The Wild Boar to Subdue Epidemics

Abstract

The recent COVID-19 epidemic has proved longer-lasting than many governments initially expected, and has had an overwhelming impact on societies almost everywhere. In conjunction with biomedical solutions, various medical traditions have attempted to take preventive measures against the spread of the novel coronavirus. In the Tibetan medical tradition, the use of a medical amulet known as Rimsung pill (rims srung ril bu) has been used widely across the Himalayas as a preventive approach to ward off illness and contagion. During the pandemic demand for these amulets quickly grew in the Himalayan region. Its formulation can be traced back to the 17th century Extended Commentary of the Four Tantras (Man ngag lhan thabs) by Desi Sangye Gyatso. Analysis of the text shows that this amulet has not been only as a charm for wearing, but is also frequently empowered in a tantric Buddhist practice known as the Five Spokes Mantra (rtsibs lnga’i sngags) which is related to pacifying the detrimental power of epidemics. The ritual involves writing the mantra on an image depicting a pair of wild boars and visualizing oneself as a wild boar consuming the spreading disease. This practice is regarded as especially efficacious in eliminating epidemics at their root: the source from which the contagion arises known as parbata. It is believed in the Extended Commentary that parbata gives rise to all types of contagious diseases as a result of ignorance and confusion among sentient beings in the current age of the degeneration of the Buddha’s Dharma. This study examines the origin of the wild boar visualization practice and its relationship to the contagion source parbata. It further examines its significance in preventing infectious disease in the Tibetan medical tradition based on a tantric view of the nature of epidemics in the contemporary context.