The sbas yul or ‘hidden lands’ of the Himalayas are an important theme in Tibetan culture, closely linked to the gter ston or ‘treasure finders,’ visionary lamas who have received increasing attention in recent years. In addition to their other activities, some of these visionary lamas were engaged in locating, identifying, and ‘opening’ sbas yul or hidden lands, as well as in writing guidebooks (gnas yig, lam yig) that explained their significance and special nature.
Western scholarship on the sbas yul goes back to the writings of Jacques Bacot and others in the early twentieth century, but there has been a considerable growth in research in recent years, particularly in relation to the best-known sbas yul, Padma bkod in southern Tibet. The original view of the sbas yul as places for spiritual cultivation and of refuge from war and oppressive regimes has been complicated by more recent studies, some of which are included in this book. These have explored such themes as the political and economic role of the gter ston and their sbas yul discoveries, the impact of Tibetan settlement in sbas yul on pre-existing indigenous populations, and even the modern use of sbas yul concepts for environmental protection and tourist promotion.
Certainly, the sbas yul concept has meant different things, and been used in different ways, in various times and places. This book grew out of a workshop in late 2017 which brought together many of the leading contemporary researchers on sbas yul in order to survey the present state of knowledge on these ‘hidden lands.’ It includes revised versions of most of the papers from the original workshop, with three additional invited contributions. We believe that the book provides a comprehensive view of the sbas yul from both historical and contemporary perspectives and will open up new and unexpected facets even to those who already have some knowledge of this fascinating theme.
The sbas yul is an essentially Himalayan phenomenon, and the areas covered in our chapters include Himalayan areas of India and Nepal, and Tibetan regions of China. The book also includes two photographic essays, one at the start of the book and another near its close. Ian Baker is well known for his book, The Heart of the World, about his multiple journeys to Padma bkod on the border between Chinese-controlled Tibet and India. He has provided an exquisite set of colour photographs of the landscape and inhabitants of these hidden lands, focussing on Padma bkod, and preceded by a short essay giving his own understanding of the meaning and contemporary significance of the sbas yul. Ian’s images convey a strong sense of the magic and mystique of the sbas yul of the past.
Chapter 1, which follows, is by Geoffrey Samuel, and explores the history of the sbas yul or ‘hidden land’ concept in Tibet, along with the history of Western study of the sbas yul. It traces the sources of the concept of sbas yul or ‘hidden land’ in the post-imperial period in Tibet and sketches its historical evolution over the following centuries. Particular attention is given to the different kinds of sbas yul, their transformations over time, and the different ways in which Western scholars have approached the sbas yul.
Frances Garrett’s chapter, which follows, looks at how the Tibetan epic tradition of King Ge sar represents Hidden Lands as regions rich in medicinal resources. In a series of recently published episodes, King Ge sar travels to regions typically referred to as Medicinal Lands (sman rdzong), but also sometimes as Hidden Lands (sbas yul), which are especially known for medicinal plants or minerals, to gather those substances and bring them back to his people. Although until recently these episodes have received little attention in Tibetan academic writing, let alone scholarship outside of Tibet, this is a widely-performed category of Ge sar story today, and it is a significant source for information about the role of healing knowledge in the epic tradition. Much of the plotline in these Medicinal Land stories involves the effort to gain access to hidden lands inside mountains, which are regions described as replete with the greatest botanical, mineral, and animal treasures on earth.
These treasures were by no means just literary conceits. Chapter 3, by Hildegard Diemberger, explores the political and economic dimension of sbas yul. Generally located at the margins of the Tibetan plateau, often in moister and more vegetation rich environments, sbas yul were important sources of medicinal plants, wood, bamboo and paper plants. Access to them, Diemberger suggests, played a crucial role in the introduction of printing and the transformation of book culture in Central Tibet.
Chapter 4, by Annie Heckman, is the first of a group dealing with the literary records of Padma bkod, best known of all the sbas yul, and traces early descriptions of this region in the biography of Thang stong rgyal po from 1609, and in the autobiographical writings of the gter ston (‘treasure revealer’) ’Ja’ tshon snying po later in the 17th century. Heckman suggests that we revisit questions of origin and invention in the development of hidden lands and consider the concept of sbas yul as a type of medium, as a form through which various forms of legitimation and authority can pass.
