Taken from Chapter IX – ‘I Escape
With My Life’ pp. 230-233 “The Rise and Spread of Buddhism” –
Theos Bernard I
spent the rest of the day in making a review of the rise and
spread of Buddhism from the time it entered China in 61 A.D.
and Japan in the sixth century, until it came to Tibet in
the seventh, and flowered there in its own fashion. This
event occurred in the reign of King Srong-tsan-Gampo who, as
I have already told, had been converted to Buddhism by his
Nepalese and Chinese wives, both ardent adherents of the
faith. He was given the Chinese princess,
Wench’eng, by the Emperor of China, T’ait-sung of the Tang
dynasty, in order to induce him to forego his military
pursuits on the border. The Nepalese princess, Brikuti,
daughter of King Amsuvarman, was first taken in marriage
when he was only sixteen; so the Tibetan annals report. When
the Tibetan King asked for this princess, he is reputed to
have said: “I, King of barbarous Tibet, do not
practise the ten virtues, but should you be pleased to
bestow on me your daughter, and wish me to have the Law, I
shall practise the ten virtues with a five-thousandfold body
… though I have not the arts … if you so desire … I
shall build five thousand temples.” The Chinese assert that there was no
religion in Tibet at this time. As a result of his
conversion the Tibetan King sent Thon-mi Sam-bhota to India
to acquire the teachings, and this gave rise to the Tibetan
alphabet. The Chinese princess became the White Tara (“Lady
of Mercy”), while the Nepalese princess became the Green
Tara, but this was as far as it went, and nothing was done
for the religion. It was not until the reign of his
powerful descendant, Thri-Srong-Detsan, in the eighth
century, that the real foundation was laid; it was he who
brought Guru Rimpoche, also known as Padma Sambhava, to
Tibet. On the advice of Guru’s brother-in-law,
Santa-rakshita, who was made the head Abbot of Samye, the
first monastery of Tibet was built in 747. The first Lama was Pal-bans, who
succeeded Santa-rakshita, and the first ordained monk was
ByaKri-Gzigs. The most brilliant follower was Vairocana, who
translated many Sanscrit works into Tibetan. This marked the beginning of the
Nyingmapa sect. The same King founded many other Lamaseries
and gave a strong impetus to their literary efforts.
Consequently, his era is looked upon as the Primitive or
“Augustine,” followed by the Medixval, then by the
Reformation and the Modern, to the beginning of the line of
King-Priests of the Dalai Lamas of the seventeenth
century. It was in the reign of Ralpachan,
Thri-Srong-Detsan’s grandson, that the translation of the
scriptures and commentaries of Nagarjuna, Aryadeva,
Vasunbandhu, etc., was prosecuted. Because of the great
devotion of this King, he was murdered; his younger brother,
Lan Darma, on assuming the throne, did all he could to
uproot the religion, and he, in his turn, was assassinated
in the third year of his reign. His efforts had merely
served to give greater vigor to the faith. The last-named episode gave rise to
the famous Black Hat dance, of which every visitor to Tibet
must have heard. The story is that a dancer came performing
outside the palace walls to win the interest of the King and
the opportunity to perform within the walls of the court. He
had hidden under his robes a bow and arrow, with which he
hoped he would be able to dispose of the King who was
destroying the religion. It was not long before his skill as
a dancer gained him the favor of the King, and he was
invited within, to entertain and dance. At the first
opportunity that arose he drew his bow and arrow from their
hiding place and shot the poisoned arrow deep into the’s
Kings heart. Then the dancer fled on his horse, which was
covcered with soot. When the rider came to the Lhasa River
he removed the soot, and turned his own black gown inside
out, thus transforming the appearance of himself and his
beast and making escape possible. Since that day to this,
the story has enacted by the dancers of Tibet, who go
through all the tions of the Black Hat dancer in the drama
of his rise to favor his assault on the King, and his escape
from punishment, having saved the religion from
destruction. In 1038 came Atisha, and started the
Kadampa sect, which later developed into the Gelupa and
gained the principal power of the state under the leadership
of Tsong-Khapa in 1407. It was not until 1640 that it became
the ruling power with the rise of the fifth Dalai Lama. With
the advent of Atisha and the reformed Kadampa sect came the
semi-reform sects of Kargyupa and Sakya, the latter gaining
the dominating control through the great Chinese Emperor
Khubla Khan, a descendant of Ghenghiz Khan, who captured
Tibet in 1206 A.D. In searching for a religion for his
people, he took over Lamaism and made the Abbot of Sakya
