Karma game

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The karma game (Tibetan: Sa-gnon rNam-bzhags meaning 'determining the ascent in stages') is the name commonly used in Europe for a Tibetan board game that symbolizes the reincarnation cycle (samsara) of man up to Buddhahood.

Each of the 13 by 8 fields bears the name of a certain type of incarnation, the 104th corresponds to Nirvana . The karmic balance of each incarnation is rolled, with each field containing a list of those additional fields that are to be taken at this point in the case of the different die results. The 24th field (far left, 3rd from the bottom) marks the start of the game. Fields 1 (bottom right) and 48 are traps that only exit after 9 or 52 after the identical dice results 1 to 6 have been achieved one to six times (i.e. after 1 and 2 times etc., i.e. after 21 throws at the earliest) can be. The one (of any number of players) who is the first to reach the nirvana field (top left) wins.

The Sanskrit name of the game is Bhûmyâkramana-vyavasthâpana. The variant common in Bhutan is called Sa-lam rNam-bzhags ('Determination of the paths to the levels'), because it contains 13 Bodhisattva levels in the top center, which precede the completion. The original version invented by Sa-skya Pandita (* 1182; † 1251) had 8 by 9 fields.

literature

  • Mark Tatz, Jody Kent: Rebirth. The Tibetan Game of Liberation . Garden City 1977.