Barbara Hazelton’s chapter, which follows, uses guidebooks to explore how pre-modern Tibetan tantric adepts envisioned their relationship with the environment as intrinsic to tantric deity practice within their sacred mandalas. The chapter demonstrates how this complex system of concealing and revealing sacred knowledge underpins and invigorates the pursuit of realization. Four illustrations by Lama O rgyen rgyal po accompany her chapter.
Chapter 6, by Franz-Karl Ehrhard, who has written extensively on sbas yul narratives, explores new material on Padma bkod from the early 18th century treasure revealer Chos rje gling pa, comparing it to more recent narratives, while Chapter 7, by Tom Greensmith, discusses a visit to Padma bkod in 1729 by the distinguished Dge lugs scholar and lama Sle lung Bzhad pa’i rdo rje. Finally, in this group, in Chapter 8, Elizabeth McDougal looks at the emergence of the Yang Sang Chu region of lower Padma bkod as a focal point for contemporary Padma bkod pilgrims, through a study of the life and guidebooks of the 20th-century Padma bkod gter ston, Bdud ’joms Drag sngags gling pa. The paper especially considers Drag sngags gling pa’s identification of a number of Indian Buddhist sacred sites (pīṭha) in this region, as well as the reification of Padma bkod’s most sacred centre, ‘Chi med yang gsang, under modernizing conditions of the last century.
In Chapter 9, Samuel Thévoz examines the classic account of Padma bkod by the French explorer and future Tibetologist, Jacques Bacot. Bacot’s description, in his 1912 book Le Tibet revolté, first brought the idea of sbas yul and the specific site of Padma bkod to the attention of Westerners, but as Thévoz demonstrates, Bacot’s book followed on his translation of the travel narrative of a Tibetan visiting France, A grub mgon po. The relationship between these texts casts a revealing new light on Bacot’s presentation of Padma bkod to the West.
The following chapter, by Callum Pearce, places the classic sbas yul accounts in an unexpected and revealing perspective. The sbas yul of Ladakhi folk-narratives share their name and other features with the better-known sbas yul on which the book as a whole is focussed. The sbas yul Pearce describes, however, are not this-worldly locations accessed by living humans for religious, political or economic purposes. Instead, they are hidden spirit-abodes whose inhabitants, shadowy figures who sometimes interact with humans but do not belong among us, provide an inverted reflection of human existence. Pearce suggests that such vernacular sbas yul stories can be found elsewhere in the Himalayas, and that the ‘classic’ literary sbas yul texts draw on the potential present in these oral narratives.
Chapters 11 and 12 bring the sbas yul firmly into contact with the political realities of contemporary Himalayan society. These chapters, by Kerstin Grothmann and Amelia Hall, deal with a little-known sbas yul, Sbas lcags shing ri (Pachakshiri), which lies on the China-India border close to the Padma bkod region. They describe the present situation of this politically complex region, which has a heavy Indian army presence, and present two texts, the community regulations (bca’ yig) and a dkar chag or guide to hidden treasures, which reveal much about the history and self-understanding of the local population.
Finally, the section closes with a second photo-essay, by Jon Kwan. Kwan’s remarkable photographs depict another well-known sbas yul, Yol mo (Helambu) in Northern Nepal, and again presents a sbas yul which is increasingly, for better or worse, part of the contemporary world. Yol mo, one of the most accessible of sbas yul in the contemporary period, has become a destination for religious retreats and small-scale eco-tourism. Buildings in the valley were badly damaged in the 2015 earthquake. These photos show the recent reconstruction of a ‘hidden valley’ which is on the peripheries of a modern state but whose meaning for its inhabitants and visitors is still bound up with its identity as a remote and sacred place.
In the final section of the book, we offer two translations of Tibetan pilgrimage guides to Padma bkod, one by ’Ja’ tshon snying po, and a second by a later lama, Bdud ’joms gling pa.
We hope that this series of chapters will demonstrate some of the depth of sbas yul concepts in Tibetan history, literature, folklore, and present reality. Together these chapters expand an understanding of sbas yul ‘hidden lands’ far beyond early Western stereotypes, into a complex and multi-faceted encounter with an important theme that has run through many centuries of Tibet’s past and is gaining renewed vitality and significance in the world today.