Except from Chapter 19 of “Fearless in Tibet: The Life of the Mystic Tertön Sogyal”
Jentsa and Xining, Northeastern Tibet
Year of the Water Ox to the Wood Tiger, 1913–1914
One chilly morning, Tertön Sogyal told his host he needed to go to Nyenbo Dzari Lake to conduct a ritual. Alak Gurong and a few of his attendants and monks saddled the horses and they left straightaway. Arriving at the high mountain lake known for its medicinal qualities, the group made camp while Tertön Sogyal began a ceremonial offering of beer and juniper smoke to the tellurian spirits and treasure guardians. He instructed everyone to leave him alone and told them to walk to the center of the frozen lake and to break open a large hole. When they returned, he told them to stay at the campsite; he then walked to the center of the lake. No sooner had Tertön Sogyal arrived at the hole than he dove headfirst into the frigid water. The group ran to save Tertön Sogyal from certain hypothermia. But they could see nothing when they looked into the cold water. They did not know what to do. Worried and anxious, some began to cry. Minutes seemed like hours.
“What have we done?”
“Our refuge has died.”
As if a lion were roaring, Tertön Sogyal emerged from the lake with a rush of wind. He held in his right hand a Buddha statue and in his left hand a bejeweled treasure casket and a smaller stone casket. The group stood in stunned silence that transformed into devotion. As they prostrated upon the ice to Tertön Sogyal, whom they saw as Padmasambhava, the tertön walked away, saying nothing. At the campsite, Tertön Sogyal celebrated the occasion with offerings and prayers of thanksgiving, and he had Alak Gurong return to the hole in the ice and drop golden coins bound in a silk scarf to the bottom of the lake for the terma guardian.
Back at Gurong’s residence of Mandigar at Drakga a few hours east of Achung Namdzong, the group was overjoyed and wanted to mark the occasion of seeing Tertön Sogyal reveal a treasure. Alak Gurong suggested taking a photograph of the tertön to celebrate. Tertön Sogyal wondered what the tripod was for and what Gurong was hiding under the black cloak but kept quiet. As Gurong readied the camera, Atrin laid out Tertön Sogyal’s ritual instruments on a ceremonial table, including a hand drum, a five-pronged dorje scepter, a bell, and a kapala cup containing spiritual medicine. To the right side, Tertön Sogyal placed the recently discovered jeweled treasure casket.
Alak Gurong requested that Tertön Sogyal sit in meditation posture and hold his prayer beads. As if to show how little time Tertön Sogyal ever spent in one place, there was no brocade, scroll painting, or other wall hangings behind him. A thick dark maroon cloak was wrapped around the tertön’s upper body with long sleeves falling over his hands and knees, his posture at ease. The shadows that fell on Tertön Sogyal’s high cheekbones under his yogic crown of hair accentuated his eyes and high forehead. Tertön Sogyal looked directly into the camera, his gaze at once piercing and vast. This was the face of determination, of resoluteness, of fearlessness. With a flash, the photo was taken; Gurong immediately went to his darkroom to develop the negative and returned to show Tertön Sogyal the photograph. Tertön Sogyal looked on without a change in his expression.
Jentsa and Xining, Northeastern Tibet
Year of the Water Ox to the Wood Tiger, 1913–1914
One chilly morning, Tertön Sogyal told his host he needed to go to Nyenbo Dzari Lake to conduct a ritual. Alak Gurong and a few of his attendants and monks saddled the horses and they left straightaway. Arriving at the high mountain lake known for its medicinal qualities, the group made camp while Tertön Sogyal began a ceremonial offering of beer and juniper smoke to the tellurian spirits and treasure guardians. He instructed everyone to leave him alone and told them to walk to the center of the frozen lake and to break open a large hole. When they returned, he told them to stay at the campsite; he then walked to the center of the lake. No sooner had Tertön Sogyal arrived at the hole than he dove headfirst into the frigid water. The group ran to save Tertön Sogyal from certain hypothermia. But they could see nothing when they looked into the cold water. They did not know what to do. Worried and anxious, some began to cry. Minutes seemed like hours.
“What have we done?”
“Our refuge has died.”
As if a lion were roaring, Tertön Sogyal emerged from the lake with a rush of wind. He held in his right hand a Buddha statue and in his left hand a bejeweled treasure casket and a smaller stone casket. The group stood in stunned silence that transformed into devotion. As they prostrated upon the ice to Tertön Sogyal, whom they saw as Padmasambhava, the tertön walked away, saying nothing. At the campsite, Tertön Sogyal celebrated the occasion with offerings and prayers of thanksgiving, and he had Alak Gurong return to the hole in the ice and drop golden coins bound in a silk scarf to the bottom of the lake for the terma guardian.
Back at Gurong’s residence of Mandigar at Drakga a few hours east of Achung Namdzong, the group was overjoyed and wanted to mark the occasion of seeing Tertön Sogyal reveal a treasure. Alak Gurong suggested taking a photograph of the tertön to celebrate. Tertön Sogyal wondered what the tripod was for and what Gurong was hiding under the black cloak but kept quiet. As Gurong readied the camera, Atrin laid out Tertön Sogyal’s ritual instruments on a ceremonial table, including a hand drum, a five-pronged dorje scepter, a bell, and a kapala cup containing spiritual medicine. To the right side, Tertön Sogyal placed the recently discovered jeweled treasure casket.
Alak Gurong requested that Tertön Sogyal sit in meditation posture and hold his prayer beads. As if to show how little time Tertön Sogyal ever spent in one place, there was no brocade, scroll painting, or other wall hangings behind him. A thick dark maroon cloak was wrapped around the tertön’s upper body with long sleeves falling over his hands and knees, his posture at ease. The shadows that fell on Tertön Sogyal’s high cheekbones under his yogic crown of hair accentuated his eyes and high forehead. Tertön Sogyal looked directly into the camera, his gaze at once piercing and vast. This was the face of determination, of resoluteness, of fearlessness. With a flash, the photo was taken; Gurong immediately went to his darkroom to develop the negative and returned to show Tertön Sogyal the photograph. Tertön Sogyal looked on without a change in his expression.