pronounce judgement. Though the Terton claim be proven false, the fact that the Bardo Thödol is now accepted as a sacred book in Tibet and has for some considerable time been used by the lāmas for reading over the dead would, of course, not be affected; only the theory concerning the textual compilation of what, in its essentials, is apparently a prehistoric ritual would be subject to revision.
As for Padma Sambhava’s own sources, apart from such congenial traditional teachings as no doubt he incorporated in some of his Tibetan treatises, we are told, by oral tradition now current among the lāmas, that he had eight gurus in India, each representing one of the eight chief Tantric doctrines.
In a Tibetan block-print, which belonged to the translator, purporting to record the history, but much mixed with myth, of the Great Guru, entitled Orgyan-Padmas-mzad-pahi-bkah-thang-bsdüd-pa (pronounced Ugyan Padmay-zad-pai-ba-thang-dü-pa), meaning ‘The Abridged Testament made by Ugyan Padma’ (or ‘by the Lotus-Born Ugyan’—Padma Sambhava), consisting of but seventeen folios, there is recorded on the twelfth folio, sixteenth section, the following passage, confirming the historical tradition touching the origin of the Bardo Thödol text:
‘Behold! the Sixteenth Section, showing the Eight Ling-pas, the Leaders of Religion, is [thus]:
‘The Eight Incarnations of the Great Bodhisattvas are:
‘Ugyan-ling-pa, in the centre;
‘Dorje-ling-pa, in the east;
‘Rinchen-ling-pa, in the south;
‘Padma-ling-pa, in the west;
‘Karma-ling-pa, in the north;
‘Samten-ling-pa and Nyinda-ling,
‘[And] Shig-po-ling (or Terdag-ling).
‘These Eight Great Tertons shall come;
‘Mine own incarnations alone are they.’
Padma Sambhava himself is herein represented as declaring that the Tertons, or ‘Takers-out’ of the hidden books, are to
