Derge Kangyur/Tengyur e-text, Esukhia/Barom edition — public domain (mechanical reproduction)
The provided fragment of The Song of Ḍombī introduces a narrative centered on a minister named Ḍombi who enters illusory forests to hunt wild animals. The text employs a metaphorical framework where the act of hunting is explicitly linked to the targeting of wrong views. By depicting Ḍombi preparing his bow and nocking five sharp arrows, the text establishes an allegory of spiritual discipline or philosophical correction, where the weapons represent the tools used to eliminate cognitive errors. The reader is committed to a narrative that likely functions as a didactic parable, using the imagery of the hunt to illustrate the process of identifying and eradicating ignorance. The fragment ends mid-sentence, leaving the resolution of the hunt and the specific nature of the five arrows undeveloped, but it clearly positions the protagonist as an agent of intellectual or spiritual purification.
Provenance
About this text
A treatise depicting the activities of the minister Ḍombi, the Dom+bi'i glu belongs to the classical Tibetan tradition. This work is preserved in the Tengyur, volume ཟི, where it comprises one page and is situated within the General Unexcelled Yoga Tantra Works collection. The narrative enacts a metaphorical hunt within illusory forests, where Ḍombi employs a bow and five sharp arrows to target the wild animals of wrong views. By framing the eradication of cognitive errors as a hunt, the work functions as a didactic allegory for spiritual purification and the elimination of ignorance. A scholar or serious reader consults this text to examine the use of narrative parable and symbolic weaponry in the process of identifying and correcting philosophical errors within the context of the Yoga Tantra tradition.
Cite thisAnuvāda, “The Song of Ḍombī” (Toh 2368), machine draft, 2026.https://naxiai.com/tibetan/works/toh2368
Summary & commentary
Significance
The work is significant for its use of hunting metaphors to describe the eradication of wrong views, a common trope in Buddhist pedagogical literature. It illustrates the tradition's tendency to blend narrative storytelling with philosophical instruction to make abstract concepts of cognition more accessible.
Structure
Passages
Section
Description
1
Introduction to the Hunt
The protagonist Ḍombi enters an illusory forest to hunt animals representing wrong views.
Themes
Wrong views (1)
Illusory nature of reality (1)
Summary, significance and provenance note generated by gemma4:31b from the translation and the catalogue record.
Homage to the Buddha!
In this and that many illusory forests, the minister Ḍombi goes to hunt wild animals. "I see where the wild animals of wrong views go!" Ḍombi, having nocked a sharp arrow, enters within. There are five arrows, and he draws them all out at once. Ḍombi, holding his drawn bow, stands poised. "I see where the wild animals of wrong views go!" Ḍombi, having nocked a sharp arrow, enters within. Without bow, without string, without shaft, and without arrow—Ḍombi, without hesitation, has surely killed them. "I see where the wild animals of wrong views go!" Ḍombi, having nocked a sharp arrow, enters within. Having made the five victorious Buddha families his crown, he restores the slain wild animals to life. "I see where the wild animals of wrong views go!" Ḍombi, having nocked a sharp arrow, enters within. The song of Ḍombi is complete.
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.