Chapter - 08 Bon Po Religion - Jain Library

Shri Ashtapad Maha Tirth - II
10. There exist three principal biographies or hagiographies of Tonpa Shenrab in the Bon
tradition: 1. mDo 'dus or Dus gsum sangs-rgyas byung-khungs kyi mdo, 2. gZer-myig
or 'Dus-pa rin-po-che'i rgyud gzer-myig, and 3. gZi-brjid or 'Dus-pa rin-po-che dri-ma
med-pa gzi-brjid rab tu f bar-ba'i mdo.
A summery of the hagiography of Tonpa Shenrab, drawn from the gZer-myig, will be
found in Helmut Hoffman, The Religions of Tibet, George Alien and Unwin, London
1961, pp. 84-98. A brief version of the hagiography may be found in Richard Gard and
Sangye Tandar, The Twelve Deeds: A Brief Life Story of Tonpa Shenrab, the Founder of the
Bon Religion, LTW A, New Delhi 1995. Although the monastic career of Tonpa Shenrab
in his later life bares many resemblences to the account of Shakyamuni Buddha's Great
Renunciation and subsequent teaching activities, as found, for example, in the Lalitavistara,
his life story is otherwise of an origin quite independent of anything remotely Indian
Buddhist. Indeed, the noted Russian scholar Kuznetsov sees Tonpa Shenrab as being of
Central Asian or Iranian origin. See B.I. Kuznetsov, "Who was the Founder of the Bon
Religion," in Tibet Journal, Vol. I, No.l, Dharamsala 1975. Certain contemporary Tibetan
scholars see Tonpa Shenrab as being a native-born Tibetan, rather than a prince or priest
coming from Central Asian origin. See Namkhai Norbu, The Necklace of gZi: A Cultural
History of Tibet, L TW A, Dharamsala 1981. Karmay also appears to suggest this. See
Samten G. Karmay, "A General Introduction to the History and Doctrines of Bon," in
The Memoirs of the Research Department of the Toyo Bunko, No. 33, Tokyo 1975, pp.
171-218. Lopon Tenzin Namdak, following Bon Po tradition, is adament in asserting that
Tonpa Shenrab was not a Tibetan, but originated in 'Ol-mo lung-ring, which he identifies
with Shambhala. In that case, 'Ol-mo lung-ring was a mystical domain and not a precise
geographical location somewhere northwest of Tibet in historical times. On the significance
of Ol-mo lung-ring and Shambhala, see Edwin Birnbaum,The Way to Shambhala: A Search
for the Mythical Kingdom beyond the Himalayas, Anchor Press/ Doubleday, New York
1980, pp. 12-13,44, 79-81, 102. On the signicance of mystical geography in general,
see Mircea Eliade, The Sacred and the Profane: The Nature of Religion, Harcourt Brice
& World, New York 1957, and also Henry Corbin, Spiritual Body and Celestial Earth,
Princeton University Press, Princeton 1977.
11. On the bard and the epic generally in the Tibetan tradition, see R.A. Stein, Tibetan
Civilization, Faber and Faber, London 1972, pp. 272-281. Also see his more detailed study,
Recherches sur 1'epopee et le barde au Tibet, Annales du Musee Guimet, Paris 1959.
12. This does not mean that the Dalai Lama considers the Bon Po's to be Buddhists. According to
most Tibetan Lamas, the Buddhists follow chos and the Bon Po's follow bon. Nevertheless,
both Buddhists (chos-pa) and Bon Po's are considered "Insiders" (nang-pa), as opposed to
"Outsiders" or Non-Buddhists (phyi-pa), such as Hindus, Jains, Muslims, and Christians.
13. For example, see the Grub-mtha' legs bshad shel kyi me-long by Chos kyi nyi-ma dpal
bzang-po (1674-1740). The section of this text dealing with Bon has been translated
by Sarit Chandra Das in Contributions on the Religion and History of Tibet, Manjusri
Publishing House, New Delhi 1970, pp. 1-19; reprinted trom Journal of the Asiatic Society
of Bengal, 1881. The author, a Gelugpa scholar, distinguished three phases in the historical
The Bon Po Traditions of Dzogchen
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