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Benjamin Bogin

T H E DR E A DL O C K S
T R E AT I S E : O N TA N T R I C
HAIRSTYLES IN
T I B E TA N BU D DH I S M

i. surely unusual for a monk


On August 2, 1936, en route to Lhasa as part of Sir Basil Goulds British
Diplomatic Mission, Frederick Spencer Chapman took a photograph of
seven men standing in the courtyard of a monastery.1 Six of them are easily
identied as monks, their hair shaved close to the head. The man in the
center, however, stands out. In contrast to the dark monastic robes of the
three men on either side of him, he wears white robes, and the large shawl
wrapped over his left shoulder is white with a dark stripe along either edge.
He gazes directly at the camera, right hand held before his chest with the
tips of the second and third ngers touching the thumb. His ears are
adorned with large white earrings and above his head there are thick
ropes of hair artfully tied into a turban wider than his face. The notes from
the mission diary help to identify this man as the abbot of the monastery,
and in his published account of the mission, Chapman describes him as
an aged man with a benign yet lively face; unlike the other monks we
had met he wore a grey robe, and had a great mass of hair tied in a bundle
on top of his head. We were told that never during his life had he cut his

1
The Tibet Album, Monks at Kargyu Monastery 05 Dec. 2006, The Pitt Rivers Museum,
http://tibet.prm.ox.ac.uk/photo_1998.131.131.html.

2008 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved.


0018-2710/2008/4802-0001$10.00

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hair. He wore at discs of spiral-curved ivory in his ears and rings on his
ngerssurely unusual for a monk.2 Most unusual, indeed.
Although the word monk is used to translate a number of different
Tibetan terms (ranging from colloquial words with a broad semantic
range, such as trapa,3 to technical terms indicating a precise ordination
status, such as gelong), the central gure in Chapmans photograph would
not be considered a monk by Tibetans and would not be referred to with
any of those terms. The word Tibetans would use to refer to this type of
religious gure is ngakpa, a term that lacks a precise correlate in Western
religions or languages. A translation of the Sanskrit term mantrinone
who recites mantrasthe Tibetan word ngakpa came to denote a class of
noncelibate tantric priests. Chapmans misidentication of the unusual
monk reects his confusion about categories that do not precisely correspond with those of European monastic traditions. However, questions
about the status of the ngakpa do not arise from foreign attempts at interpretation alone. The long and often contentious history of the gures of
the monk and the ngakpa has played a central role in the constitution
of Tibetan Buddhism. Modern scholars have frequently employed the
dichotomy of monk and ngakpa as an organizing structure for their representations of Tibetan Buddhism. In Tibetan literature, the ngakpa has
embodied a challenge to monastic denitions of Buddhism that has been
alternately gloried and condemned over the course of a millennium.
The works of the seventeenth-century Tibetan Buddhist lama and painter
Yolmo Tendzin Norbu (15981644) display a strong interest in questions
about the gure of the ngakpa and his relationship to monks. This interest
was highly personal, as Tendzin Norbu himself was a monk until his
mid-twenties, when he decided to become a ngakpa. Interestingly, his
writings about ngakpas focus on precisely what struck Frederick Spencer
Chapman in 1936 and which stands out when looking at the photograph
today: the mass of dreadlocks bound above the ngakpas head. This focus
on external appearances challenges assumptions that locate questions of
religious identity in some immaterial interior. The importance of the supercial is repeated throughout Tendzin Norbus autobiography and given
polemical expression in his short treatise entitled The Heros Roaring
Laughter: An Exegesis of the Dreadlocks Worn by Yogins Who Practice

2 Frederick Spencer Chapman, Lhasa: The Holy City (London: Chatto & Windhus,
1938), 26.
3
Tibetan words in the body of this article are transcribed according to the THDL Simplied Transcription System (http://www.thdl.org). Bibliographic references in the notes (of
interest primarily to Tibetan specialists) use the Wylie transliteration system.

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the Secret Mantra.4 Aside from the unique insights that the treatise provides into the understanding of hairstyles in seventeenth-century Tibetan
Buddhism (a fascinating topic in its own right), Yolmo Tendzin Norbus
sophisticated engagement with the subject raises questions about the
identity of the ngakpa and the broader symbolism of hair.
ii. hair in the study of religion
The human body has long been recognized by scholars as a central location
for the expression of social and cultural messages, at least since the pioneering work of Marcel Mauss on les techniques du corps.5 However,
despite the burgeoning literature on the history of the body,6 studies of
religion have often retained a dualistic conception that locates religious
practice in two domains, the mind and the body. In this conception, the
corporeal is secondary to the spiritual in at least two senses. The products
of the mindwhether they take the form of meditation, prayer, vows, or
exegesisare generally deemed superior to those of the body.7 Second,
the physical signs of the body are seen as derivative manifestations of
mind, thought, or belief.
The privileged position of the mind is not assumed only by students
of religion. The traditional Buddhist triad of body, speech, and mind is
understood in ascending order of importance. As Patrick Olivelle has
noted, attempts to interpret the religious body (and hair, in particular)
have sometimes further suffered from the fact that as with most condensed and central symbols of society, indigenous exegesis of hair is
neither extensive nor frequent.8 Yolmo Tendzin Norbus brief treatise

4
Yol mo Bstan dzin nor bu, Gsang sngags spyod pai rnal byor pa rnams la nye bar kho
ba ral pai rnam bshad dpa bo gad rgyangs (hereafter, Ral pai rnam bshad), in Collected
Writings of Yol-mo Sprul-sku Bstan-dzin-nor-bu, reproduced from a manuscript collection
from the Library of Bla-ma Senge of Yol-mo (Delhi: Dawa Lama, 1982), 8793.
5
Marcel Mauss, Les techniques du corps, Journal de psychologie 32, nos. 34 (1934),
translated by Ben Brewster, Techniques of the Body, Economy and Society 2, no. 1 (1973):
7088.
6
For an overview, see Roy Porter, History of the Body Reconsidered, in New Perspectives
on Historical Writing, ed. Peter Burke (University Park: Pennsylvania State University
Press, 1992), 23360. For a useful bibliography, see Barbara Duden, A Repertory of Body
History, in Fragments for a History of the Human Body: Zone 5, pt. 3, ed. Michael Feher,
with Ramona Naddaff and Nadia Tazi (New York: Urzone, 1989), 471554.
7
The profound inuence of the thought/action dichotomy on ritual studies has been
examined in Catherine Bell, Ritual Theory, Ritual Practice (New York: Oxford University
Press, 1992). For other works on religion and the body, see Sarah Coakley, ed., Religion and
the Body (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997); Jane Marie Law, ed., Religious
Reections on the Human Body (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1995).
8
Patrick Olivelle, Hair and Society: Social Signicance of Hair in South Asian Societies,
in Hair: Its Power and Meaning in Asian Cultures, ed. Alf Hiltebeitel and Barbara D. Miller
(Albany: State University of New York Press, 1998), 28.

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on the hairstyle of the Tibetan Buddhist ngakpa offers an opportunity to


reexamine our understanding of hair symbolism through a rare example
of indigenous exegesis of the subject. Fortuitously, he also composed
a detailed autobiography that allows us to place the composition of the
dreadlocks treatise in the context of his life. Reading the autobiography
in light of the concerns raised in the treatise, one sees that aspects of religious identity that would appear to be peripheral (hairstyle and clothing)
played a central role in his understanding of his own life.
Before examining Yolmo Tendzin Norbus autobiography and treatise,
it is useful to review briey the study of hair symbolism. A summary of
the major hair theories of the past century must begin with the early comparative approach most often associated with Sir James Frazer, well illustrated by the rst lines of the entry on Hair and Nails (by E. E. Sikes)
in the 1912 Encyclopdia of Religion and Ethics: In custom, ritual, and
superstition, the same ideas underlie the majority of beliefs and ceremonies
relating to human hair and nails; and the whole class of observances may
conveniently be treated in a single article. . . . Certain practices relating to
the hair of the head appear to have originated from the widespread belief
that the head is particularly sacred.9 The rest of the article connects examples from ancient Greece to the cultures of Burma and the Omaha
tribe in order to illustrate this principle: the hair of the head is sacred
because it is believed to be the abode of spirits or divinities. The theory
reduces an astoundingly complex variety of hair practices from around
the world to a general proposition without accounting for any specic
cultural contexts. Although Frazer amassed much interesting detail regarding the treatment of hair (and many other practices) in different societies
across many centuries, the reliability of his evidence has been questioned
and his theory has been widely criticized as simplistic.
In his 1958 essay, Magical Hair, Edmund Leach emphasized the communicative meaning of hairstyles that derived from the psychological
association of hair with sexuality: An astonishingly high proportion of
the ethnographic evidence ts the following pattern in a quite obvious
way. In ritual situations: long hair = unrestrained sexuality; short hair or
tightly bound hair = restricted sexuality; close shaven hair = celibacy.10
Christopher Hallpikes Social Hair (1969), written as young men were
being drafted to ght in Vietnam, rejected this psychoanalytic approach
and argued that long hair is associated with being outside society

9 E. E. Sikes, Hair and Nails, in Encyclopdia of Religion and Ethics, ed. James Hastings
(Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1912), 474.
10
Edmund R. Leach, Magical Hair, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 88
(1953): 154.

