The Relationship Between Religion and State in Traditional Tibet

328 Pages·2008·24.475 MB·English

by  Christoph Cuppers

LIRI Seminar
Proceedings Series
Edited by
LUMBINI INTERNATIONAL
REsEARCH INsTITUTE
Volume 1
The Relationship Between
Religion and State
(chos srid zung 'brei)
In Traditional Tibet
Proceedings of a Seminar
Held in Lumbini, Nepal, March 2000
Edited by
CHRISTOPH CUPPERS
Lumbini International Research Institute
Lumbini, 2004
LIRI
Seminar Proceeding Series
Volume 1
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1
TABLE oF CoNTENTS
Editor's Preface
DAVID SEYFORT RuEGG ...................................................................................... 9
Introductory Remarks on the Spiritual and Temporal Orders
15
YuMIKO lsHIHAMA. •••....•.•.•......•.•••..•••..••..•.•..•.•.•..•••••...••...•..........••..•••.•.••••
The Notion of "Buddhist Government" (chos srid) Shared by Tibet,
Mongol and Manchu in the Early 17th Century
JoHN ARDussi. ......................................................................................... 33
Formation of the State of Bhutan ( 'Brug gzhung) in the 17th century and
its Tibetan Antecedents
49
HEATHER STODDARD .................................................................................
"Rekindling The Flame", A Note on Royal Patronage in Tenth Century
Tibet
105
RoBERTO VITALI. ....................................................................................
The Role of Clan Power in the Establishment of Religion (from the
kheng log of the 9th-10th century to the instances of the dByil of La stod
and gNyos of Kha rag)
159
MICHAEL WALTER. ..................................................................................
The Persistence of Ritual: Continuities in the Execution of Political
Religion in Tibet
189
WEIRONG SHEN ..............................................................................................
Magic Power, Sorcery and Evil Spirit: The Image of Tibetan Monks in
Chinese Literature during the Yuan Dynasty
ELLIOT SPERLING ..................................................................................... 229
Karma Rol-pa'i rdo-rje and The Re-Establishment of Karma-pa Political
Influence in the 14th Century ·
245
FRANZ-KARL EHRHARD ••.•........•......•........•......•..•.....•.•..........•.........••.......
Spiritual Relationships between Rulers and Preceptors: The Three
Journeys ofVanaratna (1384-1468) to Tibet
267
KARL-HEINZ EVERDING. ..........................................................................
rNying rna pa Lamas at the Court of Mang yul Gung thang -The meeting
of the gTer ston bsTan gnyis gling pa with king Kun bzang nyi zla grags pa
291
DIETER ScHUH ....•..•...••••...••.•••••••••.•••.••.••.•••.•..•••............................•........
Srid ohne Chos? Reflektionen zum Verhaltnis von Buddhismus und
sakularer Herrschaft im tibetischen Kulturraum
LEONARD W.J. VANDER KuuP. ................................................................ 299
U rgyan pa Rin chen dpal (1230-1309) Part Two: For Emperor Qubilai?
His Garland of Tales about Rivers
E<;litor' s Preface
The present volume is the first volume of the Lumbini International Research
Institute's series of conference proceedings. The articles which constitute this
volume are papers that were originally delivered at a symposium entitled "The
Relationship between Religion and State ( chos srid zung 'brel) in Traditional
Tibet, " which was convened in March 2000 at the Lumbini International Re
search Institute, Lumbini, Nepal. This was the first seminar of this kind held at the
institute.
When the late Michael Aris launched the seminar on Tibetan history in Oxford in
June 1998, he suggested that a continuation of it along similar lines ought to be
held once in Lumbini. We regret very much that his untimely death prevented him
from participating in just a seminar on a subject which was very much of interest
to him. These proceedings are dedicated to him in his memory.
One of the particular features of Tibetan culture has been throughout the centuries
the concept of chos srid zung 'brel, that is, the relationship between the spiritual
and temporal orders. This concept is closely related to another important concept
in Tibet, that of the me hod yon, or relation between "preceptor-officiant and ruler
donor". These concepts developed following the introduction of Buddhism in
Tibet and played an important role in the establishment of the various schools on
Tibetan soil. From the early period till the time of the Dalai Lamas they were part
and parcel of Tibetan life, and were copied by neighbouring societies influenced
by Tibetan culture.
The Fifth Dalai Lama Ngag dbang blo bzang rgya mtsho (1617-1682) praised this
system of chos srid zung 'brel in many of his writings, comparing the two compo
nents, the spiritual and the temporal, to the sun and the moon; to an umbrella
protecting all beings; oi to flowers that emanate a sweet fragrance. They are like a
garden of lotoses.
In 1999 Dungkar Rinpoche Lobzang Trinley published an English translation of a
study of his on the subject originally written in Tibetan. The subject was also
extensively dealt with in David Seyfort Ruegg's important monograph on the
mchod yon relationship. Although he was unable to attend the seminar, Prof.
Seyfort Ruegg kindly wrote the introductory remarks to the present volume.
