Being Buddhist, most Tibetans do not offer blood sacrifice to spirits. This goes back to the introduction of Buddhism to Tibet in the mid-8th century. In the year 760 the King of Tibet, Trison Detsen, a strong proponent of Buddhism, had invited Santaraksita the abbot of Nalanda to build a monastery in Tibet. This upset the local lha-dre (local demons and gods) who survived off blood sacrifices and were not terribly keen on the idea of Buddhism taking hold in the land of snows, as Buddhism does not allow for animal or human sacrifice. Every night after the workers finished for the day, the spirits would come and tear down everything that was built, as well as causing floods, storms, and disease. Being a simple abbot, Santaraksita was no match for the spirits arrayed against him, and he recommended the king summon Padmasambhava, a great Tantric Sorceror who could overpower both gods and demons.
Padmasambhava was at the Asura Cave in Yang-le-shod (Pharping) Nepal practicing sexย yoga with his Nepali consort Shakyadevi when he sensed that he was needed in Tibet and flew off to be of assistance. Upon crossing the border into Tibet, he was attacked by the Yul-lha (mountain god) Yarlha Shampo who took the form of a giant white yak with lightning emanating from its eyes and blizzards issuing from its nose. As it charged down Mount Sotang Kangbori at Padmasambhava, Padmasambhava simply grabbed him by the nose, twirled him a round his head three times, and slammed him on the ground so hard that it created an earthquake that was felt as far as Kathmandu.
Yarlha Shampo transformed into a humanoid form and asked Padmasambhava to spare him. Padmasambhava made him promise to stop creating problems for the people in the Yarlung Valley and to become a protector of the Buddhaโs Dharma and all practitioners that come down Padmasambhavaโs students. He began the first Tibetan Dharmapala (Protector). Yarlha Shampo agreed but there was a problem: He subsisted on mar-chod, the โred-offeringโ of sacrificed animals and humans that Buddhists do not practice.
Padmasambhava said that this was not a problem and established the tradition of Red Tormas, cakes that stand in for, and sometimes are shaped to look like, blood sacrifices. These cakes get packed with prana during offering rites, and multiplied through meditative visualization so that they function for the recipient the same way that a blood sacrifice would.
Padmasambhava eventually got the Samye where he subdued the demons blocking the building of the monastery. He then traveled all over Tibet and recruited more Dharma Protectors. Some, like the Nagaraja Angkusha of Chimphu Cave, had to be subdued and forced to become a protector. Others, like Dorje Lekpa (literally Vajra Good-Guy), happily agreed to it over a glass of beer. The Tormas and other types of Buddhist offerings were so attractive to some spirits that it even attracted gods from outside of Tibet. Pehar supposedly came from Turkey and agreed to become a Tibetan Protector in exchange for a wife and regular puja offerings. Pehar still serves as the main spirit that speaks through the Nechung Oracle to this day.
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