Timeless Rapture: Inspired Verse from the Shangpa Masters

TSANGMA SHANGTÖN
Shangtön is the first Shangpa master for whom we have relatively
reliable dates, 1234–1309. He lived during a period of immense
transformation in Tibet, although we have no evidence that Shangtön
knew or cared about his country’s current events. The rulers of Mongolia
were in the process of becoming emperors of the largest contiguous empire
the world has ever known, and Tibet lay in their path. They invaded Tibet
for the first time in 1206 and finally unified the country under their control
in 1253, the first time since the fall of the Yarlung dynasty that Tibetans
lived under a single government. There was a certain competition among
Tibetan lamas for the Mongolian ruler’s attention. Karma Pakshi, the second
Karmapa, gave him empowerment in 1255; Drogön Pakpa, head of the
Sakya monastic system, did so in 1260. Finally, it was the latter lama to
whom the Mongol emperor entrusted the country; Drogön Pakpa
returned to Tibet in 1265 as the first to rule Tibet from a religious throne.
This marriage of church and state was to have an enormous impact on
all Tibetan monasteries, including those of the humble Shangpa lineage.
(A census taken at the beginning of Mongol rule shows that in the Shangpa
Monastery and its vicinity there lived 8,400 persons. 42 ) Two minor effects
of this change can be mentioned here. First, due to the instability of the
system over time, power passed from one monastic system to another;
monasteries once conceived as shelters from secular life became fortresses
of the ruling elite or of those who aspired to take their place. One indication
that Tibet’s religious life changed from this point was the new administrative
organization of its monasteries. Buddhist monastic life has its own
rules, organization, and official roles, first established by the Buddha.
However, this moment in Tibetan history saw a radical departure from
Buddhist models and the adoption of a purely secular system, which was
eventually copied by most if not all monasteries. Thirteen different official
roles or functions, from treasurers and secretaries to cooks and attendants,
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