CONSORTS AND REVELATION IN EASTERN TIBET: THE AUTO/BIOGRAPHICAL WRITINGS OF THE TREASURE REVEALER SERA KHANDRO (1892-1940) Sarah Hieatt Jacoby Marbichead, Massachusetts B.A. Yale University 1996 M.A. University of Virginia 2006 A Dissertation presented to the Graduate Faculty of the University of Virginia in Candidacy for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Religious Studies University of Virginia January 2007 Prof. David Germano Prof, Janet Gyatso Prof. Karen Lang a cee tat Prof. Nicolas Sihlé a Lt 4!LUMI Number: 3235125 Copyright 2007 by Jacoby, Sarah Hieatt All rights reserved, INFORMATION TO USERS ‘The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy ‘submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleed-through, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction In the unlikely event that the author did not send @ complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. UM LUMI Microform 3235125 Copyright 2006 by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved, This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code, ProQuest Information and Learning Company 300 North Zeb Road P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48108-1346© Copyright by Sarah Hieatt Jacoby All Rights Reserved January 2007ABSTRACT This dissertation is a study of the biographical writings of the Tibetan Buddhist Treasure revealer Sera Khandro (1892-1940), who was one of only a handful of pre-1959 Tibetan women to write her own autobiography. She was one of the few women to become renowned as a Treasure revealer (g/er ston), or one who discovers scriptural and material Tibetan Buddhist revelations. Her biographical writings include an extremely rare and unpublished 407 Tibetan folio-page autobiography and a 248 folio-page biography of her main spiritual consort Drimé Ozer (1881-1924). These writings offer a previously unavailable vantage point from which to examine 1) the process of Treasure revelation and its role in Sera Khandro’s early twentieth-century religious communities (chos sgar, gter ssgar), 2) the purposes and social dynamics of consort practices from the emic perspective of a woman who participated in them, and 3) the ways in which one Tibetan woman represented. her self and her gender through the literary genre of Tibetan autobiography. The focus of this study is twofold: 1) to read Sera Khandro’s auto/biographical writings as literature, analyzing the ways she crafted her self-narrative, and 2) to read her writings as a resource for understanding more about the community contexts of Treasure revelation and its associated consort practices. Chapter One narrates the dramatic plot of Sera Khandro's Autobiography, emphasizing her tension-filled descriptions of community life in Lhasa and Golok. Chapter Two explores Sera Khandro’s relationship to the mythological history of the Treasure tradition and analyzes the connections she makes between Treasure revelation and social and environmental well-being. Chapter Three focuses on literary analysis, exploring the ways in which Sera Khandro articulates her autobiographical self.iii Chapter Four portrays how consort practices fit into Sera Khandro’s community life, which ‘was replete with the jealousies and love that always accompany human relationships. Chapter Five presents Sera Khandro’s representation of her relationship with Drimé Ozer, bringing the subject of consort practices out of the sterile domain of religious dictum and into the uncharted territory of a Buddhist love story.iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This Dissertation could never have been possible without the support of Chatral Sangyé Dorjé, who believed in me enough to lend me a copy of his precious manuscript of Sera Khandro’s Autobiography and to answer my many questions about Sera Khandro. The kindness of Khenpo Sangyé from Gyalrong (Khenpo Tupten Lodro Tayé), who painstakingly read both Sera Khandro’s Autobiography and Drimé Ozer’s Biography with me over the course of several years, can never be repaid. Everything I have understood about Sera Khandro’s writing is informed by the endless hours of energy Khenpo Sangyé invested into this project. His