All contributions presented here have been written in English, except the one by
Dieter Schuh, who preferred to leave his article untranslated, it being one in a
series of other works written in German.
The LIRI expresses its gratitude to the Reiyukai Lumbini Fund Administration
Committee for providing a substantial grant which made this seminar possible and
for again generously bearing the printing costs of this volume.
Particular thanks are due to Philip Pierce and Burkhard Quessel who both assisted
in editing this volume.
Christoph Clippers
Introductory Remarks on the Spiritual and Temporal Orders
DAVID SEYFORT RuEGG
For some years it has been clear to historians of Tibet and Inner Asia that a
close association between the religious and the secular the spiritual and the
temporal - has characterized polities in this area. And a special kind of very
close co-ordination, or dyarchy, of orders and functions -one exercised to
gether by a lay ruler-donor (yon bdag) and his religious counsellor-donee and
preceptor-officiant (mchod gnas, Skt. dak~i7Jfya) - has thus been a regularly
recurring feature of these polities.
This traditional association of a religious preceptor-officiant and a ruler by
(religious) law (chos rgyal = dharmariija) is expressed in Tibetan by the
copulative compounds mchod yon and yon mchod. In both these compounds
the term mchod - a compositional abbreviation for mchod gnas - literally
means worthy of honour I an honorarium, i.e. of the ritual present or fee (yon,
Skt. dak#1Jii) due the preceptor-officiant, and Vajrayanist bla ma (guru), from
his royal disciple. Synonyms of mchod gnas are yon gnas (Skt. dak~ilJfya)
'donee' (of a ritual honorarium) as well as bla mchod 'honourable guru
(donee)'. As for the term yon, it is an abbreviation in composition for yon
bdag, an honorific appellation, applicable to rulers, for the common term
sbyin bdag = diinapati, that is, the donor who gives sustenance to a monk
donee, or 'almsman', in the Buddhist structure of society. In Tibet the dual
compound mchod yon/yon mchod is fairly old, going back at least to the time
of Sa skya pal).<;lita Kun dga' rgyal mtshan (1182-1251). It was then in use
under the 'concordat' established under his nephew 'Phags pa (1235-1280) -
his successor as Sa skya Hierarch - with the Mongol emperor Qubilai. The
terms mchod gnas and bla mchod may be still older. In the time of the Old
Tibetan Kingdom of the sPu rgyal emperors, the term dge ba 'i bshes gnyen
(Skt. kalyii7Jamitra) was used to designate a religious counsellor and precep
tor -officiant.
In addition to the expression 'conjunction of "religious law" (dharma) and
government' (chos srid zung 'brei), Tibetan terms used to refer to this dyar
chic form of governance are 'twin system' (lugs gnyis), 'twin method' (tshul
gnyis), or 'twin science' (gtsug lag gnyis). A further current expression is
'twin (great) rule' (khrims [chen po] gnyis), namely the supreme rule of the
Dharma (chos khrims) and the mundane rule of the king (rgyal [po'i] khrims).
The former rule is traditionally compared with a soft silken knot, and the sec
ond rule with the heavy golden Yugmp.dhara (literally 'Yoke-bearer', i.e. one
of the seven great mountain-chains in Buddhist cosmology that surround.in
concentric circles the axis mundi of Mount S.umeru).1
1 See D. Seyfort Ruegg, 'mchod yon, yon mchod and mchod gnas!yon gnas: On the historiogra
phy and semantics of a Tibetan religio-social and religio-political concept', in: E. Steinkellner
(ed.), Tibetan history and language (G. Uray Commemoration Volume, Vienna, 1991), pp. 441-
453. For a more detailed study of religious and theoretical aspects of the subject, see id., Ordre
spirituel et ordre tempore[ dans la pensee bouddhique de l'Inde et du Tibet (Publications de
l'Institut de Civilisation Indienne, Fasc. 64, Paris, 1995) [= OSOT], and 'The Preceptor-donor
(mchod yon) relation in thirteenth century Tibetan society and polity, its Inner Asian precursors
9
10 DAVID SEYFORT RUEGG
In many situations, however, this co-ordination, or dyarchy, of the two orders
and functions has been presupposed and implicit, without being actually ex
pressed in our sources by lexical means.
