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From Bodhicitta
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Butön Rinchen Drup, a Sakya lama raised in a Nyingma family, was the eleventh abbot of Zhalu Monastery, from 1320 to 1356. Some enumerations list him as the first abbot, as he significantly expanded the institution. He was an important teacher of the Prajñāpāramitā, and a key lineage holder of the Guhyasamāja and Kālacakra tantras as transmitted in the Geluk tradition, and the Kālacakra, Hevajra and Sampuṭa tantras as transmitted in the Sakya tradition. He is generally credited as the creator of the Tibetan Buddhist canon, the Kangyur and Tengyur, and his History of Buddhism is still widely read. In addition to his Sakya training he also studied in the Kadam and Kagyu traditions. +
Buddhaguhya [also known as Buddhagupta] was an eighth-century Indian tantric master who is believed to have resided at Mount Kailash and composed numerous commentaries, treatises, and liturgies of broad scope, ranging from the Kriyā tantras to the Guhyagarbha Tantra of the Mahāyoga class. +
Buddhagupta [not to be confused with Buddhaguhya (8th cent.), who was also known as Buddhagupta] was a sixteenth century Indian Buddhist tantric teacher. He spent several months in Tibet and gave teachings and transmissions to Tāranātha. +
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Gendun Gyatso was the reincarnation of Gendun Drub. He served as abbot of three of the most powerful Geluk monasteries in both U and Tsang, significantly contributing to the spread of the Geluk tradition. Gendun Gyatso retained relations to his family’s religious traditions, which included Nyingma, Shangpa Kagyu, and Sakya teachings. He built the Ganden Podrang at Drepung around the year 1530, which came to be the residence of the Dalai Lamas and the seat of their government of Tibet in later centuries. His abbacies occurred during a time of intermittent war between the Kagyu rulers of Tsang and the Geluk leaders of Lhasa. +
Sonam Gyatso was given the title of Dalai Lama by the leader of the Tumet Mongols, Altan Khan, which was posthumously applied to his previous incarnations, Gendun Drub and Gendun Gyatso. A tireless missionary of the Geluk teachings, he was instrumental in what is known as “the second conversion of the Mongols”, bringing the Geluk teachings to the region. Sonam Gyatso founded several important Geluk monasteries, including Kumbum, Litang Ganden Tubchen Chokorling, and Namgyel Monastery. in 1581 he served as the thirteenth throne-holder of Chamdo Jampa Ling for six months. +
The Fifth Dalai Lama, Ngawang Lobzang Gyatso, popularly known "The Great Fifth", was the first Dalai Lama to assume political rule of Tibet, forging lasting alliances with Mongol armies and the Qing court in China. He was both a brilliant tactician and a religious thinker, authoring numerous commentaries and ritual manuals, as well as histories and biographies. Although responsible for considerable sectarian violence and Geluk hegemony, including the suppression in Tibet of the Jonang tradition and the forcible conversion of many monasteries to the Geluk faith, the Fifth Dalai Lama never abandoned his family’s Nyingma affiliations, and he sponsored the establishment or renovation of several Nyingma monasteries. The great palace of Potala that he built as his residence and seat in Lhasa was named after that bodhisattva’s pure land, Potalaka, a naming that contributed to the dissemination of the identification of the Dalai Lama as an emanation of Avalokiteśvara. +
Dezhung Rinpoche is considered one of the most highly learned Tibetan lamas of his generation. He was knowledgeable in doctrine and history, and taught both extensively, most famously at the University of Washington in Seattle. Trained in pre-Communist Tibet, he moved almost constantly among monasteries to receive teachings from multiple traditions, mainly in the Sakya. His incarnation line's seat was in Litang, but trained primarily in the Jyekundo and Derge regions. Chief among his many teachers was Gaton Ngawang Lekpa. In the 1950s his niece Jamyang Dagmola married Dagchen Rinpoche and together they settled in Seattle in the early 1960s. Among his many American students were Gene Smith, David Jackson, Janet Gyatso, Elisabeth Benard, and Cyrus Stearns. After retiring from the University he taught at dharma centers across North America. At the end of his life he reestablished one of his monastic seats, Tharlam Monastery, in Boudanath, Kathmandu, where he passed away in May 1987. +
Gewai Lodrö was the name of a Tibetan who collaborated on the translation of several texts in the Tibetan canon. These included the ''Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra'' (D119) from the Chinese, in collaboration with Gyatso De (rgya mtsho'i sde) and a Chinese man whose name was Tibetanized as Wangpabzhun (wang phab zhun/zhwun). They likely worked from the earliest Chinese version (T374), translated around 421–432 by Dharmakṣema in the northern kingdom of Beiliang 北涼.
