Yonnetti.LiteralandMetaphoricalTamingofLandscapes5

Yonnetti 1 Eben Yonnetti Professor Biernacki RLST 5820: Subtle Bodies, New Materialisms 28 April 2015 The Literal and Metaphorical Taming of Landscapes and Peoples in Tibetan Buddhism The act of taming (dul ba), as Emily Yeh has noted, is central to Tibetan concepts of both self and landscape.1 For Tibetan Buddhists, ego, or an interpretation of the self as an independent, inherently existing agent, must be tamed in order to attain liberation (thar pa) from sa!s"ra (khor ba). Yeh explains, Tibetan rituals seek to tame and civilize disorderly and disruptive elements of reality.2 These can include individual persons, natural forces, and even landscapes. Of the many taming stories that exist in the Tibetan tradition, perhaps the most prominent and foundational in terms of Tibetan identity is that of the supine demoness which is said to embody the landscape of the Tibetan plateau (Skt: r"k#as$, Wyl: srin mo).Set during the reign of the Dharma King (chos rgyal) Songtsen Gampo (srong btsan sgam po) (d. 649/650), this story tells of the ritual taming of a demoness, who lies stretched out on her back across the Tibetan and Himalayan landscape, through the forces of geomantic3 divinations and the construction of Buddhist temples. A common image in Tibetan artwork [see Appendix I], the supine demoness is tamed through the construction of thirteen temples at key parts of her body to hold her thrashing limbs at bay. Through this project of ritual and physical taming, it is believed that the natural and superhuman forces opposing the introduction of Buddhism were pacified, thereby making way for the introduction of Buddhism and as well as civilization into Tibet. Thus, the story of the supine demoness plays a defining role both in the 1 Emily T. Yeh, Taming Tibet: Landscape Transformation and the Gift of Chinese Development (Ithaca, NY: 2 Ibid., 5. 3 Geomancy as used in this paper can be understood both as the divination from reading and interpreting landscapes and geography, as well as the auspicious arrangement and construction of structures in accordance with the land and natural forces. Yonnetti 2 formation of a Tibetan ethno-cultural identity as well as the Tibetan landscape. However, the Tibetan understanding of an animated landscape imbued with agency is not exclusive to this story. Jacob Dalton has noted that, the Tibetan universe is infused with spiritsspirits that live in the rocks, trees, and mountains, spirits that live in ones body, spirits that wander the landscape, spirits that live underground and in the sky, spirits that cause illness and natural disasters. Spirits demand recognition and respect, yet they are forever changing names, being associated with multiple locations, appearing in different groups, eluding classification, and manifesting according to shifting iconographies.4

Thus, Tibetans have long understood the world to be brimming with superhuman and environmental forces both wrathful and benevolent, all of which are part of a cosmology that extends far beyond the human. In Tibetan histories and hagiographies, the advent of Buddhism in Tibet is often interpreted as a cosmic confrontation between the demonic forces then-residing in Tibet and the light of the Buddhadharma emanating north from India. As in the story of the supine demoness, Buddhist saints and teachers are often depicted as ritually taming the spirits and forces of the land and transforming them into protector deities. In this process, they simultaneously clear away obstructive forces and transfigure opponents into powerful defenders of the Buddhist teachings.Scholars have interpreted the story of the supine demoness in numerous ways. While some have favored feminist, political, or culturalist readings, most recently Mills has argued for a metaphorical understanding of the story in line with evidence from sources on Chinese geomancy.5 Drawing upon these valuable earlier works, this paper will attempt to situate the 4 Jacob P. Dalton, The Taming of the Demons: Violence and Liberation in Tibetan Buddhism (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2011), 61. 5 For example see: Michael Aris, Bhutan: The Early History of a Himalayan Kingdom (Warminster, UK: Airs & Phillips Ltd., 1979); Janet Gyatso, Down with the Demoness: Reflections on a Feminine Ground in Tibet, in Feminine Ground: Essays on Women and Tibet, ed. Janice D. Willis (Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion, 1987), 33-51; Yonnetti 3 story of the supine demoness as a formative backdrop for subsequent Tibetan Buddhist geographic taming narratives. I argue for an interpretation of the demoness myth as an example of the entanglement of human and vibrant natural forces, such as those espoused by some New Materialist thinkers. Such an understanding, which is sensitive to multiple interpretive traditions and extends beyond selecting a purely literal or metaphorical interpretation, can help scholars to more productively understand the place and role of taming in Tibetan Buddhism. Furthermore, I argue that the themes of a dark age, a barbarous populace, and an active unruly landscape that characterize the supine demoness story are also drawn upon in contemporary narratives of the taming of new Buddhist geographies. Finally, to provide a case study, I will substantiate my argument by examining a core ritual text to the introduction of Buddhism to the West, Chgyam Trungpa Rinpoche (zur mang drung pa chos kyi rgya mtsho)s S"dhana of Mah"mudr".6

The Taming of Tibet in the Mani Kabum First put into writing several centuries after its reported occurrence, the taming of the supine demoness began to flourish in Tibetan literature in the twelfth century. Dalton has noted that the earliest known iteration of the story occurs in the eleventh century Pillar Testament (bka chems ka khol ma). However, it was the group of twelfth century revealed texts (gter ma) entitled the Mani Kabum (ma Ni bka bum)7 which truly brought the story of the taming of the Ana Marko, Civilizing Woman the Demon: A Tibetan Myth of State, in The History of Tibet: Volume 1, ed. Alex McKay (London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003), 322-335; Robert Miller, The Supine Demoness (Srin mo) and the Consolidation of Empire, Tibet Journal 23, no. 3 (1998): 3-22; Martin A. Mills, Re-Assessing the Supine Demoness: Royal Buddhist Geomancy in the Srong btsan sgam po Mythology, Journal of the International Association for Tibetan Studies 3 (Dec. 2007): 1-47. 6 Chgyam Trungpa, The S"dhana of Mah"mudr", trans. Chgyam Trungpa and Kunga Dawa, (Halifax, NS: Nalanda Translation Committee, 2006). 