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The late, Third, Jamgon Kongtrul related to Norma
Levine:
 In
a black silk hatbox in a special storeroom at the Karma Kagyu monastery in
Rumtek, Sikkim (India), sits the Black Crown or shwa-nag of the Karmapas.
It is a material representation of the Wisdom Crown that was offered the great
yogi, Korbache, by a host of dakas and dakinis when he was designated Buddha
of Activity; that is, Karmapa.
The rangjung chopen (the self-luminous, ie. non-material,
crown) is woven of the hair of 100,000 dakinis. The one in the box was
made for the 5th Karmapa at the suggestion of the Emperor of China.
He had been able to see the rangjung crown and thought it would benefit people
if they could even just see a semblance of its form.
"So when the 5th Karmapa went to China, the Chinese Emperor, whose
name was Yung Lo, saw his wisdom crown. He asked Karmapa what this was
and Karmapa explained it. The Emperor felt it was very important for everyone
to see it because it represents his buddha activity; so he requested Karmapa
to make a material form of exactly what he saw so that it would be beneficial
for all sentient beings. So the Emperor made it and asked His Holiness
to bless it. Since then many great masters have seen the double crown
when His Holiness is wearing the Crown."
Levine explains that the benefit of the Crown is an example of tendrel
which is Tibetan for "interdependent connection," and it is the term
used especially for mysterious objects whose presence is marvelous. These
items are understood as manifestations of buddha-energy that make powerful
impressions on us via our 6 senses.
A prediction goes, that "people who see, hear, remember or touch [it] will be born near exalted beings after departing from their present life."
The Tsurphu Scroll
A new museum was inaugurated in Lhasa, Tibet by the Chinese authorities, in
Oct., 1999.
"One of the most remarkable treasures on show is the famous `Tsurphu
Scroll', an early Ming dynasty silk-backed painting with Chinese, Tibetan,
Mongolian, Uighur and Arabic inscriptions (ibid., pl. 26.1-4; see also Tibetan
Art Studies, Beijing, 1992, vol. 25/3, pp. 41-43). Titled in the museum
Delivering the Taizu of Ming to Heaven, it depicts the miracles performed by
the Fifth Karmapa Dezhin Shekpa during his 22-day visit to the Yongle emperor
in Nanjing in 1407, when according to the inscription the Tibetan Grand Lama
was made chief of all the ban-de [Buddhist monks] in the empire'. This
outstanding document of early Sino-Tibetan relations was discovered at Tsurphu
monastery in 1949 by Hugh Richardson, who was able to copy and translate its
Tibetan inscription (Hugh Richardson, "The Karmapa Sect: A Historical
Note," in High Peaks, Pure Earth: Collected Writings on Tibetan
History and Culture, London, 1998, pp. 359-63 and 369-76.)
The scroll must have been presented to the Karmapa by the Yongle emperor, who
had also offered him the famous Black Hat, which he had seen in a vision
during a religious ceremony. Yongle's invitation to the Fifth Karmapa and his
intensive patronage of 'Lamaist' art at the Ming court were based on more than
just political interests. His genuine commitment to Tibetan Buddhism continued
the Tibeto-Chinese connection of his Mongolian Yuan predecessors, and saw a
second great revival in the 18th century under the Qianlong emperor. "
~
"The New Tibet Museum in Lhasa" by Michael Henss for Orientations
magazine.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Norma Levine.
Blessing Power of the
Buddhas: Sacred Objects, Secret Lands. Rockport, MA: Element, 1993.
tendrel: The Tibetan word meaning a is
evocative of the English tendril, which refers to the small leafless
parts of a plant, distinct from the stem, that emerge to coil spirally around
any protuberance as a support for a growing vine. According to the Oxford
English Dictionary, it is a word of obscure origin that appeared in the
latter half of the 16th century, and an attempt is made to derive it from the
French, tendre.
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