Thangtong Gyalpo Earthquake Protection Amulet

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phantom59
Posts: 1485
Joined: Wed Oct 21, 2009 7:30 am

Thangtong Gyalpo Earthquake Protection Amulet

Post by phantom59 »

We published this once before, but all things being equal, this might be a good time to publish it again. Click on the image to download a larger image, then print it out and paste it over doors and windows. I suppose you could carry it on your person, but to my limited knowledge that is not precisely how it was originally intended.

http://tibetanaltar.blogspot.com/2010/0 ... mulet.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

You can copy this image, print it out, paste it up on the wall, and consider it empowered for use. This may be helpful for the earthquake

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HF-7BiYhl7w/S ... h/iron.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Thang Tong Gyalpo also known as Drubthob Chakzampa (lcags zam pa) and Tsundru Zangpo (brtson ’grus bzang po) was a great Buddhist adept, physician, blacksmith, architect, and a pioneering civil engineer.

He is said to have built 58 iron chain suspension bridges around Tibet and Bhutan, several of which are still in use today. He also designed and built several large stupas of unusual design including the great Kumbum Chörten at Chung Riwoche, Tibet; established the monastery of Dege Gonchen (Gongchen Monastery) in Derge; and is considered to be the father of Tibetan opera. He is associated with the Shangpa Kagyu, Nyingma and Sakya traditions of Tibetan Buddhism.

Thangtong Gyalpo was born at Ölpa Lhartse in upper Tsang in 1385 (wood ox year, sixth cycle).Thangtong Gyalpo is best known for his founding of Ache Lhamo, the Tibetan opera, and the numerous iron suspension bridges he built to ease travel and pilgrimage though the Himalayas. He established a song and dance troupe of seven sisters to raise the money needed to build these bridges.

Thangtong Gyalpo also founded Gongchen Monastery, a large Sakya Tibetan Buddhist monastery and printing centre in the town of Derge, in Sichuan, China, previously the Tibetan region of Kham.Thangtong Gyalpo opened the route through the land of Kongpo aborigines (the Lo) where he obtained iron for his bridges and rights of passage for Tibetan pilgrims to visit the holy places in Tsari to the southeast of Dakpo, near the Indian border.

In 1433, Drubthob Thangtong Gyalpo and his disciples traveled to Phari in the Chumbi valley of Tibet, and from there to Paro Taktsang Senge Samdrup in Bhutan. According to his biography, while performing rituals of Vajrakilaya there, he had a vision of the assembly of the Eight Classes of Heruka (sgrub pa bka’ brgyad) meditational deities with Vajrakumara as the central figure.

It is said that a nine headed Naga spirit who was the guardian of the sacred place of Paro Taktsang, declared “your religious inheritance was concealed here by Ogyen Rinpoche, please make your discovery and reveal it”. Thereupon Drubchen Thangtong Gyalpo extracted a sacred scroll ten body lengths long from the cliff of Taktsang. The line of mountains where Taktsang is located is shaped like a black snake with its head in the middle of the Paro valley. On the nose of this snake the Drubthob constructed Dumtseg Lhakhang, a stupa shaped temple and pronounced that all diseases caused by evil spirits residing under the ground were suppressed and that the valley would be free from leprosy.

Arriving at a place called Phurdo, he saw a five coloured rainbow upon which were seated Buddha Amitabha, Avalokitesvara and Padmasambhava and declared that the place was as sacred as Potala mountain. At Tamchogang, at the foot of the Phurdo mountains, he established Tamchog Lhakhang temple and made sacred representations of the Buddha’s body, speech and mind. This temple, which located opposite the road from Paro about 5km before Chudzom, is still maintained by the descendants of Drubtob Thang Tong Gyalpo.

From there he travelled to Drawang Tengchin where a rich man named Olag presented him three hundred and forty coins and turquoises and requested him to extract water. He did so and the water was sufficient to feed not only the people and cattle but also irrigate the fields. He then arrived at Gophog and told Lama Gyaltshen that he needed large quantities of iron to help him build links for compassionate purposes. Lama Gyaltshen answered that he would make available one hundred pieces of iron if the Drubthob could show him a proof of his attainment. The Drubthob told him to bring a boulder that was near the bridge which he split it into two just just pointing his finger. Within the stone they saw a live scorpion, the size of a thumb with innumerable of new-born scorpions. The Drubthob prayed in Samadhi and the insects instantly disappeared in the form of a rainbow ans he proclaimed that he had sent them to Sukhavati.