head of the church in much the same manner as Charlemagne
created the first Pope. During the Ming dynasty in 1368 the
ruler deemed it advisable to raise the heads of the other
sects to the level of those in Sakya, in order to eliminate
quarrelling amongst them and thereby make it easier to rule
the country. In the fifteenth century Tsong-Khapa
reorganized the work of Atisha and created the Gelupa sect,
which took the lead in 1640 under the fifth Grand Lama,
Nag-wan Lo-zang. He induced Gusri Khan to capture the
country and make a present of it to him; in 165o he was
given the Mongol title of Dalai, or “Vast as the Ocean.” He
held himself to be a God-incarnate, and built the palace
temple on the hill in Lhasa; it was named the Potala, after
his divine prototype, Avolokita, “The Lord Who Looks Down
From On High.” So we have Buddhism coming to Tibet
with its final perfected Theocracy, which continues to rule
the country to this day. Now its power is on the wane, and
the prediction is that it will not be many more years before
the civil authorities will have taken over the
country
The 5th Reting (Regent) Rinpoche
with Theos Bernard The fifth Reting Rinpoche, Thubten
Jamphel Yeshe Gyaltsen (1911–1947; Tibetan: Wylie:
thub-bstan ‘jam-dpal ye-shes rgyal-mtshan), played a
significant role in Tibetan history as the one-time regent
of the present Dalai Lama. He was replaced in 1941 and
subsequently is alleged to have organized an uprising
against his replacement. He died in 1947 in the prisons of
Lhasa’s Potala, apparently the victim of
poisoning. Tibet
in the late 1930s was a country struggling to maintain its
independence in the face of increasing pressure from the
surrounding empires of Great Britain, Russia, and China. The
object of much political intrigue, the Tibetan government
attempted to maintain a strict policy of border control. Few
Westerners, and fewer still Americans, were able to breach
the borders of Tibet. Theos Bernard, with his knowledge of
literary and spoken Tibetan, coupled with papers of
introduction from his Tibetan teachers—and the
friendship of the Tibetan cabinet minister, Tsarong
Shapé—was one of the few ever to reach
Lhasa. A priority for Bernard in his
journey to Tibet was the acquisition of a complete set of
the Tibetan Buddhist canon in 338 volumes. This he managed
to acquire along with many more volumes of the collected
works of numerous Tibetan authors provided him by the
Regent, Reting Rinpoche. These books were to serve as the
focus of Bernard’s efforts over the subsequent ten
years as he attempted to establish a research center for
their translation into the English language. Of the many volumes of books brought
back from Tibet by Theos Bernard, Yale University acquired
more than two hundred volumes of his Tibetan texts including
his copy of the 63-volume Treasury of Revealed Teachings for
its library in 1963. The remainder of materials brought back
from Tibet serves as the core of the Theos
Bernard Tibetan Collection
at the University of California, Berkeley.
“Far reaching changes, little short
of cataclysmic, threaten the land of Tibet and Lhasa its
capital. Lhasa, the Forbidden, the Mysterious, is in danger
at no distant date of losing its unique place on this
planet” Tibet in the late 1930s was a
country struggling to maintain its independence in the face
of increasing pressure from the surrounding empires of Great
Britain, Russia, and China. The object of much political
intrigue, the Tibetan government attempted to maintain a
strict policy of border control. Few Westerners, and fewer
still Americans, were able to breach the borders of Tibet.
Theos Bernard, with his knowledge of literary and spoken
Tibetan, coupled with papers of introduction from his
Tibetan teachers—and the friendship of the Tibetan
cabinet minister, Tsarong Shapé—was one of the
few ever to reach Lhasa. Although his journey from home
lasted 16 months, only four were spent in Tibet. During his
stay in Lhasa, Bernard was privy to unprecedented levels of
access to Tibetan ceremonies and resources. Documenting his
experiences in pictures, Bernard left a historical record of
an age-old civilization on the brink of political
upheaval. “No film could possibly convey its
majesty.” Bernard at Drepung Monastic
University, c.1937 In traveling to Tibet’s
“Forbidden City,” Bernard followed the route established by
his British predecessors from Sikkim, up through the Chumbi
Valley, to Gyantse, from where he petitioned for entry to
Lhasa. When approval for his visit finally came, Bernard set
out with his party. Upon entering the Lhasa valley, the
first site he came upon was Drepung Monastic University. “It
was but a short distance before we came around the bend
which sheltered the great monastery of Drepung, the largest
in the world, holding in the neighborhood of 10,000 monks.
