Kīla (Buddhism)
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The phurba (; alternate
transliteration Transliteration is a type of conversion of a text from one script to another that involves swapping letters (thus '' trans-'' + '' liter-'') in predictable ways, such as Greek → and → the digraph , Cyrillic → , Armenian → or L ...
s: ''phurpa'', ''phurbu'', ''purbha'', or ''phurpu'') or ''kīla'' (
Sanskrit Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...
Devanagari Devanagari ( ; in script: , , ) is an Indic script used in the Indian subcontinent. It is a left-to-right abugida (a type of segmental Writing systems#Segmental systems: alphabets, writing system), based on the ancient ''Brāhmī script, Brā ...
: कील;
IAST The International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration (IAST) is a transliteration scheme that allows the lossless romanisation of Brahmic family, Indic scripts as employed by Sanskrit and related Indic languages. It is based on a scheme that ...
: kīla) is a three-sided peg, stake, knife, or nail-like ritual implement deeply rooted in Indo-Tibetan Buddhism and Bön traditions. Its primary association is with the meditational deity Vajrakīlaya (Dorje Phurba), embodying the essence of transformative power. The etymology and historical context of the term reveal some debate. Both the Sanskrit word ''kīla'' and the Tibetan ''phurba'' are used interchangeably in sources. The construction of the phurba is diverse, featuring a pommel, handle, and a blade with three triangular facets. The composition often revolves around the numerological significance of three and nine, with materials ranging from wood and metal to bone and crystal. Phurba blades can be made from
meteoric iron Meteoric iron, sometimes meteoritic iron, is a native metal and early-universe protoplanetary-disk remnant found in meteorites and made from the elements iron and nickel, mainly in the form of the mineral phases kamacite and taenite. Meteoric ...
, which holds symbolic importance. The pommel typically displays faces of Vajrakīlaya or other sacred motifs. This implement is not intended as a physical weapon, but rather as a spiritual tool, embodying stability and energetic continuity. The phurba's ritual usage is extensive and encompasses various practices. It is used to establish stability during ceremonies and symbolizes powerful attributes of Vajrayana deities. The phurba's energy is fierce and transfixing, used for purposes such as exorcism, weather manipulation, meditation, and blessings. The implement's connection with Vajrakilaya represents the transmutation of negative energies. In diverse cultural contexts, the phurba maintains its significance. It remains in use among
shaman Shamanism is a spiritual practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with the spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of this is usually to direct spirits or spiritual energies into ...
s, magicians, tantrikas, and
lama Lama () is a title bestowed to a realized practitioner of the Dharma in Tibetan Buddhism. Not all monks are lamas, while nuns and female practitioners can be recognized and entitled as lamas. The Tibetan word ''la-ma'' means "high mother", ...
s of various ethnic backgrounds. Different traditions and lineages emphasize various aspects of the phurba, using it for healing, meditation, and connecting with spiritual energies. Ultimately, the phurba stands as a potent emblem of transformation, symbolic power, and the interconnectedness of the spiritual and material realms.


Etymology

Most of what is known of the Indian ''kīla'' lore has come by way of Tibetan culture. Scholars such as F. A. Bischoff, Charles Hartman and Martin Boord have shown that the Tibetan literature widely asserts that the Sanskrit for their term ''phurba'' is ''kīlaya'' (with or without the long ''i''). However, as Boord describes it, Mayer (1996) contests Boord's assertion, pointing out that eminent Sanskritists such as Sakya Pandita employed ''Vajrakīlaya''. Further, he argues:


Fabrication and components

The fabrication of phurba is quite diverse. Having pommel, handle, and blade, phurba are often segmented into suites of triunes on both the horizontal and vertical axes, although there are notable exceptions. This compositional arrangement highlights the numerological importance and spiritual energy of the integers three and nine. Phurba may be constituted and constructed of different materials and material components, such as wood, metal, clay, bone, gems, horn or crystal. Like the majority of traditional Tibetan metal instruments, the phurba is often made from brass and iron (terrestrial and/or meteoric iron. ' Thokcha' () means 'thunder-iron' in Tibetan and refers to
tektite Tektites () are gravel-sized bodies composed of black, green, brown or grey natural glass formed from terrestrial debris ejected during meteorite impacts. The term was coined by Austrian geologist Franz Eduard Suess (1867–1941), son of Eduar ...
s and
meteorite A meteorite is a rock (geology), rock that originated in outer space and has fallen to the surface of a planet or Natural satellite, moon. When the original object enters the atmosphere, various factors such as friction, pressure, and chemical ...
s which are often high in iron content. Meteoric iron was highly prized throughout the Himalaya where it was included in sophisticated polymetallic alloys such as '' Panchaloha'' for ritual implements. The pommel of the phurba often bears three faces of ''Vajrakīla'', one joyful, one peaceful, one wrathful, but may bear the umbrella of the ''
ashtamangala The Ashtamangala () is the sacred set of Eight Auspicious Signs ( zh, 八吉祥, ''bajixiang'') featured in a number of Indian religions such as Hinduism, Jainism, and Buddhism. The symbols or "symbolic attributes" () are yidam and teaching too ...
'' or
mushroom A mushroom or toadstool is the fleshy, spore-bearing Sporocarp (fungi), fruiting body of a fungus, typically produced above ground on soil or another food source. ''Toadstool'' generally refers to a poisonous mushroom. The standard for the n ...
cap, '' Yidam'' (like ''
Hayagriva Hayagriva ( IAST , ) is a Hindus, Hindu deity, the horse-headed avatar of Vishnu. The purpose of this incarnation was to slay a Danava (Hinduism), danava also named Hayagriva (A descendant of Kashyapa and Danu), who had the head of a horse a ...
''), snow lion, or ''
stupa In Buddhism, a stupa (, ) is a domed hemispherical structure containing several types of sacred relics, including images, statues, metals, and '' śarīra''—the remains of Buddhist monks or nuns. It is used as a place of pilgrimage and m ...
'', among other possibilities. The handle is often of a ''
vajra The Vajra (, , ), is a legendary and ritualistic tool, symbolizing the properties of a diamond (indestructibility) and a thunderbolt (irresistible force). It is also described as a "ritual weapon". The use of the bell and vajra together as s ...
'', weaving or knotwork design. The handle generally has a triune form as is common to the pommel and blade. The blade is usually composed of three triangular facets or faces, meeting at the tip. These represent, respectively, the blade's power to transform the negative energies known as the "three poisons" or "root poisons" (Sanskrit: ''mula klesha'') of attachment/craving/desire, delusion/ignorance/misconception, and aversion/fear/hate.


