Pekar

This article deals with a protective deity in Tibetan Buddhism.

• For the comic book author Harvey Pekar see Harvey Pekar .
• For the physicist Solomon Isaakowitsch Pekar see Solomon Isaakowitsch Pekar .

Pekar ( Tib . : pe kar ), also called Pehar , is a protective deity of the Buddha's teachings ( Dharmapala ), who is worshiped in the context of Tibetan Buddhism and in Bon . Pekar is seen as both the Nechung deity and a Trinle Gyalpo (Tib .: phrin las rgyal po ).

The worship of Pekar goes back to the 9th century when Pekar, originally a deity of the non-Buddhist meditation school of Bhata Hor (Mongolia), was taken under oath by the great tantric master Padmasambhava as protector of the Buddha's teachings.

Pekar is also considered to be one of the main deities of Bon .

Protector of Samye Monastery

Samye-Ling , the oldest Buddhist monastery in Tibet

According to tradition, Padmasambhava Pekar enthroned as the main protector of Samye , the first monastery in Tibet. A temple within the Samyes complex is therefore known as the Pekar lha khang Pekar temple or pe kar gling . Pekar served in his role as protector of Samyes for 700 years until, according to legend, at the time of the V Dalai Lama, he moved to Nechung (Tib .: gnas chung ), near the Drepung monastery in central Tibet. Successor in the role of the protector of Samye was the deity Tsiu Marpo .

Nechung Monastery and the Nechung Oracle

The Nechung Oracle; Lobsang Namgyal 1938

The 5th Dalai Lama had the Nechung Monastery (Tib .: gnas chung dgon ) built in honor of Pekar . Since then, Pekar has been one of the most important protectors of the Gelug School of Tibetan Buddhism and is also known as the deity Nechung . The deity Pekar is said to have used a medium regularly since that time to u. a. also to answer important questions from the Dalai Lama in connection with the Tibetan government in exile . The monk serving as a medium has the greatest reputation in the Gelug order. Due to its frequent, very debilitating oracle trances, it usually only has a short life expectancy. The Nechung oracle is still the most important state oracle (Tib .: gnas chung chos rgyal ) of the Tibetan government in exile and the Dalai Lama. It now resides in the new Nechung monastery in Dharamsala . Thupten Ngodup has been the 14th state oracle since 1987 ; his predecessor was Lobsang Jigmé.

The five pekar gyalpos

Pekar is the main deity of a group of five protectors. In addition to Pekar, this group includes the following deities:

• Gyabin ( Gya Jin )
• Monbu Putra
• Shingyachen ( Shing Cha Chen )
• Drahla Kye Zhigbu ( Dra Lha Kye Chigbu )

Pekar himself does not occupy the central position of this group of protectors in the mandala , he is assigned to the northern quarters (see also Dorje Drak ).

literature

German

• Yeshe Tsogyal : The Lotus Born in the Land of Snow - How Padmasambhava brought Buddhism to Tibet . Fischer Taschenbuch, Frankfurt am Main 1996, ISBN 3-596-12975-3

English

• Yeshe Tsogyal: The Life and Liberation of Padmasambhava . Dharma Publishing, Berkeley CA 1978, ISBN 0-913546-18-6
• René de Nebesky-Wojkowitz : Oracles and Demons of Tibet . Gordon Press, New York 1976, ISBN 0-87968-463-1 (Reprint of the ed. Published by Mouton, 's-Gravenhage 1956)

Web links

Commons : Nechung Oracle  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• himalayanart.org: Worldly Protector (Buddhist) - Pehar
• tibet.com: Nechung - The State Oracle of Tibet ( Memento from August 1, 2008 in the Internet Archive )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ etd.lib.fsu.edu: Christopher Paul Bell: Tsiu Marpo: The Career of a Tibetan Protector Deity ( Memento of the original from September 2, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Florida State University 
2. ↑ tibet.prm.ox.ac.uk: Lobsang Namgyal (tib .: blo bzang rnam rgyal ) Pitt Rivers Museum