Rare Western Regions Edition ▎Map of Shambhala (Middle)
"Shambhala Dharma King and Dharma Seed King" (First Scroll)
Mid-19th Century, Private Collection
*Including Seven Generations of Dharma Kings and the First Four Generations of Dharma Seed Kings
"Shambhala Dharma King and Dharma Seed King" (Middle Scroll)
Mid-19th Century, Private Collection
*The Twelve Dharma Seed Kings from the Fifth to the Sixteenth
"Shambhala is all too easily described as a paradise, an imaginary and illusory inner pure land that we visualize in our minds, where people can escape from the unpleasant realities of the surrounding world."
— From *The Way to Shambhala* by Edwin Bernbaum (1945– )
"Shambhala Dharma King and Dharma Seed King" (Final Scroll)
Mid-19th Century, Private Collection
*The Remaining Nine Dharma Seed Kings Under the Three Protectors
The original set may have four scrolls (including Shambhala)
Detail of the above image: Amita King
The Current Dharma Seed King
(མ་འགགས་པ་; Aniruddhapatha)
1906 | Source of Mysterious Materials
"Delzhi / Ngawang Losang Dorje"
1900, Collection of the State Library of New South Wales
As described in "Shambhala Map · Part One", since the 1880s, Russian expeditions to the Turpan region deepened the Germans' "Oasis Imagination". Moreover, the differentiated understandings of Shambhala within Russia also made their way to Europe with the currents of the era, and Grünwedel was influenced by them as well. Whether it was the Theosophical tradition pioneered by the Russian aristocrat Helena Blavatsky (1831-1891), or the Buryat monk Delzhi (Ngawang Losang Dorje; 1854-1938) who held a political identity, each of them, based on their own superficial understanding of "Shambhala", exploited this seemingly vague yet still evolving concept, and "no one delved into the original form of Shambhala."
"Helena Blavatsky"
Painted by Hermann Schmiechen in 1884
Private Collection
According to Grünwedel's records, he not only came into contact with the "charlatans" roaming Europe but also communicated extensively in Russia with those who were already familiar with the original meaning of "Shambhala", such as Delzhi. In *The Way to Shambhala*, Grünwedel claimed that during a ceremony held at the Zha Cang Monastery (གྲྭ་ཚང་དགོན་; St. Petersburg / built in 1900), Delzhi propagated the argument that "Russia is Shambhala, and His Majesty the Tsar is the White Tara" (1913). Considering that this ceremony was meant to celebrate the 300th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty, Delzhi's action was essentially political propaganda. Nevertheless, as early as 1902, when Grünwedel first went to Russia, he had already obtained a large amount of material, such as Tibetan texts and oasis maps, through Russian scholars and the aforementioned groups.
"Group Photo in Front of Kizil Cave 4"
Third Expedition Period, 1906
*Sitting in the middle is Grünwedel
By 1906, during the third expedition of the German "Turpan Expedition Team", Grünwedel again had conversations with Delzhi and other northern Asian monks and laypeople. Importantly, during this period, Grünwedel copied and traced the illustrated and textual materials from the collection of the late monk Sherab Sengge (ཤེས་རབ་སེང་གེ་), which formed the majority of the "Map of Shambhala". In current academia, no one knows the true identity of Sherab Sengge; some say he was a northern Asian monk, while others claim he came from Tibet and eventually settled in northern Asia. Large-scale painted thangkas, tracings of original paintings from Tibet, and additional details added — such was Grünwedel's impression when he first saw these materials. In his view, these materials that he was copying seemed to confirm his own hypothesis: the prototype of Shambhala might lie in Central Asia.
"Manlung Guru Route Book" Interior Page
Collection of a Monastery in Kham
It must be said that this view is both puzzling yet consistent with some earlier textual accounts. As the abbot of Manlung Monastery and a lineage holder of the Kalachakra teachings, Manlung Guru (མན་ལུང་གུ་རུ་; 1239– ) described the specific location of Shambhala in his route book (མན་ལུང་གུ་རུའི་ལམ་ཡིག་): traveling north from Nepal to Khotan (ལི་ཡུལ་), one reaches the Tarim River, and the Tianshan Mountains to its north form the southern border of the kingdom of Shambhala. It is generally believed that Manlung Guru himself never arrived there. When the First Sangye Nyenpa (སངས་རྒྱས་མཉན་པ་༠༡; 1457–1519) suggested to a friend that they go to Shambhala, he was mocked: "Even Manlung Guru and Orgyenpa (ཨོ་རྒྱན་པ་; 1229–1309) could not reach it." Nevertheless, this narrative of Shambhala highlights an artificially constructed connection between the vast Western Regions and this pure land.
"Kagyu Lineage: The First Sangye Nyenpa"
Thangka detail, first half of the 16th century
Collection of the Rubin Museum
11th Century | The Kingdom in a Time of Crisis
"Kalachakra Pure Land: The Kingdom of Shambhala"
Mid-19th century, Collection of the Rubin Museum
In the 11th century or earlier, Buddhists were facing "The Threat from Islam", and this was also true across Central Asia (including the Western Regions). From the mid-10th century onward, the Buddhist kingdom of Khotan began waging wars with the Karakhanid Khanate, and some of Khotan's practitioners began relocating to more stable areas such as Dunhuang. By the end of the 11th century, the Kuchans (གུ་ཟན་) also broke away from the Uighur Kingdom of Qocho, submitted to the Kashgar Khan, and converted to Islam. Coincidentally, in Tibet, during this period (and later), a large number of scholars from across South Asia entered Tibet, and contemporary texts more or less mention the above historical context. Therefore, many scholars today interpret this specific background as the real-world cause for the emergence of the Kalachakra teachings.
Detail of the above image: The Great War of Shambhala
As John R. Newman stated in his book: "In the Kalachakra teachings, myth and history are intertwined and fused." Rather than being a specific place, "Shambhala" is better understood as the supreme manifestation of a certain historical context — that is, the lineage of the Kalachakra teachings guarded by the Dharma Kings and Dharma Seed Kings of Shambhala, along with the resulting view of time and allegories of practice. People can faithfully believe that these teachings originated from the time of the Buddha himself, and simultaneously, based on a study of the references, set the upper limit of their emergence in the late 10th century — these two are not contradictory. Under this premise, we can understand the actions of those constantly searching for prototypes: within a philosophical framework, they yearn to uncover the real history that once took place in the world. Thus, "Shambhala" becomes an assemblage of the imagination.
"Tsilu Pa / ཙི་ལུ་པ་"
Woodblock print, from the set of the "Five Original Forefathers of Kalachakra"
*The first master to receive the Kalachakra teachings from the Kingdom of Shambhala
Apart from those who completely deny the "Map of Shambhala," earlier scholars have always hoped to date this set of materials to an earlier period, such as the mid-to-late 8th century when Tibet fully controlled the Four Garrisons (with Tibetans long residing there even after the empire's collapse), or even earlier. Based solely on the Kalachakra elements that repeatedly appear in the "Map of Shambhala," this logic seems untenable. If we take the 11th century as a dividing line, then the "Map of Shambhala" likely dates no earlier than the 13th to 14th centuries (see Sam Van Schaik's article). This set of mysterious original texts depicting the Western Regions incorporates the understanding and analysis of earlier history by Tibetan-language users, and then, combined with the landscapes before their eyes, imagines their own Shambhala — an oasis kingdom where the Dharma flourishes — through a mixture of truth and falsehood.
"Middle Persian Manichaean Hymn Manuscript"
Excavated from Turpan, Collection of the Museum of Indian Art in Berlin
In the final article, we will analyze in detail the visual and textual materials within the "Map of Shambhala". Before that, however, there is another theory that needs to be clarified: the connection between the Kalachakra teachings and Manichaeism (which was also Grünwedel's core argument in his later period). Manichaeism once held absolute discursive power in the Western Regions, and the Uighur Khanate and later the Qocho Uighurs regarded it as their state religion. Yet, when examining the foreign influences on the Kalachakra teachings, one finds no trace of Manichaean doctrines affecting it; rather, the influences come more from Hinduism and Jainism. Although the scholarly community is deeply interested in the relationship between Manichaeism and Tibet, existing materials, such as Trisong Detsen's *Brief Compilation of Pramana* (ཚད་མ་ལས་མདོ་བཏུས་པ་), are full of criticism of Manichaeism (མར་མ་ནི་), accusing it of "integrating completely disparate doctrines into one."
"Kalachakra Mandala"
Mid-14th Century, Pelkor Chode Monastery in Gyantse
Photographed by Michael Henss