The Copper-Colored Mountain

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While Pure Land Buddhism is often viewed as an East Asian tradition with Indian roots, the Copper-Coloured Mountain is unique as the only pure land with origins solely in the Tibetan tradition. It embodies the intriguing blend of Tibetan culture, traditional history, and liturgical tantric practice. This mountain is believed to be the current residence of Padmasambhava, the Indian master who introduced Buddhism to Tibet and established its first monastery, Samye. After departing Tibet, Padmasambhava is said to have taken residence on Cāmara, one of two islands flanking the continent of Jambudvipa, the Buddhist cosmological world. Following his conquest of the island's ogres and their conversion to Buddhism, he constructed an octagonal palace where practitioners can be transported in visions or reborn through aspiration prayers. This work presents a translation and analysis of a significant aspiration prayer composed by Jigme Lingpa, an eighteenth-century treasure revealer of the Nyingma tradition, which is the most important prayer associated with this pure land in Tibetan Buddhism. Translators Georgios Halkias and Christina Partsalaki combine academic rigor with a deep devotion to tantric principles, enhancing the understanding of the prayer's history and significance in Tibetan Buddhist literature for practitioners.