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and . . . the cutting of hair symbolizes re-entering society, or living under


a particular disciplinary regime within society.11 Finally, Gananath
Obeyesekeres Medusas Hair: An Essay on Personal Symbols and Religious Experiences12 has rightly become a classic of anthropological literature for its bold attempt to bridge the perceived gap between private
symbols (psychoanalysis) and public symbols (anthropology).
Despite important recent contributions by scholars of religion, it is certainly the case that much of the theoretical work on the symbolism of hair
has been carried out thus far by scholars in the elds of anthropology and
psychoanalysis.13 The dreadlocks of Hindu ascetics have been interpreted
over the past century as the abodes of divinity, as symbols of unrestrained
sexuality, as symbols of renunciation of society, and as phalluses. In this
terrain of shifting meanings, the bearers of the dreadlocks have remained
largely silent. Even Obeyesekeres essay, based on extensive interviews
with dreadlocked ascetics, ultimately posits an unconscious meaning to the
dreadlocks that the ascetics themselves did not verbalize and would not
recognize. Although the differences among these increasingly sophisticated
theories are signicant, they share a common approach of reducing the
hair practices of different cultures to a theory that transcends, yet somehow
still applies to, all local contexts. Each of these theories might be productively brought to a reading of Yolmo Tendzin Norbus treatise. However,
removed from the intellectual, historical, and cultural contexts in which
the author lived and wrote, such a reduction is bound always to limit and
often to distort our interpretation.
I will explore two closely related questions in Yolmo Tendzin Norbus
autobiographical and polemical writings on dreadlocks. The rst asks what
these texts tell us about how particular religious hairstyles were interpreted
in early seventeenth-century Tibet. The second question focuses on Yolmo
Tendzin Norbus attempts to shift these meanings through the force of his
own actions and polemical writings. As Patrick Olivelle has pointed out,
Just like language, hair symbolism imposes its own grammar on the
individuals in a given period of a given society; an individual is unable
to produce an entirely new symbolic value of hair from his or her own
subjective consciousness and still be able to communicate with the rest
of that society.14 Yolmo Tendzin Norbus dreadlocks (both those coiled on
his head and those in the words of his treatise) embody this very dialectic

11

Christopher Hallpike, Social Hair, Man, n.s., 4 (1969): 260.


Gananath Obeyesekere, Medusas Hair: An Essay on Personal Symbols and Religious
Experience (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984).
13
Olivelle, Hair and Society, 31.
14
Ibid., 12.
12

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between a societys grammar of hair symbolism and an individuals


attempted innovation and intervention in that system.
iii. surfaces of a life remembered
Yolmo Tendzin Norbu was a prolic autobiographer, composing a long
prose memoir, several shorter accounts of his life in verse, and a series
of manuscript paintings depicting about thirty scenes from his life. His
autobiography was admired and quoted by the Great Fifth Dalai Lama
Ngawang Lozang Gyatso and his paintings were highly regarded even
centuries later.15 The autobiographical paintings provide a visual memoir
that corresponds to the textual one in illuminating ways. The very existence of these images heightens our awareness of the visual details in the
parallel passages of the prose memoir. The paintings mitigate the scholars
tendency to read through appearances in search of immaterial ideas in the
face of the texts consistent (and conscious) focus on appearances themselves. Indeed, the critical moments in Tendzin Norbus representation of
his own life are almost all discussed in relation to clothing and hairstyle
rather than in terms of some inner conversion or crisis. In order to introduce the author of the dreadlocks treatise and to demonstrate the centrality of appearances to the autobiography, I will review some of the most
important episodes from his life as presented in that text.
Unlike most life stories, Tendzin Norbus memoirs do not begin with an
account of his ancestry or with the scene of his birth. Rather, in an autobiographical convention rooted in the logic of the Tibetan system of recognized rebirths,16 the story begins at the deathbed of one Yolmo Namkha
Gyajin. In conversation with the great Sakya master Jampa Snam Wangpo
(15591621), the dying lama announces that he will pass from life seven

15
The autobiographical manuscript paintings have been reproduced as line drawings in
Yolmo Bstan dzin nor bu, Untitled (illustrations to the autobiography), in The Autobiography and Collected Writings (Gsu thor bu) of the Third Rig-dzin Yol-mo-ba Sprul-sku Bstandzin Nor-bu, 2 vols. (Dalhousie, 1977), 1:4561. David Jacksons A History of Tibetan
Painting: The Great Tibetan Painters and Their Traditions ([Vienna: Verlag der sterreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1996], 197) mentions a nineteenth-century painter
who sought out a painting of Tendzin Norbus to use as a model for his own work. The Fifth
Dalai Lama describes his admiration for Tendzin Norbu in his own autobiography (Ngag
dbang blo bzang rgya mthso, Dalai Lama V, Za hor gyi ban de ngag dbang blo bzang rgya
mtshoi di snang khrul bai rol rtsed rtogs brjod kyi tshul du bkod pa du ku lai gos bzang
[Lhasa: Bod ljongs mi dmangs dpe skrun khang, 1989], 1:236) and quotes from Tendzin
Norbus autobiography throughout his biography of Rinzin Ngaki Wangpo (Ngag dbang blo
bzang rgya mthso, Dalai Lama V, Byang pa rig dzin chen po Ngag gi dbang poi rnam par
thar pa ngo mtshar bkod pa rgya mtsho, in Bka ma mdo dbang gi bla ma brgyud pai rnam
thar, Smanrtsis shesrig spendzod, vol. 37 [Leh: S. W. Tashigangpa, 1972], 427553).
16
According to this tradition, a realized lama may consciously choose rebirth. The disciples
of a deceased lama will then try to identify and recognize the lama during childhood. Upon
recognition, the child is referred to as a trlku (Tibetan: sprul sku; Sanskrit: nirmanakaya).

