Sindhu Raja-legenden og buddhismen i Bhutan

Resumé

The purpose of this article is to show how a old form of Buddhism integrated with the local cult in the remote country of Bhutan in the Himalaya. How the former gods and demons were not unly subdued,  but also convinced to fight for the new belief. They were not destroyed but converted and at the same time degraded. In accordance with geomantism the monasteries are to be built where they have the greatest effect. The physical presence of the monasteries symbolizing the capture of the demoness, whose body constitutes the country. It is all described in the legend of King Sindhu Raja, whose conversion is connnected with his recovering from a dangerous illness. Padmasambhava, the great buddhist and tantric yogi from Tibet, is called to Bhutan to fight the demon who has stolen the life force of the King. As he succeeeds in the fight, the king and country is converted. The fight persists until this day in Bhutan's version of Vajrayana Buddhism, the hBrug-pa school, as the old gods and demons still have to be reminded to fight for buddhism. For this purpose they  have tantric rituals connected with exorcism like in the case of the legend of Sindhu Raja, where the King's stolen soul was freed by means of meditation and magic by the great mahasiddha Padmasambhava. Thus the connection between myth and history shows us the  function of the culture hero who created social order and organized the country as an independent Buddhist kingdom by means of the sindhu Raja-legend.