The spells attributed to Padmasambhava in the Ba ri be'u ‘bum

Abstract

The grimoire compiled by Bari Lotsawa (1040-1112), known for short as the Ba ri be'u 'bum, is one of the earliest and most influential of its kind. The grimoire contains hundreds of brief rituals, some of which are attributed to Indian and Tibetan figures. Alongside obscure, and perhaps non-Buddhist names such as Shivaratna, the most often cited source for these spells is Padmasambhava. This is perhaps surprising in a work by a founding figure of one of the 'new' (gsar ma) schools, although it predates the work of Nyangral Nyima Ozer and others which consolidated Padmasambhava's role in the Nyingma terma tradition. In this talk I will make a preliminary investigation of the spells attributed to Padmasambhava in the Ba ri be'u 'bum, drawing out his characterisation in the grimoire as a pre-eminent sorcerer and role model for Tibetan users of magical rituals.

About the Speaker

Sam van Schaik is Head of the Endangered Archives Programme at the British Library. He previously worked at the International Dunhuang Project, as Research Project Manager and lead researcher of various projects including Beyond Boundaries: Religion, Region, Language and the State (ERC), Tibetan Zen (British Academy), Tibetan and Chinese Paleography (Leverhulme), and the Tibetan Tantric Manuscripts from Dunhuang (AHRC). He received his PhD in Tibetan Studies from the University of Manchester in 2000. Publications include Tibet: A History (2011), Tibetan Zen (2015) and Buddhist Magic (2020).