The 10th Panchen Lama once said:
"Without yaks, there would be no Tibetans."
Tibetan folk proverb also says:
"Wherever there are Tibetans, there are yaks."
The yak is the totem of the Tibetan people.
It is also an indispensable religious symbol in Tibetan culture.
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In the ancient songs described by the Tibetan ancestors that broke new ground, they used their extraordinary imagination to associate the high mountain land with the yak, and the "SubaZai Cow Song" has rich meanings and exists in various versions, all derived from the inquiry into the causes of all things, and has been sung to this day.
Sparzai cow song
When Spar slaughtered cattle as a child,
Where to cut off the bull's head?
Where to peel off the cowhide and shop?
Where to cut off the oxtail and throw it?
Cut off the bull's head and put it high, so the mountain peak is high;
Peel off the cowhide to pave the place, so the earth is flat and flat;
Cut off the oxtail and throw the mountain yin, so the mountain forest is lush.
(Yak head wood carved mask.) Photo courtesy of Tibet Yak Museum)
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The yak is an important totem cult in Tibetan history, and it is the protagonist of some "groundbreaking" creation myths.
In the Tibetan mythological story "The Song of Sparzai Cows", which is still widely spread in the Amdo Tibetan area, it is said: "When Spar was first formed, the heavens and the earth were mixed together, and the separation of heaven and earth was Dapeng." "When Spar slaughtered the calf, he cut off the head of the cow and threw it on the ground, and there was a high mountain; when the tail of the ox was cut off, there was a curved road; when the cowhide was peeled off, there was a flat field."
In the Origin of All Things, another Tibetan genesis myth that is also "Spar slaughtering cattle", it is said: "The head, eyes, intestines, hair, hooves, hearts, etc. of the cow have become the sun, moon, stars, rivers, lakes, forests, mountains and rivers." These are the inevitable results of the Tibetan ancestors deifying or materializing the totem yak they worshipped, and riding their rich natural imagination.
(Wild yak in Changtang.) Photography by Willow Pine)
In the Bon creation myth, the yak is also regarded as the great god of creation. In some Bon texts, the creation of the world is divided into nine stages, and in short, the third valence stage is the stage in which the illusion really appears. The fourth stage is the formation of the five elements of nature, which are active within the cosmic scope. The fifth stage is called the "possessed" stage, which is the five elements each acting according to their characteristics. The sixth stage is formed by the "birth", that is, the formation of an illusion. The seventh stage is the stage of illusion, which is the basis for the birth of the "Sigig Baogarpo", that is, the "white yak". The eighth stage is the "netherworld" of the white yak, that is, the Zhang-zhung region, the state of the Bon religion. The ninth and final stage is characterized by "advent", in which the white yak descends onto the mountain and enters the world. After this, it challenges the mountains with its horns from the right and left, and the dust covers the flowers. In this way, driven by the yak's divine power, the task of creating the world was completed.
It seems possible to conclude that deities that incarnate or are associated with yaks are often the most primitive indigenous gods. The yak mount that a real indigenous deity often rides is often described in Tibetan literature as a "ferocious wild yak", "a big black wild yak", a "white yak that constantly spews snow waterfalls from its mouth and nose", "a wild yak with nine horns", a white hybrid female yak, a crystal hybrid yak, a Muzhi yak, a red-eyed black yak, and so on.
(A collection of wood carvings on yaks collected by the Yak Museum.) Courtesy photo/Yak Museum)
The Bon Sect has the inner "Four Great Heavenly Kings" who guard the four main directions. In the East is a white lion face image riding a white lion; the Southern Patronus is the face of a water monster riding a water monster; and the Western Guardian Deity is a red, wild boar face riding a red wild boar. Perhaps out of deep spiritual considerations, or out of understanding and habits of the current situation, the guardian deity of the Changtang steppe guarding the "open space in the north" is the head of the black wild yak, and the mount is the deity of the yellow and black wild yak. In the mural paintings of the main hall of Langyi Temple, the largest Bon monastery in Aba Prefecture, in addition to the Northern Heavenly King among the four great kings in the inner world, the gods riding yaks also have images such as the companion god of Nianqing Tangla, the companion god of the mother and child god, and one of the twelve mothers of Yongning. Among them, the Twelve Earth Mothers of Yongning are the rare protectors of Tibetan Buddhism and Buddhism in Tibet.
(Tibetan painting by contemporary Tibetan painter Aung Sang, tibetan, is now an image painting of the Yak Museum.) Photo courtesy of Tibet Yak Museum)
For example, in a Nyingma text, the mount of the local Yongning Twelve Earth Mothers (the twelve main goddesses of the land who blessed Tibet) is a male yak, and the mount of the Qiangji Dinmzong is the Great Wild Yak. In addition to the twelve goddesses of the mother earth, there are also many yak-ridden gods: such as Kisa Mian Jima, wearing a heavy silk robe and a blue silk cloak, decorated with a white conch crown and coral, riding a black wild yak, accompanied by a hundred goddesses as companion gods. The goddess Dorjee wears two figures in Longma, one foot up, one foot stretched, riding on a fierce wild yak, in an angry form, wearing a freshly peeled yak skin, sitting in a posture of one foot up and one foot stretching.
