The Prince and the Zombie (2 page)

In this fine version of the zombie tales, Tenzin Wangmo has been able to capture in a lively and engaging manner the oral version she heard from her parents. In this way she has made a contribution to the preservation of the precious cultural heritage of Tibet, which these days is so threatened by the Sinicization that hangs over the Land of Snows.

Is the Tibetan culture in danger of perishing? Let us keep our hopes alive through the inspiration provided by the words of the great Gandhian democrat Jayaprakash Narayan: “Tibet will not die, because the human spirit does not die.”

—M
ATTHIEU
R
ICARD

Introduction

In Tibet, generation after generation, tales and legends of all kinds have been passed down orally within families or through traveling storytellers. Having been obliged to flee Tibet and find a home in Europe, my parents carried on this tradition by telling stories to us, their own children, as well as to the twelve other children who were placed under their care by the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government in exile.

As these tales were being told, I let myself be carried away by the inner images that arose in me of the distant country that was my country but that nevertheless I did not know. These moments were filled with wonder and magic. I remember the joy I felt in listening to the tales and how each time I heard them I would ask for more and more details. The
ro dung
(literally “zombie tales” in the Tibetan) were the ones I enjoyed the most, so much so that I now want to set them down in writing.

Much as in
The Thousand and One Nights
, these
ro dung
have an overall story that frames them. The framing tale here tells of the life of a Tibetan prince and his encounter with a very cunning zombie who tells the prince many entrancing stories in order to get him to lose his vigilance. Many variants of the
ro dung
exist, because every teller of the tales embellishes them in accordance with his or her own imagination and creative powers—but without changing the underlying story, which contains a message essentially connected with the Buddhist tradition.

The country in which the
ro dung
originated is India. From there, the tales made their way to Tibet at a time when Buddhism was spreading there on the Roof of the World. The beautiful stories told by the zombie convey the profound values of the teaching of the Buddha. They quickly garnered appreciation throughout Tibet, which prior to
1959
had about six million inhabitants. In the course of time, the Indian background of the stories was replaced by the local realities of Tibet. Nevertheless, the place called Silwaytsal (Skt. Sitavana), where the zombie in question was to be found, stayed in India. We also encounter the great Indian spiritual master Nagarjuna under the Tibetan name Gömpo Ludrup.

From the time of the Chinese invasion of
1949
, followed by the occupation of Tibet by its powerful neighbor in
1959
, a Tibetan government in exile was formed in India, which increasingly included democratic principles in its constitution. Tibetan communities were formed and organized all over the world. Second and third generations of Tibetans, which includes my brothers, my sisters, and myself, grew up entirely in exile, with the result that each passing day far away from our country distances us further from our cultural identity. Here I am thinking in particular of Tibetan language and writing, which are a part of the richness of the cultural heritage of this world. I am thinking also of our unique tales and legends. The present—very personal—compilation represents my modest contribution toward preventing these stories from sinking forever into oblivion.

I hope that the children, young people, and adults who read these tales will enjoy discovering them as much as I did myself—as did all the previous generations who came before me.

Tashi delek
—with all my best wishes.

T
ENZIN
W
ANGMO

Bottens, Switzerland

2012

1

The Prince's Obsessive Desire

O
NCE UPON A TIME,
there was a Tibetan prince named Dechö Zangpo, “He Who Enjoys Well-Being.” The king and the queen, his parents, adored their only son and were very proud of him. All who met the prince were charmed by him. Some said, “Oh, he is so kind to the poor!” Others exclaimed, “How respectful he is toward older people!” Still others declared, “How intelligent he is. Wouldn't he make a wonderful king!”

Word of the prince spread through the kingdom with the speed of lightning, and very soon there was not a single person who had not heard of Prince Dechö Zangpo. Even the Tibetan nomads in the most remote regions were to be heard exclaiming, “What a joy, this prince!” and “Long may he live!”—all the while repeating over and over
OM MANI
PADME HUM
, the mantra of Avalokiteshvara, the buddha of compassion.

One fine day, Prince Dechö Zangpo learned of the existence of seven brother magicians who lived in the most inaccessible mountain region in the kingdom. His curiosity was immediately aroused, and he felt an intense desire to learn the secrets of these magicians. His numerous attempts to find out more about them, however, were unsuccessful. This had the effect of increasing his curiosity still further—to the point where his desire to find out about the brothers' highly secretive discipline turned into an obsession. So one night, without telling his parents, the king and queen, who certainly would have prevented his departure, he set out to look for the seven brothers. In order to avoid being betrayed by his rich princely garb, he disguised himself as a simple pilgrim. Traveling incognito in this way, in the course of many long months he traveled through the entire kingdom on foot, his ears always open for anything he might hear that might lead him to discovering the dwelling place of the seven brother magicians.

