Terma and Tertön: Revealed Teachings and Their Revealers
Bhutan has a rich heritage of both ‘received teachings’ and ‘revealed teachings’, having received teaching transmissions of the Kagyu (བཀའ་བརྒྱུད་) tradition and the kama (བཀའ་མ་) teachings of the Nyingma (རྙིང་མ་) tradition. The revealed teachings consist of terma (གཏེར་མ་) or rediscovered treasures, which started to develop during the ‘renaissance’ of Buddhism that took place in Tibet in the 11th century. Such treasures are primaily texts, but at times included artefacts, medicinal substances, and other materials, all of which were believed to have been initially concealed by Guru Rinpoché and other figures during the 8th and 9th century in order to be revealed at predestined times by predestined individuals.
This skilful technique of religious preservation and regeneration perhaps started as a simple practice of burying texts for safety during troubled times and later recovering them when the socio-political situation stabilized sufficiently to revive their use. A great number of texts and objects may have been buried for safekeeping when the Tibetan empire crumbled in the middle of the 9th century, when widespread state support of Buddhism was lost and political chaos ensued in the face of peasant revolts. Thus, it is likely that many of the early treasure discoveries involved only ordinary human procedures of retrieving the texts or artefacts, although the acts of retrieval may have been accompanied by some religious prayers and rituals.
However, as the practice developed, the treasure culture appears to have gone through an accretive process of sacralization and ritualistic systematization. Over time, it evolved into a complex mystical and transcendental process involving sacred sites in which treasures are hidden, secret codes (བརྡ་ཡིག་), guides (གཏེར་བྱང་), rituals (ཆོ་ག་), miracles (རྫུ་འཕྲུལ་) and, above all, terton (གཏེར་སྟོན་) or treasure discoverers with special connections to Guru Rinpoché and figures of the Yarlung dynastic period of Tibetan history. Consequently, terma revelation was not merely perceived as an ordinary practice of hiding and retrieving things but as a transcendental revelation of religious knowledge and objects using superhuman and prophetic abilities. The treasure culture also expanded in terms of what was discovered. In addition to texts (ཆོས་གཏེར་), religious artefacts, and sacred substances (རྫས་གཏེར་), the treasures also included visionary (དག་སྣང་) and psychic revelations (དགོངས་གཏེར་).
The locus of the treasures also expanded with treasures discovered not only from the earth but from lakes, cliffs, space, and even the inner depths of the human psyche. Similarly, as the treasure culture and its influence began to spread, it was no longer limited to the Nyingma school as it had been in the beginning. Treasure discoverers eventually appeared in all four Tibetan Buddhist schools and the Bön religion. Treasure discoverers from the Nyingma and Drukpa Kagyü schools of Buddhism, as well as practitioners of Bön were active in Bhutan. This fascinating and problematic practice of religious regeneration and revelation had substantial impacts on the course of Bhutan’s history. Some fifty treasure discoverers from Tibet visited Bhutan in search of treasures from the 11th century until the end of the 20th century. Bhutan itself produced about a dozen treasure discoverers including its most famous treasure discoverer, Bumthang native Pema Lingpa (1450-1521), who is among Bhutan’s foremost spiritual figures.
The treasure discoverers generally did not originate from one establishment or institution or even from one school although most of them belonged to the Nyingma tradition. They did not function as part of an organised religious movement or group although they may have loosely shared goals and stratagems. Tertön-s were mostly individual mystics seeking religious treasures and hidden lands who were following the cryptic prophecies and guides that came to them, sometimes through their own prognostic dreams. Most claimed a link to Padmasambhava claimed to be his destined spiritual heirs. Most tertön-s associated with Bhutan shared two additional beliefs: first, that the hidden lands conducive for spiritual practice lay mostly in the borderlands south of Tibet, and second, that these places were filled with treasures buried by Padmasambhava and his disciples in order to be revealed when the propitious time came. With these beliefs, they set on their journeys mainly to find and extract treasures but also subsequently to spread the teachings that they (re)discovered.
These religious explorers traversed the broader Himalayan world either in search of treasures or on missions to promote their treasures. They attracted large following as they were believed to be the incarnations of important persons who had received the teachings directly from Guru Rinpoché. To many the tertön's teachings and techniques to be spiritually more effective than other forms of teachings, which had become stale during their transmission over the ages. The teachings tertön-s discovered and propagated often became the trendy religious practices of their times. Many, however, failed to leave any significant legacy for posterity and passed into oblivion. In the case of many of the minor tertön, we do not even know when they lived and what they did apart from incidental mentions of their discoveries.
Due to the Bhutanese faith in Guru Rinpoché and treasure tradition, it’s likely that most tertön would have enjoyed a good reception, hospitality and even devotion from local patrons, but an unfortunate few may have faced scepticism or even utter rejection, seen recently in the case of a Tibetan tertön whose discoveries were examined by the Bhutanese state and declared to be forgeries; that person was seen off unceremoniously. Today, the proliferation of clinical scientific thinking has placed the belief in ancient treasure under increasingly intense scrutiny. There are perhaps fewer persons who claim to be tertön today than in any of the last ten centuries. Nevertheless, it is still not very hard to find a Tibetan religious visitor travelling across Bhutan on pilgrimage to imbibe blessings from the powerful places and also extract a treasure if it comes their way.
In Bhutan, the most popular treasure cycles include the Peling (པད་གླིང་), Nyingthig (སྙིང་ཐིག་), and Tersar (གཏེར་གསར་) teachings. Even among the Drukpa Kagyü in Bhutan, some of the most popular teachings are rediscovered terma including the worship of Zhapdrung Ngakwang Namgyel, which is a visionary rediscovered treasure. Thus, the terma culture pervades Bhutan’s religious landscape and has substantial impact on the lives of people. Terma teachings form the basis of the grand state rituals as well as the personalized practice of hermits in seclusion. The corpus of rediscovered treasure texts compiled by Kongtrül Yönten Thayé (1813-1899) form some of the most important scriptures among Bhutan’s spiritual heritage, as well as those of Buddhists throughout the Himalayas. Much of Bhutan’s valuable material heritage in the form of antiques and sacred objects are also considered to be rediscovered treasures.
Source
Wikipedia:Terma and Tertön: Revealed Teachings and Their Revealers
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