The White Conch of Sakya: A Sacred Gift from Buddha to Kublai Khan

The monastery issues a blessing card titled "Sagya Monastery Auspicious Right-Turning White Conch Shell." According to many classical texts, this conch originally belonged to Shakyamuni Buddha, presented by Indra (or, some say, a celestial king) when the Buddha first turned the wheel of Dharma. From South Asia, it was given as a gift to East Asian monarchs, and ultimately offered by Kublai Khan to Pakpa (alternatively, Khutughtu is said to have offered it to Sakya Pandita). Should you be interested in our seashell crafts, please click on the link: Conch Amulet.

Both monks and laypeople of the Sakya sect employ the conch shell to convey Pakpa's two roles: successor to the orthodox teachings and overseer of military and political affairs in Tibetan regions. A partial representation, sourced from "The Twelve Deeds of Shakyamuni Buddha," depicts Brahma offering the golden wheel and Indra offering the conch shell. This piece dates to the mid-19th century and belongs to the Rubin Museum Collection. A "Right-turning white conch shell with seed syllables" is held in a private collection.

སྔོན་ཡང་དག་པར་རྫོགས་པའི་སངས་རྒྱས་ཤཱཀྱ་ཐུབ་པ་ལ། ལྷའི་དབང་པོ་བརྒྱ་བྱིན་གྱིས་དུང་དཀར་པོ་གཡས་སུ་འཁྱིལ་བ་ཕུལ་བས། བཀྲ་ཤིས་པའི་རྫས་སུ་བྱིན་གྱིས་བརླབ་པ་དེ་བཞིན་དུ། （……） དུང་ནི་ཆོས་ཀྱི་སྒྲ་རྣམས་སྒྲོགས་པའི་ཚུལ། ཡེ་ཤེས་རྒྱ་མཚོ་ཉིད་དུ་དག་གྱུར་ཏེ། ཆོས་རྣམས་མ་ནོར་ཡོངས་སུ་སྟོན་པ་ཡི། བཀྲ་ཤིས་དེས་ཀྱང་ཚིག་དབང་ཐོབ་གྱུར་ཅིག། At first, the King of the Gods, Indra, presented a right-turning conch shell as an offering to the fully awakened and perfect Buddha, Shakyamuni.

The conch shell, therefore, came to be regarded as a symbol of good fortune (......) Through the conch, the sound of the Dharma reverberates, giving rise to an ocean of wisdom that reveals without error the true nature of all phenomena, while offering prayers to receive the teachings of excellent speech.

A passage from Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo's (འཇམ་དབྱངས་མཁྱེན་བརྩེའི་དབང་པོ་; 1820–1892) "The Offering Ritual of the Eight Auspicious Objects and Seven Royal Emblems" (རྫས་བརྒྱད་སྣ་བདུན་སྦྱིན་ཚུལ།) recounts how one of Dölpopa's students, born in the eastern region of Kham, later became known as Chökyap Kawa Che (14th century). The same excerpt presents Dölpopa (1292–1361), the central master of the Jonang tradition, as an extremely contentious scholar and classic author in Tibet.

Dölpopa prophesied that Chökyap Kawa Che would receive special guidance from a conch shell originating from South Asia, which had been gifted to the student when his teacher asked him to return to his homeland and spread the teachings. On the journey back, as the prophecy foretold, the student first encountered a blue-robed woman—an emanation of the Dakini—who gave him a donkey. He then loaded the donkey with his teacher's writings.

Rinchen Pel (1350-1435), a senior monk of the Jonang tradition, received as a blessing a conch shell and a donkey carrying a stupa from the monastic community of Jonang Monastery. This was in preparation for the journey that, in 1380, his teacher told him had been prophesied by master Dölpopa—a journey to spread the teachings in Kham and Amdo. While that donkey rested on the ground, the student blew the conch, and within its sound came the voices of the deities and Dölpopa, revealing the exact place to erect a temple.

Within the Jonang tradition's narratives concerning the "origins of temple building"—where comparable motifs appear in other traditions as well—the conch shell consistently holds a central position. According to the classic prophetic accounts, the shell is believed to emit a sound on its own at the moment a donkey lies down to rest, thereby marking the optimal site for a temple's construction. Notably, the chain of Jonang monasteries that Rinchen Pel and his successors progressively expanded would subsequently serve as refuges for the tradition during the 17th century.

The white conch shell, more than any other, can signify the Buddha as well as his teaching—why is that? The first story assigns the conch to the Buddha's relics, the scriptures to the doctrine, and the donkey and the student to the Dharma protectors and the Sangha, respectively. In the second story, the conch instead signifies the doctrine, while the stupa borne by the donkey signifies the Buddha's relics.

