Derge Kangyur/Tengyur e-text, Esukhia/Barom edition — public domain (mechanical reproduction)
This ritual text outlines the procedure for presenting a torma cake offering to the deity Vajrabhairava. The work functions as a liturgical guide, beginning with formal Sanskrit and Tibetan titles and traditional prostrations to the King of Wrathful Deities. The core of the provided excerpt focuses on the specific formula for the entrustment of wrathful activity. By reciting a precise prayer, the practitioner requests that the deity eliminate those who obstruct the spiritual path, specifically targeting individuals who revile the guru, harm the Three Jewels, damage the Buddhist teachings, or interfere with mantra tantras and sentient beings. The text commits the reader to a ritualized framework of protective aggression, where the deity is mobilized as a guardian of the dharma and the teacher-student relationship through the medium of a physical offering.
Provenance
About this text
A ritual guide for the torma offering of Glorious Vajrabhairava, the Śrīvajrabhairavabalividhi belongs to the tradition of the Other Skillful Means Tantras. The work is attributed to the Indian author Lalitavajra. Preserved in the classical Tibetan period, the text appears in the Tengyur, volume མི, where it extends over two pages under the Tibetan title dpal rdo rje 'jigs byed kyi gtor ma'i cho ga. The ritual enacts a process of protective aggression to pacify obstacles, beginning with prostrations to the King of Wrathful Deities and the recitation of a hundred-syllable mantra. Central to the practice is the entrustment of wrathful activity, wherein the practitioner requests that the deity slay those who revile the guru, harm the Three Jewels, damage the teachings, or interfere with sentient beings and mantra tantras. A scholar or serious reader consults this text today to examine the liturgical framework of the torma offering and the specific formulas used to mobilize the deity as a guardian of the dharma and the teacher-student relationship.
Cite thisAnuvāda, “A Torma Cake Offering to the Glorious Vajrabhairava” (Toh 2000), machine draft, 2026.https://naxiai.com/tibetan/works/toh2000
Summary & commentary
Significance
The work is significant as it illustrates the role of wrathful deities in the Indo-Tibetan tradition as protectors of the Buddhist community and its teachings. For the modern reader, it provides a primary example of how ritual offerings are coupled with specific intentions to remove spiritual and physical obstacles.
Structure
Passages
Section
Description
1
Introduction and Homage
Provides the titles in Sanskrit and Tibetan and establishes the ritual context through prostrations.
2
Entrustment of Wrathful Activity
Details the specific prayer used to request the deity's intervention against enemies of the dharma.
Themes
Wrathful Activity (2)
Protection of the Three Jewels (2)
Ritual Offering (1-2)
Summary, significance and provenance note generated by gemma4:31b from the translation and the catalogue record.
AnuvādaA Torma Cake Offering to the Glorious Vajrabhairava·
In the language of India: Śrīvajrabhairavabalividhiḥ. In the language of Tibet: dPal rdo rje ’jigs byed kyi gtor ma’i cho ga (The Ritual of the Torma Offering of Glorious Vajrabhairava). Homage to the glorious Vajrabhairava, the King of Wrathful Deities.
I prostrate and bow to Vajrabhairava, whose nature is primordially pure. To pacify obstacles, I shall explain the torma offering with diligence. One who wishes to perform the torma offering of the glorious Vajrabhairava should arrange a torma of substances such as the five nectars.
The practitioner, facing south, should instantaneously generate the deity. In front, from the syllables Yaṃ and Raṃ, generate the forms of wind and fire. Above that, visualize a tripod. Above that, from the syllable A, visualize a skull-cup vessel. Inside, visualize the five meats and five nectars in an instant. Above, visualize the syllables Oṃ, Āḥ, and Hūṃ in their proper order.
Emitting light, sequentially summon the bodies and so forth, and dissolve them into the offering. By reciting the three syllables of reality, meditate that the torma is purified. Then, from the Hūṃ at one’s own heart, light is emitted, inviting the deities such as Vajrabhairava, whom one visualizes in front. Reciting Hūṃ, bless the tongue.
Oṃ hrīḥ ṣṭrīḥ vikṛtānana hūṃ phaṭ | vajrabhairava adhipati | imaṃ baliṃ | kha kha khāhi khāhi hūṃ phaṭ svāhā.
Recite this mantra of offering. Visualizing that they have partaken, entrust them with the specific activities of enlightened action and receive the accomplishments (siddhis) as desired.
Specifically, as for the entrustment of the wrathful activity: "I pray that you slay those who revile the guru, those who harm the Three Jewels, those who harm the Teachings, those who harm all sentient beings, and those who harm the mantra tantras." Thus, one entrusts the activity. Then, one should imagine that permission is granted. Next, recite the hundred-syllable mantra: OṂ ĀḤ HŪṂ MUḤ. With this, the guests are requested to depart to their natural abodes. The benefits of performing it in this way are that obstacles are pacified, adverse factors are destroyed, and the supreme siddhi is attained. Furthermore, when applied intensely, all methods of subduing or caring for others—such as against disease, enemies, and so forth—will be accomplished immediately. This excellent ritual for the torma offering of Vajrabhairava has been composed. By whatever merit exists therein, may all sentient beings without exception be victorious over their enemies. This concludes the work composed by the great master Lalitavajra.
Translation status: Not among 84000's published translations, and not in progress there. Translations published elsewhere have not been searched for, so one may exist. (source: 84000 catalogue + registry; checked 2026-11-10).
Set in Newsreader and EB Garamond; Tibetan in Noto Serif Tibetan; Chinese in Noto Serif SC.