Yeshe Tsogyal can rightly be considered a true mother of Tibetan Buddhism. An intriguing eighth century figure shrouded in legend,

Yeshe Tsogyal is said to have been the spiritual companion of Padmasambhava, the Indian man credited with launching Buddhism in Tibet. As such, Tsogyal is often referred to as first Tibetan Buddhist. But Yeshe Tsogyal was a profound figure in her own right, with a rich source of legends surrounding her and her own unique band of followers. Her teachings are also recorded in some detail.

While I am by no means a Buddhist scholar, after reading her ancient biography, I am struck by the dearth of internet exploration of her divergence from the model of virginal female spirituality, her iconography, the specifics of her teachings, and exploration of her intriguing retinue. In this entry, I am less interested in detailing the story of her learning at the feet of Padmasambhava, but rather looking at her time apart and her relationship with her own disciples.

There is a great deal of the fanciful and mythic in the legend of Yeshe Tsogyal. Authorities on the subject differ on whether she was a historical figure to whose life a great deal of embellishment was added as time passed or whether she is an entirely legendary figure. In either case the story of her life still conveyed an affirmative message for its time on how the aspirations of women should be regarded and how they should be treated.

This article relies on the excellent translation of Tsogyal’s lengthy spiritual biography, Lady of the Lotus-Born: The Life and Enlightenment of Yeshe Tsogyal by Gyalwa Changchub and Namkhai Nyingpo and translated by the Pamdakara Transalation Group (2015). Page numbers following quotations are from this book.

Yeshe Tsogyal and Padmasambhava

The great sage Padmasambhava was said to have been “given” Yeshe Tsogyal by her husband, the historical king of Tibet, Trisong Detsen (reigned 755-797 CE). Yeshe Tsogyal, however, was not identified as one of his wives in contemporary accounts of Trisong Detsen. In her story, Tsogyal was identified as having been both spiritually gifted and physically beautiful as a girl.  

Yeshe Tsogyal is described as the most important “consort” of Padmasambhava, who had several during his lifetime. Guru Rinpoche, as he was also known, was part of the Tantric tradition which allowed that sensual experiences could be part of a person’s spiritual evolution. As I understand it, what that precisely involved is a source of some disagreement among Buddhist historians and adepts. What will be clear from the story of Yeshe Tsogyal is that it includes sensual/sexual elements not typical of the stories of European and Asian female saints.

I may try to add details of their relationship, clearly deeply meaningful to them both, at a later date. For the time being, however, I will segue to the Guru’s passing. Significantly older, as Padmasambhava anticipated his death, he related his wisdom to Tsogyal so that it might be recorded. Tsogyal in turn saw to it that his words were transcribed, then hidden to be found by a worthy individual. She repeated his story and his wisdom and those words were then written down by Namkhai Nyingpo, “adept in the art of writing with miraculous speed.” (132)

Her lament at his death was rich with emotion. “Sorrow and sadness … now you rise into the deathless skies, forsaking me, a woman caught in fleshliness. Whom now shall I ask to bring me progress and dispel my obstacles?” (138)

But her lord lends comforting words, suggesting that he will live on in her. (139-140)

And Yeshe Tsogyal’s life only becomes more remarkable thereafter.

The Works of Yeshe Tsogyal

With the death of her guru, Tsogyal sent out a prayer that she might embody the characteristics most effective in positively influencing others. Her success in this was reflected in the way she said others in need responded to her (and perhaps how she subtly modified her presentation to meet their needs:

“To the poor and needy I was wealth and riches, thus their joy. To the naked I was every kind of raiment, thus their joy. To the childless I was sons and daughters, thus their joy…To the anguished I was all their mind desired, and thus I was their joy.” (161)

The story of her life, as written by two of her disciples, suggested that in the period after the death of her beloved, Tsogyal played a central role in resolving a conflict between two adepts named Kamalashila and Hashang. Hashang asserted that enlightenment could be accomplished in an instant whereas Kamalashila argued that it necessarily must be gradual. Tsogyal fostered a reconciliation between the two men and Kamalashila’s position became law. (151)