At the end of the seventh month, the prince arrived in the most mountainous part of his kingdom. There, very soon, he lost his way. With the high rock mountains for his only traveling companions and above him only the vast sky, he became tired and discouraged and was on the verge of abandoning his quest. But then suddenly, as he came to the top of one of the many mountain passes he'd had to climb, a small hidden valley appeared before his eyes. To his great joy, at the very end of this valley he saw a house. The closer he got to it, the more the surroundings and the house itself seemed to resemble the descriptions he had received from some Tibetan nomads who had discovered the dwelling place of the seven brothers one day when they were out looking for stray yaks.

Prince Dechö Zangpo approached the cabin and began calling out loudly, “Hello! Hello! Is there anyone at home? Hello! Hello!” But no one answered him. Even the stable was empty. There was nothing he could do but wait, so the prince disguised as a pilgrim lay down on the hard ground in front of the cabin. When the sun set behind the high peaks of the mountains surrounding the little valley, he fell into a deep sleep.

Late at night, he was awakened by the owners of the house, who were very surprised to find a pilgrim asleep on their doorstep. Finally Prince Dechö Zangpo was getting to meet the seven brother magicians! And in order to be able to stay with them for a period of time, he pretended he was ill and not able at the moment to continue with his pilgrimage to Mount Kailash. After conferring with each other the seven brother magicians informed him that he could stay for seven days and sleep in the stable. Exhausted by his long journey on foot but very happy that he had finally found what he had been looking for after months of searching, he fell asleep on a heap of straw in a sheltered corner.

The following morning he woke up late, and leaving the stable, he found the place as deserted as it had been on his arrival the previous day. Again he cried out, “Halloo, halloo, is there anyone at home? Halloo, halloo!” He listened attentively but there was no one in the place to be heard. Intrigued by the absence of his hosts during the entire day, Prince Dechö Zangpo thought hard about what means he might employ to learn the magic with which he was so obsessed. He could not come up with a solution. In the evening, tired out by all of his fruitless thinking, he lay down again in a corner of the stable. That night, he tried not to fall asleep. His idea was to wait for the return of his hosts and somehow secretly get their knowledge from them.

But despite his intentions, once again he fell into a deep sleep and did not wake up until the following day after the seven brothers had gone off again. “What an idiot I am!” he cried out, in a fury with himself for not having been able to stay awake in order to spy on whatever magical practices might have been going on during the night. He decided to go back to sleep for the rest of the day so that he would be able to wake up at nightfall and stay awake. This would already be the third night.

His plan worked beautifully, and when the masters of the house returned on their horses, he pretended to be sound asleep. Having not the slightest suspicion regarding the slumbering pilgrim, the brothers put their seven white horses in the stable and went up to the second floor of their house, where they began performing their nighttime activities in the main room by the light of the fire in the hearth. Dechö Zangpo rose from his sleeping place and got hold of a wooden ladder, which he leaned against one of the walls of the house. Slowly and without making noise, he climbed up until he reached a little window that had no glass in it. Balancing on the ladder, he could clearly see what was going on in the main room. With great curiosity, the prince noted even the most minute actions and movements that were taking place inside the house. Despite his boldness, his heart was beating so loud in his breast that he was afraid it would be heard.

The magicians, sitting in a circle on the ground around the hearth, were going on and on chanting magic formulas as though performing a ritual. The whole night long, Dechö Zangpo watched very attentively through the window, without paying any heed to the frigid wind of the high valleys of Tibet. Nothing escaped his eye, not a movement, not a word of importance. Above all, he fixed in his mind the spot where the seven brothers kept their secret texts hidden. At dawn, without having slept a single minute, the magicians departed again on horseback in order to gather the ingredients indispensable for their work. Discreetly, the prince climbed down and went back to sleep in his corner of the stable, very happy at having been able secretly to take his first lesson in magic.

During the days that were left to him at the magicians' house, he slept soundly in the morning, then spent the rest of the day studying magic formulas. When his hosts came back, he pretended to be slumbering deeply. But each night he returned again to his vantage point at the window.

2

An Unexpected Encounter

O
N THE SEVENTH DAY,
the magicians returned home before sunset. They meant to tell the pilgrim, who had had plenty of rest in the meantime, that the following morning he should resume his journey, as had been agreed. But when they got home, they caught him as he was covertly studying their texts on magical practices.

Crazed with anger at having been tricked and betrayed in this manner, they threw themselves on this stealer of spells with the intention of taking him captive. But Dechö Zangpo had learned his lesson well. He immediately performed a feat of magic. He turned himself into a white horse and took off at a lively pace for the stable where the other horses were. His arrival spooked the other horses. They bolted out of the stable and began galloping away with the prince hidden among them. But this did not fool the seven magician brothers, who saw right away which of the horses was the fake, and they took off after them in hot pursuit. Soon the horses were running along the bank of a river. The prince dove into the water, turned himself into a fish, and took cover in a school of fish that was swimming quietly along in the frigid mountain waters. But again, the brothers were quick to spot him. Using their magic powers, they transformed themselves into otters, hoping to catch the phony fish. Just when they thought they were about to seize their prey, the prince turned himself into a bird and concealed himself in a flock of birds flying in the direction of the high rock mountains.