(An ancient silk collection with yak motifs collected at the Yak Museum.) Courtesy photo/Yak Museum)
The process by which yongning twelve mothers were incorporated into the Ten Thousand Buddhas Hall of Tibetan Buddhism is a reflection of the process of the indigenization of Buddhism into Tibetan Buddhism. As Mr. Gazang Tsedan pointed out: "Buddhism is an imported product, but Tibetan Buddhism is not a transplant of Indian Buddhism, but a special product of indian Buddhism's confrontation, friction and mutual compromise, absorption and combination with the local religion Ofbalism in the process of spreading in the snowy land, which is the result of the run-in and integration of the two sides." ”
(The guardian of the Changtang steppe, the wild yak.) Photography by Willow Pine)
The legend of the Twelve Mothers of Yongning and the above-mentioned yala Champo Mountain God is that in the eighth century, the Indian tantric master Lotus was born in Tibet to spread Buddhism and became the protector god of Tibetan Buddhism after being surrendered.
Personally, I believe that Master Lotus reconciled the contradictions between the Buddhas, organically integrated the Buddhas, and established the orthodox status of Buddhism in Tibetan culture, defined the nature of Tibetan Buddhism, and promoted the degree of esotericization of Tibetan Buddhism. The successors of the master also continued to carry forward the master's "thinking", so that the yak, an animal that did not exist in India, continued to "appear" in the Hall of Ten Thousand Buddhas of Tibetan Buddhism (in the Hall of Ten Thousand Buddhas of Tibetan Buddhism, there are many gods as bull heads, such as the two-body Great Vajra, the Duxiong Da Wei De Vajra, the Yan Devil Enemy, and the Verova Vajra, but all come from India, for the buffalo noodles).
(Tibetan contemporary artist Aung Sang's tibetan girl contains yak and auspicious cloud motifs.) Courtesy photo/Yak Museum)
In the Hall of Ten Thousand Buddhas of Tibetan Buddhism, the highest deity associated with yaks should belong to the Yak Face Majestic Protector. Its Buddha-figure attainment method is included in the First Collection of Ran Jiong Hundred Dharmas compiled by His Holiness Doronata. The "Hundred Laws of Ran Jiong" is a Tibetan transliteration, and its transliteration name is "Baoyuan Hundred Laws", which means that the "Treasure Source Hundred Laws" collected by His Holiness Doronata are the source of the treasure of the Buddha-figure attainment method, and after understanding these practices, we get the vein of the treasure, and the other meaning is that this is a collection of Buddha-figure practices. In the book, when contemplating the yak-faced majestic protector, the first thing is to give birth to a mahagala with a sick foot, and to give birth to three sources of law on the opposite side, and the three sources of law are layered with nine horns, and there are corpse pads on the source. In the center, a black yak-faced protector was born, with two arms on one side, a blazing stick in his right hand, a blood-dripping knife in his left hand, and a tiger into an arrow barrel and a leopard skin bow box.
(The murals in the Niangregou Niangre Style Garden in Lhasa City reflect the Scene of Tibetans Using "Two Ox-Raising Bars" for Spring Plowing.) Photography Fan Jiuhui)
In addition to the Yak Face Protector and the Twelve Earth Mothers of Yongning, there are also gods related to yaks among the companions of some of the gods of Tibetan Buddhism. Among the companions of Bandaan Ram, the protector of Lhasa, BanTan Masojem, two of the gods are clothed in yak leather. The blue goddess Dorji Gonchama, dressed in a cloak of a thousand black snakes, used the freshly peeled yak skin as its girdle; the goddess Dorji Gama, dressed in the freshly peeled yak leather as a dress, surrounded by a waist made of a thousand wings. Among the black and red witches riding the blue horse, there is the black and red witch Peng Zhuoma, who wields an iron hook in her right hand, holds the enemy's heart with her left hand, wears a tiger skin apron, and rides a black wild yak. Among the companions of the sister protectors was "a huge wild yak born with the horn of Vajra, as strong as a heavenly dragon, and as fast as a cloud."
The Shrine of Gongkang, where the protector god is enshrined in some Tibetan Buddhist and Bon monasteries, is considered one of the most sacred places in a monastery. At the entrances of these protector temples there are often wild yaks stripped and filled in the form of specimens, and animals such as bears and wolves, who often act as messengers, mounts, or guards of the protectors. This may be the "commonality" of the monasteries of the two sects of Buddhism.