Twenty-four great sacred places

Twenty-four great sacred places (Tib. གནས་ཆེན་ཉེར་བཞི་, Wyl. gnas chen nyer bzhi) —According to the Hevajra Tantra these are:

The pīṭha (གནས།, gnas):

• Jālandhara (Skt.; Tib. ཛཱ་ལན་དྷ་ར།, འབར་བ་འཛིན།, dzA lan dha ra, ’bar ba ’dzin)
• Oḍḍiyāna (or Uḍḍiyāna; ཨུ་རྒྱན་, u rgyan)
• Pūrṇagiri (or Paurṇagiri; ཀོ་ལླ་གི་རི།, ko l+la gi ri)
• Kāmārūpa (or Kāmarūpa; ཀཱ་མ་རཱུ་པ།, འདོད་པའི་གཟུགས།, kA ma rU pa, ’dod pa’i gzugs)

The auxiliary pīṭha (upapīṭha; ཉེ་བའི་གནས།, nye ba’i gnas):

• Mālava (མཱ་ལ་བ།, mA la ba)
• Sindhu (སིན་དྷུ།, sin dhu)
• Nagara (ནཱ་ག་ར།, nA ga ra)

The kṣetra (ཞིང་།, zhing):

• Munmuṇi
• Kāruṇyapāṭakaṃ
• Devīkoṭa (lha mo'i mkhar)
• Karmārapaṭakaṃ (lcags pa'i brang)

The auxiliary kṣetra (upakṣetra; ཉེ་བའི་ཞིང་།, nye ba’i zhing):

• Kulatā (ཀུ་ལུ་ཏཱ།, གུ་ལ་ཏཱ།, ku lu tA, gu la tA)
• Arbuda (ཨརྦུ་ད།, arbu da)
• Godāvarī (གོ་དཱ་བ་རི།, བ་ཡི་མཆོག་སྦྱིན།, go dA ba ri, ba yi mchog sbyin)
• Himādri

The chandoha (ཙྪན་དོ་, ཚན་དོ་ཧ།, ts+tshan do, tshan do ha):

• Harikelaṃ
• Lampāka
• Kāñcīka
• Saurāṣṭra

The auxiliary chandoha (upachandoha; ཉེ་བའི་ཙྪན་དོ་ཧ།, nye ba’i ts+tshan do ha):

• Kaliṅga (ཀ་ལིང་ཀ་, ka ling ka)
• Kokana

The Pīlavas (pīlava; འཐུང་གཅོད།, ’thung gcod)

• Cāritra (ཙཱ་རི་ཏྲ།, tsA ri t+ra)
• Kośala (ཀོ་ཤ་ལཱ།, ཀོ་ཤ་ལ།, ko sha lA, ko sha la )
• Kumārapura (gzhon nu'i grong)

Other Traditions

Other tantras have presented similar yet slightly different lists of these sacred places. The Chakrasamvara Tantra states:

In Kulutā and Maru,

In Sindhu and Nagara,

In Suvarṇadvīpa and Saurāṣṭra,

In Gṛhadevatā (khyim gyi lha) and Pretapurī (yi dvags kyi grong khyer),

In Himālaya and Kāñci,

In Lampāka and Kaliṅga,

In Kośala and Triśakuni,

In Kāmarūpa and Oḍra,

In Mālava, Devīkoṭa,

Rāmeśvara, and Godāvarī,

And in Arbuda, Uḍḍiyāna,

Jālandhara, Pullīramalaya, and so on.

