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Zhabkar Tsokdruk Rangdrol was a Nyingma lama in Amdo active in the first half of the nineteenth century. A native of the tantric practice center of Rebkong, Zhabkar meditated in sacred places across the Tibetan Plateau, including Labchi and Kailash. His autobiography is a classic of Tibetan literature, much beloved for its simple and moving account of the life of a wandering yogin from childhood until his ultimate spiritual realization. He was a teacher to many of the nineteenth century's greatest lamas of Kham and Amdo. +
Gyurme Kunzang Tenpai Gyeltsen, the Fifth Shechen Rabjam, was a close disciple of the Fourth Dzogchen Drubwang, Mingyur Namkhai Dorje, and Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo. +
Eldest of the children, six sons and one daughter, of Sanggye Pel (sangs rgyas dpal) and his wife Choden (chos ldan), Sherab Jungne (shes rab 'byung gnas) would be called Won (dbon), which means ‘nephew,' because he was a relative of Jikten Gonpo Rinchen Pel ('jig rten mgon po rin chen dpal, 1143-1217). He was born in 1187. He was not called ‘nephew' because he was a nephew in the strict sense of the world, although he was certainly a scion of the same Kyura (skyu ra) family.
As a child, he demonstrated outstanding ability not only in reading and writing, but also in conjuring the hail-stopping magic of his ancestors. He excelled at singing and dancing. Despite his childhood dreams of becoming a wandering yogi, when a famous teacher named Ngepuwa (ngad phu ba) arrived in the region he took monastic vows from him after obtaining the consent of his father. Ngepuwa gave him the ordination name Lha Rinchen Gyelpo (lha rin chen rgyal po) when he was ordained at age seventeen. Ngepuwa recognized the young man's potential but unfortunately died soon afterward when Sherab Jungne was twenty.
In the next year, in 1207, Sherab Jungne left his home in Kham for U-Tsang with a large group of three hundred people on their way to see Ngepuwa's teacher Jikten Gonpo, who was over sixty years old at the time.
For his first three years at Drigung Til ('bris gung mthil) he served as a household priest for one named Gompa (sgom pa), attending every single one of the teaching sessions. Eventually he came to the attention of Jikten Gonpo, became his personal attendant, and took on other responsibilities as well. Sometimes he is called Chennga Sherab Jungne (spyan snga shes rab 'byung gnas) because of his service as Jikten Gonpo's personal attendant (spyan snga ba). +
Shongton Lotsāwa Dorje Gyeltsen was a prominent translator who translated the complete Tibetan poetry system from Sanskrit as well as around a dozen titles found in the Tengyur. +
Pelden Dondrub was the Sixteenth Ngor Khenchen, from 1618 to 1622. +
Konchok Gyatso also known as the Gya Zhabdrung, was the second reincarnation of the thirty-fourth throne holder of Labrang, Trangkya Jamyang Kelden Gyatso. A student of the Fourth Jamyang Zhepa, he was known for giving the Kālacakra initiation five times in different locations in Amdo. +
Smṛtijñānakīrti is sometimes considered the first translator of the "later propagation" of Buddhism in Tibet, and the figure who inaugurated the "new translations." He was primarily based in Kham, at Drentang, near Langtang Dolma Lhakhang. +
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. +
Sumpa Khenpo Yeshe Peljor was a prominent eighteenth-century Geluk lama of Amdo. He was ethnically Mongol -- most likely Oirat, from the Dzungar Federation. He was educated in Amdo monasteries such as Kumbum and at Drepung Gomang in Lhasa, and served as abbot of many monasteries including Gonlung, Dreyul Kyetsel, Pari Tashi Choling, Serlung, and Ganden Chodzong Hermitage, which he founded. He visited China several times at the request of the Qianlong Emperor, and spent about eight years in Mongolia giving teachings and empowerments as per the requirement. A prolific author, he composed works on many subjects, most famously his history of Amdo and of Buddhism in India, Mongolia, and Tibet. Present in Lhasa during the upheavals of the early eighteenth century in which Mongolian tribes and the Manchu Empire vied for political control of Tibet, Sumpa Khenpo wrote with a strident Geluk partisanship. +
Sumpa Lotsāwa Darma Yonten was a Sakya translator who worked with the Nepali paṇḍita Jayasena on the translation of the Dākārnava Tantra and related works. He was a teacher of Sakya Jetsun Drakpa Gyeltsen. +
Sonam Gyeltsen was a prolific author, although many of his writings were never printed. Most famously, he was the author of the genealogy, Gyal rab sal ba'i me long (rgyal rabs sal ba'i me long), commonly translated as The Clear Mirror: A Royal Genealogy. He wrote on various tantric subjects, particularly the Kālacakratantra, and composed a commentary on Shantideva's Bodhicaryāvatāra. His influential writings on the Lamdre (lam 'bras) tradition were collected in a volume called the Lamdre Ponak (lam 'bras pod nag), one of the first major written works on Lamdre. He also sponsored the first edition of the collected works of the Five Patriarchs of Sakya (sa skya gong ma lnga). +
Sonam Tsemo, the son of Sachen Kunga Nyingpo, was the second of the five founding patriarchs of the Sakya tradition. He was also the fourth Sakya Tridzin at Sakya Monastery, although he served as active head of the monastery for only a few years. +
