Thursday, January 31, 2013

Ancient Balkh, Bactra, Shamis en Balkh, Umm Al-Belaad, ... Photographs

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Originally inhabited by Indo-Iranian tribes between 2,000-1,500 BC, Balkh (also known as Umm Al-Belaad...The Mother of Cities)...Outside of the walled city enclosure, buildings of the Buddhist period seem to have proved more durable than those of the Islamic era, with the remains of Tahkti-Rustam, the ruins of a Buddhist monastery of Nau Bahar and the associated stupa of Tepe Rustam, of which an earth-brick base of some 40 metres in diameter survives. To the north-east lie traces of extensive gardens, in which there was a large caravanserai.


From Google Earth, this is the ruins of the outer walls of the ancient city of Shamis en Balkh..... Balkh (Bactra, 67E..36N)

Accounts of visitors in the 7th century AD indicate the existence of a significant number of Buddhist monasteries, stupas and other monuments in the city. Subsequent accounts from the 10th century AD indicate that the city was ringed with earthen walls, with six gates, within which was a fine citadel and a mosque.

Currently 46 miles south of the Amu Darya (Oxus) river whose course ran close to the city in antiquity. The foundation of the city of Paktra, later known as Bactria is ascribed to Kaiomars, and at an early date it was said to have rivaled urban centres such as Babylon.

House of Mawlana Jalal al-Din Rumi in Balkh city of Afghanistan.Mawlana, one of the greatest mystic poets of Islam, was born in Balkh, Mazar-i Sharif (present-day Afghanistan) in 1207.

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Email....okarresearch@gmail.com

John Hopkins.....Northern New Mexico….January 2013

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Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Mahasiddha Traditions in Central Asia (750 AD)

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Dzogchen Explorations

Okar Research

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"By convention there are 84 Mahasiddhas in both Hindu and Tibetan Buddhist traditions, with some overlap between the two lists. The number is congruent with the number of siddhi or occult powers held in the Indian Religions......Each Mahasiddha has come to be known for certain characteristics and teachings, which facilitates their pedagogical use...... The sadhana of Dream Yoga as practiced in Dzogchen traditions such as the Kham, entered the Himalayan tantric tradition from the Mahasiddha, Ngagpa and Bonpo.....Tibetan masters of various lineages are often referred to as mahasiddhas. Among them are Marpa, the Tibetan translator who brought Buddhist texts to Tibet, and Milarepa.."......http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahasiddha#Different_Mahasiddha_traditions

"....But most important historically for the development of Buddhism in Tibet was the Mahasiddha Tradition that evolved in North India in the early Medieval Period (3-13 cen. AD). Philosophically this movement was based on the insights revealed in the Mahayana Sutras and as systematized in the Madhyamaka and Chittamatrin schools of philosophy, but the methods of meditation and practice were radically different than anything seen in the monasteries. The Sanskrit term Mahasiddha means a great adept. A Siddha or adept is an individual who, through the practice of sadhana, a spiritual and psychic discipline or process of realization, attains the realization of siddhis, psychic and spiritual powers. These methods were revealed in Buddhist scriptures known as Tantras. Sometimes their source is said to be the historical Buddha, but more often it is a transhistorical aspect of the Buddha called Vajradhara who reveals the Tantra in question directly in a vision to a specific Mahasiddha. This vague and ill defined community of Mahasiddhas was the historical matrix for the revelation of the Higher Tantras, the Anuttara Tantras. They broke with the conventions of Buddhist monastic life of the time, and abandoning the monastery they practiced in the caves, the forests, and the country villages of Northern India. In complete contrast to the settled monastic establishment of their day, which concentrated the Buddhist intelligenzia in a limited number of large monastic universities, they adopted the life-style of itinerant mendicants, much the wandering Sadhus of modern India.".....http://www.vajranatha.com/articles/traditions/mahasiddha.html

"....Mahasiddhas are contentious. Dowman (1986) holds that they all lived between 750 AD - 1150 AD.....Reynolds (2007) proffers that the mahasiddha tradition...broke with the conventions of Buddhist monastic life of the time, and abandoning the monastery they practiced in the caves, the forests, and the country villages of Northern India. In complete contrast to the settled monastic establishment of their day, which concentrated the Buddhist intelligenzia in a limited number of large monastic universities, they adopted the life-style of itinerant mendicants, much the wandering Sadhus of modern India......
The mahasiddha tradition may be conceived and considered as a cohesive body due to their spiritual style, sahaja; which was distinctively non-sectarian, non-elitist, non-dual, non-elaborate, non-sexist, non-institutional, unconventional, unorthodox and non-renunciate. The mahasiddha tradition arose in dialogue with the dominant religious practices and institutions of the time which often foregrounded practices and disciplines that were over-ritualized, politicized, exoticized, excluded women and whose lived meaning and application were largely inaccessible and opaque to non-monastic peoples.....In the sacred biographies of the great siddhas of the Vajrayāna tradition. Tilopa attained realization as a grinder of sesame seeds and a procurer for a prominent prostitute. Sarvabhakṣa was an extremely obese glutton, Gorakṣa was a cowherd in remote climes, Taṅtepa was addicted to gambling, and Kumbharipa was a destitute potter. These circumstances were charnel grounds because they were despised in Indian society and the siddhas were viewed as failures, marginal and defiled......By convention there are 84 Mahasiddhas in both Hindu and Tibetan Buddhist traditions, with some overlap between the two lists. The number is congruent with the number of siddhi or occult powers held in the Indian Religions...... The sadhana of Dream Yoga as practiced in Dzogchen traditions such as the Kham, entered the Himalayan tantric tradition from the Mahasiddha, Ngagpa (ngakpas wear uncut hair and white robes) and Bonpo....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahasiddha

"....Dzogchen did not originate in Tibet itself, but had a Central Asian origin and was subsequently brought to Central Tibet by certain masters known as Mahasiddhas or great adepts. There thus would appear to exist two ancient and authentic lineages for the Dzogchen teachings, the Buddhist and the Bonpo......the Bonpo transmission from a line of Mahasiddhas dwelling around Mount Kailas and the lake country of Zhang-zhung to the west and north of Tibet. ..... the Kalachakra Tantra is said to have been brought from Shambhala in Central Asia to Nalanda in India in the tenth century by the Mahasiddha Tsilupa (Tsilupa (a.k.a., Chilupa, Tsi lu, Tsilu, Cilu, Cheluka, etc.)....This "Buddhism", known as gyer in the Zhang-zhung language and as bon in the Tibetan, was not particularly monastic, but more Tantric in nature and its diffusion was stimulated by the presence of various Mahasiddhas in the region such as the illustrious Tapihritsa and his predecessors dwelling in caves about Mount Kailas and about the lakes to the east in Northern Tibet. Even into this century, Kailas remained an important site of pilgrimage drawing Hindu sadhus and yogis from India.....http://www.angelfire.com/vt/vajranatha/bondzog.html

"......Tsilupa and Kalachakrapada the Elder were actually the same person, a so-called "madasiddha," ...Tsilupa actually traveled by conventional means to a country which then actually existed in the material realm, but to which legend has given the name of Shambhala, and there met with teachers or adepts who taught him the Kalachakra and presented him with actual texts which he then brought back to India......Tsipula arrived back in India in 966 or 967 a.d......turned up at Nalanda monastery, where he drew the Kalachakra symbol for the so-called "ten guardians of the world" over the entrance gate. This "mantric cosmogram," we are told, "consists of different colored letters woven together," and symbolizes "the entire universe as conceived by the Kalachakra." Below the drawing he inscribed six main tenets of the Kalachakra teachings. The abbot of Nalanda, a man named Nadapada (Csoma's Narotapa), along with 500 resident pandits debated with Tsilupa but eventually "fell at his feet" and accepting his teachings. Nadapada has been identified by most commentators as Kalachakrapada the Younger.....The Rva tradition also credits the pandit Tsilupa with bringing the Kalachraka doctrine from Shambhala to India. Tsilupa had studied at many of the major centers of Buddhist learning including Ratnagiri, Vikramasila, and Nalanda. He soon realized that none of these teachings could help him achieve buddhahood in this lifetime. He then heard that in Shambhala more advanced teachings were available which would allow him to quickly attain enlightenment.... Tsilupa set out for Shambhala in the company of a group of traders. .....Tsilupa actually did get to Shambhala, where a emanation of Avalokiteshvara (King Yasha's son Pundarika was considered an emanation of Avalokiteshvara) blessed him with the ability to memorize a thousand verses a day. He thus memorized the various Kalachakra texts and returned to India......http://www.shambhala.mn/Files/transmission.html

Four of the 84 Mahasiddhas are women....
Manibhadra, the Perfect Wife
Lakshmincara, The Princess of Crazy wisdom
Mekhala, the elder of the 2 Headless Sisters
Kanakhala, the younger of the 2 Headless Sisters

"Both tertons and Vedic or Bonpo Rishis cognize wisdom by overthrowing dualistic limitations within consciousness and the wisdom that emerges emerges from a mandala, which emerges from a seed-syllable.".....http://www.mail-archive.com/fairfieldlife@yahoogroups.com/msg232965.html

"The number of mahasiddhas varies between eighty-four and eighty-eight, and only about thirty-six of the names occur in both lists. In many instances more than one siddha with the same name exists, so it must be assumed that fewer than thirty siddhas of the two traditions actually relate to the same historical persons.....The great variation in phonetic transcription of Indian words into Tibetan may partly be the result of various Tibetan dialects. In the process of copying the Tibetan transcriptions in later times, the spelling often became corrupted to such an extent that the recognition or reconstitution of the original names became all but impossible. Whatever the reasons might be, the Tibetan transcription of Indian names of mahasiddhas clearly becomes more and more corrupt as time passes.".....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahasiddha#Different_Mahasiddha_traditions

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Email....okarresearch@gmail.com

John Hopkins.....Northern New Mexico….January 2013

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FRAVASHIS: The Dralas of Ancient Persia

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FRAVASHIS...."In the ancient Persian tradition, fravashis were powerful supernatural beings able to protect their descendants if duly worshipped. Yast 13." ..Mary Boyce, "Zoroastrians Their religious beliefs and practices", Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, UK, 1979.