insight into Tibetan language, idiom, and religion opened up a new world of thought for me, and I will always be grateful for this enrichment, Many other Tibetan teachers have offered invaluable support and patience in answering my many questions. They include, in order of chronology, Lama Dorjé of Chamdo, Alak Zenkar Rinpoché of Dartsedo, Khenchen Tashi of Lhagang, Khamtriil Rinpoché of Lhasa, Khedrup of Serta, Namtril Jikmé Piintsok of Serta, Gelek Pema Wangyal Rinpoché of Padma, Tsiiltrim Dargay of Serta, Pema Osel Thayé of Serta, Khenpo Tenzin Ozer of Tralek Monastery, Khandro Rinpoché of Darlak, and many others. I am grateful to my dissertation committee for offering me invaluable advice, suggestions, comments, criticism, and ideas for future research, Special thanks to my main dissertation advisor Prof. David Germano, who has applied his visionary mind to mentoring me throughout my years of graduate education and who invested great energy into reading previous drafts of this dissertation, Also special thanks to Prof. Janet Gyatso for taking the time to participate in my defense and for providing helpful comments. Prof. Karen Lang has been a steady source of support throughout my graduate studies, and Prof. Nicolas Sihlé and Prof. Kurtis Schaeffer have made important contributions to this work. My fortunate circumstances affording me the freedoms and advantages necessary to devote my attention to researching and writing this dissertation have been made possible by a Fulbright Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Grant (2004-2005) and a Charlotte W. ‘Newcombe Doctoral Dissertation Writing Fellowship (2005-2006). I am appreciative of the opportunity these grants provided me with to devote my attention single-pointedly towards this study. T would like to thank the many friends who have helped me through this project in innumerable ways. Among them are Britt Marie Alm, Jikmé, Christina Monson, Marian Morgan, Heidi Nevin, Susan Nevin, Jann Ronis, and Tenzin Thosom, to name only a few. My parents, George and Lee Jacoby, and my partner, Antonio Terrone, have sustained me throughout this and all my endeavors and I could never have completed this, work without their encouragement.Figure 1: Statue of Sera Khandro, Given to Christina Monson in May 1997 by Chatral Sangyé Dorjé, ‘Nepal. Photograph by Antonio Terrone, June 2006.vi Figure 2: Photograph of Sera Khandro Tangka from Tralek Monastery (Bkra legs dgon) in Kardzé (Dkar ‘mdzes) Autonomous Prefecture. Her disciples A skyabs bla ma skar ma don “grub and Phyag tsha sprul ‘sku padma phrin ls rgya misho are depicted below her. Photograph given to me by Tralek Khenpo ‘Tenzin Ozer, August 2008.Figure 3: Dartsang Monastery (Zlar shang dgon, Dujom Lingp: ‘Tune 2004, vii 's seat). Photograph by Sarah Jacoby,viii Figure 5: View from Drimé Ozer’s household. Photograph by Sarah Jacoby, June 2005. igure 6: Nyilung Cave, Dartsang, where Drimé Ozer and Sera Khandro did retreats near his household pictured above. Photograph by Sarah Jacoby, June 2005,Figure 7: Drungri (’Brong r), the abode of the main mountain deity in Serta, Golok. Foreground is the Washiil Serta cairn. Photograph by Sarah Jacoby, June 2005. igure 8: Sera Monastery (Se ra dgon), Serta, Golok. Photograph by Sarah Jacoby, May 2005,Figure 9: Banak Monastery (Pan nag dgon), Padma County, Golok. Photograph by Sarah Jacoby, May 2008. Figure 10: Above Banak Monastery, the hillside where Sera Khandro lived with Gyalsé. Photograph by Sarah Jacoby, August 2004,xi Figure 11: Myself en route (there's no road!) to visit Drimé Ozer’s descendant Lama Gonpa Kyap at his household (64a brang) in Dartsang, Serta Couty, Golok. Photograph taken by local nomad, June 2005.xii TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION. ‘METHODOLOGY .. ‘SERA KHANDRO'S WRITINGS CHAPTER ONE: SERA KHANDRO’S AUTOBIOGRAPHY. (CHILDHOOD IN LHASA: RELIGION OR CHINESE POLITICS?. VISIONARY EXPERIENCES AND STRUGGLES WITH IMPENDING MARRIAGE, ‘THE GREAT ESCAPE : DIFFICULTIES ON THE ROAD To GOLOK. SEARCHING FOR COMMUNITY AND FINDING RELIGION IN GOLOK... [PROPHECIES AND PROBLEMS: LIFE AT BANAK MONASTERY. SHIFTING WINDS: GOTROL RINPOCHE AND DRIME OZER .. ‘THE UNION