In the Nyingma tradition, Jigme Lingpa's Yumka Dechen Gyalmo has incorporated this enumeration. Furthermore, Jigme Lingpa says that 'as regards these places, they are entirely present internally, within our own body'..

a) Eight celestial abodes (Skt. khagacharya; Tib. མཁའ་སྤྱོད་, Wyl. mkha' spyod):

1) The crown of the head is Jālandhara,

2) in between the eyebrows is Pullīramalaya,

3) the nape is Arbuda,

4) the urna (the hair at the center of the forehead) is Rāmeśvara,

5) the right ear is Oddiyana,

6) the left ear is Godāvarī,

7) the eyes are Devīkoṭa, and

8) the shoulders are Mālava.

b) Eight earthly abodes (Skt. gocharya; Tib. ས་སྤྱོད་, Wyl. sa spyod):

9) the throat is Lampāka,

10) the underarms and kidneys are Kāmarūpa,

11) the two breasts are Oḍra,

12) the navel is Triśakuni,

13) the nose-tip is Kośala,

14) the palate is Kaliṅga,

15) the heart is both Kāñcī and

16) Himālaya (Himavat).

c) Eight underground abodes (Skt. bhugarbha; Tib. ས་འོག་གི་གནས་བརྒྱད་, Wyl. sa 'og gi gnas brgyad):

17) the genitals are Pretapurī,

18) the anus is Gṛhadevatā,

19) the thumbs and the big toes are Maru,

20) the thighs are Saurāṣṭra,

21) the calves are Suvarṇadvīpa,

22) the sixteen other fingers and toes are Nagara,

23) the knees are Kulatā, and

24) the ankles are Sindhu.

This correlation can also be found in the Emergence from Samputa Tantra:

“The head is the land of Malaya;

The topknot is Jālandhara.’

Uḍḍiyāna, for its part,

Is said to be in the right ear. {6.1.46}

“Arbuda is the backbone —

These four are called pīṭha.

Godāvarī is to be known

As having the same nature as the left ear. {6.1.47}

“Rāmeśvara is said to be

In the eye between the eyebrows.

Devīkoṭṭa is in the eyes,

And Mālava at the base of the arms. {6.1.48}

“Those just mentioned are auxiliary pīṭhas —

They are established in the cakra of the mind.

Based on the specific nature of these places,

They are said to belong to khecarīs. {6.1.49}

“Kāmarūpa is in the armpit;

Oḍra is proclaimed to be on the breasts.

These two are described as kṣetra.

The navel is thought to be Triśakuni. {6.1.50}

“Kośala is the tip of the nose.

These last two are called auxiliary kṣetras. [F.112.a]

Kaliṅga is said to be the mouth,

And Lampāka, the throat. {6.1.51}

“These two are called chandoha.

Kāñci is said to be in the heart;

The phallus is Himālaya.

These two are called auxiliary chandohas. {6.1.52}

“All these places just mentioned

Are situated in the cakra of speech.

Owing to the specifications of such places,

They are said to belong to bhūcarīs. {6.1.53}

“Pretādhivāsinī is in the sexual organ,

While Gṛhadevatā is in the anus —

These two are melāpakas.

Saurāṣṭra is said to be in the thighs, {6.1.54}

“While the two shanks are said

To have the nature of Suvarṇadvīpa.

The last two are auxiliary melāpakas.

Nagara is known to be in the fingers; {6.1.55}

“Sindhu, on the back of the feet —

These two are called charnel ground.

The thumb is said to be Maru,

And the knees, Kulatā. {6.1.56}

“The last two are called

Auxiliary charnel ground by the ḍākinīs.

All these are places and they are born with one’s own body —

They are thus inside and outside oneself. {6.1.57}

Further Reading

• Elizabeth English, Vajrayogini—Her Visualization, Rituals, and Forms (Wisdom Publications, 2002)
• Matthieu Ricard, The Life of Shabkar (Ithaca: Snow Lion, 2001), pages 342-343, note 10.
• Ngawang Zangpo, Sacred Ground: Jamgon Kongtrul on "Pilgrimage and Sacred Geography," (Ithaca: Snow Lion, 2001).
• David B. Gray, The Cakrasamvara Tantra: A Study and Annotated Translation (American Institute of Buddhist Studies, 2007), pages 58-60.