Tuesday, March 15, 2016

Druk: Dragon, the Sound of Thunder, Druk Sakyong

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Druk in Tibetan means dragon but it also refers to the Sound of Thunder.

"The Bon Master Shenrap and the Redemption of Tobu Dode:......In the opening sceses of chapter 5 of the Zermik or 'Clear Eye'....a young boy named Yu Zurpuchen, who has crystal skin and sports a magical coat of mail, arrives in the Bonpo holy land of Olmo Lungring riding a turquoise dragon....the boy reveals himself to be an emanation of Sangpo Bumtri, a creator deity in the Bonpo pantheon of Gods:...At that time there came from the void sky....the little boy Yui Zurpuchen....of a complexion as clear as crystal, arrayed in a coat covered with magic writ, riding on the blue horse of the turquoise dragen....He came to Olmo Lungring, the Land of the Shen, where the savior Shenrap Miwo...before innumerable disciples preached the Bon tenets of the three Peutse....."I am Zurpuchen, the little boy of your heart....on my body whose tint is clear as crystal, I am clothed with a coat full of magic writ, I ride on the blue horse of the swift thunder dragon, that is laden with the small light bag of the To......I am an emanation of Sangpo Bumtri, I come to you, oh Shenrab....speaking thus he dismantled his dragon horse quickly.....".........A.H. Francke...gZermig: A book of the Tibetan Bonpos....Asia Major (1927) 206-213.

Bönpo Thanka......Musee Guimet.....Musee National des Arts

The Druk (Dzongkha: འབྲུག་) is the "Thunder Dragon" of Bhutanese mythology and a Bhutanese national symbol. A druk appears on the flag of Bhutan, holding jewels to represent wealth. In Dzongkha, Bhutan is called Druk Yul "Land of Druk", and Bhutanese leaders are called Druk Gyalpo, "Thunder Dragon Kings". During the Bhutanese mock election in 2008, all four mock parties were called the Druk Party. The national anthem of Bhutan, Druk Tsendhen, translates into English as "Kingdom of Druk".........The druk (also known as a "duk" or "dug") was adopted as an emblem by the Drukpa Lineage, which originated in Tibet and spread to Bhutan. According to traditional accounts, when the sect's founder, Tsangpa Gyare, 1st Gyalwang Drukpa, began to build Ralung Monastery, there was a violent storm. Thunder, or the "Cloud-Voice," is seen as the roar of the dragon...... Deciding that this was an omen, he named the monastery Drug-Ralung, adding the word "thunder dragon" to the name. The disciples at the monastery were known as Drugpa, or "Those of the Thunder."..... As of the 1900s, the Grand Lama of Bhutan wore a hat with thunder dragons on it to signify the origins of the sect..... As the sect became more popular, it set up monasteries in what is now Bhutan, with the result that the area became known as Dug Yul, or Land of Thunder, among both Tibetans and Bhutanese.".....

"Dzongkha (རྫོང་ཁ་; Wylie: rdzong-kha, Roman Dzongkha: Dzongkha), occasionally Ngalopkha ("language of the Ngalop people"), is the national language of Bhutan. The word "dzongkha" means the language (kha) spoken in the dzong "fortresses"—the fortress-like dzong architecture characterises monasteries established throughout Bhutan by its unifier, Ngawang Namgyal, 1st Zhabdrung Rinpoche, in the 17th century."

"The Druk Gyalpo (Dzongkha: འབྲུག་རྒྱལ་པོ་; Wylie: 'brug rgyal-po; "Dragon King") is the head of state of Bhutan. He is also known in English as the King of Bhutan...... Bhutan, in the local Dzongkha language, is known as Dryukyul which translates as "The Land of Dragons". Thus, while Kings of Bhutan are known as Druk Gyalpo ("Dragon King"), the Bhutanese people call themselves the Drukpa, meaning "Dragon people"......The current ruler of Bhutan is Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, the 5th Druk Gyalpo."

The national flag of Bhutan (Dzongkha: ཧྥ་རན་ས་ཀྱི་དར་ཆ་; Wylie: hpha-ran-sa-kyi dar-cho) is one of the national symbols of Bhutan....The yellow signifies civil tradition and temporal authority as embodied in the Druk Gyalpo, the Dragon King of Bhutan, whose royal garb traditionally includes a yellow kabney (scarf). The orange half signifies Buddhist spiritual tradition....... The flag is based upon the tradition of the Drukpa Lineage of Tibetan Buddhism and features Druk, the Thunder Dragon of Bhutanese mythology....Historically Bhutan is known by numerous names, but the Bhutanese call the country Druk after the name of the Bhutanese thunder dragon."

