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AGWANGKHAIDUB ON PsYcHIc HEAT, MOUNTAIN DIRT, AND VIRTUOUS SUBJECTS pilgrims as they moved to encounter Maitreya images in the city and Maitreya Buddha himself in their devotions.'* Here, as always with Agwangkhaidub’s works, the pilgrims to whom he writes are directed to not only become liberated Buddhist practitioners, but also virtuous subjects of the Oing formation." Unfortunately there is no space to develop a broader comparative study of Agwangkhaidub as one ofthe great urban ideologues of Qing-era Inner Asia. It is my hope that such a study — necessarily approached from across the porous boundaries of analytical fields such as art history, material religion, performance theory, and Buddhist Studies —may soon develop as a collaborative project. For the remainder of this article I turn to “A Praise to the Sacred Place of Drépung Trashi Tsépel Ling” (Tib. ‘Bras spungs bkra shis tshe ‘phel gling gi gnas bstod).'‘ This text is different from many of Agwangkhaidub’s other works on Yeke-yin Küriy-e in that it does not carefully measure, demarcate, or route the material spaces and objects of the city. Nor does it prescribe a particular mode of encounter and interaction with those spaces and objects. Instead, it unravels a rich, if pithy, ode to the landscape surrounding this monastery using the evocative, esoteric terminology and symbols of a body mandala. A body mandala is an important subset of tantric self-cultivation according to many Highest Yoga Tantra traditions (Skr. Anuttarayogatantra).'’ Here, the yogin first dissolves ordinary appearances into emptiness (Skr. siinyata) as an imaginative rehearsal of the death experience, before transforming, by means of systematic visualization, his/ her ordinary, impure, samsaric gross and subtle body into a purified, already enlightened form of a tantric Buddha (usually with consort) as an imaginative transformation of the natural processes associates with the intermediate state and rebirth. Here 4 de Certeau, Michel — Giard, Luce — Mayol, Pierre: L'’Invention Du Quotidien. Nouv. éd. /, 2 vols., Collection Folio/Essais; Gallimard, [Paris?] 1990. Ngag dbang mkhas grub: Byams pa’i dam bca’i gzungs bzla tshul. In: Collected Works of Kyai-rdor Mkhan-po Ngag-dbang-mkhas-grub, vol. 1, 5 vols. S. W. Tashigangpa, Leh 1972, pp. 281-286; Ngag dbang mkhas grub: Rgyal ba byams mgon gyi ‘dra sku’i nang du ‘bul rgyu’i ‘dod gsol dgos ‘dod yid bzhin ‘gugs pa’i lcags kyu. In: Collected Works of Kyai rdor Mkhan-Po Ngag-dbang-mkhas-grub, vol. 1, 5 vols. S. W. Tashigangpa, Leh 1972, pp. 275-280; Ngag dbang mkhas grub: Rgyal ba byams mgon gyi gsol ‘debs byams mgon zhal bzang Ita ba’i dga’ ston. In: Collected Works of Kyai-rdor Mkhan-po Ngagdbang-mkhas-grub, vol. 1, 5 vols. S.W. Tashigangpa, Leh 1972, pp. 155-166; Ngag dbang mkhas grub: Rgyal ba byams pa’i sgrub thabs dang ‘brel ba’i mchod chog dga’ Idan pad mtshor ‘jug pa’i gru gzings. In: Collected Works of Kyai-rdor Mkhan-po Ngag-dbang-mkhas-grub, vol. 1,5 vols. S. W. Tashigangpa, Leh 1972, pp. 121-154; Ngag dbang mkhas grub: Khu re chen mor bzhengs pa’i byams pa’i sku brnyan gyi dkar chag dad pa’i bzhin ras gsal bar byed pa’i nor bu’i me long. In: Collected Works of Kyai-rdor Mkhan-po Ngag-dbang-mkhas-grub, vol. 1, 5 vols. S. W. Tashigangpa, Leh 1972, pp. 175-274. Ngag dbang mkhas grub: ’bras spungs bkra shis tshe ‘phel gling gi gnas bstod. In: Collected Works of Kyai-Rdor Mkhan-Po Ngag-Dbang-Mkhas-Grub, vol. 5 (ca), 5 vols. S.W. Tashigangpa, Leh 1972, pp. 399-404. As in most Géluk traditional presentations of this late period, the several sub-lineages of the three body mandalas of Guhyasamaja, Cakrasamvara, and Yamantaka were the most popular Highest Yoga Tantric systems, with the body mandala practice of Vajrayogini of almost equal importance and popularity (but generally left outside of the orthodox triumvirate of the former three). 15 141
