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According to Anne Burchardi, "Zhang Tshe spong ba cho kyi bla ma was, together with Blo gros 'byung gnas, a direct disciple of Rngog [blo ldan shes rab]. After the death of Rngog, Zhang took over the abbot's chair at Gsang phu and held it for 32 years. He upheld all of Rngog's transmissions and composed several commentaries. So far very little is known of him and his ''RGV'' commentary is considered lost." (Anne Burchardi, "[[A Provisional List of Tibetan Commentaries on the Ratnagotravibhāga]]," [''The Tibet Journal'' 31, no. 4: 2006], 8). +
Teacher of the sa skya tradition in the transmission of the ''Pramanasamuccaya''. Also known to have been one of Pakpa Lodro Gyaltsen's disciples ('Phags pa blo gros rgyal mtshan, 1235–1280). ([https://www.tbrc.org/#!rid=P7084 Source Accessed Aug 24, 2020]) +
(J. Tendai Chigi; K. Ch’ǒnt’ae Chiǔi) (538-597). One of the most influential monks in Chinese Buddhist history and de facto founder of the Tiantai zong. A native of Jingzhou (in present-day Hunan province), Zhiyi was ordained at the age of eighteen after his parents died during the wartime turmoil that preceded the Sui dynasty’s unification of China. He studied vinaya and various Mahāyāna scriptures, including the ''Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra'' ("Lotus Sūtra'") and related scriptures. In 560, Zhiyi met Nanyue Huisi (515-577), who is later listed as the second patriarch of the Tiantai lineage, on Mt. Dasu in Guangzhou and studied Huisi’s teachings on the suiziyi sanmei (cultivating samādhi wherever mind is directed, or the samādhi of freely flowing thoughts), the "four practices of ease and bliss" (si anle xing), a practice based on the ''Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra'', and the lotus repentance ritual. Zhiyi left Huisi at his teacher’s command and headed for the Southern capital of Jinling (present-day Jiangsu province) at the age of thirty (567) to teach the ''Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra'' and the ''Dazhidu lun'' for eight years at the monastery of Waguansi. The ''Shi chanboluomi cidi famen'' [alt. ''Cidi chanmen''] are his lecture notes from this period of meditation and teaching. In 575, he retired to Mt. Tiantai (present-day Zhejiang province), where he built a monastery (later named Xiuchansi by the emperor) and devoted himself to meditative practice for eleven years. During this time he compiled the ''Fajie cidi chumen'' and the ''Tiantai xiao zhiguan''. After persistent invitations from the king of Chen, Zhiyi returned to Jinling in 585 and two years later wrote the ''Fahua wenju'', an authoritative commentary on the ''Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra''. Subsequently in Yangzhou, Zhiyi conferred the bodhisattva precepts on the crown prince, who later became Emperor Yang (r. 604-617) of the Sui dynasty. Zhiyi was then given the title Great Master Zhizhe (Wise One). Zhiyi also established another monastery on Mt. Dangyang in Yuquan (present-day Hunan province), which Emperor Wen (r. 581-604) later named Yuquansi. Zhiyi then began lecturing on what became his masterpieces, the ''Fahua xuanyi'' (593) and the ''Mohe zhiguan'' (594). At the request of the king of Jin, in 595 Zhiyi returned to Yangzhou, where he composed his famous commentaries on the ''Vimalakīrtinirdeśa'', i.e., the ''Weimojing xuanshou'' and the ''Weimojing wenshou'', before dying in 597. Among the thirty or so works attributed to Zhiyi, the ''Fahua xuanyi'', ''Fahuawenju'', and ''Mohe zhiguan'' are most renowned and are together known as the Tiantai san dabu (three great Tiantai commentaries). (Source: "Tiantai Zhiyi." In ''The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism'', 911–12. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.)