"In Zoroastrian tradition, life is a temporary state in which a mortal is expected to actively participate in the continuing battle between truth and falsehood. Prior to being born, the urvan (soul) of an individual is still united with its fravashi (guardian spirit), and which have existed since Mazda created the universe. During life, the fravashi acts as a guardian and protector. On the fourth day after death, the soul is reunited with its fravashi, in which the experiences of life in the material world are collected for the continuing battle in the spiritual world. For the most part, Zoroastrianism does not have a notion of reincarnation, at least not until the final renovation of the world. Followers of Ilm-e-Kshnoom in India believe in reincarnation and practice vegetarianism, two principles unknown to Orthodox Zoroastrianism.".....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoroastrianism

"There are many gods....They are always present everywhere.....the dieties of the indigenous traditions of Western Europe and The Americas especially were dismantled, suppressed, undermined, abused, forgotten...followers were not even allowed to mention them.....but they still have not been able to destroy them, even with the desecration of the entire planet...the drala principle exists everywhere, always."..(Chogyam Trungpa)

"Stone carved Faravahar in Persepolis.....Faravahar...the winged disc has a long history in the art and culture of the ancient Near and Middle East. Historically, the symbol is influenced by the "winged sun" hieroglyph appearing on Bronze Age royal seals (Luwian SOL SUUS, symbolizing royal power in particular)[citation needed]. In Neo-Assyrian times, a human bust is added to the disk, the "feather-robed archer" interpreted as symbolizing Ashur.....While the symbol is currently thought to represent a Fravashi (approximately a guardian angel) and from which it derives its name (see below), what it represented in the minds of those who adapted it from earlier Mesopotamian and Egyptian reliefs is unclear. Because the symbol first appears on royal inscriptions, it is also thought to represent the 'Divine Royal Glory' (Khvarenah), or the Fravashi of the king, or represented the divine mandate that was the foundation of a king's authority."

"The belief in a double of the living and dead, animate or inanimate things, which influences the persons involved....The fravashis are a class of higher intelligences playing a prominent part in the world of humanity. (fravashi or fravarti:the Persian King Phraortes in 647 BC). The last ten days of the year are especially set aside for their cult. The 19th day is consecrated to their memory and the first month of the Iranian calendar receives its name after them. The Fravashis resemble the Vedic Pitrs, the Roman Manes, of the Platonic Ideas. The Fravashis constitute the internal essence of things, as opposed to the contingent and accidental. They are not mere abstractions of thought but have objective existence and work as spiritual entities. They are immanent in the particular bodies that come into this world after their divine images.Every object which has a name is endowed with a Fravashi. Some Fravashi are wise, beautiful, courageous, efficacious, etc. From the greatest god down to the tiniest shrub, every object has this divine element implanted in it. During the lifetime of every individual, his Fravashi accompanies him to earth...they render great help to those who invoke them...They rush down in the thick of battle to crush the foes...They are eager to communicate with the living...loving when propitiated, dreadful when offended...(Dhalla: 1963..pg 234)...

FRAVASHIS...."A class of higher intelligences...guardian spirits and prototypes of mankind in its purest creation. The Persian name of the Median King Phraortes (647 BC), and also the Median rebel mentioned in the Behistan inscription to Darius is derived from the word fravashi or fravarti. One of the longest of the Yashts is dedicated to the fravashi. The nineteenth day of every month is consecrated to them. They resemble the Vedic Pitrs, the Roman Manes, or the Platonic Ideas, though they are wholly the same. The multifarious objects of this world are so many terrestial duplicates of these celestial originals. They are the manifestations of energy...They are eager to communicate with the living and seek their invocation...They bless those who make offerings and become dreadful to those who offend them....they come down to the rituals on the days consecrated to them...They are not all of equal rank..." (Dhalla: 1963..pg 233+)

FRAVASHIS ......"A class of higher intelligence that are ancient Persian guardian warrior spirits. The 19th day of every month is consecrated to them. King Phraortes' (647 BC) Persian name is derived from the term."(Dhalla:1963..pg 235)..... "Hence Finite Time and Finite Space control man's destiny from the cradle to the grave. Yet the whole of the macrocosm is kept in being by the Fravashis (Dralas ??), the spiritual powers that are indissolubly linked with each human being and with humanity as a whole. Finite time-space, then, is not a kenoma, an empty nothingness, but a pleroma, a 'full' and vital organism...."...(Zaehner..1961..pg 150)...

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" Jehovah is a local deity who abides on Mount Sanai.............we would like to make a pilgrimage.........what we will do with Jehovah is what Padmasambhava did.... He is going to be one of our friends.........Jehovah is a "very gentle person".....He will be subjugated as the local deity of Mt Sanai. We have to look for the site.......We have to perform the appropriate ceremonies for him to come along......Subjugating Jehovah is conquering both the Christian and Islamic traditions at the same time."

"Subjugation is bringing the gods around so that they begin to realize some basic understanding. They can't be purely "I am what I am" which they have to give up ......they have to be willing to relate and be willing to work with the other world altogether...they have to work for the sake of others rather than creating their own kingdoms......"

"Boyce speculates that perhaps the fravashis are the remnants of the hero-cult of the "Iranian Heroic Age" (c. 1500 BCE onwards), when ancestor-worship was widespread.....Although there are parallels with the Indian pitaras and Greek Prythani, the historical development of the concept is unclear.....Yasht 13 (Farvardin Yasht), the hymn that is addressed to them and in which they appear as beings who inhabit the stratosphere, and aid and protect those who worship them. In this hymn, the farvashis are described as a vast host of "many hundreds, many thousands, many tens of thousands".....Each family or clan has its own spirit, which guards and looks after only them......Each individual’s fravashi, distinct from his incarnate soul, subtly guides him in life toward the realization of his higher nature. ...The Avesta tells us that the Fravashi is inherent in every animate and inanimate object of Nature and helps in its development. ......In the Parsi festival Fravartigan, the last 10 days of each year, each family honours the fravashis of its dead with prayers, fire, and incense......http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fravashi

"After death the uravan and Fravashi are separated from the tanu which is disposed off. The Fravashi which is pure and perfect returns to the celestial abode....In pre-Zoroastrian times, the spirits of the departed heroes were believed to be powerful winged beings and were invoked by the living for protection and help...http://www3.sympatico.ca/zoroastrian/fravar.htm

The drala brotherhoods (Groups of 3, 5, 7, 9, 13, 21) (Nebesky: 1956..pg 319)..."13 dgra bla" (Norbu: 1995..pg 60)
"The origin and importance of the nine dgra lha." (Nebesky: 1956..pg 336)

"The Gods and spirits of the Tibetan landscape are not necessarily favorably inclined towards human beings.....It is necessary to keep on good terms with the local gods to secure good fortune in this world of everyday life"...(Geoffrey Samuel..Civilized Shamans)

The Drala Manifestation of Gesar of Ling....Rinchen Terdzo Blog.....November, 2008 by Walker Blaine

DEITIES...."eight classes of non-human beings: dud, tsen, lu, lha, nyen, mamo, shinje, gyelpo, and then shaza, nodjin, sinpo"..(Nebesky: 1975..pg 254)..."divine and semi-divine beings such as lha, lu, nyen, sadag, dud, mamo, shinje, tenma, kyongma, etc."..(Norbu: 1995..pg 125)...

