Exchange of minds: an interview with the state oracle of Tibet
Somewhere in order to make a decision of national importance, collected extraordinary session of Parliament. Somewhere it is all about the monarch. And Tibetans for almost four centuries consult the oracle. How did this tradition, the Chief State Oracle of Tibet Thupten Ngodup told “Magic Cosmo». Each year, during the festival of the Tibetan New Year, in one of the monasteries of Dharamsala – the Indian village that has become a haven of the Tibetan government-in-exile and the Dalai Lama – is an amazing ritual. By trumpets, cymbals and drums, as well as the singing of prayers and mantras, the abbot of the monastery, dressed in special clothes, falls into a trance and predicts the Tibetan government Highlights expecting it this year, as well as answering questions of the Dalai Lama. Tibetans believe that at this point in the mouth shuddering convulsions monk said the main deity is the protector of Tibetan Dorje Drakden, so without consulting him not to take any important decisions.
This tradition of almost four centuries, but it all started much earlier, around 1,200 years ago. Then in Tibet from India came legendary teacher Padmasambhava (or Guru Rinpoche) who brought Buddhism and, according to legend, converted to Buddhism wrathful deities. Then the king of Tibet Trisong Detsen commanded to lay the first Buddhist monastery Samye, and its rector was appointed friend and disciple of Padmasambhava Shantarakshita. And in order to get things in Tibet have always gone well, Guru Rinpoche advised the Tibetans to invite defenders country deity Dorje Drakdena. True, while the deity was in Mongolia, in a place called Bath Chorus, and it was not going to hit the road. So cunning Tibetans decided to lure him cheating – son Trisong Deutsen went to the monastery Dorje Drakdena, took him there and brought ritual accessories at Samye. After that the deity had no choice but to follow their personal assets to Tibet.
However, if this story will seem implausible, Tibetans readily tell you some more beautiful legends. For example, one of them, one next to the Drepung Monastery, which is 4 miles from the capital of Tibet, Lhasa, has grown an amazing tree. The shape of its leaves is very reminiscent of the shape of the tree leaves boddhi, and next to it is a small and very clean lake. This tree is known translator Vairocana saw and told him Padmasambhava. And Guru Rinpoche told him that the tree, and the lake is the abode of the deity Pehar Gyalpo – the main protector deity in Tibetan Buddhism, whose envoy was Dorje Drakden. Later the site was founded Nechung Monastery, which translated means “small town” (compared to “a great place”, is finite – Samye Monastery, where in Nechung monastery moved part of the relics).
According to another version, in the east of Lhasa convent Tsalgan-Tang, and Pehar Gyalpo was the main spirit of the defenders of the monastery. But come the new rector, and the relationship with the spirit and Lama once went wrong. To expel the deity of the monastery and bury him in the river, the Lama gathered all his belongings in a large box, which has thrown into the water. Nearby was a small chapel, and its superintendent learned of the incident through the gift of clairvoyance. He sent his assistant to pull the box out of the water and, without opening, bring the chapel. What was the astonishment of the assistant when the next morning he went to the river and really saw him floating towards the box. He caught it, slung on his back, and went back.
Gradually box became heavier and heavier, and by the time he got to the lake and the tree from the first legend, the assistant was very tired. But his curiosity was consumed, so he decided that if a little slightly open the lid and look into it with one eye, no harm will happen. But it was enough assistant slightly raise the lid of the box as a dove fluttered, which instantly disappeared in the branches of a miraculous tree, and in the box were left lying robes. Shocked Assistant mandate remembered his teacher and cried in despair: “If Lama knew it,” and his words can still be found carved on the stone near the monastery in Tibet. When he told his teacher about the incident, he replied: “It seems that our place is too small for such a powerful spirit.” Then he laid down next to the lake a small monastery – Nechung.
Whatever it was, it took almost 700 years before in 1544 for the first time entered the divinity of man, and only at the time of the Fifth Dalai Lama, in the middle of XVII century, the institution of the state oracles. And in 1681 on the site of a small monastery of Nechung monastery laid great. Since then, the state oracle is a member of the Cabinet, as without his advice is not taken no important decision.
