ON THE HISTORY AND PSYCHOLOGY OF THE 'DAS-LOGAs for sons, they are natural retribution.
Only a few sons repay their parents' kindness.
Do not do things on your children's account, do them on your own.
The best of sons is the holy dharma.
Hence, I make finn plans to do the holy dharma.Here again, we find in the opening verse the same structural theme of expulsion
and disillusionment evident in the 'das-log biographies. This time, however,
maturity is attained and ambivalence resolved through a spiritual marriage, in
which Ketusengha depicts his personal transformation from "animal" and "dirti-
ness" to other-worldly householder. His bitter attack on worldly relations
between parents and children leaves few doubts as to the sources of his anxi-
eties. Though married to his guru's daughter, he abjures even the thought of
progeny by her, even though he has already had children in his previous worldly
life. Through the works of the dharma, however, he has transformed himself: he
is both male and female ("a lama's daughter") whose children are disciples, and
like Avalokitesvara, both a father, a mother and a child to the dharma.
Notes
* I would like to gratefully acknowledge the kind assistance given me in preparing this
paper by the staff of the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, in particular Mr.
Tashi Tsering. I would also like to thank Mr. Ngawang Gelek and the Venerable Sde-
gzhung and Khrin-'du Rinpoches for their help. My research on the topic of 'das-logs
has been generously supporled by the National Endowment for the Humanities and
the American Institute of Indian Studies. Finally, I would like to thank most deeply
Geshe Nawang Nornang of the University of Washington for his many hours of help.
I have based this study on an examination of the following sources. Quotations and
citations in the text are based on the arrangement below.
I. Karma-dbang-'dzin
A. 'Das log karma dbang 'dzin gyi rnam thar (Yeshay Donden Ms).
Gedan Sungrab M-inyan G-yunphel, vol. 55, Ngawang Gelek Demo
(ed.), New Delhi, 1973.
B. -gyi rnam thar in Two Visionary Accounts of Returns from Death.
Dolanji: Tibetan Bonpo Monastic Centre, 1974.
C. -kyi rnam thar in Two 'das-log Stories from the Library of Lhakhang
Lama, Delhi, 1978.
D. Bka' yi phrin Ian pa mkha' 'gro rna karma dbang 'dzin bar do'i dmyal
khams su byon nas 'khor 'das kun gyi chos rgyal rin po ches las las
dkar nag dbye ba'i 'bras bu rnam thar in University of Washington
xylograph, chap. ca (see Note 6).
The entire action of the rnam-thar takes place within an area of Lho-
brag several hundred square miles in circumference. Her natal village is
Kun-dga'-gling in the upper valley of Dge-bcu. A Rnying-ma-pa
nunnery was situated here. She is sent as a bride to Bkra-shis-'og-(')gro,
a dpon-khag family in the Khra (Phra) valley, about thirty miles north-
east of her natal place. Internal references place the biography in the
mid-eighteenth century.