Avis de soutenance - doctorat - Yuewei WANG

The protagonist of this dissertation, Gnyan chen Thang lha, is the name of both a deity and a mountain. It is a famous Tibetan snow mountain located near Gnam mtsho lake in northern Tibet. At the same time, it is also the mountain god who inhabits this sacred mountain as the husband of the lake goddess Gnam mtsho. He was the indigenous local god before Buddhism came to the Tibetan plateau, and subsequently became a protector divinity for both Buddhism and Bon in the later period. This study examines how the identity and characteristics of the deity Gnyan chen thang lha were invented in three major Tibetan religious systems: “pagan” religion, Tibetan Buddhism, and Bon, and uses Thang lha as a prism through which to understand the connections and differences between these three Tibetan religious entities. In the early texts which represent the pagan worldview in Tibet, Thang lha was constructed as the mountain god worshipped by the pre-Yarlung Dynasty principality king Zing po rje Khri pang sum. Thang lha represented the kingship of this ruler before he was defeated by the king of the Yarlung Kingdom (PT_1287, Dba' bzhed, ITJ_0734). Later, during the early days of the Yarlung Kingdom, Thang lha was represented in relevant texts as one of the lha dgu, the nine mountain/local gods who had an agnatic relationship with the gnam lha khri bdun, the seven divine Yarlung kings. The lha dgu and gnam lha khri bdun were both descended from the same class of celestial gods known as Phyva. In both cases, Thang lha is associated with kingship. In the first case, Thang lha was considered representative of the kingship of the local ruler Zing po rje. In the second case, he was seen as having a patrilineal relationship with the divine Tibetan kings who founded the Yarlung dynasty and conquered the surrounding principalities. According to Buddhist texts, Thang lha has three core identities: First, he was a non-Buddhist, autochthonous divinity who was eventually subdued by the Indian Buddhist master Padmasambhava. After being subdued, he became a protector of the Buddhist Dharma. Secondly, Thang lha is regarded as the personal deity of the Tibetan Buddhist dharmarāja Khri Srong lde btsan, the god of the king's body (sku lha). And finally, Thang lha is the guardian of the Northern Treasures (Byang gter) of the Nyingmapa school of Buddhism. From the volumes 87, 143, 15, 244, and 255 of the comprehensive collection Bon gyi bka' brten, we can find that Thang lha's primary identities are twofold. First, he is one of the Yum sras lnga group of deities who took an oath in front of Bonpo masters to become protectors of their religion. Subsequently, the Yum sras lnga group of deities is believed to have been appointed as a set of treasure protectors by the Bonpo master Stong rgyung mthu chen (8th century) during the suppression of Bon by the Buddhist king Khri Srong lde btsan. Yum sras lnga means “the mother and [four] sons, the five,” an important group of Bonpo protectors and treasure guardians. Thang lha's core identities as protector (srung ma) and treasure guardian (gter bdag) are derived from his membership of the Yum sras lnga deity group, in which he features as Klu bdud Thang lha. In conclusion, by studying the identity of the mountain god Thang lha in different types and contexts of historical texts, his multiple representations reflect the diversity of Tibetan literary sources, and the range of worldviews embodied in them. Through these sources, it is possible to trace the progress of the protagonist from his place in the indigenous religion to his later role in the framework of orthodox Buddhism. The rewriting of the identity of the mountain gods in this process illustrates the diminution of the power of the local gods and their transformation into subordinates of Buddhist deities and masters.