Toh 2114 · classical Tibetan · Tengyur edition

A Torma Cake Ritual

Translated from the Tibetan by buddhist-nlp/mitra-qwen35-translate · machine-assisted

Edition 1.0 · 2026 · not a critical edition machine draft

Catalogue: Toh 2114
Genre: Ritual
Period: classical Tibetan
Edition: Tengyur vol. 049_རྒྱུད་འགྲེལ།_ཚི.txt
Extent: 2 passages · 1,267 Tibetan characters · 280 English words
Translation: buddhist-nlp/mitra-qwen35-translate (English, machine-assisted)
Status: Edition 1.0 · 2026 · machine draft
Rights: Derge Kangyur/Tengyur e-text, Esukhia/Barom edition — public domain (mechanical reproduction)

This ritual manual provides instructions for the preparation and offering of torma, categorized into outer and inner varieties. The text functions as a response to a request from a patron and principal disciple, framing the ritual as a pedagogical transmission. It outlines a specific sequence of actions: the filling of a vessel with pure food and water, the recitation of a prayer intended to pacify the causes and effects of discordant habitual tendencies, and the subsequent offering of the torma. The ritual concludes with the bestowal of the gift of Dharma. By following these steps, the practitioner commits to a precise physical and verbal protocol designed to address karmic obstructions through symbolic offerings and the sharing of spiritual teachings.

Provenance

About this text

A ritual manual detailing the preparation and offering of torma, the gtor ma'i cho ga belongs to the classical Tibetan tradition. The work is attributed to the Indian author Saṃvarabhadra. It was translated into Tibetan by ’bro lo tsa ba d+harma b+hi and is preserved in the Tengyur, volume ཚི, where it is situated within the Other Skillful Means Tantras collection. Spanning two pages in this edition, the work enacts a specific liturgical sequence in response to a request from a patron and principal disciple. It distinguishes between outer and inner torma, providing a protocol for the outer offering that involves filling a precious vessel with pure food and water, taking refuge, meditating on the four immeasurables, and utilizing the syllables OṂ ĀḤ HŪṂ. The ritual further requires the recitation of a prayer to pacify the causes and effects of discordant habitual tendencies, followed by the offering of the torma and the bestowal of the gift of Dharma. A scholar or serious reader consults this text today to examine the precise physical and verbal protocols used to address karmic obstructions through symbolic offerings and the transmission of spiritual teachings.

Sanskrit title: not recorded
Indian author: Saṃvarabhadra
Tibetan translators: ’bro lo tsa ba d+harma b+hi
Canonical collection: Other Skillful Means Tantras
Genre: Ritual
Source edition: Tengyur, vol. ཚི
Period: classical Tibetan

Read further

Catalogue

84000 catalogue entry

Bibliography

BDRC library search

Libraries

WorldCat

Reference

Cite thisAnuvāda, “A Torma Cake Ritual” (Toh 2114), machine draft, 2026.https://naxiai.com/tibetan/works/toh2114

Summary & commentary

Significance

The text illustrates the intersection of material offerings and mental purification in Tibetan Buddhist practice. It is significant for demonstrating how ritualized generosity and the pacification of habitual tendencies are integrated into a single liturgical act.

Structure

Passages	Section	Description
1	Introduction and Categorization	Homage to gurus and the distinction between outer and inner torma.
1-2	Ritual Procedure	Instructions for preparing the vessel, reciting the pacification prayer, offering the torma, and giving the Dharma.

Themes

Ritual Offerings (1-2)
Pacification of Habitual Tendencies (2)
Transmission of Dharma (2)

Summary, significance and provenance note generated by gemma4:31b from the translation and the catalogue record.