At Wundul Shari, he climed a steep mountain cliff, impossible to climb by the ordinary humans and stayed there for a month. He said that the cliff contained caves like Tashigomang and the place resembled Shambala in the north. However, he said, as the ordinary people could not go there, he had made a door. When the people looked up they found an opening that did not exist earlier on the face of the cliff. Then he travelled to Wundul, Gyaldung and Langsamar, and upper and lower Ha region. He converted the offerings that he received into iron and renovated the iron bridge there. Then he went back to Dromo Dorje Gur in Tibet.

From there, he travelled again to Thimphu and Thed valleys where he built an iron bridge at Bardrong. His journey then took him to Rued and Kunzangling where Lama Thuchen presented him with two hundred and fifty pieces of iron. It is said that he also built the Chiwotokha Lhakhang [in Shar district] during this visit. He took all the offerings including the iron pieces to Paro, turning himself into eighteen persons, he went into different villages such as Dolpoiphu, Tsharlungnang, Dungkhar, Jiwu, Nyagbu and Lholingkha, and instructed eighteen blacksmiths to forge iron links.

After about three months, he had seven thousand iron links and many iron hammers and bars. At Kewangphug and other places, he built stupas to subdue the spirits of these areas. At Changlungkha Rawakha, Nyal Phagmodrong, Tachogang, Wundul Dronkar, Silung, Bagdrong, Binangkhachey, Daglha, Gyirling and Nyishar, he conducted a lot of religious activities by providing image, scripture, stupa, iron bridges and established meditation centres.

When he returned to Phari, the patrons and monks of the new monastery in Paro, reached one thousand four hundred loads of iron (fifteen pieces of iron making a load), and seven hundred loads of ink, paper and other goods to Phari.

Thangtong Gyalpo is said to have "passed away bodily, in the way of a sky-farer" in his 125th year at Riwoche.
cjdevries
Posts: 598
Joined: Wed Feb 04, 2015 8:06 pm

Re: Thangtong Gyalpo Earthquake Protection Amulet

Post by cjdevries »

This would probably be a good post to look at right now for those in California or the Pacific Northwest; or any place with earthquake danger.
"Please call me by my true names so I can wake up; so the door of my heart can be left open: the door of compassion." -Thich Nhat Hanh

"Ask: what's needed of you" -Akong Rinpoche

"Love never claims, it ever gives. Love ever suffers, never resents, never revenges itself." -Gandhi
cjdevries
Posts: 598
Joined: Wed Feb 04, 2015 8:06 pm

Re: Thangtong Gyalpo Earthquake Protection Amulet

Post by cjdevries »

Someone else on the forum posted this before, but I am posting it again here. It's the color version of earthquake protection amulet.
Attachments
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"Please call me by my true names so I can wake up; so the door of my heart can be left open: the door of compassion." -Thich Nhat Hanh

"Ask: what's needed of you" -Akong Rinpoche

"Love never claims, it ever gives. Love ever suffers, never resents, never revenges itself." -Gandhi
pemachophel
Posts: 2228
Joined: Sat Dec 25, 2010 9:19 pm
Location: Lafayette, CO

Re: Thangtong Gyalpo Earthquake Protection Amulet

Post by pemachophel »

For best effect, it should be consecrated. That goes for all sung-khor, Tibetan protection mandalas and amulets.
Pema Chophel པདྨ་ཆོས་འཕེལ
cjdevries
Posts: 598
Joined: Wed Feb 04, 2015 8:06 pm

Re: Thangtong Gyalpo Earthquake Protection Amulet

Post by cjdevries »

how is it consecrated?
"Please call me by my true names so I can wake up; so the door of my heart can be left open: the door of compassion." -Thich Nhat Hanh

"Ask: what's needed of you" -Akong Rinpoche

"Love never claims, it ever gives. Love ever suffers, never resents, never revenges itself." -Gandhi
pemachophel
Posts: 2228
Joined: Sat Dec 25, 2010 9:19 pm
Location: Lafayette, CO

Re: Thangtong Gyalpo Earthquake Protection Amulet

Post by pemachophel »

First, the person consecrating the sung-khor has to have some mantra power. This means they have accomplished at least one mantra, best with signs. Functionally, this tends to mean a Lama. Secondly, that person recites a consecration mantra, typically dropping some grains of rice onto the sung-khor while saying the mantra. Different Lamas use different mantra. In some cases, the Lama may say a consecration mantra and then blow on the sung-khor. In yet other cases, the Lama may put their thumb-print on the back. In yet other cases, the sung-khor has to be written with a certain kind of ink on a certain kind of paper. Sometimes the sung-khor is given a wash with a liquid made from consecrated substances or from a combination of specific substances listed in the sung-khor's instructions. It once took me two years to obtain one such ingredient necessary to consecrate/activate a particular mantra amulet.

