The Copper-Colored Mountain

<b><b>A translation of Jigme Lingpa&#146;s eighteenth-century Tibetan Buddhist aspiration prayer for taking rebirth in the pure land Copper-Colored Mountain accompanied by a commentary and analysis by the translators.</b></b><br><br>While Pure Land Buddhism is generally thought of as an East Asian tradition with an Indian origin the Copper-Colored Mountain is in fact the first and only pure land with scriptural origins entirely in the Tibetan tradition. It represents Tibetan culture&#146;s fascinating intersection of traditional history with liturgical tantric practice. The Copper-Colored Mountain is understood to be the current abode of Padmasambhava the Indian master credited with first bringing Buddhism to Tibet and founding Tibet&#146;s first monastery Samye.<br>&#160;<br>After leaving Tibet it is said that Padmasambhava set up residence on C&#257;mara one of the two islands on either side of the continent of Jambudvipa our world according to Buddhist cosmology. After taming the resident ogres of C&#257;mara and converting them to Buddhism he then built an octagonal palace where Buddhist practitioners may be transported in visions and dreams or reborn through aspiration prayers. This work is a translation and analysis of one such aspiration prayer. This prayer was composed by Jigme Lingpa a treasure revealer of the Nyingma tradition in the eighteenth century and remains the most important prayer to this pure land in Tibetan Buddhism.<br>&#160;<br>Merging academic precision in representing the Tibetan texts and devotion to the principles of tantric Buddhism translators Georgios T. Halkias and Christina Partsalaki enable a wider appreciation of the history and impact of this prayer in Tibetan Buddhist literature while elucidating its meaning for Buddhist practitioners.