It was a startling sight: white masonry studded over with
the black spots, which indicates the endless series of
chambers, gloomy cells of meditation. … I had seen endless
pictures of this sanctuary, yet it was wholly unlike such
preliminary impressions. The truth is, no film could
possibly convey its majesty. There is a sense of
immaculateness about it which eludes the camera, so faithful
in capturing external forms”. Attempting to visit all the notable
locations in the Lhasa valley, Bernard also visited Ganden
monastery, requiring a journey up into the hills surrounding
Lhasa. “Dressed in a Tibetan robe, and accompanied by my
bodyguard, I headed towards the sacred monastery of Ganden,
situated on top of the mountain. . . . Here, to my mind, was
the ideal monastery, tucked away as it was in a hidden
corner in the bend of one of the higher ridges which juts
out into the valley. For could there be a more ideal place
for a monastery than among the gathering clouds of heaven
yet remain completely hidden from everyone passing up and
down the valley? I vow that any human being dwelling in a
like place would be unable to think of anything else; the
country hereabouts surely awakens all the religious awe that
any soul might possess”. “Each of the large wooden blocks was
carved by hand, and its printing as perfect as that done by
our machinery.” Zhol Publishing House,
Lhasa A priority for Bernard in his
journey to Tibet was the acquisition of a complete set of
the Tibetan Buddhist canon in 338 volumes. This he managed
to acquire along with many more volumes of the collected
works of numerous Tibetan authors provided him by the
Regent, Reting Rinpoche. These books were to serve as the
focus of Bernard’s efforts over the subsequent ten
years as he attempted to establish a research center for
their translation into the English language. “Tsarong had finally decided to give
me his Kangyur and Tengyur, because he feared I would take
the chance of leaving Tibet by way of China. His attitude
was that my life was precious and that I should not take any
chances”. “Anyone coming to my room would have
thought that I had opened up a tailor shop to see yards upon
yards of silks strewn around the room, and the tailor and
his assistant marking it off. The custom for taking care of
the precious sacred volumes is to wrap them in large pieces
of silk, after which each book must be marked and indexed
from the outside, so that one might find the desired volume
without having to unwrap each one”. “I found the Tibetans the most
gracious people on earth, and never before had I such
friendship extended me by foreigners.” Of the many volumes of books brought
back from Tibet by Theos Bernard, Yale University acquired
more than two hundred volumes of his Tibetan texts including
his copy of the 63-volume Treasury of Revealed Teachings for
its library in 1963. The remainder of materials brought back
from Tibet serves as the core of the Theos Bernard Tibetan
Collection at the University of California,
Berkeley.
Barbarian lands: Theos Bernard,
Tibet, and the American religious life. Ph.D. Thesis,
Columbia University, 2008. 1102 pp.-
Hackett,
Paul Gerard This dissertation presents the first
comprehensive narrative of the life of Theos Bernard
(1908-1947). As a first-generation American explorer in
Tibet, Bernard was only the third American to successfully
reach Lhasa, the capital of Tibet in the late 1930s. While
there, Bernard amassed what would be the largest collection
of Tibetan texts, art and artifacts in the Western
hemisphere for more than thirty years, as well as
documenting, in both still photography and 16mm film, an
age-old civilization on the eve of its
destruction. In his day, Bernard met, associated
and corresponded with the social, political and cultural
icons of his day, from the Regent and leading politicians of
Tibet to saints, scholars and diplomats in British India,
and such notables as Charles Lindbergh, Gandhi, and Franklin
Delano Roosevelt. Bernard also established a research center
in California to collaborate with a man considered “the
most important Tibetan intellectual of the twentieth
century,” Amdo Gedun Chopel. When they were unable to
overcome the turmoil of the 1940s, however, their
collaboration failed and instead, within ten years both men
would be dead. The dissertation examines such
issues as Bernard’s place in the early history of the
American subculture and counter-culture informed by Indian
concepts of religiosity and the narrative of the genesis and
spread of Indian and Buddhist religious traditions in
America over the last 150 years. In addition, Bernard’s
life and writings are examined as a paradigm of an
ethnically American counter-culture religious experience and
his academic activities are discussed in terms of their
broader implications for the study of religion. The dissertation concludes with a
series of appendices containing presentations of some of the
primary data amassed over the course of the research,
including: some of Bernard’s unpublished works; an
overview of American visitors to Tibet from 1920 to 1959;
and a photographic essay retracing Bernard’s trips in
India and Tibet with comparative photographs (1937 and
2006). Barbarian lands: Theos Bernard,
Tibet, and the American religious life. Ph.D. Thesis,
Columbia University, 2008. 1102 pp.-
Hackett,
Paul Gerard More on Theos Bernard on
Beezone Theo
Bernard Flyer by W. Colston
Leigh, Inc.
(before the discovery of the 16th Dali Lama) –
1938