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days hence. As a condition for his rebirth as a completely pure, fully


ordained monk, he entrusts his alms bowl and monks robe to the Sakya
master.17 Thus, before Tendzin Norbu describes his birth, he tells the story
of certain conditions for his life being set in place through the bequest
of items essential to the monks costume. Although the boy was indeed
formally recognized as the rebirth of Yolmo Namkha Gyajin (and thus
identied as the Third Yolmo Trlku), the alms bowl and robe were not
passed on to the new incarnation. Many years later, when Tendzin Norbu
reports a visit with the Sakya master Jampa Snam Wangpo, the failed
delivery of these items is interpreted as both a cause of Tendzin Norbus
struggles with monasticism and as an omen indicating that the monastic
life might not be meant for him.
Along these lines, the boys father was a renowned ngakpa known as
Lochen Chenrezik, and the memoirs indicate that as a child Tendzin Norbu
refused to wear ordinary clothes, preferring to dress up in white robes
imitating those of ngakpas like his father. Noticing this penchant, the
father expressed some concern about the childs style of dress and urged
him to become a monk and exert himself in studies before making any
decisions about being a ngakpa. This theme of the tension between
monkhood and the path of the ngakpa persists throughout Tendzin Norbus
memoir, and the inherited monks robe and bowl and the white robes that
he preferred set the contrast in terms of appearances.
At the age of six, Tendzin Norbu received the rst of the three major
ordinations in the Tibetan Buddhist monastic system from the famous
Sixth Zhamar Rinpoch, Chkyi Wangchuk (15841630). The autobiographical painting depicting this scene shows the young Tendzin Norbu
kneeling before the lamas seat, his palms joined in a reverential gesture,
as the lamas left hand takes hold of a long lock of black hair that stands
straight up and his right hand holds a blade poised to cut the long lock.
The caption oating in the upper right register of the frame reads, I offered
a lock of my hair at the feet of the Bearer of the Red Crown [Zhamar
Chkyi Wangchuk].18 In both the written and visual autobiographies,
the denitive moment of the ordination process is understood to be this
moment when the childs hair is cut.
This emphasis on hair is not particular to Tendzin Norbus case but
may be observed in Buddhist ordination rituals (in their diverse forms)

17
Yol mo Bstan dzin nor bu, Rang gi rtogs pa brjod pa rdo rje sgra mai rgyud mangs
(hereafter, Rang gi rtogs brjod), in Collected Writings of Yol-mo Sprul-sku Bstan-dzin-nor-bu,
reproduced from a manuscript collection from the Library of Bla-ma Senge of Yol-mo (Delhi:
Dawa Lama, 1982), 96.
18
Yolmo Bstan dzin nor bu, Untitled (illustrations to the autobiography) (see n. 15
above).

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throughout the world. 19 In its primary meaning, the ritual reenacts


Siddhartha Gautamas cutting off of his long royal locks after leaving
the palace to begin his renunciation. In the story of the Buddhas life, this
act denitively marked his rejection of the worldly life of his palace and
his commitment to renunciation, asceticism, and celibacy. This episode is
often visually depicted as representing the sixth of twelve great acts of the
Buddha, the act of renunciation. As described in the voice of the Buddha
in the Ariyapariyesana Sutta, Later, while still young, a black-haired
young man endowed with the blessing of youth, in the prime of life,
though my mother and father wished otherwise and wept with tearful
faces, I shaved off my hair and beard, put on the yellow robe, and went
forth from the home life into homelessness.20 Two obvious but important
points arise from these lines. The rst is that the act of shaving the hair
requires no explication or interpretation; the equation of shaved hair with
homelessness (i.e., renunciation) is implicitly understood. This is noteworthy because this act of the royal prince is invoked as the precedent for
the entire tradition of monks and nuns shaving their heads. However, in
accounts of the Buddhas life, his decision to shave his head is based on
what is appropriate for a monk. Thus, the Indian grammar of hair symbolism seems already to have been established well before the princes
haircut, and the early biographers felt no need to explain the signicance
or symbolism of this act.
The second point raised by this passage is the depiction of his parents
as unwilling, with tears pouring down their faces. Siddharthas renunciation of his royal family life (depicted in art through the image of the
prince with sword aloft, cutting off his long locks) transgresses all social
expectations and leads to great distress for his family. Interestingly, in
most Buddhist cultures, the ordination ritual that reenacts this precedent
has become so deeply embedded in the social fabric that it acts as a standard rite of passage performed as a matter of familial duty, and often
celebration.
There are interesting variations in the practice and theory of ordination
in various Buddhist cultures. In Thailand, for example, the eyebrows are
shaved along with the head of the hair. In the shinbyu ceremony in

19
On the body in Theravada monasticism, see Steven Collins, The Body in Theravada
Buddhist Monasticism, in Religion and the Body, ed. Sarah Coakley (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2000), 185204. For an insightful analysis of Buddhist hair practices and
gender differences, see Karen Lang, Shaven Heads and Loose Hair: Buddhist Attitudes
toward Hair and Sexuality, in Off with Her Head! The Denial of Womens Identity in Myth,
Religion, and Culture, ed. Howard Eilberg-Schwartz and Wendy Doniger (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995), 3252.
20
From The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha: A New Translation of the Majjhima Nikaya, trans. Bhikkhu Naamoli and Bhikkhu Bodhi (Boston: Wisdom Publications,
1995), 256.

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Burma, the temporary ordination of a son is an elaborate social affair that


reinforces family and societal structures.21 In some recent forms of the
ordination ceremony in China, the shaved heads of monks and nuns
are burned with a stick of incense to produce a set of small round scars
(from three to eighteen).22 Despite these differences in practice, the basic
understanding of the shaving of a childs head as performing the Buddhas
renunciation and marking entrance into the monastic community has remained relatively consistent across the Buddhist world.
Tendzin Norbu eventually progressed through the second (dge tshul)
and third (dge slong) ordinations and became a fully ordained bhiku.
In the autobiographers retrospective view, although he was steadfastly
determined to uphold fastidiously the complete vows, he always wore the
monastic robes with a degree of awkwardness and anxiety. There were
many signs, even during the period of greatest commitment to his life as
a monk, that the ngakpas robes he preferred as a child were not completely forgotten. During his travels, Tendzin Norbu paid a visit to the
Sakya master Jampa Snam Wangpo who appeared in the very rst scene
of the autobiography at the deathbed of Tendzin Norbus previous incarnation. The alms bowl and robe bestowed to him at that time, we are told,
had never been delivered to the young reincarnate lama, and although the
bowl was still there, the robe had become worn out. In the logic that results
from the intersection of the Tibetan system of recognized rebirths (sprul
sku) and the doctrine of interdependent causation (rten brel), the fact that
these items had not been passed on to the child earlier in his life has signicance beyond the mere delay of an inheritance. The bowl and the robe
were specically intended to serve as the auspicious conditions (rten brel)
that would ensure the childs successful career as a fully ordained monk.
The missed connection might be interpreted as both a portent and a cause
of Tendzin Norbus later decision to abandon his monastic vows. And, in
fact, the author, as we will see, understood them as signifying that he was
not meant to be a monk. All of these interpretations hinge on the signicance of the monks material accoutrements as determining factors in
Tendzin Norbus religious life.
The rst hints of the young monks aspirations to become a ngakpa are
likewise expressed in terms of appearances. Around the age of twenty,
Tendzin Norbu became a student of Rindzin Ngaki Wangpo,23 one of
21
See Donald K. Swearer, The Buddhist World of Southeast Asia (Albany: State University
of New York Press, 1995), 51.
22
See Holmes Welch, The Practice of Chinese Buddhism (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1967), 247302.
23
Rindzin Ngaki Wangpo (Rig dzin Ngag gi dbang po) was the founder of Dorj Drak
Monastery. His biography by the Fifth Dalai Lama may be found in Ngag dbang blo bzang
rgya mthso, Dalai Lama V, Byang pa rig dzin chen po Ngag gi dbang poi rnam par thar pa
ngo mtshar bkod pa rgya mtsho.

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the most famous ngakpas of the time. Although hesitant at rst, Tendzin
Norbus veneration for Rindzin Ngaki Wangpo quickly grew; for a number
of years, he traveled back and forth between his monastery and the mixed
dharma encampment of Rindzin Ngaki Wangpos disciples. Although
he remained a monk throughout this period, his growing admiration for
the ngakpa found expression in various ways. While attending a debate
festival at the monastery of his preceptor, the Zhamar Rinpoch, Tendzin
Norbu altered the traditional dedication of merit:24
The king of dharma [Zhamar Rinpoch] said, [I dedicate the merit that results
from this event] to all people until they reach enlightenment. I said, I dedicate
the merit [to the wish that] having reached the enlightenment of a buddha, I will
then become a lord of the family in the style of one with dreadlocks tied in a
topknot and ornamented with a jewel at the crown. The learned scholars
laughed heartily. . . . The next day at the teaching, the Victorious [Zhamar]
looked at me and remembering what I had said the previous day, he laughed.25

Tendzin Norbus aspiration to become a buddha as described in the


tantras contrasts starkly with the standard dedication voiced by Zhamar
Chkyi Wangchuk. Voicing this desire to become a buddha in the manner
of the lords of the families described in the tantras, with dreadlocks tied
above his head, in the midst of the monastic assembly, was so unexpected and incongruous that it may only be understood, at the time, as a
joke. The sounds of laughter that lled the monastery are echoes of the
incongruity between the dreadlocked image in Tendzin Norbus prayer
and the tonsured assembly.
The tensions between the identity of the monk and the ngakpa that
appear throughout the autobiography come into full focus in the nineteenth chapter. This chapter describes a meditation retreat the author
undertook in an isolated sacred cave on the slopes of Mount Riwo
Pembar in the early 1620s. At one point during this retreat, Tendzin
Norbu dreamed of a beautiful fteen-year-old woman who held his
hands, sang melodious songs, and offered words prophesying the benet
he would bring to beings in the future. Reecting on this dream upon
waking, Tendzin Norbu realized that in the dream he had been dressed
not in his monks robes but in the white robes of a ngakpa. Taking this as
a sign, he decided to dress in ngakpas robes during the next major ritual
performance of his retreat.
24
The dedication of merit ( parinamana) typically concludes any Buddhist ritual practice.
The explicit goal of transferring the merit produced by the ritual to another person is often
theorized in Mahayana sources as being related to the perfection of generosity and the generation of compassion.
25
Bstan dzin nor bu, Rang gi rtogs brjod, 154.

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On that occasion, hosts of dakas and dakinis26 gathered around him


and piled up enormous heaps of offerings, waving banners of white silk
in the air. About this Tendzin Norbu writes, At that time, there was a
meaningful coincidence of causal factors [rten brel] in my wearing such
accoutrements of a ngakpa. The meaningful coincidence of causal
factors here is demonstrated by the fact that performing the ritual
dressed as a ngakpa produced extremely auspicious results. Just as the
undelivered monks robe and bowl from the previous incarnation was
interpreted as both cause and omen of Tendzin Norbus shortened monastic
career, the response of celestial beings to his ngakpa robes and long hair
is understood both to manifest his identity as a ngakpa and to conrm the
correctness of the decision.
This is the principal passage in Tendzin Norbus memoirs that directly
discusses his transformation from monk to ngakpa. However, rather than
discuss differences in doctrine or formal ritual practice, Tendzin Norbus
focus remains xed on the surface. As he wrote, When I see painted or
sculpted images of Nyang Rinpoch, Dakchen Rinpoch, Trashi Topgyel
and others, I am thrilled and delighted.27 By drawing attention to the
painted and sculpted images of famous ngakpas from Tibetan Buddhist
history, Tendzin Norbu again emphasizes the visual and the material. Here
we have a glimpse of an alternative transmission, one we would trace not
through texts or initiation ceremonies but through paintings and sculptures. Donning the clothes and styling the hair of these luminaries,
Tendzin Norbu came to identify with them.28 After invoking the precedent
that statues and images of these gures bear witness to, Tendzin Norbu
turns to a defense of the legitimacy of different styles of Buddhist uniform in general (mentioning both India and Tibet) and then specically
to his defense of the ngakpas own style:
In India, the monastic robes of the eighteen sects each had its own identifying
marks.29 On the other side, the brahmana, yogi, sanyasin, and others each
26
Dakas and dakinis are male and female celestial beings depicted in Vajrayana literature
as protectors of esoteric knowledge who punish and reward individuals for the erroneous
or correct practice of tantra. See Adelheid Herrmann-Pfandt, Dakinis: Zur Stellung und Symbolik des Weiblichen im Tantrischen Buddhismus (Bonn: Indica et Tibetica Verlag, 1992).
27
Nyang ral Nyi ma od zer (11361204), Bdag chen rin po che may refer here to Sa skya
pa Byams pa bsod nams dbang po (15591621) and Bkra shis stobs rgyal (15501603), the
father of Bstan dzin nor bus lama Ngag gi dbang po.
28
Compare the quotation from Mencius: If you wear Yaos clothes, chant Yaos words,
and act as Yao acted, then you are simply Yao.
29
In the standard Tibetan presentation of Buddhist history, differences of opinion regarding
doctrine, ritual, and philosophical view led to the creation of eighteen different sects. These
eighteen sects are all subsumed under the Lesser Vehicle (theg dman) label in Tibetan
classications. These schools are remembered in Tibet principally for the Mulasarvastivadin
schools role as the source of the monastic ordination lineage followed in Tibet and for their

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Dreadlocks Treatise

had their own marks.30 In Tibet as well, there are different hats for each type.
They are not attractive, but they must be worn. They are indicative of the
philosophical tenets one holds. In that regard, these accoutrementsthe dreadlocks and the white undyed clothesdisplay a natural and uncontrived state.
These are the accoutrements of the accomplished ones (grub thob, siddha)
and the holders of the mantra[s power] (sngags chang, mantradharin).31

By pointing out that external appearance distinguished the various sects


of classical Indian Buddhism as well as the non-Buddhist religious groups
of India, Tendzin Norbu argues for the universal signicance of the supercial. Within that broad framework he then offers specic interpretations
of the ngakpas clothing, interpretations that will be revisited in much
greater detail in his treatise.
Based on the construction of the monk/ngakpa dichotomy in most
scholarship on Tibetan Buddhism, one would expect that Tendzin Norbus
change from monk to ngakpa would represent a momentous chapter in
the autobiography: some dramatic epiphany that transformed his philosophical views or gave rise to deep religious convictions. However, the
closer one looks at Tendzin Norbus representation of the event, the more
one is struck by how strongly the emphasis is placed upon appearances.
In the chain of events leading up to this statementor at least his depiction
of themit was the clothing he wore in his dreams and in his meditation
retreat that precipitated his change in identity. Moreover, this change of
identity itself, if we try to pinpoint what has actually changed, is inseparable from the change of clothes. This is not to suggest that merely putting on the costume of a ngakpa would make one a ngakpa. The monks
who don the stylized guises of ngakpas for the purpose of monastic dance
festivals are still monks after the performance is nished. In Tendzin
Norbus own autobiography, we see him several times in the guise of a
ngakpa: as a child playing dress-up games, as the image of aspiration in
a joke about himself, in the dream of the young woman, and, nally, during
the performance of an offering ritual in retreat. Yet throughout those experiences, his status as a monk was unchanged. In light of what follows,
the childs game, the joke, the dream, and the ritual may all be seen as
dressing rooms where he tried on his new identity. Encouraged by the
praise he received from the woman in his dream and the celestial beings

place in the Tibetan doxography of philosophical views (where they are classied as either
Vaibhasika (bye brag smra ba) or Sautrantika (mdo sde pa). I am not familiar with any
sources that discuss distinctive robes differentiating the adherents of the different sects.
30
Here, Tendzin Norbu seems to equate names for various classes of non-Buddhist Indian
religious as categories that would be visibly marked. Indeed, the hairstyles, robes, and facial
markings worn by various groups of Indian ascetics do indicate sectarian allegiances.
31
Bstan dzin nor bu, Rang gi rtogs brjod, 157.

History of Religions

97

in his meditative retreat, he decided to adopt permanently this style of


dress. In doing so, he was not only following the indications received in
solitary retreat but also reenacting the renunciation of monastic life found
in the hagiographies of Indian mahasiddhas such as Virupa and Naropa.
Just as akyamunis life story (as depicted in literature and art) is
enacted ritually across the Buddhist world, the lives of the mahasiddhas
offer an alternative discourse in which hair symbolism plays a central
role. In the hagiographies of these tantric adepts, story after story is told
of the mahasiddhas leaving the monasteries, taking up with consorts
of the lowest castes, drinking alcohol, and letting their hair grow long.
Although the history of tantric Buddhism in India remains obscure, the
Tibetan stories, prayers, and paintings of these gures dramatize their
transgressions of all social conventions as both source and proof of their
superhuman powers. Beyond the renunciation of society performed by
the monk entering a monastery, the idealized mahasiddha leaving the
monastery renounces all attachments and conventions.32 The ngakpas
clearly modeled themselves on the Indian mahasiddhas in their conceptions of the Buddhist path, models of ritual practice, and images of realized
beings.
Although the mahasiddhas are venerated across the Tibetan Buddhist
sectarian and institutional spectra, Tibetan history shows that individuals
who actually imitated the mahasiddhas too closely were highly controversial. Most famously, in the late tenth century, a king of western Tibet
named Yesh addressed a letter to the ngakpas of Tibet.33 The letter
details the erroneous views and heterodox practices of ngakpas and insists
that their claim to be Buddhists is evidence that they are either deluded
by demons or simply mad. Tendzin Norbus autobiographical account of
the response to his decision to leave the monastery and become a ngakpa
suggests that deep anxieties about this style of tantric practice were still
prevalent in the early seventeenth century.
Other than a very few, nobody was pleased. The severity of my crime was considered worse than that of killing a person. To my face, everyone in all directions
struck me with harsh criticism. . . . Just for a change of clothes, many people
turned their faces. . . . [People said,] Having let his hair grow and having changed
the color of his clothes, next hell take a wife. Later, hell make a child. Hell
32
Ronald M. Davidson has presented a theory of the social history of this movement in
Indian Esoteric Buddhism: A Social History of the Tantric Movement (New York: Columbia
University Press, 2002). On siddhas in particular, see chap. 7.
33
This extraordinary document was published, translated, and introduced by Samten G.
Karmay in 1980 and has now been included in the rst volume of his collected articles.
Samten G. Karmay, The Ordinance of lHa Bla-ma Ye-shes-od, in The Arrow and the
Spindle: Studies in History, Myths, Rituals and Beliefs in Tibet (Kathmandu: Mandala Book
Point, 1998), 316.

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Dreadlocks Treatise

drink beer carelessly. Now, this situation has befallen me. Still, its all in agreement with the discipline of akyamuni. Its also in accordance with the tantras
of Vajradhara and the secret instructions of Orgyen Pema [Padmasambhava].
For me, it ts very well. For others, [it is better] to remain [as monks].

The harsh response to his decision emphasizes the transgressive nature of


crossing the border between the monastic world of the monk and the tantric
world of the ngakpa. Although the two realms are connected in countless
ways, the transition from one to the other highlights the differences that
separate them. Tendzin Norbu moves very quickly in this passage from
the idle gossip of people predicting (correctly) that his change of attire will
lead to a change in conduct to a defense against an unstated assertion that
the ngakpa is not actually Buddhist. It is in response to attacks in both of
these registers (personal conduct and Buddhist authenticity) that Tendzin
Norbu composed his polemical treatise on the topic of dreadlocks.
iv. the polemics of paraphernalia
The colophon to Tendzin Norbus treatise on dreadlocks, entitled The
Heros Roaring Laughter, indicates that he wrote it at the age of twentynine, in his hermitage at Ngdrup Tsoling in the southern region of
Kyirong, for the benet and knowledge of the few ngakpas who maintain
harmony of the view and conduct. The opening lines of the text, however,
indicate that his words were aimed ultimately at a secondary audience.
The treatise is not a compendium of information on dreadlocks meant for
the edication of ngakpas but a polemical tract those ngakpas might use
to defend against the attacks of their detractors. In Tendzin Norbus words,
I wrote this in order to dispel scornful slander for yogins and yoginis
who bear the signs [of the ngakpa].34 Although Tendzin Norbu argues
vociferously against the slander of ngakpas, he takes care in the beginning
of the treatise to express a degree of sympathetic understanding for how
the mistaken views of the slanderers may have come about.
As if to demonstrate from the outset that he wishes for this discussion to
take place on a common ground shared by ngakpas and monks, Tendzin
Norbu opens with a quotation from one of Tibets most revered scholarmonks, Sakya Pandita Kunga Gyeltsen (11821251): Either one should
act in accord with what is said in the Perfection of Wisdom Sutras or one
should practice in accordance with the pronouncements of the Vajrayana
tantras. The buddhas did not teach a Great Vehicle other than these two.35
34

Yol mo Bstan dzin nor bu, Ral pai rnam bshad, 87.
These lines are from Sakya Panditas classic work on the relationship of the three
classes of Buddhist vows (pratimoksa, bodhisattva, and tantric samaya). See Sakya Pandita
Kunga Gyaltsen, A Clear Differentiation of the Three Codes, trans. Jared Rhoton (Albany:
State University of New York Press, 2002), 13132.
35

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99

This quotation is followed by a reference to a proclamation of Tri Songdeutsen, the eighth-century king credited with establishing Buddhism in
Tibet, which emphasizes the distinct identities of these two teachings: the
sutra-based Mahayana and the tantra-based Mahayana. Tendzin Norbu
draws upon these authorities as voices for the harmonious coexistence of
two distinct Mahayana paths, embodied by the monk and the ngakpa.
But Tendzin Norbu observes that not everyone shares this harmonious
vision: some monks develop an extreme attachment to the monastic code
and denigrate all who do not follow it. These extremists spread a deeply
negative and mistaken view of ngakpas. As the karmic result of this
erroneous view will be severe, Tendzin Norbu explains that he has really
written this polemical tract out of the compassionate desire to protect
these ignorant slanderers from rebirth in hell. Merely seeing the holders
of the wisdom-mantra with their hair tied-up in a topknot and wearing
white robes, their minds blaze with anger like violent ames. The shouts
of their baseless slander resound like echoes. Seeing that without a doubt
this slander of the view and conduct of secret mantra will lead to hell,
unbearable pity for these people arose. Therefore, I composed this brief
explanation of the appropriateness of this comportment. This is the explanation of the topic of the discourse.36 The structure and style of the entire
treatise reprise the curious mixture of righteous indignation and sympathetic understanding that the author claims in this passage. Conceding that
some of the criticisms leveled are in fact legitimate critiques of a majority
of ngakpas, Tendzin Norbu then fervently defends the authenticity and
superiority of the ngakpa tradition, understood and practiced correctly.
The treatise formally mimics the polemics of Tibetan scholastic debate
in a way that seems to insist that ngakpas not be excluded from the
scholastic realm at the same time that it seems to suggest that since some
monks cannot understand dreadlocks on their own, he will explain it in
language they can understand.
Following the conventions of Tibetan polemical literature, Tendzin
Norbu raises objections to dreadlocks and then replies to those objections
with logical arguments built around quotations from scriptural sources.
The rst objection, attributed to the scholar akya Chokden (14281507),
argues that the custom of wearing long dreadlocks only dates back to the
eleventh century and has no earlier basis. As in the autobiography, Tendzin
Norbu here refers to religious images in the way that scholastics refer to
the authority of scripture, pointing out that many of the most important
gures from the eighth century beginnings of Buddhism in Tibet are
depicted in precisely this way, with dreadlocks tied above the head in a
topknot.
36

Yol mo Bstan dzin nor bu, Ral pai rnam bshad, 88.

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Dreadlocks Treatise

Beyond the iconographic evidence for the antiquity of this tradition,


Tendzin Norbu also argues that the hairstyle has a scriptural basis in the
tantras. The crown-ornament of the topknot of dreadlocks is in accordance
with the teachings of the tantras. As for learned explanations of dreadlocks
that one may quote from the tantras, they may be given out as liberally as
the grain distributed by the old village chief drunk on beer.37 While the
quotations that he provides are not as numerous as this colorful analogy
suggests, he does provide a wide variety of sources. Careful to cite tantras
from both the New and Old Translations,38 Tendzin Norbu starts with the
well-known Hevajratantra, which instructs one to arrange the hair in a
topknot like a thief s.39 After a longer quote from a text called the
Tantra of Singing40 that describes a particularly ornate way of arranging
dreadlocks into a topknot surrounded with ve tufts, Tendzin Norbu
enters into a detailed and rather obscure discussion of other styles. Each
style is described briey, given a name, and connected to a specic tradition of texts and practice.41
37

Ibid., 89.
The Tibetan Buddhist canon purports to consist entirely of translations of Sanskrit scriptures. This amazing feat of translation took place during two different periods referred to by
Tibetan historians as the Early Translations (seventh to ninth centuries) and the Later
Translations (eleventh to thirteenth centuries). As the Buddhist canon in India never closed,
the texts translated during each period represent distinctly different strata of late Indian
Buddhism. In the period of the Later Translations, various traditions of exegesis and practice
developed and were eventually institutionalized. Those relying on the earlier translations
became known as the Ancients (Nyingmapa), whereas those relying on the new translations
were called the New Schools (Sarmapa). The scholars responsible for compiling and editing
the Tibetan canon excluded many works of the earlier translations that were preserved in the
Collected Tantras of the Ancients (Nyingma Gybum).
39
See David Snellgrove, The Hevajra Tantra: A Critical Study (London: Oxford University
Press, 1959), 6465. Snellgrove notes that although all the manuscripts (and Tibetan translations) read cauryakeakrtam, the only sensible reading (following Kanhas commentary) is
caudakea. Thus, his translation reads, should arrange his piled-up hair as a crest. Tendzin
Norbu clearly follows the Tibetan tradition by quoting rkun mai skra (= a thiefs hair).
40
Glu blangs kyi rgyud. I have not yet been able to identify this tantra.
41
Throughout this section the author refers numerous times to a text called the Black
Dreadlocks Weapons of Battle Tantra (Ral nag mtshon khrug gi rgyud ) and concludes the
discussion of various styles of dreadlocks by referring interested readers to that tantra. A text
with that title is included in the Collected Tantras of the Ancients (Mtshams brag 578, vol. 31,
text 20: 766.6773.7). The rst chapter consists of a very brief version of the subjugation of
Rudra, noting that the subjugator plundered Rudras ornaments, ayed him, and departed.
The second chapter opens with a series of questions about the origins, qualities, and enumerations of dreadlocks and proceeds to answer each one. Interestingly, the dreadlocks atop
Rudras head are only one source of dreadlocks; different groups of dreadlocks of different
colors are said to have arisen from his sense organs, his intestines, his bones, etc. Each of
these groups of dreadlocks are then explained as analogous to a group from tantras vast pantheon of divine beings (e.g., the fourteen red dreadlocks that emerged from Rudras intestines
indicate the compassionate activities of the fourteen wisdom dakinis). Different actions involving dreadlocks are interpreted in the text. For example, Waving the dreadlocks in the
sky three times binds the gods and demons of the sky to oaths. The third chapter is similarly
structured with the consistent substitution of drums for dreadlocks. Finally, the fourth chapter
exalts the power and superiority of the tantra itself. The tantras association of dreadlocks
with Rudra does suggest a connection with aiva traditions.
38

One Line Long

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101

Aside from this erudite display of what is surely one of the more arcane
appendages of the tantric literary corpus, Tendzin Norbu offers a defense
of dreadlocks on the basis of their meaning. The unaltered hairdreadlocksand the undyed cloth of white are the signs of not being contrived
and therefore are the marks of the ngakpa or yogin.42 The ngakpas dreadlocks, although often arrayed in intricate styles above the head, are never
cut or combed. Accordingly, they are understood as unalteredhair in its
natural state. This is the most frequently offered explication of the symbol
provided by the ngakpas themselves: their uncontrived hair represents
the uncontrived mind of the meditator, absorbed in contemplation of the
nature of reality. In this sense, the dreadlocks may be read as an assertion
that the bearer has transcended the need for monastic discipline symbolized
by the shaved head. While the monk must shave his head at least once a
month,43 the ngakpas hairstyle is effortless and natural. The freedom from
this monastic need to repeatedly shave the head connects the ngakpa with
akyamuni. It is said that after akyamuni cut his hair upon leaving the
palace, it stayed the same length without ever being cut again.44
While these discussions defend dreadlocks through recourse to scripture
and reasoning, Tendzin Norbu also employs a slightly different argument.
The ritual manuals for many different tantric practices contain instructions indicating how to arrange ones hair. Much of tantric ritual consists
of embodying buddhahood, and many tantric buddhas have long hair.
Tendzin Norbu asks how the authenticity of dreadlocks as a proper
Buddhist symbol could possibly be denied when these practice manuals
indicate how dreadlocks should be arranged on the head, including
details as specic as what color cloth should be used to tie the topknot
and where on the topknot the cloth should be tied. Here the argument shifts
from defending the authenticity and validity of dreadlocks to asserting
their necessity. This claim is reinforced by the fact that monastic performances of tantric rituals often involve costumes that include stylized
dreadlocks and topknots. Though such hairpieces might be sufcient for
carrying out the ritual instructions, in light of the signicance ascribed
to the ngakpas dreadlocksuncontrived naturalnessthere is a certain
incongruity in the practice of using articial ones.

42
Yol mo Bstan dzin nor bu, Ral pai rnam bshad, 88.689.1. The repetition of the word
uncontrived (Tibetan: ma bcos; Sanskrit: akrtrima) in this passage invokes a long tradition of
Buddhist literature in which the mental state of a realized being is described as uncontrived.
43
Although shaving practices vary between different traditions and monastic communities,
the general rule is that hair cannot grow longer than two nger breadths (Cullavagga V.2.2).
Monks in Thailand shave their heads in a monthly communal ritual the day before the full
moon. Elsewhere, individuals are responsible for maintaining acceptable hair length.
44
See, e.g., the Nidanakatha, in Buddhism in Translations, trans. Henry Clarke Warren
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1953), 66.

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Dreadlocks Treatise

Although the implications of Tendzin Norbus suggestion that dreadlocks are necessary for the practice of tantra seem to pit monks against
ngakpas, his argument is based on elements of tantric theory that transcend sectarian divisions and span the divide between monks and ngakpas.
Meditation on emptiness is frequently pointed to as the quintessential
Mahayana practice. However, even the Tibetan authors who emphasized
the importance of meditation on emptiness did not consider it sufcient
in itself to secure buddhahood. A classic explanation of this point is found
in the Vajra Tent Tantra (Tibetan: rdo rje gur gyi rgyud; Sanskrit: Vajrapajaratantra). After explaining that emptiness is the antidote to the conception of self but not the cause of buddhahood, the text reads:
A Teacher has the two and thirty signs
As well as all the eighty minor marks,
Therefore the method of achievement
Is to take on the Teachers form.45

A buddha is identied here in corporeal terms, as the teacher with the particular physical characteristics that mark a buddha as such (traditionally
organized into a list of thirty-two major and eighty minor marks).46 The
principle of tantric Buddhist practice that underlies Tendzin Norbus argument about the necessity of dreadlocks is that the method of achievement
is to take on the Teachers form. If taking on the buddhas form means
tying your dreadlocks above your head in a topknot, arent long dreadlocks needed in order to do so?
A possible objection to this argument is that Tendzin Norbu has interpreted far too literally the notion that one should take on the teachers
form. This could be expressed by suggesting that through the tantric path
one gradually progresses toward an enlightenment that will result in the
form of a buddha, but that adopting the appearance of a buddha before
that enlightenment is achieved would be inappropriate at best. Tendzin
Norbu raises and responds to this concern before launching into a very
different critique of his imagined interlocutor.
If you say that it is not appropriate to wear the accoutrements of Heruka until
one has attained the level of Samantabhadra or Vajradhara, then it follows that
it is not appropriate to shave ones head and dye ones robes until the level of
45
The passage from the Vajra Tent Tantra is quoted by Tsongkhapa in his Sngags rim chen
mo. See H.H. the Dalai Lama, Tsong-kha-pa, and Jeffrey Hopkins, Tantra in Tibet (Ithaca,
NY: Snow Lion, 1987), 117.
46
On these marks and the usnisa in particular, see Donald S. Lopoez Jr., Buddha, in
Critical Terms for the Study of Buddhism, ed. Donald S. Lopez Jr. (Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 2005), 1336.

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103

akyamuni is attained. So throw away all of these venerable robes of yours!


In particular, enjoying beer without restraint, [your] round bald head sleeping
together with a womans, in what tantra is that set forth? In which sutra is it
explained? Which king proclaimed that? By which realized scholar was that
clearly explicated, pray tell?47

Tendzin Norbu responds to the objection by replacing the representative


tantric buddhas of the Old and New Translations (Samantabhadra and
Vajradhara, respectively) with the nontantric buddha akyamuni. In the
terms of this equation, if it is not appropriate for ngakpas to wear dreadlocks and tantric dress until they have attained the realization of those
buddhas, then it is certainly not appropriate for monks to have shaved
heads and wear monastic robes until they have attained the realization of
akyamuni. This response simultaneously undermines the attack by drawing out an absurd consequence of the logic and implicitly suggests that
the monastery where akyamuni is emulated is not really the proper realm
for the practice of tantra, which necessitates the emulation of Samantabhadra Vajradhara.
Although Tendzin Norbus tract on dreadlocks mimics scholastic treatises, as the previous quotation demonstrates, he alternates between
scriptural quotation, logical argument, and much more personal polemics
without a clear or coherent structure. Immediately after replying to this
imagined objection, Tendzin Norbu lashes out at the perceived hypocrisy
of those who slander ngakpas, slanderers here identied as fraudulent
monks. In a chain of associations that seems to conrm Edmund Leachs
theory, Tendzin Norbu moves from long hair to alcohol to sex.48 It is important to recall that in the autobiography these were precisely the activities that Tendzin Norbus critics predicted would follow his change of
appearance. Nowhere in his writings does Tendzin Norbu attempt to deny
the charges. In fact, his collected writings are replete with paeans to the
delights of beer and women. His argument is that these activities are in
fact perfectly appropriate within the ethical structure of the tantric path.
Tacitly accepting the connection between long hair, alcohol, and sex,
Tendzin Norbu argues that none of these things are inherently unethical.
In his view, the real ethical transgression is the confusion of categories,
the combination of different ethical systems. In terms of ethics, so long
47

Yol mo Bstan dzin nor bu, Ral pai rnam bshad, 92.
The same chain of associations may also be seen in the reports of the Jesuit missionary
Ippolito Desideri on the controversial activities of the Sixth Dalai Lama. See Ippolito Desideri,
An Account of Tibet: The Travels of Ippolito Desideri of Pistoia, S.J., 17121727 (London:
Routledge, 2004), 150: Ignoring the sacred customs of Lamas and monks in Thibet he began
by bestowing care on his hair, then he took to drinking intoxicating liquors, to gambling, and
at length no girl or married woman or good-looking person of either sex was safe from his
unbridled licentiousness.
48

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Dreadlocks Treatise

as the outward appearance conforms with the individuals conduct, Tendzin


Norbu suggests that the bald, teetotaling, celibate monk and the dreadlocked, beer-drinking, sexually active ngakpa are equally correct. Considering the negative views of ngakpas reported by Tendzin Norbu, the
motivation for a ngakpa to dress as a monk and avoid public scorn is not
difcult to imagine. This criticism of hypocrisy applies just as strongly to
ngakpas choosing to wear the guise of a monk as it does to monks who
engage in some of the activities of the ngakpa.49
Thus far I have examined Tendzin Norbus defense of dreadlocks as
an authentic Buddhist symbol through arguments based on iconography,
scripture, and reasoning; his argument that dreadlocks are necessary for
the performance of tantric ritual; and his defense of the ethical implications of wearing dreadlocks. In the treatise itself, these strands of his
argument are not clearly delineated but woven together. There is one
other aspect of the discussion that is less fully developed but adds another
dimension to the work as a whole. After the discussion of the various types
of dreadlock hairstyles mentioned in different tantras, Tendzin Norbu explains that once a ngakpa has received the rst empowerment (the socalled vase empowerment), cutting the hair would damage the pledges
taken on during that empowerment. As he writes, In brief, hairs and even
body-hairs, are action d5akinis and [if one cuts the hair] there will be the
offense of killing them.50 Here, we are no longer concerned with hair as
a symbol but rather with a tantric view of the actual nature of hair itself.
This shift from the historical, scriptural, symbolic, and ethical into the
ontological is passed over without further comment as Tendzin Norbu resumes his excoriation of those who selectively observe vows plucked
from different systems while ignoring those they do not care for.
It appears again, however, in response to the objection that dreadlocks
are a marker of afliation to the tradition of the ancients (rnying ma) who
follow the Old Translations but are rejected by those who follow the
New (gsar ma). Tendzin Norbu replies to this charge with a story. One
of the most renowned representatives of the monastic traditions of the
New Schools was the Kashmiri monk-scholar akyari (11271225). He
explains that while akyari was in Tibet, the chief disciple of Nyangrel
Nyima ser (11361204), the famous ngakpa, decided to become ordained
as a monk. He approached akyari and requested ordination, but the
venerable monk replied that the benet for beings would be greater if he
retained his current appearance and status.
49
See, e.g., Yol mo Bstan dzin nor bu, Ral pai rnam bshad, 93: Ngakpas chasing after
fame, shaving their heads and dyeing their clothes, monks cant be told from ngakpas. The
[degenerate] time of Padmasambhavas has arrived right now and even I, the Powerful feel
dejected.
50
Ibid., 9091.

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105

Undeterred, the ngakpa returned again with a hair-cutting knife in


hand and asked for ordination. Again, akyari refused, and this time he
explained, Noble son, there are many yidam deities abiding in every
single hair, it is not permissible to shave them. In the treatise, this story
is intended to show that one of the great luminaries of the New Schools
had a profound respect for the tradition of wearing dreadlocks. However,
by claiming that the hairs themselves contain the divine beings of the
tantric world, the comment echoes Tendzin Norbus earlier statement that
all hairs are action dakinis. While the implications of this view are not
articulated in the treatise, we might glimpse some of them by briey
returning to Tendzin Norbus autobiography.51
Although Tendzin Norbus treatise focuses on dreadlocks, they are
always understood as being part of the ensemble of a ngakpas accoutrements. Their primacy in this group derives from their unique status at the
periphery of body, simultaneously a part of the body and yet able to be
cut off without pain or permanent damage. This sets the dreadlocks apart
from the white robes, earrings, and other items associated with the ngakpa.
Rooted to the head as they are, the dreadlocks are always present,
whereas the other parts of the ensemble may be donned and removed for
particular circumstances and situations. Despite these differences, many
of the arguments about dreadlocks apply equally to tantric paraphernalia
such as drums, tridents, ritual daggers, and the lattice-like garment of
carved bone known as bone ornaments.52
As a ngakpa, Tendzin Norbu was particularly renowned for his mastery
of rituals for turning back enemies, and he performed these elaborate
rituals for the sake of powerful patrons on a number of occasions. Tendzin
Norbus account of a ritual he performed in order to turn back a Mongol
invasion reinforces the ritual importance of the ngakpas accoutrements.
He describes binding his hair in a topknot with a special cloth, smearing
his face with ashes, donning a special ritual gown, and carrying a horn, a
bow, and arrows as he enters the courtyard. Then, While the orchestra
of monks was playing whats called decrescendo there was a rush of
sensation and I was certain that at that moment a group of many Mongols
were headed toward defeat. There is no costume that transforms ones
vision more intensely than that costume of tantric robes and bone ornaments.53 Aside from how impressive the ngakpas ritual costume must
51
The understanding that each single hair is either a dakini or the abode of a yidam deity
is rooted in the views of tantric physiology, body mandalas, and the root tantric infraction of
despising the aggregates. While beyond the scope of the present article, I hope to address
these somatic aspects of Tibetan tantra in a future publication.
52
See Jean-Luc Estournel, Rus-pai-rgyan: Parures rituelles tibtaines en os humain,
Histoire de lart 20 (1992): 3949.
53
Yol mo Bstan dzin nor bu, Rang gi rtogs brjod, 233.

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Dreadlocks Treatise

have appeared to the audience (and patrons), Tendzin Norbu specically


attributes his clairvoyant vision of the rituals effects to these accoutrements. The typical understanding of ritual costumes and clothing is turned
inside outrather than external symbols representing his internal mental
powers, the ngakpas costume transforms the perceptions of the one who
wears them.
v. later echoes of the heros roaring laughter
Tendzin Norbus particular view of the importance and meaning of dreadlocks must be understood in relation to the local and historical contexts
in which he lived and wrote. However, many of the central issues that I
have discussed above are also seen in the works of later authors who do
not seem to have been aware of Tendzin Norbus treatise. In the early nineteenth century, a ngakpa from northeastern Tibet named Shabkar Tsokdruk
Rangdrol (17811851) composed an autobiography lled with accounts
of his travels across the Tibetan plateau and records of the spontaneous
songs for which he was renowned. Two of the songs included are clever
replies to the questions of people wondering why he wears his hair in that
style. The rst song provides seven different reasons ranging from the
symbolic (to be reminded of the gurus kindness) and the practical (to
keep my ears protected from the wind) to the social (so I dont t in
with other people). This last reasonthat wearing long dreadlocks marks
one as separate from societycomes through very clearly in the second
song, where Shabkar emphasizes the benets of the scorn with which
people view him.
The song begins with the explanation that keeping my hair like this /
Makes everyone doubt and mistrust me.54 Subsequent verses express
how this doubt and mistrust leads to a lack of faith, which leads to a lack
of offerings, which leads to freedom from attachment to possessions, which
leads to progress in practice, which leads to experience and realization,
which leads to benet for others. The nal verse reads, Such are the
reasons for wearing / This long hair that benets others.55 The rhetorical
effect of the song turns the negative judgments of the questioner upsidedown. Seeing the ngakpas dreadlocks as a marker of a derelict with
dubious ethics, the questioner asks why anyone would wear his hair that
way. Shabkar then draws a causal chain leading from that stigma directly
to the Buddhist ideal of realization and benet for others. In doing so, he
implicitly suggests that the alternative, shaving his head, would make him

54
Shabkar Tsogdruk Rangdrol, The Life of Shabkar: The Autobiography of a Tibetan Yogin,
trans. Matthieu Ricard (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1994), 108.
55
Ibid.

History of Religions

107

susceptible to the social approval and patronage that led to the excessive
wealth and power of certain monastic institutions. In a playful way,
Shabkars song radically shifts the meaning of his long hair, transforming a stigma into a badge of honor.
This same effort at an intervention in the grammar of hair sybolism
may be seen in a 2003 article by Nyida Heruka, a ngakpa from the
same region as Shabkar Tsokdruk Rangdrol. The author was one of the
founders of the Ngakmang Institute, an organization devoted to research
into the ngakpa tradition and its promotion in Tibet and internationally.
Although the language of Nyida Herukas Investigations of Ngakpa
Culture seems to borrow as much from modern Tibetan social science
as it does from classical Buddhist sources, the arguments themselves are
strikingly reminiscent of Tendzin Norbus treatise.56
Although every day there seem to be more and more people taking an interest
in the culture of ngakpas from all over Tibet in modern times, because there
are very few studies or textbooks about ngakpas, many people dont know anything about the culture and costume of those called ngakpas. Among the
groups of Tibetan Buddhists, there are only a rare few who know the special commentaries on the class of those with white robes and long hair [= ngakpas].
Buddhists and Non-Buddhist individuals who pretend to be learned, as well
as some inuenced by idiotic sectarian bias, say that ngakpas are ignorant of
Buddhist scriptures, have not practiced the development and completion [stages
of tantric practice], drink beer, and enjoy women. On the other hand, the identication [of ngakpas] as a type of itinerant Buddhist who is only a village
priest is the cause for them to be degraded and belittled. Moreover, there are
some articles and journals that are very incorrect. Consequently, it seems to be
extremely important to open the minds of the general faithful public, cultural
researchers, and young novice ngakpas with an introduction to the ngakpas
culture.57

Although the realm of public opinion has here moved beyond the village
talk that Tendzin Norbu addressed and into the pages of textbooks and
journals, the charges against ngakpas are largely the same: they are illiterate ritualists primarily interested in alcohol and sex.
Nyida Heruka goes on to offer an erudite and extremely thorough overview of the entire ngakpa tradition, organized under ve topics: (1) the
meaning of the term ngakpa, (2) the ngakpas costume, (3) the ngakpas
education and activities, (4) the ngakpas vows and conduct, and (5) the

56
Nyi zla He ru ka, Sngags pai shes rig la dpyad pai gtam, Sngags pai shes rig dus
deb 6 (2003): 8289. I would like to thank E. Gene Smith of the Tibetan Buddhist Resource
Center for providing me with a copy of this article.
57
Ibid., 82.

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Dreadlocks Treatise

ngakpa community and its accomplishments. The section on the ngakpas


costume reprises some of the same ideas found in Tendzin Norbus treatise. For example, In general, the ngakpas are said to hold the vow of
the Uncontrived Three: the clothes of uncontrived white, the hair of
uncontrived dreadlocks, and the mind of the uncontrived innate nature.
Nyida Herukas recent essay, however, contains passages far more descriptive than anything in Tendzin Norbus polemical tract.
Dreadlocks should be understood as the distinct units that come about when one
does not do any kind of washing, shaving, or cutting of the hair whatsoever
and the strands clump together. When ngakpas stay for many months or years
in retreat without washing or brushing their hair, the hair clumps together and
forms dreadlocks. This is called retreat hair (mtshams skra). Then, when it is
kept without being cut and the locks are wrapped at the crown of ones head and
tied with a dreadlock-cord, these are known as coiled locks (lcang lo) and some
call it a topknot (thor cog). In general, just as the hair must be shaved according
to the monks vows, the hair must be left according to the ngakpas pledges.58

In the almost ethnographic objectivity of the voice in this passage, there


seems to be yet another echo of Tendzin Norbus very different voice.
Just as Tendzin Norbu adopted the framework of a monastic debate in his
attempt to combat and alter negative perceptions of ngakpas, three centuries later, Nyida Heruka adopts the classicatory language of modern
Tibetology in his defense of the tradition.59
Tendzin Norbu, Shabkar Tsokdruk Rangrol, and Nyida Heruka share a
focus on the material in their discussions of a ngakpa idenitity. Their
writings challenge our tendency to read physical symbols as secondary
representatives of a primary meaning that is immaterial by foregrounding
the supercial. The complexity of Tendzin Norbus treatise presents a traditional exegesis of hair that is every bit as sophisticated as the theories
of hair symbolism developed by scholars of religion, anthropologists,
and psychologists. Comfortable with the complexity of a hermeneutic
pluralism, Tendzin Norbu interprets dreadlocks in several different registers at once. His exploration of hair symbolism resonates with aspects of
all the modern theories in a manner that bears witness to the explanatory
power of each while drawing attention to the inevitable limits of monistic
reduction.
58

Ibid., 8889.
Some other differences between the two works include Nyida Herukas approving
mention of the custom of Dudjom Jikdrel Yesh Dorj (190487) washing and brushing the
hair but never cutting it (a popular alternative to dreadlocks for contemporary ngakpas) and
his less enthusiastic description of a trend in Amdo whereby ngakpas shave the circumference
of the head but leave the hair at the crown of the head long. This latter style he suspects of
having a Chinese origin.
59

History of Religions

109

Although all of the apologists for dreadlocks emphasize the uncontrived and naturally occurring qualities of the matted locks, their descriptions of the proper way to wear them include precise instructions on care
and styling. This reects an understanding of the necessity of framing for
the communication of symbolic meaning. Just as the long matted locks of
the ascetic must be artfully bound above the head, the social and religious
understandings of the hairstyle must be shaped and bound through interpretation and explanation. Recognizing that the basic meanings of dreadlocks within the system of tantric Buddhist practice were consistently
misunderstood by Tibetan society, Tendzin Norbu sought to shift this
social meaning through a variety of arguments. Drawing from Buddhist
history and scripture, ritual practice, codes of ethics, and tantric views of
the body, Tendzin Norbu attempted to restyle the ngakpas dreadlocks
from the stigma of ignorance and licentiousness to the essential mark of
tantric practice. In one view, the fact that Shabkar and Nyida Heruka felt
the need to defend ngakpas against the same negative views might suggest
that Tendzin Norbus attempt was not entirely successful. However, all
three authors note the importance of not tting in as one of the dening
characteristics of dreadlocks. If the style became entirely acceptable
throughout society, it would lose its meaning as a symbol of tantric practice. Therefore, a more realistic reading might see the continuity between
Nyida Herukas article, Shabkars song, and Tendzin Norbus treatise as
evidence of their success in maintaining the authenticity and viability of
a tradition that can ourish only at the margins.
Georgetown University

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