It was also said that after his death a former consort of Guru Ripoche, Mandarava, arrived from India with a retinue of her disciples to meet Yeshe Tsogyal. Far from rivals, the two women shared secrets, Mandarava revealing secrets of immortality to Tsogyal. Madarava expressed the hope that the two of them together might send out positive energy to evoke “enlightened actions.” (165)

The Challenges of Women Directly Addressed

At one point during her time with Pamasambhava, Tsogyal complained of how her spiritual journey was negatively impacted by the challenges she faced as a woman. “If food and riches come my way, I am the prey of thieves. Since I am beautiful, I am the quarry of every lecherous knave … If I don’t do what they think I should, the people criticize. If I put a foot wrong, everyone detests me. I have to worry about everything. That is what it is like to be a woman!” (94-95)

Tsogyal asks how she is to achieve enlightenment when sheer survival is a challenge.

Elsewhere, however, Pamasambhava lauds her accomplishments—noting for all to hear that she has done so in the body of a woman. It is her own judgment she can rely on and not the judgment of others. And Tsogyal sees to it that she takes on both female and male disciples.

Consorts and Followers of her Own

Even before her guru’s death, Tsogyal began to gather followers of her own. Guru Ripoche initiated this process by sending his beloved to find a consort of her own, a 17-year old Indian youth living in Nepal named Artsala Sale. (45)

Padmasambhava encouraged to go to Nepal and bring the young man back to Tibet. (49)

Yeshe Tsogyal set off, not knowing where her future friend and companion might be found. But she found him in the city of Kho-khom-hen. The narrative description of the young man who approaches her in a market goes out of its way to emphasize his attractiveness in decidedly sensual fashion.

“There was a gleam of oil on his tanned body. His front teeth were like rows of white shell… His look was open and sincere … and in his eyebrows there was a hint of blue.” (49)

More than just his good looks, however, was the reality that there was a webbing of skin between the base of his fingers, the sign of a daka or spiritual hero. And there was a red birthmark on his chest right over his heart. (45, 215, n.47)

The young man was named Atsara Sale. An Indian bonded servant, Sale wondered if she was there to purchase him. The merchants there were struck by Yeshe Tsogyal’s beauty and recognized her as a dakini, or deeply spiritual woman. She approached Sale’s master to do just that but he declined, stating the young man was like a son to him and, not only that, had only been purchased with a great deal of gold. (51)

The merchant’s wife wondered, “Do you want to marry him?”

But the dakini replied only, “My guru has told me this Indian is very necessary to me.” (52)

Tsogyal only obtains the necessary gold to purchase Sale after bringing another wealthy merchant’s dead son back to life. In wonderment, the original family readily sells Sale to this miraculous woman.

Upon returning to Tiber with Sale, Guru Ripoche approves of her choice. He bestows upon him the name of Arya, and given the cost of his purchase says they should call him, Golden Light. Arya is brought to spiritual maturity and is said to be well on his way on the path of liberation. (59)

The Guru then sent the pair to go to a secret cave and “practice until you gain accomplishment in the Secret Mantra.” And so they did, spending seven months there cultivating the Four Joys, each more subtle and greater than the last.  In so doing, Yeshe Tsolgyal gained mastery of the five elements, able to pass through any object like the wind, and no longer suffering from sickness and declines associated with aging.

