What we have thought.
It is founded on our thoughts
It is made up of our thoughts.
—Gautama Buddha, Dhammapada
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Shambhala, Kalachakra Tantra, and
Avenging Gods of Tibetan Buddhism
Somewhere far in the north, goes a Tibetan legend, is the kingdom of Shambhala, shielded from the outside world by mountain peaks as high as the heavens and sharp as the teeth of a tiger. h is land has the shape of a giant lotus with eight petals. h ose fortunate enough
to reach this wonderful place are awed by its beautiful and plentiful lakes, ponds, meadows, forests, and groves. In the middle of Shambhala stands its capital, Kalapa, whose palaces are all made of pure gold, silver, turquoise, coral, pearl, emerald, moon crystal, and other precious stones. Instead of ceilings, these palaces have special circular magnify-ing crystal spheres through which people can gaze at the gods, the sun, the moon, and the stars, so close that they appear within reach. Window screens are made of sandalwood, and the thrones are all of pure gold. South of Kalapa the seeker will i nd a special pleasure grove, and in the west one catches a glimpse of the beautiful lake where humans and gods enjoy boat rides together.
h e kings who rule Shambhala indulge themselves in sensual pleasures and enjoy their wealth. Despite their pursuit of wealth and pleasure, they strive to be nice to other people and to help them to reach enlightenment and liberation, so the virtues of the royalty never de-crease. h e people of Shambhala never become sick or old, and they are blessed with handsome and beautiful bodies. h e laws of the land
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are mild and gentle, and beatings along with imprisonments are totally unknown. Last but not least, Shambhala inhabitants never go hungry.
All in all, residents of the kingdom are good, virtuous, and intelligent, and capable of reaching Nirvana in their lifetime. Shambhala’s priests are very faithful and humble. h ey reject material possessions and go barefoot and bareheaded, dressed only in white robes. And, most important, Shambhala is the place where Buddhism exists in its purest and most authentic form.
h e way to this land of spiritual bliss and plenty lies through special Kalachakra-tantra practices and virtuous behavior. 1 An old Buddhist parable conveys this idea well: “Where are you going across these wastes of snow,” a lama hermit asked a youth who embarked on a long journey to i nd the wondrous Shambhala land. “To i nd Shambhala,”
answered the boy. “Ah, well then, you need not travel far. h e kingdom of Shambhala is in your own heart.” 2
h e Shambhala legend is the description of the famous Buddhist paradise—the land of spiritual enlightenment and simultaneously the land of plenty that people of the Mongol-Tibetan world dreamed about since the early Middle Ages. h e concept of this paradise was absent in early Buddhism; it was introduced later to cater to the sentiments of common folk who could not comprehend some of the abstract principles of the Buddhist faith and needed something “real” to latch onto. 3 Current practitioners of Tibetan Buddhism move back to the original roots of the faith, in some sense, by downplaying the material side of the utopia and putting more stress on its spiritual aspects.
h e i rst to introduce this legend into Western spiritual culture was the famous Western seeker Helena Blavatsky, founding mother of h eosophy, who most likely learned about Shambhala by reading accounts of European travelers to Tibet and hearing about this wondrous land during her brief sojourn to the Tibetan-Indian border. Adjusting the Buddhist legend to the theory of evolution, which was becoming popular at the end of the nineteenth century, Blavatsky argued that Shambhala 2
SHAMBHALA, KALACHAKRA TANTRA, AND AVENGING GODS OF TIBETAN BUDDHISM
was the center of evolving superior wisdom—the abode of the so-called Great White Brotherhood located somewhere in the Himalayas. h e
hidden masters (whom she also referred to as mahatmas) from this brotherhood guided humankind in its evolution away from materialism toward the highest spirituality, which would eventually give rise to the superior sixth race that would replace contemporary imperfect human beings. Such politically incorrect generalizations, especially at er what happened during World War II, might of end the sensibilities of current spiritual seekers, yet during Blavatsky’s lifetime and well into the 1930s, this kind of evolutionary talk was quite popular among all educated folk who considered themselves advanced and progressive, including h eosophists.