AnuvādaA Torma Cake Ritual·

༄། ། བླ་མ་རྣམས་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། ། སྦྱིན་བདག་ཆེན་པོ་གཙོ་བོ་སྟེ། ། གསུངས་པས་གཏོར་མ་བཤད་དེ། དེ་ལ་རྣམ་པ་གཉིས་ཏེ། ཕྱིའི་གཏོར་མ་དང་ནང་གི་གཏོར་མ་གཉིས་སོ། ། དང་པོ་ཕྱི་གཏོར་གཏང་བ། རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་སྣོད་དུ་ཁ་ཟས་གཙང་མ་དང་ཆུ་གཙང་མས་བཀང་ལ། དང་པོ་སྐྱབས་འགྲོ་བྱ། ཚད་མེད་པ་བཞི་བསྒོམ། ཨོཾ་ཨཱཿཧཱུཾ། གསུམ་གྱིས་བྱིན་གྱིས་བརླབས། དེ་ནས་ལས་ཐམས་ཅད་པའི་སྔགས་གསུམ་གྱི་རྟིང་ལ། ན་མཿསརྦ་ཏ་ཐཱ་ག་ཏ་ཨ་བ་ལོ་ཀི་ཏེ། ཨོཾ་སཾ་བྷ་ར་སཾ་བྷ་ར་ཧཱུཾ། ཞེས་པ་གསུམ་གྱིས་བསྔོ། དུས་གསུམ་གྱི་བདེ་བར་གཤེགས་པ་རྣམས་དང་། གཙང་རིགས་ཀྱི་མགོན་པོ་རྣམས་དང་། འགྲོ་བ་རིས་དྲུག་གི་སེམས་ཅན་རྣམས་ལ་འདོད་པའི་ལོངས་སྤྱོད་ཆར་བཞིན་འབབ་པར་གྱུར་ཅིག་ཅེས་བསྔོའོ། ། ནང་གི་གཏོར་མ་ནི། ཡཾ་ལས་རླུང་། རཾ་ལས་མེ། ཀཾ་ལས་ཐོད་པ་གསུམ་གྱི་སྒྱེད་པུ། ཨཱ་ལས་ཐོད་པའི་གཞལ་ཡས་ཁང་གི་ནང་དུ། གོ་ཀུ་ད་ཧ་ན། བི་མུ་ཤུ་ན་ད། དེ་ལ་ཨ་ལས་ཟླ་བའི་ཁམས་རྡོ་རྗེ་རྩེ་ལྔ་པ་སྐྱུག་པ་ཅིག་བསྒོམ་མོ། ། དེ་ལ་ཨོཾ་ཧཱུྃ་ཧྲཱིཿཞེས་བརྗོད་པས་ལས་ཀྱི་རླུང་བསྐྱོད་པས་བསོད་ནམས་ཀྱི་མེ་སྦར་བས་དམ་ཚིག་གི་བདུད་རྩི་དྲོས་ཡེ་ཤེས་ཀྱི་བདུད་རྩིར་གྱུར། ལས་ཐམས་ཅད་པའི་སྔགས་ཀྱི་མཇུག་ལ། ག་ཎ་ཙཀྲ་ཨི་དཾ་བ་ལིཾ། གྲྀཧྞ་གྲྀཧྞ་ཁཱ་ཧི་ཁཱ་ཧི་ཞེས་ལན་གསུམ་གྱིས་བླ་མ་དམ་པ་རྣམས་དང་ཡི་དམ་གྱི་ལྷ་ཚོགས་རྣམས་དང་། རྡོ་རྗེ་མཁའ་འགྲོ་མའི་ཚོགས་རྣམས་དང་། ཆོས་སྐྱོང་བའི་སྲུང་མ་ཐུགས་དམ་ཅན་རྣམས་ཕྱིའི་མཆོད་པ། གསང་བའི་མཆོད་པར་བཞེས་ཤིག།

Homage to the gurus! The great patron, the principal [disciple], requested an explanation of the torma offering. Regarding that, there are two types: the outer torma and the inner torma. First, for the offering of the outer torma: fill a precious vessel with pure food and pure water. First, take refuge and meditate on the four immeasurables. Bless it with the three syllables: OṂ ĀḤ HŪṂ. Then, following the three mantras of all-activity, dedicate it with the mantra: NAMAḤ SARVA TATHĀGATA AVALOKITE OṂ SAMBHARA SAMBHARA HŪṂ. Recite this three times. Dedicate it, saying: "May the Sugatas of the three times, the lords of the pure classes, and the sentient beings of the six realms receive a rain of desired enjoyments." As for the inner torma: from YAṂ comes wind; from RAṂ comes fire; from KAṂ comes a tripod of three skulls. From ĀḤ comes a skull-cup celestial mansion. Inside it, from GO, KU, DA, HA, NA, VI, MU, ŚU, NA, and DA, and from A, meditate on a moon mandala and a five-pronged vajra vomiting forth. By reciting OṂ HŪṂ HRĪḤ, the karmic wind is stirred, the fire of merit is ignited, and the samaya nectar is heated, transforming into wisdom nectar. At the end of the all-activity mantra, recite GANA CAKRA IDAṂ BALIṂ GṚHṆA GṚHṆA KHĀHI KHĀHI three times. "May the sublime gurus, the assemblies of yidam deities, the hosts of vajra ḍākinīs, and the oath-bound Dharma protectors accept this outer offering and the secret offering!"

definitionབླ་མ “guru” — One of the fourteen rākṣasīs .

terminologyགཏོར་མ → “offering cake”. 'Torma' is defensible for specialists; in a general text 'offering cake' says what it is.

homonymགཏོར་མ is rendered “offering cake” here; the glossary also records Bali, oblation, bali offering for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionགཏོར་མ “offering cake” — Bali wrested control of the world from the devas , establishing a period of peace and prosperity with no caste distinction. Indra requested Viṣṇu to use his wiles so that the devas could gain the world back from him. He

terminologyསྔགས → “mantra”. སྔགས་པ is a mantra-practitioner, not 'the mantric one'.