Practitioners and devotees see the conch shell as a symbol, because it is one of the auspicious offerings (together with the eight auspicious symbols and offerings to the goddesses). 'The Long Scroll of Mandala Offerings: Offering Incense to the Heavenly Conch Maidens,' stored in the Rubin Museum, dates to the mid to late 19th century. Meanwhile, 'Longing for Gaali: The White Conch' is from the late 19th century and belongs to the snow humble archives collection.

Mid-11th-century Four-armed Vajrasattva Statue is housed in the Jokhang Temple in Lhasa. Among celestial maidens offering conch shells, three types are common: the Heavenly Conch Maidens with conch shells filled with fragrant spices (དྲི་ཆབ་མ་), the Conch Maidens playing the conch (དུང་མ་), and the Conch Maidens holding nectar beverages in conch shells (བདུད་རྩི་མ་). These correspond respectively to the "Five Sensory Pleasures" (འདོད་ཡོན་ལྔ་), focusing on the pleasure of fragrance (most prominent), sound, and taste.

Created by Navin Kumar in the mid-15th century, the Benzhu deity Weiseang Bazha Gali: Attendant with a Conch Crown is connected to the flaming conch that Vajrasattva grips in his left hand. Held with a right-turning spiral, this shell (མེ་འབར་དུང་དཀར་; पाञ्चजन्य) embodies infinite time and space, holds sway over the five aggregates (སྐྱེ་བ་ལྔ་), and, through its resonance, stirs awareness of "original creation.

In Tibet, the conch-shaped helmet (a special ornament of deities) is not the only such item; earrings and bracelets crafted from conch shells (དུང་ལོང་དང་དུང་འཁོར་) are also common there. The shell is tied to the essence of the water element and the treasures of the water realm, and its spiral design (དུང་འཁྱིལ་རི་མོ་/དུང་རྟགས་) has been viewed as an auspicious sign handed down from ancient times.

In the Buddhist worldview, the Capricorn—referring to all water monsters—and the conch are the two foremost spiritual tribes within the aquatic realm, where each possesses secret wisdom and immense wealth. Classical literature and religious rituals portray them as mutual enemies, and Tibetan scholars habitually refer to the conch as the 'enemy of the Capricorn' (ཆུ་སྲིན་གཤེད་). Meanwhile, the Dragon Clan unquestionably reigns as the supreme master over all aquatic realms.

In the Buddhist composite depiction of the "three beasts not in harmony" (མི་མཐུན་གཡུལ་རྒྱལ་གསུམ་), the creature that results from a Capricorn and a conch mating serves as a symbol for philosophical concepts concerning "opposition and coexistence." Three reasons are commonly given for the two tribes' hostility: the conch's master refuses to offer his palace as shelter for the Capricorn; the Capricorn's master finds the conch's noise irritating; and third.

In the conception of royal authority across South Asia, both the Capricorn and the conch carry supreme symbolic weight. The Capricorn adorns palaces and gateways, whereas the conch is associated with the king's attire and ceremonial insignia (see the Tibetan term drawn from South Asia ཤཾ་ཁ་; शङ्ख). Meanwhile, each side contends for mastery over the seabed's riches and perils.

Whether blown as a battlefield horn—in Tibetan, the word for conch also denotes various horns or commands—or employed in ceremonies to manifest a special form of power (unquestionably, the authority of sound), the conch’s appearance frequently signals a “critical moment,” and it remains connected with “supreme perfection.” In ancient times, within Tibetan Buddhism, shells may have carried more importance than conches.

People see the conch as a sign of action when it appears in Tibetan classics under the name "recording machine of the Buddha" (from the 16th Gyalwa Karmapa). Shells (མགྲོན་བུ་), particularly fossilized ones, symbolize the origin of time and life, and have also served as currency and talismans. In addition, the conch helps people wake from unconscious sleep and participate in noble spiritual activities.

According to ancient Tibetan narratives, the conch emits an extremely subtle tone that lies beyond the hearing of ordinary humans. Every conch sound heard in the world—including the various types used as musical instruments—is merely a rough echo of that faint resonance. Beyond this spiritual quality, the conch is also thought to bear the closest resemblance in shape to white bones (དུང་ཁྲག་), which represent the pure form of the mundane body.

By sounding the white conch at the cliffs, practitioners produce a resonance that crosses the divide between life and death, carrying the principles of cause and effect into the everyday existence of those who remain shut off from them.

The article’s author is Sangwang Tsering. Its subject matter includes the Rubin Museum’s late-20th-century piece “The Incompatible Trio: Conch Shell and Capricorn”, along with two privately held conch shells: the 18th-century “Turquoise-Inlaid Dragon-Design Gold-Winged Conch Shell” (དུང་དཀར་གཤོག་པ་ཅན་) and the 17th-century “Gem-Inlaid Seven-Jeweled Copper-Winged Conch Shell” (དུང་དཀར་རག་གཤོག་མ་).