Shenrab Miwoche- Tibetan GodDeity"Founder of Bön"

Olmo Lungring

Bön cosmography places Shenrab's homeland at the center of the world, within the land of Tazig, west of Tibet beyond the Himalayas. Olmo Lungring is shaped like an eight-petaled lotus. At its heart rises Mount Yungdrung Gutseg, a nine-tiered mountain. The light there comes not from the sun but from the radiance of the yungdrung itself.

The Three Brothers

The gZi brjid tells of three brothers who manifested as enlightened beings before the world took its present form. Dagpa chose to guide beings in the past age. Salwa took the future age. Shepa chose the present, the era of greatest darkness. He would become Shenrab Miwoche.

Birth and Renunciation

Shenrab was born in Olmo Lungring to Gyalbon Thodkar and Yochi Gyalzhedma. The gZer mig says celestial music filled the air and flowers rained from the sky. He grew up a prince in the palace of Barpo Sogyed, married, and fathered children who would carry the Bön lineage. Then he cut his hair, put on blue robes, and turned to the path of complete awakening. He organized his teachings into the Nine Ways of Bön, a system that ran from practical divination and healing to the highest contemplative practices.

The Stolen Horses

Shenrab's great adversary was Khyab-pa Lag-ring, the prince of darkness. The gZer mig records their confrontations: the demon sent plagues and corrupted Shenrab's disciples, working ceaselessly to obstruct the spread of Bön. Each assault Shenrab met and overcame. But the decisive blow came when Khyab-pa Lag-ring stole Shenrab's horses. To recover them, Shenrab left Olmo Lungring for the first time and pursued the demon south across the world.

At the Borders of Tibet

Shenrab pursued Khyab-pa Lag-ring southward through lands that had never heard the Bön teachings. At each place he passed, he performed rituals and taught the inhabitants. The pursuit brought him to Kongpo at the borders of Tibet. He found people who propitiated spirits through blood sacrifice and knew nothing of the path to liberation. Shenrab taught them to replace animal sacrifice with offerings of barley flour effigies and bound the local spirits by oath to protect the Bön teaching.

He turned back before entering Tibet itself, but the teachings he left along his route took root. His disciples carried the doctrine further, and over generations Bön spread across the Tibetan plateau.