Visit to the Hopi Nation
From: Radiant Compassion, Vol. 1.
Visit to the Hopi Nation
When the iron eagle flies in the sky
And stone bridges cover rivers
Horses with wheels will run on roads.
East will meet West.
Red People will meet Red People.
At that time my teachings will benefit the world.
Padmasambhava in the 8th century[1]
When the iron eagle flies in the sky
And stone bridges cover rivers
Horses with wheels will run on roads.
East will meet West.
Red People will meet Red People.
At that time my teachings will benefit the world.
Padmasambhava in the 8th century[1]
One of the Karmapa’s main intentions for his visit to North America was to meet the continent’s original habitants. Before his journey to the West, Karmapa had repeatedly mentioned that he definitely wanted to meet the Hopi Indians, whom he considered to be the most peaceful of all Native Americans.[2]
Finally, the moment arrived when his wish became reality. Karmapa’s golden Cadillac approached one of the plateaus—called mesas by the Spanish conquistadores—where over a thousand years ago the Bear Clan had built the first clay houses. It was an incredibly hot day. The earth was baked dry and the last rains had fallen long before when Karmapa took the final bend of the serpentine road to the first Hopi settlement of Walpi.
The visit, which later became famous as an historical encounter of two old and related cultures that had been separated for thousands of years, began with a small mishap. There was a misunderstanding about the date and the tribe had expected His Holiness a day later. Thus Karmapa came into a place that was half asleep.
The clan chief, Ned Nayatewa—a man in his eighties—and his wife Nerne, who lived at the foot of the mesa, were swiftly called. Despite their advanced age they quickly made their way on foot, climbing up the hundred meters to the road. Karmapa, who was at ease with any situation and put no value on protocol, was not at all disturbed to be received in this way.
The chief welcomed Karmapa with these words: “I’m glad to see you in our village and I know you have made a very long journey to come here!” Karmapa replied, “We have known one another for hundreds of years already. Your rituals, ceremonies and way of life are very similar to ours.” He presented gifts to the Hopis and added, “I will always remember you in my meditation.”[3]
They began to show Karmapa the village. The conversation between the chief and the Karmapa began relatively insignificantly, as Dr. Andrea Loseries-Leick remembers:
'Karmapa spoke about his homeland. They talked about goats and sheep and the fertility of the earth. Ned said that it hadn’t rained for a long time. The Hopis had many rituals for rain, but though they had tried everything, the last rain had fallen some months ago. Of course, this was extremely serious for the tribe. Karmapa said, “Don’t worry, I’ll take care of it.” He then spoke of Padmasambhava’s prophecy, and Chief Ned replied, “We have a similar prophecy! We are brothers indeed!” They embraced. Everything seemed ordinary and was at the same time historically significant. They understood each other very well and enjoyed being together.'[4]
“We are brothers” referred to old connections between the Native Americans and the Tibetan-Mongolian tribes. Modern science tells us that the Native Americans first migrated along the Bering Strait to America. The Hopis say that the Tibetans are their long-lost brothers and sisters, who left them at the beginning of time and went to the other side of the world in order to balance it spiritually.[5] According to the prophecy, they would come back one day. Now the moment of reunion had arrived: the Hopi’s kinsmen had returned to the Arizona desert.
Ten years earlier the then Hopi elder Dan Kachungva, at the time over one hundred years old, had met Hetty MacLise—mother of the American incarnation of Sangye Nyenpa Rinpoche—and had shown her the prophecy rock. He explained to her that the prophecy announced the coming of the Great Purifier whose “path was identical with the path of the Great Spirit, and the Purifier would come wearing a red hat and a red cloak, bringing a red God. And he would make rain.”[6] All of this now seemed to be materializing: Karmapa’s school of Buddhism was called the “red hats,” he wore a red robe and in the evening he gave an empowerment of a red-colored aspect of Avalokiteśvara.* On this occasion he wore a red Paṇḍita hat. Although it was a highly important event, the meeting of brothers and sisters who had been separated for a long time, nevertheless it was striking in its simplicity and absent of any drama.
At the end of the tour through the village, they came to the community meeting place—the Kosovi—where the subterranean Kiva was located, the village sanctuary. Its shape symbolically represented the Hopi’s conception of the world. Ned invited the visitors in, but Karmapa declined because his knee problems did not allow him to climb down the unstable ladder.
While the Hopis explained to Karmapa’s attendants the Hopi mandalas in the kiva, whose form interestingly resembled those of the Tibetans, and showed them the clan’s sacred relics, “His Holiness sat on the sanctuary’s flat roof and began to recite the prayer of Dewachen, the pure land* of Buddha Amitābha, and after that he recited the prayer of Avalokiteśvara.”[7]
A short while later, Karmapa’s party bid a warm goodbye to Ned, his wife and the other villagers who were present.
Karmapa’s driver remembers what happened next on the ensuing drive to the Hopi Cultural Center:
'As we drove, His Holiness, sitting right across from me in the passenger seat, began chanting a puja and making sacred mudra gestures with his hands.
The desert baked and shimmered in the intense heat. I looked out at the sky and noticed a tiny, sheep-like fleecy little ball of a cloud, all by itself way out there on the horizon. I didn’t give it much thought. I kept on driving and the Karmapa kept on chanting. Ten or fifteen minutes went by like that before I glanced up again. Much to my surprise, little puffballs of clouds now polka-dotted the sky from horizon to horizon.
