DRANGSONG MANUSCRIPTS

1. Text number

Drangsong 185

2. Text title (where present) in Tibetan

༄༅།། ཀླུའི་གཡང་སྐྱབས།

༄༅།། ཀླུ་ཐེལ་ཕྱེ་བ་ཡོད་དོ།།

3. Text title (where present) in Wylie transliteration

klu’i g.yang skyabs/

klu thel phye bya yod do/

4. A brief summary of the item’s contents

A ritual of offerings to the klu for the acquisition of fortune, and the expulsion of thel, which, although it originates with the klu themselves, infringes on human life and wealth.

5. Number of folios

6. Scribe’s name

7. Translation of title

A offering ritual to the klu for good fortune

A ritual for distinguishing between the klu and thel

8. Transcription of colophon

Ces klu thel phye ba tshar ro/ bkra shis par shog/ sarba/ mangalȧ/

9. Translation of colophon

The [ritual of ] “Distinguish between klu and thel is over”. Auspices. Good fortune.

10. General remarks

The first text is incomplete.

In the second section, the thel, a demon that infringes on wealth and life, is similar to the bse rags spirit (which has an unpleasant smell in this context) and has nine main forms:

The klu family consists of nine siblings, eight of whom are brothers, while the ninth is a sister, Klu mo ’od ldan. She married Ye sangs dkar po and gave birth to nine thel siblings, the thel bsen spun dgu:
1	gnam thel dkar po	In the sky
2	brag thel spre dmar gus ’debs
3	klu thel nag po
4	bar thel klog ’gyur	In the air
5	thel po zer ’phro	In the light
6	shing thel skya ’o	In the woods
7	brag thel nag po	In the rock-cliff
8	chu thel nag po	In the water
9	sa thel skya bo	on the earth