In this brief clip from the 1967 movie "More than a Miracle" starring Omar Sharif and Sophia Loren, the flying saint, Joseph of Cupertino, plays a brief but important part. St. Joseph lived from 1603 to 1663, and had literally hundreds of well documented flights, staying in the air hours at a time, and spending a considerable part of his life in the air. This movie presents an artist's imagination of what these flights might have been like. Joseph's innumerable flights witnessed by great leaders of his time, by popes, and by the common people of the towns where he lived led to his being canonized as a Saint in the Catholic church in 1753. Flights like these are recorded in cultures throughout the world and throughout history, but none are so well documented as the flights of Joseph of Cupertino. These miraculous flights show that man can indeed be the master of gravity. This is the inspiring picture of an ideal man, with which the movie "More than a Miracle" begins.
Kenchen Tsewang Rigdzin-Rainbow Body
Flying Away into the Sky
What is described below is one popular version of the event that was commonly known to the elder local people in Tongde County. This version was known to most people and believed by most people. Our investigation, witness interviewing, analysis and verification were conducted around this version.
According to local people, one day in September of 1958, a mass assembly was to be held near the Digan Temple in Tongde County to criticize and interrogate Khenchen Tsewang Rigdzin (Khenpo Chaiwan Runzheng). At that time, he was already in jail in the County Prison. Several small hills must be crossed from the prison to the site of the mass assembly. Several soldiers were escorting the Khenpo after taking him from the prison. Because of his handicap, the Khenpo was allowed to ride on the back of a red yak. When the group of five or six people were approaching their destination, an extremely strong and violent whirlwind (cyclone) suddenly took place. The wind was so strong that none of the soldiers could open their eyes. Their location at the time was close to the top of a hill, with a distance of several kilometers from the Digan Temple. After the wind had gone away, the soldiers started to look around. However, Khenchen Tsewang Rigdzin (Khenpo Chaiwan Runzheng) was no longer on the yak. Before starting the trip, to prevent an accident, the soldiers had tied the Khenpo tightly on the back of the yak with rope. All their efforts were proven to be in vain, because the Khenpo had flown into the sky, accompanied by several auspicious colored clouds. This event was witnessed by many people at the scene.
3. My Investigation
If you come to Tongde County and mention the name of Khenchen Tsewang Rigdzin (Khenpo Chaiwan Runzheng) to people, almost anyone will tell the above story to you in similar details. Even though the story is so commonly known, I still decided to do my investigation from the start.
My first goal was to clarify the doubt many people may have. On the other hand, I wanted to have the facts recorded truthfully. I wished to find out: did people put their feelings into the story so the truth got covered by kind lies? Also, between legend and fact, to what degree and scope can the truth be re-manifested?
The people I interviewed in my investigation included some who were escorting the Khenpo at the time; those who were near the location when the Khenpo was flying away, including some eye witnesses; and a number of people who listened to the entire story from eye witnesses. When putting their words into text, I wrote down exactly what they said almost without editing a word. My goal was to let the readers draw their own conclusions naturally, without being influenced by the subjective and, possibly, already fixed thinking in my mind. I believe that this style of truthfully presenting the original narration would be convincing to the readers.
My first interview was with the elderly Zhimei, who is 77 years old now.
He was a local shepherd in Tongde County. He told me:
“On the day when Master Tsewang Rigdzin (Chaiwan Runzheng) was taken from the prison to the site of the mass meeting, I was watching cattle on one of the hills he must pass. I saw several soldiers passing by with the Master. They tied the Master onto the back of a red yak. When they went over the top of the hill, I was with the cattle half way on the hill. Then, I suddenly saw the Master, in monk’s clothing, started to ascend from the other side of the hill. At the beginning, he was flying up slowly. Eventually he disappeared into the clouds. Many people said that there was a strong swirling wind and auspicious colorful clouds appeared in the sky but I did not see those scenes. This may be because I was half way up this side of the hill, while the Master had already gone to the other side. All I saw was that the Master flew into the sky. I saw that with my own eyes. I was still young then with good eye sight. It would be impossible that what I saw was some illusion. Years later, the charges to those jailed in 1958 were dropped. The Master’s hometown Hongyuan also sent people to request the Master’s remains from Tongde County. I knew that they would not get them because the Master flew away into the sky. I saw that with my own eyes. I told this to my family members but I dare not to tell the people from Hongyuan. After all these years, now as an elderly person of almost 80 years old, I am telling this story again from my memory. Do you think I would fabricate it to deceive you? I absolutely do not have any false statement in it. I do not have any reason to lie on this. In general, there are two possible motives for one to lie. One is trying to reap benefits from doing so. The other is being forced to lie and under pressure. My situation has nothing to do with either of these. That’s why I can guarantee you that I did not make any false statement in what I said.”
