just down the hill from drepung monastery outside lhasa is the monastery dedicated to the nechung oracle, traditionally consulted on matters of interest to the tibetan state. of course, the nechung oracle that is still consulted by the fourteenth dalai lama has relocated to tibet with the rest of the tibetan government-in-exile. but the original seat stands, as it were, and bears magnificent visual testimony to the protectors and all they protect us against.
the oracle of nechung arrived on this spot in a box, it is said, having earlier resided as a fearful spirit menacing the inhabitants of some other valley in tibet. a shaman practicing the indigenous tibetan bon religion was called in to remove the evil being, and he did so by trapping it in a box, which he then placed in the river to be carried downstream. 
when the box hit land near the current site of nechung, the spirit escaped and took to living in a tree and resumed its activities of harming the locals. this time, rather than a practitioner of bon, a powerful buddhist teacher was called in. this time, the spirit was converted to buddhism and left unharmed - and untrapped in a box - in a pact in which it agreed to serve as a protector to the dharma in tibet and to the tibetan state and its guardians
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we were unable to locate the tree, which we had heard was still standing somewhere. but we did find the monastery, bursting with murals of various protector deities - most quite terrifying. in keeping with tradition, the background of these images of wrathful deities and protectors is black, and we also found on some walls paintings of the gruesome offerings that protector deities like to receive: weapons, animal skins, skullcups filled with blood and other things not found in the sutras.
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