DEGYE..."there are nine cosmos creating deities. These may be regarded as principles since they have many local manifestations. The main iconographical feature is the PER, a kimono like tibetan garment. The main degye is called SE, who wears a white PER with crystal armor and helmet. He rides a white horse." (Trungpa:1978)....."Nine gods of light...nine brothers and nine sisters." (Stein: 1972..pg 242)..."The eight degyes are thought to descend from heaven on the smoke of the lhasang. (Trungpa: 1978)..."the primordial beings are described as a King and a Grandmother; while on the other hand, they are spoken of as nine brothers and nine sisters." (Paul: 1982..pg 55)..."the lineage descends from the 'gods of light' and especially from nine or ten Mu deities." (Stein: 1972..pg 242)..."The first 3 of the nine brothers are more important than the others. They are called phyva-srid-skos-gsum"...(Karmay:1975..pg 192)..."Most of the Tibetan gods whose origin is not Indian can be traced back to the parents and the eighteen brothers and sisters."..(Karmay: 1975)

TIBETAN DRALA....There are two different Tibetan terms: Drala (sGra bla) and Dralha (dgra lha)... Whereas "la" is translated variously as "life force, spirit, soul, vital essence" and lha as "god"..."Jamgong Kongtrul the Great made things more curious by writing in his work: 'dgra-bla'."..(Karmay: 1975..pg 218)...

dGra ...dgra: enemy, foe, adversary, opponent...."He is the drala (dgra bla) who extended the power of Shang Shung"..(Mipham text in Norbu: 1995, pg 58)...dgra lha: "foe-god" (Hoffman: 1975..pg 97)... dgra lha: protective warrior god..(Lopez: 1997..pg 4)...dgra-lha (enemy god): "the enemy who prevents man from being potent" [Paul:1982].... dgra-lha (warrior gods) [Stein:1972].... dgra-lha (enemy god): King Gesar is called "the King Gesar, the dgra lha of Zhang Zhung." [Nebesky:1956..pg 318]....dgra lha (war gods) [Kornman:1997]....drala (dgra bla) literally "above the enemy" Beyond aggression. Divine principle that protect against attack or enemies. [Nalanda Translation Committee:1997]...dgra dul: to vanquish the opponents, enemies...dgra lha: war god, deity of war....dgra bla: warrior spirit...norbu dgra'dul: Gesar......Zhang Zhung Gi Dgra Lha: war goddess of Shangshung. "Great Glacier Lady of Invincible Turquois Mist"...

"Pre-Zoroastrian notions of the fravashis reach back in time to the Indo-Aryan period and, earlier, to a primitive moment when as spirits of the deceased they continued to exercise power over human affairs in life. Ancestor-worship and the cult of the dead have ever since played a major part in religious observances throughout human history.....Where we a change from the old ancestor-worship is in the innovative Ch17. There we encounter the fravashi of the paoiryo-tkaesha (those adherents of the primitive doctrine) who are often presented in later Avestic and Pahlavi texts as true adherents of Mazdayasna. There can be little doubt that Mazda-worship existed, among other cults, well before Zarathushtra's time....The qualities of the fravashis are generosity, valour, beneficence, power, radiance, and steadfastness. .....Another set of ancient heroes (Ch 130-138) includes Yima (Jamshid). Thraetaona (Faridun) Aoshnara,..... the fravashi - of the paoiryo-tkaeshas (followers of the primitive doctrine)......http://www.cais-soas.com/CAIS/Religions/iranian/Zarathushtrian/decent_fravashis.htm

>Paoiryo-Tkaesha.....The opening paragraphs of the Avesta's Farvardin Yasht and the Yasht's verse 13.150 also tell us that Gaya Maretan and the other Pre-Zoroastrian Mazdayasni were called paoiryo-tkaesha meaning keepers of the original ancient law. In order to differentiate early Mazda worship from the later Zoroastrian Mazda worship, we will call this original Aryan religion, Mazdayasni Paoiryo-Tkaesha. ....The word 'mazda' is thought by some to be related to the Sanskrit 'medha' meaning intelligent or wise. In usage, the word Mazda was used to mean God, that is, a creator who caused creation through wisdom, indeed, through a divine thought. Mazda therefore can be translated as God......

Ardavarz has left a new comment on your post "Shamis en Balkh & FRAVASHIS": ........Avestan Fravashi etymologically corresponds to the Sanskrit word pravartī (f.) meaning something that flows or moves forward or causes such movement. It is interesting that its Middle Persian form "fravahr" is used by the Iranian Manicheans as designation of the first of the five elements of light - usually translated as "breeze" and associated with the ether and the golden colour. However I think that the actual correspondence of the ether is not this, but the third Manichean element - the light (white colour), while the first ("fravahr" - element of life/spirit) stands here instead of earth as complementary to the element of wind (air - blue), just as fire (red) is complementary to water (green). Those correspondendes were most likely derived from the laws of colour perception which Mani being himself a painter has known well.
The Mother of Life (Syriac: ima de-khaye)
The First Man (Syriac: Nāšā Qaḏmāyā; Middle Persian: Ohrmazd Bay, the Zoroastrian god of light and goodness; Latin: Primus Homo)
His five Sons (the Five Light Elements; Middle Persian: Amahrāspandan; Parthian: panj rošn)
Ether (Middle Persian: frâwahr, Parthian: ardâw)
Wind (Middle Persian and Parthian: wâd)
Light (Middle Persian and Parthian: rôšn)
Water (Middle Persian and Parthian: âb)
Fire (Middle Persian and Parthian: âdur)

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John Hopkins.....Northern New Mexico….January 2013

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Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Ancient Kingdom of Kapisa (500 BC)

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"....870 A.D. marks the first time that the Kingdom of Shambhala actually came under Moslem domination.".....The Dharma Fellowship was originally founded by personal request of His Holiness the 16th Karmapa, Rangjung Rigpe Dorje (1923-1981), ....http://www.dharmafellowship.org/biographies/historicalsaints/lord-padmasambhava.htm#eightcentury

Click on the map to enlarge

"By 669 AD, the neighboring Turkish Shahi kingdoms of Kapisa (Shambhala) and Uddiyana were also both being hard pressed on their southwesterly flank by the inexorable expansion of the southern Arab Moslems."….....The Dharma Fellowship was originally founded by personal request of His Holiness the 16th Karmapa, Rangjung Rigpe Dorje (1923-1981), ....http://www.dharmafellowship.org/biographies/historicalsaints/lord-padmasambhava.htm#eightcentury

"The earliest references to Kapisa appear in the writings of fifth century BCE Indian scholar Pāṇini. Pāṇini refers to the city of Kapiśi, a city of the Kapisa kingdom, modern Bagram. Pāṇini also refers to Kapiśayana, a famous wine from Kapisa. The city of Kapiśi also appeared as Kaviśiye on Graeco-Indian coins of Apollodotus I and Eucratides.....references to Kapisa appear in the writings of 5th century BCE Indian scholar Achariya Pāṇini.

"According to the scholar Pliny, the city of Kapiśi (also referred to as Kaphusa by Pliny's copyist Solinus and Kapisene by other classical chroniclers) was destroyed in the sixth century BCE by the Achaemenid emperor Cyrus (Kurush) (559-530 BC). Based on the account of the Chinese pilgrim Hiuen Tsang, who visited in AD 644, it seems that in later times Kapisa was part of a kingdom ruled by a Buddhist kshatriya king holding sway over ten neighboring states, including Lampaka, Nagarahara, Gandhara, and Banu. Hiuen Tsang notes the Shen breed of horses from the area, and also notes the production of many types of cereals and fruits, as well as a scented root called Yu-kin.

Kapisa is related to and included Kafiristan. Scholar community holds that Kapisa is equivalent to Sanskrit Kamboja......Kapiśa (= Kapisha), the ancient Sanskrit name of the region that included historic Kafiristan; which is also given as "Ki-pin" (or Ke-pin, Ka-pin, Chi-pin) in old Chinese chronicles. That name, unrelated to the Arabic word, is believed to have, at some point, mutated into the word Kapir. This linguistic phenomenon is not unusual for this region. The name of King Kanishaka, who once ruled over this region, is also found written as "Kanerika", an example of "ś" or "sh" mutating to "r"....A number of legends about Kanishka, a great patron of Buddhism, were preserved in Buddhist religious traditions. Along with the Indian kings Ashoka and Harshavardhana, and the Indo-Greek king Menander I (Milinda), he is considered by Buddhists to have been one of the greatest Buddhist kings.

"Begram is the name of a village and a place in the Kapisa plain, about 50 km north of Kabul. It is also the name of a site that, just before World War II, delivered a fabulous treasure of art objects that became known worldwide. The treasure was composed of several hundred Greek and Roman objects originating from Alexandria, Egypt, hundreds of ivory objects originating from India, and several dozen Chinese lacquers. This treasure underlines the welcoming nature of ancient Afghanistan and the important role and power of the Kushan sovereigns who controlled the trade routes between the Near and Middle East, China, and India. It is also during this period that Buddhism flourished and was tolerated as one of the empire’s religions. As a result, the trade route also became a way through which pilgrims could travel safely in complete Kushan peace, which I have termed “Pax Kushana.”.... the royal city of Begram and the neighboring Buddhist monasteries such as Shotorak, Qol-e Nader, Koh- e Pahlawan, and, further away, Paitawa. However, we must keep in mind the excavations by Jules Barthoux, who unearthed the Buddhist site of Qaratcha, situated very close to the royal city of Begram. .....Other archaeological activity to consider is that of Roman Ghirshman, which took place during World War II. He proceeded with a stratigraphic excavation and unearthed three occupation periods of the capital, that used to serve as summer capital to the Kushan kings. According to Roman Ghirshman: Begram I corresponds to the period of the Indo-Greek domination, Begram II corresponds to the Kushan kings, and Begram III corresponds to the Kushano-Sassanid period and later the Hephtalites and Turcs who stayed until the Muslim invasion. In 1946, under the direction of Daniel Schlumberger, new DAFA director, Jacques Meunié undertook several excavations near the royal city’s door. Since then no other official missions have been undertaken on the site. However, recent studies conducted by Paul Bernard and myself attempt to prove that the Begram site should be identified as Alexandria under Caucasus." .....http://www.cemml.colostate.edu/cultural/09476/afgh08-01enl.html

