..續本文上一頁 when the corpse cutter is cutting the body into pieces. At first, the biggest one flies unsteadily down to peck the dismembered corpses, then the rest swarm down. In a short time, all the flesh is gone, leaving behind only bones. The corpse cutter hammers these bones, including the skull, into pieces, and mixes them glutinous rice cakes before throwing them to feed the vultures. Eventually nothing of the body is left.

　　Songs for the Bardo of Rebirth

　　In the bardo of becoming, the mental body of the dead possesses all its senses and craves for a material body so as to return to the material world. To cooperate with the dead, the persons left behind to mourn should pray and off sacrifices in various ways.

　　(1) Kow-tow, circumambulation and chanting mantra

　　Kow-tow, circumambulation and chanting mantra are the best offerings, and should be practiced all one”s life. In the bardo of becoming, these practices are especially necessary and critical for the dead, and no other help or offering is comparable to them in this state. Meanwhile, singing the long melodies of the mantra of compassion is also very important. At that time, the manra just like cry and confess.

　　(2) Invoking Buddha and the images

　　After the master performs a pination based on the karma of the deceased and his moment of birth and death, particular Buddha images are invoked for the deceased to rely on. Furthermore, the people left behind to mourn invited skilled artists to draw Thang-gas (painted scrolls)

　　Musical Dances in the Monastic Rituals for Securing Souls

　　Every year all sects and all monasteries of Tibetan Buddhism hold grand religious ceremonies, in which the performances of musical dances are conducted to pray for happiness, purify altars, call upon the power of the Buddha, vanquish demons (including all enemies and difficulties impeding Dharma), therefore these songs and dances are one ways of educating about death and securing the soul of the dead. The following is an introduction to the musical dances staged in bSam-yasMonastery.

　　1. Dur-Khord-bdag-po. Dur-Khord-bdag-po was originally an evil god in Tibetan bonism. Later was taken by Guru Rin-po-che and became a low ranking guardian deity of Buddhism and a spirit which guides the souls of the dead into burial. The dance involves four dancers wearing skull masks and clothing designed to resemble a skeleton. They dance violently to the music of drams and cymbals, which symbolizes the severe punishment of these evil demons which harm Dharma. This dance also represents the transformation of those “sinful minds”, which hope to conceal themselves in the darkness of ignorance, into the luminous minds of Buddha, totally free from obscuration.

　　2. gTum-rngam. gTum-rngam refers to a musical dance performed by the man who secure the souls of the dead. It is performed by 13 men, who wear big black hats and black robes with an apron whose waist is decorated with human eyes and mouths. The dance symbolizes the dismemberment with sharp knives of the demons sent under guard of Dur-Khord-bdag-po and entering the world of Buddha.

　　3. Srin-po. The dance is performed by 20men in red, wearing vicious masks, and the swallow the pieces of the body which was dismembered by gTum—rngam. This represents the dead people”s last charity for hungry ghosts, exemplifies the Buddhist spirit of charity.

　　The musical instruments accompanying the dance s are Dung-chen (long trumpets), cymbals, rGya-gling(Tibetan-style suona horns), rkang-gling (thigh-bone trumpets, or ghost-call trumpets), conch-shell trumpets,bells, hand-drums(made of human skulls) and others.

　　Generally speaking, Tibetan Buddhism has a large and complicated system of Buddha. Music and dances play an important part. Musical dances are often singing in loud voices and dancing violently.

　　Human beings fear death and tend to recoil from it. However, no one can escape from death, so the doctrines and music of Tibetan Buddhism have produced and developed on the basis of the understanding of death and death education, and the securing of dead spirit. To some extent, only those who “see emptiness, have compassion” can obtain real pleasure in death.

　　Bibliography:

　　1.Padmasambhava(author), xu huasheng(translator),1995. The Tibetan book of the dead. Religious culture press.

　　2.Sogyal rinpoche(author), Zheng zhenhuang(translator), 1999. The Tibetan book of lving and dying. Chinese social science press.

　　3.Tshe-ring, 1999 Tibetan Buddhism. Ethnicity press.

　　4.Zhou wangyin and Wang chao, 1999. Tibetan primary religious. Sichuan remin press.

　　5.Li jicheng, 1986. Lama monasteries---the world of Buddha. Sichuan renmin press.

　　[1] 中陰：人從死到生之間的時間，爲七七四十九天。

　　[2] 蓮華生著 徐進夫譯：《西藏度亡經》宗教文化出版社1995年出版，第9頁。

　　[3] 藏傳佛教教義認爲萬事萬物都在因果輪回之中，不能改變。

　　[4] 藏傳佛教認爲，由于“我執”，人們會有消極的情緒，那是因爲他們對真相的無知，從而陷入生死輪回。

　　[5]Tibetan Buddhism pides life into three bardos: the bardo of dying, the bardo of dharmata and the bardo of rebirth.

　　[6]Originally, this was an ancient Indian work and was translated in English under the title the Tibetan book of the death.

　　[7]A Buddhist term means that all things in the world are the result of causes and cannot persist without change.

　　[8]Buddhism believes that human beings have negative emotions because of self-grasping, which results from their ignorance of the truth.

　　作者簡介：

　　嘉雍群培，中央民族大學音樂學院教授。

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