The Vase of Ambrosia

This is an introduction to and translation of the Vase of the Deathless Ones’ Ambrosia Tantra. The Vase of Ambrosia presents itself as a treasure text that was taught by Padmasambhava in eighth-century Tibet and finally revealed five hundred years later. In the opening chapter, Padmasambhava explains that a devastating epidemic disease will spread to Tibet and ultimately kill three out of every four people in the world. Despite this dire prognosis, he also explains the medical and spiritual causes of the disease, such that the physicians and ritual specialists of the future will be able to treat their patients and protect themselves. Taken together, the Vase of Ambrosia is a scriptural cycle that represents the Tibetan experiences of and responses to the bubonic plague in the thirteenth century, and which continues to inspire Buddhist approaches to epidemic disease even today.