Jun 14, 2022
Tale of Karma Wangzin and her Travels Between Life and Death
Tibet, 17th-18th century
This handwritten loose-leaf book (Tibetan, pecha) tells the story of a Buddhist woman named Alak Karma Wangzin who was a delog - a person who dies briefly and then revives, and therefore can reveal the mysteries of life after death. Karma Wangzin tells how she entered 18 different Buddhist realms of hell - both hot and cold - before returning to her body. This pecha is written in the formal Tibetan uchen script (literally 'with a head').