Dharma from the Sky: The Pangkong Prayer

The traditional story of the first appearance of the dharma in Tibet tells of a number of books that fell from the sky onto the roof of a Tibetan king's palace. When these books are listed, most are familiar texts, such as those dedicated to the bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara. But one prayer that u...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Central Asiatic journal 2018-01, Vol.61 (1), p.61-69
Main Author: Sam van Schaik
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:The traditional story of the first appearance of the dharma in Tibet tells of a number of books that fell from the sky onto the roof of a Tibetan king's palace. When these books are listed, most are familiar texts, such as those dedicated to the bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara. But one prayer that usually appears in this list is more mysterious: a confession liturgy, even the name of which became garbled in the later Tibetan tradition. This paper traces this liturgy back to Dunhuang, where we can reconstruct its name as “The Hundredfold Pangkong”. The latter part of the name, which has not previously been understood as a transliteration from Chinese, ultimately derives from a Chinese apocryphal sūtra. Finally, comparison with the role of confession liturgies in royal courts in China offers some clues as to why they temporarily became important enough to Tibetans to be included in the list of the first Buddhist books that fell from the sky into Tibet.
ISSN:0008-9192
2747-4305
DOI:10.13173/centasiaj.61.1.0061