The Mountain Deity's Realm: Tibet's Sacred Peaks Between Genesis and Rule
The mountain deity resides in the north and is regarded as the protector of grasslands and pastoralists. Among the most significant creator mountain deities in Tibet, this figure is accompanied by numerous attendants drawn from the "nyen" (གཉན་) class, which can stand for personified natural spirits. However, it is advisable not to equate "nyen" entirely with the mountain deity group. The enduring image of this god and the peak behind it is captured in "Mongolian Nomad Tents in front of the Nyenchen Tanglha Mountains," a photograph taken by Hugh Edward Richardson in May 1939. A mid-19th-century work titled "Guardian Spirit of Mount Nenqing Tanggula and its Entourage," held in the collection of the Rubin Museum of Art, similarly depicts the deity with a white body, white horse, white clothes, and white ornaments, as described in the quote: "This mountain deity has a white body, white horse, white clothes, and white ornaments." The mountain's prominence is celebrated in verse: གངས་ཅན་ལྗོངས་ཀྱི་དབུས་གྱུར་ལྷོ་ཡི་ཕྱོགས། ཡུལ་གྲུ་དུ་མས་ཀུན་ནས་བསྐོར་བའི་དབུས། མཐོ་ཞིང་བརྗིད་པའི་གངས་རིའི་དབང་པོ་ནི། ཕྱོགས་རྣམས་ཀུན་ཏུ་ཟླ་བ་བཞིན་དུ་མཛེས། ཤེལ་གྱི་རི་ལྟར་རབ་དཀར་འོད་འབར་བའི། རི་དབང་རྩེ་མོ་མཁའ་ལ་བསྙེག་པ་བཞིན། དེ་ཡི་ཅོད་པན་ཉི་ཟླའི་ཟེར་ཕྲེང་གིས། ཉིན་དང་མཚན་དུ་རྣམ་པར་བརྒྱན་པར་གྱུར། This translates as: "Central in the snowy region, Surrounded by many realms, The towering majestic snow-capped mountain, Like a bright moon shining in all directions.
Radiating white light, the crystal mountain towers toward the heavens, crowned with the sun and moon, and remains without equal in beauty whether by day or by night. From the Eulogy of the Sacred Mountain of Yala Shampo.
(གནས་ཆེན་ཡར་ལྷ་ཤམ་པོ་ལ་བསྟོད་པ་བཞུགས་སོ་) The fourth Red Hat, Quzayesi (ཞྭ་དམར་ཆོས་གྲགས་ཡེ་ཤེས་; 1453-1524) རབ་དཀར་ལྷུན་སྡུག་ཆུ་འཛིན་ཕུང་པོའི་གཟུགས། འཛིན་མར་འཁྱིལ་འདྲ་གངས་རིའི་དབང་པོ་ཆེ། རབ་མཐོ་རྩེ་མོ་ཚངས་པའི་ཡུལ་སར་བསྙེགས། བརྟན་ཆང་རྩ་བར་དབྱིག་འཛིན་ལྟོ་བར་འགོད། གྲངས་མེད་ཉལ་འགྲོ་ཕྱོགས་བཞིར་འབབས་པས་མཇོས། གངས་ཕྲན་སུམ་བརྒྱ་དྲུག་ཅུས་ཀུན་ནས་སྐོར། མདོ་སྨད་ས་ཡི་ལྟེ་བ་རྨ་ཆེན་ཉེས། ཡོངས་སུ་གྲགས་པའི་སྤོ་ལ་རབ་བརྟེན་པ། The snow-capped mountain stands as the sovereign, its pure white and splendid form resembling gathered clouds. Around it, three hundred sixty minor peaks encircle, while rivers without number descend to all directions, and the great Ma Chen, heart of the lower land, is renowned. Its lofty summit reaches toward Brahma's realm, and its firm base rests upon the earth, a celebrated peak.
In the center of the barley stands Maqin, whose summit ascends into the domain of the gods, eternally present, drawing sweet dew from within the earth. From this peak, countless rivers branch forth in every direction, accompanied by three hundred and sixty attendants. Its renown, spread far and wide, is measured by virtue.
The connection between the Tubo ruler and the sacred mountains functioned to affirm the ruler's special lineage and divine authority. This passage is drawn from Chapter Three of *Ritual Texts of the Mountain God Animaqing*, which addresses the mural "The Mountain God of Yala Xiangbo" by the Third Jigme Khenrab Dorje (1717-1786), located at Yarsa Monastery near Yala Xiangbo.
In the Yalong region, Yalashampo Mountain God is regarded as the foremost among its many deities. He is also a central figure in the royal dynasty’s narratives and a co-ruler of the world. He rides a white muskox that exhales snow mist, which symbolizes creation.
In the Rubin Museum’s collection is a mid-19th century Bön painting titled "Animaqing, the Mountain God, and His Attendants," which locally depicts the mountain god’s youthful, warrior-like face and the mountain encircled by a rainbow. In any classical artwork portraying Tibet’s sacred mountains and lakes, such natural landscapes typically carry three identities: an individual one (as mountains and lakes), a spiritual one (as mountain and lake deities), and a ritual one (as the focus of worship for those deities).