The elderly Zhimei was an eye witness of the event.
The next person I met, Chongpeier, provided detailed collaborating materials in many aspects. Also, he was the most talkative person among those I interviewed.
Chongpeier is over 60 now. He is a local resident and currently stays at home after retiring from his job. He was a middle-level cadre of Tongde County. He described to me, in great detail, what he learned on this event:
“I remember that it was a day in October of 1988. I was the director of the Bureau of Industry and Commerce Management of Tongde County then. On that day, when it was near the end of workday, a Han (mandarin) person came to see me and invited me to have dinner with him. At the dinner table, he told me his purpose of looking for me. His name was Li Desheng and he was from the Shangchun Village of Huangzhong County in Qihai Province. He came to Tongde County to buy about 500 head of cattle and lambs from local people. He wanted to ask me a favor of collecting less taxes and fees from him. He told me that he knew many senior officials in Tongde County very well, but not me. I asked him where he had worked before. He said that he has been a soldier in the security force of Tongde County and had risen to the position of a squad leader. While we were enjoying wine and dining, he told me a miraculous experience of his that was beyond imagination:
‘I saw a person who flew away in front of my own eyes. At that time, I and several soldiers of my squad were escorting that Lama from the prison to the mass meeting site near the Digan Temple. We tied him tightly onto the back of a yak and surrounded him as we were on our way. While we were climbing the hill and close to the top, he started to chant something that we could not understand. At the top of the hill, we ordered him to stop making the sound. Then we saw that the other side of the hill was flat land. Suddenly, many pieces of colored clouds flew over. The Lama got carried away by the clouds!
Well, it was easy for him to get carried away by the clouds but we were left with the burden of reporting this event to the upper level. When I reported this to the county government, I was told that I did not accomplish my task and I had to write a report to repent myself. I did write that report of repentance.’
Li Desheng also told me that, after hearing this event, the Attorney General of the county was a little moved and said, ‘This is really very strange.’ Just for saying this, the Attorney General was removed from his position, because the higher level thought he was a superstitious person. Many people in Tongde County knew about the firing of the Attorney General from his job but they all speculated that it was due to some other fault he committed and did not know the real reason. Li Desheng mentioned that he told his parents about this and they held their palms together and respectfully said, ‘this person (Khenchen Tsewang Rigdzin) is great and incredible.’”
Chongpeier added, “Normally he should be charged over 2000 Yuans of taxes and fees. For telling me this event, I only collected about 700 Yuans from him.”
1-Wherever possible, the names and places listed here have been translated as they appeared in other Tibetan-English sources. The transliteration of these names from the original Chinese article are also provided in parentheses.
2-Other accounts of this story indicate that Tsewang Rigdzin was a very big man, weighing over 330 pounds at the time of his leaving this world. It was not uncommon for people from this area to be over seven feet tall.
3-In another account of this event, it was reported that after witnessing the lama flying away, several of the soldiers who had pointed their guns at the lama became devout Buddhist. Although that article has not been translated yet from the Chinese, I believe from oral accounts that it was written by one of these soldiers.
This examples given were taken from an article written by the abbot of Shangdan Temple in Tongde County, Huangnan Region of Qinghai Province. Before 1958, Shangdan Temple had been the home base of Khenchen Tsewang Rigdzin (Khenpo Chaiwan Runzheng) for propagating the dharma and benefiting living beings.
Related:
Top Twenty Cases of Human Levitation: Part One:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0M3fmxOAXDg