He appears to have been a close collaborator with Atiśa Dīpaṃkara Śrījñāna (982-1055?), as he is listed as the translator of some twelve of Atiśa's compositions, and co-translator with Atiśa on around eleven other texts. He also collaborated with Jānaśrībhadra, Buddhaśānti, and others. +
Dharmatāśīla was an Indian paṇḍit who collaborated on Tibetan translations during the early ninth century. He was also involved in the composition of the ''Two-Volume Lexicon'', the commentary on the ''Mahāvyutpatti.'' +
The Third Dodrubchen, Jigme Tenpai Nyima was a prominent lineage holder of the Longchen Nyingtik. He was the eldest son of Dudjom Lingpa. He renovated Dodrubchen Monastery, the seat of his line established by his previous incarnation, spending the last decades of his life in near-seclusion in a hermitage nearby. +
Dölpopa Sherab Gyaltsen was one of the most influential Buddhist masters in Tibetan history. He first became an important scholar of the Sakya tradition, but then moved to Jonang Monastery. There he became the fourth holder of the monastic seat and constructed a monumental stupa. Dölpopa’s ideas, specifically his famous formulation of the zhentong view and his interpretations of Mahāyāna and Vajrayāna doctrine, have elicited controversy for nearly seven hundred years. +
Pelgyi Lhunpo was a Tibetan monk and translator active during the ninth century. He is credited with the translation of seven texts in the Kangyur and three in the Tengyur. He collaborated with multiple men from India, Kashmir, and Zahor: Sarvajñādeva, Dharmākara, Vidyakaraprabha, Dharmaśrīprabha, Vidyākarasiṃha, and Jnāñaśānti. +
Dza Patrul Rinpoche, the author of the famed ''Words of My Perfect Teacher'', was among the most significant transmitters of the Longchen Nyingtik practice lineage in the nineteenth century. Patrul was renowned for his uncommon humility, his forthright honesty, his brilliant oratory, and beyond all his skillful diffusion of the heart of the dharma. +
Also see [https://www.bhutanstudies.org.bt/publicationFiles/Monograph/Tsangpa%20Gyare%20book%2014.1.22.pdf The Three Oldest Biographies of Tsangpa Gyare book (2022)].
Tsangpa Gyare Yeshe Dorje (1161-1211) is considered the founder of the Drukpa Kagyu tradition, named after the Druk Monastery, one of three monasteries he established, the most famous being Ralung, which he founded in 1180. A member of the Gya clan that would continue to control Ralung until the seventeenth century, he was the most important disciple of Lingrepa, a student of Pakmodrupa. He is counted as the first in the line of Drukchen incarnations, although the second Drukchen would not be born until a few centuries after his death, when the Gya family line ended. As an author Tsangpa Gyare is best known for his spontaneous songs of realization, rich with spiritual advice. He discovered treasure texts written by Tipupa for Rechungpa, The Six Cycles of Equal Taste, still an important teaching of the Drukpa Kagyu today. +
Dudjom Rinpoche was a towering figure in twentieth-century Tibetan religion—one of the main preservers of the Nyingma tradition in exile and the first Nyingma representative in the exile government. He gave a series of major Nyingma empowerments in the early 1960s and composed the lengthy History of the Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism in 1964. He was a primary holder of the Dudjom Tersar tradition, based on the revelations of his prior incarnation, Dudjom Lingpa. +
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Lowo Khenchen Sonam Lhundrub was a member of the ruling house of Lo Montang; like his family he was a devotee of Ngorchen Kunga Zangpo and his disciples. He twice traveled in Tsang, visiting Nedong, Sakya and Ngor. A great commentator of the works of Sakya Paṇḍita, he was later considered to be his reincarnation. +
Gorampa Sonam Sengge, the Sixth Ngor Khenchen, was a disciple of Rongton Sheja Kunrik and Ngorchen Kunga Zangpo. He was an important thinker of the Sakya tradition, establishing a Madhyamaka view that was critical of both Dolpopa and Tsongkhapa. Gorampa founded Tanak Serling and Tanak Tubten Namgyel monasteries. The latter would become an important teaching center for the Sakya tradition. Famed for his learning in both sutras and tantras, he became known as one of the “Ornaments of Tibet” an epithet granted to six of the Sakya tradition's most revered masters. +
Gorub Lotsāwa Chokyi Sherab was a translator active in the eleventh century, during the Later Transmission of Buddhism to Tibet. Trained in central Tibet, he traveled to Kashmir, Nepal, and India and studied with multiple Buddhist teachers there, as well as with Rongzom Chokyi Zangpo later in his career. Dozens of translations in the Kangyur and Tengyur are credited to him. +
Droton Dutsi Drakpa (gro ston bdud rtsi grags) was born into a family of the Dro (gro) clan at a place called Chugolam (chu dgo lam) in Tsang, in 1153, the water-bird year of the thirteenth sexagenary cycle.
He was granted novice vows by Zhonnu Sengge (gzhon nu seng ge, d.u), presumably at Nartang Monastery (snar thang dgon). He received the complete teachings of the Kadam tradition from Doton Sherab Drakpa (rdo ston shes rab grags pa, 1127-1185), the second abbot of Nartang, and his disciple, Zhangtsun Dorje Ozer (zhang btsun rdo rje ‘od zer, 1122-1194), the monastery's third abbot.
He also received the instructions of Lamrim (''lam rim'') from Chumikpa Sherab Drak (chu mig pa shes rab grags pa, d.u.) apparently using a text composed by the First Karmapa, Dusum Khyenpa (karma pa 01 dus gsum mkhyen pa, 1110-1193). Thereafter the Nartang Lamrim instructions consisted of two transmission lineages, one stemming from Sharawa Yonden Drak (sha ra ba yon tan grags, 1070-1141), the teacher of the founder of Nartang, Tumton Lodro Drakpa (gtum ston blo gros grags pa, 1106-1166), and the other stemming from the Karmapa.
He received extensive teachings from Sanggye Wondon (sangs rgyas dbon ston, d.u) as well.
Three times he went to Reting Monastery (rwa sgreng) to distribute alms.
In 1185 he succeeded Zhangtsun Dorje Ozer as abbot of Nartang, serving as the fourth throne holder for about thirty-nine years, until his death in 1232. +
Tumton Lodro Drakpa was the founder, in 1153, of Nartang Monastery, one of the earliest Kadam monasteries in Tibet. He served as the first abbot for fourteen years, until 1166. +
