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(CONTINUED FROM FRONT FLAP) “A FASCINATING account of the women who constituted the most famous of all D WHEN A WOMAN BECOMES IN THE FIFTEENTH century, the prin- I female incarnation lineages in Tibet, perhaps the most intriguing series of women in E cess Chokyi Dronma was told by the lead- M DIEMBERGER offers a number of the- recent Tibetan history.” B A R EL IGIOUS DYNASTY ing spiritual masters of her time that she E oretical arguments about the importance of was the embodiment of the ancient Indian R —Robert Barnett, director, Modern Tibetan Studies Program, Columbia University, and author G reincarnation in Tibetan society and reli- tantric deity Vajravarahi, known in Tibetan of Lhasa: Streets with Memories E R gion, the role of biographies in establishing as Dorje Phagmo, the Thunderbolt Female a lineage, the necessity for religious teachers Pig. After suffering a great personal tragedy, “A STUNNING contribution to our knowledge about women in Tibetan Bud- to navigate complex networks of political Chokyi Dronma renounced her royal sta- dhism. This book also has a great deal to tell us more generally about how to study and financial patronage, the cultural and tus to become a nun, and, in turn, the tan- the role of women in religious institutions, literature, and society. It contains a superb social innovation linked to the revival of tric consort of three outstanding religious translation of a rare biography of Samding Dorje Phagmo, and also provides fascinat- W ancient Buddhist civilizations, and the role masters of her era. After her death, Chokyi ing information about the legacy of her lineage in modern Tibet and China. Most of A of women in Buddhism. Four introductory, all, the book is outstanding for its thoughtful reflections upon issues of gender, writ- H Dronma’s masters and disciples recognized R stage-setting chapters precede the biogra- E a young girl as her reincarnation, the first ing, and power, and for its ability to relate medieval Tibetan matters to contemporary phy, and four concluding chapters discuss E N in a long, powerful, and influential female theoretical reflection in anthropology, history, and literature.” the establishment of the reincarnation lin- L lineage. Today, the twelfth Samding Dorje A eage and the role of the current incarnation —Janet Gyatso, Hershey Professor of Buddhist Studies, Harvard Divinity School, and author of I Phagmo leads the Samding monastery and G W under the peculiarly contradictory commu- Apparitions of the Self: The Secret Autobiographies of a Tibetan Visionary is a high government cadre in the Tibet Au- nist system. I tonomous Region. O O “THE RECENT surfacing of Dorje Phagmo’s biography is a sensational discovery and the rarest of sources. Hildegard Diemberger unravels the philological niceties U M HILDEGARD DIEMBERGER builds HILDEGARD DIEMBERGER is di- behind this unique manuscript and presents a magisterial and ambitious book that her book around the translation of the first S A rector of the Tibetan Studies Programme resonates with refreshing interdisciplinary discourses, fine insights, and mature dis- biography of Chokyi Dronma recorded at the Mongolia and Inner Asia Studies cussions on gender in the wider Tibetan cultural world. It is a crucial, compulsory, D N by her disciples in the wake of her death. Unit, Department of Social Anthropology, and compelling read, not to mention a remarkable feat.” Y The account reveals an extraordinary phe- B University of Cambridge, and is a research nomenon: although it had been believed N —Per K. Sørensen, professor of Tibetology, University of Leipzig, and coauthor of Thundering E associate of the Austrian Academy of Sci- that women in Tibet were not allowed to Falcon and Rulers on the Celestial Plain A C ences and of the Italian Ev-K2-CNR com- obtain full ordination equivalent to monks, O S mittee. She has published extensively on the Chokyi Dronma not only persuaded one of “HILDEGARD DIEMBERGER’S book offers an engaging, in-depth study of M T anthropology of Tibet and the Himalayan the highest spiritual teachers of her era to a fifteenth-century Tibetan princess who represents one of the few known cases of Y E regions and, with Pasang Wangdu, has co- give her full ordination but also established Tibetan female full Buddhist ordination. In her skillful analysis of the life and signifi- S authored the translations of the Shel dkar orders for other women practitioners and cance of this figure, Diemberger pieces together evidence drawn from a wide range of chos ' byung and the dBa' bzhed. became so revered that she was officially sources and has produced a work that is a major contribution to our understanding recognized as one of two principal spiritual of Tibet, especially the development of Tibetan culture and society. It will also be of heirs to her main master. considerable value to all scholars interested in issues of religion and gender.” —Michael Palmer, professor of law and director of the Centre of East Asian Law at the School of C O Oriental and African Studies, University of London L U M Printed in the U.S.A. Jacket image: B The Samding Dorje Phagmo of Tibet Chokyi Dronma’s portrait at Samding monastery. IA Bruce Huett Columbia University Press / New York HILDEGARD DIEMBERGER Jacket design: Milenda Lee www.cup.columbia.edu (CONTINUED ON BACK FLAP) When a Woman Becomes a Religious Dynasty When a Woman Becomes a Religious Dynasty THE SAMDING DORJE PHAGMO OF TIBET Hildegard Diemberger Columbia University Press New York Columbia University Press Publishers Since 1893 New York Chichester, West Sussex Copyright © 2007 Columbia University Press All rights reserved Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data Diemberger, Hildegard. When a woman becomes a religious dynasty : the Samding Dorje Phagmo of Tibet / Hildegard Diemberger. