THE NINE WAYS OF BON View southwards up the Shes gorge (Sibu Khola) and towards the great pass to Phug-gsum-mdo (Phoksumdo)-from the main comer shrine (mchod-rten) at the bonpo monastery of Samling in Dolpo. (DLS 1961) THE NINE WAYS OF BON Excerpts from gZi-brjid. Edited and Translated by DAVID L. SNELLGROVE Professor of Tibetan in the University of London PRAJNA PRESS BOULDER 1980 PRAJNA PRESS Great Eastern Book Company P.O. Box 27I Boulder, Colorado .80306 ® 1967 Oxford University Press ISBN 0-87773-739-8 This reprint has been authorized by the Oxford University Press. Printed in the United States of America LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING IN PUBLICATION DATA Gzi, brjid. English. Selections. The nine ways of bon. Reprint of the ed. published by Oxford University Press, London, New York, which was issued as v. 18 of London oriental series. Includes bibliographical references. I. Snellgrove, David L. II. Title. III. Series: London oriental series; v. I8 BLI94J.B6G92I3 I978 299'·54 78-130IO ISBN 0-87773-739-8 PREFACE MY first interest in BON dates from 1956, when in the course of a long journey on foot through the remote Tibetan speaking regions ofn orth-west Nepal, I discovered the old bon monastery of Samling in Dolpo. I spent a month in the monastery on that first occasion and collected with the help of the head lama Shes-rab a number of interesting manuscripts. Although quite unknown to the non-Tibetan world, Samling was. well known to Tibetan bonpos, and thus on a return visit to Dolpo in 1960, I met in Tarap the Abbot of g Yun-drun-glin and Geshey Sangye Tenzin J ongdong on their way back from Samling with several loads of books that they had borrowed from the nephew of Lama Shes-rab. Now that Tibet· is occupied by Chinese Communist forces, Samling has become the main source of books for the few knowledgeable bonpo monks who are living as exiles in India. In 1961 the Rockefeller Foundation kindly offered funds to those universities in Europe, the U.S.A., and Japan which already had a develop ing interest in Tibetan studies, so as to enable them to invite for a three year period a few selected scholars from among the many Tibetan refugees in India and Nepal. I took advantage of this opportunity to invite three qualified bonpo monks to England, Lopon Tenzin Namdak, formerly of sMan-ri Monastery, and Geshey Sangye Tenzin Jongdong and Geshey Samten Gyaltsen Karmay of gYun-drun-glin. (Both these monasteries are I a few days' journey west from Shigatse in Tsang Province.) Working in ·conjunction with contemporary bonpos, I have readily ac cepted (with certain reservations) their own interpretation of their religion, and the present work is an attempt to provide a survey of the whole range of their teachings, as formulated certainly not later than the twelfth century and may be even two or three centuries earlier. It has been our intention at this stage to let the texts speak for themselves as much as possible, so that there may be no risk of others accusing us of putting forward exag gerated ideas of what BON is all about. The present work represents the first attempt to let the bonpos them selves give some account of their own religion. Lop on Tenzin N amdak was mainly responsible for the selection of the extracts, and he and I worked on them side by side, resolving textual difficulties as well as we could. The English translation has been entirely my responsibility, for works such as these require a type of English vocabulary with which no Tibetan, however intelligent, is yet sufficiently familiar. Since Tenzin Namdak returned to India in September 1964, where he has been busily reprinting bonpo works, I have checked through the whole Tibetan text again with Samten Gyaltsen vi PREFACE Karmay arid ·added a few extra excerpts. I would like to express my thanks publicly to these two knowledgeable bonpo monks, who have played so large a part in. making this pioneering work a sufficiently safe venture. Likewise I acknowledge with thanks the great assistance that I have re c~ived from Professor Walter Simon, who has looked through this whole work for me and patiently checked the terms listed in the glossary. In the long and laboriouswork of preparing the glossary for publication I have had the continual assistance of Samten Gyaltsen Karmay, and I owe him very special thanks for this. Thanks are due also to the Trustees of the Rockefeller Foundation who made it possible for me to invite these monks to England. Finally thanks are due (as always) to the School of Oriental and African Studies in the University of London, which continues to make possible my own journeys to India and Nepal in the search of new materials, and which has now by a generous subvention made possible the publication of this present work. Berkhamsted DAVID L. SNELLGROVE 21 September 1966 CONTENTS INTRODUCTION I I. THE WAY OF THE SHEN OF PREDICTION 24 II. THE WAY OF THE SHEN OF THE VISUAL WORLD 42 III. THE WAY OF THE SHEN OF ILLUSION g8 IV. THE WAY OF THE SHEN. OF EXISTENCE u6 V. THE WAY OF THE VIRTUOUS ADHERERS 124 VI. THE WAY OF THE GREAT ASCETICS 136 VII. THE WAY OF PURE SOUND 170 VIII. THE WAY OF THE PRIMEVAL SHEN xgo IX. THE SUPREME WAY 226 NOTES 256 DIAGRAMS AND ILLUSTRATIONS 269 GLOSSARY 289