Dharma Fellowship of His Holiness the 17th Gyalwa Karmapa, Urgyen Trinley Dorje......"In 672 an Arab governor of Sistan, Abbad ibn Ziyad, raided the frontier of Al-Hind and crossed the desert to Gandhara, but quickly retreated again. The marauder Obaidallah crossed the Sita River and made a raid on Kabul in 698 only to meet with defeat and humiliation. Vincent Smith, in Early History of India, states that the Turkishahiya dynasty continued to rule over Kabul and Gandhara up until the advent of the Saffarids in the ninth century. Forced by the inevitable advance of Islam on the west, they then moved their capital from Kapisa to Wahund on the Indus, whence they contin­ued as the Hindushahiya dynasty. This was in 870 A.D. and marks the first time that the KINGDOM OF SHAMBHALA actually came under Moslem domination. The Hindushahis recaptured Kabul and the rest of their Kingdom after the death of the conqueror Yaqub but never again maintained Kapisa as their capital.".....http://www.dharmafellowship.org/biographies/historicalsaints/lord-padmasambhava.htm#eightcentury

In 642 A.D., a " King Ta-mo-yin-t'o-ho-szu" 3 of Uddiyana is said to have sent a gift of camphor and an embassy to the Emperor of China. This is the year that the Arabs succeeded in defeating the King of Kings, Yazdagird 111, of Persia. The latter, fleeing eastward, met his death near Merv in 651. With the death of Yazdagird, last of the Sassanid dynasty, the southern bedouin hordes of Islam for the first time marched onto the soil of Iran and began their great, rapacious advance eastward. The kings of the Orient had cause to fear the coming of the Arabs. These southerners were savagely barbarian; a patchwork of desert tribes woven together by the threads of a fanatical monotheism and a religion which encouraged them to slay with the sword those whom they could not convert to their personal dominion. " Fight those who do not believe in Allah and the Last Day," says the Koran (Sura 9:29), " ...until they pay you tribute out of hand, having brought them low.".....http://www.dharmafellowship.org/biographies/historicalsaints/lord-padmasambhava.htm#eightcentury

"The inexorable expansion of the Arabs spread along two fronts: the first moved through Nishapur to Herat, Merv and Balkh, reducing the northern provinces of Persia; the second passed south by way of Sistan (Sijistan) to the Helmand. In 650 Abdallah ibn Amr began the yet further push forwards across the desert of the Dasht-i-Lut. He was followed over the years by succeeding Moslem armies which, through continuous raids, massacres and looting, systematically transformed the wondrous flower-garden of Persian civilization and Mazdean or Buddhist culture into a scorched wasteland. Today all these lands lie under the yoke of Arabic culture."......http://www.dharmafellowship.org/biographies/historicalsaints/lord-padmasambhava.htm#eightcentury

"Moreover, although Mahayana had made advances into Afghanistan from Kashmir and Punjabi Gandhara during the fifth and sixth centuries, Xuanzang noted its presence only in Kapisha and in the Hindu Kush regions west of Nagarahara. Sarvasti­vada remained the predominant Buddhist tradition of Nagara­hara and northern Bactria."

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Email....okarresearch@gmail.com

John Hopkins.....Northern New Mexico….November 2014

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The Arab Moslem Conquest of Shambhala (642-870 AD)

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Dharma Fellowship of His Holiness the 17th Gyalwa Karmapa, Urgyen Trinley Dorje:......"In 672 an Arab governor of Sistan, Abbad ibn Ziyad, raided the frontier of Al-Hind and crossed the desert to Gandhara, but quickly retreated again. The marauder Obaidallah crossed the Sita River and made a raid on Kabul in 698 only to meet with defeat and humiliation. Vincent Smith, in Early History of India, states that the Turkishahiya dynasty continued to rule over Kabul and Gandhara up until the advent of the Saffarids in the ninth century. Forced by the inevitable advance of Islam on the west, they then moved their capital from Kapisa to Wahund on the Indus, whence they contin­ued as the Hindushahiya dynasty. This was in 870 A.D. and marks the first time that the Kingdom of Shambhala actually came under Moslem domination. The Hindushahis recaptured Kabul and the rest of their Kingdom after the death of the conqueror Yaqub but never again maintained Kapisa as their capital.".....http://www.dharmafellowship.org/biographies/historicalsaints/lord-padmasambhava.htm#eightcentury

"Yaqub bin Laith al-Saffar rose to be the most powerful man in East Iran around 861 CE; his first goal was Zabulistan, which he finally defeated in several campaigns in 870/871 CE. In the same year he continued on to Kabul, where the Kabul Shah was taken prisoner and the holy temple plundered. 50 standing statues of gods made of gold and silver are said to have fallen into his hands and were sent to the caliph in Baghdad."....http://pro.geo.univie.ac.at/projects/khm/showcases/showcase16?language=en

"Ya'qub ibn al-Layth al-Saffar.....(October 25, 840 – June 5, 879), Persian founder of the Saffarid dynasty in Sistan, with its capital at Zaranj (a city now in south-western Afghanistan). He ruled territories that are now in Iran and Afghanistan, as well as portions of western Pakistan.....In Iranian folklore, He is known for his harsh iconoclasm of Buddhist stupas as well as forceful enslavement of Buddhists and their subsequent conversion to Islam. He was also known for generating at that time the largest sex slave trade in the region, kidnapping Zoroastrian, Buddhist, and Hindu women and selling them as sex slaves in the Islamic markets.......His army would later march to Ghazna, Kabul, and Bamyan, conquering these territories in the name of Islam by appointing Muslim governors. From there they moved to north of the Hindu Kush and by 870 AD the whole of Khorasan was brought under their control.......It was during his rule that Persian was introduced as an official language, and Yaqub reportedly did not know Arabic....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ya'qub_ibn_al-Layth_al-Saffar

Islam and Tibet: Interactions Along the Musk Routes (Ashgate Publishing: 2011)
edited by Anna Ayşe Akasoy, Charles S. F. Burnett, Ronit. Yoeli-Tlalim
Chapter 3....The Bactrian Background of the Barmakids by Kevin van Bladel

"In a unique ninth century manuscript found at Dunhuang, called Huichao wang wu tianzhuguo shuan (Account of Huichao's Journey to the Five Lands of India)...Around 726 AD a Buddhist monk from Silla (Korea?) named Huichao travelled in the region of Balkh.......After coming to India from China by sea, Huichao made his way through much of India, and then travelled over the Hindu Kush into Tokharistan before returning to China overland through the Tarim basin. In the time since Xuanzang's visit (629-645 AD), Arab armies had conquered all of the Persian Empire and had been making war on Tokharistan for a long time....In 725 AD the Arab garrison had been moved into Balkh proper, as Arab sources tell.........

"From the land of Bamiyan I travelled northwards 20 days, and I arrived in Tokharistan (Tuhuoluo-guo). The home city of the king is called Balkh. At this time the troops of the Arabs are there and they occupy it. Its king was forced to flee one month's journey to the east and lives in Badakhshan. Now Balkh belongs to the Arabs' domain.....the language is different from that of the other lands; though somewhat similar to that of Kapisa....From the King to the lowly people, they all wear fur and cotton....there are plenty of horses, camels, cotton and grapes....the king, the nobles and the people revere the Three Jewels....the men cut their beards and hair....the land has many mountains...."....From a unique ninth century manuscript found at Dunhuang, called Huichao wang wu tianzhuguo shuan (Account of Huichao's Journey to the Five Lands of India).....In his view the King of Balkh was still alive and in exile in Badakhshan (Pashto/Persian: بدخشان‎) a historic region comprising parts of what is now northeastern Afghanistan and southeastern Tajikistan. The name is retained in Badakhshan Province which is one of the thirty-four provinces of Afghanistan, in the far northeast of Afghanistan, and contains the Wakhan Corridor.