"In Heaven the Turqouise Dragon Thunders
The Tiger's lightning flashes Abroad
The Lion's Mane spreads Turquoise clouds
Garuda spans the Three-fold world"
Shambhala Anthem lyrics on Dragon's Thunder: Songs of Chogyam Trungpa, Dorje Dradul of Mukpo, The Druk Sakyong.....The Sakyong holds and propagates the teachings of Shambhala, an enlightened society.....Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche is regarded as the first in this lineage of Sakyongs, and as such he is referred to as the "Druk Sakyong", or "Dragon Earth-Protector".

"Drogon Tsangpa Gyare (1161–1211 AD)......was born into the Gya clan at a place near Kule in the Tsang province of Southern Tibet.....He met his Guru Lingchen Repa when he was 23.......After establishing Longbol (kLong rBol) and Ralung monasteries, Drogon Tsangpa Gyare went to a place called Nam Phu to build a monastery. It is said that when he and his disciples reached the place nine roaring dragons arose from the ground and soared in the sky..... The Tibetan word for dragon is 'Brug which is pronounced as 'Druk'. ....The flying dragons were taken to be an auspicious omen and the monastery and the lineage which sprang from it came to be known as the Drukpa. This school eventually became very popular in Tibet and surrounding regions. Many followers of this school were simple people, content with few material possessions, known for their deep practice of the dharma. There is a Tibetan proverb which says:
"Half the people are Drukpa Kagyupas,
Half the Drukpa Kagyupas are beggars,
And half the beggars are Drubtobs (Siddhas)."

"Kun grags ma.......gNam mtsho phyug mo, the goddess of the lake (also known as rDor rje kun grags ma or Rang byung rgyal mo in Buddhist tradition), the consort of gNyan chen Thang lha, is one of the twelve brTan ma, the ruling goddesses of Tibet. These twelve goddesses are Kun grags ma, Ya ma skyong, Kun bzang mo, bGegs kyi gtso, sPyan gcig ma, dPal gyi yum, Drag mo rgyal, Klu mo dkar mo, Bod khams skyong, sMan gcig ma, gYar mo sil and gYu sgron (in Buddhist tradition the name of each of these goddesses is preceded by the word rdo rje). Among these goddesses Kun grags ma takes precedence. She is superb, having a turquoise-coloured body, one face, two hands and three eyes of wisdom. Holding a banner of crowning victory in her right hand and a mirror of sanctity in her left, she has a great loveliness. Her indigo-blue hair hangs down to some length, and she is mounted on a Turquoise-Blue Dragon in the centre of a swirling white cloud. It is believed that Kun grags ma, the consort of gNyan chen Thang lha, is the principal one among the twelve brTan ma, the protective goddesses of Bon."......A Survey of Bonpo Monasteries by Dondrup Lhagyal, Phuntso Tsering Sharyul, Tsering Thar, Charles Ramble and Marietta Kind....Edited by Samten G. Karmay and Yasuhiko Nagano.....http://www.thlib.org/places/monasteries/publications/bon-book.php#!book=/bonpo-monasteries/wb/b5/

"The Gyalwang Drukpa's Statement on Forceful Conversion of Drukpa Monasteries (The Annual Drukpa council).....10th September 2014.......'Over the last few days I have been receiving disturbing information from Tibet regarding the forced conversion of Drukpa Lineage monasteries in the Mount Kailash region by the Karma Kagyu Lineage. My followers in Tibet tell me that nearly all of the historic Drukpa Lineage monasteries in Mount Kailash region are being forcibly occupied by the Karma Kagyu Lineage, using money, coercion and certain Chinese support. Monks of the Drukpa Lineage looking after the monasteries, are suddenly exiled from their spiritual homes by the Karma Kagyu monks.'...The Gyalwang Drukpa....The Gyalwang Drukpa.....the head of the Drukpa Lineage, one of the independent Sarma (new) schools of Vajrayana Buddhism.".....http://the17thkarmapa.blogspot.com/2014/09/the-gyalwang-drukpas-statement-on.html

"In the southern ranges of the Himalaya the myths of the dragon and of the nagas of india are mixing. Both were being mixed in the tibetan mythologic carpet under the term Klu. All different religious schools and traditions of ancient Zhangzhung and later Tibet know dragons and included them in their corpus. One highly important scripture of the Bon is named the scripture of hundred thousand dragons (Klu). It is divided into three parts: the colorful dragons, the black dragons and the white dragons. The tibetan dragon is also named Druk ('brug), Drug or Zhug as variant spellings of the same. Bhutan, the kingdom at the southern border of the Himalaya is being called Druk Yul - the land of the peaceful dragon (or: the thunder dragon land). The population consists of the Drukpa. Bhutan is the souternmost region where the tibetan buddhist sect of the Drukpa Kagyudpa ('brug pa bka' brgyud pa) can be found. Naturally the temples of this sect are called dragon temples.".....http://www.kondor.de/shaman/orient3_e.html