7 See Dalton, The Taming of the Demons, 111-113; Per K Srensen, Tibetan Buddhist Historiography: The Mirror Illuminating the Royal Genealogies (Wiesbaden, Germany: Harrassowitz Verlag, 1994). Yonnetti 4 demoness into the Tibetan popular imagination. Within the Mani Kabum, the tropes of a dark age, a barbarous population, and a dangerous and unruly landscape emerge as key elements of the taming story.Commonly attributed to King Songtsen Gampo,8 tradition holds that the Mani Kabum was revealed to several authors, among them the siddha Ngdrup (grub thob dngos grub), Nyangrel Nyima ser (nyang ral nyi ma 'od zer), and Shakya (sh'akya od).9 The text itself is primarily concerned with the cult of the bodhisattva of compassion, Avalokite%vara (spyan ras gzigs), and is commonly divided into three cycles: The Sutra Cycle (mdo skor), the Attainment Cycle, (sgrub skor), and the Cycle of Precepts (zhal gdams kyi skor). As Kapstein has noted, the entire volume deals primarily with the three narratives of 1) Avalokite%vara as the patron saint of Tibet, 2) Songtsen Gampo as an emanation of Avalokite%vara and founder of Buddhism in Tibet, and 3) the establishment of a cosmology surrounding the cult of Avalokite%vara and divine kingship.10 In this interpretation, Kapstein notes, the kings divinity, and the divinitys regard for Tibet, are seen not as matters of historical accident, but as matters grounded in the nature of the world.11 Thus from the Mani Kabum the story emerges of Songtsen Gampo as a legendary and holy figure, forming a veritable national epic [] resembling in terms of their place in cultural history, the stories of Arthur, Guinevere and the Knights of the Round Table in roughly contemporaneous literatures of England and France.12

The setting: A Dark Age and Barbarous People 8 Matthew Kapstein, The Tibetan Assimilation of Buddhism: Conversion, Contestation and Memory (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), 144. 9 Ibid., 146. 10 Ibid., 146. 11 Ibid., 146. 12 Matthew Kapstein, The Tibetans (Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2006), 58. Yonnetti 5 The Mani Kabum depicts the origin of the Tibetan people as the half-breed children of a rock ogress (Skt: r"k#as$, Wyl: srin mo) and a monkey,13 born in a primeval dark time when the teachings of the Buddha had not yet reached Tibet. The story continues that while Avalokite%vara was dwelling in Sukh"vat$ (bde ba can), the Buddha Amit"bha ('od dpag med) beseeches him to go to Tibet, the Land of Snows, since it was not an object of taming by the Bhagav"n Shakyamuni, by the feet of his body it was not trodden, by his light rays of speech it was not pervaded. It was not blessed by his mind. Once Avalokite%vara gathers up the inhabitants of Tibet, Amit"bha tells him to tame them by the gift of Dharma.14 When Avalokite%vara arrives in Tibet, he sees that the inhabitants are in a wretched state, in dark night darkness, a thick black darkness. The sentient beings born there were like snow falling into a lake, without rising upwards and going to the lower realms without liberation.15 Generations later, the miraculously born16 embodiment of Avalokite%vara, Songtsen Gampo takes the throne and declares that he will establish all of Tibet in virtue. As part of his broader civilizing mission, Songtsen Gampo sends a minister, Thnmi Sambhota (thon mi sam bho Ta), to India to develop an alphabet, and establishes the ten Buddhist virtues (dge ba bcu) as a rule of law. Thus, a picture of Tibet emerges in this text as a country of barbarous wretches, wandering in darkness and in need of the light of the Buddhas teachings. The stage is thereby set for Songtsen Gampo to tame the Tibetan landscape and its people.Along with an alphabet, Thnmi Sambhota brings to Tibet a heavily sanskritized system of grammar and, embedded therein, a type of linguistic ontology. Like the English verb to tame, 13 The ogress is held to be an emanation of &rya T"r" and the monkey to be an emanation of Avalokite%vara. Thus, Tibetans consider themselves the progeny of &rya T"r" and Avalokite%vara. 14 Trinzin Tsering Rinpoche, trans, Mani Kabum: Prophecies & Teachings of Great Compassion; Oral Instructions of Hundred Thousand Jewels, Volume 1 (Singapore: s.n., 2007), 143. 15 Ibid., 143. 16 Similar to Shakyamuni Buddha, Songtsen Gampo is depicted as Avalokite%vara entering his mothers womb in a dream. The parallels continue as Songtsen Gampo is described as being able to walk and speak just after he was born, even asking his mother if she was well. Yonnetti 6 the Tibetan dul ba is a transitive verb. Thus, not only does it require an object that is tamed, but also a subject or a tamer. Moreover, in Tibetan this subject is expressed using the agentive grammatical case, thus indicating an agent transmitting the activity of the verb to the object. It is interesting also to note that the agentive case, or byed sgra, in Tibetan literally means do word or act word. Thus, the process of taming is not something that spontaneously occurs, but rather a process whereby an agent enacts the taming of another object or subject through various means. This is of particular importance when considering the taming of natural and superhuman forces. The Supine Demoness Story and the Tibetan Landscape Soon after Songtsen Gampo becomes king, he sends ministers to negotiate marriages with princesses (who are described as emanations of &rya T"r") of Nepal and China. The elder of the two is the Nepalese princess Bh!kut" (lha gcig khri btsun), while the younger is the Chinese princess Wnchng G#ngzh$ (Chin: , Wyl: rgya mo bza kong jo). Returning with the minister to Lhasa, Bh!kut" brings with her a statue of the Buddha as a youth, jo bo mi skyod rdo rje, and is exhorted by her father, King Amsuvarman, to propagate the dharma and, In particular, establish the form of the Noble Ones. Establish monasteries with victorious holy images.17 Princess Wnchng also brings with her a statue of the Buddha Shakyamuni (jo bo rin po che) and is similarly sent with advice from her father to glorify the Three Jewels (dkon mchog gsum), praise and produce faith and devotion [] establish monasteries [] construct bodily forms of the Buddha and also print texts or sutras of the Holy Dharma.18

