Tsawasum (རྩ་བ་གསུམ་), or the Three Roots, is a well-known religious triad in Himalayan Buddhist traditions. It is akin to the popular concept of Three Jewels in general Buddhism but is limited to Vajrayāna traditions, particularly the Kagyü and Nyingma schools. The Buddhist Tsawasum should not be mistaken with Bhutan’s temporal Tsawasum, which is a trio instituted in the second half of the 20th century as a mirror to the religious Tsawasum, albeit in a more secular context. The Vajrayāna set of Three Roots include the guru, the root of blessings (བྱིན་རླབས་ཀྱི་རྩ་བ་), yidam, the root of spiritual accomplishments (དངོས་གྲུབ་ཀྱི་རྩ་བ་) and khandro, the root of activities (འཕྲིན་ལས་ཀྱི་རྩ་བ་).
In the context of Tsawasum, the term guru or lama (བླ་མ་) refers to the spiritual masters and teachers of Vajrayāna Buddhism. In general Buddhism, a guru is a spiritual master, teacher or a mentor who helps the practitioner on the path to enlightenment. The guru in tantric Buddhist tradition includes masters who bestow esoteric tantric empowerments (དབང་), transmissions (ལུང་) and instructions (ཁྲིད་) and gurus are the subject of many writings. The guru is viewed as being equal to the Buddhas in spiritual achievements but greater than them in kindness for being the direct agent of the disciple’s enlightenment.
Himalayan Vajrayāna traditions place a lot of emphasis on the role of the guru and a great number of practices focus on guru worship called lamai naljor (བླ་མའི་རྣལ་འབྱོར་) or lama chöpa (བླ་མ་མཆོད་པ་), initially earning it the misnomer ‘Lamaism’ from early Western scholars of Buddhism. In the Nyingma and Kagyü traditions in Bhutan, a disciple is encouraged to find the right lama with whom s/he has karmic connections. One must be wise in finding the right lama (ཐོག་མར་བླ་མ་བརྟག་པ་མཁས་པ་), wise in following the lama (བར་དུ་བླ་མ་བསྟེན་ལ་མཁས་པ་) and wise training in his ideals and practices (མཐའ་མར་དགོངས་སྤྱོད་བསླབ་ལ་མཁས་པ་). A student must take time to find the right lama through detailed scrutiny, as much of the spiritual practice will depend on the relationship one has with the lama. When the relationship between the lama and follower becomes highly charged with positive energy, spiritual experiences manifest as blessings of the lama. Going against one’s guru is considered one of the primary transgressions in Tantric Buddhism.
The second root, yidam, refers to different types of Buddhas. Some are in the form of peaceful celibate teachers such as Śākyamuni, Amitabha or the Medicine Buddha. Others are in peaceful celestial sambhogakāya forms such as Manjuśrī or Avalokiteśvara. Yet others are semi-wrathful forms such as Cakrasaṃvara and Vajrayogini, or in fully ferocious forms such as Vajrapani or Vajrakilaya. These figures can be in male or female, human or non-human, and each has individual mantras, appearances, hand implements, and special qualities. Some guru figures such as Padmasambhava have the capacity to manifest in other forms that include yidam deities.
Most Vajrayāna practices involve worship of and meditation on a yidam deity. A practitioner would visualize the deity and its maṇḍala, make offerings, chant its mantra and carry out various activities based on the deity. It is through such practices that the practitioner attains spiritual heights and the yidam deity is considered the source of spiritual attainments.
Khandro (མཁའ་འགྲོ་), who are considered the root of activities, are spiritual beings who help a practitioner expedite the process of his/her enlightenment. Some are non-human such as Nārodākiṇī and Simhamukha, while others were historical human persons such as Niguma and Yéshé Tsogyel. The term for males is dāka in Sanskrit while females are called dākiṇī. They help practitioners by facilitating resources, and provoking or stimulating spiritual experiences through various means. Thus, khandro do not just refer to female partners of lamas but to spiritual beings with special power to help a practitioner on the path.
Karma Phuntsho is the Director of Shejun Agency for Bhutan’s Cultural Documentation and Research, the President of the Loden Foundation and the author of The History of Bhutan. The piece was initially published in Bhutan’s national newspaper Kuensel as part of a series called “Why We Do What We Do.”