In 642 A.D., a " King Ta-mo-yin-t'o-ho-szu" of Uddiyana is said to have sent a gift of camphor and an embassy to the Emperor of China. This is the year that the Arabs succeeded in defeating the King of Kings, Yazdagird 111, of Persia. The latter, fleeing eastward, met his death near Merv in 651. With the death of Yazdagird, last of the Sassanid dynasty, the southern bedouin hordes of Islam for the first time marched onto the soil of Iran and began their great, rapacious advance eastward. The kings of the Orient had cause to fear the coming of the Arabs. These southerners were savagely barbarian; a patchwork of desert tribes woven together by the threads of a fanatical monotheism and a religion which encouraged them to slay with the sword those whom they could not convert to their personal dominion. " Fight those who do not believe in Allah and the Last Day," says the Koran (Sura 9:29), " ...until they pay you tribute out of hand, having brought them low.".....http://www.dharmafellowship.org/biographies/historicalsaints/lord-padmasambhava.htm#eightcentury

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"Arabs occupied Persia in 642 (during the Caliphate of Uthman, 644-656 AD). Attracted by grandeur and wealth of Balkh, they attacked it in 645 AD. It was only in 653 when Arab commander, al-Ahnaf raided the town again and compelled it to pay tribute. The Arab hold over the town, however, remained tenuous. The area was brought under Arabs' control only after it was reconquered by Muawiya in 663 AD. Prof. Upasak describes the effect of this conquest in these words: "The Arabs plundered the town and killed the people indiscriminately. It is said that they raided the famous Buddhist shrine of Nava-Vihara, which the Arab historians call 'Nava Bahara' and describe it as one of the magnificent places which, comprised a range of 360 cells around the high stupas'. They plundered the gems and jewels that were studded on many images and stupas and took away the wealth accumulated in the Vihara but probably did no considerable harm to other monastic buildings or to the monks residing there".....http://ikashmir.net/rktamiri/barmarks.html

"The Arabs could bring Balkh under their control in 715 AD only, inspite of strong resistance offered by the Balkh people. Qutayba bin Muslim al-Bahili, an Arab General was Governor of Khurasan and the east from 705-715. He established a firm Arab hold in lands beyond the oxus. He fought and killed Tarkhan Nizak in Tokharistan (Bactria) in 715. In the wake of Arab conquest the resident monks of the Vihara were either killed or forced to abandon their faith. The Viharas were razed to the ground. Priceless treasures in the form of manuscripts in the libraries of monasteries were consigned to ashes. Presently, only the ancient wall of the town, which once encircled it, stands partially. Nava-Vihara stands in ruins, near Takhta-i-Rustam."....http://ikashmir.net/rktamiri/barmarks.html

"The inexorable expansion of the Arabs spread along two fronts: the first moved through Nishapur to Herat, Merv and Balkh, reducing the northern provinces of Persia; the second passed south by way of Sistan (Sijistan) to the Helmand. In 650 Abdallah ibn Amr began the yet further push forwards across the desert of the Dasht-i-Lut. He was followed over the years by succeeding Moslem armies which, through continuous raids, massacres and looting, systematically transformed the wondrous flower-garden of Persian civilization and Mazdean or Buddhist culture into a scorched wasteland. Today all these lands lie under the yoke of Arabic culture."......http://www.dharmafellowship.org/biographies/historicalsaints/lord-padmasambhava.htm#eightcentury

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"The Shahis of Kabul/Gandhara are generally divided into the two eras of the so-called Buddhist-Shahis and the so-called Hindu-Shahis, with the change-over thought to have occurred sometime around AD 870......The Shahi rulers of Kapisa/Kabul who ruled Afghanistan from early 4th century till AD 870 were Hindu Kamboj Kshatriyas. The Shahis of Afghanistan were discovered in 1874 to be connected to the Kamboja "race" by E. Vesey Westmacott.......E. Vesey Westmacott,Bishan Singh, K. S. Dardi, et al. connect the Kabul Shahis to the ancient Indian Ksatriya clans of the Kambojas/Gandharas......Barhatigin is said to be the founder of the dynasty which is said to have ruled for 60 generations until AD 870.....Alberuni's reference to the supplanting of the Kabul Shahi dynasty in about AD 870 by a Brahmin called Kallar actually implies only that the religious faith of the royal family had changed from Buddhism to Hinduism by about that date; it might not have actually involved any physical supplanting of the existing Kabul Shahi dynasty as is stated by Alberuni whose account of early Shahis is indeed based on telltale stories. Archeological sites of the period, including a major Hindu Shahi temple north of Kabul and a chapel in Ghazni, contain both the pre-dominant Hindu and Buddhist statuary, suggesting that there was a close interaction between the two religions....In the wake of Muslim invasions of Kabul and Kapisa in second half of 7th century (AD 664), the Kapisa/Kabul ruler called by Muslim writers Kabul Shah (Shahi of Kabul) made an appeal to the Ksatriyas of the Hind who had gathered there in large numbers for assistance and drove out the Muslim invaders as far as Bost......In AD 671 Muslim armies seized Kabul and the capital was moved to Udabhandapura,[74] where they became known as the Rajas of Hindustan......The first Hindu Shahi dynasty was founded in AD 870 by Kallar, well documented to be a Brahmin. The kingdom was bounded on the north by the Hindu kingdom of Kashmir, on the east by Rajput kingdoms, on the south by the Muslim Emirates of Multan and Mansura, and on the west by the Abbasid Caliphate....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kabul_Shahi

"The Arab conquest of Armenia was a part of the Muslim conquests after the death of Muhammad in AD 632. Persian Armenia had fallen to the Byzantine Empire shortly before, in AD 629, and was conquered in the Rashidun Caliphate by AD 645.....After Muhammad’s death in 632, his successors started a military campaign in order to increase the territory of the new Caliphate. During the Muslim conquests, the Arabs conquered most of the Middle East.....Towards the year 639, under the leadership of Abd‑er‑Rahman, 18,000 Arabs penetrated the district of Taron and the region of the Lake of Van and put the country to fire and sword. The Arab warriors were poor and ill-armed, but recklessly brave and inflamed with an intense fanaticism.....On January 6, 642 the Arabs stormed and took the city of Dvin.....After the battle of Nahavand in 642 AD, Hamedan fell to the hands of the invading Arab-Muslim army; the city was pillaged......The Battle of Nahāvand (also Nihāvand or Nahāwand) (Arabic:معركة نهاوند) Battle of Nahāwand was fought in 642 between Arab Muslims and Sassanid armies. The battle is known to Muslims as the "Victory of Victories." The History of Tabari mentions that Firuzan, the officer serving the Persian King Yazdgerd III had about 100,000 men, versus a Muslim army of about 30,000. The Persians were outmanoeuvered, trapped in a narrow mountain valley, and lost many men in the ensuing rout. Yezdigerd escaped to the Merv area.....Yazdegerd failed to rally enough support in Eastern Persia where the Sassanians were unpopular with the locals.Muslim sources like Tabari reported that the province of Khorasan revolted against Sassanian rule.....Before Islamization of the region, the inhabitants of Khorasan had mostly practiced Zoroastrianism but at different stages there were also various adherents of Manichaeism, Sun worshippers (Mithraism), Nestorianism, Paganism, Shamanism, Buddhism and a small number of Jews too......The name "Khorasan" is derived from Middle Persian khor (meaning "sun") and asan (or ayan literally meaning "to come" or "coming" or "about to come"), hence meaning "land where the sun rises". The Persian word Khāvar-zamīn (Persian: خاور زمین‎), meaning "the eastern land", has also been used as an equivalent term....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_Khorasan

The Bamiyan Valley lies south of Shamis en Balkh, enclosed within the high mountains of the Caucasus (Hindu Kush), in the central highlands of Afghanistan. The valley, at an altitude of 2,500 m, follows the Bamiyan River. It formed one of the branches of the Silk Road and its beautiful landscape is associated with legendary figures. It was these aspects that contributed to its development as a major religious and cultural centre. It was inhabited and partly urbanized from the 3rd century BC. ....Buddhism eventually demised with the Arab Muslim invasion of the 7th century. The Muslims considered Buddhists idol worshipers and did all they could to destroy "heretical" temples and deface artwork. Even one of the most famous testaments to Buddhism in the middle east, the massive Buddha rock carvings at Bamiyan were vandalized, a task that was tragically completed when the Taliban blew up what remained of the statues in 2001 with explosives, tanks, and anti-aircraft weapons. The colossal Buddhas were cut at immeasurable cost (probably in the third and fifth centuries A.D.) into the tall, sandstone cliffs surrounding Bamiyan, an oasis town in the centre of a long valley that separates the mountain chains of Hindu Kush and Koh-i-Baba. The taller of the two statues (about 53 meters or 175 feet) is thought to represent Vairocana, the "Light shining throughout the Universe Buddha" The shorter one (36 meters or 120 feet) probably represents Buddha Sakyamuni, although the local Hazara people believe it depicts a woman.

"Heraclius's victories, the devastation of the richest territories of the Sassanid Empire and the humiliating destruction of high-profile targets such as Ganzak and Dastagerd undermined Khosrau's prestige and his support among the Persian aristocracy, and early in 628 he was overthrown and murdered by his son Kavadh II (628), who immediately brought an end to the war, agreeing to withdraw from all occupied territories. Kavadh died within months and chaos and civil war followed.....Over a period of fourteen years and twelve successive kings, including two daughters of Khosrau II, the Sassanid Empire weakened considerably. The power of the central authority passed into the hands of the generals.....In the spring of 632, a grandson of Khosrau I, Yazdegerd III who had lived in hiding, ascended the throne. In that same year, the first raiders from the Arab tribes, newly united by Islam, made their raids into Persian territory. Years of warfare had exhausted both the Byzantines and the Persians. The Sassanids were further weakened by economic decline, heavy taxation, religious unrest, rigid social stratification, the increasing power of the provincial landholders, and a rapid turnover of rulers. These factors facilitated the Islamic conquest of Persia.....The Sassanids never mounted a truly effective resistance to the pressure applied by the initial Arab armies. The abrupt fall of Sassanid Empire was completed in a period of five years, and most of its territory was absorbed into the Islamic Caliphate, the Islamic form of government representing the political unity and leadership of the Muslim world."......http://www.xtimeline.com/evt/view.aspx?id=24062

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The Turkic Ghaznavids conquered Kabul in the 980s. It was at about this time that the Kalachakra teachings openly appeared in India, transmitted in visions to two Indian masters attempting to reach Shambhala. Although the Muslim Ghaznavids tolerated Buddhism and Hinduism in Kabul, they smashed the Ismaili Islamic state of Multan in north central Pakistan in 1008. The Ismaili Fatimids in Egypt were the rivals of the Ghaznavids for supremacy over the entire Muslim world. After this victory, the Ghaznavad ruler Mahmud of Ghazni, driven undoubtedly by greed for more land and wealth, pressed his invasion further eastward as far as Madhura, south of Delhi. He looted and destroyed the wealthy Buddhist monasteries that lay in his path. When the Ghaznavad troops pushed northward from Delhi, however, and tried to invade Kashmir, the Kashmiri King Samgrama Raja, a supporter of both Buddhism and Hinduism, defeated them in 1021. This was the first attack on Kashmir by a Muslim army. The Kalachakra Tantra reached Tibet from Kashmir in 1027, the year predicted by the First Kalki."......