It is important to note the foreshadowing in the text as Wnchng is also given texts on Chinese medicine, astrology, and divination by her father.19 This is crucial as the plot unfolds, since Chinese divination is integral to the taming of the supine demoness. Thus, both princesses, 17 Trinzin Tsering Rinpoche, Mani Kabum, 415. 18 Ibid., 432. 19 Ibid., 431. Yonnetti 7 as emanations of &rya T"r", are portrayed as complements to Songtsen Gampo, who is an emanation Avalokite%vara, with a unified mission of spreading the Buddhadharma in Tibet. When Wnchng arrives in Lhasa, the wheels of her wagon carrying the Buddha statue become stuck in the mud. When her retainers are unable to budge the stuck wagon, Wnchng performs a divination to investigate the origins of this inauspicious omen. Looking into her Chinese divination charts, she exclaims,This Kingdom of the Snow Land was known as a reclining r"k#as$. The plain of Lhasa Wothang was known as a palace of n"ga kings. Wothang Lake was known as the r"k#as$s heart blood. In the middle of the plain, there were three small mountains. These were the r"k#as$s two breasts and life n"'i.20 Dalton notes that the earlier version in the Pillar Testament reads similarly, I [Wnchng] have determined that the country of Tibet resembles a r"k#as$ demoness lying on her back. The center of Lhasa resembles the heart of that demoness, and the Otang Lake is reckoned as her heart blood.21 The Mani Kabum makes further descriptions here of the Tibetan landscape as filled with robbers and bandits, while from land to the south (India) many people with faith come.22

After Wnchng meets and is married to Songtsen Gampo, some lengthy discussion occurs about what is to be done in regards to the demoness. At the request of Bh!kut", Wnchng performs another divination in the presence of Songtsen Gampo and it was recognized that this land of snowy Tibet, configured as a supine r"k#as$-demoness, should be suppressed at the pivotal foci of her head and her four limbs, at the two shoulders, the two hips, the elbows, the two knee-joints, and the two hands and feet.23 Thus, the supine demoness, whose limbs are waving and striking out, is wreaking havoc and obstructing the establishment of the 20 Ibid., 443. 21 Dalton, The Taming of the Demons, 113. 22 Trinzin Tsering Rinpoche, Mani Kabum, 443. 23 Dalton, The Taming of the Demons, 115. Yonnetti 8 Buddhadharma (as symbolized in the inability of Wnchngs statue sudden immobility). As such, she must be tamed.Here, the Tibetan transitive verb that is used, gnon pa, can be translated variously as to subdue, overcome, overwhelm, suppress, quell, force down, stamp on, or cover. Therefore, what emerges is the image of a raging demoness who must be held down and controlled. Thus, the supine demoness must be subjugated through the construction of Buddhist temples and reliquary mounts at certain geomantic centers (me btsa) across the country. In his early study of this story, Aris describes in detail the thirteen temples that are constructed to suppress the demoness.24 The temples are divided into the Four Great Horn Suppressors or Four Primary Points (ru gnon chen po bzhi) of the demoness shoulder and hips, the Four Border Tamers (mTha dul) of her knees and elbows, and the Four Further Borders or Areas Beyond the Border (yang dul) at her hands and feet. Moreover, the story describes how temples were to be constructed in a particular order according to Wnchngs divination. Several attempts by Bh!kut" to construct temples at the wrong locations or in the wrong order result in whatever construction is completed during the day being destroyed by gods and demons in the night.25 After some additional confusion pertaining to the specific instructions of Wnchngs divinations, all thirteen temples are built successfully. The thirteenth and final temple, the jo khang or gtsug lag khang, is situated at the heart of the demoness in Lhasa. Only once it has been successfully constructed can Wnchngs Shakyamuni Buddha statue be moved and installed within it. As a result of the construction, the obstacles posed by the supine demoness are pacified and the forces opposing the dharma are subdued. The story concludes:At that time it was seen by the bodhisattvas, that the Noble One Lord Avalokite%vara [Songtsen Gampo], in the region of Snow Land after establishing the Dharma Palace, 24 Aris, Bhutan, 12-33. 25 Trinzin Tsering Rinpoche, Mani Kabum, 449. Yonnetti 9 benefits were performed for all sentient beings. To the people of the four distinct controllers and four taming borders, in the region of central Snow Land and the four edge regions, king Songtsen Gampo went to each region and taught the Teachings.26 Thus, the demonic land was successfully tamed so that the dharma could be propagated without obstruction across the region.Interpreting the StoryAs the traditional story of the introduction of Buddhism into Tibet, the story of the supine demoness has sparked considerable interest among scholars of Tibetan Buddhism. Some, such as Gyatso and Marko27 have argued in favor of a feminist reading of the story. Noting, for example, similarities with stories of the subjugation of mother goddesses, such as the Greek goddess Gaia, they argue that the story clearly depicts a male force violently subduing female earth elements. Gyatso writes, If srin-mo is Mother Earth, then the architectural structures that hold her down must be overtly masculine [] Vertical buildings, imposing structures erections; in contrast, the feminine earth is associated with fertility, nurturing [and] receptivity.28 Of course, as Gyatso also notes, unlike Gaia, the demoness is not depicted as a passive force, but is an extremely volatile and wrathful being. While there is no doubt of masculine overtones in this story, it is important to note the integral participation of Songtsen Gampos two wives, as well as more importantly the subjugation of all manner of other spirits. Indeed, as Mills has noted, it is Princess Wnchng who first describes the landscape as like a demoness and it is her divination at the request of Princess Bh!kut" that prescribes the construction of temples to suppress this demoness.29 Moreover, in addition to suppressing the supine demoness, the story also tells of the taming of other masculine, feminine, androgynous, and neuter spirits, such as the ma mo 26 Ibid., 458. 27 Gyatso, Down with the Demoness.Marko, Civilizing Woman the Demon. 28 Gyatso, Down with the Demoness, 43. 29 Mills, Re-assessing the Supine Demoness, 16. Yonnetti 10 (m"tara(), dre (yak#a), and klu (n"ga) including the n"ga King. While feminist readings have contributed valuable insights they do not fully explain struggles over power and territory, which in the Tibetan tradition are inclusive of both genders.Another interpretation of this story is as a form of dismemberment myth. In making this argument, Dalton points to the similarities between the supine demoness and Indian stories, such as when Rudra kills Mahakaruna and scatters his remains over the Eight Virtuous Places, the dismemberment and scattering of Sat$ across India, or even the myth of the primordial sacrifice of the body of Puru#a in the )gVeda.30 While these analyses are also fruitful, the primary difficulty in their comparison is that the supine demoness in Tibet is not ultimately dismembered or killed. Indeed, there is a sense of warning that although suppressed, the supine demoness threatens to break loose at any relaxing of vigilance or deterioration of civilization.31 Thus, the demoness is very much present, a sort of latent potential that must be safeguarded against through the continued propagation of Buddhist teachings and practices.Most recently, Mills32 has convincingly argued that the suppression of the demoness serves as an extended metaphor for the psychological suppression of non-virtue and the cultivation of positive qualities. In other words, for Mills the suppression of the demoness is akin to a personal transformation through the abandonment of afflictive emotions (Skt: kle%a, Wyl: nyon mongs pa) and the fruition of Buddhahood (sangs rgyas nyid). Mill notes that the supine demoness is perceived and the means of her suppression are described through the divinations of the Chinese princess Wnchng. Therefore, Tibetan geomancy becomes intricately tied to the contemporary Chinese traditions. Through a discussion of Chinese divination in the construction of Buddhist architecture in China, Mills argues that the Tibetan landscape in the story of the 30 Dalton, The Taming of the Demons, 116-120. 