The victory banner was adopted by
early Buddhism as an emblem of the Buddha's enlightenment, heralding the
triumph of knowledge over ignorance.
It is said to have been placed on
the summit of Mt. Meru by Buddha himself, symbolizing his victory over the
entire universe. Again, Mount Meru here is believed to be the central axis
supporting the world.
The flag of victory also denotes
Buddha's triumph over Mara, who personifies hindrances on the path to spiritual
realization. Specifically, there are said to be four types of Maras, each one
representing an individual hurdle on the path to spiritual progress. These are:
1. Mara of Emotional Defilement
2. Mara of Passion
3. Mara of the Fear of Death
4. Mara of Pride and Lust
It was only after conquering
these four negative traits that Buddha could proclaim victory over ignorance,
and achieve nirvana.
Cylindrical victory banners made of beaten copper are traditionally placed at the four corners of monastery and temple roofs. These signify the Buddha's victorious dharma radiating to the four directions and also his triumph over the four Maras mentioned above.
The Gyeltshen was thus only placed over roofs of religious buildings, palaces and residences of high Buddhist Masters as a mark of sacred blessings.
The Gyeltshen is constructed out of brass or copper which is often plated in gold with carvings of sacred iconography and prayers. The Gyeltshen is usually placed directly over all types of roof including Jabzhi roof and Jamthok roof. Unlike the Sertog roof, the roof for Gyeltshen is not decorated with Chuza Chulo or Chunju Patra.
The Gyeltshen is often also placed over the very tall prayer flag poles known as Lhadar.
In this case the Gyeltshen is made out of simple elements such as local cloth which is wrapped in a simple woven bamboo container basket.
༄༅། །རྒྱལ་མཚན་རྩེ་མོའི་དཔུང་རྒྱན་གྱི་གསོལ་འདེབས་བཞུགས།
Prayer to Gyaltsen
Tsemö Pung Gyen1
by
Mipham Rinpoche
ཨོཾ། གུ་རུ་ཡི་དམ་རྒྱལ་མཚན་རྩེ་མོའི་ཏོག །
om, guru yidam
gyaltsen tsemö tok
Oṃ! We take refuge
in the gurus, the yidams, and in you, Gyaltsen Tsemö Pung Gyen,
དཔུང་རྒྱན་ལྷ་ཚོགས་ཁྱེད་ལ་སྐྱབས་སུ་མཆི། །
pung gyen lhatsok
khyé la kyab su chi
Along with all your retinue!
བདག་ཅག་སྙིང་ནས་གསོལ་བ་བཏབ་པའི་མཐུས། །
dakchak nying né
solwa tabpé tü
By the power of this fervent prayer of ours,
རྒུད་པ་ཀུན་ལས་མྱུར་དུ་བསྐྱབ་ཏུ་གསོལ། །
güpa kün lé nyurdu
kyab tu sol
Quickly protect us from all failure and
misfortune!
ཨོཾ་ཧཱུྂ་སྭཱ་ཧཱ། དཔུང་རྒྱན་ལྷ་ཚོགས་ཁྱེད་ཀྱི་རྫུ་འཕྲུལ་མཐུས། །
om hung soha | pung
gyen lhatsok khyé kyi dzutrul tü
Oṃ hūṃ svāhā! O Pung Gyen, and your retinue:
བདག་དང་རྒྱུ་སྦྱོར་ཡོན་བདག་འཁོར་བཅས་ལ། །
dak dang gyujor
yöndak khor ché la
With the force of your magical display, for
us, our benefactors, and all those around us
རྨི་ལམ་ངན་དང་བསམ་ངན་སྦྱོར་རྩུབ་ཟློག །
milam ngen dang sam
ngen jor tsub dok
Avert all bad dreams, and those who have ill
thoughts or do us harm!
བྱད་ཁ་ཕུར་ཁ་འཐབ་རྩོད་འཁྲུགས་ལོང་ཟློག །
jekha purkha tabtsö
truklong dok
Avert spells and curses, dispute and
conflict!
སྲོག་ལུས་དབང་ཐང་རླུང་རྟ་རྒུད་པ་ཟློག །
sok lü wangtang
lungta güpa dok
Avert all weakening in our life force,
body, wangtang and windhorse!
མི་ལ་ན་ཚ་ཕྱུགས་ལ་གོད་ཁ་ཟློག །
mi la natsa chuk la
gökha dok
Avert all illness in men and women, all loss
of our resources!
ཚེ་དང་བསོད་ནམས་དཔལ་དང་གྲགས་པ་སོགས། །
tsé dang sönam pal
dang drakpa sok
Grant us long life, merit, glory and renown,
and
ཉིན་མཚན་ཀུན་ཏུ་བདེ་ལེགས་མཛད་དུ་གསོལ། །
nyintsen küntu
delek dzé du sol
Make peace and happiness reign, throughout
both day and night!
མི་ཕམ་པས་སོ། །
By the one called Mipham.
1.
↑ Gyaltsen Tsemö Pung Gyen, whose name translates roughly as 'Ornament on the Top
of the Victory Banner', is a female deity whose dhāraṇī
is particularly treasured as a method for enhancing windhorse. The Buddha said
that in a previous life he had heard her dhāraṇī,
and from that moment on never again did he experience fear
or defeat.