"In the 12th and 13th centuries, Muslim armies from the west invaded Northern India and totally destroyed the flourishing monastic universities of Nalanda, Vikrmashila, and Odantapuri. In the process, they massacred tens of thousands of monks who did not resist the invaders. This slaughter was justified because the saffron-robed monks were regarded as infidels and idolaters. The temples were destroyed, the books burned, and the Buddha images melted down for their gold. All that remained in the wake of these armies was death and desolation from Uddiyana to Bengal. And Buddhism ceased to be a functioning religious culture in the lands of the West. The Jains and the Brahmans, however, were able to survive this onslaught because they did not concentrate their clergy and intelligenzia in a few large monastic-universities. They remained decentralized in the villages throughout Northern India and did not usually become the targets for these marauding armies.".......http://vajranatha.com/teaching/Dakinis.htm

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Email....okarresearch@gmail.com

John Hopkins.....Northern New Mexico….January 2013

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Monday, January 28, 2013

Garab Dorje, Prahevajra & Uddiyana (7- 8th Century AD)

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Dzogchen Explorations

Okar Research

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"Garab Dorje (Fl. 55 CE) and passed according to tradition along with other tantras through various lineages of transmission by way of important Dzogchen figures such as Mañjuśrīmitra, Shri Singha, Padmasambhava, Jnanasutra and Vimalamitra......The first human lineage-holder of the Dzogchen teaching was the Nirmanakaya Garab Dorje, an emanation of the Buddha Vajrasattva. He was born a son of a royal family in Oddiyana.....Garab Dorje (Skt. Prahevajra/Pramodavajra/Surativajra; Tib. དགའ་རབ་རྡོ་རྗེ་, Wyl. dga' rab rdo rje) — the lineage of Dzogchen, unbroken to the present day, is traced from the dharmakaya Samantabhadra (‘Kuntuzangpo’ in Tibetan) to the sambhogakaya, represented by the five buddha families and Vajrasattva, and then to the first human master Garab Dorje. It then passed to Mañjushrimitra....Garab Dorje is best known by the Tibetan version of his name. Various attempts have been made to reconstruct his name in Sanskrit, usually giving it as Prahevajra, but also as Pramodavajra or Surativajra....According to the NYINGMA tradition, the teachings of Dzogchen were first taught in India by a master named Garab Dorje, who was from Oddiyana, in present day Pakistan.....Patrul Rinpoche (b. 1808) provides us with more detail when describing the birth place of Garab Dorje not simply as 'Uddiyana' but as being close to Lake Kutra in the region of Dhanakosha."

"The Pith Instructions of Nyingma Dzogchen consist of esoteric scriptures written down by Pramodavajra, the guru of Manjusrimitra. Thus the lineage of Dzogchen-holders is said to descend from Pramodavajra (Tib: Garab Dorje), to Manjusrimitra (Tib: Jampel She-nyen), to Sri Simha (Tib: Pel gi Sengge), and then to Sri Simha's two disciples, Jnanasutra and Vimalamitra. The latter introduced the tradition into Tibet circa 755 to 797 AD."...http://www.dharmafellowship.org

"... the Dharma Fellowship of His Holiness Gyalwa Karmapa holds that the 'Five Peaked Mountain' of "the Land of Cina" is a mountain near the Kinnaur Valley associated with the historical Suvarnadwipa (Sanskrit) nation also known as 'Zhang-zhung' ....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seventeen_tantras

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"Garab Dorje lived in the 7th Century in Pakistan/Afghanistan...his verses were orally transmitted and written down in 'Indic' languages of the region. They were translated into the Tibetan language by 8th century masters such as Vairotsana and Vimalamitra. The original Indic language texts no longer exist."....Dowman (2010 pg 13)

Garab Dorje (Skt. Prahevajra/Pramodavajra/Surativajra; Tib. དགའ་རབ་རྡོ་རྗེ་, Wyl. dga' rab rdo rje) ......7th Century/8th Century.....dga' rab rdo rje/.....slob dpon dga' rab rdo rje/.....prahevajra......vajra of supreme happiness......Garab Dorje means 'Indestructible joy.'.....Garab Dorje or Garap Dorje is the only attested name. The Sanskrit offerings are reconstructions. No Sanskrit name has been found in a colophon to attest to historicity.

Born (as son of Su-dharmā, island-dwelling daughter of king Upa-rāja of Dhana-koṣa) in the land of Uddiyana, also the birthplace of Padmasambhava, Prahevajra is said to have received all the Tantras, scriptures and oral instructions of Dzogchen directly from Vajrasattva and Vajrapani. Alternatively, his mother is named as Pāraņī, and located on the banks of lake Kutra....In the Land of Uddiyana, on the island Dhanakosha, was a great temple called the Blissful Tower, Deje Tsekpa, surrounded by 6800 shrines. In this tower lived King Upa Raja and his consort Queen Radiance. Their daughter, Sudharma......

Garab Dorje (Skt. Prahevajra/Pramodavajra/Surativajra; Tib. དགའ་རབ་རྡོ་རྗེ་, Wyl. dga' rab rdo rje) — the lineage of Dzogchen, unbroken to the present day, is traced from the dharmakaya Samantabhadra (‘Kuntuzangpo’ in Tibetan) to the sambhogakaya, represented by the five buddha families and Vajrasattva, and then to the first human master Garab Dorje. It then passed to Mañjushrimitra.....http://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Garab_Dorje

"Garab Dorje (dga' rab rdo rje, Skt. Surati Vajra, Prahevajra, Pramoda Vajra).....The incarnation of Semlhag Chen, a god who earlier had been empowered by the buddhas. Immaculately conceived, his mother was a nun, the daughter of King Uparaja (Dhahenatalo or Indrabhuti) of Uddiyana......Semlhag Chen....Noble Spirit (sems lhag can). A god on Mount Sumeru who, empowered by Vajrapani, reincarnates as Garab Dorje to spread the Dzogchen teachings in the human world."....http://rywiki.tsadra.org/index.php/Semlhag_Chen

Garab Dorje or Garap Dorje is the only attested name. The Sanskrit offerings are reconstructions: "Vajraprahe" and "Prahevajra". (Tibetan: Garab Dorje, Tibetan: དགའ་རབ་རྡོ་རྗེ་, Wylie: dga’ rab rdo rje; Sanskrit: Prahevajra or Pramodavajra)

Garab Dorje (Skt. Prahevajra/Pramodavajra/Surativajra; Tib. དགའ་རབ་རྡོ་རྗེ་, Wyl. dga' rab rdo rje) — the lineage of Dzogchen, unbroken to the present day, is traced from the dharmakaya Samantabhadra (‘Kuntuzangpo’ in Tibetan) to the sambhogakaya, represented by the five buddha families and Vajrasattva, and then to the first human master Garab Dorje. It then passed to Mañjushrimitra......http://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Garab_Dorje

Garab Dorje is best known by the Tibetan version of his name. Various attempts have been made to reconstruct his name in Sanskrit, usually giving it as Prahevajra, but also as Pramodavajra or Surativajra.

Garab Dorje (dga' rab rdo rje, Skt. Surati Vajra, Prahevajra, Pramoda Vajra). The incarnation of Semlhag Chen, a god who earlier had been empowered by the buddhas. Immaculately conceived, his mother was a nun, the daughter of King Uparaja (Dhahenatalo or Indrabhuti) of Uddiyana....http://www.rangjung.com/authors/Garab_Dorje.htm

GARAB DORJE: embodiment of Semlhag Chen, a solar day ago was lettered Buddhist tradition. The white Virgin that pregnant, mother of Sir is a nun, son of King Uparaja (Dhahe-natalo or Indrabhuti) of Uddiyana. Garab Dorje received all teachings on tantra, Dzogchen and Vajra-sattva and Vajrapani from in general people and become the first man in line vidyadhara Dzog-chen. Reach enlightenment fullness through the "great Global Charity not recognised," Garab Dorje the tenets for Entourage is the special beings. The main disciple Manjushrimitra are considered his. Padmasambhava is also known to have received the lineage of the Dzogchen Tantras directly from Garab Dorje's body position. Garab Dorje, meaning "joy immortal."......http://bodhimandala1.blogspot.com/2012/05/road-represents-whole-friendly-13.html

Dzogchen ( Tibetan, rdzogs-chen ). The central teaching of the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism , Dzogchen or the Great Perfection is regarded as of the Buddhist Dzogchen lineage in our world was Garab Dorje (Wylie: dga' rab rdo rje, Sanskrit *prahevajra) from Uddiyana (Wylie:. o rgyan). — “Dzogchen: .....http://worddomination.com/prahevajra.html

Born (as son of Su-dharmā, island-dwelling daughter of king Upa-rāja of Dhana-koṣa) in the land of Uddiyana, Prahevajra is said to have received all the Tantras, scriptures and oral instructions of Dzogchen directly from Vajrasattva and Vajrapani. Alternatively, his mother is named as Pāraņī, and located on the banks of lake Kutra.

