书城传记聆听史诗丛书-格萨尔王传:英文
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第8章 God Son Is Born in Ling ...(3)

When everything was ready the sea conches were sounded for the meeting to start. The first golden seat on the first line was set aside for the Great Scholar; the silver seat on the right side was the place of the chieftain Rongcha Chageng; and Gyiwi Lhunzhub was invited to sit on the spiral seat on the left; …the other warriors, leaders of the 10,000, 1,000, 100 and 10 Households who were respectable sat in the upper lines, the junior and younger in the lower lines. Everybody sat in an orderly fashion observing the traditional proprieties.

After everyone had taken their position chieftain Rongcha Chageng told everyone about his lucky dream and the prediction the Great Scholar had explained. All the people there cheered up and talked warmly about the son of the deities who would be born in the Ling area. What could they do to welcome the hero? Many things had yet to be done. Gyiwi Lhunzhub began to put all of this in order:

“The rich Chalho Toinpa Gyaincain will take charge of the celebration banquet. Myichin, Serpen, Tarpa and ten other people will lead three troops from the Ling area to collect grain, incense and offerings. Some 13 noblewomen should be selected to perform as singers and dancers at the celebration. Attention please, you heroes of Ling, when the sun and moon appear simultaneously on the 15th day, our son of deities will arrive.”

People became very busy in their preparations for the birth of the great hero.

At the same time, the deities in Heaven thought it was the right time for Toipa Garwa to go into the world and enlighten the people there. Thus they made the decision to send Toipa Garwa to snowland to vanquish all the demons and monsters and bring goodness to the people. The deities also arranged 72 Buddhist Guardians, 13 local gods in the Tibetan areas, four tribes of Masangnyangqen area, 21 monks, as well as Ormazd and the Dragon God to protect him. Finally the deities gave instructions to Toipa Garwa:

“Toipa Garwa! The people of snowland are living in bad times now. You should go to Tibet to rescue them immediately. We have arranged for many Buddhist Guardians to assist you in your task. You should not only destroy the corporeal enemies but also vanquish the spiritual demons! Never drop your guard and keep these words foremost in your mind!”

Having heard the deities’ words, Toipa Garwa thought to himself: “I’ll hold myself directly responsible for my pledge. However the enemy needs to be defeated using the right weapons. As the old saying goes, except for the stockyard, livestock growing fat mostly relies on forage grass. So also a leader’s prestige depends on the support of his people; the dignity of a Master will be reflected through his following of monks; the rich cannot always do business smoothly without good luck; a warrior cannot fight without the right weapons. The immense sky covers everything, but it can be blotted out sometimes by dark clouds; the great earth fosters plants and animals but it also needs the assistance of Mountain Gods and Local Gods. If I were born without perfect parents, good family, loyal underlings and supporting people, I could do nothing despite of my grand aspirations.”

Finally Toipa Garwa reported on his needs to the deities:

“In my previous life I swore to fight against demons and monsters and to benefit people whenever possible and while I still need sufficient opportunities to achieve this goal. A sharp arrow cannot shoot the target itself without a good bow. Timely rain cannot fall without adequate clouds vaporized from the ocean. A son of the deities cannot be born without parents on earth. Dear Master, I have the following requests: My father should be a kind person who has the power to fulfill all his wishes; My mother should come from the Dragon family and have no relatives and other relationships in the world. In order to defeat the powerful demons and eradicate the evil creatures I hope the merciful deities will grant my requests.”

The deities agreed with his requests. It was really necessary for him to choose a holy place with fertile land, kind people and enough fortune. Besides these, fine parents and family were also needed.

The deities used their insight to look into the upper, middle and lower areas of the snowlands. They found that in the upper area, Ngari was surrounded with mountains, Guge with rocks and Mangyo with glaciers; these three composed the so-called Ngari Three Areas. In the middle is U-Tsang area, where there were four tribes including Yori, Wayri, Yeri and Yuanri. The lower Torkang had six “gangs”, namely Mazhagang, Bobogang, Chawagang, Odagang, Makamgang and Moyagang. In addition, there were four rivers — the Yellow River, the Jinshajiang River, the Lancangjiang River and the Nujiang River, as well as four agriculture areas, four large cities and four mysterious belts.

The deities continued to look around carefully and they found that in the center of Torkang’s six gangs, there was a place named Ling Garpo on the border between the Middle Ling and the Lower Ling. Here there was a flourishing tribe and it seemed the right place where the son of happiness would rise.

Now that the birth place was fixed, the deities then began to select his parents and family. The six clans of the Tibetan areas were big but lacked enlightenment, so the deities turned to examine the most famous nine clans of the Tibetan area. Finally, they decided that Toipa Garwa’s father should come from a royal family named Mobu Dongsi. The family which had descended from Qoipang Naboand had separated into three branches. Qoipang Nabo had three wives and they each had a son for him, respectively developing into the older branch, the middle branch and the younger branch. The grandson of the younger branch, Zhagyi Pengmei, also had three wives named as Concubine Rongfei, Concubine Garfei and Concubine Mofei. Rongcha Chageng, the chieftain of the Ling area, was the son of Concubine Rongfei. Concubine Mofei had a son named Senglong. He was a man with gentle manner, kind nature, broad mind and abundant compassion and he was the optimal person to be Toipa Garwa’s father.