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"The work of Shenrap still exists in Tibet in the form of 400 volumes, but it has undergone heavy Buddhist editing." ....The Tibetan texts "Ziji" (gZi brid) and "Zermig" (gZer mig)(Piercing Eye) Two biographies of Shenrab Miwo (Mibo)..... (Trungpa:Shen = divine,heavenly,ally..... Rap = Supreme One.... Miwo = Great Man)......(Chogyam Trungpa: 1978..pg 220)
"According to the Bonpo tradition, although Yungdrung Bon is eternal and without an ultimate beginning in time, it originated in the present kalpa or cycle of existence in the country of Olmo Lung-ring where Tonpa Shenrab descended from the celestial spheres and took up incarnation among human beings as an Iranian prince. The mysterious land of Olmo Lung-ring ('ol-mo lung-rings) or Olmoling ('ol-mo'i gling) is said to be part of a larger geographical region to the northwest of Tibet called Tazig (stag-gzig, var. rtag-gzigs), which scholars identify with Iran or, more properly, Central Asia where in ancient times Iranian languages such as Avestan and later Sogdian were spoken. According to the "gZer-mig" the traditional etymology of the name Olmo Lung-ring is as follows: '"ol" means "unborn", "mo" "undermined", "lung" "the prophetic words of Shenrab", and "rings" "everlasting compassion". According to the "gZi-brjid", Olmo Lung-ring was also known as Shambhala in Sanskrit and it continues to be known by this name among Tibetan Buddhists even today. Moreover, it is said that in ancient times it encompassed fully one-third of the known world a statement which could apply to the historical Persian empire....by Vajranatha...http://www.surajamrita.com/bon/Shambala.html
"Shenrab’s Ancestors of the Dmu Family As discussed in the first section above, only two male ancestors are recorded in the list of Shenrab’s paternal lineage that appears in the Mdo ’dus. The first one is Shenrab’s grandfather, the king of Dmu named Lan kyis thems pa skas, and the second is his father, Rgyal bon thod dkar. Let me paraphrase here the relevant passage. There was a king of Dmu, named Lam gyi thems pa skas, in the Bar po so brgyad palace, in the land of ’Ol mo gling in Jambudvīpa. He consorted with the Phya Princess Ngang ’brang ma, a grand-daughter of Ma btsun ’phrul mo. Their son was Rgyal bon thod dkar, who married Rgyal bzhad ma with whom he had nine sons and one daughter. The youngest of them was Shenrab, who became the ruler of the kingdom."......SHENRAB’S ANCESTORS AND FAMILY MEMBERS: WHERE DO THEY COME FROM?......Kalsang Norbu Gurung.......http://himalaya.socanth.cam.ac.uk/collections/journals/ret/pdf/ret_22_01.pdf
Shenrab’s Ancestors.....Vitali, Roberto. The Kingdoms of Gu ge Pu hrang: According to mnga’ risrgyal rabs by Gu ge mkhan chen ngag dbang grags pa. Dharamsala: Tho ling dpal dpe med lhun gyis grub pa’i gtsug lag khang lo 1000 ’khor ba’i rjes dran mdzad sgo’i go sgrig tshogs chung, 1996.
"Chimed Tsugphud is white in color, and wears princely attire. He is the heavenly version of Tonpa Shenrab."......http://synchchaos.com/?p=1584
SHENRAB...."his origins are said to be in Iran-Elam and his name is given as Mithra. The Tibetan word Tsug-Pu (gtsug.phud) meaning 'crown of the head' approximates the actual word Mithra." Campbell, June...."Traveller in Space".....New York:1996...pg 37
Trungpa..."The Pon Way of Life" in Himalayan Anthropology...1978 (Reprinted in "The Heart of the Buddha": 1991)
Snellgrove..."Nine Ways of Bon: Excerpts from the Gzi-Brjid"...1967
Wangyal, Tenzin..."Wonders of the Natural Mind"...1993
Kvaerne..."The Bon Religion of Tibet: Iconography of a Living Tradition" (Shambhala Publications)... 1996
Norbu, Namkhai "Drung, Deu, and Bon: Narrations, Symboloic languages, and the Bon traditions in ancient Tibet"... 1995
Bansal, B.L..."Bon: Its Encounter with Buddhism In Tibet"...1994
Kvaerne..."A Death Ritual of the Tibetan Bonpos" ....1985
Karmay, Samten..."The Great Perfection"... 1988
Bon is also the spiritual tradition and ancient culture of the Zhang-Zhung Civilization and of Tibet. The founder of the ancient Bon spiritual tradition was the Buddha Tonpa Shenrab. Tonpa Shenrab was born at the palace Barpo Sogye of Tagzig Olmo Lung Ring. His father was Gyalbon Thodkar of the Mu clan and his mother Yonchi Gyalzhedma.
