Yarlha Shampo
“At the mountain range of Yartö Shampo
You accomplished the higher states of cyclic existence.
To you, Drogmi Palye, who makes mamos his servants,
We pray: please grant your blessings!”
at a glance
Yarla Shampo is a large mountain to the south of the Yarlung Valley, resembling a magnificent snow fortress, where a god by the same name is said to reside. When Guru Padmasambhava arrived in the Yarlung Valley, he compelled Yarlha Shampo to swear allegiance to the Dharma. Recognizing the spiritual potential of this sacred place, Guru Padmasambhava opened the meditation cave there known as Gangi Rawa (Snow Enclosure) and blessed it through the practice of Mamo Bötong.
the story
As Guru Rinpoché traveled through Tibet on his way to Samye Monastery, he encountered a formidable challenge in the form of a shapeshifting, confrontational Yarlha Shampo:
“Afterward, moving on to the valley of Chephu Shampo, Yarlha Shampo manifested himself as a white yak the size of a mountainside. With his nose steaming like gathering clouds, his roar like thunder, and his breath storming like a blizzard, he brought down lightning and hail. He then assumed a formidable stance. Master Padma caught the yak by the nose with the hook gesture, bound his middle with the lasso gesture, laid his legs in shackles with the chain gesture, and beat and hacked him with the bell gesture. By that, Yarlha Shampo turned into a young boy with white silken braids. He offered the core of his life and was bound under oath. ༔
”
Thus defeated, Yarlha Shampo transformed into a young boy and offered Guru Rinpoche his life-force. This is how Yarlha Shampo became a protector to the Dharma. Since then Tibetans have been able to call upon the mountain god as an ally, rather than a foe to be appeased, and invoke him whenever needed, to further their cause.
Subsequently, the Mahaguru opened the Kangi Rawa cave on Yarlha Shampo as a practice place for Mamo Bötong. The Mamo Bötong teachings were originally revealed at the Sitavana charnel ground by Guru Padmasambhava and the vidyadhara Dhanasamskrita. Upon arriving in Tibet, the Mahaguru deemed the Kangi Rawa cave to have all the favorable conditions for the practice of Mamo Bötong. Here, practicing Mamo Bötong with unwavering focus, the Mahaguru compelled to allegiance the mamos—indigenous spirit-deities of the natural world—and reaped great siddhis. During the Kagyé empowerments at Samye Chimpu, the Mahaguru entrusted the Mamo Bötong teachings spe- cifically to his disciple Drokmi Palkyi Yeshé, whom he then sent to Yarlha Shampo Kangi Rawa, to put them into practice.
Words from the Masters
Changdak Tashi Topgyal’s Prayer to the King and Twenty-Five Disciples
Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö’s Yarlha Shampo Sang Offering
How to get there
The massif and peak of Yarlha Shampo rises, like a great snow fortress, to the south of Yarlung Valley. Its central peak (28°48'5"N 91°57'49"E)—a 6761 m high mountain and one of the four great snow mountains of Tibet—is named after the resident local spirit Yarlha Shampo. Jamyang Khyenste Wangpo locates the Gangi Rawa cave (29°8'47"N 91°51'40"E) above the Takchen Bumoche stupa at the entrance of the Yarlung Valley.