________________
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 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 l'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
400
