Bird Offerings in the Old Tibetan Myths of the Nyen Collection (Gnyan ’bum)

Abstract

The article introduces a corpus of Tibetan texts containing apparently old Tibetan myths on the Nyen (gnyan); beings representing the natural environment. The myths mostly narrate their conflicts with the original people, which are eventually resolved by ritual means. These texts are known as the Nyen Collections (Gnyan ’bum). Three examples of them are currently known and references from the Tibetan chronicles of the Bon religion speak about the rediscovery of some of its versions in western Tibet prior to 1017. The content, nevertheless, points to eastern Tibet as the place of origin of the core items of these texts. These texts represent a certain mythopoetic lore stemming from oral tradition, which might well be related to the traditions of the Naxi people in the Sichuan province of the PRC, as well as to some surviving traditions in eastern Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh, as recently described. Extracts from the myths dealing with birds are presented in translation and paraphrase. These myths use their own specific poetic register and manifest an extraordinary veneration of birds. The other aspect of this veneration is the evident tradition of offering birds up to the Nyen. This is in sharp contrast with the orthodox Indo-Buddhist world-view, which does not ascribe any specific value to the animal realm.