True, it is important to clarify that the idea of Tibetan oracles are very different from the West. First, the purpose of the Tibetan oracles is not a simple prediction of the future. They serve primarily as a guardian, sometimes – as healers, but the main function of any oracle primarily to their advice and actions to help people practice the Dharma.
The second difference is that in the West is considered to be like there are some people with unusual powers of prediction. In Tibet, also believe that there are men and women who act as intermediaries honey world of nature and spirit. They are called “Kootenay”, which literally means “the physical basis”, and they only provide your body deity. In fact, the oracles – this is not the people, and the spirits that are associated with certain ritual object or place. Once the number of Tibetan oracles in the hundreds, but now remained only a few of them, and the most famous is the Nechung Oracle, through which said guardian deity of the Dalai Lama.
It is believed that the first Dalai Lama was not originally going to return again in the human form. But after his death, he met Guru Rinpoche, who asked him to come back and do it again and again to help all living beings, and in return has promised that his side will always be the spirit-protector. Even today, at the beginning of the XXI century, His Holiness always met him a few times a year. Despite his fascination with quantum physics and neurophysiology, he explains it very simply: the oracle is never wrong.
Before the ceremony, the oracle is clothed in ritual costume, which weighs about 40 kg. It consists of several layers of underwear, which is put on top of an ornate robe of silk cloth of gold, covered with patterns of red, blue, green and yellow. Worn on the chest a large round mirror in a frame made of turquoise and amethyst, and in its polished surface has a Sanskrit mantra, addressed to Dorje Drakdenu. Then put on a medium heavy crown, and as long as he did not enter a trance Kooten can barely move.
Until recently, visitors or strangers were forbidden to attend the ritual, but the Dalai Lama XIV changed this rule. Now, if you find yourself in Dharamsala during another ceremony predictions, you have a chance to ask a personal question oracle. And besides, sometimes Venerable Thupten Ngodup met with reporters.
- Tell us about your childhood.
- I was born in Tibet, July 13, 1958 in the town of Fury, on the border with Bhutan. My parents were farmers, but after the occupation of Tibet in 1959, he had to endure all the hardships of Chinese rule in 1966, they fled to Bhutan. However, despite his peasant background, my father came from a famous family Tantrikas (ngakpa), belonging to the Sakya school. Throughout his life he was doing Chod – one of the most powerful Tibetan practices clip attachment, and achieved great success in it. Soon after our arrival in Bhutan, he began to tell us constantly with his mother that he wanted to go to India to get the blessing of the Dalai Lama, and then become a hermit. And then in 1969, along with other Tibetan refugees, we went from Bhutan to India, in Dharamsala. First, I lived with my parents in a refugee camp. To somehow earn a living, we have worked on road construction. And although I had to go to school, she was too far away, and my parents chose me to work.
- Then how did you become a monk?
- I have a childhood dream to become a monk, often spoke about his father, and the fall of 1969 I was accepted into a monastery Gadong (another Tibetan oracle), where I spent about a year. At the same time every day, I went to the funeral service at the Nechung monastery, and in the evening return back. Gradually, I began to feel the inner connection with Dorje Drakdenom, and in 1971 I moved to the Nechung monastery. It was there that I received my religious education. I had a choice, to become masters of ceremonies or improved in throat singing, and I chose the rituals. At 24, I had reached the highest degree and became a ritual leader.
- What do you feel when you first entered the deity you?
- When the previous state oracle Lobsang Jigme passed away in 1984, there was quite a long break of three years, during which the deity does not manifest itself in human form. But since Dorje Drakden still very much associated with a monastery Drepung monks every year and the supreme Tibetan lamas were collected during the second day of the second lunar month in the Drepung Monastery in Dharamsala, to receive a blessing from the Nechung image, which is stored in a large monastery.
That day, I was walking along the monastery courtyard with the spices, when I saw a ball of light, rushing at me from the mountains, and then I lost consciousness and when he came to did not remember anything. After this event, which happened to me, I requested an audience with the Dalai Lama, and told him about it and he suggested that I could be the next Kootenay Nechung. He said he had to go through a single retreat, and during the retreat, I will have to admit the two heads of the Tibetan schools: nigma and Gelugpa. The retreat lasted two and a half months, and in the same year, in September, I have been formally recognized by the oracle, which includes the spirit Nechung.
