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From Bodhicitta
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Ratnākaraśānti was an Indian scholar and tantric adept who lived during the late tenth and early eleventh century. The head of the great Indian monastery Vikramaśīla, he was a teacher to Atiśa, Maitrīpā, Śraddhākaravarman, and Drokmi Śākya Yeshe, among others. Forty of his compositions are included in the Tibetan Tengyur. In his esoteric works he sought to explain tantric practice from a Yogācāra interpretation of the Perfection of Wisdom literature. +
Chennga Dorje Sherab (spyan snga rdo rje shes rab) was a disciple of both Jikten Gonpo Rinchen Pel ('jig rten mgon po rin chen dpal, 1143-1217), the founder of Drigung Til Monastery ('bri gung mthil), and one of his main disciples, Won Sherab Jungne (dbon shes rab 'byung gnas, 1187-1241). Details about his life are not currently available. Some sources mention an extensive biography but it appears to have been lost.
He wrote two extensive commentaries on Won Sherab Jungne's compilation of Jikten Gonpo's teachings, known as The Single Intention (dgongs gcig). These commentaries are titled The Lamp of Illuminated Wisdom (snang mdzad ye shes sgron ma) and O Gema ('od ge ma). Together they are known as the Dorshema (rdor she ma), a contraction of the name Dorje Sherab. Author: Evan Yerburgh, translator and member of Esukhia. +
Khenpo Tubten Tsondru Puntsok was born in Golok and studied at Dzogchen and Shechen monasteries, as well as with a geshe from Sera Je. He fled Tibet in 1959, and then taught extensively in Bhutan, Sikkim and India, playing a crucial role in the re-establishment of Nyingma scholasticism, especially during his tenure at the government monastic college in Sikkim and as the first abbot of Namdroling monastic college in Bylakuppe, India. +
Tenpa Rabgye was the Second Reting Rinpoche. Identified as the reincarnation of Ngawang Chokden, the Fifty-Fourth Ganden Tripa, he was offered Reting Monastery as his seat. He was educated at Sera and Gyume Monasteries. +
Gotsangpa is considered the founder of a special branch of the Drukpa Kagyu school known as the Upper Drukpa. He traveled widely in western Tibet and present-day Himachal Pradesh, India, and is particularly well known today in Ladakh and Lahaul. +
There appear to have been two men by the name of Gyatso De whose work survives in the Tibetan canon. The first was a collaborator with Wangpabzhun (wang phab zhun/zhwun) and Gewai Lodro (dge ba'i blos gros) on the translation from Chinese of the ''Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra'' (D119). They likely worked from the earliest Chinese version (T374), translated around 421–432 by Dharmakṣema in the northern kingdom of Beiliang 北涼. Gewai Lodro seems to have lived in the eleventh century, judging by his many collaborations with Atiśa Dīpaṃkara Śrījñāna (982-1055?), Jānaśrībhadra and other men who lived in that century.
This Gyatso De should not be confused with a man named Sonam Gyatso De who was a frequent translator for Vanaratna (1384–1468). +
Drakpa Gyeltsen served as the twenty-third throne holder of Labrang Monastery, from 1801 to 1804, and briefly for a second time some years later. While studying at Gomang in Lhasa he served as the abbot of Chokhor Gyel. A student of the Second Jamyang Zhepa, who identified him as the reincarnation of a student of the First Jamyang Zhepa, he organized the search and enthronement of the Third Jamyang Zhepa. +
Yanggonpa Gyeltsen Pel is perhaps best known for his writings on retreat practice, Mahāmudrā exegesis, and commentary on the subtle body. He spent most of his life in Gungtang, and received teachings from Kodrakpa, Gotsangpa, Sakya Paṇḍita, and Chennga Drakpa Jungne, among other masters. Although primarily remembered as a Drukpa Kagyu master, his writings had wide influence on numerous Tibetan religious traditions. +
Gyaltsap Je Darma Rinchen was one of the chief disciples of Tsongkhapa. He was a prolific writer, composing on Madhyamaka and tantric topics, most famously a commentary on the Bodhicaryāvatāra. He served as the second abbot of Ganden Monastery, following the death of Tsongkhapa in 1419, and occupied the position, known as the Ganden Tripa, until the year before his own death. +
Rinchen Jangchub (rin chen byang chub) was born in a village called Lhadra (lha sgra) in Dento ('dan stod), Kham. His father, Tonpa Sanggye Pel (ston pa sangs rgyas dpal), was said to be an incarnation of Marpa Chokyi Lodro (mar pa chos kyi blo gros, 1012?-1097). His mother's name was Choden (chos ldan). They were members of the Kyura (skyu ra) clan, and relatives of Jikten Gonpo ('jig rten dgon po, 1143-1217), the founder of Drigung Til Monastery ('bri gung mthil dgon pa). Rinchen Jangchub had one sister and five brothers, including an elder brother, Won Sherab Jungne (dbon shes rab 'byung gnas, 1187-1241), who served as the third abbot of Drigung Monastery, and a youngest brother named Chennga Gampopa (spyan snga sgam po pa), another close disciple of Jikten Gonpo. The names of his other siblings are not known. . . .
