Early travelers in Central Asia,
such as William of Rubruk in the thirteenth and Odoric Pordenone in the
fourteenth century reported "barbaric costumes" among Tibetans which involved
sons cooking and eating the heads of their fathers and drinking to their memory
out of skull cups. Missionaries visiting Tibet in the seventeenth and eighteenth
century were also puzzled by the widespread use of human skulls and bones for
religious purposes. When the Portuguese Jesuit d'Andrade asked about the
significance of the skulls, he was told, in typically Buddhist fashion, that
they served as a reminder of life's impermanence and as a hindrance to sensual
indulgence.
In 1888 Rockhill published his translation of the Tibetan manuscript on "The Use
of Skulls in Lamaist Ceremonies". The reactions by scholars such as Andree,
Collin or Laufer were representative for the school of "Kulturmorphologie" as
they tried to establish a historical connection between the skull cults of
different peoples in prehistory, antiquity and the Middle Ages. Their
interpretation of the Tibetan use of skulls included references to pre-Buddhist
ancestor cults and head-hunting practices.
If we now examine reports in Sanskrit literature we find the earliest account in
the Dasha-Kumara-Carita text of the sixth century which mentions the use of
skulls in Tantric rituals especially in connection with the cult of Shiva as
Kapalabhrta or Mahakala, the Great Destroyer. Such usage was also reported by
the Chinese pilgrim Hiuen Tsang in the seventh century. In the twelfth century
Ramanuja comments on the system of Kalamukha as follows:
"Kalamukha teaches that the means of obtaining all desired results in this world
as well as the next are constituted by certain practices - such as using a skull
as a drinking vessel, smearing oneself with the ashes of the dead body, eating
the flesh of such a body..."
The very word "Kapala, translated a 'bowl', 'vessel', 'begging bowl' and also
'skull' implies already its specific ritualistic function. What the Buddhist
tradition concerns it is interesting to note, that in the Vinaya the use of a
human skull as an almsbowl was explicitly forbidden. Only with the spread of the
Vajrayana system in India and Tibet did the humans skull gain its importance as
a ritualistic implement.
As for the Tibetan sources, there is first to mention a text written in the
twelfth century AD by the Sa skya scholar Grags pa rgyal mtshan entitled "The
Inner Offering Bowl in the Guhyamantrayana". It enumerates eight characteristics
of a skull suitable for Tantric rituals, such as the "Feel of it", its shape,
colour, the number of sections, good and bad marks on the surface of the cranium
ect.
Furthermore there is a text called "The Harmful and Richness bestowing
Characteristics of Skulls", among the gter chos texts discovered by Sangs rgyas
gLing pa (1340-1396). This text includes instructions for a specific Kapala
ritual.
In the fifteenth century Ratna gLing pa (1403-1478) discovered among the gYang
gsang bLa med gTer chos another important ritual text called "The Pith
Instructions for the Siddhis of a Jewel Kapala". These two gTer ma texts are
included in an dbu med written ancient manuscript which contains as well a
highly interesting story history on Kapala based on oral tradition.
During field studies in Darjeeling 1981/82 and in Tibet 1987 Loseries-Leick
interviewed several traditional bone carvers, Lamas as well as sNgags pa Yogis
on the subject. These investigations proved that the oral tradition on skull
cults is still alive in Tibet as well as in exile. Their survival is most likely
due to the fact that the relevant practices belong to a group of the highest
Tantric teachings, the Anuttaratantras, and are therefore kept secret.
Loserier-Leick also verifies that the oral tradition largely tallies with the
instructions given in the above mentioned written documents.