According to the beliefs of the
Nyingma
Nyingma (literally 'old school') is the oldest of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism. It is also often referred to as ''Ngangyur'' (, ), "order of the ancient translations". The Nyingma school is founded on the first lineages and transl ...
school of
Tibetan Buddhism
Tibetan Buddhism (also referred to as Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, Lamaism, Lamaistic Buddhism, Himalayan Buddhism, and Northern Buddhism) is the form of Buddhism practiced in Tibet and Bhutan, where it is the dominant religion. It is also in majo ...
, Beyul () are hidden valleys often encompassing hundreds of square kilometers, which
Padmasambhava
Padmasambhava ("Born from a Lotus"), also known as Guru Rinpoche (Precious Guru) and the Lotus from Oḍḍiyāna, was a tantric Buddhist Vajra master from India who may have taught Vajrayana in Tibet (circa 8th – 9th centuries)... According ...
blessed as refuges.
Tertön
Tertön () is a term within Tibetan Buddhism meaning a person who is a discoverer of ancient hidden texts or '' terma''. Many tertöns are considered to be incarnations of the twenty five main disciples of Padmasambhava ( Guru Rinpoche), who fores ...
s may reveal them from
terma at specific and appropriate times. Their locations were kept on scrolls (lamyig or neyig) hidden under rocks and inside caves, monasteries and
stupas. They are places where physical and spiritual worlds overlap and Tantric practice effectiveness increases with multiple perception dimensions.
Padmasambhava assigned deities to protect the beyul. Protective forces manifest as
snowstorm
A winter storm is an event in which wind coincides with varieties of precipitation that only occur at freezing temperatures, such as snow, mixed snow and rain, or freezing rain. In temperate continental climates, these storms are not necessar ...
s,
mists and
snow leopard
The snow leopard (''Panthera uncia''), also known as the ounce, is a felid in the genus '' Panthera'' native to the mountain ranges of Central and South Asia. It is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List because the global population is es ...
s.
Buddhist texts indicate beyul are discovered when the planet is approaching destruction and the world becomes too corrupt for spiritual practice. They describe valleys reminiscent of paradise, which can only be reached with enormous hardship. Pilgrims who travel to these wild and distant places often recount extraordinary experiences similar to those encountered by Buddhist spiritual practitioners on the path to liberation. People who try to force their way in may encounter failure and death.
Earthly beyuls share significant characteristics with
Shambhala
In Tibetan Buddhist tradition, Shambhala ( sa, शम्भल ',''Śambhala'', also ''Sambhala'', is the name of a town between the Rathaprā and Ganges rivers, identified by some with Sambhal in Uttar Pradesh. In the Puranas, it is named as ...
.
[
]
A recent attempt to open a beyul occurred in 1962, when the Tibetan lama Tulshuk Lingpa journeyed to
Sikkim
Sikkim (; ) is a state in Northeastern India. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China in the north and northeast, Bhutan in the east, Province No. 1 of Nepal in the west and West Bengal in the south. Sikkim is also close to the Silig ...
in order to 'open' Beyul Demoshong, a beyul fabled to exist on the slopes of Mount
Kanchenjunga straddling the Nepal/Sikkim border. He took with him over 300 followers from across the Himalayas and Tibet, each of whom had supposedly given away his or her worldly goods.
![Barun Valley - Nghe](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ed/Barun_Valley_-_Nghe.jpg)
Beyul are often understood to embody
dharmapala
A ''dharmapāla'' (, , ja, 達磨波羅, 護法善神, 護法神, 諸天善神, 諸天鬼神, 諸天善神諸大眷屬) is a type of wrathful god in Buddhism. The name means "'' dharma'' protector" in Sanskrit, and the ''dharmapālas'' are a ...
and lords of the land, which are associated with geographic features such as mountains, trees, rocks, and water sources. Pilgrims make ritual offerings to these beings to appease their wrathful nature, and to renew the symbolic unity that people share with them. It has been argued that this attitude indicates a
sustainable approach toward land stewardship.
In
Nepal
Nepal (; ne, :ne:नेपाल, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne,
सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in S ...
and
Tibet
Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa, Taman ...
around
Mount Everest
Mount Everest (; Tibetic languages, Tibetan: ''Chomolungma'' ; ) is List of highest mountains on Earth, Earth's highest mountain above sea level, located in the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Himalayas. The China–Nepal border ru ...
are the Khenbalung, Solukhumbu, Rolwaling, Rongshar,
Kyirong and Nubri sacred valleys.
[Reinhard, Johan (1978) Khembalung: The Hidden Valley. Kailash, A Journal of Himalayan Studies 6(1): 5-35, Kathmandu.] The
Sherpa people discovered
Solukhumbu when they left Tibet to escape religious persecution in the 15th and 16th centuries. They entered the valley to seek refuge and made a new homeland there. Buddhist monasteries and sacred mountains have brought many spiritual travelers to Solukhumbu. Beyul are found in the Himalayan regions of Nepal, Tibet, Sikkim,
Bhutan
Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is situated in the Eastern Himalayas, between China in the north and India in the south. A mountainou ...
,
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
,
China and
Pakistan
Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...
.
See also
*
Barun Valley
Barun Valley () is a Himalayan valley situated at the base of Mt. Makalu in the Sankhuwasabha district of Nepal. This valley rests entirely inside the Makalu Barun National Park.
The Barun Valley provides stunning contrasts, where high waterfall ...
*
Langtang valley
*
Pemako
*
Poyul and
Powo Kingdom
The Kingdom of Powo or sPo bo () was a kingdom located in present-day Bomê County, Tibet. The ruler of Powo used the title Kanam Gyelpo (''kaH gnam rgyal po'') or Kanam Depa (''kaH gnam sde pa'').
It was said that the monarchs of Powo were des ...
*
Sagarmatha National Park
Sagarmāthā National Park is a national park in the Himalayas of eastern Nepal that is dominated by Mount Everest. It encompasses an area of in the Solukhumbu District and ranges in elevation from at the summit of Mount Everest. In the north, ...
*
Shangri-La
Shangri-La is a fictional place in Asia's Kunlun Mountains (昆仑山), Uses the spelling 'Kuen-Lun'. described in the 1933 novel '' Lost Horizon'' by English author James Hilton. Hilton portrays Shangri-La as a mystical, harmonious valley, ...
References
Further reading
*
External links
* {{YouTube, id= bfS9nGuOQ3o , title= "Beyul: Sacred Hidden Valleys of the Himalaya by The Mountain Institute"
Asia in mythology
Locations in Buddhist mythology
Tibetan Buddhist places