31 Gyatso, Down with the Demoness, 51. 32 Mills, Re-assessing the Supine Demoness. Yonnetti 11 supine demoness is described as being like a demoness rather than as one. Thus, the taming of the land which is like a demoness becomes a metaphor for the taming of the individual.As evidence, Mills cites the eighth century construction of the massive Maitreya Buddha at Lsh%n Df () at the confluence of the Minjiang and Yuexi rivers. Initiated in 713 CE by the monk Haitong and completed in 803 CE by Wei Gao. Mills notes how Wei Gao describes the rivers as being tormented and home to monsters. When the statue was completed, Wei Gao is reported to have written, Finally, the magnificent figure of the Buddha was shaped. The sky became clear and bright as if the Buddha was giving his light to the world. When [the] waves were calmed down and the dangers eliminated, the world became tranquil.33 Wei Gao continues, notingThen, why can the power of Buddha get rid of danger and calm waves down? We know that bad fortune is always caused by ill-will. If we can understand that we come from quietness, we would care nothing about the ups and down in our life. When having and not having do not weigh [upon us], whoever would take trouble to think too much about safety and danger? In a calm observance of the world, Buddha denies whatever [is] unreal and vulgar, [re]wards the kind and punish[es] the evil, teaches people each according to his intelligence, and helps those who have momentarily lost their way. If not done by such a saint as the Buddha, who else on earth can have these turbulent waves calmed down?34

Mills interprets Wei Gaos description of the taming of natural forces as akin to Buddhist moral discipline and the taming of the self. Turbulent waters are misfortune and arise from emotional afflictions. The Buddha statue, on the other hand, represents one who has tamed and transcended all such afflictions. Thus, Mills concludes that both Lsh%n Df and the demoness are part of a wider Buddhist understanding of the relationship between moral thought and landscape: a lengthy if indirect discourse on the nature of afflictive emotions and their subjugation.35

33 Mills, Re-Assessing the Supine Demoness, 23. 34 Ibid., 24. 35 Ibid., 25. Yonnetti 12 Giving a modernist demythologized and psychologized interpretation of natural forces,36 Mills names the outer as merely a metaphor for the inner. Thus, by taming and replacing the barbarous supine demoness with forms of the Buddha as statues (sku dra lit. like body honorific), temples (lha khang lit. god house) and st*pa (mchod rten lit. offering support and a symbol of the dharmak"ya), the process of ethical training of the mind is rendered inseparable from the disciplining of places.37 What this interpretation leaves out, however, is the possibility of multiple ways of knowing and experiencing reality, such as between human, environmental, and superhuman forces.Daston and Park argue in their seminal piece, Wonders and the Order of Nature,38 that before a strictly materialist view of reality emerged during the European Enlightenment, Europeans experienced truth as multivalent and existing on multiple levels. Truth could be literal or figurative and moral or spiritual meaning was at least as important as descriptive accuracy and wonder.39 Thus, the truth of a particular story lay not exclusively in its literal factuality, but also in its spiritual and ethical power. Similarly, in the myth of the supine demoness, the truth of the story or demoness existence lies not merely in the whether or not the land is a physical demoness, but rather also in the relationship of her and other superhuman forces to a Tibetan self. In the end Mills argument that his strictly metaphorical interpretation of the supine demoness story is more in line with traditional Tibetan interpretations of the story falls short. To discount that millions across the Tibetan plateau and Himalayas take the superhuman forces of r"k#as$, n"ga, yak#a and others literally as very real actors seems to miss the point. To be considerate of both philosophical interpretation and lived tradition, a more nuanced 36 David McMahan, The Making of Buddhist Modernism (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008), 45-59. 37 Mills, Re-Assessing the Supine Demoness, 27. 38 Lorraine Daston and Katharine Park, Wonders and the Order of Nature 1150-1750 (New York: Zone Books, 1998). 39 Ibid., 60. Yonnetti 13 interpretation of the supine demoness story and of taming stories in general must take into account both perspectives. Indeed, a view of humanity entangled and utterly inseparable from non-human agents may provide such a perspective.Entanglement in the Supine Demoness StoryA view that proposes the interaction of human and non-human agents has emerged in contemporary scholarship among the work of several New Materialist scholars. In particular, the works of Jane Bennett and Catherine Keller on the vibrancy of matter and entanglement can help to unpack a more nuanced understanding of human, superhuman, and environmental interaction in the supine demoness and other taming stories, such as the S"dhana of Mah"mudr".In her 2010 book Vibrant Matter,40 Bennett convincingly argues for a worldview that acknowledges the agentic capacities of non-human forces and looks at all phenomena as vibrant and alive.41 Moving away from a strictly anthropocentric view of the universe, Bennett points to an ontology of vital materialism, a post-humanist view that is receptive to and aware of the impersonal life that surrounds and influences us.42 Such a view highlights how humanness and thingness overlap, acknowledging how the human and non-human are constantly intertwined with each other.43 In expounding this view, Bennett points to what she calls thing-power, or the curious ability of inanimate things to animate, to act, to produce effects dramatic and subtle.44 Thing-ness here is not referring merely to material objects, such as rocks and water, but rather is set in a view of materiality that is not composed of strictly physical substances. Materiality for Bennett is as much force as entity, as much energy as matter, as much intensity as extension.45 40 Jane Bennett, Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2010). 