LAUGHING !!
When I read your first line saying, "Naljorpa Ögyen Dorje and I write the site Ngakpa Update." , I thought you were joking! Wow, I thought, this is a first on this site -- playful humor. You see, I thought you were saying the dude in the picture was your co-author on this post. Alas, after clicking multiple links, I understood. So who is that fellow?
Meanwhile, for any naive readers like myself, I thought I'd share a little info I found while clicking around trying to understand the jargon: (David, please correct my misunderstandings)
The Nyingma School in Tibetan Buddhism has two ordained sanghas:
1. the gendün marpo - the red sangha of celibate monks and nuns.
2. the gendün karpo - the white sangha of non celibate tantric practitioners.
The White Sangha is also known as:
(a) gos dKar lCang lo’i sDe (gö-kar-chang-lo'i-dé) --> “white-skirt long-hair category” (due to their attire)
(b) ngak'phang --> mantra-holding. relates to the fact that they are ordained according to Tantra rather than Sutra. So I guess they do more mantra than the sutra folks?
So, as far as I can figure out "ngak-pa" comes from this "mantra-holding" epitaph for The White (non-celebate) Sangha. Ngak-mas, I am guessing are the women. What are naljorpas/mas?
And more specifically, the Ngagmas are ordained and thus wear unique clothing to signify this.
Ngagmas and Ngakpas wear white shamtags (skirts), white, red and blue shawls of the yogic lineage and conch-shell spiral ear-rings; all of which represent specific aspects of the teachings. They never wear yellow which is associated with the vinaya of monks and nuns.
Ermm... yes, jargon-heavy... If I have an excuse, it is that http://ngakpa-update.org/ is a quasi-academic, jargon-heavy site itself.
Thanks for supplying the missing background info. It's all correct... here are some clarifications of minor points:
There are ngakpas in all Tibetan Schools, not just the Nyingma, although the Nyingma has the most.
Yes, mantra is mainly a Tantric practice, although there are also mantras in Sutra. "Ngak" is the Tibetan for "mantra"; -pa is "guy" and -ma is "woman" as you guessed.
"Naljor" is Tibetan for "yoga", so naljorpa/ma is a yogi/ni.
The modern Aro tradition has two streams of ordination, the ngakpa/ma ordination based in Mahayoga and the naljorpa/ma ordination based in Anuyoga. I haven't read about the latter in any other tradition; it might be unique. I'm going to ask Rinpoche about that sometime.
The earrings are not spiral, just annular. Too bad, spiral would be cool. They used to be made from human skulls, I believe; I'm not sure when they switched to conch.
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What is a Ngakpa?
1 Dec 2010
LAUGHING !!
When I read your first line saying, "Naljorpa Ögyen Dorje and I write the site Ngakpa Update." , I thought you were joking! Wow, I thought, this is a first on this site -- playful humor. You see, I thought you were saying the dude in the picture was your co-author on this post. Alas, after clicking multiple links, I understood. So who is that fellow?
Meanwhile, for any naive readers like myself, I thought I'd share a little info I found while clicking around trying to understand the jargon: (David, please correct my misunderstandings)
The Nyingma School in Tibetan Buddhism has two ordained sanghas:
1. the gendün marpo - the red sangha of celibate monks and nuns.
2. the gendün karpo - the white sangha of non celibate tantric practitioners.
The White Sangha is also known as:
(a) gos dKar lCang lo’i sDe (gö-kar-chang-lo'i-dé) --> “white-skirt long-hair category” (due to their attire)
(b) ngak'phang --> mantra-holding. relates to the fact that they are ordained according to Tantra rather than Sutra. So I guess they do more mantra than the sutra folks?
So, as far as I can figure out "ngak-pa" comes from this "mantra-holding" epitaph for The White (non-celebate) Sangha. Ngak-mas, I am guessing are the women. What are naljorpas/mas?
And more specifically, the Ngagmas are ordained and thus wear unique clothing to signify this.
Ngagmas and Ngakpas wear white shamtags (skirts), white, red and blue shawls of the yogic lineage and conch-shell spiral ear-rings; all of which represent specific aspects of the teachings. They never wear yellow which is associated with the vinaya of monks and nuns.
Source: http://www.nyingma.com
Corrections, Additions etc are appreciated.
I swear, without a glossary -- the naive "approacher" is lost in the jargon !
Great post, btw
Yups
2 Dec 2010
Ermm... yes, jargon-heavy... If I have an excuse, it is that http://ngakpa-update.org/ is a quasi-academic, jargon-heavy site itself.
Thanks for supplying the missing background info. It's all correct... here are some clarifications of minor points:
There are ngakpas in all Tibetan Schools, not just the Nyingma, although the Nyingma has the most.
Yes, mantra is mainly a Tantric practice, although there are also mantras in Sutra. "Ngak" is the Tibetan for "mantra"; -pa is "guy" and -ma is "woman" as you guessed.
"Naljor" is Tibetan for "yoga", so naljorpa/ma is a yogi/ni.
The modern Aro tradition has two streams of ordination, the ngakpa/ma ordination based in Mahayoga and the naljorpa/ma ordination based in Anuyoga. I haven't read about the latter in any other tradition; it might be unique. I'm going to ask Rinpoche about that sometime.
The earrings are not spiral, just annular. Too bad, spiral would be cool. They used to be made from human skulls, I believe; I'm not sure when they switched to conch.
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