Buddhist Holy War: Shambhala as Spiritual Resistance Spiritual bliss and plenty were not the only sides of the Shambhala legend. h ere was another side, which is usually downplayed in current Tibetan Buddhism—spiritual resistance against people who infringed on the Buddhist faith. h e story about this aspect of Shambhala, which is an inseparable part of the legend, is not so benevolent and tranquil, but it is no less valid.
h e entire Shambhala legend sprang up in northern India in the early Middle Ages, between the 900s and 1200s. Along with the description of Shambhala as the land of enlightenment and plenty, it mentioned that at some point barbarian demons coming from the west would inl ict devastating damage on the Buddhist faith. In Sanskrit texts these alien ini dels were called mlecca people. Tibetan sources referred to them as lalo. h
e invaders, the legend said, would bring misery and chaos, and the whole world would enter Kaliyuga (the Age of Disputes), when the true Buddhist faith would decline. h e northern Shambhala kingdom would remain the only stronghold of the true faith and would eventually redeem people from this misery.
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Figure 1.1. Rudra Chakrin (Rigden Djapo), the king of Shambhala, crusading against mlecca people, the enemies of Buddhism. From the painting Shambhala is Coming by Nicholas Roerich (1926).
To deliver Tibetan Buddhist people from the danger, the last Shambhala king, Rudra Chakrin (the Wrathful One with the Wheel, Rigden Djapo in Tibetan), would enter a trance so that he could see the coming events. h en he would gather a mighty army and launch a merciless attack against the barbarians. In the ensuing horrible, Armageddon-like battle, the ini dels would be totally crushed, and the Age of Disputes would be over. At er this successful Shambhala war, the true faith (Tibetan Buddhism) would triumph all over the earth. Lobsan Palden Yeshe, the third Panchen Lama, who was considered the spiritual leader of Tibet and who composed a 1775 guidebook to Shambhala, prophesized this i nal battle as follows:
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SHAMBHALA, KALACHAKRA TANTRA, AND AVENGING GODS OF TIBETAN BUDDHISM
h ee, great lama, who lives in this paradise land and who is constantly in prayer, shall adopt the title of Rigden Djapo and shall defeat the armies of lalo. h
y army shall include people of many nations. h ee shall have 40,000 large wild elephants, four millions of mad elephants, many warriors, and h ee shall pierce the heart of the king of lalo. h y twelve powerful gods shall completely destroy all evil gods of the lalo. h y elephants
shall kill their elephants. h
y horses shall smash lalo’s horses, and h y
golden chariots shall crash their chariots. h y people shall tame the la-lo’s protectors, and lalo’s inl uence shall be totally gone. And then the time shall come when the true faith spreads all over. At er many years of preaching the faith, on the 22nd of the middle spring moon in the year of the horse, h ee shall take the seat of the great god and shall be surrounded by mighty warriors and medicine women. 4
h e references to the Age of Disputes and to the king redeemer most likely originated from Hinduism, which had a legend that Vishnu was born in the village of Shambhala. Like Rudra Chakrin, Vishnu was destined to defeat those that stepped on the wrong spiritual path and then to reawaken the minds of hesitant people. Scholars also believe that the apocalyptic notions of the i nal battle and the whole talk about the forces of good and evil i ghting each other might have penetrated Tibetan Buddhism from Manichaeism and especially from Islam. It is well known that in the early Middle Ages, the mlecca people, or people of Mecca, at i rst mingled with Buddhist communities in eastern Afghanistan and northern India and then mercilessly drove them out. 5
In eastern Afghanistan under the Abbasid dynasty in the i rst half of the 800s, Buddhists and Hindus lived side by side with Moslems in relative peace. h e Buddhist were even allowed to keep their faith, which opened the door to an exchange of religious ideas. In fact, during this period of peaceful coexistence, to the dismay of the Buddhist clergy, many faithful switched to Islam. Simple and straightforward, the 5
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religion of the mlecca people was more alluring to some common folk than Buddhism with its complex and vague principles. In the 900s this multicultural paradise came to an end. h e warlike Sunni Turks, new