41 Ibid., xvi. 42 Ibid., 4. 43 Ibid., 4.44 Ibid., 6. 45 Ibid., 20. Yonnetti 14 Thus, thing-power acknowledges the power and agency of materiality off all sorts, both physical and otherwise.In her work Cloud of the Impossible,46 Keller also proposes the idea of interconnection between human and all manner of superhuman and natural forces. She describes this as a type of apophatic entanglement, an unmovable yet unmistakable interconnection and inseparability of all phenomena. Keller posits the image of a cloud to describe this entanglement, a cloud which is itself not one fluffy unit, but a collection of billions of water droplets, frozen crystals, each folded around a bit of dust, each utterly distinct.47 She continues, noting that a cloud is a mobile manifold, as are each of us, as are each of our contexts.48 For Keller, reality, like a cloud, is an infinite series of entanglements, an impossibly complex web of interconnection and utter inseparability that has no beginning or end, no inside or outside.Thus, through Bennett and Kellers perspectives it is clear that whether literal or metaphoric, the demoness is an agent in the entangled cloud of Tibetan Buddhist imagination and experience. The demoness is an agent exerting a thing-power over the understanding of the Tibetan landscape and as a foil to the civilizing influence of the Buddhadharma. Far from passive, the demoness requires the construction of physical structures to hold her forces at bay. Moreover, she continues to exert an ever-lurking power of warning and caution to erupt should the practice of Buddhism ever decline. Indeed, the Mani Kabum and some other Tibetan histories contribute the violence and lawless of the so-called Age of Fragmentation (842-986 CE) as well as the Mongol invasions of the 13th century to a lax in Buddhist practice and discipline as well as 46 Catherine Keller, Cloud of the Impossible: Negative Theology and Planetary Entanglement, (New York: Columbia University Press, 2015). 47 Keller, Cloud of the Impossible, 22. 48 Ibid., 22. Yonnetti 15 the destruction of some of the border temples that held the demoness down.49 The demoness, therefore, provides a moral impetus for continued Buddhist practice as well as the physical upkeep of Buddhist temples and architecture. Moreover, as will be shown below, the demoness continues to act as an important force for Buddhism in the contemporary world as the moral force of barbaric geographies continues to be used as a reason for forceful and even violent ritual taming even in modern discourse.Taming the West in the S!dhana of Mah!mudr! In recent years, geomancy and the entanglement of human, environmental, and superhuman forces has remained an integral part of Tibetan identity and Tibetans relationships across geographies. After the Chinese invasion of Tibet in 1959, hundreds of thousands of Tibetans fled into exile. While many stayed in Nepal and India, some journeyed further from their homeland and settled throughout Europe and North America. Along with this diaspora came the introduction of Tibetan Buddhism to the West through Tibetan teachers, such as Chgyam Trungpa Rinpoche. In this new context, Trungpa perceived that there were new obstructive forces at play. Like the supine demoness, these forces required taming before the Buddhadharma could flourish. It is in this context that the S"dhana of Mah"mudr" emerged.The S"dhana of Mah"mudr" (SOM) was revealed as a mind terma (gong gter)50 to Trungpa during a retreat at the monastery of Paro Taktsang (spa gro stag tshang), near Paro, Bhutan in 1968. Significantly, Paro Taktsang is traditionally believed to be the site where Guru Rinpoche, manifesting as the wrathful Guru Dorje Drol (gu ru rdo rje gro lod), subdued the eight classes of malicious spirits and hid a variety of treasure texts (gter ma). Upon Trungpas return to the UK, the SOM was one of the earliest liturgical practices he introduced to his 49 Dalton, The Taming of the Demons, 129. 50 Larry Mermelstein in Vajravairochana Translation Committee, ed., trans, The S"dhana of Mah"mudr": Resources for Study (Halifax, NS: Vajravairochana Translation Committee, 2012), xii. Yonnetti 16 students and it forms a section of his earliest teachings that is perhaps most characterized by his 1973 work Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism. This book was based upon a series of talks given in Boulder, CO in the fall of 1970 and spring of 1971.Trungpa refers to the obstructing forces he perceives as the three lords of materialism or alternatively as spiritual materialism. He defines spiritual materialism as an attitude in which we deceive ourselves into thinking we are developing spiritually when instead we are strengthening our egocentricity though spiritual techniques.51 In this case, it appears that Trungpa is talking less about the physical taming of a specific landscape through the construction of temples and more about the taming of an eroded and degraded morality and outlook that is unmoored and pervades numerous landscapes and peoples. While presented as psychologized and metaphorical, what emerges in the SOM is a clear picture of the entanglement of human, environmental, and superhuman forces. Again, in contrast to the obstructing forces of materialism, Trungpa presents the Buddhadharma as a civilizing force that can only enter once the geography has been ritually tamed.Interestingly, while the story of the supine demoness emerges several centuries after the events it describes occurred, looking back at an earlier Tibetan people and landscape as barbarous, wild, demonic, and in need of taming, the SOM looks forward into the West. Its purpose is to tame the obstructive forces active in dark and barbarous landscape and people, thereby preparing the ground upon which the Buddhadharma can flourish. Trungpa wrote later that the purpose of the SOM was to bring together the two great traditions of the Vajray%na&as well as to exorcize the materialism which seemed to pervade spiritual disciplines in the modern world. He continues that, the message that I had received from my supplication was that one 51 Chgyam Trungpa, Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism, Shambhala Classics ed. (Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2002), 3. Yonnetti 17 must try to expose spiritual materialism and all its trappings, otherwise true spirituality could not develop.52 Here, similar to Songtsen Gampo in the story of the supine demoness, Trungpa perceives of the West as a wild land inhabited by barbarous people, living in a dark age.A Dark Age Dalton notes that the authors of both the Pillar Testament and the Mani Kabum considered their time as a degenerate age, the age of decline better known as the k"l$yuga.53 Tibet is framed as existing in darkness without the light of the Buddhas teaching. The Mani Kabum describes the period of Tibet before the reign of Songtsen Gampo as follows: Snow Land is like thick darkness [] there are always snows and famine. Blight and hail always eat the harvests. The men have great aggression. The women have great desire. The Land Gods have great jealousy. People and cattle have short lives54

