Buddhist Protector: Begtse Chen History

Begtse Chen Religious Context

The Tantra of Marutse the Butcher-Liberator

In Sanskrit (garbled): Prāṇa-ātma-luhita-śa-mantra-cala-ri-tantra. In Tibetan: The Tantra of the Wrathful Mantra of the Red Lord of Life, the Butcher-Liberator. Homage to glorious Kṛiṣṇayamāri (Yamāri the Black).

Chapter 1 — The setting:
Thus have I heard at one time. In the north-east there is a red mountain with a mane of blood and a red coral plain. In the sky, amid red northern clouds, lightning flashes and red copper storms swirl. [There stands] a castle with copper doors, garlanded with human skulls, its walls smeared with human and horse blood, surrounded by beasts of the charnel ground and all kinds of ill-omened birds: brown bears that strike with their paws, [creatures] that strike with their feet, se and dud hawks and the like. Within this terrifying place, a father yakṣa with a copper mane and a mother yakṣa with a blood mane came together, and at the end of that year there appeared one red coral egg and one red se (rhino-hide or agate) egg.

The two eggs flew into the sky, burrowed into the earth, and soared through the intermediate space; the parents could not tame them. The parents summoned Mahādeva from the yakṣa cave, and when the two eggs were split open, inside one of them [there appeared] a red coral man, his hair bound at the nape, wearing a copper cuirass (begtse) and a copper helmet, holding a copper bow and arrow and a copper knife, bearing a red se spear, raising a silk banner-weapon, wearing a red goatskin cloak, and holding a coral staff.

Mahādeva asked him: "Yakṣa, whose emanation are you? What is your name? What is your life-essence? What is your food-portion? What is your approach-accomplishment-and activity?"

The yakṣa replied: "O great god Mahādeva! I am an emanation of Yama the Black. My name is 'Being with the Colour of Power'; I am also called the Red Lord of Life (Srog-dak Marpo); I am also called Yamshü Marpo.

(Translated at the Drathang temple in Ü by the Indian abbot Śrīdhara-krashu and Marpa Lotsāwa. Maṅgalam).

The Evil-Mantra Tantra of the Red Blood-Arrow-Shooter, the Red Butcher

In Sanskrit (garbled): Catuka-kamala-pramadute tantra. In Tibetan: The Evil-Mantra Tantra of the Red Blood-Arrow-Shooter, the Red Butcher. Homage to Ekajaṭ ī, mother of all existence.

Chapter 1 — The setting:
Thus have I heard at one time. In the north-east, beyond a wasteland, there is a red copper plain, a dark-brown copper mountain, and a copper cloud; a lake of blood, a rock of pure copper. Within a churning dark-red blood-lake stands a dark-brown se castle with copper doors; within its four doors copper sea-monsters croak and red streams of blood flow. Inside, human and horse corpses are laid out in rows, and human and horse blood swirl in a lake. In a skull-palace, a father yakṣa with a copper mane and a mother rākṣasī with a blood mane came together. The father had great hatred, the mother great desire; from the two — desire and hatred — came a coral egg and a se egg. The parents tamed them; the eggs soared into the intermediate space, where the eight great planets were tamed; soaring up, the eight great gods were tamed; soaring down, the eight great nāgas were tamed.

As the parents were nearly devoured, the great mother Ekajaṭī generated great compassion, entered the samādhi of great magnetising, and struck with her khaṭvāṅ ga. From the coral egg came the Being with the Colour of Power; from the se egg came the daughter of existence, the Red-Faced Lady — blue-green in colour, with a se face, conch teeth, turquoise eyebrows, and a mane of fire, her hair adorned with agate and lapis, holding a sharp copper knife and a peg, riding a man-eating brown bear. Then the mother Ekajaṭī asked: "Daughter of existence, Red-Faced Lady! Since you must protect the teaching, tell me your life-essence, your name and secret name, and your food-portion. ... My name is the Knowledge-Goddess Red-Faced Lady. My secret name is Padma-Dance Lord Lady (Padma Gar-gyi Wangchugma). My food-portion is the life-breath of those who
harm the teaching."

(The Tantra of the Red World-Devouress is complete. Because this is extremely dangerous, wrap it in red silk and hide it where no one can see it. Translated at the Drathang temple in central Tibet by the Indian abbot Dharakrashu and the Tibetan translator Marpa. Iti. Samaya. Sealed, sealed).

Hala Nagpo, the Poison Razor

The stages of taking into practice the approach, accomplishment, and activity of the yakṣa brother-and-sister. Homage to the supreme lama and the vajra-holder. Accomplishing the yakṣa Begtse brother-and-sister has two parts.

1. The history of how it first arose: In a past aeon, the father King "Having Golden Force" and the mother queen "Utpala-Eyes" had two sons. The elder, called "Famed," is the Bhagavān Śākyamuni himself; the younger, called "Famed-Born," is this yakṣa. The two did not agree on inner and outer tenets, so they wagered on dice, following whoever won. The elder won and said, "Now enter my religion!" The younger would not listen and fled. The elder pursued and seized him, and the younger said: "Even if you kill me, I will not enter your religion. So rather than kill me, let me go. When you, elder, attain buddhahood, I will be your protector. I will sever the life-breath of those who harm the teaching, and inflict punishment on those who destroy it." So he promised and vowed.