- And what were your signs and visions of what you told the Dalai Lama?
- I believe that psychics are a result of karmic connections with a particular deity in previous lives as a result of prayer. When I was young, I felt a strong connection with Dorje Drakdenom and very strong faith in him. After he died the previous oracle, I repeatedly dreamed of monks in a trance, in which inspires Dorje Drakden, but it was not me. Sometimes I had a previous oracle, and sometimes a person’s face was impossible to make out.
In 1985, the fall of the Dalai Lama in Bodh Gaya gave the Kalachakra initiation. It was at this point I began to have very heavy bleeding. Blood flowed from his mouth and nose, and I had lost all hope for a cure. I started to think about death, and realized that it was not afraid of her. Began to happen to me all sorts of weird things that I can not say more. I felt that I had given some signs, but did not understand their meaning, and so more and more astonished and perplexed that may mean these unusual emotional experience. Gradually, shortly before the initiation of bleeding stopped, and I was able to attend the ritual.
Then, one night in Bodhgaya, I had a dream. I dreamed of a long staircase, on which sat a lot of monkeys who had gathered in anticipation of the ceremony. The monkeys were kept in the clutches of fruit, and one of them took me by the hand and led him to the top of the stairs. At the top was a platform on which I saw a large tree with a hollow, in which I had to go. It is believed that if the dream you dream of a monkey, it’s a bond with Dharma protectors. And although at the time I did not know about it, I had a very peaceful and tranquil feeling of this dream. It was a very pleasant feeling, and very unusual for me.
In addition to this dream I had a few more, and after each of them, I woke up in a state of ecstasy. My heart was full of peace and serenity. A year later, a week before, when I first entered the spirit of Nechung, I started experiencing severe anxiety. While the Dalai Lama has lectured on Lamrim. I unwittingly felt very uncomfortable in the company of other monks, and on the way to the church, which hosted the exercise, I tried to keep up with them and go back alone. Similarly, after the lectures of His Holiness, I tried as much as possible to stay in the church.
A week before entering my god this is a position, and the day before I started very bad headache. And this state of nervousness, anxiety and discomfort persisted until the moment when I went to Dorje Drakden
- Do you remember what you said a deity, while you are in a trance?
No, of course not. Before you enter into a trance, I feel and see what’s going on, but eventually my feelings dissolve, and I fall into a sort of dreaming state deity fully captures my mind. At the exit from that state, I do not remember what happened to me and what I said. Usually, at the beginning of the ritual, I’m sitting on a throne in a ritual costume, meditate and chant Hayagriva – god-protector of Dharma. Gradually, my mind and my personality begin to dissolve, I feel like spreads and removed my surroundings. It’s like if you saw a dream, but in the morning they could not remember what you dreamed. That’s just as well I feel before and after the trance.
- A deity may enter into you at will, without warning or a request from the people?
- Sometimes mediums Nechung go into spontaneous trance. It’s happened before, happens now. Before I formally recognized by the oracle, Dorje Drakden into me once or twice without warning. And I know that the previous oracle sometimes fell into a spontaneous trance, but with him it was usually near the water, when he went to bathe in the river or in the lake.
- Oracle always speaks only in Tibetan? Or in the future, he will master other languages?
- Until recently, Nechung only spoke in Tibetan. But I, as it is not paradoxical, do not know what will happen in the future. Older monks remember that before all the prophecies were very poetic – they abounded in metaphors, and they were very difficult to understand. Gradually prediction becomes more and more clear, and in the time of my predecessor Nechung began to speak very clear language. But usually we like it or stanza poem in prose or some combination of both. But this is certainly not the language in which we speak in real life. And most importantly, tone Nechung anything similar.
- Oracle ever been wrong in their predictions, and if what he says is contrary to common sense, the fact that a result is decisive opinion oracle or common sense?
- I am not aware of any, whenever Nechung oracle wrong. Oracle never goes into a trance and makes predictions for the request of private individuals – it is a state oracle, and he advises a Tibetan government. In cases where there are significant differences of opinion oracle and the government, the final decision of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
- But, for example, the percentage of how often the opinions differ, and which side usually takes His Holiness?