Although the “gZi-brjid” specifically identifies Olmoling and Shambhala, neither in the “gZi-brjid” nor the “gZer-mig” is there any mention of Armaggedon
Tonpa Shenrab performed many great deeds in his whole life, but among the most well known are "The TwelveGreat Deeds" (Zedpa Chunyi). More details about theses deeds are given in the three sources of his biography: the short one (Dho Dhe or The Epitome of Aphorism), rediscovered in the tenth century, in one volume; the medium one (Dho Zermig or The Piercing Eye), rediscovered in the eleventh century, in two volumes; and the long one (Zi Jid or Glorious), given through oral transmission by Tulku Lodhen Nyingpo in the fourteenth century, in twelve volumes.
[The founding of the Bon religion is ascribed to Tonpa Shenrab Miwoche who was born - by some estimates 18,000 years ago - in the land of Tagzig Olmo Lung Ring. Tagzig, is believed to be a form of the name Tajik. (The name Shenrab sounds Iranian as well.) The doctrine taught by Tonpa Shenrab was spread by his disciples and their student-translators to adjacent countries such as Zhang-Zhung (also Zhangzhung, Shang Shung or Xang Xung - a land north of the Himalayas, which contained Mount Kailash in today's Western Tibet), India (northern Indus valley), Kashmir, China and eventually Greater Tibet. Tonpa Shenrab is reputed to have visited present-day western Tibet once. On that visit he found the people unprepared to receive the entire body of his teachings, but he prophesied that his teachings would flourish in Tibet in the coming ages. The students of his disciples continued his mission and Tibetan Bon scriptures were translated from texts in the language of Zhang-Zhung. ...http://www.heritageinstitute.com/zoroastrianism/aryans/location.htm
Note: In ancient China, 18,000 does not exactly mean eighteen thousand, it is meant to be "many", or "a number that could not be counted"….http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creator_deity
[Bon claims to have spread south to the Indian subcontinent and to have influenced the development of Vedic Hinduism. Perhaps pre-Tibetan Bon was a form of the primordial Aryan religion before Zoroastrianism and Vedic Hinduism. Buddhism in turn evolved out of Vedic Hinduism (c. 400 BCE). Completing a full circle, today's Bon is so heavily influenced by Buddhism that it sounds like a Buddhist sect. Perhaps some scholars may take it upon themselves to try and isolate the precepts of the pre-Buddhism Bon. .....http://www.heritageinstitute.com/zoroastrianism/aryans/location.htm
"Before His incarnation into the phenomenal universe Tonpa Shenrab, manifesting as Chimed Tsugphud, was dwelling in the pure land of Olmo Lundring. From there He transmitted the highest teachings of Bon: dzogchen and the tantras (forms of higher meditation) to the major sages of the time. The major tantras and the dzogchen teachings were transmitted to Sangwa ‘Dupa, who is considered to be His disciple. Sangwa ‘Duspa is also considered to be an earlier manifestation of Shakyamuni Buddha. He is also one the Six Subduing Shen of the six lokas (Dulwa Shen, one of the manifestations of Shenrab to the six lokas), and is assigned to the Earth in order to assist humans".....http://synchchaos.com/?p=1584
There are three written acounts of Tönpa Shenrab. The earliest and shortest one is known as Dodü (mDo-'dus),"Epitome of Aphorism". The second which is in two volumes is called Zermik (gZer-mig), "Piercing Eye". These two accounts date from the 10th and 11th centuries respectively. The third and largest is in twelve volumes known shortly as , "The Glorious"...(gZi-brjid). It belongs to the category of scriptures known as "spiritual transmission" (snyan-rgyud) It is believed to have been dictated to Loden Nyingpo (Blo-ldan snying-po)who lived in the XIV century.
