Kalachakra Tsok Feast Ritual
with Additional Concluding Prayers
This ritual for tantric feasts can be used to repair damaged samaya or for accumulating vast stores of
merit. It is traditionally practiced at least once a month on the night of the full-moon.
Setup
The Tsok Ritual’s main purpose is to accumulate merit by making offerings. For this reason, setting up an
altar is an important aspect of the practice. The following are just a few guidelines to help you get
started.
Making a Tsok Torma
The Tsok Torma is a simple offering cake traditionally made out of barley flour and ornamented with
butter. It is specially designed to be used in the Tsok Ritual and therefore it makes things easier if you
can include it in your preparations. The process of making this cake is fairly straightforward. Just follow
these steps:
STEP 1 – MAKE THE DOUGH
The easiest and most accessible substance to make the dough from is dried or instant oatmeal. You can
put the dry oatmeal into a blender to make it into a powder. To make it more tasty, you can then add
sugar or honey. Once you have your mixture, slowly add water to create a dough.
MEASURE OUT ROUGHLY 600 – 700 ML OF OATMEAL. GRIND IT INTO POWDER WITH A BLENDER.
SLOWLY ADD WATER TO YOUR DOUGH MIXTURE.
MAKE SURE THE DOUGH IS MOIST BUT NOT RUNNY.
KEEP KNEADING IT UNTIL IT IS SMOOTH AND COMPACT. IT SHOULD NOT BE CRUMBLY.
STEP 2 – CREATE THE BASE
Take your dough and cut it into four parts. Take one part and flatten it out to form a long rectangular
base. Place the base on a long plate or platter, then use a ruler or knife to make the edges straight.
Carefully draw a border around the base and then draw two dividing lines to create three sections of the
base.
CUT THE DOUGH INTO APPROXIMATELY FOUR EQUAL PARTS.
ROLL OUT THE BASE.
DRAW THE SECTION BORDERS.
STEP 3 – SCULPT THE OFFERINGS
Now take each of the remaining three parts and roll them into balls. Take a ball and roll it in the hands
to create a long tapered cone where the bottom should be larger than the top. On the lower part, sculpt
it in the hand and then push it onto a flat surface to create a flared base. When you have completed the
sculpting, then place each offering on one of the base sections.
ROLL THE REMAINING PIECES INTO THREE BALLS.
ROLL EACH BALL IN THE HANDS TO CREATE A TAPERED SHAPE.
SCULPT THE BOTTOM SO THAT IT WILL STAND UP.
PLACE ONE OFFERING IN EACH SECTION OF THE BASE.
STEP 4 – ADD THE ORNAMENTS
To create the ornaments you will need to sculpt natural butter. The easiest way to do this is to take a
medium sized bowl, fill it with ice and cold water. Place your butter into the cold bath. Then in a small
bowl to the side, place some warm water. The ice keeps the butter from melting while the warm water
keeps your fingers from freezing and helps you work the butter into shape.
With the butter submerged in the cold water, break off a piece and start sculpting it into a flat disc
shape. For each offering, you will need to create a small disc that goes on the back, a medium disc that
goes on the top and a larger disc that is place in the middle.
These ornaments represent flowers, so do your best to make them as pretty as possible. Don’t be
discouraged if your first few attempts don’t look good. In time you will get better.
PLACE BUTTER IN ICE WATER
FRONT OF FINISHED TORMA
BACK OF FINISHED TORMA
Setting up an Altar
During the ceremony, you will be making offerings to a host of enlightened guests. As with any occasion
when you invite important guests to your house, you will want to make the environment look beautiful.
This can be done by setting up an elaborate altar. The main components of the altar are as follows:
STEP 1 – BUDDHA IMAGE
The first thing you will want to do is to hang or place an image of Kalachakra as the focal point for your
altar. Once the image is setup, place a large table in front of it and cover it in cloth so that it looks nice.
The table should be big enough to hold all of your offerings. If you have an image of Rinpoché that is also
good to place somewhere prominent on the table.
AN EXAMPLE OF A TSOK ALTAR.
STEP 2 – SIXTEEN OFFERINGS OF KALACHAKRA
At the back of the table, place a few boxes and cover them in cloth in order to create a small ledge for
special Kalachakra offerings. This ledge should be big enough to hold two rows of 8 offering bowls. On
this ledge, layout the offering bowls with the following substances:
Water for Washing — pure water
Water for Drinking — pure water
Perfume for the Body — water with a few drops of perfume or scented oil
Fragrant Drink — some sort of tea or juice
Perfume for the Room — saffron water or water with perfume or scented oil
Flowers — a freshly picked flower
Incense— three incense sticks crossed
Lamp — butter lamp or candle
Food — pile of biscuits
Fruit — single piece of fruit like an orange
Beauty — a piece of jewelry
Laughter — a piece of silk ribbon or ornamental cloth
Music — cymbals or small damaru drum
Dancing — vajra
Singing — flute, whistle or small clarinet
Desire — pink lotus, bell
If space is limited, then you can also reduce the number from 16 to 12 by removing the first four liquids.
A COMPLETE SET OF SIXTEEN KALACHAKRA OFFERINGS
