about a bridge and the builder...

THE BUILDER OF BRIDGES

poornachandra

It would be an irrefutable statement to say that you have seen a bridge, and it is almost as likely that you' have moved over one. Maybe you have even built one! If you have ever laid a log or a plank down across a stream to prevent getting wet, you have actually constructed a bridge. Bridges are truly universal - a natural part of the world we live in. A bridge provides passage over some sort of obstacle, be it a road, a railway line or a river. A bridge connects. This is about a matchless bridge and a remarkable man who built it.

It was on my first drive from Yongphula to Trashi Yangtse (or Chortenkora as it is referred to) in Eastern Bhutan, that I passed through the small roadside village of Duksum. It is located on the Drangme Chhu and its tributary, a few kilometers past the famous Gomkora Lhakhang. Duksum was typical of a Bhutanese habitation in the remote East, a small weaver's town where you can find a few weavers producing some nice work. But a short halt and some inquisitiveness revealed a unique landmark in this sleepy town: an original iron chain suspension bridge dating back to the 17th century. This bridge stands testimony to the brilliance of a great man – a Mahasiddha who attained greatness as the “Builder of Bridges.” This great saint was Thangthong Gyalpo, also referred to as “Lama Chazampa”, the Iron Bridge Lama.

There are two kinds of people in this world, those that build bridges and those that do not. The bridges may be physical in manifestation or figurative. Bridge builders are visionaries who share their experience and build bridges. The bridges are symbols of encouragement and hope for others to cross. The builders are people of tremendous character and strength and do their best to who know the importance of taking time to help others. They do not build for recognition or tribute; they build because it is their nature to build bridges and do their best to support others. An anonymous tribute in verse to “The Bridge Builder” says it all.

An old man going a lone highway,

came at the evening cold and grey,

to a chasm vast and deep and wide.

The old man crossed in the twilight dim,

the sullen stream had no fear for him;

but he turned when safe on the other side

and built a bridge to span the tide.

“Old man,” said a fellow pilgrim near,

“You are wasting your strength with

building here; your journey will end

with the ending day. You never again

will pass this way. You’ve crossed the

chasm, deep and wide, why build a bridge at evening tide?”

The builder lifted his old grey head;

“Good friend in the path I have come,”

he said, “there followed after me today

a youth whose feet must pass this way.

This chasm that has been as naught to me,

to that fair-haired youth may a pitfall be.

He, too, must cross in the twilight dim.

Good friend I am building this bridge for him!”

Thangthong Gyalpo (1385-1464) was one such builder of bridges, a wonder-working Tibetan saint who is believed to have originated the use of heavy iron chains in the construction of suspension bridges and who built 108 bridges throughout Tibet and Bhutan. He is also known as Lama Chazampa (the Iron Bridge Lama). In 1433 he came to Bhutan in search of iron ore and built eight bridges in places as far removed as Paro and Trashigang. The last of his bridges that survived was the one at Duksum, and his most famous one crossed the Yarlung Tsangpo at Chaksam, 50 kilometers south-west of Lhasa in Tibet.

A Mahasiddha (“Great Adept”) is an accomplished Alchemist. The two most famous Buddhist alchemists of ancient India were the Mahasiddhas Nagarjuna and his student, Kharnaripa, who is also known as Aryadeva. From India, the Mahasiddha tradition continued into Tibet, communicated through the rich lives of many saints. The famous Buddhist alchemists known in Tibet were the great master Guru Padmasambhava and his lineage of saints called the Tertons, or "Treasure Revealers." Thangthong Gyalpo deserves special mention for his life and work, as he was an important terton of the Nyingma lineage who attained the title “Drubthob” (“Great Magician”).

Thangthong Gyalpo was a true Tibetan “Renaissance Man." He was an accomplished artist, intrepid explorer and statesman, an engineer, doctor, mystic, miracle worker and even a blacksmith. Above and beyond these diverse proclivities, as a composer and playwright he is celebrated as the founder of the Tibetan Opera tradition “Lhamo”.