Kon-tsha dBan-ldan, son of sTon-pa gS`en-rab ........dMu tsha tra he was an important scholar from sTag gzig. He studied under the guidance of gYung drung gTsug shen rgyal ba, Drang srong rgyal ba, rMa lo, g.Yu lo and Mu cho Idem drug, the sucessor of sTon pa gshen rab. Among his numerous disciples were rDzu 'phrul ye shes who brought the teachings of monastic discipline to Zhang zhung and Tibet. (BonPo Hidden Treasures...by jean-Luc Achard
The teachings of Bon revealed by Tonpa Shenrab are classified differently in the three traditional hagiographical accounts of his life. In general, Tonpa Shenrab was said to have expounded Bon in three cycles of teachings:
I. The Nine Successive Vehicles to Enlightenment (theg-pa rim dgu);
II. The Four Portals of Bon and the fifth which is the Treasury (sgo bzhi mdzod lnga); and
III. The Three Cycles of Precepts that are Outer, Inner, and Secret (bka' phyi nang gsang skor gsum)."......http://vajranatha.com/articles/traditions/dzogchen.html?start=2
..."the Bon Dzogchen texts were dictated during the course of visions by certain deities to Lamas who lived in later centuries. One such example of this was the famous lengthy hagiography of Tonpa Shenrab known as the gZi-brjid, dictated to Lodan Nyingpo (bLo-ldan snying-po, b.1360) by certain mountain spirits. This form of Old Bon flourished in Western and Central Tibet down to our own day.
the Bonpos do not trace the origins of their religion to India. Rather, they trace their origins to Zhang Zhung, a land believed to have been located to the west between Tibet and Tazik. Also, they do not trace their teachings back to the Buddha Shakyamuni. Rather, they believe that Tonpa Shenrap, a Zhang Zhung prince, is the true Buddha and source of their sutras (Kvaerne, 13©4).
....a mandala described in the "gZi-brjid", translated by David Snellgrove as the "Nine Ways of Bon". This work describes a transcendent system through which devotees seek enlightenment. In one section entitled "A Dkar Theg Pa" or "The way of pure sound," a mandala is described, ironically enough, as a "mandala of recognizable signs" (Snellgrove, p. 181, 7).
HOS-ZA-RGYAL-MYED (Hoza Gyelmed:wife of Shenrab Miwo): "hair like the petals of the Utpala flower, eyes like the fruit of the indigo, brow is of the greatest serenity and full like the moon, eyebrows of wide arch and like the letter o, cheeks are of clear color and like blood-red rubies in a cup of ivory, nose of good fashion, whose speaking mouth is like the mountains of gold encircling the Sumeru, teeth beautiful and smiling like the pinnacles of the mountains of the gods, speaking tongue is like the lightning in the atmosphere, whose body is like a precious vessel, clear and glorious as precious stone." (Francke:1950..pg 164)... Shenrab had six wives....Hoz bza rgyal med....dPo bza thang mo...gSas bza ngan ring...Phywa bza gung drug...Kong bza khri icam...and....rgya bza phrul bsgyur...(karmay: 1972..pg 3)...