The twin Tibetan expressions meh od yon/yon meh od were formerly translated·
into English as 'priest and patron (relation)', or sometimes as 'patron
patronized'. Several contributors to this volume continue to adhere to this
usage, although it can be shown that neither 'priest' nor 'patron' fully and
precisely conveys the meaning of the respective original term in a Tibetan
(and Buddhist) context. At all events, etymologically and semantically, the
terms mchod gnas =yon gnas (Skt. dak~il;fya) designating the monk-counsel
lor and preceptor-officiant as a donee to be honoured are not exactly rendered
by our word 'priest'. Nor in a traditional Buddhist society is the yon bdag
=
'donor' (Skt. *dak~il;a-pati danapati) etymologically and lexically equiva
lent to a 'patron' .2
The question nevertheless arises as to the precise nature of the association ex
isting in Tibet and Inner Asia between the spiritual and temporal (or
monachal and secular) orders, and in particular between the religious
preceptor and the lay donor in the me hod yon/yon me hod relation. Is the donor
superior to his preceptor-officiant, or is he inferior, or are the two perhaps
equal (at least for certain purposes)? The answer appears to be that the
superiority of the one over the other, or alternatively their equality of status,
will depend on the exact circumstances prevailing contingently at a given
historical time and place. The representatives of the two orders have indeed
very often been considered equal- that is, as 'conjoined' (zung 'brel) 'like
sun and moon' (nyi zla ltar) to use the Tibetan simile. But on other occasions,
in a specifically religious context for instance, it was naturally the preceptor
officiant, the Hierarch, who has been thought of as superior; while in a secular
political situation the lay donor could well be regarded as predominant. In
practice, the relationship between the representatives of the. two orders often
appears fluid, sometimes even kaleidoscopic.3
A further question arises as to how the religious function of the mchod gnas
in his relationship to the ruler-donor - which was by nature of a personal
rather than institutional character - related historically and functionally to the
bureaucratic position of the Chinese dishi (Tib. ti sri) 'Imperial Teacher' and
guoshi (Tib. gu sri) 'State Teacher' in the institutionalized officialdom of the
Mongol or Yuan dynasty (or, later, of the Ming and Manchu dynasties). That
is, was the religio-political function of a mchod gnas in the Buddhist structure
of sqciety actually the same as that of a ti sri in Chinese officialdom, and
were the Tibetan term and the Chinese title then synonymous and co-referen
tial? Seemingly this was not quite the case. Still, outside the confines of the
Chinese court, the Tibetan titles of Chinese origin ti sri and gu sri were
actually in use by Tibetan princes, but apparently with no specific reference
and Indian models', in: H. Krasser et al. (ed.), Tibetan Studies (Proceedings of the 7th Seminar of
the International Association for Tibetan Studies, Vienna, 1997), pp. 857-72.
2 See the observations in the present writer's article in the Dray Commemoration Volume cited
above.
3 For a survey of the issues, together with an analysis and taxonomy, see OSOT cited above.
SPIRITUAL AND TEMPORAL ORDERS 11
necessarily being thereby made to membership in the official Chinese
bureaucracy.
In ancient India, the co-ordination of the two functions or orders has been
foreshadowed by the association in Buddhist thought of a 'Wheel of rule'
(iijfiiicakra, Pali afifiiicakka) with a 'Wheel of Dharma' (dharmacakra, Pali
dhammacakka). Other anticipations too are detectable in classical South Asia
(for example in the copulative compound rtvig-yiijyau).4
In Tibet - even though the mchod gnas is, in certain cases, identified as a
manifestation of the great Bodhisattva Av alokitesvara, and the yon bdag as a
Universal Monarch or Cakravartin king ('khor los sgyur ba'i rgyal po)-there
have also existed situations in which the religious order - the spiritual author
ity - and the lay order - the temporal power - have actually been represented
by a single person, who then combines in himself both the religious and tem
poral functions. In Tibetan, this situation may be expressed lexically by the
term bla dpon used as an appositional compound. In the Tibetan view, this
combination- or 'syzygy' -of the two functions is exemplified by the Dalai
Lama who, as the manifestation (sprul pa) of the Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara
Lokesvara, represents so to say hierocracy, or more specifically 'Bodhisattva
cracy', i.e. rule by Bodhisattva. In such a case the spiritual and temporal func
tions converge together in the Hierarch and the Bodhisattva-King. Also, in
addition to the preceptor-officiant or bla ma, the king by (religious) law
(dharmariija) has himself often been conceived of as a manifestation of aBo
dhisattva or divinity. 5
It may well be that this union of the spiritual and temporal - already
expressed mythically, ritually, ideologically, and functionally in the
Bodhisattva figure of Avalokitesvara-Lokesvara - became reinforced in a
Vajrayana/Mantranaya environ-ment. There the person of the Tantric master
(vajriiciirya and vajradhara) derives ideologically from the monk preceptor
standing in, as it were, for the Sakyamuni Buddha - who takes on the
appearance of a Cakravartin monarch royally adorned and endowed as a king.
Another matter requiring investigation is the question whether the mchod yon
relation so well known from the Tibetan heartlands is also to be found in pe
ripheral areas of Tibetan culture, for instance in the Himalayan regions. For
instance, whereas in Bhutan the two functions are known to have been united
in one person - the Zhabs drung rin po che -, it has been speculated that, by
contrast, they were normally separate in Tibet; but (as just noted above) a
separation of the two functions does not in fact always hold true for Tibet ei
ther. Nor does it appear possible to maintain that, whilst in Bhutan the reli
gious member of the pair, the Zhabs drung, was superior to the temporal one,
in Tibet the two members of the pair were normally equal and on the same
footing (as also noted above).6
4 For a discussion of these individual points see OSOT.
5 This matter has been investigated in OSOT.
6 See additionally OSOT, pp. 20, 24 note 19.