definitionསྔགས “mantra” — A formula of words or syllables that are recited aloud or mentally in order to bring about a magical or soteriological effect or result. The term has been interpretively etymologized to mean “that which protects ( trā )

periodམེ → “fire”. In ritual and cosmological prose མེ is the element 'fire'; Agni is the deity only where he is named or invoked. Do not capitalise the element.

homonymམེ is rendered “fire” here; the glossary also records Āgneya, Analā, Acalā for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionམེ “fire” — Classified as a “ lord of beings ” ( prajāpati ).

periodཟླ་བ → “moon; month”. In calendrical and cosmological passages ཟླ་བ is 'month' (twelve months to a year) or 'moon', not the god Candra. Candra is the rendering only where the text addresses or names the deity — a sūtra listing the moon as a time unit is not naming a god.

homonymཟླ་བ is rendered “moon; month” here; the glossary also records Candrā, Candramas, Moon for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionཟླ་བ “moon; month” — The deity of the moon, as well as the moon itself. In the Kāraṇḍavyūha , when Avalokiteśvara emanates Candra , it is the deity that is meant.

homonymདམ་ཚིག is rendered “samaya” here; the glossary also records sacred vow, commitment, samaya vows for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionདམ་ཚིག “samaya” — Literally, in Sanskrit, “coming together.” Samaya refers to precepts given by the teacher, the corresponding commitment by the pupil, and the bond that results, which can also be the bond between the practitioner and the

termབླ་མ → guru

termཕྱག་འཚལ → homage

termགཏོར་མ → offering cake

termསྔགས → mantra

termམེ → fire

termཟླ་བ → moon; month

བག་ཆགས་ཀྱི་མི་མཐུན་པའི་ཕྱོགས་ཐམས་ཅད་རྒྱུ་དང་འབྲས་བུ་ནས་ཞི་བར་མཛད་དུ་གསོལ་ལོ་ཞེས་བརྗོད་ལ་གཏོར་མ་གཏང་། དེ་ནས་ཆོས་ཀྱི་སྦྱིན་པ་གཏང་། གཏོར་མའི་ཆོ་ག་རྫོགས་སོ། །

Recite, "Please pacify all discordant factors of habitual tendencies, from their causes and their effects," and then offer the torma. Then, bestow the gift of Dharma. This concludes the ritual of the torma.

structureColophon: closes the text and names the translators or author.

periodཆོས → “dharma”. In Abhidharma lists (སྐྱེ་མཆེད, ཁམས) ཆོས is 'phenomena', the objects of mind — not the Buddhist teaching. Same word, two referents; the list decides.

homonymཆོས is rendered “dharma” here; the glossary also records special qualities, phenomena, qualities for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionཆོས “dharma” — The term “ dharma ” ( chos ) conveys ten different meanings, according to Vasubandhu’s Vyākhyāyukti . It may mean the Buddhist teachings, the awakened qualities which buddhas and bodhisattvas acquire, phenomena or thing

adherencePinned rendering paraphrased here: offering cake

termགཏོར་མ → offering cake

termཆོས → dharma

Terminology used in this text (12)

Term	Rendering	×	Note
གཏོར་མ	offering cake	2	'Torma' is defensible for specialists; in a general text 'offering cake' says what it is.
བླ་མ	guru	1
ཕྱག་འཚལ	homage	1
སྔགས	mantra	1	སྔགས་པ is a mantra-practitioner, not 'the mantric one'.
མེ	fire	1	In ritual and cosmological prose མེ is the element 'fire'; Agni is the deity only where he is named or invoked. Do not c
ཟླ་བ	moon; month	1	In calendrical and cosmological passages ཟླ་བ is 'month' (twelve months to a year) or 'moon', not the god Candra. Candra
དམ་ཚིག	samaya	1
ཡེ་ཤེས	wisdom	1	Distinguish from ཤེས་རབ (prajñā, 'insight'): ཡེ་ཤེས is the buddhas' non-dual wisdom, ཤེས་རབ the discriminating faculty o
ཡི་དམ	yidam	1
ལྷ	god	1	Standard 84000 rendering is 'god'; 'deity' where the text contrasts classes of beings.
མཆོད་པ	offering	1
ཆོས	dharma	1	In Abhidharma lists (སྐྱེ་མཆེད, ཁམས) ཆོས is 'phenomena', the objects of mind — not the Buddhist teaching. Same word, two

Colophon

Source: tengyur vol. 049_རྒྱུད་འགྲེལ།_ཚི.txt. Derge Kangyur/Tengyur e-text, Esukhia/Barom edition — public domain (mechanical reproduction).

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.

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