20-24 septembrie 2009 - Biblioteca Metropolitana Bucuresti

706 Klaus SagasterAll of these items are, of course, not offered to the Buddha as realobjects, but as symbolic offerings in the form of drawings. This was alsothe case in the course of a ceremony at the Buddhist Monastic Institute inRikon near Zurich in Switzerland in 1974, which I had the opportunityto attend. The ceremony, which lasted three days, was held by monks ofthe famous Upper Tantric College (sTod-rgyud grva-tshang, rGyud-stod),formerly located at Lhasa and in Indian exile since 1959. 3 The purpose wasa renewal of the consecration of the monastery, the so-called Rabne (rabgnas).This ceremony is meant to renew the spiritual force conveyed onthe monastery through the original consecration of many years earlier. Therenewal is effectuated by carrying the invited Buddha in form of a mirrorthrough all of the rooms of the monastery. 4During the ceremony in Rikon, the offerings to the Buddha, his Wordand his Mind were symbolically presented by means of sixty-two coloureddrawings on cards, which were somewhat bigger than playing cards. On theback side of each card the corresponding ritual text was written. 5Four of the cards (nos. 43-46) represent offerings to the Word ofthe Buddha, that is, they are accessories of the book: the “throne” of thebook, that means the stand on which the book or the books are placed; the“garment” of the book, that means the cloth in which the book is wrapped;the two wooden book covers; the straps that are wound around the bundle.Let me now show you how the drawings look like and explain theirsymbolic meaning according to the ritual text on the back side of the cards(Fig. 3a – Fig. 3b). On the cards, corresponding Sanskrit spells (mantras)are added to the texts. 63For the Upper Tantra College (Gyu-tö = rGyud-stod) see Stephen Bachelor1987, The Tibet Guide, London, 153 f.4The ceremony is documented on four films, produced and edited by the Institutefor Scientific Film (Institut für den wissenschaftlichen Film), Göttingen: Buddhismus, Tibet– Weihezeremonien im Klösterlichen Tibet-Rikon (Schweiz) durch Mönche der Tantra-Schule Gyütö (Buddhism, Tibet – Consecration Ceremonies in the Tibetan MonasticInstitute Rikon (Switzerland) done by Monks of the Tantra School Gyütö), Göttingen 1989.5Apart from some clerical errors, the texts on the backside of the cards correspondto the following ritual text of the Upper Tantra College: dPal-ldan stod-rgyud lugs-kyirab-gnas dge-legs char-´bebs-kyi ngag-´don phyogs-bsgrigs gsal-byed me long zhes-byababzhugs-so, 35 foll., fol. 12r2-31v5. This text is related to the following ritual text ofthe rNam-rgyal grva-tshang Monastery, the private monastery of the Dalai Lama: rNamparrgyal-ba´i grva-tshang phan-bde legs-bshad-gling ´dus-sde´i zhal-´don-gyi rim-paphyogs-bsdebs, 713 foll., fol. 11r6-20r1.6A detailed explanation of the mantras would exceed the scope of this paper.I shall, therefore, only point out those Sanskrit terms by which the respective offerings aredescribed in the texts.