"The Village by the Forest"
Postcard, photographed by Henry Baker
Collection of the Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford
ནགས་ལ་སྦས་ཚུལ་ཤེས།
ནགས་ཀྱི་སྐྱིད་སྣང་ཤེས།
Knowing the art of hiding in the forest, understanding the joy of the deep woods.
Traditionally sung by Congmei Sonam Lodro (མཚུངས་མེད་བསོད་ནམས་བློ་གྲོས་; circa 13th century)
*Holder of the twelfth generation of the Bonpo A-tri Dzogchen lineage.
"Biographical Paintings of Tonpa Shenrab, the Founder of Bon"
18th century, Rubin Museum collection
Detail: Tonpa Shenrab preaching in the forest.
བདག་གིས་བསྟན་ཀྱང་གཞན་གྱིས་མི་ཤེས་ཏེ།
མི་སྨྲ་ནགས་འདབས་གནས་པར་བྱ་བ་སྙམ།
Though I have taught, others do not understand;
it seems better to remain silent and dwell in the forest.
Selected from the *Lalitavistara Sūtra* (རྒྱ་ཆེར་རོལ་པ།).
*1. The Chinese translation is from the version by Dharmarakṣa of the Western Jin dynasty.
2. "Remaining silent" refers to the forest where the Bodhi tree is located.
"Biographical Paintings of Buddha"
Mid-19th century, Rubin family collection
Detail: Requesting the Buddha to Teach—The Buddha's First Turning of the Dharma Wheel.
I don't know how many stories have taken place in the forest—perhaps it is the "unknown nature" closest to humanity. Trees gather to form woods, and when woods rise high, they become forests; even today, humans still know very little about forests, let alone their ways of thinking and unique spirit. In other words, only when you wander through them can you inadvertently receive their messages, and in this somewhat romantic expression, fear, joy, and sorrow are usually intermingled. Even though in previous articles I have separately discussed trees in Tibetan culture (in two parts), "forest" (ནགས་ཚལ་) remains a landscape worthy of its own separate essay. "Tigers and leopards gather in the forest; the wise abide in the forest." As the introductory article to the series on Tibetan "earth divination" (ས་དཔྱད་; or geomancy), the forest will serve as a window into the landscape culture of the high plateau—that is, starting with the definition of "forest" and ultimately confronting the philosophy of "entering the forest."
"Setting Up a Tent Camp at the Edge of the Forest", August 1933, photographed by Ronald Kaulback, Collection of the Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford.
"Lungta / Wind Horse Prayer Flags"
20th century, Buddhist, private collection
Detail: Tiger in the forest
*The tiger, symbolizing the wood element, dwells in the forest.
As an ecosystem, forests are characterized by dense trees, yet the "forest" depicted in Tibetan culture does not always possess this feature. A space with just a few trees, or even a single large tree, can be identified as a "forest" in certain contexts. Thus, the characteristics of trees give rise to different types of forestness—cypress forests, willow forests, sandalwood forests, or mixed woodlands—and people's imaginations of them vary greatly. If trees are vertical microcosms of the universe, then forests are collections of the universe. In Tibetan culture, forests are not only mere landscapes but also subjects with agency. In general, forests are first and foremost transitional spaces (བར་ཀྱི་གནས་), whether based on topography or human living conditions.
"Lungta / Wind Horse Prayer Flags"
19th century, Bon, private collection
Detail: Tiger in the forest.
"Give to the forest, and you will have plenty." Selected from *Geomantic Illustrations: The Clear Mirror*, Bavarian State Library collection.
A transitional space is a passage, and every passage inevitably bears conflict and fusion—it is a neutral space that intervenes in the dualistic world. In most geomantic texts, forests lie between mountains/lakes and plains, serving as landmark groups for determining auspiciousness or inauspiciousness. Moving from the forest toward the mountains and lakes leads into the completely unknown; moving from the forest toward the plains brings one closer to human settlements. Whether in the battles between gods and demons in creation myths, or in folklore stories full of tensions between agricultural and pastoral areas, or in the biographies of the Bon founders, the allure of the forest as a transitional space remains undiminished. Precisely for this reason, the forest is described as a space filled with sounds (སྒྲ་ཡི་གནས་), one that humans cannot understand through language. We need interpreters—the beings that dwell in the forest.
"If You Seek Wealth, Give to the Forest"
Selected from *Geomantic Illustrations: The Clear Mirror*
Bavarian State Library collection.
