Little Tulku Jianggong did not dare to lie anymore. He looked at Little Tulku Duozha sitting on the plank bed opposite him. He seemed to have realised something and had quickly pulled a blanket to cover his face.
"I … I don't know." Little Tulku Jianggong's face reddened.
"I see that the spirits are dissatisfied with something in our tributes that we offer to them." Tulku Dapu told his assistant lama, Yixi, who was standing beside him, "Go and fetch the door plank for me to kowtow on."
"The Tulku is going to kowtow here?" Lama Yixi asked uncomprehendingly.
"Go quickly!" He replied without any hint of doubt in his voice.
Normally Tulku Dapu had a special door plank on which he kowtowed. When he felt that he should pray for forgiveness from the Buddha and the bodhisattvas in a place, he would have somebody bring the board to the place and in one stretch would kowtow hundreds of times. The Tulku Dapu was a pious and disciplined man, and often, when other people made mistakes, he would kowtow himself to bear their sins. Once a relative of his borrowed 50 jin[20] of butter from Khenpo Pinsong, but by the end of the year it was discovered that he had not yet paid it back. When Tulku Dapu discovered this, he did not blame Khenpo Pinsong but punished himself and kowtowed 3,000 times in one day in order to request the Buddha's forgiveness. Because Tulku Dapu often kowtowed on this door board, over the years and months, the whole board was soaked through with the Tulku's sweat and grease and emitted a layer of dark red light. In the places where his limbs touched the board there was a deep concave groove.
Lama Yixi quickly came carrying the door plank and he said carefully, "The day is already becoming late, Tulku, will you be doing fewer kowtows?"
"In front of the Buddha and the bodhisattvas, there is no bargaining. I will kowtow 1,000 times." Tulku Dapu said calmly, taking off his amulets and beads and other accessories that he wore on his body. He stood on the door plank and raised his hands and clasped them together, and then brought them to his forehead and chest and then, with a rustling sound, prostrated himself downwards.
"Tulku Dapu!" Little Tulku Jianggong suddenly gave a loud shout.
"Oh?" Tulku Dapu continued to kowtow.
"It was us who ate the tributes on the altar." Little Tulku Jianggong said, tearfully, "These kowtows should be performed by me. Tulku, please forgive our sins."
"We all need to ask for forgiveness from the Buddha and the bodhisattvas." Tulku Dapu continued to kowtow.
Little Duozha got up from the bed and knelt down opposite Tulku Dapu, "Tulku, please do not continue to kowtow. Let us wash away our own sins."
Tulku Dapu still did not stop, "Sin lies in motive, not in behaviour. The sins washed away by another person and the sins that you repent yourself can both be forgiven. I knew long ago that the cat did not have the appetite of two greedy little devils."
The two boys looked at each other shamefully and said almost at the same time, "Tulku Dapu, please punish us, do not continue to kowtow."
"I am your teacher. If you do not tell the truth, it is because I did not teach you properly. I have first to punish myself. What did the revered Atisha[21] teach us? 'Mistakes should not last the night'. Today's mistakes one should repent and correct today, and then tomorrow we will not repeat our sins." When he had finished speaking, he continued kowtowing and the two boys had to begin kowtowing without pause at his side.
5
For the young Tulku Jianggong, there was a terrifying place in Qiari Temple. He would rather read several incense sticks' worth of sutras every day than go there even once. But every time they reached the end of a segment in the Buddhist sutras taught by his master Tulku Dapu, it was necessary to practice his skill in that area. Not only did he need to set a personal example, but he also needed to be seen to be successful. This left Little Tulku Jianggong with no choice but to go to the place that scared him the most and chant the sutras in his retreat.
That place was a three-sided skeleton wall in the back compound of the temple, which was constructed using human skulls. It was said to have a history of several centuries. After the master of sky burials had fed the flesh and bones of a person who had passed to the vultures, the skull that was left behind was then stacked together layer upon layer like a wall, a human head with empty eye sockets and teeth bared. This was a wall that represented horror and death, and when the sun shone on it, the wall would still have no warmth, when the spring breeze blew through it, it immediately became cold and chill. In this world, surrounded by skulls, death was like the shadow that followed behind man. In the single turn of a head, the flow of life and death alternated; it could not be avoided or changed.
On the mountainside behind the wall of skulls was the local sky burial altar. It was the custom of the Tibetan people on the night before the sky burial of a deceased person to place the wrapped corpse in the small room next to the skull wall and ask the monks of the Qiari Temple to chant sutras for the salvation of the passed soul. On a cold winter's evening, Tulku Dapu came to Little Tulku Jianggong's dormitory room and said in a tone that brooked no doubt, "Tonight, you are going to the sutra room next to the skull wall to chant sutras for an alms giver."
This was what Little Tulku Jianggong was most scared of. He asked, "Who died?"
"The dead are all the same, no matter who they are. You go and chant the scriptures, and that's it."
"Master, will you be bringing me there?"
"Will your scriptures be coming out of somebody else's mouth?" Tulku Dapu asked, with a stern expression.
"Then …then can you have Lama Duozha accompany me?" Little Tulku Jianggong begged. His body was hit by waves after waves of goose bumps. He was a child not yet of 10 years of age, how could he go alone in this winter's night, the north wind roaring, to face a stiff corpse?
