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The Jonang (jo nang) tradition was founded by Dolpopa Sherab Gyeltsen, who ascended to the throne of Jonang Monastery in 1326. Trained in the Sakya tradition, Dolpopa’s controversial teachings, especially his emphasis on the view known as Zhentong (gzhan stong) or emptiness of other, and the institutional independence of Jonang monastery, established the Jonang tradition apart as an independent tradition, although many members of the Sakya tradition continue to consider Jonang to be a subsect of that tradition. Dolpopa, like his predecessors at Jonang, particularly emphasized the teachings of the Kālacakra Tantra and its completion-stage practices known as the six-branch yoga, while also transmitting many other systems of Vajrayāna and Mahāyāna Buddhism. Following the death of the great Jonang scholar Tāranātha, the Jonang tradition was suppressed in the seventeenth century by the Fifth Dalai Lama; its monasteries were converted to the Geluk tradition and the teachings banned. The tradition has survived in the Dzamtang region of Amdo. (Source: Treasury of Lives) |