Where ever we visit
the temple or the monastery, we will see the statue or the mural paintings of
the famous three figure. They are Guru Rinpoche accompanied by two consorts or
khandro known as yeshi Tshogyal and Mandarava. The term khandro(མཁའ་འགྲོ་) is a tibetan
term translated as the “sky walker or sky goer” ,In Sanskrit it is known as
“Dakini”. Every one of us know how important guru Rinpoche is in the history of
Buddhism. He subdued the demons and propagated the teachings in those places
where Buddhism has not prevailed. His teachings were the highest level known as
the vajrayana. Bhutan is blessed by him throughout his three times visit during
the 8th century.
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| guru rinpoche at the centre, right khandro Mandarava,left khandro yeshi Tshogyal |
The two ladies
depicting in the statue or the paintings, the right one is khandro Mandarava. She
was an princess born to king Arshadhare and queen Hauki of west Bengal. From
the very young age she showed sign of great compassion, she was an
exceptionally beautiful. However she showed no interest in getting married and
becoming a queen. Rather she requested to take up spiritual practice. She met with Guru Rinpoche and started
receiving teachings from him. The relationship between the guru and the
princess was of a master and student. It was not easy for both of them to cope
up with the king. Thinking that the guru was luring the princess, he tried to
burn him alive and placed the princess in the pitch of thorns. Guru with his
magical power turned the fire into the lake and remained there surrounded by
thousands of dakini. King after perceiving this he regreted his actions and
asked forgiveness to the master and the princess. He willingly offered his
daughter to the master with great sense of devotion and regret. Guru Rinpoche
then gave profound teachings of
Dzogpachenpo or the great perfection to the and his people thus leading to the
path of liberation.
The greatest
achievement of khandro Mandarava along with Guru Rinpoche was the attainment of
the stage Tsewang Rigzin or “Long life awareness holder” (ཚེ་དབང་རིག་འཛིན.) It was the practice done at Maratika cave at Nepal that they the
vision of lord Amitayus or god of long life (ཚེ་དཔག་མེད .)It is said that due to this attainment she has
overcome death and she is alive even today just like the Guru. For that reason
she is depicted holding a vase of long life(ཚེ་བུམ) in her left hand. On her right hand carries a stick hanging the
five color cloth piece(ཚེ་དར). Mandarava is considered as the mother who
gives the blessing of long life.
The second on the left
side is famously known as khandro Yeshi Tshogyal. She is dressed in Tibetan
style holding a skull with with amrita (བདུད་རྩི) ་Born to
the lord Kharchen Pelgi Wangchuk and queen Getso with auspicious sign. Her
beauty attracted the attention of the kings of neighboring countries. When she
was asked to choose herself a bride she refused saying that she would pursue spiritual
practice. She runs away from the palace and undergoes numerous hardships. Then
she is taken by the Great king Thritshong Detsun who later offers to guru as a
gesture of gratitude for the teachings. Guru seeing her capabilities happily
accepts her as his dakini and give teachings. Khandro with her inevitable
devotion and dedication she accomplishes whatever she is made to practice.
Because of her innate natural wisdom she acts like a great vessel where the
teachings of guru are poured.
Besides being
spiritual consort of the guru, she is also considered as one of the 25 major
disciples in Tibet. She practiced at Paro Taktshang, singye Dzong and many
other places. So many hand, foot and body print are kept on the rocks of sacred
places in Tibet and Bhutan. She requested Guru to give many important teachings
which still remain. Along with the
master they concealed many teasures(གཏེར) for the future beings. Those treasures some
are being discovered by the destined teasure revealer (གཏེར་སྟོན་པ) and some will be discovered in the future.
She complied the entire secret teachings of Guru Rinpoche and concealed it. Her sign of accomplishment was bringing the
death back to life. She contributed in spreading the teachings of guru and
worked tirelessly till her final attainment of rainbow body(འཇའ་ལུས).
After Guru Rinpoche left she became the main holder of the sacred teachings.
The other disciples clarified doubts from her. She became insperable from the
Guru. She lived for up to 200 years and
finally went to the pure realm of the copper colored mountain(ཟངས་མདོག་དཔལ་རི ) without discarding the human
body. She is the like mother to all the beings of Tibet.
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