"Calendrical Charts and Diagrams, and Images of Auspicious Concepts"
Mid-to-late 19th century, private collection
Detail: The Three Birds of Longevity
*i.e., the thousand-year-old crow, the ten-thousand-year-old wild duck, and the hundred-million-year-old cuckoo
*The treetop, trunk, and roots form a metaphor for the universe.
To not treat the forest merely as a resource, one must learn to read its sounds. The taboos concerning forests in Tibetan regions—such as those against logging and sparing trees—are precisely products that translate these sounds into human language. And aiding us in this translation are not only birds and beasts of the forest, but also the special beings known as lu (ཀླུ་) and nyen (གཉན་; see related articles on tree spirits on this platform), which are the forest's shadows. In classics such as the *Sutra of the Hundred Thousand Lu*, it is through their admonitions, punishments, and assistance that humans find their place in nature. The forest, as a space filled with sonic revelations and serving as a transitional space, possesses a "primordial vitality" (the forest being the hair of the earth and mountains); whether this vitality is fraught with danger or is "purely sacred," humans have always believed that here they can discover themselves, insulated from the noise of civilization.
"Lumberjack"
August 1933, photographed by Ronald Kaulback
Collection of the Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford
*Lumberjacks are subject to many taboos.
"Sky Garuda"
Mid-20th century, private collection
*The Garuda symbolizes the fire element.
Dense forests also manifest the vibrant life force of fire.
Whether forced or voluntary, entering the forest signifies transformation—this is not merely a longing for a "pre-civilized state." In Tibetan culture, because of the forest's primordial vitality, it is sometimes described as a place of victory (རྒྱལ་བའི་གནས་). Here, "victory" does not mean suppression or possession; rather, it is closer to a state of continuous dialogue with oneself within the "unfinished." The forest's victory is embodied in its layered concealment and abundance of life, and the contemplative one will attain final victory in seclusion—a victory intimately connected to spiritual liberation. Hölderlin said, "If masters make you hesitate, consult nature"; moreover, in Tibet, the masters remember the precepts. They enter the forest, seeking answers from it to their questions.
"Mahasiddha Gangbala"
Mid-to-late 19th century, Rubin Museum collection.
"The Ninth Dalong Chiba Tashi Paltsek"
Mid-18th century, Rubin Museum collection
Detail: Drakpa Gyaltsen
Drakpa Gyaltsen (གྲགས་པ་རྒྱལ་མཚན་; 1352–1405), who had served as abbot of Bodong E Monastery, decided to relinquish his actual power. When everyone hoped he would hold power permanently, this master who influenced the Bodongpa tradition declared: "One who has heard much dwells in the forest; the elder takes joy in the forest" (མང་དུ་ཐོས་པ་ནགས་ཀྱི་ནང་དག་ཏུ། ལང་ཚོ་ཡོལ་བ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ནགས་ས་བདེ།). This was not an isolated case; the saying is also quoted from the *Vinaya Sūtra*. From the Buddha's biography to the "forest tradition" that influenced early Buddhist development, and then to the forest poems of the mahasiddhas and indigenous scholars collectively known as "forest practitioners," traces of Tibetan philosophical reflection on "entering the forest" can be found. In their poetry, these masters constructed a poetic forest and regarded "entering the forest" as a philosophical practice.
Longchen Nyingthig Lineage: Venerable Longchenpa, mid-20th century, woodblock print, private collection.
Longchen Nyingthig Lineage: Jigme Lingpa, mid-20th century, woodblock print, private collection.
In the following article, we will explore through poetry why the wise enter the forest and what philosophical reflections they engage in after doing so. We will begin with two highly relevant poems: Longchenpa's (1308–1364) *The Discourse on the Forest of Universal Joy* (ནགས་ཚལ་ཀུན་ཏུ་དགའ་བའི་གཏམ།) and Jigme Lingpa's (1730–1798) *Discourse on the Forest* (ནགས་ཚལ་གྱི་གཏམ།; also translated as Forest Proverbs or Forest Chapter). In addition, various related texts can be compared, such as the biography of the Tenth Karmapa (1604–1674), and the poems of Sakya Pandita (1182–1251), Padampa Sangye (?–1117), and Pabongkhapa (1878–1941). In their writings, the silent forest is an inexhaustible source of wisdom.
Padampa Sangye, late 19th century, collection of the Zanabazar Museum of Fine Arts.
