Naro Bonchung- Tibetan FigureMortal"Bon Sorcerer of Kailash"
Also known as: Na ro bon chung and ན་རོ་བོན་ཆུང
Titles & Epithets
Domains
Description
On the slopes of Mount Kailash, a Bon sorcerer hurls his magic against the yogi Milarepa in a series of impossible contests. When dawn breaks on the final challenge, the priest's ritual drum carries him only partway up the sacred peak.
Mythology & Lore
The Contest at Mount Kailash
According to the Life of Milarepa composed by gTsang smyon Heruka in the fifteenth century, the great Buddhist yogi Milarepa traveled to Mount Kailash (Ti-se) to establish it as a place of Buddhist practice. There he found the Bon priest Naro Bonchung, who claimed the mountain for the Bon tradition and refused to yield. The two agreed to settle the dispute through a series of magical contests, the winner gaining spiritual dominion over the sacred peak.
The contests tested the limits of supernatural power. Milarepa and Naro Bonchung raced around Lake Manasarovar, conjured storms and calmed them, and performed feats of levitation and transformation. In several of these contests, Naro Bonchung proved a formidable opponent, matching or nearly matching Milarepa's abilities. The Bon tradition preserves its own accounts of these events, in which Naro Bonchung's powers are given fuller recognition.
The Sunbeam and the Drum
The decisive contest was a race to the summit of Mount Kailash at dawn. Naro Bonchung set out early, riding his ritual drum through the air toward the peak. His followers watched with confidence as the drum carried him upward. But Milarepa sat motionless in meditation until the first ray of sunlight struck the mountain. In that instant, he rode the sunbeam to the summit, arriving before Naro Bonchung could complete his ascent.
Defeated, Naro Bonchung fell from his drum, which tumbled down the mountainside and carved a vertical gash in the rock face that is still pointed out today. Milarepa, in a gesture of magnanimity, granted Naro Bonchung a nearby peak for Bon practice, ensuring that the Bon tradition would retain a sacred presence in the region even as Mount Kailash itself passed under Buddhist spiritual authority. This accommodation reflects the historical coexistence of Buddhism and Bon in Tibet, with the contest narrative serving as an origin account for the division of sacred geography between the two traditions.