He formed Tibet’s first operatic troupe – starring seven beautiful sisters – with which he toured the country raising money to fund his building projects. What started as a simple bridge building project over the Kyichu River near Lhasa by the 14th century scholar Thangthong Gyalpo is proving to be a source of sustenance for exiled Tibetans even today. Legend has it that Gyalpo, hard pressed as he was for money to build thebridge, turned to seven sisters in his work force who excelled at dancing and singing. Thangthong Gyalpo perceived the power of the performance medium as a way of telling moral tales, based on Buddhist philosophy, in the words of the common people. The scholar created an operatic tradition around the seven sisters' talent and travelled in Tibet with their performance to raise money for the bridge. Their high-pitched and somewhat martial voice and vigorous dancing earned them the sobriquet "The Heavenly Dancing Goddesses" or Lhamo. The bridge was built and so was the Tibetan opera. As the artists, dressed up in masks and costumes with a preponderance of black and red colours, unleashed their energetic dancing and singing, the troupe performed at various venues in Tibet and raised the necessary funds to complete the project of constructing a reputed hundred and eight iron chain bridges and ferry-crossing stations.

Gyalpo’s miraculous activities as an alchemist were a result of his accomplishment on the visionary path of the Terma tradition: he had the ability to work ably with whatever circumstances presented themselves to him. After being poisoned by a jealous lama, he remained in meditation for a week and discovered the cure through the process of revelation. The formula he discovered is called "Drubthob Rika" in Tibetan, the "White Yogi Pill," and is still used successfully to counteract poison.

He had a vision of local elemental spirits who gave him a gift of blueprints for suspension bridges that had never been seen before in Tibet at that point in the Thirteenth Century. Thangthong Gyalpo inadvertently began his career in engineering when he was refused a ferry passage on the grounds of his eccentric appearance, and consequently embarked on a campaign to build bridges and ferry crossings. He was famed for his iron chain-link bridges, and is said to have forged iron “the thickness of an eight-year-old boy's arm” into chain links. As he began to construct the chain links for these massive bridges, his alchemical wisdom was put to practice, resulting in an iron alloy that has not rusted to this day. His smelting methods still remain a mystery.

As a visionary alchemist, he tangibly manifested the wisdom of the "Elixir of Immortality" by living to the ripe old age of 125. He was famous for his accomplishment and transmission of the long-life ceremony, which is displayed in the iconography of statues and paintings showing him. Statues of Thangthong Gyalpo depict him as a stocky figure in bare torso, with a beard, curly hair and a topknot. The eccentric appearance that led to the inception of Thangthong Gyalpo's engineering career is evident in his images: hair disarranged in a thick pile on top of his head, a wide flat nose, a goatee and a full walrus moustache. There is a famous statue which shows him holding a vase full of the Elixir of Immortality and a Pill of Longevity in his other hand. His body is said to have been of a dark brown colour, described in some sources as having the hue of “wet liver”, which may have influenced the choice of metal used to make this statue. An inscription along the back of the lotus base states that Thangthong Gyalpo himself was involved in the image’s making, perhaps evidenced by the most unusual and successful manner in which the sturdy base plate is secured: it is bolted to the base with four substantial rivets. His exotic robe suggests a sumptuous Chinese embroidered fabric or cut velvet, and consists of lobed cartouches of rabbits and phoenix against a flower-filled ground. Some images show him holding a chain link in his right hand.

Thangthong Gyalpo also cast images of Buddhist saints and built the chorten-shaped Dumtse Lhakhang in Paro. It is a small temple maintained by a single caretaker monk since being built in 1433. Along the road to Thimphu, at the eastern end of the Paro valley, lies the Tamchhog Goemba Lhakhang, which is still owned and maintained by the descendents of the Iron Bridge Builder. He also built the Riwoche Stupa, which is located in a breathtaking setting on the banks of the Tsangpo River, about 400 kilometers west of Lhasa towards the Nepalese border. Among his other achievements was the composition of many occupational songs, still sung today by people as they thresh wheat or pound the mud for house construction. Lhamo, the traditional opera of Tibet, immortalised Thangthong Gyalpo. The great Mahasiddha is still venerated on the Lhamo stage, which is bare except for a statue of him as the patron saint of the opera. The numerous iron bridges, however, could not survive the vicissitudes of time and history.

None of Lama Chazampa’s famed iron bridges exists on ground now. The Duksum Bridge was removed from its site in 2005, for preservation and restoration. The chain links are kept at the Trashi Yangtse Dzong in Eastern Bhutan. The Royal Government of Bhutan has plans to reconstruct and resurrect the bridge to its original historic glory.

"We are told never to cross a bridge until we come to it, but this world is owned by men who have “crossed bridges” in their imagination far ahead of the crowd."

2006