Then the elder empowered the younger: "When I attain buddhahood, may you become a protector of the teaching. Be the slayer of the life of those who harm my teaching, and make it flourish." As signs of empowerment he placed in his hands a copper [weapon], a coral club, and a se bow and arrow, and named him Lord of Life Yamshü Marpo. Then, when the Bhagavān displayed the attainment of buddhahood in this realm, by the force of a former aspiration [the yakṣa arose]: in the north-east, beyond a great waterless wasteland, at the charnel ground called Maru-tse — a wide red coral plain, before a red northern agate mountain with a mane of blood, in a lake of churning dark-red blood, red clouds gathering in the sky with lightning and thunder, all the ground wreathed in blood mist and great copper storms — stands a dark-brown se castle with copper doors. [There] a father yakṣa with a copper mane and a mother yakṣa with a blood mane came together, and at the end of that year one coral egg and one red se egg appeared

The parents could not tame the eggs: they flew into the sky (and the eight great gods were tamed), soared into the intermediate space (the eight great planets tamed), burrowed into the ground (the eight great nāgas tamed). When the parents were near to being devoured, they exhorted [the deities], and in the yakṣa cave Mahādeva and the great mother Ekajaṭ ī generated great compassion, entered the samādhi of great magnetising, and struck the khaṭvāṅ ga. The two eggs split. From the coral egg came a red coral man, hair bound at the nape, wearing a copper cuirass, holding a se bow and arrow and a copper sword, raising a red se spear and a silk banner-weapon, holding a red goatskin cloak and a coral staff. Mahādeva questioned him as before, and he answered as before — this is the Tantra of Maruce, spoken as question and answer. From the se egg came the daughter of existence, dark-blue, with a red se face, conch teeth, turquoise eyebrows, a mane of fire, adorned with agate and lapis, holding a sharp copper knife and a phurba, riding a man-eating brown bear. The mother Ekajaṭī questioned her, and she answered as before — this is the Tantra of the Red Butcher World-Devouress, spoken as question and answer.

Lineage. Relying on this source: in India, the ācārya Nyima Drag, who had perfected the power of mantra, received the transmission from Mahādeva, drew it as treasure from the "Red Charnel Ground of India," and accomplished it, so that an enemy died merely by his looking at them. He gave it to his son, the paṇḍita Candra the Black, who killed an enemy the moment he grew wrathful. He gave it to his son Gayadhara — in Tibet also called "Red Acarya" and Śrīdhara-krashu, though not the same person as the Gayadhara who was the lama of the great Drogmi — who accomplished it in three days, so that an enemy died. He came to Tibet and gave this protector-cycle to Marpa Lotsāwa at the Drathang temple, and the two translated the two tantras above together with several Indian texts. This paṇḍ ita gave it to a Bönpo in Gungthang in Ngari, and in Tsang to Cogro Thog-ban Darma Kyab; chiefly, he gave the complete cycle to Nyen Lotsāwa Darma Drak, who used the designation "dark-red butcher, attendant of the four-faced glorious protector" and was greatly renowned for roughness, composing the sādhana texts, mdos rituals, and exhortation-liturgies under strict seal. From him it passed to Khawupa, to Je Sachen (Kunga Nyingpo), to his close disciple Rapa Shudbu Tashi Özer, and to the siddha Dar phya-rupa. (Bande Darma Kyab also requested it again from Marpa Lotsāwa, and Shudbu Tashi Özer requested it from him too).

The Close Lineage: at the hermitage of Nag-gyal Lhachu, the ācārya Padma[sambhava] came in person and gave the siddha Dar-phyar the instruction of the "secret wrathful nine deities" together with this protector. Further, the treasure that Nub Sangye Yeshe drew from Samye (where it had been hidden when Padma was invited by King Trisong Detsen) — the extensive, middling, and condensed sādhanas of Lord of Life Yamshü Marpo, with ten scrolls of wrathful activity — was transmitted through the Nub lineage of wrathful mantra masters. Many extracted sādhanas of this protector also appeared from Mangyül Jamtrin temple, Paro Kyerchu, and the Rulag Gyang rock-mountain.

As for the methods of accomplishment, there are many: the yakṣa as a single male; the Red-Faced Lady alone; the two as principal-and-consort; the three as brother-and-sister; the "nine butchers"; surrounded by twenty-one corpse-butchers; all combined. Among these, for swiftness and sharpness: to liberate a male enemy, accomplish chiefly the male line; to liberate a female enemy, chiefly the female line. Within the male line there are many: as a wild btsan riding a horse, as a lord of life riding a man, as an attendant on foot, and so on. These differ in deity, mantra, substances, and method; the common ones do not conflict, but the uncommon, unmixed ones must be learned separately from a lama who holds the instructions — one cannot do without such a lama. So let discerning people who wish to accomplish this understand it. Nowadays, though many boast of relying on this protector for its swiftness and roughness, most do nothing but a torma-dedication and seem not to have heard even a little of the key instructions. Here, adorned with the two tantras, the intention of Śrīdhara-krashu, the tradition of Nyen Lotsāwa, and the instructions of three holy learned-and-accomplished lamas, I will explain the method of taking into practice the swift and rough on-foot [form] with its retinue.

(This is renowned to have been composed by the incomparable holy one Tsarchen Losel Gyatso, 1502-1566. Sarva maṅgalam).

HAR Team [uploaded 11-2026]

Begtse Chen (Buddhist Protector)