"Lopon Tenzin Namdak and other Bonpo Lamas I have spoken to have identified 'Ol-mo lung-ring with Shambhala. For a discussion of Shambhala in the Tibetan tradition in general, both Buddhist and Bonpo, see Bernbaum, The Way to Shambhala, op. cit.".....http://vajranatha.com/articles/traditions/dzogchen.html?start=5
"In Opening the Door to Bon, Nyima Dakpa wrote about the origin of Jambuling: “Long ago in a part of heaven called Sidpa Yesang, there were three brothers named Dakpa, Salwa, and Shepa. Their father was Sidpa Triod and their mother was Kunshe. These brothers studied under the great teacher named Tobumtri Log Gi Che Chen. After completing their studies they went to Shen Lha Okar, the Enlightened One of Compassion, and asked how they could be of the greatest assistance in liberating sentient beings from the suffering of the cyclic world. He advised them to take human birth in three different ages so that each brother could help the sentient beings of that age achieve liberation. Following Shen Lha Okar’s advice, Dakpa, the elder brother, was born as a teacher of the past age, and took the name Tonpa Togyal Ye Khyen. The second son, Salwa, was born in this present age as Tonpa Shenrab. Shepa will be born in a future age as Thangma Medon.” Further, “Tonpa Shenrab made one trip to Tibet during his lifetime. A demon called Khyap Pa Lag Ring stole Tonpa Shenrab’s horses and took them to the Kongpo Valley in Tibet. Tonpa Shenrab shot an arrow to make a path through the mountains. This is referred to as the ‘pathway of the arrow of light’ or Oser Da Lam. When Tonpa Shenrab visited the Kongpo Valley, he pacified the demons and evil spirits that inhabited Tibet. He blessed a mountain in the Kongpo Valley now known as the ‘Bon Mountain of Kongpo’ or Kongpo Bon Ri. (…) In the centre of the mountain is a special rock known as ‘The Heart of Kuntu Zangpo.’ One can see three essential recitations and a statue of the Enlightened One of the Six Realms on this rock. There are also five caves, blessed by Tonpa Shenrab, where people still practice. One cave is found at each of the four directions, while the last is in the centre of these four. (…) During his only visit to Tibet, Tonpa Shenrab gave blessings and teachings: purifying the environment, making smoke offerings to local spirits, erecting prayer flags, exorcising evil spirits, etc. He stopped the local tradition of offering animal sacrifices, and taught the offering of ransom and red torma instead. This satisfied the evil spirits, who had been causing illness and misfortune.”1....http://www.rinpoche.com/stories/tibet1.htm
" The country of Olmo Lungring where Tonpa Shenrab descended from the celestial spheres and took up incarnation among human beings as an Iranian prince. The mysterious land of Olmo Lungring (`ol-mo lung-rings) or Olmoling (`ol-mo`i gling) is said to be part of a larger geographical region to the northwest of Tibet called Tazig (stag-gzig, var. rtag-gzigs), which scholars identify with Iran or, more properly, Central Asia where in ancient times Iranian languages such as Avestan and later Sogdian were spoken. According to the “gZer-mig” the traditional etymology of the name Olmo Lungring is as follows: “`ol” means “unborn”, “mo” “undermined”, “lung” “the prophetic words of Shenrab”, and “rings” “everlasting compassion”. According to the “gZi-brjid”, Olmo Lungring was also known as Shambhala in Sanskrit and it continues to be known by this name among Tibetan Buddhists even today. Moreover, it is said that in ancient times it encompassed fully one-third of the known world a statement which could apply to the historical Persian empire."
There are three biographies of Tonpa Shenrab. The earliest and shortest one is known as Dodu (mDo-'dus: 'Epitome of Aphorisms'); the second is in two volumes and is called Zermig (gZer-mig: 'Piercing Eye'). These two accounts were rediscovered as terma in the 10th and 11th centuries respectively.
(1). The gZer-mig and gZi-brjid are both published by the Bonpo Foundation, Dolanji, 1965 and 1967-69, respectively. Extracts from the gZi-brjid have been edited and translated by D.L. Snellgrove, The Nine Ways of Bon, London Oriental Series, vol. 18, London 1967. The first seven chapters of gZer-mig and part of the eighth have been translated into English by A.H. Franke, 'A Book of the Tibetan Bonpos', Asia Major, Leipzig 1924, 1926, 1927, 1930; Asia Major (New Series) 1, London 1949. A summary of the contents of gZer-mig has been made by H. Hoffmann in The Religions of Tibet, London 1961, 85-96.
