Derge Kangyur/Tengyur e-text, Esukhia/Barom edition — public domain (mechanical reproduction)
This technical manual, titled The Alchemical Elixir in Tibetan and Dhātupāda-nāma in Sanskrit, provides instructions for the transmutation of base metals into precious metals. The text frames the practice of alchemy within a Buddhist ethical context, explicitly stating that the goal of creating gold is to facilitate the perfection of generosity. The provided fragments detail a specific chemical process involving the manipulation of mercury and white lead, utilizing heat and a series of additives including flour and various medicinal substances such as yavakṣāra and sarkikā. The reader is committed to a precise sequence of metallurgical operations—melting, casting, and drying—to achieve the transformation of materials into silver. By blending ritual homage to the deity Vajravārāhī with empirical instructions, the work positions alchemical production as a means of accumulating resources for philanthropic ends.
Provenance
About this text
A treatise on the creation of an alchemical elixir, the Dhātuvāda provides technical instructions for the transmutation of base metals into silver. Attributed to the Indian author Nali, the work is preserved in the classical Tibetan tradition under the title gser 'gyur gyi rtsi. It is found within the General Unexcelled Yoga Tantra Works collection, appearing across two pages in volume ཟི of the Tengyur. The work enacts a metallurgical process that combines the manipulation of mercury and white lead with specific additives—including flour, buffalo curd, and medicinal substances such as yavakṣāra and sarkikā—under the guidance of heat and precise timing. This chemical operation is framed as a spiritual endeavor; by invoking the deity Vajravārāhī and seeking to accumulate merit, the practitioner intends to produce precious metals to facilitate the perfection of generosity. A scholar or serious reader consults this text today to examine the intersection of empirical metallurgical practice and Buddhist ethical motivations, observing how the pursuit of material transformation is positioned as a means of supporting religious virtue.
Cite thisAnuvāda, “Alchemy for Transmuting Into Gold” (Toh 2394), machine draft, 2026.https://naxiai.com/tibetan/works/toh2394
Summary & commentary
Significance
The work is significant for demonstrating the intersection of Buddhist soteriology and the practical sciences of metallurgy and alchemy. It suggests a tradition where the creation of material wealth was viewed as a legitimate tool for practicing the paramita of generosity. For the modern reader, it provides insight into the historical pharmacological and chemical vocabulary used in Indo-Tibetan technical texts.
Structure
Passages
Section
Description
1
Introduction
Provides the title in Sanskrit and Tibetan, offers a ritual invocation to Vajravārāhī, and establishes the motivation for the work as the perfection of generosity.
2
Technical Instructions
Describes the process of transmuting materials into silver using mercury, white lead, flour, and specific medicinal additives.
Themes
Alchemical Transmutation (2)
Generosity (Dāna) (1)
Metallurgical Ingredients (2)
Summary, significance and provenance note generated by gemma4:31b from the translation and the catalogue record.
In the language of India: Dhātupāda-nāma. In the language of Tibet: gSer 'gyur gyi rtsi zhes bya ba (The Alchemical Elixir). Homage to the Mother Vajravārāhī.
In order to perfect the perfection of generosity, I shall explain the instructions for the alchemical elixir for the sake of those individuals who practice it, so that they may accumulate merit.
Combine bal po se'u, sman tse, sa'u ra, bsre ka, and si sa with sour beer. Let it sit in a copper vessel for three days. Then, for three weeks—twenty-one days—by means of the medicinal elixir of the oral instructions, thin metals will be transformed into copper.
Mercury, clay, sen rtsi, and cow dung should be made into a paste. If red copper is placed in the center of this, it will be transformed into silver.
Horse hoof, ram's horn, tortoise shell, and śilājatu should be melted. If silver is added to the melted gold, and then lead is added in a proportion of one-eighth of the total, it will become silver after five months.
Equal parts of silver and tin should be mixed to the measure of lead. Inside an outer vessel, through melting, everything will be transformed into silver.
Eight srang of "great meat" (sha chen) and an equal amount of white lead, two srang of saji, sman tsha, and one srang of poison, along with an equal amount of mercury, should be rubbed with the juice of Himalayan medicinal herbs. Place everything inside a white horn or, alternatively, in a clay vessel, seal it, and fire it. Once the medicinal ash has cooled, remove it; the silver will be accomplished like the moon.
As soon as it is born, take the bu ri sha na of the shé'u plant.
Once the sun has melted it, one should cast [the mercury] into it. By means of four times that amount of flour, cast into the molten liquid of white lead, and once the water has dried, it becomes silver. With the medicines tsha and tsha la, yavakṣāra, sarkikā, the liquid of white ci medicine, poison, and the water of hanumāśati mixed with buffalo curd, one should leave it inside lead for three days. One should burn it by a method that prevents smoke from arising. This alchemy dispels the suffering of poverty. Having explained the application of silver-making, I shall now explain the nectar of gold-making. On the snowy mountains, there is a supreme medicine renowned as roḍantī. Its leaves do not lose their luster to the ground, and a golden-colored liquid drips from them. When white lead and mercury are combined with the oral instructions on the ash-compound, by mere contact, silver and copper are transformed into gold. First, one should perform the application of fire so that the mercury does not escape. Then, having understood the essence of the medicine, the yogi will achieve the gold-making [transformation]. If one does not dwell together with [the medicine], the gold-making will not be achieved. Therefore, by means of the "union wheel," one must by all means bind the mercury. Once it is bound, anything whatsoever is transformed into gold. By consuming it, one becomes a vajra body. The oral instructions on the elixir of gold-making composed by the master Nāli are 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.