Padmasambhava, Uḍḍiyāna and Tibet

Oxford University
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The seminar applies interdisciplinary approaches to the person of Padmasambhava, in history, myth, and ritual. Additional focuses are the regions of Kashmir, Uḍḍiyāna, and Tibet, and their mutual religious, intellectual, economic, and political interactions.

  1. Jun 26 ·  Video

    The Oḍiyāna Mahāmudrā Lineage: Textual Communities and the Construction/Reconstruction of Institutional Identities

    Adam Krug introduces the Grub pa sde bdun as a practical canon (gzhung) of Indian Mahāmudrā Works and its role in hagiography. This talk will begin with an introduction to the Grub pa sde bdun that touches upon their importance to Indic Buddhist traditions, their transmission to Tibet in the mid-eleventh century, and the role that they played in the Karma Kagyü’s formulation of a practical canon of Indian Mahāmudrā Works (phyag chen rgya gzhung) at the turn of the sixteenth century. The presentation will then focus on the preservation of a hagiographic tradition among the Drikung Kagyü identifying the Grub pa sde bdun as a textual record for the transmission of the Oḍiyāna Mahāmudrā lineage. It will conclude with a discussion of how this history of the formulation and transmission of the Grub pa sde bdun invites a shift in our own approach as scholars toward understanding Buddhist textual traditions as active participants in the creation and continuation of Buddhist communities and institutions.

    44 min

  2. Jun 26 ·  Video

    Śaiva understandings of the yoginī-related sacred placed and pīṭhas, in relation to the Buddhist tantras.

    Olga Serbaeva examines the network of yoginī-related sacred places in Śaiva and Buddhist tantric traditions, with particular focus on the pivotal role of Uḍḍiyāṇa as a paradigmatic tantric landscape. This presentation examines the network of yoginī-related sacred places in Śaiva and Buddhist tantric traditions, with particular focus on the pivotal role of Uḍḍiyāṇa as a paradigmatic tantric landscape. Across both Śaiva and Vajrayāna sources, yoginīs emerge not only as divine or semi-divine female beings, but also as embodiments of sacred geography whose presence structures ritual space, pilgrimage, initiation, and esoteric transmission. The study investigates how tantric texts map networks of pīṭhas, upapīṭhas, cremation grounds, caves, mountains, and liminal territories associated with yoginīs, and how these spatial systems articulate relations between body, cosmos, and ritual practice. Special attention is given to the shifting representations of Uḍḍiyāṇa in Śaiva tantras, Buddhist Yoginītantras, and later historiographical traditions. The presentation explores how Uḍḍiyāṇa functions simultaneously as a historical region, as a place within the subtle body of the practitioner, and a symbolic locus of tantric revelation. By comparing textual traditions such as the Kaula and Trika corpora alongside Buddhist sources including the Cakrasaṃvara cycle, the paper highlights shared topographies, parallel ritual vocabularies, and possible processes of cross-sectarian adaptation. The presentation further considers how yoginī-centered sacred geographies challenge conventional religious boundaries through mobile ritual communities, transregional pilgrimage networks, and fluid exchanges between Śaiva and Buddhist milieus. Ultimately, it argues that the tantric imagination of sacred place—centered on Uḍḍiyāṇa—served as a crucial medium through which authority, lineage, and esoteric knowledge were constructed and transmitted across medieval South Asia.

    1h 5m

  3. Jun 25 ·  Video

    If Uḍḍiyāna is a pīṭha, then what is a pīṭha?: Uḍḍiyānācārya and encounter as the sacred domain of the vajra-yoginīs in Newar Buddhism

    Amber Marie Moore examines what is meant by the term pīṭha in Newar Buddhism, and describes the figure of Uḍḍiyānācārya in Newar narrative. Stories of encounter with Buddhist vajra-yoginīs as the inhabitants of this earthy domain flourish in connection with sites located around the Kathmandu Valley and throughout the swath of the Himalayan range and Tibet where Vajrayāna Buddhism is practiced. It is notable that descriptions of encounter are crucial in the formation of these sites, and yet there seem to be some key differences in how these interactions happened in Indic tantrism as compared to Buddhism practiced in the Himalayan regions. In light of recent discussions on the nature and location of Uddiyāna in the context of the homeland of Padmasambhava, this paper examines the question, “What exactly is a pītha?," and looks at how this phenomena and the knowledge of Padmasambhava as a figure changes across geographic and cultural landscapes. In Newar sources, Padmasambhava is known as Uḍḍiyānācārya, and I will compare this to Indic and Tibetan views, which I hope will stimulate discussion of the soteriological, epistemic, and ontological views behind the idea and the purpose of a pītha across Vajrayāna Buddhism.

