Derge Kangyur/Tengyur e-text, Esukhia/Barom edition — public domain (mechanical reproduction)
This ritual manual provides technical instructions for the construction and preparation of a fire offering altar specifically designed for empowerment or power. The text focuses on the material and geometric requirements of the ritual space, specifying the use of red earth for the hearth and prescribing a pit shape modeled after a bhaga or a crescent moon. By detailing the necessary dimensions—referencing small or medium sizes associated with enrichment rites—and the configuration of rims and borders, the text commits the practitioner to a precise physical architecture. The objective is to create a consecrated environment that adheres to traditional proportions, ensuring that the ritual apparatus is correctly aligned with the intended spiritual outcome of the empowerment process.
Provenance
About this text
A ritual manual concerning the fire offering of power, the dbang gi sbyin sreg gi sbyor ka belongs to the classical Tibetan tradition. The work is attributed to the Indian author Bhavapa. It was translated into Tibetan by lo tsa ba gzhon nu tshul khrims and is preserved in volume ཛི of the Tengyur, where it occupies a single page. The text enacts the precise physical and geometric preparation of a ritual space, providing technical instructions for the construction of a hearth made of red earth. It specifies that the pit be fashioned in the shape of a crescent moon or a bhaga, adhering to dimensions associated with rites of enrichment, and details the arrangement of red firewood upon an eight-petaled red lotus. A scholar or serious reader consults this work today to understand the material requirements and architectural proportions necessary for the consecrated environment of the empowerment process, ensuring the ritual apparatus is correctly aligned with its intended spiritual outcome.
Cite thisAnuvāda, “A Fire Offering Ritual for Empowerment” (Toh 2179), machine draft, 2026.https://naxiai.com/tibetan/works/toh2179
Summary & commentary
Significance
The text is significant for its illustration of the intersection between geometry, material science, and ritual efficacy in Indo-Tibetan fire offerings. It demonstrates how specific physical forms are believed to facilitate the transmission of power or enrichment within the tradition.
Structure
Passages
Section
Description
1
Ritual Application for the Fire Offering of Power
Instructions for the construction of the ritual hearth, including material, shape, and dimensions.
Themes
Ritual Architecture (1)
Materiality (1)
Summary, significance and provenance note generated by gemma4:31b from the translation and the catalogue record.
The Ritual Application for the Fire Offering of Power
In a hearth of red earth, one should fashion a pit shaped like a bhaga or a crescent moon. Its dimensions are those of the small or medium [sizes] for the rite of enrichment. It should have two or four rims and borders, marked in the center with a curved knife or a bow. Upon an eight-petaled red lotus, one should arrange red firewood consisting of thorny trees. The fuel sticks should be twelve or eight finger-widths in length and smeared with fragrant oil. The red offering substances are placed to the right, while the burning materials such as ghee, having been infused with red flavors and scents, are placed to the left. Seated on a red cushion in the playful posture, one faces the west. Adorned with red ornaments and the like, one piles the firewood and performs the secret [preparations].
Having meditated on the generation stage according to the ritual method, one performs the rites of igniting the fire and so forth. The syllable of wind is the mantra; red in color, it abides in the wind. Having invited and dissolved [the deity], one confers empowerment. Regarding the presentation of offerings and so forth, one appends [the mantra] to the end of the fire god's mantra. Once the ritual and other procedures are complete, one generates the deity in the heart of the fire god and performs the rites of invitation and so forth. Visualizing red light rays radiating forth, one contemplates that the deity is pleased and summoned. Alternatively, there are the three applications of the pith instructions. Finally, for the ritual of the fire, one recites the fire god's mantra three or seven times, and the deity's mantra twenty-eight times, seven or up to a hundred times. Thus, one should apply oneself diligently to the ritual application of the fire offering day and night.
This concludes the third [section], the Ritual Application for the Fire Offering of Power, composed by the master Bhava.
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.