Notes

n.1In the Tantra section of the Degé Kangyur, The Dhāraṇī of Refuge for the Preta Flaming Mouth (Toh 646) comes first, followed by The Bali Ritual to Relieve the Female Preta Flaming Mouth (Toh 647). However in the Dhāraṇī section, in which both texts are also found, the order is reversed, so that the (marginally shorter) The Bali Ritual to Relieve the Female Preta Flaming Mouth (Toh 1079) comes first, followed by the The Dhāraṇī of Refuge for the Preta Flaming Mouth (1080).

n.2Note that there is a discrepancy among various databases for cataloging the Toh 1079 version of this text within vol. 101 or 102 of the Degé Kangyur. See Toh 1079, note 2, for details.

n.3In the other text, Toh 646/ 1080, the main protagonist is Nanda, the Buddha’s half-brother, rather than Ānanda, his cousin and attendant.

n.4In the other text, Toh 646/1080, the Tibetan rendering of the epithet is kha nas me ’bar ba, and the preta is not specifically identified as female. Nevertheless (and disregarding this gender difference), both versions have a very similar meaning, and given the presumed common source of the narrative and the likelihood that the same original Sanskrit (or possibly Chinese) epithet could easily have been translated into Tibetan in different ways, we have used “Flaming Mouth,” to render both.

n.5It is listed in the Denkarma catalog, under the name ’phags pa yi dags kha ’bar ma dbugs dbyung ba’i gtor ma’i cho ga, as being 20 ślokas in length (Denkarma, folio 303.a; Herrmann-Pfandt, p. 234). It is not listed in the Phangthangma catalog, which is believed to have been compiled a few years later.

n.6Hun Yeow Lye (2003), p. 30.

n.7A manuscript of the Chinese text is held at the British Library under the title Dharani Sutra for Saving the Burning-Mouth Hungry Ghosts (BL Or.8210/S.4119).

n.8Hun Yeow Lye (2003), p. 30.

n.9Foshuo jiuba yankou egui tuoluoni jing 佛說救拔燄口餓鬼陀羅尼經, Taishō 1313.

n.10Lye (2003), pp. 417–25. An English translation of the longer of the two, the translation by Amoghavajra (Taishō 1313), was also published with an introduction by Orzech (1996).

n.11Hun Yeow Lye (2003), p. 225. Lye’s study explores the history and evolution of the ghost-feeding rites based on these foundational texts and their liturgical outgrowth into two additional texts included in the Chinese canon (Taishō 1315 and Taishō 1318) that do not appear to have direct Tibetan parallels. See also Rotman (2021), pp. 59–61, who provides and describes a Chinese Ming dynasty painting of Flaming Mouth.

n.12In the Catalog of Received Items (Shōrai mokuroku 請來目錄), completed in 806 ᴄᴇ, a text called Sūtra on the Dhāraṇī for Bestowing (Food) on the Flaming-Mouth Hungry Ghost (Shi yankou egui tuoluoni jing 施燄口餓鬼陀羅尼) is included among the texts that Kūkai (774–835) brought from China to Japan. This title also appears in the catalogs of several other Japanese monks who traveled to China in the medieval period in search of Buddhist traditions and texts. Lye (2003), p. 232.

n.13See Rotman (2021), p. 46.

n.14Tib. kha ’ bar ma’i gtor chen. Zhonnu Pel (1984), p. 223; Roerich (1949), p. 177.

n.15In his sdom gsum rab dbye (Clear Differentiation of the Three Codes) Sakya Paṇḍita said he had witnessed practices in Tibet in which the names of the four tathāgatas were recited “in prologue to the Burning Mouth oblation,” which he said was not correct as “in the sūtra” the names of the four tathāgatas should be recited after the dhāraṇī. This is a clear reference to n.­13 in Toh 646. He also said that was incorrect to add food to water offerings, as this causes pretas great torment. It is interesting that the instruction to add food to water offerings is found only in Toh 646, and not in the ritual prescribed here in Toh 647. Here, the instruction is to make food offerings to pretas and water offerings to brahmarṣis. See Sakya Pandita Kunga Gyaltshen (2002), p. 124.

n.16Lokesh Chandra STP 10.3153, 13.4299.

n.17Sobisch (2019, p. 245) mentions, for example, a mdos ritual text in the Collected Works of Choné Drakpa Shedrup (1675–1748) called kha ’bar ma’i mdos chen ma mo’i gdon sogs gnod pa kun sel (Great Thread-Cross Rite of Jvālāmukhī, Which Removes the Malevolent Influence of the Mundane Mother Deities and All Other Negative Forces).

n.18As, for example, in the ting nge ’dzin mchog gi rgyud (rKTs-G149, f. 163.a) and chos nyid zhi ba’i rgyud (rKTs-G153, f. 228.b); see also the translation of the Guhyagarbhatantra and commentary in Choying Tobden Dorje (2016), vol. 1, p. 198 et passim.

n.19A Mongolian translation of the Tibetan text is available in the Mongolian Kangyur in two identical versions in the Tantra section (Mong. dandar), entitled Aman daγan γal badaraγči em-e birid-i amuγulqui baling-un ǰang üile. See Ligeti (1942), p. 180.

n.20The association with Avalokiteśvara-Guanyin may be relevant to the apparent reference to Avalokiteśvara in the dhāraṇī formula (see n.­25). Rotman (2021), pp. 60–61, also alludes to the notion in some Chinese traditions that Flaming Mouth is a manifestation of Guanyin “who expediently assumed the form of Flaming Mouth and precipitated Ānanda’s crisis in order to facilitate the Buddha’s creation of the Yuqie yankou ritual.” The various figures named Jvālāmukha or Jvālāmukhī mentioned in the preceding paragraph (i.­8) may possibly echo such notions.

n.21Feer (1883), pp. 447–50.

n.22The Tibetan reads simply “what reliable method is there?” (brtan pa’i thabs ci yod). The words “to avoid this” have been added for clarification.

n.23Tib. thams cad du ’od dang ldan pa rgyal chen shugs ldan ’od ces bya ba. In the closely related text (Toh 646/Toh 1080), the name of this dhāraṇī is given as gzi brjid tshad med pa’i dbang du gyur pa’i ’od zer rnam par rgyal ba’i shugs zhes bya ba.

n.24Tib. ’jig rten dbang phyug dang ’jig rten dbang phyug ’od. According to the parallel Chinese text (Taishō 1314), the Buddha received this dhāraṇī from Guan shiyin pusa and Shijian zizai deli rulai (Hun 2003, p. 420). In Toh 646/1080 he receives the dhāraṇī from the bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara (Tib. spyan ras gzigs) and the Thus-Gone One Vaśavartīguṇa (Tib. de bzhin gshegs pa dbang sgyur yon tan).

n.25The dhāraṇī itself could be translated as “Homage to the One With the Gaze of All Tathāgathas! Oṃ bring them together, bring them! Hūṃ!” Here Sarvatathāgatāvalokita is likely an epithet of Avalokiteśvara.

n.26Tib. se gol yang brdab par bya’o. Cf. Toh 646/Toh 1080, “snap your fingers three times.”

n.27Tib. grul ’ bum. There is no reference to these ghouls in the iteration of the text found in the Dhāraṇī section (Toh 1079).

n.28See i.­10.