Belwong Kālasiddhi was a wisdom ḍākinī and one of the five principal consorts of Guru Rinpoche. She is accepted as an emanation of the enlightened qualities of Vajravārāhī. Like Shakyadevi, she was abandoned in a charnel ground as an infant. She was discovered there attempting to suck her dead mother’s milk by Mandarava who cared for her and instructed her in Vajrayana practices.
On Yeshe Tsogyel’s second visit to Nepal, she encountered the fourteen year old ḍākinī, and bestowed upon her the name Kālasiddhi.
བལ་ཡུལ་མཁའ་འགྲོ་ཀ་ལ་སིདྡྷི་མ། །
balyul khandro kala siddhi ma
In Nepal you took the Ḍākinī Kālasiddhī under your careརྗེས་བཟུང་གདམས་པས་གྲོལ་ལ་གསོལ་བ་འདེབས། །
From The Tambura’s Yearning Song of Devotion: A Prayer Summarizing Khandro Yeshé Tsogyal’s Life and Liberation by Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Thayé.
jezung dampé drol la solwa deb
And granted her liberating instructions: to you, we pray!
In Mangyul, Kālasiddhi received initiation into the Tantra Lama Mandala (gSangs-sngags bla-ma’i dkyil-‘khor) and after extensive meditation she gained siddhi. She accompanied Yeshe Tsogyel to Mutri Tsenpo’s court at Samyé and then to the retreat centre at Chimphu where she meets Guru Rinpoche. The Guru immediately perceived her potential as a spiritual consort, and Yeshe Tsogyel offered her to the Guru.
There are minimal details about her practice, but supplications make reference to her importance. According to the Pema Kathang, in the country of Ngatubchen (probably in the Kathmandu valley of Nepal), the Indian vidyadhara Humkara was initiated into the eight main yidams of the Kagye by Padmasambhava and his consort Kālasiddhi:
རྔ་ཐུབ་ཡུལ་བྱོན་སཽ་ཁྱ་དེ་བར་གྲགས། །
nga tub yul jön sau khya dewar drak
Known as Bhikṣu Saukhyadeva, you visit the land of drummers.ཀཱ་ལ་སིདྡྷཱིའི་ཡུམ་བཅས་སྒྲུབ་པ་མཛད། །
kala siddhi yum ché drubpa dzé
With your consort Kālasiddhī, you attain accomplishment there.ཧཱུྂ་ཀར་རྗེས་བཟུང་གྲུབ་པའི་ས་ལ་བཀོད། །
hung kar jezung drubpé sa la kö
You nurture the young Hūṃkāra, and bring forth his realization,ཆོས་ཀྱི་སྣང་ཆེན་སྤེལ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། །
Chapter 50, A Beautiful and Wondrous Uḍumbara Garland: A Supplication and Summary of the Epic of Padma, The Life and Liberation of the Precious Guru of Uḍḍiyāna by Jamyang Khyentsé Wangpo.
chö kyi nang chen pel la chaktsal lo
Causing the radiance of the Dharma to shine: homage to you!
When Guru Rinpoche left Tibet, he entrusted Kālasiddhi to Yeshe Tsogyel’s care. According the the spiritual biographies, when Yeshe Tsogyel was giving her final instructions:
Yeshé Tsogyal touched Tashi Kyidren, the girl from Mön. Instantly, she was transformed into a blue utpala lotus with eight petals and marked with the syllables hūṃ and phaṭ and instantly she dissolved into the right side of the Lady’s heart. Then with her left hand, Yeshé Tsogyal touched Kālasiddhī of Nepal, who changed into a red lotus of sixteen petals marked with the sixteen vowels and hrīḥ ,and then dissolved into the left side of her heart.
Gyalwa Changchub and Namkhai Nyingpo, Lady of the Lotus-Born: The Life and Enlightenment of Yeshe Tsogyal, Boston: Shambala, 2002, 197-198.