Her guru advised her it would be wrong to ever separate from Arya. (64-65)

At one point, however, Sale leaves her, unable to bear seeing her suffer through various austerities, claiming he will serve Guru Ripoche instead of her. But she persisted in her mediation. (72)

Yeshe Tsongyal gathered other disciples along the way. A Bhutan princess named Khyidren offered Tsogyal kindness during similar austerities and her father offers his daughter as a disciple to her as a result. Tsogyal renamed her Trashi Chidren, or “propitious guide of all.” (89)

Padmasambhava ends up asking Tsongyal to allow her to become his new consort. And when Tsongyal agrees she also wonders is Atsara Sale is still suitable to serve as hers. Her Guru advises her to go to Uru in where she will find a youth to be her new companion

Upon bringing him back, Padmasambhava is once again impressed. “He will not be defeated easily—a hero, demon-taming, predicted by the deity, possessing the great strength and power of lions!” The guru renamed him Lhalung Pelgyi Senge or “Lion of Glory whom the deity foretold.” Together Tsogyal and Pelgyi Senge witnessed “the deities of the mandala and gained accomplishment” in the course of their companionship. (95, 98))

But Atsara Sale was not forgotten, taking on an important role as a sacred dancer in their circle, never leaving her retinue. (96)

And after the death of Guru Ripoche, Trashi Chidren returned in discipleship to Tsogyal.

Among some of the other female disciples of Yeshe Tsogyal were Dorje Dudjom, described as “fleet-footed as the wind” in spiritual battle and a Nepalses girl named Kalasiddhi,  noted as “a dakini of the Body Lineage.” (121, 129)

Some of her Teachings Summarized

In the narrative many of the teachings of Yeshe Tsogyal are preserved in the advice she gave to her students as her death approached. Key to this, she advised, was finding an authentic teacher.

Tsogyal emphasized the importance of right view, meditation, and right action time and time again. These she defined with elegant simplicity. “View is freedom from the mind’s analysis and fixing. Meditation is the savoring of uncontrived simplicity. Action is defined as undistracted ease.” (171)

Later she refined and elaborated on these teachings in paradoxical ways. “The View is just the nature of all things … it is not empty, since awareness and great clarity are there; (yet) it has no entity , no permanence, for emptiness inheres in it.” (178)

When successfully meditating, a disciple would gradually become mindful, free of distraction, without fixating on any one particular of what they came to perceive in the nature of things. As for Action, Yeshe Tsogyal advised “uncontrived simplicity” in whatever everyday activity one engaged in. (178-179)

By following the principles of the Buddha, Tsogyal reassured her followers that uncertainty and misconception would resolved naturally, and one will be filled up with compassion as the result.

Tsogyal valued both masculine and feminine. “Blend and mingle energies of male and female,” she advised. “Rely upon the skillful merging of the winds, above, below—male assisting female, female helping male.” (173)

Sex, when practiced in a meditative way in which the practitioners exercised a control of energy, could transcend “ordinary sex” and lead to a blissful state in which intellectuality as an obstacle to enlightenment was temporarily eliminated. Or that’s the best I could discern in passages referring to the “Secret Mantra.” (173)

As Yeshe Tsogyal’s Own Death Nears

Yeshe Tsogyal responded to the final questions of each of her disciples, in this way summarizing her teachings as noted above.

In the story of her life, Atsara Sale is the last to approach the dying dakina.

His question and associated plea are the most plaintive of them all.

“How many more lives must I live before I come to you who dance upon the sky? I pray you, in your mercy, keep me with you, never parted.” (182)

Tsolgyal’s words to him in return are both sweet, frank and practical. Referring to him as her “hero in the skillful means,” she reflects on their relationship:

“You and I were joined as skill means and wisdom. Propitious were the many sacred links we formed in Secret Mantra most profound. Thus you have been blessed with freedom in this life. Yet times there were when you considered me your ordinary friend, sometimes scoffing, sometimes chiding, sometimes doubting…” (183)

For a work often quite fantastical, there is something deeply human and grounded in this summation of their relationship that was both flawed and satisfying.

In the end she is reassuring to her onetime companion. “You will halt the karmic wind and come to Lotus Light. Then, inseparable from me through means and wisdom, and until the stream of wanderers runs dry, you will send your emanations.” That is to say, he will send forth his golden light. (184)

At that juncture, Yeshe Tsogyal spoke to them collectively, advising them want to tell the people of Tibet. She promised to be with them when they prayed. And finished speaking, Tsogyal took on a radiant appearance, shining with five different colors, and disappearing into a ball of deep blue light.