Ritual usage

Cantwell and Mayer (2008) have studied a number of texts recovered from the cache of the
Dunhuang manuscripts The Dunhuang manuscripts are a wide variety of religious and secular documents (mostly manuscripts, including Hemp paper, hemp, silk, paper and Woodblock printing, woodblock-printed texts) in Old Tibetan, Tibetan, Chinese, and other languages tha ...
that discuss the phurba and its ritual usage. The phurba is one of many iconographic representations of divine symbolic attributes (Tibetan: ''phyag mtshan'') of
Vajrayana ''Vajrayāna'' (; 'vajra vehicle'), also known as Mantrayāna ('mantra vehicle'), Guhyamantrayāna ('secret mantra vehicle'), Tantrayāna ('tantra vehicle'), Tantric Buddhism, and Esoteric Buddhism, is a Mahāyāna Buddhism, Mahāyāna Buddhis ...
and
Hindu Hindus (; ; also known as Sanātanīs) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism, also known by its endonym Sanātana Dharma. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pp. 35–37 Historically, the term has also be ...
deities. When consecrated and bound for usage,A working phurba has the face(s), pommel and
hilt The hilt (rarely called a haft or shaft) is the handle of a knife, dagger, sword, or bayonet, consisting of a guard, grip, and pommel. The guard may contain a crossguard or quillons. A tassel or sword knot may be attached to the guard or pomme ...
bound (depending on the nature of the phurba) with fabric ften green according to and in this binding rite Vajrakilaya is installed in the tool as a Nirmanakaya manifestation, by association the tool accesses all three realms of the
Trikaya The Trikāya (, lit. "three bodies"; , ) is a fundamental Buddhist doctrine that explains the multidimensional nature of Buddhahood. As such, the Trikāya is the basic theory of Mahayana Buddhist theology of Buddhahood. This concept posits that a ...
.
Phurba are a '' nirmanakaya'' manifestation of ''Vajrakīlaya''. Chandra, ''et al.'' in their dictionary entry 'korkor' (), 'coiled' (English) relates that the text titled the Vaidūry Ngonpo''' () has the passage: ཐག་བ་ཕུར་བ་ལ་ཀོར་ཀོར་བྱམ, 'a string was wound round the (exorcist's) dagger hurba' One of the principal methods of working with the phurba and to actualize its essence-quality is to pierce the earth with it; sheath it; or as is common with Himalayan
shamanic Shamanism is a spiritual practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with the spirit world through Altered state of consciousness, altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of this is usually to direct spiri ...
traditions, to penetrate it vertically, point down into a basket, bowl or cache of rice (or other soft grain if the phurba is wooden). The terms employed for the deity and the tool are interchangeable in Western scholarship. In the
Himalaya The Himalayas, or Himalaya ( ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the Earth's highest peaks, including the highest, Mount Everest. More than 100 pea ...
n shamanic tradition, the phurba may be considered as
axis mundi In astronomy, is the Latin term for the axis of Earth between the celestial poles. In a geocentric coordinate system, this is the axis of rotation of the celestial sphere. Consequently, in ancient Greco-Roman astronomy, the is the axis of ...
. Müller-Ebelling, ''et al.'' affirm that for the majority of Nepalese shaman, the phurba is
cognate In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymological ancestor in a common parent language. Because language change can have radical effects on both the s ...
with the '' world tree'', either in their visualisations or in initiatory rites or other rituals. The phurba is used as a ritual implement to signify stability on a prayer ground during ceremonies, and only those initiated in its use, or otherwise empowered, may wield it. The energy of the phurba is fierce, wrathful, piercing, affixing, transfixing. The phurba affixes the elemental process of 'space' (Sanskrit: ākāśa) to the Earth, thereby establishing an energetic continuum. Phurba, particularly those that are wooden are for shamanic healing, harmonizing and energy work and often have two '' nāgas'' (Sanskrit for
snake Snakes are elongated limbless reptiles of the suborder Serpentes (). Cladistically squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales much like other members of the group. Many species of snakes have s ...
, serpent and/or
dragon A dragon is a Magic (supernatural), magical legendary creature that appears in the folklore of multiple cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but European dragon, dragons in Western cultures since the Hi ...
, also refers to a class of supernatural entities or
deities A deity or god is a supernatural being considered to be sacred and worthy of worship due to having authority over some aspect of the universe and/or life. The ''Oxford Dictionary of English'' defines ''deity'' as a God (male deity), god or god ...
) entwined on the blade. Phurba often also bear the ''
ashtamangala The Ashtamangala () is the sacred set of Eight Auspicious Signs ( zh, 八吉祥, ''bajixiang'') featured in a number of Indian religions such as Hinduism, Jainism, and Buddhism. The symbols or "symbolic attributes" () are yidam and teaching too ...
'', ''swastika'', '' sauwastika'' and/or other Himalayan, Tantric or Hindu
iconography Iconography, as a branch of art history, studies the identification, description and interpretation of the content of images: the subjects depicted, the particular compositions and details used to do so, and other elements that are distinct fro ...
or motifs. The phurba as an iconographical implement is also directly related to ''Vajrakilaya'', a wrathful deity of Tibetan Buddhism who is often seen with his consort Diptacakra (Tibetan: 'khor lo rgyas 'debs ma). He is embodied in the phurba as a means of destroying (in the sense of finalising and then freeing) violence, hatred, and aggression by tying them to the blade of the phurba and then transmuting them with its tip. The pommel may be employed in
blessing In religion, a blessing (also used to refer to bestowing of such) is the impartation of something with doctrines of grace, grace, Sacred, holiness, spiritual Redemption (theology), redemption, or Will of God, divine will. Etymology and Germani ...
s. It is therefore that the phurba is not a physical weapon, but a spiritual implement, and should be regarded as such. As Müller-Ebeling, ''et al.'' state: As Beer states:


Cultural context

To work with the spirits and deities of the earth, land and place, people of India, the Himalayas and the
Mongolian Steppe Mongolian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Mongolia, a country in Asia * Mongolian people, or Mongols * Bogd Khanate of Mongolia, the government of Mongolia, 1911–1919 and 1921–1924 * Mongolian language * Mongolian alphabet * ...
pegged, nailed and/or pinned down the land. The nailing of the phurba is comparable to the idea of breaking the earth (turning the sod) in other traditions and the rite of laying the
foundation stone A cornerstone (or foundation stone or setting stone) is the first stone set in the construction of a masonry Foundation (engineering), foundation. All other stones will be set in reference to this stone, thus determining the position of the entir ...
. It is an ancient shamanic idea that has common currency throughout the region; it is prevalent in the Bön tradition and is also evident in the
Vajrayana ''Vajrayāna'' (; 'vajra vehicle'), also known as Mantrayāna ('mantra vehicle'), Guhyamantrayāna ('secret mantra vehicle'), Tantrayāna ('tantra vehicle'), Tantric Buddhism, and Esoteric Buddhism, is a Mahāyāna Buddhism, Mahāyāna Buddhis ...
tradition. According to
shaman Shamanism is a spiritual practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with the spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of this is usually to direct spirits or spiritual energies into ...
ic
folklore Folklore is the body of expressive culture shared by a particular group of people, culture or subculture. This includes oral traditions such as Narrative, tales, myths, legends, proverbs, Poetry, poems, jokes, and other oral traditions. This also ...
current throughout the region, "...the mountains were giant pegs that kept the Earth in place and prevented it from moving." Mountains such as Amnye Machen, according to folklore were held to have been brought from other lands just for this purpose. Kerrigan, ''et al.'', state that:


Traditional lineage usage

In the
Kathmandu Valley The Kathmandu Valley (), also known as the Nepal Valley or Nepa Valley (, Newar language, Nepal Bhasa: 𑐣𑐾𑐥𑐵𑑅 𑐐𑐵𑑅, नेपाः गाः), National Capital Area, is a bowl-shaped valley located in the Himalayas, Hima ...
, the phurba is still in usage by
shaman Shamanism is a spiritual practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with the spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of this is usually to direct spirits or spiritual energies into ...
s, magicians, tantrikas and
lama Lama () is a title bestowed to a realized practitioner of the Dharma in Tibetan Buddhism. Not all monks are lamas, while nuns and female practitioners can be recognized and entitled as lamas. The Tibetan word ''la-ma'' means "high mother", ...
s of different ethnic backgrounds. The phurba is used particularly intensively by the Tamang,
Gurung Gurung (exonym; ) or Tamu (endonym; Gurung language, Gurung: ) are a Tibetan people, Tibetan ethnic group living in the hills and mountains of Gandaki Province of Nepal. Gurungs speak Tamu kyi which is a Sino-Tibetan language derived from the ...
and
Newar people Newar (; , endonym: Newa; , Pracalit script: ), or Nepami, are primarily inhabitants in Kathmandu Valley of Nepal and its surrounding areas, and the creators of its historic heritage and civilisation. Page 15. Newars are a distinct linguistic ...
s. The phurba is also employed by the Tibetans native to Nepal (the Bhotyas), the
Sherpas The Sherpa people () are one of the Nepalese ethnic groups native to the most mountainous regions of Nepal, India, and the Tibetan Autonomous Region of China. The majority of Sherpas live in the eastern regions of Nepal, namely the Solukhum ...
, and the Tibetans living in Dharamasala. The phurba is also used in religious rituals in Bhutan, and can most often be found in the temples and altars of Bhutan. Müller-Ebelling, ''et al.'', chart the difference of the traditions between the ''jhankris''Jhankris may be understood as individuals who have a ' calling' to work with the phurba and are mostly of non-hereditary lineages of phurba workers. and the ''gubajus'':Gubajus may be understood as the
priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deity, deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in parti ...
s,
astrologer Astrology is a range of Divination, divinatory practices, recognized as pseudoscientific since the 18th century, that propose that information about human affairs and terrestrial events may be discerned by studying the apparent positions ...
s and
healers Alternative medicine refers to practices that aim to achieve the healing effects of conventional medicine, but that typically lack biological plausibility, testability, repeatability, or supporting evidence of effectiveness. Such practices ar ...
amongst the Newari people of the
Kathmandu Valley The Kathmandu Valley (), also known as the Nepal Valley or Nepa Valley (, Newar language, Nepal Bhasa: 𑐣𑐾𑐥𑐵𑑅 𑐐𑐵𑑅, नेपाः गाः), National Capital Area, is a bowl-shaped valley located in the Himalayas, Hima ...
. Their purba traditions are of hereditary lineages which may be considered
caste A caste is a Essentialism, fixed social group into which an individual is born within a particular system of social stratification: a caste system. Within such a system, individuals are expected to marry exclusively within the same caste (en ...
s.
A ''Bhairab kīla'' is an important healing tool of the tantric Newari gubajus. As Müller-Ebelling, ''et al.'' state: Müller-Ebelling, ''et al.'' interviewed Mohan Rai, a shaman from the border area of
Nepal Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China Ch ...
and
Bhutan Bhutan, officially the Kingdom of Bhutan, is a landlocked country in South Asia, in the Eastern Himalayas between China to the north and northwest and India to the south and southeast. With a population of over 727,145 and a territory of , ...
and belongs to the
Mongolia Mongolia is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south and southeast. It covers an area of , with a population of 3.5 million, making it the world's List of countries and dependencies by po ...
n people of the Rai and/or Kirati. Mohan Rai is the founder of the Shamanistic Studies and Research Centre in
Kathmandu Kathmandu () is the capital and largest city of Nepal, situated in the central part of the country within the Kathmandu Valley. As per the 2021 Nepal census, it has a population of 845,767 residing in 105,649 households, with approximately 4 mi ...
, Nepal. In the interview Rai says:


See also

* * * *


Notes


References


Works cited

* * * * * * * *


Further reading

* * * * * * {{Authority control Edged and bladed weapons Buddhist ritual implements Ceremonial knives Ritual weapons Tibetan Buddhist ritual implements Weapons in Buddhist mythology