Friday, October 24, 2008

About the location of Dhumasthira


... the place where the Tibetan translator Vairotsana met Prahevajra (Garab Dorje). There has been an exchange which I would like to repeat under its own entry.

Anonymous said...

Hello all,
Thanks for this "wish-fulfilling" blog. I am looking for any information about the actual location of Dhumasthira, "The Place of Smoke". It seems to have been a charnel ground where Lotsawa Vairotsana beheld Garab Dorje. Does this place exist anymore, how is it called these days? Does anyone have a picture of the place?
Thank you very much,
Saraswatee

October 21, 2008 5:23 AM
Blogger Erik Pema Kunsang said...

Dear Anonymous,

I have sent your question in an email to Ani Jinpa who has translated his biography (see below). Let's see what she has heard. My guess would be that is lies close to Bodhgaya.

Palmo, Ani Jima (Eugenie de Jong; translator); Nyingpo, Yudra (compilor, et. al.) (2004). The Great Image: the Life Story of Vairochana the translator. Shambala Publications, Inc.: Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A. ISBN 1-59030-069-6 (pbk.: alk. paper)

October 21, 2008 6:20 AM
Blogger pensum said...

Funny that meeting isn't described in Vairotsana's biography, The Great Image. The only reference to his meeting Garab Dorje is in passing after receiving all the teachings from Shri Singha: "Then Vairo went to see all the great masters, including Prahe (Garab Dorje) and Manjushrimitra, who taught him the nature of dharmata in an instant, and he fully comprehended it that very moment." (pg.124)

October 21, 2008 12:06 PM
Blogger Erik Pema Kunsang said...

Ani Jinpa replied:

The name Dhumasthira, "The Place of Smoke" doesn't occur in that text. It does mention many times throughout the text that Garab Dorje lived in a cave called Place of the Vajra near a charnel gound called Golden Sanctuary of Expanding Delight, which was on the bank of the Kutra Lake in Oddiyana.

Thanks, Ani La,
I also read in the Wellsprings and elsewhere that Vairotsana met the master Prahevajra in a vision, or as a "wisdom body" and not as an actual flesh-and-blood person.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hello there! Dhumasthir does not mean Place of Smoke in Sanskrit but rather Steady-Smoke used as one word as a noun! Place of Smoke would be Dhumasthan. So if the the name was originally in a Sanskritic language the English translation is wrong or if it as translated from Tibetan into Sansktit then the Sanskrit is wrong!{:0)
rs

Anonymous said...

"Generally speaking, the heartland of Uddiyana, entirely surrounded as it is by mountains, valleys and thick forests, at its center from east to west takes two days to cross, and four from south to north; having Dhuma-sthira for its only town. By Indian standards it is to be viewed as a small town. "

http://www.jonangfoundation.org/blog/life-buddhagupta-n%C4%81tha