The Sacred Sites of Yeshe Tsogyal Tibet Pilgrimages

Jnanasukha offers pilgrimages dedicated to the sacred sites of Khandro Yeshe Tsogyal in central Tibet. There have been two pilgrimages so far: May 2009 and October 2010. The next pilgrimage is likely to be September 2012.

The pilgrimage destinations of Yeshe Tsogyal's life story are intimately connected with the renowned spiritual hermitages of the Tibetan heartlands — from her birthplace at Tsogyal Latso in Drakyul, to the sanctuaries of Yemalung, Chimphu, and Zhoto Tidro where she perfected her practices; to the Crystal Cave of Yarlung Sheldrak, one of her foremost repositories of hidden teachings (terma), and finally to the remote hermitage of Zabbulung in Western Tibet where she attained the supreme transformation of the rainbow body.

Along the way, the pilgrimage also visits places and temples associated with the Nyingma lineage and the life of His Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche such as Mindroling and Dorje Drak in Southern Tibet and Draksum Tsodzong and Lamaling in Southern Tibet.

About Pilgrimage

A pilgrimage is an inner journey of transformation or advancement which is initiated by an outer journey to sacred geographical places. The Buddha himself taught the importance of making pilgrimages to the sacred sites of his own life story and in Tibet, Guru Rinpoche and Yeshe Tsogyal and many great masters all undertook countless pilgrimages throughout the Himalaya. As for the Tibetan people, to this very day, despite great adversity, they are still committed to this practice and to restoring pilgrimage sites. So pilgrimage is a practice that works!

As a spiritual practice or yoga, the effectiveness of pilgrimage is based on the power of interdependence. Through aligning ourselves with sacred places, we are lifted into an experience which is closer to the truth of what we really are--our enlightened nature of compassion and wisdom. This experience is not just an experience but it has the power to remove our obscurations and obstacles. On a causal level, the purpose of pilgrimage is to generate stores of merit and wisdom in order to gain enlightenment. But one the ultimate level, the purpose is to become one with, to merge with, the sacred sites. The purpose is to blend with the sacred site and become the sacred site. It is also important to know that the benefits of pilgrimage undertaken with faith and diligence are not only personal--they carry universal benefit for all beings.

The Tibetan word for pilgrimage is nay-kor (gnas khor). Nay means sacred place or site and koris a verb which means to move in a circle. Sacred places are catalytic points of energy, sometimes geomantic, but in all cases they are portals where realized masters have planted seeds for others to gain realization. Kor is the action we undertake at sacred places, i.e., we connect to these places through movement, the movement of circumambulation, prostration, prayer, meditation, making offerings and so forth. However, these sacred places are symbolic of or represent our inner center, so in effect we are circling around or encircling our own center in order to bring ourselves into alignment with our true self. Romans, Druids, Hindus, and Muslims—they all practice various forms of movement in sacred places. It’s an ancient approach to higher states of consciousness.

About Sacred Sites

Ultimately, no place lies outside the magical net of enlightenment’s manifestations. As it is said, Who brings the Buddha to mind, before him finds the Buddha. So to think, This is a sacred place and this is not, is actually an error. However, relatively speaking, there are sacred places in our universe and any connection with them is meaningful to our spiritual path.

First, we can enumerate the pure lands of the three bodies of enlightenment: the absolute expanse of dharmakaya, the fundamental nature that pervades all beings and all environments; the self-manifest pure lands where enlightenment’s splendor appears as sambhogakaya; and the outwardly apparent pure lands of nirmanakaya. This last group is what is commonly called sacred places, although the experience of them as such depends much on the perceiver’s acumen.

In the category of nirmanakaya pure lands, there are various accounts of how they originate. For example there is the legend that there once lived a person named Rudra who cultivated a wrong understanding of his spiritual master, of the Buddhist view, and of appropriate conduct. Together with his wife and followers, he controlled the entire world and oppressed everyone. Therefore, the compassion of all the buddhas united in the form of a wrathful buddha who took his life, freed his consciousness, and scattered the pieces of his corpse over the Land of Jambu, which is our world. Wherever these pieces fell became places for Secret Mantra practice, such as the eight great charnal grounds and numerous sacred places and regions, all of them pure manifestations of naturally existent primordial sites. These places carry great blessings. They include for example the twenty-four primordial sacred places. And from them, there appeared countless supreme sacred places.

In addition there are many secondary sacred places consecrated by spiritual masters and adepts so that others could practice more easily and without impediments, quickly attaining results. Thus, for example, it is said that seven days of meditation in Tsari brings one closer to attainment than many months or years meditating elsewhere. Most of the places in the Himalayas belong to this category. In Tibet alone, this includes five supreme places for meditation, five supreme places of enlightenment’s body-speech-mind, twenty-five wondrous places, five valleys, three provinces, four snowy ranges, twenty-one hidden regions, twenty-one snow mountains, 108 major places and 1,002 minor places. Our pilgrimage will visit two places of Guru’s Rinpoche enlightened aspects (his speech aspect is Chimphu and his quality aspect is Yarlung Sheldrak) and well as one of the five valleys, Zabbulung, and Zhoto Tidro, one of the places where dakinis gather.