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Mircea Eliade – Shamanism Archaic techniques of ecstasy

Source Guiseppe Tucci – Tibetan Painted Scrolls; R A Stein – Leao-Tche

 The first king of Tibet, Gna-k’ri-bstan-po is said to have come from heaven by a rope named dmu-t’ag.  This mythical rope was also depicted on royal tombs, a sign that the sovereign ascended to heaven after death.  Indeed for kings, communications between heaven and earth were never altogether broken.  And the Tibetans believed that in ancient time their sovereigns did not die but ascended to heaven, a concept that suggests a memory of a certain ‘lost paradise’.

Bon tradition further speak of a  clan, dMu, a name that at the same time designates a class of gods; these dwell in heaven and the dead go to them there by climbing a ladder or a rope.  Long ago on earth there was a class of priests who professed to have power to guide the dead to heaven because they were masters of the rope or ladder; these priests were the dMu