OF MeTHOD AND WISDOM IMPERMANENCE STRIKES HOME .. WHAT ARE TREASURES AND WHERE DO THEY COME FROM?... ‘TREASURE REVELATION IN NYINGMA SCRIPTURAL TRANSMISSION ‘THE DiviNe COUPLE PADMASAMBHAVA AND YESHE TSOGYAL: PROGENITORS OF THE TREASURE ‘TRADITION The Rising Importance of Yeshé Tsogyal. Yeshé Tsogyal's Hagiography as Sera Khandro’s Model... The Divine Treasure Revelation Couple. ‘THE PROCESS OF REVEALING TREASURE... Prophecy. Auspicious Connections. Consort. REVELATION AND COMMUNITY IN THE SPIRITUALLY INHABITED LAND OF GOLOK Treasure Protectors, Land Deities, and Revelation... Balancing Environmental, Social, and Physical Conditions Through Revelation... Treanure Revelation Encampment (6 £9) nn CONCLUSION. ‘CHAPTER THREE: AUTOBIOGRAPHY, GENDER, AND THE SELF. AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SELF PRESENTATIONS, WESTERN AND TIBETAN (GENDER AS A SELF-HUMBLING STRATEGY IN SERA KHANDRO'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY ‘Abandon this Inferior Female Body? Treasure Revelation and Gender-related Difficulttes. Visions and Gender-based Self-Denigration. (GENDERED REFLECTIONS IN TIBETAN WOMEN’S AUTO/BIOGRAPHY. The Autobiography of Jetsin Lochen (1865-1951) a The Life of Orgyen Chay (1675-1729) Female Hagiographies and ther Influence on Sera Khandro’s Writing... ‘A GENRE OF WOMEN’S AUTOBIOGRAPHY? RELATIONALITY AND SELFHOOD .. ‘SERA KHANDRO’S DIALOGIC SELF ‘THE ROLE OF VISIONS IN SERA KHANDRO'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY .‘CONCLUSION, CHAPTER FOUR: CONSORTS AND TREASURE REVELATION COMMUNITIES... ‘THE AMBIGUOUS ROLES OF SEXUALITY AND CELIBACY IN TIBETAN BUDDHISM. ‘THE PURPOSES OF CONSORTS IN SERA KHANDRO'S WRITINGS Soteriological Purpose of Sexuality, for Men and Women. Pragmatic Purpose of Sexuality: Curing Sickness and Prolonging life. Hermeneutical Purpose of Sexuality: Treasure Revelation and Decoding . ‘VISIONS OF DivINE ENCOURAGEMENT, ConsoRTS AND COMMUNITY. Trouble in Paradise: Consorts and Community Tensions.. The Exchange of Women Monastle Versus Non-Celibate Tantrle Lifestyles. Drimé Oxer's Dilemma... : ‘Sera Khandro is Neither Nun nor Laywoman Negative Gossip.. CONCLUSION: CONSORTS AS AGENTS OR OBJECTS? CHAPTER FIVE: THE DIVINE COUPLE. ‘SERA KHANDRO AND DRIME OZER’S LOVE STORY Beginnings von Back and Forth. The Grand Union... Love Medicine and the Im/permanence of Life and Death ‘THE DIVINE TREASURE REVELATION COUPLE INCARNATE, CONCLUSION... CONCLUSION. ‘APPENDIX I: MAIN CHARACTERS IN SERA KHANDRO'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY. APPENDIX Il: DUJOM LINGPA’S FAMILY TRE} APPENDIX III: COLOPHON OF SERA KHANDRO’S AUTOBIOGRAPHY .. [ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF AUTOBIOGRAPHY COLOPHON... TIBETAN TRANSLITERATION OF AUTOBIOGRAPHY COLOPHON, ENDNOTES.. BIBLIOGRAPHY..Introduction Sera Khandro’s' (1892-1940) writings are extraordinary not only because they include two of only a handful of female-authored auto/biographical writings in all of pre- 1959 Tibetan literature, but also because they open a window into the community contexts and social practices involved in the process of revealing Tibetan Buddhist scriptures and sacred substances called Treasures (gter ma).? Written from the perspective of a woman who was herself a Treasure revealer (gter ston) and a consort (gzungs ma) to male Treasure revealers, her auto/biographical writings include a long autobiography and a biography of her main consort Drimé Ozer (1881-1924), one of ight sons of the prominent nineteenth-century Treasure revealer Dujom Lingpa (1835- 1903)? These works provide vantage points on the revelation process as it existed in Sera Khandro’s early twentieth-century religious communities in the Golok region of Easter Tibet, offering new insights into questions such as: (1) How do Treasure revealers such as Sera Khandro and Drimé Ozer discover Treasures and what relationship do these Treasures have to their revealer’s social and environmental contexts? (2) Given her unusual status as one of the few female Treasure revealers, autobiographers, and prolific writers, how does Sera Khandro portray her female gender and its significance? (3) What does it mean to write an