As you know, in recent years the structure of the Tibetan government greatly changed. We now have a parliament that is elected by representatives of the Tibetan people, and the major policy issues are solved by Parliament. But if they can not come to any view, then request the state oracle. His Holiness usually agrees with the oracle.
- Why Oracle never asked that when Tibet becomes free again?
- Oracle asked a question that was worded differently: when life in Tibet will be more happy, and he said that those days are not far off. But for that the Tibetan people should follow Buddhist principles and teachings of the Dalai Lama.
- You have been a simple monk, and now you state oracle. Who to be more difficult? Would you like to go back to those times when you have not been assigned these responsibilities?
- Of course, if you look at my life today, I have much more duties and responsibilities: in matters of state, for the life of the monks in my monastery, for the content of the monastery. At the same time I have to do certain practices, to go into a trance and be in contact with Dorje Drakdenom. But when I was applying for a prediction, I do it on the basis of mutual trust, but also out of a desire to serve all beings. Because I am a monk, and I vowed to act for the benefit of all living beings in all the worlds, I understand that as the oracle my great privilege, because I can help many more things than if I was just a monk. From the very beginning of my life, I always pray for all living beings, which are subject to suffering. And I pray that they are freed from suffering, to make their lives easier and more joyful. And that’s what I wish you and all the readers of your magazine.
Thupten Ngodup – Chief State Oracle of Tibet. Tibetans for almost four centuries, consulted the oracle. Nechung- Monastery state oracle of Tibet in Dharamsala, India. Thupten Ngodup became an oracle in 1987 after initiation shamans. State Oracle is a member of the Cabinet, as without his advice is not taken no important decision. As state adviser involved in public decision making. She holds the position, which implies the ability clairvoyant.
Thupten Ngodup was born in Tibet, July 13, 1958. His parents were farmers. In connection with the occupation of Tibet in 1959, they had in 1966 to escape to Bhutan. However, despite his peasant background, his father was a native of the famous family Tantrikas (ngakpa), belonging to the Sakya school. Throughout his life he was doing Chod – one of the most powerful Tibetan practices clip attachment, and achieved great success in it. “Shortly after our arrival in Bhutan, he began to tell us constantly with his mother that he wanted to go to India to get the blessing of the Dalai Lama, and then become a hermit. And then in 1969, along with other Tibetan refugees, we have gone from Bhutan to India in Dharamsala. First I lived with my parents in a refugee camp. Somehow to earn a living, we have worked on road construction. “
Thupten Ngodup a childhood dream to become a monk, often spoke about it to his father, and in autumn 1969 the monastery was eo Gadong (another Tibetan oracle), where he spent about a year. At the same time every day he went to the funeral service at the Nechung monastery, and in the evening return back. Gradually, he began to feel the inner connection with Dorje Drakdenom, and in 1971 – moved to the Nechung monastery. It was there that Thupten Ngodup got his religious education. He had a choice, to become masters of ceremonies or improved in throat singing, and he chose the rituals. At 24, Thupten Ngodup reached the highest degree and became a ritual leader.
To the question: what were your signs and visions of what you told the Dalai Lama, Thupten Ngodup responds as follows:
- I believe that psychics are a result of karmic connections with a particular deity in previous lives as a result of prayer. When I was young, I felt a strong connection with Dorje Drakdenom and very strong faith in him. After he died the previous oracle, I repeatedly dreamed of monks in a trance, in which inspires Dorje Drakden, but it was not me. Sometimes I had a previous oracle, and sometimes a person’s face was impossible to make out. In 1985, the fall of the Dalai Lama in Bodh Gaya gave the Kalachakra initiation. It was at this point I began to have very heavy bleeding. Blood flowed from his mouth and nose, and I had lost all hope for a cure. I started to think about death, and realized that it was not afraid of her. Began to happen to me all sorts of weird things that I can not say more. I felt that I had given some signs, but did not understand their meaning, and so more and more astonished and perplexed that may mean these unusual emotional experience. Gradually, shortly before the initiation of bleeding stopped, and I was able to attend the ritual.
Then, one night in Bodhgaya, I had a dream.