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The district Dhana-kos`a, in the country of Uddi-yana, "was surrounded by sandalwood forests and inhabited by the type of animal known as kos.an.a [‘rending’], whose bodies are human with bear-like faces and whose claws are ... iron spikes."

The women would tied their hair in two knots, one at the front and one at the back and embellish it with ... bone ornaments.

Su-dharma (daughter of this country’s king titled Upa-raja and of his queen Radiant Light), while asleep "in a grass hut on the island known as Covered with Golden Sand, ... dreamt that a white man shaped out of precious crystal ... placed a crystal vase at the crown of her head ..."When she awoke, her attendant the d.akini Serene Purn.a interpreted the dream to mean that she would give birth.

To him were given 4 names :
Praj~na-bhava,
Pra-he[la]-vajra [/pra-hela/ ‘playful’],
Resurrected Ash-Colored One,
Serene Resurrected One.

He taught, on mt. Malaya, the Great Perfection in 64 laks.a-s of sections, t the requaest of Blissful World Taste (the vajra-dhatu d.akini "with three faces, wearing tiger’s skin, her four arms holding a parasol of peacock feathers, and riding tigers and lions"); and of Yellow Bliss-Giver of Boundless Qualities (a d.akini "riding a dragon, holding a garland of lightning-bolts ...").

Meanwhile in the region in China known as Sos.a-dvipa (So-sa glin ‘salty island’) [or else as Kos`a-dvipa, "the householder Virtuous One and his wife Wise Light had a son known as S`ri Simha who ... took birth in the city called Black S^o-Am Jom. ... he studied ... with the Chinese master Hastibhala under the Tree of Enlightenment in China".

Having journeyed, mounted on a black camel toward the city of Golden Sanctuary to the west of the Tree of Enlightenment, and proceeded thence eastwardly in China to "the Five-Peaked Mountain, Wu Tai-shan," S`ri Simha furthermore studied Secret Mantra for 7 years under the low-caste master Bhela-kirti, before (at the instance of Avalokita-is`vara) travelling for 9 nychthemera, "one cubit above and not touching the ground," to meet with Man~jus`ri-mitra at Sos.a-dvipa.

"Vimalamitra remained ... in the city of Bhirya to the west ... Later ... living in the great charnel ground known as Brilliant ...Vimalamitra made three copies of the manuscripts of the supreme secrets :one set he concealed on the island Covered with Golden Sand, in the land of Uddiyana,one set within the craggy cave known as Suvarn.advipa in Kas`mir, and one set he placed in that charnel ground to serve as an object of veneration for the d.akinis."

Erik Pema Kunsang (transl.) : Wellsprings of the Great Perfection. Rangjung Yeshe Publ., Hong Kong, 2006. pp. 112-206 = "Part II. From Early Treasure Masters"

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The following texts are attributed to Garab Dorje:
"Cutting Through the Three Times" (Tibetan: དུས་གསུམ་ཆིག་ཆོད, Wylie: dus gsum chig chod)
"Overwhelming the Six Modes of Consciousness with Splendour" (Tibetan: ཚོགས་དྲུག་ཟིལ་གནོན, Wylie: tshogs drug zil gnon)
"Natural Freedom That Underlies Characteristics" (Tibetan: མཚན་མ་རང་གྲོལ, Wylie: mtshan ma rang grol)
"Direct Encounter with the Three Kayas" (Tibetan: སྐུ་གསུམ་ཐུག་ཕྲད, Wylie: sku gsum thug phrad)
"Vajra Fortress" (Tibetan: རྡོ་རྗེ་མཁར་རྫོང, Wylie: rdo rje mkhar rdzong)
"Deep Immersion in Awareness" (Tibetan: རིག་པ་སྤྱི་བླུགས, Wylie: rig pa spyi blugs)

"Manushrimitra, a learned scholar of Brahman origin, was evidently an adherent of the Yogachara school before his becoming a disciple of the mysterious Prahevajra or Garab Dorje (dga'-rab rdo-rje) from the country of Uddiyana (Eastern Afghanistan)...... the earliest reliably dated Dzogchen texts? There is The Meditation on the Awakened Mind by Mañjuśrīmitra, which is mentioned in the Denkarma, an early 9th century library catalogue. And then there are the many texts quoted by Nub Sangyé Yeshé in his Lamp for the Eyes of Contemplation, written in the late 9th century. These are generally short instructional texts which overlap to some extent with the traditional list of eighteen early Mind Series (sems sde) texts.".....http://earlytibet.com/2008/01/24/early-dzogchen-iii/

In the north-western part of the land of Oddiyana, Uddiyana (Eastern Afghanistan)....Buddhist texts speak of Oddiyana as a beautifully green and fertile kingdom, inhabited by gentle people often clothed in white, who had great respect for wisdom and learning. It was surrounded by high, rugged mountains, and in the broad valleys were towering white stupas and golden temple roofs. It seemed a paradise on earth and so was called “the royal garden” from the Sanskrit udyana......Oddiyana was also known as “the paradise of the dakinis”, as it was reputed for its unique sisterhood of priestesses—ladies dedicated to wisdom and spiritual development. These priestesses were not nuns, and lived in sanctuaries or forest chapels......With regard to the origins of the Vajrayana teachings, the tantric scriptures recount that it was King Dza of the kingdom of Zahor who first received the tantras, which landed miraculously on his palace roof. It is believed that Dza is another name for King Indrabodhi of Oddiyana. If this is the case, then the tantras began to be disseminated in Oddiyana......The first human Dzogchen master, Garab Dorje, was born near Lake Kutra in Oddiyana.......Padmasambhava, who was to introduce Vajrayana and Dzogchen to Tibet was miraculously born on Lake Dhanakosha and raised by the king of Oddiyana. Many of the Dzogchen texts that were translated into Tibetan during the early period of transmission were translated from the language of Oddiyana.......Patrul Rinpoche gives a more precise indication of where Oddiyana was in The Words of My Perfect Teacher (Tib. Kunzang Lamé Shyalung) when he describes the birthplace of Garab Dorje as being close to Lake Kutra in the region of Dhanakosha. Dhanakosha means ‘treasury of wealth’. This corresponds to a region between Chitral, Gilgit and Swat. John Reynolds suggests that “perhaps Uddiyana is actually a name of a much wider geographical area than the Swat Valley alone, one embracing parts of Pakistan, Afghanistan, and even Western Tibet (Zhang Zhung).".....Reynolds, John M., The Golden Letters, Snow Lion, Ithaca, New York, 1996

"When Giuseppe Tucci strongly proposed the idea (in 1940) that the land known as Uddiyana was finally identified as the Swat valley, he did not know Patrul Rinpoche's text (translated in 1994). Instead, he based himself on two medieval Tibetan travelers who had visited Swat and believed it to be the legendary region that produced such well known adepts as Garab Dorje, Padmasambhava, Luipa and Tilopa - not to mention their mainly female teachers; the women who made this country famous as Paradise of the Dakinis. Tucci had translated these medieval texts and published them as Travels of Tibetan Pilgrims in the Swat Valley - and from then onwards, most authors and translators kept reciting and reprinting the mantra "Uddiyana is Swat" until almost everyone believed it....(http://yoniversum.nl/dakini/uddiyana.html)

King of Oddiyana, Indrabhuti....

