Peter Skilling

An O Maipadme H. Inscription from South-East Asia

In: Asanie 11, 2003. pp. 13-20.

Abstract The six-syllable mantra of Avalokitevara, om manipadme hum, is omnipresent in Tibet and the Himalayan regions. In South-East Asia, however, despite the fact that images of Avalokitevara have been found in large numbers throughout dating from roughly the 6th to 12th centuries, only one inscription giving this mantra has come to light. This paper offers a description, a transcription, a translation and a commentary of this exceptional inscription. Rsum Le clbre mantra d'Avalokitevara, O Maipadme H, est omniprsent au Tibet et dans la rgion de l'Himalaya. Mais l'heure actuelle, en Asie du Sud-Est, on n'a trouv qu'une seule inscription de ce mantra, alors que de nombreuses effigies d'Avalokitevara dates du VIe au XIIe sicle ont t mises au jour dans toute la rgion. Cet article propose une description, une transcription, une traduction et un commentaire de cette inscription.

Citer ce document / Cite this document : Skilling Peter. An O Maipadme H. Inscription from South-East Asia. In: Asanie 11, 2003. pp. 13-20. doi : 10.3406/asean.2003.1770 http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/asean_0859-9009_2003_num_11_1_1770

An Om Manipadme Hum Inscription from South-East Asia

Peter Skilling

The six-syllable mantra of AvalokitesVara, om manipadme hum, scarcely needs an introduction*. In Tibet and the Himalayan regions it is omnipresent, engraved or painted on slabs of stone or natural rock faces along trade and pilgrimage routes. The mantra is painted in decorative letters on prayer wheels, from small hand-propelled wheels to the giant wheels housed in special shrines.1 And the mantra hums on the lips of countless devotees. The earliest known textual occurrence of the mantra is in the Krandavyha, in manuscripts from Gilgit dating to the 6th to the 7th century.2

I am grateful to Hiram Woodward for providing the photographs, and to the Walters Art Museum for permission to publish them. I thank Olivier de Bernon for his help in interpreting the Khmer. 1. For the prayer wheel see Ladner 2000. 2. A new edition of the Gilgit fragments has been published by Adelheid Mette (Mette 1997). For a recent study of the Krandavyha see Studholme 2002. For the formula in Dunhuang, and a succinct overview of the historical evidence in general, see Imaeda 1979. Asanie 11, juin 2003, p. 13-20

1 - Four-armed Avalokitesvara with om manipadme hum inscribed in Tibetan script (rDorje rDokha Monastery, Qinghai) 2 - om manipadme hum attributed to King Srong btsan sgam po (Pha bong kha, Central Tibet)

(After Stone Carving Arts of the Tbetans in China, Choyin Zhang, 1995, Beijing, China Tibetology Publishing House) The Krandavyha, which is dedicated to Avalokites'vara, lauds the six-syllable mantra in no uncertain terms:3 One who bears this Great Wisdom of Six Syllables On the body or about the throat That son of good family should be known To possess a diamond body To be a reliquary-^wpa To be a treasury of the wisdom of the Tathgatas. In the 11th century, the Bengali pandita Atisa, who was in Tibet from 1042 to 1052, composed a short treatise on the formula, rya-sad-aksarsdhana, which is preserved in the Tibetan bsTan- 'gyur (Peking edition No. 4839). In Chapters 38 and 39 of the Zans glin ma biography of Padmasambhava, a Tibetan 'treasure text' (gterma) discovered in the 12th century, the great Indian thaumaturge Padmasambhava explains the merits of the formula to the King of Tibet and his ministers.4 For example:5 Listen, king of Tibet, nobility and subjects! OM MANI PADME HUM is the quintessence of the Great Compassionate One [Thugs rje chen po = Mahkrunika = Avalokites'vara], so the merit [bsod nams =punya] of uttering it just once is incalculable ... It is possible to count the number

3. Mette, p. 141: ya kaicid im dhrayet sadaksarmahvidy kyagat kanthagatm va sa kulaputra vajrakyaarlra iti veditavyah dhtustpa iti veditavyah tahgatajnnakosa-m iti veditavyah. 4. Slob dpon padma'i rnam thar zans glin ma bzugs 1987, 173-84; English translation in Tsogyal 1993, 190-97. 5. Slob dpon padma'i rnam thar zans glin ma bzugs 1987, 180-81; English translation in Tsogyal 1993, 195.

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of raindrops falling during twelve years of monsoon, but the merit of uttering the Six Syllables just once cannot be counted. It is possible to count all the grains sown on the four continents, but the merit of uttering the Six Syllables just once cannot be counted. It is possible to count the drops of water in the great ocean, one by one, but the merit of uttering the Six Syllables just once cannot be counted. It is possible to count each hair on the bodies of all animals in existence, but the merit of uttering the Six Syllables just once cannot be counted. 'Six-Syllables' is one of the forms of Lokesvara, a form which is represented in iconography and has its own sdhanas, or meditation manuals.6 Images of Avalokites*vara have been found in large numbers throughout South-East Asia, dating from roughly the 6th to 12th centuries.7 Was the Krandavyha known? This seems likely, but there is no contemporary evidence. No manuscripts, liturgical collections, or chronicles from the period survive. Was the six-syllable mantra transmitted in the region? So far only one inscription giving the mantra has come to light, on a Khmerstyle image.8 Out of the many images of AvalokitesVara from the Khmer lands, only this one bears the mantra. The artefact is a stone stele bearing an image of an eight-armed bodhisattva in the Alexander B. Griswold Collection at the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, Maryland.9 The record has been published by Saveros Pou, who dates the image to the 10th century.10 The eight-line inscription, number K. 1154, is on the back of the image, beneath a relief of an open lotus blossom surmounted by a stylised 'Om'. The front depicts a standing eight-armed Avalokites*vara within a halo of flames (ph. 3 p. 16). The torso is unadorned except for a short kampot typical of the middle Angkorean period. The hair is arranged in a high chignon that rises above a low crown. The feet are broken off. On the reverse of the stele is a large full-blown lotus flower above which floats the syllable om, topped by a 'sun-and-moon' (candra-srya) symbol (ph. 4 p. 17). Below the lotus is an eight-line inscription in letters of the late

