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KARENINA KOLLMAR-PAULENZ
phyug, 1867/68-1904).*° Unfortunately, no further biographical information is
available about Blo bzang bstan pa chos ‘phel dpal bzang po.
Comparison with Other Available Biographies of
Ma gcig lab sgron ma
The biography of Ma gcig lab sgron ma attributed to Kun spangs brtson ‘grus senge
is known in different editions. A text of the exact same title is preserved in the
Tibetan Buddhist Resource Center (W1KG1646). The TBRC does not provide the
provenance of this text, but the library seal reading mongol ulsin tindesni sand töwd
nomin fond on the cover folio shows the text to be preserved in the Tibetan fond of the
Mongolian National Library. This implies that the text either originated in Mongolia
or at some time has found its way from Tibet to Mongolia.
In a paper of 2005, I maintained that the text of the Ernst Collection “relies heavily
on the Phung po gzan skyur gyi rnam bshad and is in fact to a great extent a verbatim
copy ofit.””’ To a certain extent, I have to correct my former statement: A word-to¬
word comparison of both texts brought to light that they show minor discrepancies.
The Phung po gzan skyur gyi rnam bshad gcod kyi don gsal byed bzhugs,”® “Clari¬
fying the meaning of gcod, the great explanation to transform the aggregates into
an offering of food,” with its short title "Nam bshad chen mo, “Great Explanation,”
a work ofall in all ten chapters, in its first two chapters contains what is probably the
most popular biography?” of Ma gcig lab sgron ma in the Tibetan cultural sphere.*°
This biography which has been translated into English at least three times," was
redacted by Nam mkha’ rgyal mtshan, who in quite a few gcod transmission lineages
appears after Kun spangs brtson ‘grus seng ge.” He is probably identical with ‘Don
Majer, Zsuzsa — Teleki, Krisztina: History of Zaya Gegeenii Khüree, the Monastery of the Khalkha
Zaya Pandita. Admon, Ulaanbaatar 2013, pp. 23-24.
Kollmar-Paulenz, Karénina: Khros ma nag mo, the ”Wrathful Black One“ and the Deities Summoned
to the Ritual Feast in the gCod-tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. A Preliminary Survey of the gCod
Demonology. Zentralasiatische Studien 34 (2005), p. 211.
I used the edition of the Tibet House: Chos kyi chos skor. Three texts on the history and practice of
the Zi-byed and gCod Precepts. Reproduced from rare blockprints from the Library of Tibet House.
Tibet House Library, New Delhi 1974, text copies 10-410.
To be more precise, the biography consists of two biographical accounts which slightly differ from
each other in some aspects.
For a detailed examination of the text see Sorensen, Michelle: Making the Old New Again and Again:
Legitimation and Innovation in the Tibetan Buddhist Chöd Tradition, Columbia University 2013, pp.
67-78. To my knowledge, this Ph.D. thesis has not been published yet.
3! Allione, Tsultrim: Women of Wisdom. Routledge & Kegan Paul, London 1984, pp. 150-204; Edou,
Jeröme: Machig Labdrön and the Foundations of Chöd. Snow Lion Publications, Ithaka, New York
1996, pp. 119-170; Harding, Sarah: Machig s Complete Explanation: Clarifying the Meaning of Chöd:
A Complete Explanation of Casting Out the Body as Food (Phung po gzan skyur gyi rnam bshad gcod
kyi don gsal byed). Snow Lion Publications, Ithaka, New York 2003.
To make matters even more complicated, in some transmission lineages a person of this name appears
some generations before Kun spangs brtson ‘grus seng ge, see for example the Don gyi brgyud pa in
the Zhi byed chos ‘byung, ff. 67rv.
408