"The Lord Tonpa Shenrab was bom a prince in Olmo Lungring in the Wood Male Mouse Year and he emerged from there, crossing barriers of hot arid deserts and frigid glacial mountains, to visit briefly Zhang-zhung and Tibet....This land was the primordial source of Yungdrung Bon and in later times the sages of Tibet often went to Olmo Lungring in quest of these precious teachings. It is said that they proceeded toward the northwest from Mount Kailash in Zhang-zhung and journeyed for twice as far as Kailas is from the city of Shigatse in Central Tibet. In precise geographic terms, this would put them beyond the Pamirs in Sogdiana (Khorasan)..".....http://bon-encyclopedia.wikispaces.com/Olmo+Lungring
"According to Bonpo tradition, Olmo Lungring fully occupies one-third of our world even now and lies to the northwest of Tibet. The Bonpo texts further speak of the three portals or doors of Zhang-zhung and some of these texts assert that Tazig is the middle door (sgo bar ma). According to Lopon Tenzin Namdak, the outer door (sgo phyi pa) is Zhang-zhung itself, the middle door (sgo bar ma) is Tazig, and the inner door (sgo phug pa) is Olmo Lungring. From the innermost gate outwards this represents the movement or progress of the teachings of Yungdrung Bon into the outer world and especially Tibet. At that time Tazig was said to have been inhabited by the “sTag gzig hos rigs”, the royal race (rgyal rigs) of the “Hos” or Persians (the Chinese “Hu”). But in an even earlier time the people belonged to the lineage of the “rGyal bu `thing ge”. And in the “Ma rgyud” is found the story of the emperor Gyer wer of Tazig who ruled most of the known world."....http://bon-encyclopedia.wikispaces.com/Olmo+Lungring
"Tonpa Shenrab descended from the heavenly realms and manifested at the foot of Mount Meru with two of his closest disciples, Malo und Yulo. Then he took birth as prince, the son of king Gyal Tokar and Queen Zangpa Ringum, in a luminous garden full of marvelous flowers in a palace south of Mount Yungdrung Gutseg, at dawn of the eight day of the first month of the Wood Male Mouse Year (1857 B.C.). "....Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, Wonders of the natural mind, p. 41 f.)
According to the “gZer-mig” and other texts, the region around Tise or Mount Kailas is only a copy in Zhang-zhung of the original in Olmoling. Furthermore, according to the “gZi-brjid”, Dimpling is the same as Shambhala. It is not necessary to pray and do any meditation practice in order to be reborn in Iran or the Central Asia of the USSR, these are quite ordinary earthly places; but it is necessary to pray and to undergo a purification of mind before one can be reborn in Olmo Lungring, or even enter it in this present life, because it is a pure dimension of existence (dag-pa`i zhing-khams). It cannot be seen easily with the ordinary fleshly eye like Iran or Central Asia or even Tibet can. But simply because we do not see it is no proof that it does not exist, for that is the view of the Lokayatas or materialists.
