To Sound the Sacred Hidden Voice: Conch Shells in Himalayan Art.
"Sakya Monastery Auspicious Right-Turning White Conch Shell" - blessing card issued by the monastery
Most classical sources claim that the conch shell originally belonged to Shakyamuni Buddha, and was offered by Indra (or some say a celestial king) when the Buddha first turned the wheel of dharma. It was then presented as a gift to East Asian rulers from South Asia, and eventually offered by Kublai Khan to Pakpa as a gift. The Sakya school of Buddhism used the conch shell to symbolize Pakpa's dual identity as the transmitter of orthodox teachings and as the ruler of the Tibetan military and political power.
Local: The Brahma offers the golden wheel, Indra offers the conch shell
From "The Twelve Deeds of Shakyamuni Buddha"
Mid-19th century, Rubin Museum collection
"White Spiral Seashell with Seed Characters", 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, King Indra presented the right-turning conch shell to the fully enlightened Buddha Shakyamuni as an offering. Thus, the conch shell came to be seen as an auspicious object. The sound of the law resounds through the conch, indicating the wisdom ocean is thus formed, revealing the true nature of all things accurately. I pray to receive the teachings of good speech.
From "Offering the Eight Auspicious Objects and the Seven Royal Emblems"(རྫས་བརྒྱད་སྣ་བདུན་སྦྱིན་ཚུལ།) by Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo (འཇམ་དབྱངས་མཁྱེན་བརྩེའི་དབང་པོ་；1820-1892).
As the core master of the Jonang school, Dolpopa Sherab Gyaltsen (དོལ་པོ་བ་；1292-1361) was a highly controversial scholar and classical writer in Tibetan Buddhism. One of his disciples, born in the Kham region of eastern Tibet, was later revered as Jamyang Khyentse Wangpoche (བྱམས་པ་ཁ་བོ་ཆེ་;14th century). When this student was asked by his teacher to return to his homeland to propagate the dharma, he was gifted a white right-turning conch shell (དུང་དཀར་གཡས་འཁྱིལ་) from South Asia by Dolpopa. Additionally, Dolpopa prophesied that Jamyang Khyentse would receive special guidance from the conch shell.
True to the prophecy, on his journey back, the student first received a donkey from a blue-clad woman (an emanation of the goddess Tara), who carried his teacher's texts atop it. When the donkey rested, the student blew the conch shell, and voices of the deities and Dolpopa were heard from within, guiding him to the most auspicious site for building a temple.
By the year 1380, a Jonang high lama named Rinchen Pel (རིན་ཆེན་དཔལ་; 1350-1435) was also informed by his teacher that the master Dolpopa had foretold his journey to Kham and Amdo to spread the dharma. As a blessing for Rinchen Pel's impending travels, the monks at Jonang Monastery gifted him a white right-turning conch shell and a donkey carrying a stupa on its back.
In the narrative of these prophecies, the conch shell plays a significant role. In the first story, the conch represents the Buddha's relics, the texts represent the teachings, while the donkey and the student symbolize the protectors and the sangha, respectively. In the second story, the conch symbolizes the teachings, and the stupa on the donkey's back symbolizes the Buddha's relics.
Why can the conch shell (especially the white right-turning conch) symbolize both the Buddha and his teachings? Furthermore, as conch shells are considered exceptional offerings (part of the eight auspicious symbols and the offerings to celestial beings), they are also seen as symbols for practitioners and devotees alike.
"The Heart of Longqin Za Galili: Bai Ha Luo"
At the end of the 19th century, it was stored in the Xueqian Archives.
"Offering Mandala Scroll: Offering Incense to Devi" from the late 19th century, collected by the Rubin Museum of Art.
The three types of celestial maidens who use conch shells for offerings:
The celestial maiden who fills the conch shell with aromatic substances (scent desire)
The conch shell maiden who plays the conch shell (sound desire)
The celestial maiden who holds the conch shell with nectar (taste desire)
They respectively represent the "five sensory desires":
The desire of smell (mostly represented by this) - the desire of sound - the desire of taste
"Four-Armed Avalokiteshvara Statue", mid-11th century, collected in the Jokhang Temple in Lhasa.
The left hand of Pisheynu holds the conch shell with flames erupting( མེ་འབར་དུང་དཀར་; पाञ्चजन्य ), known as Pancajanya. Holding the right-turning conch shell in the left hand symbolizes infinite time and space. The flaming conch shell holds special control over the "Five Aggregates". The sound of the conch shell can awaken people's perception of "original creation".
"The Benzene Scriptures: The Revered Vitharangaba Zaali – Attendant with a Conch Shell Crown"
In the mid-15th century, Navin Kumar collecting.
Not only the conch-shaped helmet (a special decoration of the gods),
but also earrings and bracelets ( དུང་ལོང་དང་དུང་འཁོར་ ) made of conch shells are common in the Tibetan area.
They are related to the essence of the water element and treasures of the water.
And the spiral pattern is also considered as an auspicious symbol inherited from ancient times ( དུང་འཁྱིལ་རི་མོ་/དུང་རྟགས་ ).
There is no doubt that the dragon race is the master of the water domain in the Buddhist world view, while the capricorn (referring to all water monsters) and the conch form the two most important spiritual groups in the water domain. In classical literature and religious rituals, these two groups, each holding secret wisdom and vast wealth, are considered enemies. Tibetan scholars are accustomed to referring to the conch as the "enemy of the capricorn" (ཆུ་སྲིན་གཤེད་).
In the "unparalleled three victorious beasts" (མི་མཐུན་གཡུལ་རྒྱལ་གསུམ་) image commonly used by Buddhists, the hybrid descendants of the capricorn and conch are used to symbolize philosophical insights about "opposition and coexistence". Common reasons for the hostility between these two groups include: 1. The lord of the conch is unwilling to provide his palace to help the capricorn seek refuge; 2. The lord of the capricorn is annoyed by the noise created by the conch; 3. Both sides are vying for control of the underwater treasures and disasters.
In South Asian concepts of royalty, the capricorn and conch are both symbols of supremacy. The capricorn is used to decorate palaces and treasury doors, while the conch is associated with the clothing and regalia of kings (see Tibetan derivative from South Asia ཤཾ་ཁ་;शङ्ख). The appearance of the conch often heralds the arrival of a "critical moment".
Whether blowing the conch on the battlefield (conch in Tibetan also refers to various horns or commands), or using the conch in ceremonies to showcase a special form of power (undeniable authority of sound), the conch is always associated with "supreme perfection". In ancient Tibetan times, shells may have been more important than conch. Shells (མགྲོན་བུ་; especially fossilized shells) symbolize the origin of time and life, and are also used as currency and talismans.
When the conch appears in Tibetan classics as the "Buddha's recording machine" (from the 16th Karmapa), people see it as a sign of action. The conch will help people break free from unconscious slumber and engage in lofty spiritual pursuits. In classical Tibetan narratives, the conch has a kind of sublime sound that ordinary people cannot hear, and the conch sounds in the world are rough imitations of this sound (even the various conch shells used as musical instruments).
In addition to the spiritual sound, the conch's form is also considered closest to white bones (དུང་ཁྲག་), the pure appearance of the corporeal body. When practitioners blow the white conch on cliff edges, its sound can transcend the boundaries of life and death, and bring the laws of karma into people's daily lives, even if they close their eyes and ears.
Collected by the Rubin Museum in the mid-to-late 20th century
From the 18th century, housed in the Tibet Museum.
