The Cult of Tara

172 MA GIC A ND RITUA L. IN TIBET
streams have flowed: the Kamts'ang (Karma Kajii) school, the
Sacha school, and the Nart'ang school.
The lineage of the ritual among the Karma Kaju was founded by
the Lord K'achopa (Zhamarpa II, born 1350), 230
but "though it has
a lineage from AtlSa, it is quite different from the other rituals in
many ways, and so it is a side stream." The remaining two traditions,
however, are "like an underground stream of the ritual,
pervading them all up to the present day." The founder of the
Sacha tradition was the "Precious Prince"—that is, Dragpa jets'en,
whose work on the goddess has been previously noted—and it
appears that most of the other writings in this school follow the
pattern he established. But the most important tradition is that
claimed to have descended from AtlSa to the great monastery of
Nart'ang, where the ritual was incorporated into the famous anthology
The Hundred Rites by the monastery's seventh abbot, Ch'im
Namk'adrag (head of Nart'ang 1254-1290). 231
This is the basic text
used by Ts'ewang norbu and, indeed, by most authors of Four
Mandala rituals. 232
"Many evocations, rituals of permission, and instructions on the
functions of many tutelary deities have been transmitted to us form
the great AtlSa, the single glorious deity Diparnkara," writes Yeshe
jets'en, 233
"and these were collected together in the work known as
The Hundred Rites of Nart'ang, in which is contained this ritual of
the Four Mandalas for Tara. In that work it says:
I bow to the feet of the unequaled guru ! In general, it is of the
utmost importance for any practitioner who wishes to gain omniscience
to protect himself from hindrances. It is said that there
are two methods for this: protecting oneself through Means and
protecting oneself through Wisdom. Among the many different
ways of protecting oneself through Means, there is the Means of
praying to the Great Lady, as it is said in her praises [the Homage
to the Twenty-one Taras]: 'If one recites twice, three times, seven
times . . .' The instructions for this recitation have been written
up as the ritual of the Four Mandala Offering."
"Then," continues Yeshe jetsen, "after explaining the way to
perform the Four Mandala ritual, it says:
The lineage for this is as follows: Atisa gave it to Gonpawa, 234
who
gave it to Kampa, 235
who gave it to Liinpawa, who gave it to
Ch'umigpa, 236
who gave it to Pedendro, 237
who gave it to Zhangtonpa;
and then it was compiled by the monk Namk'adrag as it
was orally transmitted to him from his guru."