I dreamed of a long staircase, on which sat a lot of monkeys who had gathered in anticipation of the ceremony. The monkeys were kept in the clutches of fruit, and one of them took me by the hand and led him to the top of the stairs. At the top was a platform on which I saw a large tree with a hollow, in which I had to go. It is believed that if the dream you dream of a monkey, it’s a bond, the Dharma protector. And although at the time I did not know about it, I had a very peaceful and tranquil feeling of this dream. It was a very pleasant feeling, and very unusual for me.
In addition to this dream I had a few more, and after each of them, I woke up in a state of ecstasy. My heart was full of peace and serenity. A year later, a week before, when I first entered the spirit of Nechung, I started experiencing severe anxiety. While the Dalai Lama has lectured on Lamrim. I unwittingly felt very uncomfortable in the company of other monks, and on the way to the church, which hosted the exercise, I tried to keep up with them and go back alone. Similarly, after the lectures of His Holiness, I tried as much as possible to stay in the church.
A week before entering my god this is a position, and the day before I started very bad headache. This state of nervousness, anxiety and discomfort persisted until the moment when I went to Dorje Drakden
When the previous state oracle Lobsang Jigme passed away in 1984, there was quite a long break of three years, during which the deity does not manifest itself in human form. But as Dorje Drakden still very much associated with a monastery Drepung monks every year and the supreme Tibetan lamas were collected during the second day of the second lunar month in the Drepung Monastery in Dharamsala, to receive a blessing from the image of Nechung, which is stored in a large monastery.
That day, I was walking along the monastery courtyard with the spices, when I saw a ball of light, rushing at me from the mountains, and then I lost consciousness and when he came to did not remember anything. After this event, which happened to me, I requested an audience with the Dalai Lama, and told him about it and he suggested that I could be the next Kootenay Nechung. He said he had to go through a single retreat, and during the retreat, I will have to admit the two heads of the Tibetan schools: nigma and Gelugpa. The retreat lasted two and a half months, and in the same year, in September, I have been formally recognized by the oracle, which includes the spirit Nechung.
To the question: do you remember what you said a deity, while you are in a trance, Thupten Ngodup responds as follows:
No, of course not. Before you enter into a trance, I feel and see what’s going on, but eventually my feelings dissolve, and I fall into a sort of dreaming state deity fully captures my mind. At the exit from that state, I do not remember what happened to me and what I said. Usually, at the beginning of the ritual, I’m sitting on a throne in a ritual costume, meditate and chant Hayagriva – god-protector of Dharma. Gradually, my mind and my personality begin to dissolve, I feel like spreads and removed my surroundings. It’s as if you had a dream, but in the morning they could not remember what you dreamed. That’s just as well I feel before and after the trance.
Sometimes mediums Nechung go into spontaneous trance. This has happened before, is happening now. Before I formally recognized by the oracle, Dorje Drakden into me once or twice without warning. And I know that the previous oracle sometimes fell into a spontaneous trance, but with him it was usually near the water, when he went to bathe in the river or in the lake.
Until recently, the Nechung only spoke in Tibetan. But I, as it is not paradoxical, do not know what will happen in the future. Elderly monk remember that before all the prophecies were very poetic – they abounded in metaphors, and they were very difficult to understand. Gradually prediction becomes more and more clear, and in the time of my predecessor Nechung began to speak very clear language. But usually we like it or stanzas prose poem, or some combination of both. But this is certainly not the language in which we speak in real life. And most importantly, tone Nechung anything similar.
I know of no case in which the Nechung oracle wrong. Oracle never goes into a trance and makes predictions for the request of private individuals – it is a state oracle, and he advises a Tibetan government. In cases where there are significant differences of opinion oracle and the government, the final decision of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
As you know, in recent years the structure of the Tibetan government greatly changed. We now have a parliament that is elected by representatives of the Tibetan people, and the major policy issues are solved by Parliament. But if they can not come to any view, then request the state oracle. His Holiness usually agrees with the oracle.
The question of why Oracle never asked that when Tibet becomes free again, Thupten Ngodup replied:
Oracle asked a question that was worded differently: when life in Tibet will be more happy, and he said that those days are not far off. But for that the Tibetan people should follow Buddhist principles and teachings of the Dalai Lama.
