Folks, that’s done !
The famous Bhutanese exhibition I ‘ve been telling you about for months for translation reasons is now opened… and by the way, any of you coming on a trip to Paris is very welcome to come to the Musée Guimet, which is the National Museum of Asian art, to visit. It’s on until January 25.
We were honoured to have the King of Bhutan’s brother at the museum for the inauguration and as all items on display are sacred works of art which are on loan not from museums but from Buddhist monasteries and temples where they are still used in rituals and ceremonies on a daily basis, buddhist monks are also in temporary residence in Paris for the whole duration of the event and perform rituals twice a day.
You may remember that, in a previous entry, I already told you the story of Prince Nga Bong, the boy born with a tail and the head of a donkey, who was to become the historical Buddha Shakyamuni in a subsequent life. Well, this exhibition reveals unsuspected donkey and mule related things. First of all, a mule or a wild ass is the vehicle of a number of deities. There is no denying that the Himalayan Buddhist pantheon is amazingly complicated. For an outsider, there seem to be hundreds of deities, more or less organised in several categories : the buddhas, bodhisattvas (buddhas to be), a wide range of protectors.… The latter were originally non-buddhist gods, goddesses or local malevolent spirits which, once subdued and converted to Buddhism by a great master, swore to protect the buddhist faith and the devotees. They usually have a terrifying outlook, sporting numerous heads— animal ones sometimes—numerous arms and legs, wrapped in garlands of severed human heads and skulls…Most of those protectors are male, but there is one very important and famous female one : Palden Lhamo. One can trace back her origin in Hinduism where she is no other than the Great Goddess. As she appears in Himalayan Buddhism, she rides a mule whose left thigh has a very peculiar feature : she’s got an eye at that most unexpected place. The story goes that, long ago, the goddess failed in her attempt to convert her husband —a demon king— and his people of wrathful creatures to Buddhism and fled his kingdom on her mule. The vengeful husband shot an arrow which is said to have injured the mule but Palden Lhamo used her magic to turn the wound into an additional eye.
Another story is related to both this powerful goddess and a great Bhutanese Buddhist master, the 27th Je Khenpo. In Bhutan, the Je Khenpo is the head of the religious hierarchy and is one of the most important men in the country. The 27th Je Khenpo had a great devotion for Palden Lhamo and was said to be extremely knowledgeable on all things—scriptures, rituals, meditations and spiritual exercices—related to her. He once decided to go on a retreat, locking himself inside his home, in perfect seclusion to devote the whole of his time to his religious practice for a while. After a couple of weeks, a mule suddenly appeared at his doorstep, out of the blue, and started to bray happily. Needless to say, she was no other than the Goddess’ vehicle and her appearance at the master’s doorstep was proof of his high spiritual achievements.
