Brothers of the Shadow

Dugpas

H. P. Blavatsky and the Mahatmas used many times the word dugpa (Tib. ’brug pa) as a synonym of a black magician:

Dugpas (Tib.). Lit., “Red Caps,” a sect in Tibet. Before the advent of Tsong-ka-pa in the fourteenth century, the Tibetans, whose Buddhism had deteriorated and been dreadfully adulterated with the tenets of the old Bhon religion,—were all Dugpas. From that century, however, and after the rigid laws imposed upon the Gelukpas (yellow caps) and the general reform and purification of Buddhism (or Lamaism), the Dugpas have given themselves over more than ever to sorcery, immorality, and drunkenness. Since then the word Dugpas has become a synonym of “sorcerer”, “adept of black magic” and everything vile. There are few, if any, Dugpas in Eastern Tibet, but they congregate in Bhutan, Sikkim, and the borderlands generally.

As we can see, the word "dugpa" is used here in a generic sense to refer to all "red-cap" or "red-hat" sects of Tibetan Buddhism, that is, the Nyigmapas, Kagyupas, Sakyapas, and the pre-Buddhist natives Bhons. These are the non-reformed sects that did not follow Tsongkhapa’s new order, the Gelugpas. In fact, as David Reigle showed, this general meaning for the word "dugpa" was prevalent at the time of Blavatsky's writings. This mistake was corrected in 1895 by L. Austine Waddell’s book, The Buddhism of Tibet, or Lamaism, where he states that the Dug-pa are a sub-sect of the red-cap sect Kagyupa, which became the main school of Buddhism in Bhutan.

Although the non-reformed sects do not impose the preventive rules created by Tsongkhapa, this does not mean they are all black magicians. Even within the particular sect of the dugpas in Bhutan this is not the case. As Mme. Blavatsky wrote:

In Sikkim and Tibet they are called Dug-pas (red-caps), in contra-distinction to the Geluk-pas (yellow-caps), to which latter most of the adepts belong. And here we must beg the reader not to misunderstand us. For though the whole of Bhûtan and Sikkim belongs to the old religion of the Bhons, now known generally as the Dug-pas, we do not mean to have it understood that the whole of the population is possessed, en masse, or that they are all sorcerers. Among them are found as good men as anywhere else, and we speak above only of the élite of their Lamaseries, of a nucleus of priests, "devil-dancers," and fetish worshippers, whose dreadful and mysterious rites are utterly unknown to the greater part of the population.

Further reading

• Triad at Theosopedia

• Who Are the Dugpas in Theosophical Writings? by David Reigle at Katinkahesselink.net