Research Notes on the Kingdom of Shambhala

SOTUNG NANGU....aka: Sotuk Nangu, Coto-kin-unwu, Sotuqnangu.....the Hopi "Heart of the Sky" God

Major deity, not just Kachina.....Historically a forbidden figure for whites to see......Last seen in the 1920's.....Masked and un-masked version of Kachina.....

In one legend associated with Sotuknang, the Hopi sky god...... A devastating flood had destroyed Palatkwapi=97"the red city to the south," possibly located in the red rock country near Sedona, Arizona. Shortly afterwards a boy named Tiwahongva and his sister Tawiayisnima, who were forgotten in the chaos and left behind by their fleeing parents, set out on a journey to find them.
In the evening they decided to make camp. They were just opening their bundle for dinner when they heard a great roar overhead. The children were very frightened, wondering what this strange thing could be. The brother held his sister tightly to his breast as a fantastic being descended from the heavens. He was "WEARING A COSTUME THAT GLITTERED LIKE ICE WHILE HIS HEAD AND FACE SHONE LIKE A STAR". He spoke: "Do not be afraid. My name is Sotuknang. Because of my sympathy for your plight, I have come to help you. Get on my paatuwvota and let us be on our way."

"Shenlha Okar...the colour of his body is like the essence of crystal. His ornaments, attire, and palace are adorned by crystal light." (Kvaerne: 1996)...

"Just to the west of the Bon Kingdom of Zhang-zhung there once existed the vast Kushana empire ....... an area in which Indian Buddhism and the Bon teachings interacted with various strands of the ..MITHRAIC..t, MANICHAEISM , as well as Indian Shaivism and Nestorian Christianity.......

The Hopi Sky God and the similarity to the description of the Tibetan Sky God......"In one legend the flying shield is associated with Sotuknang, the Hopi sky god. A devastating flood had destroyed Palatkwapi—“the red city to the south,” possibly located in the red rock country near Sedona, Arizona. Shortly afterwards a boy named Tiwahongva and his sister Tawiayisnima, who were forgotten in the chaos and left behind by their fleeing parents, set out on a journey to find them. In the evening they decided to make camp. They were just opening their bundle for dinner when they heard a great roar overhead. The children were very frightened, wondering what this strange thing could be. The brother held his sister tightly to his breast as a fantastic being descended from the heavens. He was wearing a costume that glittered like ice (silver?) while his head and face shone like a star. He spoke: “Do not be afraid. My name is Sotuknang. Because of my sympathy for your plight, I have come to help you. Get on my paatuwvota and let us be on our way.”

He then took them on his flying shield up into the sky so that they could see for many miles around. Feeding the hungry children ripe melons, he told them that they must have faith in him and in his teachings that would later arrive through their dreams. Finally he landed a short distance from the village in which their mother and father had settled, bid the young ones farewell, and flew up again into the clouds. Forever grateful to the sky god, the brother and sister walked into the village to be reunited with their parents."

NAVAJO WINDHORSE......The story goes, that the Johano-ai' starts each day from his Hogan in the east and rides across the skies to his Hogan in the west, carrying the shining golden disk, the Sun. They say that when the skies are blue and the weather is fair, Johano-ai' is mounted on his Turquoise Horse or his White Shell Horse; but when the heavens are dark with storm, he is riding the Horse of Coal.

When a horse of the Sun God gallops, he raises not dust but glittering grains of mineral, such that are used in our ceremonies. And that when he rolls and shakes himself, it is this shining mineral that flies from him.

The White Shelled Horse of the east is the color of purity and of the spirit. They say that Sun God rode this horse when he was courting Changing Woman, the earth goddess. The white horse occupies the east, the color of dawn or early morning light.

In the Shambhala tradition .. Shiwa Okar is the origin of the teachings and the essence of primordial reality.......In the Tibetan Bonpo tradtion, Shenlha Okar is the source of the Dzogchen lineages of Bon......According to Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, "Shiwa Okar and the Shenlha Okar are the same deity..."

This research explores ancient relationships...Shiwa Okar, 16 year old white deity wearing crystal armor and helmet.....Shenlha Okar, the brilliant white pure light being with body the essence of crystal "God of Gods" of the Tibetan Bon tradition.........MITHRA.., the pure white pre-Christian Europe/pre-Islam Persia, mounted Warrior Sky God whom the soldiers of ancient Roman worshipped in numerous Mithraeum of Western Europe.......and Sotunanga, the 'crystal ice faced' supreme god "Heart of the Sky" deity in the Hopi tradition...in 1974 Trungpa said that the pre-Buddhist Bonpo religion of Tibet was 'identical' with the Native American tradtions of the Southwest........

There was an effort in Japan to separate Shinto from Buddhism: "After the Meiji Imperial Restoration of 1868, the new government purged Shinto of Buddhist elements, or ordered to clearly segregate Buddhism from Shinto."