The Jeweled Fish Hook: Monastic Exemplarity in the Shalu Abbatial History by Benjamin Wood A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Centre for the Study of Religion University of Toronto © Copyright by Benjamin Wood 2012. The Jeweled Fish Hook: Monastic Exemplarity in the Shalu Abbatial History Benjamin Wood Doctor of Philosophy Centre for the Study of Religion University of Toronto 2012 This dissertation is an in-depth study of the nineteenth-century Shalu Abbatial History, a collection of biographies of abbots and other important religious masters, or lamas, from the Tibetan monastery of Shalu, located in the Tibetan region of Tsang. Examining the History in conjunction with the autobiography of its author, Losel Tengyong (b. 1804), and vis-à-vis other texts from Shalu, reveals, I argue, that the Shalu Abbatial History is a guidebook of conduct that prescribes to the Shalu monk, its intended reader, a discrete pattern of exemplarity that constitutes the author's own particular vision of what a noble lama should be within the Shalu tradition. The constitution of this pattern of exemplarity is examined within four themes of virtuous conduct: the dedication to resolving congregational conflicts, the literalist observance of the Buddhist disciplinary code contained within the Vinaya, the devotion to the preservation of books, and the power to successfully exploit violent rituals to protect the monastic tradition. The prescriptive vision, moreover, constituted by these four virtuous themes, lies not only within the History itself, but also more broadly in the ii intertextual connections that clarify this prescription and infuse it with meaning from the Shalu tradition—the world that has generated, and is reflected within, the text. iii Table of Contents Table of Contents.................................................................................................................................iv List of Conventions.............................................................................................................................vi Acknowledgements .............................................................................................................................ix General Introduction ..........................................................................................................................1 Chapter 1—Approaches ....................................................................................................................15 1.1—Theoretical Approach......................................................................................................................15 1.2—Key Concepts.....................................................................................................................................18 1.2.1—"Author" as Scriptor, Navigator, Collector, and Nourisher ..............................................18 1.2.2—"Reader" as Intended, Situated, Transformative, and Expert ..........................................22 1.2.3—"Intertext" as Mosaic, as Echoes, as Intragroup Memory .................................................29 1.2.3.1—A Note on Butön Rinchendrup (1290–1364) and Intertextuality...........................31 1.2.4—"Lama" as Authoritative, Ordained, Enlightened, Tantric, and Ecclesiastical ...............35 1.2.5—"Conflict" as Ubiquitous Thrust of Plot, Life-Like Forum, and Extreme Delimiter of Hagiographic Virtue .............................................................................................39 1.2.6—"Exemplarity" as Noble, Enacted, Perfected, and Extraordinary Model.........................41 1.2.7—"Didactic" as Bedazzling Transformative Itinerary ...........................................................47 Chapter 2—The History in Context..............................................................................................52 2.1—Introduction......................................................................................................................................52 2.2—Historical Context ............................................................................................................................52 2.3—Genre ..................................................................................................................................................60 2.4—Content and Style: What's in a Lama's Life? ................................................................................70 2.5—Themes of Exemplarity in Lamas' Lives .......................................................................................76 2.5.1—Lamas' Exemplary Lifecycles..................................................................................................79 2.5.1.1—Conception, Gestation, Birth, and Childhood...........................................................80 2.5.1.2—Adulthood.......................................................................................................................83 2.5.1.3—Old Age and Death.........................................................................................................84 2.6—Conclusion .........................................................................................................................................87 Chapter 3—Monasticism, Conflict, and Enlightenment ...................................................89 3.1—Introduction......................................................................................................................................89 3.2—Trouble in the Community, Escape into Solitude .......................................................................91 3.3—Lamas Who Stay..............................................................................................................................107 3.3.1—Butön's Near Flight................................................................................................................108 3.3.2—Drakpa Gyeltsen and the Great Quarrel .............................................................................113 3.4—A Saint That Engenders Ecclesiastical Asceticism ....................................................................117 3.5—Conflicts in Context .......................................................................................................................122 3.5.1—A Note on Narrative and Non-Narrative Intertextual Dynamics ...................................129 3.6—Losel Tengyong and the Water Dispute......................................................................................131 3.7—Conclusion .......................................................................................................................................136 iv Chapter 4—The Monastic Exemplarity of Strict Vinaya Observance .......................138 4.1—Introduction....................................................................................................................................138 4.2—Rinchen Namgyel's Sexual Transgression According to Sotön Śākyapel .............................141 4.3—Rinchen Namgyel's Sexual Transgression According to Losel Tengyong.............................153 4.4—Losel Tengyong's Larger Presentation of Vinaya-Adherence as a Contour of Ecclesiastical Exemplarity................................................................................................................165 4.5—Conclusion .......................................................................................................................................173 Chapter 5—Custodians of the Written Word .......................................................................175 5.1—Introduction....................................................................................................................................175 5.2—The Protection of Religious Teachings in Books .......................................................................179 5.3—Book Protection in Butön's Writings ..........................................................................................189 5.4—Losel Tengyong: A Fierce Protector of Texts .............................................................................195 5.5—The Protection of Books in Religious Communities .................................................................200 5.6—Conclusion .......................................................................................................................................203 Chapter 6—Guardians of the Monastery................................................................................205 6.1—Introduction....................................................................................................................................205 6.2—Fending Off Threats .......................................................................................................................208 6.3—Protectors Assisting Protectors ...................................................................................................217 6.4—The Protection of Shalu.................................................................................................................229 6.4.1—Torma Offering to Shinjé ......................................................................................................230 6.4.2—The Origin Story of Dorjé Raptenma...................................................................................234 6.5—Masters in Violent Liberation ......................................................................................................239