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978- 0- 231- 14320- 2 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Chos- kyi- sgron- ma, 1422–1455. 2. Dorje Phagmos (Vajravārāhī incarnations)—Biography. 3. Bsam- lding dgon- pa (Tibet, China)—History. I. Title. BQ946.O756D54 2007 294.3'923092—dc22 [B] 2007000291 o Columbia University Press books are printed on permanent and durable acid-f ree paper. Th is book was printed on paper with recycled content. Printed in the United States of America c 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 References to Internet Web sites (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing. Neither the author nor Columbia University Press is responsible for URLs that may have expired or changed since the manuscript was prepared. CONTENTS List of Illustrations vii Foreword by Marilyn Strathern ix Preface xiii Acknowledgments xix Introduction 1 PART I 1 Th e World of Chokyi Dronma 25 2 Th e Life of Chokyi Dronma 53 3 Th e Manuscript and Its Enigmas 70 4 Princess, Nun, Yoginī 102 PART II Translation of the Biography of the Venerable Chokyi Dronma 149 PART III 5 Succession and Spiritual Lineages: Meaning and Mysteries of Chokyi Dronma’s Reincarnation 239 6 “Lady of the Lake”: Th e Dorje Phagmo at Samding 267 7 Dorje Phagmo in the Twentieth Century: Embodied Divinity and Government Cadre 288 8 Th e Living Tradition and the Legacy of the Princess 316 Epilogue 322 Twin Reincarnation Line and Tentative Chronology 325 Th e Families of Chokyi Dronma 326 Notes 327 Bibliography 361 Index 377 vi Contents ILLUSTRATIONS map Chokyi Dronma’s Journeys xii figure 1.1 Nyemo Chekar monastery as it appeared in 1996. 26 figure 1.2 Vajrayoginī. 48 figure 1.3 Vajravilāsinī with tantric partner. 48 figure 1.4 Th e tantric couple Cakrasam. vara and Vajravārāhī. 49 figure 1.5 Cakrasam. vara and Vajravārāhī. 49 figure 2.1 Th e palace of Gungthang with its citadel. 54 figure 2.2 Th e palace and the monastery of Shekar, built by the grandfather of Chokyi Dronma’s husband. 56 figure 2.3 Porong landscape with nomad tents. 57 figure 2.4 Deleg Chodren. 61 figure 2.5 Climbing the pass between Gungthang and Porong on horseback. 63 figure 2.6 Monk writing. 64 figure 2.7 Monks carrying books. 65 figure 2.8 Th angtong Gyalpo’s stūpa and bridge at Chung Riwoche. 66 figure 2.9 Th e castle of Shigatse. 67 figure 2.10 Th angtong Gyalpo’s iron bridge at Chagsam Chubori. 68 figure 3.1 Drawing from the front page of Chokyi Dronma’s biography. 71 figure 3.2 Chokyi Dronma, drawing from the illumination in her biography. 72 figure 3.3 Chokyi Dronma as depicted in the biography of Bodong Chogle Namgyal. 75 figure 4.1 Chokyi Dronma, after a mural painting at Samding monastery. 147 part ii Chokyi Dronma. 150 figure 5.1 Th e fortress of Nakartse, seat of the local rulers. 254 figure 5.2 Th e sixteenth- century mural at Nyemo Chekar. 263 figure 6.1 An incarnation of the Dorje Phagmo called Chokyi Dronma Kunga Sangmo. 277 figure 6.2 Th e Fifth Dalai Lama and the Dorje Phagmo facing each other. 281 figure 7.1 Procession of villagers carrying holy books to bless the fi elds in the twentieth century. 289 figure 7.2 Samding monastery as it used to be in the early twentieth century. 290 figure 7.3 Th e Twelfth Dorje Phagmo on her throne at Samding in 1996. 293 figure 8.1 Hands with prayer beads. 317 figure 8.2 People in Lhasa. 320 viii Illustrations FOREWORD Marilyn Strathern From time to time anthropologists unearth surprises that would rank on anyone’s register as “discovery.” At the center of this fascinating account is just such a discovery: the copy of a rare fi fteenth- century text found in an archive in Beijing and shown to Hildegard Diemberger in New York. Th e narrative concerned a famous Tibetan princess who, against all expectations of her gender, founded an incarnation lineage higher than that of most male reincarnation lines. Th e text was the story of her life. It was a discovery in this sense more for the anthropolo- gist than for the world, but Dr. Diemberger has turned her realization of what she was looking at into a discovery of another kind. She has uncovered just what a remarkable tale that manuscript tells. Dr. Diemberger has made her own translation of the biography the center of this book, and it is absorbing reading. She brings it alive though the directness of her language; she also brings it alive through a device that would not be foreign to her Tibetan counterparts: by providing an account fi rst of what is known of this princess’s life and times, and then of just what it means that this lady, Chokyi Dronma, can also be thought of as the founder of a dynasty, a lineage of majestic dimensions with an unbroken succession until the present day. Chokyi Dronma was also known as the Dorje Phagmo of a notable monastery, Samding.