The reason I mentioned consecration above is because we cannot just download a sung-khor off the Internet and expect it to work. True, there are some mantra that have an effect simply by seeing their written form. But sung-khor typically need to be consecrated. In other words, someone with some power has to "breathe life into them." For me, this is a big issue. Because of the Internet, so many people are trying to practice this or that aspect of Vajrayana Buddhism without its living transmission, without real-life guidance, without lung/oral transmission, and without the power from extended/extensive practice. Personally, and this is just me, I see this as both a symptom of the degeneration of the Kali Yuga and the cause of further degeneration. I know some people say this electronic transmission may help save the Vajrayana from extinction in this perilous time, but I'm dubious. Sorry for the rant.
Pema Chophel པདྨ་ཆོས་འཕེལ
cjdevries
Posts: 598
Joined: Wed Feb 04, 2015 8:06 pm

Re: Thangtong Gyalpo Earthquake Protection Amulet

Post by cjdevries »

I just found the amulet available for free download on FPMT: https://shop.fpmt.org/Thang-Thong-Gyalp ... _2640.html

"Lama Zopa Rinpoche has requested that this Thang Thong Gyalpo protection image (PDF) be made available to all students living in areas threatened by earthquakes. Rinpoche recently added text to the image, which he is recommending to students in Taiwan, California, New Zealand and other areas around the world that are in danger of having earthquakes. The earthquake protection should be displayed (i.e., posted on walls).

'Rinpoche uses the example of a place in Solu Khumbu where all the houses were destroyed after the April 2015 earthquake except one house that had this protection on the walls,' Ven. Holly Ansett said about the protection. 'Rinpoche has all the FPMT centers in Nepal displaying it.'"
"Please call me by my true names so I can wake up; so the door of my heart can be left open: the door of compassion." -Thich Nhat Hanh

"Ask: what's needed of you" -Akong Rinpoche

"Love never claims, it ever gives. Love ever suffers, never resents, never revenges itself." -Gandhi
TrimePema
Posts: 366
Joined: Fri Jan 03, 2014 1:16 am

Re: Thangtong Gyalpo Earthquake Protection Amulet

Post by TrimePema »

pemachophel wrote: Sat Nov 16, 2019 11:11 pm First, the person consecrating the sung-khor has to have some mantra power. This means they have accomplished at least one mantra, best with signs. Functionally, this tends to mean a Lama. Secondly, that person recites a consecration mantra, typically dropping some grains of rice onto the sung-khor while saying the mantra. Different Lamas use different mantra. In some cases, the Lama may say a consecration mantra and then blow on the sung-khor. In yet other cases, the Lama may put their thumb-print on the back. In yet other cases, the sung-khor has to be written with a certain kind of ink on a certain kind of paper. Sometimes the sung-khor is given a wash with a liquid made from consecrated substances or from a combination of specific substances listed in the sung-khor's instructions. It once took me two years to obtain one such ingredient necessary to consecrate/activate a particular mantra amulet.

The reason I mentioned consecration above is because we cannot just download a sung-khor off the Internet and expect it to work. True, there are some mantra that have an effect simply by seeing their written form. But sung-khor typically need to be consecrated. In other words, someone with some power has to "breathe life into them." For me, this is a big issue. Because of the Internet, so many people are trying to practice this or that aspect of Vajrayana Buddhism without its living transmission, without real-life guidance, without lung/oral transmission, and without the power from extended/extensive practice. Personally, and this is just me, I see this as both a symptom of the degeneration of the Kali Yuga and the cause of further degeneration. I know some people say this electronic transmission may help save the Vajrayana from extinction in this perilous time, but I'm dubious. Sorry for the rant.
So what do you say about the above post?
pemachophel
Posts: 2228
Joined: Sat Dec 25, 2010 9:19 pm
Location: Lafayette, CO

Re: Thangtong Gyalpo Earthquake Protection Amulet

Post by pemachophel »

One does what one can do. Something is better than nothing. Nevertheless, better if consecrated.
Pema Chophel པདྨ་ཆོས་འཕེལ
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