Similarly, the SOM continues to describe the world as in the dark age or k"l$yuga. The text opens with the lines, This is the darkest of the dark ages. Disease, feminine, and warfare are raging like the fierce north wind. The Buddhas teachings have waned in strength [] The jewel-like teachings of insight is fading day by day.55 Similarly, in the supplication section of the text, the line, Although I live in the slime and muck of the dark age is repeated in eight sequential stanzas, crescendoing into the final stanzas of the supplication that read:Living as I do in the dark age, I am calling upon you because I am trapped In this prison, without refuge or protector. The age of the three poisons has dawnedAnd the three lords of materialism have seized power.This is the time of Hell on Earth; Sadness is always with us 52 Chgyam Trungpa, Born in Tibet, 4th ed. (Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2010), 254. 53 Dalton, The Taming of the Demons, 123. 54 Trinzin Tsering Rinpoche, Mani Kabum, 456. 55 Trungpa, The S"dhana of Mah"mudr", 6. Yonnetti 18 And unceasing depression fills our minds.56 An interesting distinction here is that while the Mani Kabum depicts Tibet as a demoness who is yet to be tamed by the Buddhadharma, the SOM describes a situation where on the one hand the authentic or true teachings of the Buddha are corrupt and fading and on the other the forces of the three lords of materialism are actively opposing the propitiation of the Buddhas teachings. In all cases, however, there is a sense of urgency, that the world is dark and dissolute and in need of the Buddhas teachings to bring light to it.A Barbarous People Gyatso has noted a number of literary epithets for Tibetans, among which are Land of the Bad Ones, Land of the Red-Faced Flesh-Eating Demons, Tibet, Land of Hungry Spirits, and the denizens of the little-known country of Tibet.57 Both Princesses Wnchng and Bh!kut", as well as their families initially express their dismay in going to dwell among the barbarous people of the dark land of Tibet. Indeed, Bh!kut" bemoans to her father, Snow Land is with vulgar outcaste people. They are fools and border people where the Buddha has not trodden. Without the three jewels of offering and since they have not accumulated merit, the Buddhas four kinds of retinue [] are absent. She continues, naming the Tibetan people in particular as a family of witches, yak#a, and r"k#as$. By great foppishness and fornication they are a family of animal monkeys. Such border barbarians58 Such comments depict those residing in Tibet as akin to their time and their landscape: dark, unruly, and barbarous. As such, they are portrayed as in need of taming. 56 Ibid., 16. 57 Gyatso, Down with the Demoness, 33. 58 Trinzin Tsering Rinpoche, Mani Kabum, 412. Yonnetti 19 The SOM similarly depicts its target audience as degenerate, bickering, and greedy. The opening verses describe people as having lost the true teachings, infected by a thirst for material gain, and complete slaves to ego.59 Similarly, the supplication section of the text describes,The tradition of meditation is waning And intellectual arguments predominate. We are drunk with spiritual pride And seduced by passion. The dharma is used for personal gain And the river of materialism has burst its banks. The materialist outlook dominates everywhere And the mind is intoxicated with worldly concerns.60 Thus, the people the SOM is directed towards are depicted as dominated by ego and a materialistic outlook. The ego even highjacks spiritual disciplines to bolster itself, a mindset Trungpa referred to as spiritual materialism. So, while humans are not depicted in quite as pejorative terms at in the Mani Kabum, the SOM still presents people as degenerate and slaves to the egos desires. In essence, similar to the depiction of Tibetans in the Mani Kabum, the SOM depicts its audience as wild and in need of taming by the Buddhadharma.The intended audience of the SOM, those who need to be tamed, however, remains slightly ambiguous. While one can say from context that the SOM is directed towards those people in the West that Trungpa encountered in his studies at Oxford and as a religious teacher in Scotland, there appears to be other audiences as well. In addition to his Western students, the SOM could also be interpreted as an emic reform text aimed partially at other Tibetan monks, scholars, yogins, and monastics. Indeed, at the beginning of the text it says, The sacred mantra has strayed into Pn, and the yog"s of tantra are losing the insight of meditation. They spend their whole time going through villages and performing little ceremonies for material gain.61 It also 59 Trungpa, S"dhana of Mah"mudr", 6. 60 Ibid., 17. 61 Ibid., 6. Yonnetti 20 references monks who are engaged in mere intellectual speculations.62 Thus, it appears that contemporary Tibetans cleric-scholars who, in Trungpas view, practice a corrupt and diluted version of the Buddhist teachings are a second audience for this taming ritual.Finally, the audience of the SOM could be interpreted much more broadly, aimed at a trans-national spectrum of people tormented by the forces of the three lords of materialism. Such an audience, at the time of the SOMs writing, would not only have included Tibetans and Euro-Americans, but also the Chinese and Soviet Communists as well as the highly industrialized Japanese. More will be said about these environmental and superhuman forces below. A Wild and Dangerous Landscape Just as Tibet, as detailed above, is depicted as a supine demoness, the landscape of the West that is portrayed in the SOM is depicted as being ruled by the three lords of materialism (phyi nang gsang ba kla klo). Here it is interesting to note that the Tibetan word kla klo that becomes translated alternately as materialism and lord of materialism, literally means barbarian, a fact not insignificant in the SOMs role as a taming ritual. Although the audience is slightly ambiguous, the landscape of the SOM is not. In the colophon of the literal translation of the SOM,63 Trungpa writes On the far shore of the salt water ocean, on the Island ruled by devaputra m%ra, in the land where the darkness of the kalpa is dense and thick, I have relied on 62 Ibid., 6. 