PARSOGARD..........(54E-30N) Photo of ruins in Frye: 1963....was one of the capitals of the Persian Empire: Pasargadae (Greek) or Parsogard (Persian)...Bar-po-so-brgyad (Tibetan). In 550 BC this city became the capital of the 1st two Persian emperors." (Kuznetsov: 1970..pg 565)...."Contained the tomb of the great Persian King Cyrus. The tomb was on a Swastika Hill (representing the sun). Nine stories tall. Crystal columns. Four sacred gardens: Lotus, Wheel, Yungdrung, and Precious." (Kuznetsov: 1970..pg 570)..."born in a palace south of Mount Yungdrung Gutseg in 1857 B.C." (Wangyal: 1993..pg 29)..."Shen rab was born in Sam bha la (sTag gzigs) in the west in the town called Yans pa can, in the dwelling place of the 33 Gods, the palace called Barpo so brgyad". (Kvaerne: 1971..pg 220)..."Pasargadae is a holy place for the followers of the ancient traditions of Iran." (Kuznetsov: 1970..pg 568)..."Into Phar-po-so-brgyad, the castle of happiness and blessing. Phar: other side...pho: change...so: watches over...brgyad: overcomes faults..." (Francke: 1950..pg 166 & 183))..."Shenrab Miwo was born in the Barpo Sogye Palace to the south of Mount Yungdrung." (Wangyal)..."To the south of Mount gYung drung dgu brtsegs is the palace Bar-po so-brgyad, the birthplace of Shenrab." (Karmay: 1975..pg 173)..."30 km NE of Persepolis. Has a large irrigated lotus garden with a citadel (castle, kal'ah) in the center 1,900 meters high." (Wiesehofer: 1996)
."A glimpse into ancient Persian cosmology is the royal city of Hagmatan (Hamadan, Agbatana, Ekbatana)[50E 32N] built in 800 BC by King Deioces (Daiukku) of the Medes. Seven concentric circles within walls, each higher than the preceding wall as one passed toward the center hill where the palace stood. The 7th and highest wall was painted gold (sun)...the 6th was painted silver (moon)...the 5th wall was painted orange...the fourth was painted blue...the third was painted red...the second black...and the outermost wall was painted white. Orange was the fiery morning 'asman', blue the noonday 'asman', red for the evening asman. The array of colors chosen for the encircling walls of the royal city was similar to that of the robe of warriorhood and sovereignty described in the Denkart."
Around the base of the sacred mountain in the center are literally hundreds of cities, palaces, and temples, but among them there are four, which are especially important. To the east of the mountain is the shining white temple of Shampo Lhatse (sham-po lha rtse). To the south is the great palace of Barpo Sogyad (bar-po so-brgyad) where Tonpa Shenrab`s had lived and he was born. To the west is the palace of Trimon Gyalzhad (khri-smon rgyal-bzhad), where the chief queen of Tonpa Shenrab, Hoza Gyalzhadma (Hos-bza` rGyal-bzhad-ma) had lived and where three of his children were born, namely, Tobu (gTo-bu), Chyadbu (dPyad-bu), and Ne`u-chen. And to the north is the palace of Khong-ma Ne`u-chung where another one of his queens, Poza Thangmo (dPo-bza` thang-mo) lived and three more of his children were born, namely, Lungdren (Lung-`dren), Gyuddren (rGyud-`dren), and Ne`u-chung. Surrounding this innermost region in every direction is an intermediate region with twelve great cities, four in each of the four cardinal directions. One of these cities located in the west is Gyalag Odma (rgya-lag `od-ma) where the fabled king and disciple of Tonpa Shenrab, Kongtse Trulgyi Gyalpo (Kong-tse `phrul gyi rgyal-po) lived. He was important for the transmission of astrological and magical teachings coming from the Master. The miraculous temple erected by this king on an artificial island built by the Rakshasa demons in the western sea was also very important since it was here that certain teachings of Tonpa Shenrab were written down and deposited for safe keeping. These texts have been preserved there until this very day. This second region is completely surrounded by two more concentric rings, an outer region and a border region. As said above, these regions and their subdivisions are separated by rivers and other bodies of water. The entire land is in turn surrounded by an ocean called Mukhyud Dalwa (mu-khyud bdal-ba`i rgya-mtsho), “the wide-spreading enclosing ocean”. Again, this sea is surrounded by a mighty wall of snow-capped mountains called Walso Gangri Rawa (dbal-so gangs ri`i ra-ba), causing the imperishable sacred land to be impenetrable to any intrusion from the outside world.
"Shenrab Miwo as the founder of Bon was first canonized with the creation of the mDo ̛dus, which is the oldest account of his life....There are three complete accounts of the life of Shenrab Miwo available today: a short (mDo ̛dus), a mid-length (gZer mig) and a long account (gZi brjid). The exact dates of the first two accounts are unknown, but we know that they already existed in the 12th century AD. These two are cited in the works of Bonpo scholars from that time, e.g. Tsultrim Palchen (1052–1106 AD), Meton Sherab Ozer (1058/1118 – 1132/1192 AD) and Paton Osal Gyaltsen (c. 11–12th century)....Two very important websites regarding these documents are: http://idp.bl.uk and http://otdo.aa.tufs.ac.jp.