    49 min

  4. Jun 25 ·  Video

    The Eleven Acts of Padmasambhava

    Kurtis Schaeffer presents a little-known early narrative of Padmasambhava’s career, attributed to Guru Chowang (1217-1270). "The Life of Victorious Lord Pema in Eleven Acts" is an early narrative of Padmasambhava’s career attributed to Guru Chowang (1217-1270), which highlights Padmasambhava’s enlightened activity in India. This talk presents the structure and content of The Eleven Acts, places it in the context of Guru Chowang’s other writings, contrasts it with better-known stories of Padmasambhava, suggests comparisons and precedents for the idea of a life in eleven acts, and begins to chart the history of the work in later Tibetan narrative literature.

    55 min

  5. Mar 25 ·  Video

    On the Earliest Depictions of Padmasambhava in Tibet: Emergence and Variation

    Christian Luczanits presents some of the earliest depictions of Padmasambhava and explores their historical and religious contexts. While Tibetan texts of some of Padmasambhava’s teachings are recorded in the Dunhuang material, depictions of Padmasambhava are considerably later and appear to become common only in the course of the thirteenth century. This lecture will present some of the earliest such depictions and explore their historical and religious contexts. It will also discuss the distinct appearance of the Precious Teacher in depictions up to the fifteenth century.

    42 min

  6. Mar 24 ·  Video

    Uḍḍiyāna in the Krama Literature

    Uḍḍiyāna looms large in early Krama scriptures, as does its karavīra charnel ground. Ben Williams investigates. Uḍḍiyāna looms large in early Krama scriptures, as does its karavīra charnel ground, which is vividly depicted in the Kālīkuladevīpañcaśataka and Kālīkulakramasadbhāva. This paper looks closely at the way Uḍḍiyāna is envisioned as a powerful seat of Kālī and her sacrificial assembly, and a site of revelation in the Krama tradition, particularly in the lineage inaugurated by Jñānanetra in the ninth-century. This will include a look at later Krama sources that creatively invoke the presence of Uḍḍiyāna through hymns and ritual practice.

    1h 7m

  7. Mar 20 ·  Video

    Kashmir and Śaivism in and Around the Late Eighth Century

    An overview of the histories of Kashmir and Uḍḍiyāna, and their relations with Tibet in the late 8th century. An overview of the history of Kashmir in and around the late 8th century, attentive to the political and religious landscape of the day and in particular to understanding the links between Tibet and Kashmir. It features an outline of the forms of Śaivism present in Kashmir at that time, set in relation to the Vaiṣṇava and Buddhist traditions active there in the same period. Doing so will serve to establish evidence for the contemporaneous imagination within Śaivism of Uḍḍiyāna and tantric practices related to the same, inasmuch as they can be recovered from this period of history. It is hoped this will serve better to chart the influences of Kashmiri religious traditions on those of Tibet around the time of the life of Padmasambhava.

    1h 5m

  8. Mar 20 ·  Video

    Padmasambhava’s Tibet

    Brandon Dotson examines what can be said about the social and religious context of Tibet in the late-8th and early 9th centuries, that is, the period during which Padmasambhava would have been active. This paper examines what can be said about the social and religious context of Tibet in the late-8th and early 9th centuries, that is, the period during which Padmasambhava would have been active. In doing so, it queries some general assumptions about “royal religion,” “popular religion,” and tantra.

    54 min
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About

The seminar applies interdisciplinary approaches to the person of Padmasambhava, in history, myth, and ritual. Additional focuses are the regions of Kashmir, Uḍḍiyāna, and Tibet, and their mutual religious, intellectual, economic, and political interactions.

Information

  • Creator
    Oxford University
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    16
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Oxford University; the media items are released with a Creative Commons licence
  • Show Website
    Padmasambhava, Uḍḍiyāna and Tibet

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