The Director and publisher Buddhistview Network, Mr. Tsultim G Ngabtak interviewed Ven. Tarig Tulku, the 7th reincarnation of the great Yogi Tarig Tenpai Gyurme who could bring a dead person into life:
Q. For the benefit of the many disciples and general public, could you explain how the Tantric practice of the Tarig Tulku lineage became exceptionally important within the Nyingmapas traditions?
When the great Yogi Tenpai Gyurme was born, strange and astonishing incidents occurred in his place of birth. For instance, auspicious flowers showered and many rainbows appeared all over the place. When he grew up, he sat in continuous retreat and practiced Tantricism. Because of his great effort and dedication, he was specially blessed by his personal deities. He attained such invincible skills and wisdom that he was able to bring a dead-person into life-an extraordinary art.
In Tantric practice, many know that most of the great Yogis are able to leave there hand and foot prints on stone or make a knot out of iron bars and knife as others could fly. But there has been was no one who could make a dead person alive. This powerful art made him incredibility important. It was unique in the sense that it was acquired only by Tarig Tenpai Gyurme amongst all the Nyingmapas.
Q. Are there clear instances of making a dead person come alive?
Yes. Tarig Tenpai Gyurme was going on a long pilgrimage on foot for a number of days. One day he reached a place called Kumu and stayed in a family. As he was fully exhausted and hungry, he asked for a meal. But the head of the family saw that he was a Yogi and said that he would offer any alms provided he perform a Tantric religious service called the Lha-Dre Artae meaning to summon and subdue the pernicious deities and evil spirits. Then, the Yogi said that just for the sake of a meal he would not perform such a highly sophisticated ritual. But he said that he would perform it on the condition that the family promised to carry out a great many root virtues in that land for the benefit of all sentient beings. Immediately, the head of the family agreed to do it adding that since he was the chieftain of the land, anything he proposes could be achieved without any problem. It will be done, only after fulfilling their single request and hope. That is, he continued to say that their only son had been lost three years ago and all their effort to find him alive or dead had been in vain. If he is found, alive or dead, they agreed to perform great many meritorious deeds.
On mutual agreement of each of their conditions, the Yogi called them to come with him towards the nearby mountain, called Gyadam Dorjee Taktsen. Reaching half way to the mountain, the Yogi asked them to pitch tents for their stay that night. He told them that, they would hear so many fearful sounds and destructive noises around their tents throughout the night, but they should keep pin drop silence and never come out to see what was happening. The Yogi and two of his Yogi nephews went further away from the family tents to perform a specific Tantric ritual that night. On the other side where the family people were staying, exactly as the Yogi said, there was endless terrible noise of all sorts: crying, hauling, fighting whistling and tapping throughout the night. They did not come out but they could hardly breathe because of the extreme fear and the night became unusually long under tension.
The next morning, the Yogi asked the family and others who had come there to go towards another barren mountain. The Yogi followed them and when all of them reached the other side, they found four dead bodies. Then the Yogi asked the family to find their son. They recognized the dead body of their son. The Yogi then burned different incense and sacred substances and recited different Mantras of his special Tantric ritual. After a long time, the dead bodies started moving slightly and gradually they started breathing and finally came to sense.
The boy awoke as if from a deep slumber and joined his parents who could hardly believe their eyes. It was like a dream for them and they were so happy. One of the dead bodies was discovered as a Mongolian. He seemed have come to collect different insects as his trade and one night he fell in the trap of ghosts and could not go back to his home, he narrated. It had been over two-three years he thought. The other dead body was found to be Chinese. He said that he had killed over a hundred horses, hundreds of pigs and then had come to hunt for tigers. He saw a tiger, chased after it but when the night fell he was caught in the hands of red people who took him for his life.
The last dead body was an Amdo from Dokhep. He narrated that he had eloped the daughter of the leader of his land called Dokhep and had come to these mountains to hide. They ran out of food and he went to hunt while the girl hid under a red cliff. While chasing a deer one whole day, he could not find his way back to his lover. He then fell in the grip of evil spirits for three years. Now, the Yogi said that out of the four dead bodies he gave life, two of them - the Mongolian and the Chinese have a very short span of life and will die soon. He said that there was a very strong Karmic relationship that brought them together and therefore, he will try to transfer their conscious ness to prevent them from going to the hell realms. He did the Phowa ritual for the two of them.
Then, the Yogi, the host family and the Amdo, whose actual name was Ahga, returned to the village. Later, people saw Ahga and heard his story. People nicknamed him Misar Lengen- meaning new man of wicked deeds.