63 Trungpa and Kunga Dawa began the translation of the SOM into English in Thimphu, Bhutan following Trungpas retreat. Originally Trungpa planned to complete the English translation following his return to the United Kingdom, however as Kunga Dawa recalls, while staying in Thimphu tremendous rainstorms and floods caused landslides and destroyed roads and bridges, so we were unable to travel. Rinpoche commented This is the action of the Dakinis, making sure we dont leave until the translation is finished. See Kunga Dawa quoted in Chgyam Trungpa, The Collected Works of Chgyam Trungpa: Volume 5, ed. Carolyn Rose Gimian (Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2003), xxiv-xxv. Since the 1968 original, the SOM has undergone a number of translations beginning in the early 1980s. Between 1982 and 1983, members of the Nalanda Translation Committee worked closely with Lama Ugyen Shenpen on a literal translation and met with Trungpa to discuss the prior English translation. The literal translation was later published in 1990. Trungpa, however, rather than preferring a revised and more literal translation, confirmed that the original translation should continue to be used as the practice liturgy for its special terma like quality. Today, the literal translation is used for study purposes and is not used in a ritual context. Yonnetti 21 the light of the blessing of the deva and guru, the only torch.64 Thus, the SOM is directed towards the island across the saltwater ocean ruled by the three lords of materialism, which in all likelihood refers to the United Kingdom where Trungpa lived at the time. Later, as this practice was again one of the first introduced by Trungpa to his students in the United States, this could also be interpreted to be North America. In either case, it is perhaps best to understand this as referring more generically to the West.The forces of the three lords of materialism, like the supine demoness, play the role of the primary obstacle to the introduction of the Buddhadharma in the SOM. Indeed, the full title of this liturgy is The S"dhana of Mah"mudr" Which Quells the Mighty Warring of the Three Lords of Materialism and Brings Realization of the Ocean of Siddhas of the Practice Lineage.65 Recall also the lines quoted above, The age of the three poisons has dawned/ And the Lords of Materialism have seized power./ This is the time of hell on earth66 According to the S"dhana of Mah"mudr" Sourcebook, the three lords of materialism are the three ways of solidifying and securing experience by means of body (outer), speech (inner), and mind (secret).67

Elsewhere, Trungpa explains them in more detail. The Lord of Form (phyi ba kla klo) is the attitude expressed in the attempt to remove all irritation from our physical surrounding, trying to reach a total comfort by controlling situations completely.68 It is the intense pursuit of physical comfort, security, and pleasure and the attempt to manipulate and control materiality to that end. The Lord of Speech (nang ba kla klo), most directly put, is the use of concepts as 64 Chgyam Trungpa in Vajravairochana Translation Committee, trans., The S"dhana of Mah"mudr": Resources for Study, 15. 65 Trungpa, The S"dhana of Mah"mudr", 1. 66 Ibid., 16 67 Vajravairochana Translation Committee, The S"dhana of Mah"mudr": Resources for Study, 74. 68 Chgyam Trungpa, The Collected Works of Chgyam Trungpa: Volume 3, ed. Carolyn Rose Gimian (Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2003), 507. Yonnetti 22 filters to screen us from a direct perception of what is.69 In other words, it is the attempt to conceptualize and form rigid ideologies on the nature of reality and to then see through those tinted glasses. Finally, the Lord of Mind (gsang ba kla klo) is the extension of the materialism of form and speech into the realm of spiritual matters, which again is characterized by the attempt to establish control for the benefit of ego.70 In other words, it is the attempt of the ego to use spiritual and psychological disciplines as a means of maintaining a solid sense of self.From these what emerges is a highly psychologized picture of these landscape forces, which some could construe as being simply metaphorical. However, as I have argued above a strictly metaphoric or literal interpretation of taming in the Tibetan Buddhist context is only half of the picture. It is toward a presentation of a fuller picture that I turn to in my final section. Conclusion: Taming the Barbarians According to Dorje Loppn Lodr Dorje, the S"dhana of Mah"mudr" was provoked by the pervasiveness of confusion at all levels, of physical and psychological materialism, and by the Vidhyadharas [Trungpas] questioning of how the wisdom of authentic and complete vajray%na&could be transmitted in such a world.71 This situation was also somewhat unusual, in that Trungpa made this ritual practice immediately available to his students and the public without the requisite three-part initiations into Tibetan Buddhist tantric practice of receiving the empowerment (Skt: abhi#eka, Wyl: dbang), reading authorization (Skt: "gama, Wyl: lung), and instructions (Skt: niyate, Wyl: khrid). Why? Perhaps because the need for the West to be tamed was so great in Trungpas mind. 69 Trungpa, Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism, 6. 70 Trungpa, The Collected Works of Chgyam Trungpa: Volume 3, 508. 71 Dorje Loppn Lodr Dorje in Vajravairochana Translation Committee, The S"dhana of Mah"mudr": Resources for Study, 18. Yonnetti 23 We have seen above that interpreting the supine demoness as strictly metaphoric or literal does not get at the larger question of the entanglement of humans with super-human forces and the natural world. Indeed, the demoness is portrayed as a vibrant force causing the barbarity of the people and preventing the Buddhadharma from flourishing through her disruption of temple construction. She can only be tamed through the use of other geomantic forces through an orchestrated construction of temples at particular sites and in a particular order, thereby allowing the Buddhadharma to enter Tibet. Additionally, the demoness serves as an object imbued with morals through which Tibet and Tibetans are personified as barbaric and in need of subjugation. Only through the suppression of the demoness can Buddhist practice in Tibet flourish. The demoness, Tibet, Tibetans, and Buddhism are bound together in a web of coexistence. In the SOM, the three lords of materialism play a role similar to the supine demoness. They are described as obstructing forces, plaguing and fully entangling the West in a web of materialism. Only once they have been faced and soundly subdued can Buddhist practice truly flourish. Their pacification is done through a visualization of a unified wrathful form of Karma