Oldal 412 [412]
KARENINA KOLLMAR-PAULENZ
biographical details (parents, place and date of birth), the second with her decision
to enter into a sexual relationship with the Indian Yogin Thod pa bha dra, and the
third passage describes the spread of Phyag rgya chen po bdud kyi gcod yul (“The
Demon-cutting gCod of the Mahamudra’) beyond the borders of Tibet and the reac¬
tion of the Indian panditas to this Tibetan teaching.
The careful word-to-word comparison conclusively brought to light that on the
one hand the text of the Ernst Collection and the text of the TBRC (which is also of
Mongolian provenance) are identical, and on the other hand the Tibet House edition
and the Zi ling edition are identical.” The versions ofthe Tibet House and the Zi ling
edition respectively read like a shortened version ofthe longer redaction ofthe Ernst
Collection and the TBRC text. Thus, we cannot talk of two different transmissions
with regard to Ma gcig’s life story but rather oftwo strands ofthe same transmission.
The differences between them are minor, but some prove to be important. All texts
share a common vocabulary and a common story-line. The two texts of Mongolian
provenance are lengthier, and they contain interesting additions. Whereas all four
texts attest to the diffusion of the gcod teachings of Ma gcig lab sgron ma to the three
regions of Tibet, mDo, dBus and Khams, the two texts of Mongolian provenance
incorporate also China and Mongolia in the geographical diffusion of gcod
teachings (Tib. rgya bod hor, “China, Tibet and Mongolia”) during Ma gcig’s life¬
time. Such statements expanding the spatial realm of the gcod teachings to the
Mongolian regions are probably late additions by the Mongolian editors of the texts.
The Role of Rang byung rdo rje
in the gCod Transmission Lineage
Looking for the link that connects the gcod transmission to Mongolia, I suggest that
we turn to the Karma pa, notably to Rang byung rdo rje, his successor Mi bskyod
rdo rje and the bKa brgyud-transmission of gcod teachings which dates back to
the late 13" and early 14" centuries. In the transmission of the gcod teachings the
Third Karma pa Rang byung rdo rje played a crucial role.” First, the earliest extant
commentary on the bKa’ tshoms chen mo, (“The great Sayings”),*' a key gcod text
attributed to Ma gcig lab sgron ma herself, was composed by the Third Karma pa
See the appendix.
Janet Gyatso was the first to draw attention to the role of Rang byung rdo rje in the codification of
the gcod teachings, see her remarks in Gyatso, Janet: The Development of the Gcod Tradition. In:
Soundings in Tibetan Civilization. Ed. by Barbara Nimri Aziz — Matthew Kapstein. Manohar, New
Delhi 1985, p. 335. More recently, Sorensen, M.: Making the Old New Again, explored Rang byung
rdo rje’s impact on gcod. Her Ph.D. thesis includes the first English translation of the Third Karma
pa’s commentaries on gcod.
Full title: Shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa zab mo gcod kyi man ngag gi gzhung bka’ tshoms chen
mo. In: Gdams nag mdzod: A treasury of precious methods and instructions of the major and minor
Buddhist traditions of Tibet, brought together and structured into a coherent system by ‘Jam-mgon
Kon-sprul; edited from a set of the Dpal-spuns prints and published by the order of H.H. Dingo
Chhentse Rimpoche. Lama Ngodrup and Sherab Drimey, Paro 1979, Vol. XIV, pp. 7-16.
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