70 van Schaik
For every hundred students there are a thousand teachers,
And nobody listens to the divine dharma.
For every village there are ten masters,
And the number of vajra assistants is uncountable.30
While this satire probably overstates the case, it is testament to the unease felt
in some quarters at the successful self-replication of Tantric groups outside of
institutional settings. Similar sentiments are expressed in the edict published
by the West Tibetan King Yeshe Ö (Tib. Ye shes ’od, c. 959–1040), addressed to
the ‘masters of mantra who live in the villages’. The increasing power of these
Tantric masters was a threat to those attempting to establish their authority on
the old imperial model. Yeshe Ö’s intention to re-establish the old hierarchies
is clear when he compares the village masters to a beggar pretending to be a
king.31 It is unlikely that the situation was quite as bad as the author of the
satirical poem or Yeshe Ö suggests; a major barrier to teachers outnumbering
students would have been economic, as the wheel-hub system is reliant on a
group of disciples giving enough to support the master.
The economic aspect of these Tantric relationships is defended in an early
tenth-century treatise by the Tibetan master Nyen Palyang (Tib. gNyan dPal
dbyangs):
Question: ‘When the Tantric master requests an offering at the time of
empowerment, isn’t this just something they’ve made up?’
Answer: ‘The enlightened path to liberation is an eternal treasure
That is found after having been lost on the road of saṃsāra for innumer-
able aeons. It wouldn’t be excessive to offer one’s life ten million times,
not to mention anything else. The truth or falsity of this can be checked
in any of the secret tantras.’32
30 P. tib. 840: /slob ma brgya la slobs dpon stong//lha chos nyan pa’i myi ma chis//grong tsan
gcig la slobs dpon bcu//las kyi rdo rje gra[ng]s kyang myed/
31 On Yeshe Ö’s edict see Karmay, Samten, The Arrow and the Spindle: Studies in History,
Myths, Rituals and Beliefs in Tibet (Kathmandu: Mandala Book Point, 1998), 3–16. For an
insightful discussion of the political and religious background to the edict, see Dalton,
The Taming of the Demons, 95–109.
32 IOL Tib J 470: [.. .] /slobs la dbang mnod pa’i dus su/ /yon ’bul ’tshal lo/ zhes bgyi ba rang
bzo ma lags sam//skal pa grangs myed ’das par lam skol gdod rnyed pa//bla med byang
chub thar lam g.yung drung gter//des ni lus srog bye bas gcal kyang ma ches na//gzhan lta
ci smos bden rdzun gsang ba’i rgyud la kun ltos/ [.. .]