If you look at my life today, I have much more duties and responsibilities: in matters of state, for the life of the monks in my monastery, for the content of the monastery. At the same time I have to do certain practices, to go into a trance and be in contact with Dorje Drakdenom. But when I was applying for a prediction, I do it on the basis of mutual trust, but also out of a desire to serve all beings. Because I am a monk, and I vowed to act for the benefit of all living beings in all the worlds, I understand that as the oracle my great privilege, because I can help many more things than if I was just a monk. From the very beginning of my life, I always pray for all living beings, which are subject to suffering. And I pray that they are freed from suffering, to make their lives easier and more joyful. And that’s what I wish you and all the readers ….
Each year, during the festival of the Tibetan New Year, Nechung Monastery, which has become a haven of the Tibetan government-in-exile and the Dalai Lama – is the next ritual. By trumpets, cymbals and drums, as well as the singing of prayers and mantras, the abbot of the monastery, dressed in special clothes, falls into a trance and predicts the Tibetan government Highlights expecting it this year, as well as answering questions of the Dalai Lama. Tibetans believe that at this point in the mouth shuddering convulsions monk said the main deity is the protector of Tibetan Dorje Drakden, so without consulting him not to take any important decisions.
This tradition of almost four centuries, but it all started much earlier, around 1,200 years ago. Then in Tibet from India came legendary teacher Padmasambhava (or Guru Rinpoche) who brought Buddhism and, according to legend, converted to Buddhism wrathful deities. Then the king of Tibet Trisong Detsen commanded to lay the first Buddhist monastery Samye …. It took almost 700 years before in 1544 for the first time entered the divinity of man, and only at the time of the Fifth Dalai Lama, in the middle of XVII century, the institution of the state oracles. And in 1681 on the site of a small monastery of Nechung monastery laid great. Since then, the state oracle is a member of the Cabinet, as without his advice is not taken no important decision.
Tibetan idea of oracles are very different from Western ones. Firstly, to Tibetan oracles is simple prediction of the future. They serve primarily as a guardian, sometimes – as healers, but the main function of any oracle primarily to their advice and actions to help people practice the Dharma. Second difference is that in the West, is considered if there are some people have unusual powers of prediction. In Tibet, also believe that there are men and women who act as intermediaries honey world of nature and spirit. They are called “Kootenay”, which literally means “the physical basis”, and they only provide your body deity. In fact, the oracles – this is not the people, and the spirits that are associated with certain ritual object or place. Once the number of Tibetan oracles in the hundreds, but now remained only a few of them, and the most famous is the Nechung Oracle, through which said guardian deity of the Dalai Lama.
It is believed that the first Dalai Lama was not originally going to return again in the human form. But after his death, he met Guru Rinpoche, who asked him to come back and do it again and again to help all living beings, and in return has promised that his side will always be the spirit-protector. Even today, at the beginning of the XXI century, His Holiness always met him a few times a year. Despite his fascination with quantum physics and neurophysiology, he explains it very simply: the oracle is never wrong.
Before the ceremony, the oracle is clothed in ritual costume, which weighs about 40 kg. It consists of several layers of underwear, which is put on top of an ornate robe of silk cloth of gold, covered with patterns of red, blue, green and yellow. Worn on the chest a large round mirror in a frame made of turquoise and amethyst, and in its polished surface has a Sanskrit mantra, addressed to Dorje Drakdenu. Then put on a medium heavy crown, and as long as he did not enter a trance Kooten can barely move.
Until recently, visitors or strangers were forbidden to attend the ritual, but the Dalai Lama XIV changed this rule. Now, if you find yourself in Dharamsala during another ceremony predictions, you have a chance to ask a personal question oracle. And besides, sometimes Venerable Thupten Ngodup met with reporters.
Film “Beware of the brain.” The first sentence of movie: A young monk Tibetan monastery Nichung suddenly fainted when served tea in the monastery dining room. A few days before that, he had severe headaches, such that he was trembling. And that night, everything happened quickly, he again began to shake, and then as a shock and he immediately lost. This was the fatal syncope, he started his career with the famous clairvoyant in Tibet, which consults the Dalai Lama.
