Searching for the Lotus-Born Master (Ⅴ)

Editor's note: Laurence Brahm first came to China as a university exchange student from the US in 1981 and has spent much of the past three and a half decades living and working in China. He is a lawyer, an economist and founding chairman of the Himalayan Consensus. He is also an award-winning documentary film director specializing in extreme Himalayan expeditions. His latest film Searching for the Lotus-Born Master (2018) has received a dozen international film festival awards and accolades.

Starting Nov 14, China Daily is publishing behind-the-scenes stories about the documentary every Wednesday, with nine episodes total. Please stay tuned and join this incredible journey.

In his fourth manifestation, the Lotus-Born Master became Padmasambhava, which means lotus born. In this manifestation he became a Buddhist monk and pandita, studying at the famous Nalanda University in India, where he rose to the most erudite scholar. The best-known of Sanskrit name of the Lotus-Born Master is Padmasambhava. That name comes from this manifestation.

蓮花生大士的第四個化身是貝瑪桑巴瓦，意為蓮花生。在這化身中，他化現為印度著名那爛陀寺修習的佛教比丘與班智達，并成為最博學的大學者。蓮花生大士最為人知曉的梵文名字是貝瑪桑巴瓦，正是來自這個化身的。

However, as the manifestation of Padmasambhava, he had a vision of princess Mandavara. She was the heir to the throne of this beautiful kingdom of Zahor. But she chose to become a nun and lived in a cave temple with five hundred other nuns. Padmasambhava then went to the kingdom of Zahor to meet the princess to teach her Tantric yoga. Could such a story be true? We decided to go there, and look for the secret cave and sacred lake of the kingdom of Zahor. Guess what? We found it.

然而，化身為貝瑪桑巴瓦時，在他的凈相中出現曼達拉娃公主。她是美麗扎霍王國王位的繼承者。但她選擇做尼姑，與500名尼姑居住在山洞寺廟中。蓮花生大士去了扎霍王國，見到了曼達拉娃公主，教她修習密乘瑜伽。這個故事是真的嗎？我們決定去那里，找尋扎霍王國的秘密山洞及圣湖。你猜結果如何？我們找到了這個山洞。