A contemporary of Ngok Lotsāwa and Tsen Khawoche, he was a translator that studied in Kashmir in the 11th Century, where he became a student of several prominent scholars including Sajjana and Parahitabhadra. +
An esteemed 20th century Kagyu master from Zurmang Monastery in eastern Tibet with strong ties to the Nyingma and Ri-me traditions. He was a student of the 11th Tai Situ and the famed Khenpo Zhenga with whom he studied at the Śrī Siṃha monastic university at Dzogchen Monastery. His pedogical manual (''yig cha'') for the latter's interlinear commentaries to the thirteen major Indian treatises came to form an important part of the curriculum at the monastic university at Dzongsar Monastery. +
Ś
Śrījñānākara was an Indian paṇḍita who often collaborated with Rinchen Zangpo. He is listed as the translator of the ''Pradīpoddyotana-nāma-ṭīkā'' (''Sgron ma gsal bar byed pa zhes bya ba'i rgya cher bshad pa''), a root text on the Guhyasamaja Tantra (''Dpal gsang ba 'dus pa'i rgyud kyi rgyal po chen''), and is listed as the author of a commentary called ''Entering into Secret Mantra'' (''Mantravatara'', ''Gsang sngags la 'jug pa''). ([https://www.tbrc.org/#!rid=P4CZ15236 Source Accessed Aug, 21, 2020]) +
In Sanskrit, “Sage of the Śākya Clan,” one of the most common epithets of Gautama Buddha, especially in the Mahāyāna traditions, where the name Śākyamuni is used to distinguish the historical buddha from the myriad other buddhas who appear in the sūtras. The Śākyas were a tribe in northern India into which was born Siddhārtha Gautama, the man who would become the historical buddha. According to the texts, the Śākya clan was made up of kṣatriyas, warriors or political administrators in the Indian caste system. The Śākya clan flourished in the foothills of the Himālayas, near the border between present-day Nepal and India. (Source: "Śākyamuni." In ''The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism'', 741. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.) +
Medeival Indian master of the Vinaya, renowned in Tibet, together with Guṇaprabha, as one of the "two supreme ones" (mchog gnyis). Apparently from Kashmir, he was an expert in the Mūlasarvāstivāda vinaya. He is best known for his work ''Śrāmaṇeratriśatakakārikā'' ("Three Hundred Verses on the Novice"), to which he wrote an autocommentary entitled ''Prabhāvatī''. (Source: "Śākyaprabha." In ''The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism'', 742. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.) +
Eighth-century Indian Mahäyäna master who played an important role in the introduction of Buddhism into Tibet. According to traditional accounts, he was born into a royal family in Zahor in Bengal and was ordained at Nālandā monastery, where he became a renowned scholar. He is best known for two works. The first is the ''Tattvasaṃgraha'', or "Compendium of Principles," a critical survey and analysis of the various non-Buddhist and Buddhist schools of Indian philosophy, set forth in 3,646 verses in twenty-six chapters. This work, which is preserved in Sanskrit, along with its commentary by his disciple Kamalaśīla, remains an important source on the philosophical systems of India during this period. His other famous work is the ''Madhyamakālaṃkāra'', or "Ornament of the Middle Way," which sets forth his own philosophical position, identified by later Tibetan doxographers as Yogācāra-*Svātantrika-Madhyamaka, so called because it asserts, as in Yogācāra, that external objects do not exist, i.e., that sense objects are of the nature of consciousness; however, it also asserts, unlike Yogācāra and like Madhyamaka, that consciousness lacks ultimate existence. It further asserts that conventional truths (''saṃvṛtisatya'') possess their own character (''svalakṣana'') and in this regard differs from the other branch of Madhyamaka, the *Prāsangika. The Yogācāra-Madhyamaka synthesis, of which Śāntarakṣita is the major proponent, was the most important philosophical development of late Indian Buddhism, and the ''Madhyamakālaṃkāra'' is its locus classicus. This work, together with the ''Madhyamakāloka'' of Śāntarakṣita's disciple Kamalaśīla and the ''Satyadvayavibhaṅga'' of Jnānagarbha, are known in Tibet as the "three works of the eastern *Svātantrikas" (''rang rgyud shar gsum'') because the three authors were from Bengal. Śāntarakṣita's renown as a scholar was such that he was invited to Tibet by King Khri srong lde btsan. When a series of natural disasters indicated that the local deities were not positively disposed to the introduction of Buddhism, he left Tibet for Nepal and advised the king to invite the Indian tantric master Padmasambhava, who subdued the local deities. With this accomplished, Śāntarakṣita returned, the first Buddhist monastery of Bsam yas was founded, and Śāntarakṣita invited twelve Mūlasarvāstivāda monks to Tibet to ordain the first seven Tibetan monks. Śāntarakṣita lived and taught at Bsam yas from its founding (c. 775) until his death (c. 788) in an equestrian accident. Tibetans refer to him as the "bodhisattva abbot." The founding of Bsam yas and the ordination of the first monks were pivotal moments in Tibetan Buddhist history, and the relationship of Śāntarakṣita, Padmasambhava, and Khri srong lde btsan figures in many Tibetan legends, most famously as brothers in a previous life. Prior to his death, Śāntarakṣita predicted that a doctrinal dispute would arise in Tibet, in which case his disciple Kamalaśīla should be invited from India. Such a conflict arose between the Indian and Chinese factions, and Kamalaśīla came to Tibet to debate with the Chan monk Moheyan in what is referred to as the Bsam yas Debate, or the "Council of Lhasa." (Source: "Śāntarakṣita." In ''The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism'', 773. Princeton University Press, 2014)