The Iconography of Yeshe Tsolgyal

In paintings of Yeshe Tsogyal, her head is always surrounded by a halo of color, varying in color from portrait to portrait. More often than not she has a long blue scarf floating in the air to either side of her. One translation of her name is given as “victorious ocean of wisdom,” so perhaps the flowing blue scarf is indicative of that. I have been unable to find a source that details the symbolism of her portrayal.

Tsogyal is often shown sitting on a lotus flower carrying a bowl of what appear to be flowers. The use of lotus flower imagery would make sense as her consort and teacher Padmasambhava was in own set of legends known as “lotus-born.”

What is also noteworthy is that in many images of her, Yeshe Tsogyal is portrayed fully clothed and in others mostly or totally naked. In those naked portraits, sometimes the nipples of her breasts are discretely covered by the hanging scarf, other times not. This, as will be noted below, may have served to represent some of Tantric practices that included the spiritual practice of sensuality or sexuality.

The Meaning of Yeshe Tsogyal Explored

As a cultural historian interested in elevating female figures of import to a wider audience, I was frankly mesmerized by this powerful spiritual woman I had never previously heard of. In her struggles and in her refusal to surrender her emotional connection to those dear to her in her spiritual path Yeshe Tsogyal seems a particularly resonant figure to contemplate today. From my readings I gather she is still a beloved figure in Tibet but not so well known elsewhere in the world.

That said, her story and iconography are not without complication, at least to this American writer.

The sexual implications of Yeshe Tsogyal’s nakedness in some of her images, for example, are ones I am culturally ill-equipped to do more than briefly address from my own limited cultural frame. Does her nakedness merely symbolize the sexual element in some aspects of Tantric practice? Is there an objectification of her female body for the gratification of a presumed male readership in the way her story was told? Is there also a profound element of empowerment in a woman of wisdom owning the power of her own body? Perhaps there are aspects of all three in her sprawling legend.

There also seem to be aspects of these three possibilities in the verbal narrative of Yeshe Tsogyal’s story. At one point in her biography she is raped by a band of brigands and brings them to a spiritual place through her forgiveness—seemingly undaunted by the violence committed against her. It is an episode that is extremely troubling to modern ears. One can recognize a spiritual lesson in the story but it seemed geared towards the spiritual advancement of despicable men at the tremendous cost to a single and sacred female body.

And then there is the episode in which Yeshe Tsogyal, while practicing severe austerities, is tempted by a group of malevolent spirits in the form of a group of extremely attractive young men:

“Their faces (were) beautiful and complexions wholesome, good to smell, well built and sturdy—a joy to look at.” (84)

The young men soon revealed themselves to be demonic spirits with ill intentions. They taunted our heroine with vulgarity and fondle her body. Yeshe Tsogyal ultimately triumphed over the temptations, sending some away, others disappearing into thin air and still others changing into deformed figures or even blackened corpses before disappearing from view.

It is gratifying and novel to have the sexual desires of a woman acknowledged as I know of few mythic narratives that do. But one can’t help but wonder if the episode was included for the titillation of an anticipated male readership all the while serving its ultimate message. 

Yet for all of these complicated issues, I can’t help but feel a wonderful and positive energy to Yeshe Tsogyal and her story. I would welcome the comments of any women reading this or Buddhist practitioner who might have other insights to offer up. I offer up my own with humility.

For other powerful women of legend and history, see the Norse goddess Freyja and Ban Zhao, a female Confucian historian.

Mark Carlson-Ghost

Reference

Lady of the Lotus-Born: The Life and Enlightenment of Yeshe Tsogyal by Cyalwa Changchub and Namkhai Nyingpo and translated by the Pamdakara Transalation Group (2015).