6. See Sakuma 2002, 65-79. 7. See Nandana Chutiwongs 2002. 8. Very few mantras of bodhisattvas or deities are known from the region (I exclude here the ubiquitous ye dharm hetuprabhava). Max Nihom states that 'the Indonesia' (Nihom mani padme hum ... is not known, to my knowledge, in famous formula om1994,137). 9. For this collection see Woodward Jr. 1997. 10. Pou 1996, 130, and PI. XIX.

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Illustration non autorise la diffusion

3 - Stone stele bearing an Baltimore, 25.194 Walters Art Museum, image of an eight-armed Avalokitesvara (front) Gift of Yoshie Shinomoto, 1993

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Illustration non autorise la diffusion

4 - Reverse of the stone stele with the eight-line inscription, number K. 1154 Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, 25.194 Gift of Yoshie Shinomoto, 1993

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ninth or the tenth century. The letters are clearly inscribed, but the eighth and final line cannot be read because the bottom of the stele is broken. The text is in Old Khmer mixed with Sanskrit. Text 1. om siddhi svasti jaya lbha ksema rddhi 2. om ksh indrya svh11 om ma3. nipadme hum cortta man yaja4. mna vrah kammraten an mom 5. nu vrah kammraten an dai6. ya nu dvipada catuppada r7. ddhi ru candra ta gi s"ukr8. (illegible) Translation Om Success, well-being, victory, gain, happiness, power! (2) Om ksh indrya svh. Om ma-(3)-ni padme hum. May there be power like [that of] the moon for the donors (yajamna) Vrah kammraten an Mom and Vrah Kammraten an Daiya and bipeds and quadrupeds... Commentary Line 1 gives a formulaic introductory invocation that is common in Khmer inscriptions.12 Lines 2 and 3 give two formulas that open with om and may be described as classical Buddhist mantras. I have not been able to find the source of the first formula, om ksh indrya svh. The second formula is the six-syllable mantra of Avalokitesvara, om manipadme hum, 'O thou with the jewelled lotus!'13 From line 3 on the inscription is in Old Khmer. The meaning is not clear because the record is incomplete.

11. Pou reads svha, but the final long a is clear. 12. See e.g. Pou 1996, 38, 42, 53, 93 and 131. 13. For this mantra and its translation see Snellgrove 1987, 195 and n. 134.

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Bibliography

IMAEDA, Yoshiro lesSoymi (d.), Contributions aux tudes surhum 1979 - "Note prliminaire sur la& Paris,Touen-Houang",p. 71-76. Michel manuscrits tibtains de Librairie Droz, dans Touen-Houang, Geneva formule om mani padme

Ladner, Lorne 2000 - Wheel of Great Compassion: The Practice of the Prayer Wheel in Tibetan Buddhism, Boston, Wisdom Publications, xxii +134 pp. + ill. Mette, Adelheid 1997 - Die Gilgitfragmente des Krandavyha, Swisttal-Odendorf, Indica et Tibetica Verlag, Indica et Tibetica 29, 164 pp. Nandana Chutiwongs 2002 - The Iconography of Avalokitesvara in Mainland South-East Asia, New Delhi, Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts and Aryan Books International, xxxvi + 385 pp. NlHOM, Max 1994 - Studies in Indian and Indo-Indonesian Tantrism: The Kunjarakarnadharmakathana and the Yogatantra, Vienna, De Nobili Research Library, Institute of Indology, University of Vienna, 222 pp. Pou, Saveros 1996 - Nouvelles Inscriptions du Cambodge II, Paris, cole franaise d'Extrme-Orient, Collection de textes et documents sur l'Indochine XX, 192 pp. + xxrv pis. Sakuma, Ruriko 2002 - Sdhanaml: Avalokitesvara Section, Sanskrit and Tibetan Texts, Delhi, Adroit Publishers, Asian Iconography Series III, 279 pp.

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Slob dpon padma'i rnam thar zans glin ma bzugs, Si khron mi rigs dpe iiskrun khan, 1987. SneLlgrove, David 1987 - Indo-Tibetan Buddhism: Indian Buddhists and their Tibetan Successors, London, Serindia Publications, 64 pp. Studholme, Alexander 2002 - The Origins of Om Manipadme Hum: A Study of the Krandavyha Stra, Albany, State University of New York Press, 222 pp. TSOGYAL, Yeshe 1993 - The Lotus-Born: The Life Story of Padmasambhava, translated by Erik Pema Kunsang, edited by Marcia Binder Schmidt, Boston and London, Shambala, x + 321 pp. Woodward, Hiram W., Jr. 1997 - The Sacred Sculpture of Thailand, Bangkok, River Books, 326 pp.

Peter Skilling Curator Fragile Palm Leaves