The Mythical Priest Ya-ngal and the Ritual ‘Sel’.

Research Topic
The Mythical Priest Ya-ngal and the Ritual ‘Sel’.

Lead Researcher
Lama, Nima Hojer, Institute of Asian Studies, Faculty of Arts, Charles University, Assistant professor

Host Researcher
Seiji Kumagai, Associate Professor, Kokoro Research Center, Kyoto University

The research will focus on several rituals texts and particularly on manuscripts containing the ritual “Sel”. The priest Ya-ngal is mentioned in many early rituals and rites. Some of the ritual manuscripts have been discovered recently in Tibet and Bhutan. Among these there are a few manuscripts in which “Sel” rites appear and these are attributed to the priest Ya-ngal. Most of these texts have rarely been studied.

Through this research I want to clarify three things. 1) Whether Ya-ngal is a personal name of a certain priest who is also known as “Gyim gong”. 2) Or it is a designation or a term for a particular ritual performer or profession. 3) Or whether Ya-ngal is a name of a particular family lineage.

The mythical Priest Ya-ngal is claimed to be the ancestor of the current living family also known as Ya-ngal or “Yangton” in Dolpo, Nepal. It is also claimed that Ya-ngal was a royal priest (Tib. Sku gshen) of the first mythical king of Tibet Nyatri Tsenpo. In my research I aim to clarify all the above mentioned points.

Furthermore, the ritual texts will be compared to the Genealogy of the ya ngal clan (rGyal gshen ya ngal gyi gdung rabs) of the current family. This might shed light on the relation of the current family and the Royal priest to the mythical priest.

2020/05/29