"Garab Dorje, The Original Tulku.......In the Land of Uddiyana, on the island Dhanakosha, was a great temple called the Blissful Tower, Deje Tsekpa, surrounded by 6800 shrines. In this tower lived King Upa Raja and his consort Queen Radiance. Their daughter, Sudharma, had taken novice vows and soon after the full Bhiksuni ordination, and she lived on a small island with her maidens in meditation. One night she dreamed that an immaculate white man came to her holding a crystal vessel sealed with the mantra OM AH HUNG SVAHA, and he placed it on her head three times and light shone out from it and she perceived the threefold world clearly in its totality. Soon after the Bhiksuni Sudharma gave birth to a son, but ashamed that the baby had no father, she sought to conceal it and threw it into a pit of ashes. Light and music emanated from the ash pit and after three days the mother retrieved the baby and the gods and spirits came with offerings to honour him. But Sudharma remained unaware that the baby's father was the Bodhisattva High Mind, Adhicitta, the emanation of Vajrasattva who had taught Dzogchen in the heavens.
"When he was seven years old, the boy defeated the five hundred panditas of the royal court in debate and they gave him the name Prajnabhava, Wisdom Being, but the king called him Acharya Garab Dorje and by that name he became renowned. It was at this time that the boy recited the sutra "The Vast Spaciousness of Vajrasattva". Garab Dorje renounced his parentage and palace and journeyed to the mountains where amongst peaks inhabited by Hungry Ghosts he spent thirty-two years meditating in the residence of a Mountain God. Here he achieved realization and a rainbow body and the earth shook seven times. The world made obeisance, but the Shakta-Dakinis proclaimed that a danger to their yoga practice had arisen. When the Hindu king sent messengers to apprehend him he ascended into the sky.
"At the completion of his period of renunciation and ascetic practices, Garab Dorje had comprehended both the outer and inner paths and most particularly he had apprehended the sixty-four hundred thousand Dzogchen verses. Then the Bodhisattva Vajrasattva gave him the initiation and empowerment of the Bestowal of Awareness and permission to write down the sixty-four hundred thousand Dzogchen verses and the oral tantras. They were written down by three Dakinis, some say on Mount Malaya.
"Garab Dorje then journeyed to Bodhgaya to the terrible Sitavana cremation ground, where he remained for the rest of his life. He met his disciple Manjushrimitra there and taught him for seventy five years. He attained his parinirvana in a mass of light and then bestowed upon Manjushrimitra a tiny golden casket containing Dzogchen verses. The text called "The Three Incisive Precepts" (Tsiksum Nedek) was amongst those verses."......http://www.keithdowman.net/lineage/dzokchen_masters.htm

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John Hopkins.....Northern New Mexico….January 2013

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Yeshe Tsogyal & Oddiyana (757–817 AD)

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"Yeshe Tsogyal (757–817 AD), was the consort of the great Oddiyana tantric teacher Padmasambhava......("Primordial (ye) Wisdom (shes) Queen (rgyal mo) of the Lake (tso)")...Tsogyel, relationship with that of an older Bön figure, Swastika Bon yogini, Bonmo Tso of the Chokro Clan (female Bön practitioner of the lake)......her consort, Atsara Sale, her assistant and Padma Sambhava’s secondary consort, Tashi Khyidren......she was born as a princess in the clan of Kharchen. According to some accounts her father was called Namkha Yeshe and her mother was Gewa Bum..."....http://www.mtv.com/artists/yeshe-tsogyal/biography/

Klein, Anne Carolyn (1995). Meeting the Great Bliss Queen: Buddhists, Feminists, and the Art of the Self.

"...Yeshe Tsogyel is introduced as an incarnation of Saraswati, (the goddess, of Hindu origins....From “Hindu” Puranic lore, Saraswati is the “patroness of learning, giver of intelligence to the newborn, source of the Sanskrit alphabet, bestower of poetic skill, and granter of knowledge and wisdom.” (Shaw, 235). Tsogyel clearly embodies Saraswati, the goddess of knowledge because of her adept nature of learning and mastering the teachings. Tsogyel “woos” her captives many times and again with her beautiful singing voice, another quality of Saraswati. In Buddhism, Saraswati is often associated with Prajnaparamita the goddess of perfect wisdom.....Tsogyel’s life is filled with incredible feats. How much of this story is true? And how much is hyperbolic folklore? As Dowman writes, “Again it should be emphasized that attempting to derive history from legend is to treat an orange as if it were an apple.” (338).... Yeshe Tsogyel came into being when Tibet was at the height of its military conquest of Central Asia. While Buddhism filled the hearts of some Tibetan nobility, it angered the priests of the pre-Buddhist Bon religion, clan leaders, and created a “power play” between the Buddhists and the Bonpos ministers. ....In the text The Life of Yeshe Tsogyel, King Det-sen declares,' I have tried to establish Buddhism and Bon in equality like my ancestor Songsten Gampo, but Buddhism and Bon are inimical, and mutual recrimination has credited doubt and suspicion in the minds of the King and his ministers."....Yeshe Tsogyel : Tibet’s First Enlightened Buddhist....(A Feminism Model in Ancient Form?)....By Andrea Vecchione ACS PhD.(ABD) (2009)

Sky Dancer: The Secret Life and Songs of the Lady Yeshe Tsogyel.....By Keith Dowman

"Tsogyel was born princess of Kharchen. Kharchen was one of the seven Central Tibetan principalities subjected by Songtsen Gampo. Courted by princes of two other kingdoms, Kharchu and Zurkhar, Tsogyel would have neither and absconded to Womphu (the valley in which one of the three Taktsang power places is located). Finally, the Emperor married her when she was twelve or thirteen years old........The King Trisong Detsen was ensconced in the Samye monastery itself. While the Bon ministers sought the Guru's life, the King begged for initiation into the Tantra. Guru Pema insisted that Trisong Detsen wait a year for his initiation, and during that year the King married Tsogyel. Thus when the King again asked the Guru for initiation, he could offer Tsogyel along with his Empire as the initiation price........At the age of sixteen (ca. 773) Tsogyel received initiation. The King's admission that he had given his queen to the 'vagrant sadhu' was the cause of a raucous quarrel in council between the Buddhist and the Bonpo factions. The senior ministers Lugung Tsenpo and Takra Lutsen were the most active opponents of the King. Mama Zhang (Ma-zhang) was also present in council but played no part in the dispute. The King felt sufficiently strong to decree the building of monasteries and hermitages, and that any opposition to himself or the Guru would be punished. The violent reaction of the Bon ministers caused the King to compromise - both Guru Pema and Tsogyel would be banished. However, with the King's connivance, they went to Tidro to meditate...http://www.thangka.ru/history/he_padmadsat.html

"The empire that Trisong Detsen offered his Guru included China, Jang (south of Lithang), Kham, Jar, Kongpo, Bhutan, Purang, Mangyul, Guge, Hor, Mongolia and the Northern Plains (Jang-thang)...

"MKhar chen bza' Ye shes mtsho rgyal is the name of the consort of Padmasambhava according to the hagiographies of Myang ral, the 12th century teacher who first codified the Padmasambhava histories. She belongs to 25 Rig dzin, first disiples of Padmasambhava. Rig dzin means "holder of knowledge or awareness" (rig pa knowledge 'dzin pa, to hold, sanscrit: Vidyadhara). These masters are considered to be highly accomplished due to their meditations and ritual practices......http://www.thangka.ru/history/he_padmadsat_10.html

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"In the north-western part of the land of Oddiyana....Buddhist texts speak of Oddiyana as a beautifully green and fertile kingdom, inhabited by gentle people often clothed in white, who had great respect for wisdom and learning. It was surrounded by high, rugged mountains, and in the broad valleys were towering white stupas and golden temple roofs. It seemed a paradise on earth and so was called “the royal garden” from the Sanskrit udyana......Oddiyana was also known as “the paradise of the dakinis”, as it was reputed for its unique sisterhood of priestesses—ladies dedicated to wisdom and spiritual development. These priestesses were not nuns, and lived in sanctuaries or forest chapels......With regard to the origins of the Vajrayana teachings, the tantric scriptures recount that it was King Dza of the kingdom of Zahor who first received the tantras, which landed miraculously on his palace roof. It is believed that Dza is another name for King Indrabodhi of Oddiyana. If this is the case, then the tantras began to be disseminated in Oddiyana......The first human Dzogchen master, Garab Dorje, was born near Lake Kutra in Oddiyana.......Padmasambhava, who was to introduce Vajrayana and Dzogchen to Tibet was miraculously born on Lake Dhanakosha and raised by the king of Oddiyana. Many of the Dzogchen texts that were translated into Tibetan during the early period of transmission were translated from the language of Oddiyana.......Patrul Rinpoche gives a more precise indication of where Oddiyana was in The Words of My Perfect Teacher (Tib. Kunzang Lamé Shyalung) when he describes the birthplace of Garab Dorje as being close to Lake Kutra in the region of Dhanakosha. Dhanakosha means ‘treasury of wealth’. This corresponds to a region between Chitral, Gilgit and Swat. John Reynolds suggests that “perhaps Uddiyana is actually a name of a much wider geographical area than the Swat Valley alone, one embracing parts of Pakistan, Afghanistan, and even Western Tibet (Zhang Zhung).".....Reynolds, John M., The Golden Letters, Snow Lion, Ithaca, New York, 1996

King of Oddiyana, Indrabhuti...."Padmasambhava married the dakini Prabhavati and ruled the kingdom according to the Dharma, ushering in a time of happiness and peace. He was known then as King Tortokchen, ‘The Turbaned King’...... Zahor being the Tibetan name of Mandl...Guru Rinpoche and his closest disciple Yeshé Tsogyal travelled all over the Himalayas, and blessed and consecrated the entire land, especially: “the twenty snow mountains of Ngari, the twenty-one sadhana places of Ü and Tsang, the twenty-five great pilgrimage places of Dokham.....Guru Rinpoche had numerous highly realized female disciples, including the five principal consorts: Yeshé Tsogyal, Mandarava, Shakyadevi, Kalasiddhi and Tashi Khyidren......According to Khenpo Palden Sherab: "Yeshe Tsogyal said that Guru Padmasambhava has nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine biographies.....http://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Padmasambhava

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John Hopkins.....Northern New Mexico….January 2013

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