"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 first shaman, the archetypal shaman, so to speak, who brought the knowledge of shamanizing from the heaven worlds above to a nascent humanity living on the surface of the earth, appears to have been originally known in the Tibetan tradition as Shenrab Miwoche (gShen-rab mi-bo-che), a title meaning "the great supreme human shaman". Of course, in the traditions of the later monastically organized Yungdrung Bon and in the extant Bonpo texts from at least the eighth century of our era, Shenrab Miwoche is represented as being much more than an archetypal shaman; he is a fully enlightened Buddha, comparable in every way to Shakyamuni Buddha who appeared in Northern India in the sixth century before our era. Tonpa Shenrab descended from the heavens, specifically, from the heaven-world of Sidpa Yesang (srid-pa ye-sangs), in the form of an azure colored cuckoo bird, the herald of spring. This occurred some 18,000 years ago, according to the traditional Bonpo reckoning. He thereupon incarnated as a human being in the country of Olmo Lung-ring which surrounded the holy nine-storeyed cosmic mountain of Yungdrung Gutsek (g.yung-drung dgu-brtseg) in Tazik or Central Asia. In this mysterious land at the center of the world, which was in later Indo-Iranian tradition identified with Shambhala, he combatted and overcame the evil schemes and machinations of the black magician and incarnate demon-prince Khyabpa Lag-ring. Then he instructed humanity, not only in the spiritual path to enlightenment and liberation from Samsara, but in the various techniques of ecstasy in order to communicate with other worlds and invoke the positive energies of the gods (lha gsol-ba), and also in the rites of exorcism (sel-ba) whereby human beings might free themselves from demonic influences (gdon) and the various diseases caused by demons and other hostile spirits.".....http://vajranatha.com/articles/traditions/bonpo.html?start=1
gS`en-rabs-mi-bo -- biography in 61 episodes......BON STUDIES, 9 (= SENRI ETHNOLOGICAL REPORTS, 57) = Samten G. Karmay: Feast of the Morning Light. National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka, 2005.........http://texts.00.gs/Feast_of_the_Morning_Light.htm
"Earliest references on "gShen rab mi bo" have appeared in Dunhuang documents. ...Among the old Tibetan sources, I will first look at some Tibetan documents preserved in Dunhuang caves. Those documents were only accessible until the early 11th century due to the closure of the caves either in 1002 AD15 or in 1035 AD.16 The documents became available again after their discovery in the beginning of the twentieth century. I assume that some fragments of these texts, or oral traditions that correspond to the documents preserved in Dunhuang, were probably available elsewhere and Bonpos may have had access to them. To the best of my knowledge, such hypothetical fragments and traditions are no longer in circulation today, apart from what has been preserved in Dunhuang sources and what may be reflected in some of our Shenrab narratives. Based on this assumption, I shall try to determine how the name of Shenrab’s father relates to the names found in the Dunhuang documents....for the name of Shenrab’s father, we find two separate names in the Dunhuang documents: Mi bon/ lha’i bon/ rgya bon brim tang and Thod dkar.".........SHENRAB’S ANCESTORS AND FAMILY MEMBERS: WHERE DO THEY COME FROM?......Kalsang Norbu Gurung.......http://himalaya.socanth.cam.ac.uk/collections/journals/ret/pdf/ret_22_01.pdf
Imaeda, Yoshiro [et al.]. Tibetan Documents From Dunhuang. Old Tibetan Documents Online Monograph Series Vol. I. Tokyo: Research Institute for Language and Cultures of Asia and Africa, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, 2007.
Rong Xinjiang. “The Nature of the Dunhuang Library Cave and the Reasons for its Sealing.” Cahiers d’Extrême-Asie 11, 2000.
Stein, Rolf A. “The indigenous religion and the bon-po in the Dunhuang manuscripts.” In The History of Tibet, Volume I, Alex Mckay (ed.). Translated into English from French by Peter Richardus. London & New York: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group, 2003.
Email....okarresearch@gmail.com
John Hopkins.....Northern New Mexico….November 2012
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