Now, since the Yogi had fulfilled his part of the agreement, it was then the head of that family’s duty to see that the village people perform a great many root virtues and wholesome religious deeds for the happiness of the people living there. The head of the family took the initiative and people were seen fasting, prostrating, and doing many Pujas. Thus, the Yogi was very pleased and as he was again requested, he agreed to try to find the dead body of the girl- Ahga’s lover.
The Yogi then asked Ahga to lead the way to the mountain where he left his lover. They were few others who came with them. Having reached a very fearful rocky mountain, Yogi asked Ahga, "Isn’t that the spot where you left your Lover". Ahga remembered something similar to that mountain. There was no dead body but only a heap of earth with some grass grown over it. However, the yogi told them to go a little further downward and to halt there for the night. The yogi and two of his yogi nephews went further upward between the two hillocks facing each other. Between the hills they stayed that night doing secret Pujas and occasionally blowing their femur trumpets.
Late in the evening, all of a sudden, a very loud and sad sound "Ahga, Ahga-Ahga" was heard three times and some vague figure looking like a ghost was seen by the yogis. They immediately covered the figure with Ahga’s clothes that were kept ready with them on the heap of the earth. The Yogis went three times around the heap of earth covered with clothes. They continued their Tantric rituals the whole night. After one day the earth colored human shape appeared from the heap of earth covered with Ahga’s clothes. To the figure yogis said many mantras and finally the feminine figure said that Ahga did not come from hunting and she was caught by the spirits of the mountain. She suffered without food and drink. There was no way for her to escape and death did not come to her as she narrated the story. With continued prayers she began to eat and drink and wear the clothes and rituals were performed by the yogis. She gradually became more like a human being and her skin was changed like a snake. Because she was a daughter of a wealthy leader of a village in Amdo- Dokhep, she reached back to her land with Amdo- Ahga by the yogi’s host family.
This is only one example of the great yogi Tarig Tenpai Gyurme’s actual Tantric practice of bringing the consciousness back to the dead -body that is said to have demonstrated. This kind of practitioner was extremely rare. There has only been one-other yogi called Ra-Lo-tsa-wa, who was known to have performed the Tantric rituals of calling the dead person to life.
Q. Do you recall any other miraculous incident that took place with the great yogi Tarig Tenpai Gyurme?
Yes, not far from our monastery, there was a place called Thap-Khede where he stayed on a retreat. In the course of his retreat, a small boy with long hair offered him milk and curd everyday. He did "MO" divination from where the boy comes from but he thought that there must be a good nomad near by. One day, the small boy thought that the time might have come for him to offer the secret precious articles hidden by Guru Padmasambhava to this Yogi as Guru Rinpoche told him to do so, when the exalted fortunate being come. However, the boy was a little doubtful about the genuineness of the Yogi as that fortunate Being as said by Guru Rinpoche. So the boy wanted to test him. He asked the Yogi which animal he was most afraid of. The Yogi simply said that he was afraid of frog. Then, when the Yogi went out for a toilet and when he came back, there was a frog with black and white dots as big as a sheep on his seat. The Yogi was a little afraid and moved one-step back ward, but seeing that the small boy had disappeared, he thought he should not be afraid of that frog. He sat cross-legged and the frog jumped and entered the rock near the door. The Yogi hit his handkerchief on the rock where the frog entered. The rock broke into two halves. The small boy was seen in-between the rock. Then, the Yogi said to the boy that he had been kind by offering milk and curd every day and what was the matter with him. Then the boy who apparently was a spirit of the land told the Yogi that during Guru Padmasambhava`s time, great many ritual substances were hidden here at Thapkhede and he asked me to offer these when a great exalted Being comes here. But the boy said that he was not sure whether the Yogi was the fortunate being, which Guru Rinpoche had mentioned. So he had to examine and now he was sure that the Yogi was the fortunate being, which Guru Rinpoche had predicted. The boy said that he would offer all the hidden precious substances of Guru Rinpoche to the great Yogi Tarig Tenpai Gyurme.
Q. Are there secret and powerful Tantric ritual articles available these days?
My earlier predecessors like the great Yogi Parlo and Tarig Tenpa Gyurme and others possess special rituals and spirit like human qualities. The spirits have offered many invaluable, substances to them. One of our monasteries was destroyed during the Ghomingtang war. In the monastery there was a very big box containing precious articles and substances out of which many were offered by the sprite for the great Yogi to practice. Those invaluable to Goods were lost. And again, many of the remaining valuable religious articles were lost after the communist Chinese invasion of Tibet.
What we have today is a collection of very sacred texts for initiations different offerings like Stoke for retreat and other ritual ceremonies.
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