Perhaps not so surprisingly, Uddiyana is also a concept, which denotes a place, or station one arrives at in meditation on the path to enlightenment -- for so many great Gurus, Mahasiddhas, Yogis, Yoginis, Dakinis, and Buddhist Saints either passed through or were born of this land. Uddiyana is also one of the three main "bandhas" -- a posture in which organs and muscles are contracted and controlled creating a psychomuscular energy lock that redirects the flow of energy in the body and locks it into a specific area -- in Hatha Yoga. By any definition, Uddiyana is both mystical and magical -- and no doubt a fertile ground for the origination, evolution, and dissemination of many Buddhist and Tantric teachers and teachings.
Early Tibetan writings, including The Tibetan Book of the Dead, refer to U-rgyan [the Tibetan equivalent to Uddiyana; also known as O-rgyan, or Oddiyana] as simply "a region lying to the West of India." In the 19th Century, European anthropologists investigating the history of the region concluded that Uddiyana was a region in the Swat Valley of present-day Northern Pakistan -- which, like Israel and Instanbul, is a place of tremendous historical, cultural, and religious significance. Modern-day scholars suggest that Uddiyana might have been a far-wider reaching region that extended well beyond the Swat Valley to include parts of Pakistan, Afghanistan, India, and Tibet.
Scholarly debate aside, it's a fact that this historic region is incredibly important to all Hindus and Buddhists alike. Indeed, Uddiyana may very well have been the crossroad of time and place where Saivism, Vaisnavism, Saktism, Buddhism, Jainism, Hinduism, Bon, and teachings such as Vajrayana and Tantricism -- a doctrine of enlightenment as the realization of the oneness of one's self and the visible world, combining elements of Hinduism and magical and mystical elements like mantras and mudras and erotic rites -- originated, or evolved and were disseminated across Indian, Tibetan, Pakastani, Afghani, and Chinese borders.
In addition to hosting countless spiritual travelers seeking Buddhist and Tantric teachings, Uddiyana is also the birthplace of numerous Gurus, Mahasiddhas, Yogin, Yoginis, Dakinis, and Buddhist Saints, including: Garab Dorje, the Yogi and Tantric scholar widely-regarded as the originator of Dzog-pa Chen-po, or simply Dzogchen -- known also as The Great Perfection Teachings, The Self-Perfected State of the Individual, State of Total Completeness, and Teaching of Spontaneous Self-Perfection. Garab Dorje is said to have received all the tantras, scriptures and oral instructions of Dzogchen directly from Vajrasattva and Vajrapani, which he transmitted to Manjushrimitra, who was regarded as his chief disciple.
Padmasambhava is also known to have received the transmission of the Dzogchen tantras directly from Garab Dorje. Padmasambhava, literally meaning "Lotus-born" [also known as Guru Rinpoche, Padmakara, or Tsokey Dorje], the Tantric Guru predicted by the Buddha Shakyamuni to bring the Buddhist Dharma to Tibet, which he did, founding Tibetan Buddhism [Vajrayana], or the Tantric school of Buddhism in the 8th century. In Bhutan and Tibet he is better known as Guru Rinpoche ["Precious Master"] where followers of the Nyingma school regard him as the second Buddha.
Tilopa, one of the so-called eighty-four [84] Mahasiddhas, or "Greatly Accomplished Ones," who was instrumental -- with the aid of Naropa and Marpa -- in disseminating the originally Indian [Hindu] Tantra teachings to Tibet. Tilopa also integrated Mahamudra with the Tantric teachings of Buddhism and himself became inseparable from Buddha Vajradhara. Perhaps the most phenomenal aspect of the spiritual and scholarly culture of Uddiyana is the fact that it did not discriminate between genders -- as sage truths and wisdom was passed naturally between men and women. As such, Uddiyana was home to abundant Yoginis, Dakinis, and female Mahasiddhas: female Tantric teachers who gifted all the aforementioned men with their wisdom in the form of the nine secret Dakini teachings and the four wish-fulfilling-gem teachings -- among others. Indeed, the significance of women and feminine energies generated a more modern name for Uddiyana as "Land of the Dakinis."
There's no question that Tantricism flourished in Uddiyana. One of the precepts of Tantricism is the mergence of male and female, or masculine and feminine, or Yin and Yang energies as a means to greater awareness and even enlightenment. This precept falls in line with the non-dual, or non-duality teaching of Buddhism and Taoism -- on the highest level, everything is but One; duality is a magnificently compelling illusion. Magic and sexual Yogic acts were but a few of the powerful energy sources Tantrics leveraged to gain wisdom, power, and holistic wellness. Simply put, Uddiyana was the gateway between Indian Buddhist and Hindu Tantra teaching and the lands of Tibet, Nepal, and China. It could be said that Uddiyana was the silk road of Buddhism and Tantricism.
Speaking of The Silk Road and China, according to the writings of the celebrated Chinese Buddhist pilgrim HiuenTsang, who crossed through Uddiyana en route to India in search of Buddhist teachings in the 7th Century AD: 'Uddiyana is a land bounded by snow capped peaks; a land of rugged mountains and broad valleys, of wide marshes, green meadows and high plateaus, where grapes grow in abundance. The hillsides are covered in dense forests and the valleys are rich in flowers. This is a land blessed by fine crops, by herds of well fattened cattle, and teeming with orchards of fruit-bearing trees -- truly a nation of milk, bread, honey and wine. Uddiyana is a land that is rich in gold and iron and other profitable minerals. Throughout the year the temperature is never too hot nor too cold. It is thus, a most agreeable and idyllic land.