In my previous article, I have already discussed this subject in depth. When investigating the origins of Tibet’s sacred mountains and lakes, it is advisable not to begin with their deification stage. For the people living there, the act of assigning power and glory to natural objects is a process that is both lengthy and changeable, and its true starting point lies in the distinctive features of those mountains and lakes—that is, their geographical markers.
People’s way of classifying and imagining the natural world is what allows lakes and mountains to be delineated—and in delineating them, one delineates oneself (ethnic markers). The sequence runs from white snow-covered peaks (གངས་རི་), through jagged rocky heights (རྫ་རི་) with their distinctive contours, to stone mountains (བྲག་རི་) or loose stone heaps (གཡའ་རི་), and finally to thickly forested mountains (ནགས་རི་) and grassy, hummock-like hills (སྤང་རི་).
The snowy peaks and glacial lakes (གངས་མཚོ་) are held in deep veneration, leading to the gradual development of storytelling methods tailored to each distinct terrain, mountain, and body of water. These tales weave through the places people inhabit, so that every kind of natural landscape becomes tied to its own unique narrative. A saying from the Ali region captures this: "Under the mountain is its domain, the domain has its customs" (རི་འོག་གི་གནས་ཡུལ། གནས་མཆོག་གི་ཡུལ་སྲོལ།).
Inhabitants of mountainous and lake regions have sustained themselves through the natural provisions of their surroundings. These landscapes are constantly employed as frames of reference for interpreting and envisioning the cosmos—frequently represented as linked points or circles—channeling their perspectives into realms of timelessness and enigma.
From hilltops, people look far off and pour out their feelings; upon seeing a high peak, they tend to picture a different realm; on level terrain, they give human qualities to the small particulars of daily existence; roaming through valleys or mountain hollows, they take delight in concealing or uncovering various secrets; and where paths cross, they grasp the dividing lines between one area and another. It is through these varied landscapes that the mountains and waters of every region are connected, standing as a symbol for those who make their homes there.
The varying relationships among mountains and lakes—kinship, subordination, enmity, and friendship—reflect the developmental context of early Tibetan history, while their life and death, morality, and memories are embodied in the spirit of these natural features, an aspect especially notable in local culture.
Kula Kangri and Noijin Kangsang also belong to the "Four Sacred Mountains." Hugh Edward Richardson took the photograph "Kurakar Tso and a Corner of Pangong Lake" in 1950, and "The Norjingangsang Temple and Nearby Monastery" in 1936-1950. The Mountain Deity resides in the south; he is the supreme protector deity of the Bhutanese, dwelling in a palace adorned with all kinds of precious stones, and has numerous attendants known as "Masang" (མ་སངས་) (Masang - a powerful patriarchal clan). This deity is described as "The one with a crystal helmet and wolf bone holder on the head." The mountain god resides in the west; Buddhism calls
People who establish order ultimately trace the beginning of all laws back to the sacred mountains and lakes, turning these vast natural formations into deified objects that continually generate meaning and commandments—regardless of whether one refers to the "Four Sacred Mountains" (ཕྱོགས་བཞིའི་གནས་རི་; usually centered around the Central Tibetan region), the "Nine Creator Gods" (སྲིད་པ་ཆགས་པའི་ལྷ་དགུ་; a rich concept of combined deities), or the "Four Sacred Lakes" (གནས་ཆེན་མཚོ་བཞི་; often narrated in connection with a particular sacred mountain).
The stories between these mountains and lakes have become the memories that people depend on to survive, while the mountains and lakes themselves hold the most primordial powers, from creation to governance.
The mountain and lake spirits of Tibet carry an unshaken position: they bear the weighty responsibility of answering the profound wisdom of the universe and life. This distinguishes them from Japan’s and Hawaii’s volcanic mountain deities, which are defined by essential nature—such as Mount Kaguaki-Yorihira in Japan—and from Southeast Asia’s mountain deities, which represent specific actions or emotions in a functional sense, as seen with the Philippines’ Maria Cacao.
In Tibetan history, where the dynasty’s narrative occupies a central position, the veneration of sacred mountains and lakes ultimately became the spiritual bond uniting Tibet’s various regions. From the rulers’ holy lineage to the everyday lives of distant villages, the mountain and lake deities are perceived as enduring presences that watch over and guide the people.
With the introduction and flourishing of Buddhism in the imperial era, along with the reuse and transformation of mountain and lake beliefs by Buddhists, Tibet's sacred mountain and lake system will take on a new form. After years of cyclical worship by the people, these sacred mountains and lakes are no longer merely repositories of a particular concept; they have found a suitable place in the human world. The next article will focus on this transformation.
This article is rendered from the blog of Sorang Wangqing. It depicts taking in expansive vistas from a distant vantage point and drawing near to the sky for a more attentive ear.