________________
Shri Ashtapad Maha Tirth - II
Gilgit. The third Bon Po from Kashmir, a land famous for its Sanskrit learning among both Buddhists and Shaivites, was an expert in conducting the funeral ceremonies. Previously there had existed no philosophy of Bon in Tibet, but now Bon became mixed up with the Shaivite doctrines of the Tirthikas, that is, the Hindus of Kashmir, and therefore this became known as Deviant Bon (mu-stegs dbang-phyug-pa'i grub
mtha' 'khyar-ba bon). C. Transformed Bon (bsgyur bon): This occured in three phases. First, an Indian Pandita,
having slandered a famous Buddhist teacher and being charged with immoral acts, was expelled from the Sangha or monastic community. He went to the north of Kashmir and dressing himself in blue robes (sham-thabs sngon-po-can), he proclimed himself a great teacher. There he wrote several heretical books and hid them underground. After a few years, he invited the public to witness the discovery of these texts that he had hidden previously. He proclaimed them to be the sacred scriptures of Bon and thereby he brought about a transformation in the Bon religion. Second, during the reign of the great Buddhist king of Tibet, Trisong Detsan, an edict was issued requiring that all Bon Po's to renounce Bon and to embrace the Buddhist faith of India. A Bon Po named Rinchenchok (Rin-chen mchog) refused to do so and was punished by the king for his obstinancy. He became very angry at this and thereupon he and some other Bon Po priests composed Bon Po scriptures by whole-sale plagiarizing of the Buddhist ones. When the king heard of this activity, he was outraged and had these priests beheaded. However, some conspirators survived and hid copies of these plagiarized texts under rocks in various places. Later these priests rediscovered these texts and they became the Bon Po Termas. Third, after the overthrow and death of the Tibetan king Langdarma in the ninth century, some Bon Po priests continued to alter other Buddhist texts using different orthography and terminology. In Upper Tsang, two of them, Shengur Luga (gSen rgur klu-dga') and Daryul Drolag (Dar-yul sgro-lag), composed more texts and hid them under rocks. Thereby they converted many Buddhist scriptures into Bon texts, such as transforming the extensive Prajnaparamita (Yum rgyas) into the Khams-chen, the Bon Po version of the Prajnaparamita. Later they brought them out as apparently accidental discoveries. These caches of texts were known as "the White Water" (Chab dkar) and the Fruitional Bon ("bras-bu'i bon). The tone of the account here is rather anti-Bon and this may be contrasted with the Bon Po's own account of the origin and development of their tradition such as found in the Legsbshad mdzod of Shardza Rinpoche. See the translation of this work in Samten G. Karmay, The Treasury of
Good Sayings: A Tibetan History of Bon, Oxford University Press, London 1972. 14. Oral communication from Lopon Tenzin Namdak. See also his history of Bon, g. Yungdrung
bon gyi bstan-pa'i 'byung khungs nyung bsdus, Kalimpong 1962. 15. According to the traditional accounts found in the gZer-myig and the gZi-brjid, the demon
prince and sorcerer Khyabpa Lagring (bDud-rgyal Khyab-pa lag-ring) stole the seven horses of Tonpa from their stable in 'Ol-mo lung-ring, and after spiriting them away, he
concealed them in Kongpo, a country in Southeastern Tibet. Tonpa Shenrab took this as The Bon Po Traditions of Dzogchen
402
