Khandro Yedhe Tsogyel and Vajrakilaya practice

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After praticing for seven days at Wonphu Taktshang, Guru, Tshogyal, and Tashi Chidren revealed or opened the mandala of 42 Etrams of Jitotama Vajrakila and of 78 kilas. Exhaustive signs and symbols were witnessed. Guru manifested in the form of Dorji Droloed: Yeshey Tshogyal, the tantric union partner, manifested as dakini Ekatsati, and Tashi Chidren manifested as the Tigress on which Dorji Droloed and Ekatsati rode. Ekatsati is the protector of tantric practices and manifestation of Samanthabadri . While Tshogyal and Guru achieved meditative concentration of tantric union, Tashi Chidren turned into a tigress. The text alludes to the purpose of such manifestations as control of spirits of Tibet and Kham.

During this Vajrakila sadhana, the countless images of the three fierce Guru YabYum (Dorji Droloed but complete with Ekatsati) appeared . There is particular mention about the wrathful blueblack Vajrakila that reached Paro Taktshang in order to quell all eight classes of lha ma sin of Mon, Nepal and India and other lands in the south. Similarly, a brownblack Vajrakila reached the border of two Kham Taktshangs to quell the lha ma sin of Jang, China and Hor.

Tshogyal’s biography thus shows the centrality of Paro Taktshang in two ways. Firstly, the three Guru YabYum with Tshogyal as Ekatsati appeared in Paro Taktshang, as simultaneous projections of what miraculously happened in Wonphu Taktshang. This is based on the statement cited above that countless identical forms of the three Guru YabYum appeared at that moment. However, it is quite clear that the Vajrakila sadhana itself took place at Wonphu Taktshang, although Vajrakila sadhana was also practiced at other sites on other occasions according to other sources. Secondly, a blueblack Vajrakila materialized in Paro Taktshang during this sadhana, as a means of controlling malevolent beings of the South East Asian region. The intact blue black Vajrakila is the main relic empowering the famous site to this day.

In the later half of her life, after Guru left Tibet possibly in the reign of Mutri Tsenpo, she travelled to the 108 main meditation places and countless subsidiary places of Guru. A large number of these places were listed by their names along with the duration of her stay and the number of ter she deposited in each of these places . Scanning her biography, I could count 631 ters deposited by Tshogyal in 35 major places, most of them in Tibet. I could identify some places in Bhutan. One of the places in Bhutan she visited were Khenpalung where she lived for one and half year and deposited there 10 ter . She lived for more than a year in a placed called Mon Budumlung and an unspecified period again in Nering Singye dzong. These visits were additional to her previous stays in Bhutan for an unspecified period in Sengyi Dzong and seven months in Paro Taktshang, when she was younger and Guru was still in Tibet. Thus, it is clear that Tshogyal herself was in Bhutan at least three times at different points in her long life.

We know about Guru’s activities in Bhutan more clearly from Tshogyal. Guru told her that provided there is higher motivation, women can exceed men in spiritual progress (sems bskyed ldan na mo lus lhag . As his principle adherent, she was the first widely known liberated Himalayan woman to prove it. Tshogyal passed away in rainbow body form at Pama Gang, leaving behind mortal remains of ears, teeth, nails, head-hairs and bodyhairs. Five days before that, she spoke to us all, through Monmo Tashi Chidren, a Bhutanese and daughter of Mon King Hamray, whom Tshogyal met first at Singye Dzong: