30th Annual Padmapani Lecture

The Geography of Paradise: Hidden Lands in Tibetan Myth and History

Dr. Ian Baker

16th April, 2019

Dr. Ian Baker was honored by National Geographic Society as one of seven ‘Explorers for the
Millennium’ for his ethnographic and geographical field research in Tibet’s Tsangpo gorge region
and his team’s documentation of a sacred waterfall that Tibetan texts describe as the portal to the
innermost realm of Beyul Pemakö, the ‘Hidden Land Arrayed Like Lotuses’. Baker is the author of
several books on Himalayan and Tibetan cultural history, environment, art, and medicine. He has
also contributed articles and photography to National Geographic Magazine, as well as published
extensively in academic journals. He served as lead curator for the 2015-16 exhibitions ‘Tibet’s
Secret Temple: Body, Mind and Meditation in Tantric Buddhism’. He received a master’s degree in
English Literature at Oxford University and completed doctoral studies in Anthropology at University
College London. He is currently affiliated with the Department of History at the University of
Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland.

The Padmapani Lecture series, organized by Tibet House, was commenced in 1989. Since the
inception of the series, eminent scholars and practitioners have delivered informative, reflective and
thought provoking lectures on various topics. This year, Tibet House invited author and
anthropologist Dr. Ian Baker. In this illustrated talk, he shared perspectives on the role of hidden-
lands in both Eastern and Western imagination with a focus on Beyul Pemaki, the ‘Hidden-Land
Arrayed like Lotuses’, in the Tsangpo Gorge region of southern Tibet. ‘Hidden-Lands’, or beyul in
Tibetan, refer to remote regions of the Himalayas described as places of spiritual accomplishment and
cultural renewal. They are associated with the eighth-century ‘lotus-born’ sage, Padmasambhava who
designated them as sanctuaries for future times of social strife and environmental crisis. Dr Baker said
“In a period when humankind is in search of new and sustaining relationships to the earth amidst an
ecological crisis that threatens the existence of all life forms, Padmasambhava’s prophetic accounts of
hidden-lands hold urgent relevance and can inspire deepening levels of environmental engagement
that directly bear on today’s ecological and spiritual challenges.”

The speaker was introduced by the chairperson for the session Prof. Kaveri Gill from Shiv Nadar
University. Dr. Baker explained that the hidden lands are of two levels, outer hidden lands and the
inner hidden lands. The outer ones are referred to those which we commonly see in the landscape and
the inner ones are referred to the kind of dimensions of the same landscape that one would go to on
pilgrimage, specifically for a Buddhist practice and the secret ideas of the hidden lands is that it opens
where the elements of the pilgrim come into a mystic resonance with the landscaper itself and the new
state of consciousness emerges; the Yang Sang Pemako, which is the innermost secret Pemako is a
place where there is no longer any duality between outer and the inner. He explained that the idea of
Shangri-la, which was a complete fictional invention of a British theosophical writer James Hilton in
his book ‘Lost Horizon’. After four years, in 1937 the book was adapted into a very successful film as
well directed by Frank Capra. He then talked about a number of indications in various western
literatures that indicated a hidden in the north Himalaya which was seen as the repository of an earthly
paradise.

Dr. Baker shared a series of images which captures his journey to the ‘Hidden Land’. It is all so
chronologically arranged that the audience could participate in his story and get a palpable experience
of his journey through those images. The geographical placement of these ‘Hidden Lands’ give an
assuring sense of their auspiciousness. He even shares some unfathomable coincidences that helped
his team find their way when they were almost lost in abyss. If not for these devout practitioners and
indigenous people of these lands, who have preserved the traditions and Buddhist practices of these
ancient lands so well, the existence of these traditions and cultures seem impossible.

As the lecture came to an end, the audiences were requested to ask their questions to the speaker. Dr.
Baker was very humble and generous with his answers, making an attempt to address everyone’s
question and even indulged in extensive discussion with the audience members after the session. The
secretary of Tibet House, Tenzin Chodon presented the speaker and the chairperson with the scarf and
a souvenir.

[739 words]

25.09.19, Wednesday[START HERE]

Description:

The 30th Annual Lecture in the Padmapani lecture series was delivered by anthropologist, Buddhist
scholar and intrepid explorer and mountaineer Ian Baker. His subject was the Be-yul, the‘Hidden
Lands’ of Guru Rinpoche, whose coordinates and characteristics were indicated by the great 8th
century adept Padmasambhava in texts that were hidden for posterity in secret locations[ in caves and
mountains] across the Himalayas.

in particular, of Beyul Pemako, the “hidden land arrayed like lotuses’, deep in the Tsangpo Gorge
where the river makes its precipitous descent past the easternmost summits of the Himalayas to the
plains of India and Bangladesh.
Here the Tsangpo enters a narrow and impassable canyon, the deepest on the face of the Earth, before
appearing again in the forested valleys of India’s Arunachal Pradesh, first as the Siang which becomes
the mighty Brahmaputra or Lohit in the plains of Assam, and the Jamuna or Meghna of Bangladesh.
Baker’s explorations were made in over ten expeditions from 1993 to ..??..

Ian Baker has a master’s degree in English Literature from Oxford University and has completed his
doctoral studies in Anthropology at University College, London. He is currently affiliated with the
Department of History at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland. Since 1977, he took
extended breaks from his academic semesters, [[Baker studied Buddhist philosophy under two high
lamas of the Nyingma school, Dudjom Rinpoche and Chatral Rinpoche, ]]in Nepal, and
joined/made/participated in??? 10 ??? expeditions to the Tsangpo gorge region of Tibet to explore
the routes to the Hidden Lands of the eastern Himalayas.

Ian Baker’s richly illustrated lecture gave the audience an immersive experience into the narrative of
his journeys to the hidden core of Pemako’s sacred geography. His images took one across narrow
tracks clinging to steep rock faces and c ables stretched over raging white water, through dense forests
which are home to tiger, leopard and fierce tribesmen. Here are pathways “writhing with leeches”
with nests of deadly pit vipers hidden between the rocks and innumerable species of “biting and
bloodsucking insects.” There are also magical plants to be discovered, a botanical cornucopia of
medicinal and rejuvenating herbs known for centuries only to the local tribes and their shamans and
the yogis who live and practice on the banks of the Tsangpo. Quoting a passage from Simon
Schama’s Landscape and Memory which says; “There have always been “two kinds of arcadia,
shaggy and smooth, dark and light, a place of bucolic leisure and a place of primitive panic… the
idyllic as well as the wild.” [26/09

Taking all the above into consideration, perhaps you could start the review like this:

'There have always been two kinds of arcadia, shaggy and smooth.....the idyllic as well as the
wild.’ These words by Simon Schama, from his book Landscape and Memory, speak to the
essence of Tibet’s ‘hidden-lands’ which are described in early Tibetan texts as having outer,
inner, secret, and ‘ultimately secret’ dimensions. The outer dimension of a beyul, or ‘hidden
land’, is what appears to our senses; the inner dimension is our subjective experience of that
environment; and the secret level is the unity of those dimensions whereby the pilgrim, or
yogin, enters into mystic resonance with the environment and a new state of consciousness
emerges. The 'innermost secret' level of the hidden-land is a dimension of experience in
which no duality exists between what is conventionally considered ‘outer' and ‘inner’. This
encounter with the non-duality of landscape and consciousness is also an encounter with what
Buddhism calls sunyata, or emptiness. And that encounter, for the unprepared, can be as
frightening as it is liberating. Thus, hidden-lands are described in Tibetan texts as places of
refuge and solace, but also, to use Shama’s terms, realms of ‘primitive panic’ and existential
challenge. As Tulku Urgyen one explained, hidden-lands are paradises for practice because
they can arouse our deepest fears; they aren’t places where all one’s troubles will be gone.
The distinguishing feature of hidden-lands is that they combine, to use Simon Shama’s terms,
both the idyllic and the wild.

Hope that helps….

Ian

Ian Baker <ian@ianbaker.com> 04:09 (10

hours ago)
to me

The quotation from Shama at the outset of my presentation establishes the fact that ‘paradise’
(a synonym of sorts for arcadia) does not necessarily imply a place or experience that is
purely pleasurable and without hardship. In the same way, the Tibetan concept of beyul, or
hidden-land, does not infer a realm of effortless ease.

The quotation thus prefigures what I subsequently speak about, and how Beyul Pemako is
described in Tibetan texts: as a place of refuge and solace, but also as a place that is full of
existential challenges. As Tulku Urgyen described it, Pemako is thus a paradise for practice,
not a place where all one’s troubles will be gone. The larger point is that Pemako combines
BOTH kinds of paradise/ arcadia: the shaggy as well as the smooth, the idyllic as well as the
wild. From this point of view, the power and intensity of hidden-lands can invoke panic as
much as joy, or perhaps both sensations together.

To follow the transcript, "this speaks to the essence of what the Tibetan tradition of hidden
lands refers to”. They have outer, inner, and ’secret’ dimensions; the outer dimension that we
can see, the inner dimension that we, in a sense, feel, and the secret, and innermost secret,
level in which we recognise that the hidden-land is an expression of our innermost nature.
This encounter with the nonduality of landscape and consciousness is also an encounter with
what in Buddhism is known as emptiness. And that encounter, for the unprepared, can be
frightening as much as liberating.

To clarify and comment on your other lines:

“...where the elements of the pilgrim’s being enter into mystic resonance with the landscape
itself and a new state of consciousness, or mindscape, emerges."

"The 'innermost secret' level of Pemako is a dimension of experience in which no duality

exists between what is conventionally considered ‘outer' and ‘inner’.”

On 26 Sep 2019, at 02:08, Prodipto Roy <prodipto.r@gmail.com> wrote:

forwarding what needs an urgent. reply. re the S. Schama quote.

what. a. restless. soul you are! see tthe vulture panels in Gobekli teppe? wonder why they
covered it. up all these millennia. like the ters.

---------- Forwarded message ---------

From: Prodipto Roy <prodipto.r@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 24 Sep 2019, 08:29
Subject: Fwd: re Simon Schama quote, p. vii
To: Prodipto Roy <prodipto.r@gmail.com>

---------- Forwarded message ---------

From: Prodipto Roy <prodipto.r@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 24 Sep 2019, 08:28
Subject: re Simon Schama quote, p. vii
To: Ian Gmail <ian@ianbaker.com>, Ian Gmail <ianbaker108@gmail.com>

hello, need to clarify why you started your lecture with "there have always been two kinds of
arcadia, shaggy and smooth.....the idyllic as well as the wild."

I can't find the other reference to him from xvi-xvii in the paperback. no page numbers and
they may be different in the hard back. I also dont have access to SS's works. So what is the
relevance to the hidden lands here as he clearly says 'two kinds' , separating these two types.

Your next sentence in the transcript is, "So this really speaks to the essence of what the
Tibetan tradition of hidden lands refers to, and as you've mentioned, there's. levels of hidden
lands. They're considered outer, inner, secret hidden lands and. the outer ones refer to those
which we commonly see in landscapes. that....go on pilgrimage, (00:07:35) and the inner
ones refer to places that [are a ] kind of a dimension of those same landscapes that .. ?.. go.
on.." Dont know if you. have time to hear that section on Tibet House's Youtube playlists.

What then does the reference to "primitive panic" relate to here?

Sorry to be so dense but I like the quote and you started with it. At the. end of the sentence
you refer to thhe secret levels, " where the elements of the pilgrim come into a kind
of mystic resonance with the landscape itself and a new state of consciousness emerges."
And, the "innermost secret level of Pemako is a place where there's no longer any duality
between the outer and the inner."

i cant integrate the Schama quote with the full sentence which our review should. start with.

Cant send you the transcript as its full of howlers. Typing this on a Chinese mobile!

To my dualistic mind, Schama sounds like he said there were two types, not coalescing

Since 1977, Baker had taken extended breaks from his academic semesters to travel to Nepal where
he first heard of Pemako from his teacher Dudjom Rinpoche, who had been born in its vicinity.
Spurred by curiosity, Baker took teachings from a great Dzogchen master, Chatral Sangye Dorje, and
spent two month-long solitary retreats in caves in a hidden land called Kyimolung ???above the
headwaters of the Malemchi Khola in Nepal. He also had an audience in Dharamsala with H.H. the
Dalai Lama who confirmed the liberating qualities of hidden lands.[CHANGE] 222 words, 3 paras

In Sikkim, he investigated the stories about >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> the hidden land

discovered by Rigzin……………

Those who contemplate journeying to the hidden-lands often fall prey to their doubts

and lack the requisite courage . . . while those who are overly pious lack the means to

open the way to these secret places . . . For all who lack the auspicious circumstances

to enter the hidden-lands, they will remain as imagined paradises . . . They will not

manifest simply through idle talk . . .”

PADMASAMBHAVA

The Outer Passkey to the Hidden-Lands

(From a scroll revealed in 1366 by Lama Rigzin Godemchen)

“When journeying to these sacred places, fear naturally transforms into great splendor and
one remains perfectly at ease. A new spiritual awareness flares up in one’s stream of
consciousness: a conception-free unity of bliss and emptiness.”

LELUNG SHEPE DORJE

The Delightful True Stories of the Supreme Land of Pemako, 1729