1882.] 
Sarat Chandra Das —Buddhist Schools in Tibet . 
123 
All these Tantras are said to have been delivered by Dharma Kaya, 
Kuntu-ssangpo (Buddha Samanta bhadra), Yajra Sattva, and Vajradhara, 
&c. 
The Ninmapas who all belong to the Yogacharya school of ancient 
India observe Tantrik ceremonies exclusively. They have nine series of 
Jnana, and speak of thirteen Bhumis or stages of sainthood, while the 
Gelugpa (or the reformed sect) speak only of ten Bhumis. 
The Ninmapas have various ceremonies for propitiating their tute¬ 
lary deities who are divided into two classes called SI (the mild) and Phro 
(the wrathful) Yi-dam-kyi-Lha. They have various other kinds of rules 
and ways of asceticism. All the Ninma Tantras being based upon the 
Man-nag scriptures, by their means numberless Indian and Tibetan (male 
and female) saints are said to have obtained the lowest class of perfection 
called “ Thun-moh-gi-c/nos grub.” 
In ancient India Acharya Kama Yajra, Buddha Guhya, S'ri-siddha, 
Padma-sambhava, Yimala-mitra, &c., many Pandits, many kings headed by 
Indra Bhuti, and many fairies were the most important personages; and in 
Tibet, king SronAtsan sGampo, Khri sron-edeAtsan, together with his 
25 saintly subjects, 108 yter-ston or discoverers of sacred treasures, Bali 
7d)yams pa the professor of 7rLoh-scriptures, Dharma gri the great trans¬ 
lator, yl r uh-s'ton-rDorje-<7pal, sLe-lun 6sha<i pai-rDorje, mGonpo rdorje 
of Yu-thog, Ka-thog rigAzin-chhen mo, ?\Dor-brag-Big him, LhaAtsun- 
chhenpo, and others. Many sages of the Sarma school also had turned 
Ninma religionists. 
The Ninma sages, who had fully studied the above mentioned Tan¬ 
tras, had prepared commentaries on them and left their own observations 
in works written b}^ them for the benefit of coming generations. It was 
the sage of Orgyan 1 who wrote volumes on the rZogs chhen or Atiyoga 
sect of the Ninma school. It is mentioned in the histories of religion 
that that sage, having written his profound interpretation of the Buddhist 
Tantras, in a kind of fairy language, unintelligible to man, had concealed 
these books securely under rocks and pillars for the benefit of future genera¬ 
tions of Buddhists. He had also left predictions, respecting the name and 
date of birth of the man by whom those books were to be discovered. After 
completing all that was necessary for the continuance of the Ninma 
school, he retired to the land of cannibals on the south-west. Afterwards 
in regular succession, as was predicted by him, a host of yTer-stons appeared 
and greatly contributed to the propagation of his school and the swelling 
of the Ninma scriptures, which altogether exceed five hundred volumes 
in number. 
1 Padma Sambliava. 
