Twin Peaks Usenet Archive
Subject: Re: Dugpas
From: raveling@Unify.com (Paul Raveling)
Date: 1991-04-26, 13:59
Newsgroups: alt.tv.twin-peaks
In article <1836@tekig7.MAP.TEK.COM>, bradn@tekig3.PEN.TEK.COM (Bradford
H Needham) writes:
> > In article <1991Apr22.211155.4868@colorado.edu>
ingraffi@tramp.colorado.edu (INGRAFFIA EDMOND J) writes:
>> > >
>> > > I ust noticced that everyone is now referring to the "evil spirits"
>> > >(that WE mentioned) as "dugpas"....
> >
> > I heard it as "dougfus", a play on words for "Douglas Firs".
When Jerry Boyajian posted his original note about the White
Lodge as mentioned in "The Devil's Guard" he quoted from
chapter XII, titled "Dugpas", which said among other things...
"Dugpas is the name for sorcerers who cultivate evil
for the sake of evil..."
It would appear that either one or more Peaks writers
is drawing from this now-obscure 1926 book or we've influenced
them to do that.
I gave a copy of Jerry's article to Scott Frost, who said he
hadn't been aware of it. If the White Lodge connection was
actually accidental, then they must have written in some
references to things such as the Dugpas based on the info
we forwarded. I passed that article on at a time that would
have been about when the last episode's script was written.
For the benefit of still more who haven't seen it, a copy
of this article by Jerry Boyajian follows the form feed
after my signature.
------------------
Paul Raveling
Raveling@Unify.com
> > Article: 8929 of alt.tv.twin-peaks
> > Xref: unify alt.tv.twin-peaks:8929 rec.arts.tv:21972
> > Path:
unify!csusac!ucdavis!csus.edu!wuarchive!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!think.
.com!mintaka!bloom-beacon!deccrl!news.crl.dec.com!shlump.nac.dec.com!ryn
n.mro4.dec.com!ruby.dec.com!boyajian
> > From: boyajian@ruby.dec.com (Cisco's Buddy)
> > Newsgroups: alt.tv.twin-peaks,rec.arts.tv
> >
Subject: The White Lodge
> > Message-ID: <3606@ryn.mro4.dec.com>
> > Date: 12 Dec 90 07:16:21 GMT
> > Sender: guest@ryn.mro4.dec.com
> > Followup-To: alt.tv.twin-peaks
> > Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation
> > Lines: 96
Major Briggs: "There are powerful forces of evil. It is some men's fate
to face great darkness. We each choose how to react. If the
choice
is fear, then we become vulnerable to darkness. There are ways to
resist. You, sir, were blessed with certain gifts. In this
respect,
you're not alone. Have you ever heard of the White Lodge?"
Agent Cooper: "The White Lodge. No, I don't believe I have."
Well, Cooper hasn't, but I have. I don't know of any other "legitimate"
source for the reference, but following are quotes from the fantasy
adventure novel THE DEVIL'S GUARD (a.k.a. RAMSDEN) by Talbot Mundy,
first published in 1926, and sadly out of print for the last 20 years.
The page numbers cited are for the 1968 Avon Books paperback edition,
though if you happen across a different edition and are inclined to
look
up the quotes, they can be found in Chapter XII, entitled "Dugpas".
[Background: James Schuyler Grim (a.k.a. "Jimgrim") and his companions
Jeff Ramsden, Narayan Singh, and Chullander Ghose, are hired to find
Elmer Rait, a fellow American who's disappeared in Tibet. Along the
way,
they are beset by perils both natural and human.]
Grim went on talking: "It's known, even in this monastery,
that the dugpas have caught Rait. Dugpas is the name for
sorcerers who cultivate evil for the sake of evil--that's
as close as I can come to understanding it--they're vaguely
like the Kali-worshippers of India. The people Rait set out
to reach, and whom we want to reach, are the students of
Life, so to speak--much in the same way that Luther Burbank
studies botany, for the love of it. The dugpas are as much
their enemies as the law of gravity is the enemy of the will
to rise. Rait had intelligence enough to work his way into
the outer fringe of the dugpa mysteries, but that was his
limit. He began to try to use the Dalai Lama's letter that
he stole from Mordecai. The Dalai Lama--or the Kun-Dun as
they call him--and the Tashi Lama of Shigatze, are the trusted
outer representatives of the inner secret White Lodge, whose
whose headquarters is said to be Sham-bha-la." (p. 120-1)
Lhaten was talking..."--No, the White Lodge is not at
Sham-bha-la, but some of its brotherhood live there. The
White Lodge never interferes with individuals, as such, any
more than Nature may be said to interfere with individuals,
as such. The greatest good of the greatest number always;
and no favorites. Do the stars, for instance, limit their
light to individuals? Yet one learns more about than another.
How? By trying; by concentration on the study. Do the stars
come nearer? No. Do they treat him differently? No. Neither
does the White Lodge make distinctions. It is secret, just
as electricity was secret before Thales, Gilbert, Faraday,
and all of the others following them, discovered something
about it. Electricity was there, always, but they had to
find it; and having found it they could give it to the world,
to use or misuse. Was electricity confined to any one place?
No. Neither is the White Lodge confined to any one place.
But some places are more suitable than others, just as there
are certain places where it is more practical to establish
electric plants...."
"How has the White Lodge kept its secret all these years?"
Grim asked.
"Who kept the secret of electricity?" Lhaten answered. "Was
there any need to keep it, while men were too stupid, or too
busily engaged in cutting one another's throats (which is the
same thing!) even to look for it? They were too superstitious
to dare to investigate; afraid to be mocked or burned for
heresy. Nowadays men know not much more, and they are as
superstitious and as cocksure as ever. Nine tenths of them
will mock you if you speak of the existence of the White
Lodge; of the remaining tenth, some will try to put you in
a lunatic asylum, some will curse you in the name of their
religion, and the remainder will try to believe you for
various reasons, most of them selfish..." (p 124-5)
"To pursue evil, a man must have evil tendencies which will
increase through cultivation as he becomes more and more
responsive to the impulses that govern evil. Owls live in
the dark. [emphasis mine - jmb :-)] ^^^^^^^^^^^^
^^^^^^^^ Whales swim in the sea.
Men with scientific tendencies discover laws of nature.
Only those who have the character pertaining to the path
they choose can succeed in the end; and though a shoemaker,
like Kabir, can become a poet, that was because he had the
poet's nature. In the same way, only they who have the
necessary character can find or be received into the White
Lodge, although anyone can receive its benefits, as anyone
may read the poems of Kabir." (p. 128)
-- "Evvy little bug got a honey ta hug but me." --- jayembee (Jerry Boyajian, DEC, "The Mill", Maynard, MA) UUCP: ...!decwrl!ruby.enet.dec.com!boyajian ARPA: boyajian%ruby.DEC@DECWRL.DEC.COM
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