Newly translated letters of a renowned Buddhist lama shed light on the unusual reign of a female monarch in 18th-century eastern Tibet.

“Jikmé Lingpa made a bold move to compose a letter of advice that...moves far, far afield of the exemplars of the genre by incorporating aspects of highest yoga tantra.”

Background

Although no exact founding date is recorded for the Kingdom of Degé, the royal family retained its power for almost three centuries, during which the kingdom became one of the most culturally productive in all of Tibetan history. The kingdom rapidly achieved world renown for its publishing house, numerous large monasteries and many local lamas, whose towering achievements made contributions to all fields of Tibetan culture.

One such lama was Jikmé Lingpa (1730–98), a lay yogi who served as chaplain to the Degé royal family during the reigns of King Sawang Zangpo and Queen Tsewang Lhamo.

“Within the Nyingma sect, he was undoubtedly the greatest author and thinker of his generation,” said Ronis. Jikmé Lingpa wrote the Longchen Nyingthig (considered a “revealed teaching”), a central teaching of the Nyingma school, which is one of the dominant forms of Tibetan Buddhism practiced in Europe and America today.

The newly wed king and queen met Jikmé Lingpa during a trip to Central Tibet, after which he agreed to serve as their chaplain. Although they met only once, the lama maintained a correspondence with the royal family and composed one epistle each for the king, queen and prince.

In 1790, King Sawang Zangpo died and Dowager Queen Tsewang Lhamo ruled the Degé Kingdom for nearly two decades before passing leadership down to her son, the crown prince.

Politics of representation

Jikmé Lingpa’s epistles to the royal family were written in the context of an emerging debate in Tibet over the merits of lay and ordained kings.

“Initially in Degé, state and religion. . . were united in the office of monk kings — ordained monarchs — who were simultaneously kings and abbots of the state temple,” explained Ronis.

While most of Degé’s history had been dominated by a tradition of monk kingship, the epistles depict ideals of statecraft that ignore this model.

In his epistle to the king, for instance, the lama does not depict him as a bodhisattva, or an enlightened being. Instead, the lama emphasizes the king’s status as a lay king. Here, Ronis noted that Jikmé Lingpa himself was not a monk, but rather a lay yogi, and might have believed that non-ordained practitioners were more suited to kingship.

This inclination toward non-ordained leadership is also seen in the title of this epistle, which includes two secular monikers for the king — Sakyong (“land protector”) and “terrestrial ruler.”

Jikmé Lingpa also made efforts to integrate exoteric Buddhism with general issues of statecraft in his letter to the king. “The content is weighted towards the exoteric topics of renunciation and generosity,” commented Ronis, “but [it] also includes several verses with concrete prescriptions about taxation, punishments and patronage.”

The letter to the queen posed a different challenge for Jikmé Lingpa, said Ronis, because her role in the state was not as clearly defined as those of the king and crown prince.

“He needed this epistle to be relevant to her status as a. . . prominent woman in the kingdom,” contended Ronis, “but also open to contingencies, such as her ascent to the throne should her husband pass away before the crown prince had reached seniority.”

Ronis argued that the text was purposefully ambiguous so that it could be used as an inspiring text for someone who held the reigns of secular power.

“The king's letter never departs from the exoteric and never deifies the king,” said the speaker. “[The queen’s] letter, in contrast, is heavily tantric and the rhetorical function. . . is concerned more with identifying her with enlightened principles, rather than giving her instruction on becoming enlightened or on ruling.”

Whether or not the epistle to the queen was intended to improve her political image, it certainly served this function when she ascended to the throne after her husband’s death in 1790.

“Her reign was momentous, both culturally and militarily, [and] she emerged as the foremost benefactor of the Nyingma tradition of her generation,” noted Ronis. “The letter that Jikmé Lingpa wrote. . . proved to be perfect fodder for her new, upgraded image.”

Innovation within the epistle genre: Discourse on the female

“The letter to the Queen makes some strident departures from the standard form of the epistle,” observed Ronis. Unlike in his epistles to the king and prince, in the lama’s letter to the queen, he took the opportunity to “deviate from convention and to bring in esoteric Buddhist values, discourse on the female and ritual protocol.”

The letter, entitled “A Treasury of Advice for an Excellent Being,” is structured around the three vehicles, or paths, of Buddhism: Hinayana, Mahayana and Vajrayāna.

Jikmé Lingpa addresses the queen personally and intimately, speaking directly to her multiple personae as a layperson, head of state and woman. “Jikmé Lingpa made a bold move to compose a letter of advice that begins in a rather conventional way, but then moves far, far afield of the exemplars of the genre by incorporating aspects of highest yoga tantra, such as the divinity of the female body,” said the speaker.

In the Mahayana section of the text, the lama offers the queen a female role model in the form of bodhisattva Dorje Palmo, who specialized in helping men overcome lustful thinking.

The letter also directly critiques the misogynistic views of women in exoteric Mahayana texts. The latter claim that the female body is not necessarily an impediment to enlightenment only because a great bodhisattva can appear in a variety of forms.

“In contrast,” explained Ronis, “the first of the [letter’s] tantric verses takes a classically esoteric position that females are actually inherently good, if not divine, because of their anatomy."

The epistle to the queen thus made her status as a non-ordained ruler relative to her ultimate status as a Vajra queen.