"Oh?" Khenpo Pinsong was so surprised that he nearly spilled the tea in his hands. Pinsong was a lama who had become bald early and the light gleamed off his shiny forehead. He sensed in the gleam of Tulku Dapu's eyes that the Great Abbot Tulku—the eleventh reincarnation of Tulku Jianggong—was about to be discovered by Tulku Dapu.
The Qiari Temple on the banks of the Nujiang River had always had a system of reincarnation that involved two Tulkus. Tulku Jianggong was the temple's inaugural Tulku and the first reincarnation of Tulku Jianggong had founded the Qiari Temple here. So, it could be said that only with the reincarnation of Tulku Jianggong could the reincarnation of Tulku Dapu exist. Historically, these two Tulkus had a mentor-student relationship. When one Tulku passed, the remaining Tulku would take responsibility for searching for their spirit child[14] and raise them to become the next generation's Tulku. Such was the tradition in the Qiari Temple. The Eleventh Tulku Jianggong passed away seven years ago. Three years ago, the Qiari Temple began to search for his reincarnation, but this almost caused a war between the tribes. At that time, there were two relatively large tribes who secretly recommended reincarnations who were to their liking to Qiari Temple. Amongst them one of the reincarnation spirit children was even the son of a headman. Everybody understood that behind the Tulku's reincarnation was actually hidden a great deal of profit in the real world, not only with regards to spiritual aspects and personal glory, but also with reference to economic and political power. If one's tribe produced a tulku and if they acted as headman, then it would be like digging up valuable golden alms bowls behind the mountain and picking holy lotuses from the pool: not only would you have political power in the secular world, but in the spiritual world you could act in accordance with heaven's decree and consider oneself to be the human representative of the spirits. Neither of the major donors to Qiari Temple would give way, and behind them they each had a few tribal headmen fanning the flames. Finally things were upset to the point where they were a few steps away from taking up arms. Even inside the temple there was no peace. The Ninth Tulku Dapu saw that secular disputes were being dragged into the search for the reincarnated spirit child and that a war was about to be fought in this peaceful land, so he convened a meeting at the temple of the tribal chiefs and declared in front of everyone that the search for Jianggong's spirit child had no relation to the secular world. Everything was to proceed according to the Buddha's will and the last words and deeds of Tulku Jianggong. The war which was about to ignite was temporarily dampened.
But as for the last words of Tulku Jianggong, only a few senior monks in Qiari Temple knew what they were. When Tulku Jianggong passed during his retreat in his own room of quiet, there was a poem written in the Buddhist gatha style in front of his bookcase. Inside were hidden clues regarding the search for the Tulku in his next life.
The mountain of Lanazanba is holy and lofty,
The pastures stretch for a thousand li;
Eagles cruise in the sky,
Lambs fly up to the clouds.
Who offers their lambs to the snow-capped mountains?
Such is the compassion of my reincarnation.
That year, the noble senior monks of the Qiari Temple contemplated this poem long and hard. They could only make the general speculation that Tulku Jianggong's reincarnation ought to be someone in a household on the pastureland at the foot of Mount Lanazanba. Mount Lanazanba was the highest mountain in the locality and was also a holy mountain for Tibetans, so naturally Tulku Jianggong would choose this kind of holy place to be reincarnated. It meant that his life of penance and tolerance would be as clean and pure as the snowy mountain. But as for the lines, "Eagles cruise in the sky/Lambs fly up to the clouds" , nobody could understand their meaning. Not until the Ninth Tulku Dapu heard about the incident of eagles stealing the sheep that Acuo was tending did he suddenly realise that this was a sign of Jianggong's enlightenment towards all worldly beings. Today, the reason that he was engaged in a private discussion with Khenpo Pinsong was because he wanted to verify the truth of this miracle.
He said to Khenpo Pinsong, "Khenpo, I remember, before Tulku Jianggong passed on, he gave you a talisman."
Khenpo Pinsong clasped his hands together and said, "Yes. Ever since, I have always worn it with respect on my chest."
"Before I retreated, I dreamt of the Eleventh Tulku Jianggong. In the dream, he said to me that you should open up this amulet."
"Revered Buddha! I cannot. Just even thinking of it, ah!" Khenpo Pinsong said piously. These types of amulets generally contained sutras which had been blessed by passed tulkus and the wearers believed that they contained an incomparably powerful blessing. Ever since he had started to wear this amulet on his chest, Khenpo Pinsong had felt that Tulku Jianggong was always with him.
Tulku Dapu said, "The Eleventh Tulku Jianggong told me in the dream that when disputes arose between people and the populace faced disaster as a result of the question of reincarnation, you could open it up. Khenpo, I have already retreated for three days and nights specifically to pray for Tulku Jianggong's understanding. Let's open it. Doing so might save the people from a great disaster."