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.

莲花生大士的第四个化身是贝玛桑巴瓦，意为莲花生。在这化身中，他化现为印度著名那烂陀寺修习的佛教比丘与班智达，并成为最博学的大学者。莲花生大士最为人知晓的梵文名字是贝玛桑巴瓦，正是来自这个化身的。

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，化身为贝玛桑巴瓦时，在他的净相中出现曼达拉娃公主。她是美丽扎霍王国王位的继承者。但她选择做尼姑，与500名尼姑居住在山洞寺庙中。莲花生大士去了扎霍王国，见到了曼达拉娃公主，教她修习密乘瑜伽。这个故事是真的吗？我们决定去那里，找寻扎霍王国的秘密山洞及圣湖。你猜结果如何？我们找到了这个山洞。