Pakshi and Dorje Drol. The practitioner identifies with this deity and the instructions indicate that for an advanced practitioner the lines between the deity and the practitioner blur and even disappear. Having sliced through all dualities, there is a sense that a practitioner experiences a vast openness, a complete totality.72 The practitioner and the deity, in other words, are neither real nor non-real, neither singular nor plural.In conclusion, I will give two last examples to illustrate the entanglement of human, superhuman, and environmental forces both metaphoric and literal in Tibetan Buddhism. First, a refrain that is repeated in the supplication section to Karmapa Pakshi and Dorje Drol reads, Although I live in the slime and muck of the dark age,/I still aspire to see your face./ Although I 72 Ibid., 22. Yonnetti 24 stumble in the thick black fog of materialism,/ I still aspire to see your face.73 Written as such, materialism is posited as a force that is simply metaphorical and psychological, describing a sort of mental haze that induces confusion and ego-clinging. However, if one looks at the Tibetan version of the text a different picture emerges. A literal translation reads, Although I live in the mire of defilements/impurities/ it is still my hearts desire to see it./Although I am tormented by the barbarians dark poison, it is still my hearts desire to see it.74 Here, barbarians dark poison (kla kloi dug mun gyis) has an agentive case marker indicating it as an actant. Likewise, the line The age of the three poisons has dawned/And the three lords of materialism have seized power75 appears in the Tibetan as dug gsum nad mtshon gyi bskal pa bdo/ phyi nang gsang gsum gyi kla klos gzer.76 Here too the word for lord of materialism/barbarian, kla klo, has an agentive suffix attached to it. Thus, it would appear that forces, whether literal or metaphorical, are understood as agents at the most basic level of Tibetan language. In a cosmology filled with human, superhuman, and environmental forces, the act of taming joins all of these together. Taming in Tibetan Buddhism involves the agents of turbulent landscapes, dark ages, barbaric populations, as well as the light and civilizing force of the Buddhadharma. Ultimately, all of these elements are interwoven, one force is tamed through physical or mental activity by human, superhuman, and environmental agents so that another force may enter. Rather than strictly literal or metaphoric, these taming stories involve the interplay and inter-action of forces seen and unseen, literal and metaphoric. 73 Trungpa, The S"dhana of Mah"mudr", 13-16. 74 nga snyigs mai dam rdzab tu gnas kyang mjal snying dod / kla kloi dug mun gyis gdung yang mjal snying dod zur mang drung pa chos kyi rgya mtsho, phi nang gsang bai kla kloi gyul chen po bzlog jing don bgyud kyi grub thob rgya mtsho mngon du sgrub paI cho ga phyag rgya chen po zhas bya ba bzhu gra so (Halifax, NS: Nalanda Translation Committee), 13.b line 2. 75 Trungpa, The S"dhana of Mah"mudr", 16. 76 zur mang drung pa chos kyi rgya mtsho, phi nang gsang bai kla kloi gyul chen po, 15.a line 2. Yonnetti 25 Appendix I: srin mo landscape image The srin mo of Tibet, pinned down by 13 temples. ( Rubin Museum of Art/Art Resource, NY, Item 65719.) Yonnetti 26 Bibliography English sources: Aris, Michael. Bhutan: The Early History of a Himalayan Kingdom. Warminster, UK: Airs & Phillips Ltd., 1979. Bennett, Jane. Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2010. Dalton, Jacob P. The Taming of the Demons: Violence and Liberation in Tibetan Buddhism. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2011. Daston, Lorraine and Katharine Park. Wonders and the Order of Nature 1150-1750. New York: Zone Books, 1998. Gianotti, Carla. The Srin Mo Demoness and her Submission to the Tibetan Buddhist Dharma: Some Different Modes of her Transformation. In Buddhist Asia 2: Papers from the Second Conference of Buddhist Studies Held in Naples in June 2004. Edited by Giacomella Orofino and Silvio Vita. Kyoto: Italian School of East Asian Studies, 2010. Gyatso, Janet. Down with the Demoness: Reflections on a Feminine Ground in Tibet. In Feminine Ground: Essays on Women and Tibet. Edited by Janice D. Willis, 33-51. Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion, 1987.Kapstein, Matthew. The Tibetan Assimilation of Buddhism: Conversion, Contestation and Memory. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.Kapstein, Matthew. The Tibetans. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2006. Keller, Catherine. Cloud of the Impossible: Negative Theology and Planetary Entanglement. New York: Columbia University Press, 2015. McMahan, David. The Making of Buddhist Modernism. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008.Marko, Ana. Civilizing Woman the Demon: A Tibetan Myth of State. In The History of Tibet: Volume 1. Edited by Alex McKay, 322-335. London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003. Originally in Social Analysis 29 (1990): 6-18.Miller, Robert. The Supine Demoness (Srin mo) and the Consolidation of Empire. Tibet Journal 23, no. 3 (1998): 3-22.Mills, Martin A. Re-Assessing the Supine Demoness: Royal Buddhist Geomancy in the Srong btsan sgam po Mythology. Journal of the International Association for Tibetan Studies 3 (Dec. 2007): 1-47. Srensen, Per K. Tibetan Buddhist Historiography: The Mirror Illuminating the Royal Genealogies. Wiesbaden, Germany: Harrassowitz Verlag, 1994. Trinzin Tsering Rinpoche, trans. Mani Kabum: Prophecies & Teachings of Great Compassion; Oral Instructions of Hundred Thousand Jewels, Volume 1. Singapore: s.n., 2007. Trungpa, Chgyam. Born in Tibet. 4th ed. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2010. Yonnetti 27 Trungpa, Chgyam. The Collected Works of Chgyam Trungpa: Volume 1-8. Edited by Carolyn Rose Gimian. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2003. Trungpa, Chgyam. Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism. Shambhala Classics ed. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2002.Trungpa, Chgyam. The S"dhana of Mah"mudr". Translated by Chgyam Trungpa and Kunga Dawa. Halifax, NS: Nalanda Translation Committee, 2006. Trungpa, Chgyam. The Sadhana of Mahamudra Sourcebook. Boulder, CO: Vajradhatu Publications, 1979. Vajravairochana Translation Committee, ed., trans. The S"dhana of Mah"mudr": Resources for Study. Halifax, NS: Vajravairochana Translation Committee, 2012. Yeh, Emily T. Taming Tibet: Landscape Transformation and the Gift of Chinese Development. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2013. Tibetan sources: zur mang drung pa chos kyi rgya mtsho. phi nang gsang bai kla kloi gyul chen po bzlog jing don bgyud kyi grub thob rgya mtsho mngon du sgrub pai cho ga phyag rgya chen po zhas bya ba bzhu gra so. Halifax, NS: Nalanda Translation Committee.