The next time I looked, the clouds had congealed into a solid gray mass. This was getting interesting. By the time we reached the Hopi Cultural Center and Motel, the sky had darkened to an ominous and foreboding black. Not just black, but a classic, ‘Cecil-B-DeMille-Moses-and-the-Ten-Commandments’ black!'[8]
For Jigme Rinpoche this was nothing extraordinary. Karmapa had explained that the drought was caused by a sickness of the nāgas[9] and that he had asked his monks to place his famous black pills at the spring where some of them dwelled.[10] The disease was cured and the long-awaited rain fell without delay, fulfilling the prophecies.[11]
Following the torrential cloudburst, Karmapa announced during dinner in the Hopi Cultural Center that afterwards he would give an empowerment. He invited the Hopi and Navaho Indians who lived on the mesas and in the neighboring towns.
The Hopis seemed to share with Tibetans a mastery of improvisation: Tables in the conference room were pushed together and a shrine built on them.[12] One hundred and fifty Hopi and Navaho people came, including some chiefs. When Karmapa entered the completely packed room to the music of the gyalings, he was already wearing the red Paṇḍita hat. The Hopis understood: This was exactly as their prophecy had foretold. Karmapa gave the empowerment of Korwa Tongdrub, a red form of Avalokiteśvara. Afterwards the Navahos and the Hopis lined up for the blessing. Everyone present agreed, “It was a great reunion.” Karmapa’s driver Steve Roth remembers:
What we witnessed during the empowerment was a communion which was going on between His Holiness and the Indians. It was so incredibly beyond words. We were just appreciative to be present.[13]
Karmapa had a very personal connection with these Native Americans, and the Western dharma students who had somehow accompanied him to this historic reunion were fortunate witnesses to their heartfelt meeting.
Achi Tsepal recounts: “The Navaho and Hopi had tears in their eyes because they sensed that this meeting had re-established an old connection.”[14] Physically, the Tibetans and the Native Americans resembled each other quite a bit. To their astonishment, they discovered that the word Taawa in the Hopi language means sun, whereas Dawa in Tibetan means moon. During the empowerment as well, the Hopi recognized similarities to their own ceremonies: The “sacramental water and rice used in the ceremony had pretty much the same significance as the ‘medicine water’ and corn meal (homa) have in the Hopi ceremony,” and they compared the empowerment to a ritual which was given “as a blessing for all people and life in the world.”[15] Lama Tsültrim Allione recalls:
'Karmapa’s fellow travelers said that they found it extremely impressive to watch the Hopis’ relationship to him because—not only outwardly—they were so similar to the Tibetan people. They had this kind of pure devotion, so connected to the Earth and their humility...”'[16]
Steve Roth confirms this:
'The Indians just sat as us—transfixed. The white visitors witnessed this reunion, well aware that they were as well spectators as well as participants that evening in this historical event.
The next day, a local paper ran a front-page news story reporting that “a string of seventy-five consecutive days without rain was interrupted by the visit of some notable but unfamiliar ‘East Indian chief,’ who among other things was well known for making rain.” But the newspaper missed the real story: Padmasambhava’s 8th century prophecy had finally - and dramatically - been fulfilled.'[17]
From: Radiant Compassion, Vol. 1.
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© Gerd Bausch. All rights reserved, reproduction and repost only with written permission.
[1] Interestingly the Hopi expression Sivaki means iron horse in English and signifies, as does the Tibetan, the railroad.
[2] Hopi is the short form of Hopituh Shi-nu-mu, which means “the peaceful people.” Steve Roth, Karmapa’s driver during this part of the tour, said: “The main goal of the first journey of His Holiness was not to meet white people, but to meet the Hopi Indians, who were the most peaceful people on the whole continent.” Steve Roth in: Radio Free Shambhala, Dispatches, op. cit.
[3] Karmapa Brings Rain to Hopi Land, Qua’ Töquti/Eagle’s Cry, October 10, 1974.
[4] Interview with Dr. Andrea Loseries-Leick 2013.
[5] The Hopi elder Thomas Banyacya in a discussion with Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche in 1979. Linguistic investigations have shown that the Mongolian language family is related to the language of the Hopi.
[6] Hetty MacLise: Namthar of the Wee Lama Boy, http://www.phantomlyoracula.com/2007_03_01_archive.html. In the Hopi newspaper Techqua Ikachi (Jan/Feb 1977) the Hopi chieftains recognized the spiritual authority of the Karmapa and of Tibetan Buddhism and confirmed him as the “purifier” or “helper” of their prophecies.
[7] Sister Palmo: The Life of …, op. cit.
[8] Steve Roth Witnesses a Miracle, in: Don Morreale: Cowboys, Yogis, and One-Legged Ski Bum, Xlibris 2014. Reprint with kind permission of Steve Roth and Don Morreale.
[9] Nāgas are beings with a snake body and a human head (or numerous heads).
[10] Conversation with Jigme Rinpoche, March 2013.
[11] See recordings of Elliot, Mark: Lions Roar, op. cit. Even mainstream newspapers like The Arizona Republic wrote about this. See Maggie Wilson: Tibetan Priest Prays for Rain During Visit to Hopis, Oct 31, 1974.
[12] Passman, Arn: Tibetans Fulfil Prophecy in Hopiland, Berkeley Barb, October 18-24, 1974.
[13] Steve Roth in: Radio Free Shambhala, Dispatches, op. cit.
[14] Interview with Achi Tsepal, October 2014.
[15] Karmapa Brings Rain to Hopi Land, Qua’ Töquti, Oct 10, 1974.
[16] Interview with Lama Tsültrim Allione, Frankfurt 2012.
[17] Steve Roth, account on Oct 22, 2018.
Ann Parsman: Tibetans Fulfill Prophecy in Hopiland, Berkeley Barb Oct 18-24, 1974.