Rinchen Changchup wrote many treatises including a commentary on Single Intention (''dgongs gcig'') titled ''Rinjangma'' (''rin byang ma''). +
Jetsun Drakpa Gyeltsen of the aristocratic Khon family was the third of the five men credited with founding the Sakya order. He was also the Fifth Sakya Tridzin, or throne holder. His father Sachen Kunga Nyingpo and his elder brother Sonam Tsemo were the first and second Sakya patriarchs. Drakpa Gyeltsen was instrumental in the early recording and compiling of the Lamdre teachings that form the basis of the Sakya tradition. +
Ma Rinchen Chok was one of the first seven Tibetans to ordain. He is also counted among the twenty-five disciples of Padmasambhava. An able translator, he is credited with the transmission of the Mahāyoga tantras. He is said to have been able to eat rocks. +
Ngok Lotsāwa was nephew of Ngok Lekpai Sherab, the founder of Sangpu Neutok, and not only carried on the teaching activities of his uncle but raised the fame and prestige of Sangpu to new heights. He was important not only to his own Kadam lineage, but to the development of Tibetan education in general. Ngok Lotsāwa, working with the Kashmiri paṇḍita Sajjana, produced the sole-surviving translation of the Ratnagotravibhāga, the central text of buddha-nature theory in Tibet. His commentary on the text is said to have initiated the "analytical" exegetical tradition. +
Ngok Lekpai Sherab was a founding figure of the Kadam tradition and Tibetan Buddhist scholasticism. One of the "three heart sons" of Atiśa, along with Khuton and Dromton, his distinctive contribution was to provide the Kadam tradition with rigorous intellectual discipline combined with tantric practice. He was the founder, with his nephew Ngok Loden Sherab, of Sangpu Neutog Monastery. He was a master of pramāṇa and the guardian of Atiśa’s secret oral teachings, especially the Sixteen Drops. Many Tibetan historians and contemporary western publications have erroneously conflated him with Lochung Lekpai Sherab +
Rongton Sheja Kunrik is the second in the line of great Sakya masters known as the Six Ornaments of Tibet. Among these teachers he is particularly revered for his mastery of the Buddhist sutras. Rongton studied and taught at Sangpu Neutok Monastery. He founded Penpo Nalendra Monastery in 1436. +
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Sabzang Mati Paṇchen Lodro Gyeltsen is known as a great Sakya scholar but was also one of Dolpopa’s fourteen major disciples. He was a great master of sutra and tantra, especially the Five Books of Maitreya and the Kālacakra Tantra. He completed a new revised translation of the Kālacakra Tantra and the Vimalaprabhā. He studied at Sakya, Zhalu, Jonang, and other monasteries in the 14th century. He later lived and taught at Sabzang Ganden Monastery. +
Sachen Kunga Nyingpo was the first of the Sakya Jetsun Gongma Nga, the five founding patriarchs of Sakya. These five men of the Khon family are credited with having laid the foundations for the Sakya tradition. Sachen was a layman and the third Sakya Tridzin or throne holder, a position distinct from his later designation as a patriarch. His father, Khon Khonchog Gyelpo, was the first Sakya throne holder and the founder of what became Sakya monastery. +
Khon Konchok Gyelpo was the founder a small temple that later grew into Sakya Monastery. A patriarch of a family, the Khon, that had followed Nyingma teachings since the first propagation of Buddhism in Tibet, he studied the newly-translated tantras of Hevajra, Cakrasaṃvara, Guhyasamāja and others. Most famously, he received the Lamdre teachings from Drokmi Lotsāwa. His son was Sachen Kunga Nyingpo, who is credited with initiating both the Sakya tradition and founding Sakya Monastery. +
Sakya Paṇḍita Kunga Gyaltsen, commonly referred to as Sapaṇ, was the fourth of the Five Patriarchs of Sakya and the sixth Sakya throne holder. A member of the illustrious Khon family that established and controlled the Sakya tradition, he was an advocate for strict adherence to Indian Buddhist traditions, standing in opposition to Chinese or Tibetan innovations that he considered corruptions. In this regard he was a major player in what has been termed the Tibetan Renaissance period, when there was a move to reinvigorate Tibetan Buddhism’s connections to its Indian antecedents. He was instrumental in transmitting the Indian system of five major and five minor sciences to Tibet. As an ordained monk, Sapaṇ was instrumental in laying the groundwork for adherence to the Vinaya at Sakya Monastery, built under his successors. He authored more than one hundred texts and was also a prolific translator from Sanskrit. His writings are among the most widely influential in Tibetan literature and prompted commentaries by countless subsequent authors. Sapaṇ’s reputation as a scholar and Buddhist authority helped him forge close ties with powerful Mongols, relations that would eventually lead to the establishment of Sakya Monastery and its position of political power over the Thirteen Myriarchies of central Tibet. +
Sanggye Gompa Sengge was the sixth abbot of Nartang Monastery from 1241 to 1248 or 1249. +
