdo (Region) 2. Tantric Buddhism— China—Amdo (Region) 3. Bon (Tibetan religion)—China—Amdo (Region) 4. Amdo (China : Region)—Religious life and customs. 5. Tibet Region—Religious life and customs. 6. Reb-gon Gser-mo-ljons (China)—Religious life and customs. I. Dhondup, Yangdon, editor of compilation. BQ6348.M66 2013 294.3’92309515—dc23 2013021565 This publication has been typeset in the multilingual “Brill” typeface. With over 5,100 characters covering Latin, IPA, Greek, and Cyrillic, this typeface is especially suitable for use in the humanities. For more information, please see www.brill.com/brill-typeface. ISSN 1568-6183 ISBN 978-90-04-25569-2 (hardback) ISBN 978-90-04-25642-2 (e-book) Copyright 2013 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Global Oriental, Hotei Publishing, IDC Publishers and Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. All rights reserved. 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CONTENTS List of Maps and Illustrations ..................................................................... vii Preface ................................................................................................................ ix Yangdon Dhondup, Ulrich Pagel and Geoffrey Samuel INTRODUCTION Reb kong in the Multiethnic Context of A mdo: Religion, Language, Ethnicity, and Identity ......................................................... 5 Geoffrey Samuel DGE LUGS PA MONASTERIES IN REB KONG AND ITS NEIGHBOURING PLACES Remembering Monastic Revival: Stories from Reb kong and Western Ba yan .......................................................................................... 23 Jane Caple Reb kong gyi nyi ma nub pa: Shar skal ldan rgya mtsho sku phreng bdun pa’i sku tshe: 1916–1978 [The Sun Disappears in Reb kong: The Life of the Seventh Shar Skal ldan rgya mtsho: 1916–1978] ... 49 Gedun Rabsal Understanding Religion and Politics in A mdo: The Sde khri Estate at Bla brang Monastery ............................................................................ 67 Paul K. Nietupski RNYING MA PA AND BON TANTRIC COMMUNITIES Rig ’dzin dpal ldan bkra shis (1688–1743): The ‘1900 Dagger-wielding, White-robed, Long-haired Yogins’ (sngag mang phur thog gos dkar lcang lo can stong dang dgu brgya) & the Eight Places of Practice of Reb kong (Reb kong gi sgrub gnas brgyad) ........................................................... 89 Heather Stoddard vi contents Rules and Regulations of the Reb kong Tantric Community ............ 117 Yangdon Dhondup Bon Religion in Reb kong ............................................................................. 141 Colin Millard RITUAL AND PERFORMANCE IN CONTEMPORARY REB KONG Money, Butter and Religion: Remarks on Participation in the Large-Scale Collective Rituals of the Rep kong Tantrists .............. 165 Nicolas Sihlé Reb kong’s Klu rol and the Politics of Presence: Methodological Considerations ............................................................................................ 187 Charlene Makley Dancing the Gods: Some Transformations of ’Cham in Reb kong .... 203 Dawn Collins Index ................................................................................................................. 235 LIST OF MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS Maps 0.1. The Tibetan Autonomous Region and Tibetan autonomous counties and prefectures in neighbouring provinces ................ 3 6.1. Reb kong including the Rnying ma monasteries and the villages where tantric practitioners live ........................................ 124 7.1. The Reb kong Bon mang .................................................................... 149 8.1. Major Rnying ma religious centers of Reb kong ......................... 170 Illustrations 0.1. Rong bo Town, Reb kong (Ch. Tongren) county, Qinghai Province ................................................................................... 4 2.1. Rong bo monastery, Reb kong .......................................................... 35 6.1. The “tantric hall” of Zho ’ong village, Reb kong .......................... 126 6.2. Tantric practitioners from Jang chub village, Reb kong ........... 136 7.1. Mag gsar gsas khang, Reb kong ........................................................ 152 7.2. La btsas at Bon brgya Monastery ..................................................... 155 7.3. La btsas at Rtse khog Bon Monastery ............................................ 156 7.4. Bon brgya Monastery ........................................................................... 157 7.5. Sngags pa Brtan pa ............................................................................... 158 8.1. Weighing butter .................................................................................... 175 10.1. Preparing the Ground with Offerings ............................................. 208 10.2. In Full Flow ............................................................................................. 209 10.3. Dancing the Gods ................................................................................. 210 10.4. Truly Dralijemmo has come to this place! .................................... 211 10.5. For the Protectors ................................................................................. 211 PREFACE Yangdon Dhondup, Ulrich Pagel and Geoffrey Samuel This volume derives from an international workshop, ‘Unity and Diversity: Monastic and Non-monastic Traditions in Amdo,’ convened by the three editors under the sponsorship of the Arts and Humanities Research Coun- cil and held from Friday, 30th September to Sunday, 2nd October 2011 at St Michael’s College Llandaff, Cardiff. The workshop included eleven papers, of which nine are presented in revised form in the present volume. The workshop was funded by a grant to Ulrich Pagel by the U.K. Arts and Humanities Research Council for a project entitled “Locating Cul- ture, Religion and the Self: A Study of the Tantric Community in Reb kong,” awarded in December 2007. The grant ran from 2008 to 2011, and was directed by Ulrich Pagel. Dr Yangdon Dhondup was employed as researcher on this project, while Geoffrey Samuel and Hildegard Diem- berger, who also took part in the Cardiff conference, were consultants for the project. Humchen Chenaktsang, founder and director of Ngakmang Research Institute in Xining (Qinghai), who collaborated with Yangdon Dhondup on a previous research project, also served as a consultant. Due to funding issues, he was unable to attend the Cardiff conference. The aim of this project was to analyse and document the religious and social history of the tantric practitioner community in Reb kong, east Tibet. The project focused on the period from the 17th to 19th centuries when the influence of the Reb kong tantric community was at its height. It emerged as a coherent religious and social group that threatened to weaken the dominant religious institution in the area, the large Dge lugs pa monastery of Rong bo dgon chen. The research aimed to assess the factors behind the emergence of the Reb kong tantric community and to examine how the community managed to sustain its reputation for more than two centuries. The results of Yangdon Dhondup’s work on this project are emerging in a series of published articles and book chapters (e.g. Dhondup 2009, 2011 and 2013). We felt however that it would be valuable to gather together as many as possible of the scholars working at present on Reb kong and its wider region in order to gain a wider picture of the context for the Reb kong tantric community, and provide an occasion for produc- tive interaction and discussion. The Cardiff workshop was the result, and x preface it did indeed prove to be a very worthwhile occasion for the participants. We hope and believe that this collection of papers presented at the work- shop, revised in the light of the stimulating discussion at Cardiff, will be of interest and value to a wider audience. We would like to express our thanks and appreciation to the Arts and Humanities Research Council for funding this project, to the School of Oriental and African Studies for hosting it, and to St Michael’s College Llandaff for providing