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ORACLES

AND DEMONS OF

TIBET

The Cult and Iconography of

the Tibetan Protective

Deities

RENE DE NEBESKY-WOJKOWITZ, PH. D.

LECTURER AT THE UNIVERSITY OF VIENNA

BOOK FAITH INDIA

ORACLES AND DEMONS OF TIBET

Published by

BOOK FAITH INDIA

An Imprint oj

PILGRIMS BOOK HOUSE

PO Box 3872. Kathmalldu. Nepal

FAX 977-1-42494:3, E-mail: info@pilgrims.wlink.com.np

P.O.Box ::;1:;, Varanasi, India.

ISBN: 81-7303-039-1

First Reprint 1993

Second Reprint 1996

All rtgbts reserved

The contents oJthis book may /lOt be reproduced, stored

or copied fit allY form-printed, electronic, plwrocopied or

otherwise-except for excerpts used in reviews, wltlwut

the written permission oj the publisher.

Printed in India by

Rashtra Rachna Printers

Delhl-I 10092

I) BD J CATBD TO

H.R..H. PRINCE PPTBR OF OREBCBAND DENMARK

Head of the 3m Royal Danish E.xpedition 10 Cell"ol ,As,"

(19S; -19S4)

IN MEMORY

OF TWO~YEAJt.S OP SUCCBSS.'FUt. COOPBRATION

FOREWORD

The iconography of the deities worshiped by the Tibetans as protectors

and guardians of Buddhism belongs to the least known field of Tibetan

Studies. The exceedingly numerous class of protective divinities com-

prises many figures who originallY belonged to the pantheon of the old

Tibetan Bon faith. A study of the Tibetan protective deities and their

cult, apart from giving an insight into a little known aspect of Lamaism,

reveals new facts regarding the beliefs of pre-Buddhist Tibet and their

relation to the early shamanistic stratum out of which the Bon religion

developed. Unfortunately, considerable difficulties obstruct research in

this field. The Tibetan books describing the appearance and worship of

the divine guardians of Buddhism are rare and their language, because of

the use of archaic and obscure expressions not recorded in dictionaries,

is often difficult to interpret. The chief obstacle, however, is the secrecy

with which Tibetans surround the cult of the protective deities, expecially

the ceremonies involving ritual dances, divination, black magic, and

weathermaking.

The greater part of the material presented in this first survey of the

Tibetan guardian deities and their cult was collected between 1950 and

1953 during my stay in the Indo-Sikkimese borderland. The base for my

work was the town Kalimpong, the terminus of the main caravan road

leading from Lhasa to India. Shortly after my arrival in Kalimpong

hostilities broke out between Tibet and China. The fourteenth Dalai

Lama, together with members of the Tibetan Government, left the

capital and took refuge in a monastery in the Chumbi Valley only a few

miles from the Tibeto-Sikkimese border. The Dalai Lama remained in

Tibetan territory, but several of his relatives and numerous high Govern-

ment officials with their families as well as several dignitaries of the

Yellow Hat Sect came to stay in Kalimpong. Most of them returned to

Tibet in late summer of 1951 when the Dalai Lama, after Tibet had been

included within the Chinese People's Republic, went back to Lhasa. The

close contact which I established during this periOd with many Tibetan

officials and priests enabled me to gather a considerable amount

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