autobiography in a Buddhist context in which the autobiographical self includes a host of dialogic encounters with divine interlocutors? (4) What are the roles of consort practices in Sera Khandro’s auto/biographical writing and how do consorts relate to each other and to their male partners? (5) How does Sera Khandro represent her relationship with her main consort Drimé Ozer and what is the2 significance of her writing two biographical works, one about her partner and one about herself? Sera Khandro’s auto/biographical writings, comprising a total of 655 Tibetan folio pages, are rich in details that contextualize Treasure revelation in the early ‘twentieth-century religious communities in Golok in which she lived, in particular Dartsang (Zlar tshang) in Serta County and Banak (Pan nag) in Padma County. Additionally, when examined using tools drawn fiom literary analysis, her writing presents interesting insights into the ways in which one elite female spiritual figure chose to portray herself, her gender, and her religious career in written form for the benefit of future generations of her disciples. Hence, in the chapters that follow, this study seeks to analyze Sera Khandro’s writings both as auto/biographical Tibetan literature and as resources for contextualizing the religious phenomena of revelation within the communities in which Sera Khandro lived. Sera Khandro’s autobiographical writings present an account of life in early twentieth-century Eastern Tibet from the rare perspective of an elite religious woman.* Beginning with her childhood experiences growing up in a wealthy half-Mongolian, half- Tibetan noble family in Lhasa, she recounts the dramatic end to her life in Central Tibet: in order to escape from an arranged marriage at the age of fifteen, she ran away from Lhasa with a group of traveling pilgrims from Golok headed by the man who would be her future teacher and spiritual consort, Drimé Ozer. Sera Khandro’s courageous decision to travel to what appeared to her as the barbaric land of nomadic Golok and to commence a religious life there was met with many hardships. Among them were near-starvation, extreme cold, and hostility directed at her by Golok locals reluctant to include a young3 female outsider from Central Tibet into their religious communities. Sera Khandro began life in Golok with little financial or community support. Her autobiography recounts her gradual rise from working as a servant girl and later being involved in a turbulent relationship with her first spouse Gara Gyalsé (with whom she had two children) to gaining increasing recognition as a Treasure revealer, as a gakini, and as Drimé Ozer’s prophesized consort. The climax of her narrative is her long-awaited reunion with Drimé Ozer, with whom she lived for four years until his untimely death at the age of forty-four. By the later part of her forty-nine-year life, when she lived at Sera Monastery from the age of thirty-four onwards after Drimé Ozer’s death, she records being in heavy demand to give religious teachings. When she was not traveling and teaching, she spent her time in retreat writing down her revelations and her auto/biographical recollections in a meditation cell perched high on a mountain overlooking the vast alpine landscape surrounding Sera Monastery in Serta County, Golok. Chapter One of this study narrates Sera Khandro’s dramatic life story, highlighting the themes of community tensions, homelessness, impermanence, and love that pervade her account. Sera Khandro’s eloquent writing style illustrates not only her own individual development as a Treasure revealer, but also the larger social, physical, and spiritual environment within which her revelations occurred in early twentieth-century Tibet. Her vitings emphasize the dynamic interrelationships necessary for successful revelation to occur, called auspicious connections (rfen ‘brel). These include finding the proper time, place, consort, and doctrine holder (j.e., disciple, chos bdag) required to reveal a particular Treasure. Beyond this standard list of criteria necessary to reveal Treasures, Sera Khandro highlights the connections between divine prophecy, successful revelation,