"You can find Druk in one corner of tibetan Prayer Flags to represent the element wood along with the horse (in the middle), the snow lion, the tiger and the khyung (Garuda). In tibetan these flags are named rLung rta - translated wind-horse or simply luck. Raising them on auspicious days increase the rLung rta of the person. The term rLung however is obviously akin to the chinese lung which translates as dragon among other meanings. Another very important meaning of this word is vital-force......Druks are living in the clouds and were later associated with gZa. .....One of the older deities of Bon is Za (gZa) who is manifesting himself in hailstorms, lightnings and energy. He has 18 faces and six arms - many deities of Tibet share this feature of multiface and multilimbs. He rides a Dragon and he causes numbness, epilepsy and madness when he is offended by blockades of normal flows of energy. Za patronizes magicians and his thanka can be seen in many monasteries".....http://www.kondor.de/shaman/orient3_e.html....

"Prayer Flags in Tibet are called lungta ("wind horse"). Traditionally, the flags would always be recognizable by the drawings of a horse at the center of the composition surrounded by four other animals—a lion, tiger, bird, and dragon...... On early Bon prayer flags, a white yak was counted as one of the four. In addition, the bird depicted on Buddhist flags is believed to be a garuda, which has its origins in Indian culture and literature, while the bird image on Bon flags has a different meaning and history.".... Himalayan Buddhist Art 101: Prayer Flags, Part 2......Jeff Watt....http://www.tricycle.com/blog/himalayan-buddhist-art-101-prayer-flags-part-2

"Another kind of tibetan spirits are the Klu which are more feared then the Druk. The myths of the Klu have mixed with the cult of the Naga in India and it is quite difficult to sort them out. The Klu are the tibetan version of the chinese water dragons and they live in fountains, rivers and seas. You can encounter them on certain special locations, too. The Klu hetched from six eggs at the dawn of creation. The king of them - Klu chen rgyal po - lives in an under water palace just like the dragonkings in china. It is to be noticed that he is being called in the more darker kind of rites to end up the lifes of the enemies quick. The female form of the Klu is Klu mo and the queen is named Yum klu mo yak. She is not one of the nice and peaceful breed and her garment are snakes.... Another much more friendly Klu mo wears a garment of cloudy silk and feathers and she patronizes young girls and women. The legendary kings of ancient Tibet before To ri long bstan had daughters of the gods and the Klu as wives. So the wive of king Gesar is named Sengjam Zhugmo, the daughter of the dragon. It is said that she was born in the thunder of a dragon. Today many women in Tibet bear the name Zhugmo. To angry one Klu can have the consequences of really bad weathers like hailstorms. Klu are regularly held responsible for illness and disease. There are certain rites to react on these more sinister deeds of them and the famous crosses of ropes play an importand part in these rites.".......http://www.kondor.de/shaman/orient3_e.html

"In Bhutan, the popularity of phallic worship is attributed to the 15th-century Buddhist teacher, Drukpa Kunley, popularly known as the “Divine Madman.” A 2011 study titled “Bhutan’s Pervasive Phallus” by French historian Francoise Pommaret and Bhutanese scholar Tashi Tobgay, says the belief in the phallus’ ability to ward off evil spirits and transform them into protective deities is traced to Drukpa Kunley, who subdued demonesses with his “thunderbolt.”....http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/03/bhutan-phallus-worship_n_4892286.html

"The 15th-century Buddhist teacher, Drukpa Kunley, popularly known as the “Divine Madman.....Drukpa Kunley (1455–1529), also known as Kunga Legpai Zangpo, Drukpa Kunleg (Tibetan: འབྲུག་པ་ཀུན་ལེགས་, Wylie: 'brug pa kun legs), and Kunga Legpa, the Madman of the Dragon Lineage (Tibetan: འབྲུག་སྨྱོན་ཀུན་དགའ་ལེགས་པ་, Wylie: 'brug smyon kun dga' legs pa), was a great master of Mahamudra in the Buddhist tradition, as well as a famous poet, and is often counted among the Nyönpa. After undergoing training in Ralung Monastery under siddha Pema Lingpa, he introduced Buddhism to Bhutan and established the monastery of Chimi Lhakhang there in 1499."....Stein, R. A. (1972). Tibetan Civilization.

Sources of Tibetan Tradition.....Page 252.....By Kurtis R. Schaeffer, Matthew Kapstein, Gray Tuttle

Dargye, Yonten (2001). History of the Drukpa Kagyud School in Bhutan (12th to 17th Century A.D.). Thimphu.

Lama Nawang Tenzin (compiler) (July 2004). The Wand That Opens the Eyes and Dispels the Darkness of the Mind. Shey, Ladakh: Pel Drukpay Tcheutsok.

Waddell, Laurence (1895). The Buddhism of Tibet Or Lamaism.

David-Neel, Alexandra. Initiations and Initiates in Tibet.

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Email....okarresearch@gmail.com

March 2016

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