Great Perfection.pdf

the legend of vairocana 27
So in Tibet, ministers inform the king of the rumour and show their
concern about the situation. They demand that Vairocana should be punished,
but the king disagrees. Ngan Ta-ra klu-gong, 36 a minister, insists on
the need for execution. The king contrives a way out. A beggar who physically
resembles Vairocana is seized, disguised as Vairocana and then thrown
into a river while Vairocana is told to hide himself in a hollow pillar of
the palace. One night Queen dMar-rgyan discovers Vairocana and breaks
the secrecy to the ministers (her motive for telling is Vairocana’s refusal
to comply with her love for him which becomes clear later on). 37 The king
finds himself under pressure again and is forced to agree to his expulsion
if not to his execution. Vairocana defends himself by singing several songs
about the work which he has done for the sake of Tibet, the hardship
that he undertook in going to India, and his acquisition of rare doctrines
and knowledge, but to little avail. He then accuses the Queen of the
intrigue despite her full knowledge of the fact that he for the sake of Tibet
left his own parents and worked in India for so many years and that now
he has the capacity for serving the people and country. She expresses her
regret and begs him not to go away. However, Vairocana accepts Tshaba-rong
as the place for his banishment saying that he was born there formerly
and that the time has come to preach his doctrine there. The king
asks him for advice as to what he should do with regard to Buddhism in
the latter’s absence. Vairocana tells him that Vimalamitra must be invited
and then continue the work of translation of Buddhist works. Vairocana
then departs for rGyal-mo Tsha-ba-rong. 38
Chapter XII ( f. 92a2–99b6)
It deals mainly with the conversion of g.Yu-sgra snying-po. Vairocana
arrives in Tsha-ba-rong, but is taken to be a spy (rtog chen pa) from Tibet.
36 The famous minister in whose honour is erected the tall inscription in front of the
Potala known as Zhol rDo-ring (Richardson 1952, pp. 1–34). He was the chief minister
around the year 783. However, there are conflicting accounts of him in other sources, e.g.
BZh (pp. 27, 30, 42) where a similar name is described as a champion of Bon as in the
’Dra ’bag and then banished.
37 The name of this queen, who belongs to the Tshe-spong clan, is rMa-rgyal ldongskar
in Tun-huang documents. She is the only wife who bore three sons to the king among
the five wives. In the bka’ thang literature, she is presented as a champion of Bon as in the
case of ’Dra ’bag and as concupiscent with regard to Vairocana. This theme, however, is
absent in the Zangs gling ma, the earliest bka’ thang, but much developed in bTsun mo bka’
thang which in fact is borrowed from an episode of the Bonpo work, gZer mig. The latter
in turn has taken over the theme of Potiphar’s wife (Blondeau 1975–1976, p. 118; Kvaerne
1979, pp. 187–89).
38 Apart from the causes which are apparent in our text for the expulsion, e.g. the calumny
spread by the Indians, and the incurring of the queen’s enmity, a certain tradition also
attributes it to the myth of Vairocana’s composition of the Guyhagarbha tantra (NgD p. 275).