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In the history of the Jonang tradition Tāranātha is second in importance only to Dölpopa himself. He was responsible for the Jonang renaissance in U-Tsang during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, and the widespread revitalization of the zhentong teachings. Like his previous incarnation, Kunga Drolchok, Tāranātha practiced and taught from many different lineages and was nonsectarian in his approach to realization. He was also one of the last great Tibetan translators of Sanskrit texts. The abbot of Jonang Monastery, he emphasized the practice of the Sakya teachings of Lamdre and the esoteric instructions of the Shangpa Kagyu, but he specially focused on the explication of the Kālacakra Tantra and the practice of its Six-branch Yoga as the most profound of all the teachings given by the Buddha. It is clear in his writings that Tāranātha considered Dölpopa to be the ultimate authority in matters of doctrine and practice. +
Taktsang Lotsāwa Sherab Rinchen was a polymath scholar-monk of the Sakya tradition. Active during a great period of classical scholarship and translation, he was a prolific commentator on a wide range of topics, with special focus on medicine, poetry, Vinaya, and Kālacakra. He is said to have had an encyclopedic knowledge of not only the five topics of monastic study -- Vinaya, Abhidharma, Pramāṇa, Madhyamaka, and Prajñāparamitā -- but also the five major fields of traditional learning -- grammar, art, medicine, logic, and the inner science. However, he is perhaps best known for his critique of Tsongkhapa's interpretation of Madhyamaka in his philosophical treatise, ''Knowing All Philosophical Systems'', which generated centuries of often polemical Geluk-Sakyapa debate. +
The Fourth Paṇchen Lama, Lobzang Chokyi Gyeltsen, who was the first to hold the title, lived during a time of tremendous political and religious change in Tibet. During his near-century long life the Geluk government of the Fifth Dalai Lama, the Ganden Podrang, took power in Tibet, and Bhutan established itself as an independent state under the rule of the Drukpa Kagyu, both events in which he was intimately connected. Lobzang Chokyi Gyeltsen was a teacher to many powerful Tibetan, Bhutanese and Mongolian political and religious figures, including the Fourth and the Fifth Dalai Lamas, and the First Jetsundampa of Mongolia. The Sixteenth abbot of Tashilhunpo, he was given the title Paṇchen Lama by the Fifth Dalai Lama, who declared him an emanation of Amitabha. By the system advanced by the Ganden Podrang, Chokyi Gyeltsen is considered the First Paṇchen, not counting three previous incarnations, beginning with Kedrubje, one of Tsongkhapa’s close disciples. A prolific author, Chokyi Gyeltsen is credited with over a hundred compositions, including a number of commentaries and ritual texts that remain central in the Gelukpa tradition. +
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. +
Pabongkha Dechen Nyingpo, also known as Jampa Tendzin Trinle Gyatso, was one of the most popular Geluk teachers in the Lhasa Valley in the first half of the twentieth century. His influence also spread to many areas of central Tibet and Kham. Pabongkha's main student, the Third Trijang Rinpoche, was appointed tutor of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama. Pabongkha taught and composed works on numerous topics, but is today often remembered for his dissemination of the practice of the deity Dorje Shugden. +
The Second Pawo Tsuklak Trengwa was a prominent sixteenth-century Kagyu scholar whose best known composition was the ''Chojung Khepai Gaton'' (''chos 'byung khas pa'i dga' ston''), or ''Scholars Feast'', a history of Buddhism in India and Tibet, as well as the history of the Karma Kagyu tradition. He is also famous for a massive commentary (975 folios) on the ''Bodhicaryāvatāra'' (''The Way of the Bodhisattva''), which is still the standard for Karma Kagyu commentaries. He was a disciple of the Eighth Karmapa, the Fourth Zhamar, Dakpo Chokle Namgyel and other Kagyu lamas. He supervised the cremation the Eighth Karmapa, enthroned the Fifth Zhamar and also later organized the enthronement of the Ninth Karmapa. +
The life and legacy of the Sixth Dalai Lama Tsangyang Gyatso is an uncertain admixture of tradition and controversy. Kept under virtual house arrest for a decade following his discovery, he was enthroned at a time of great political unrest in Tibet. He is often portrayed as a poet and libertine, who disrobed rather than take full monastic ordination. Following the murder of his regent, Sanggye Gyatso, he was ordered to the court of the Manchu Emperor in Beijing. According to one tradition, he died of fever in 1706 at Kunganor, but there is another tradition, in which he escaped and died in Alashan in 1746. +
The Third Changkya, Rolpai Dorje (lcang skya 03 rol pa'i rdo rje) was born in 1717 in the Drakkar territory of Nub Padmo De Monastery (nub padmo'i sde dgon) outside Liangzhou (lang gru), modern-day Wuwei. Nub Padmo De was one of four monasteries that Sakya Paṇḍita Kunga Gyeltsen (sa skya paN+Di ta kun dga' rgyal mtshan, 1182-1251) and Pakpa Lodro Gyeltsen ('phags pa blo gros rgyal mtshan, 1235-1280) established in the region in the thirteenth century. His father was Tsangpa Guru Tenzin (tshangs pa gu ru bstan 'dzin, d.u.) and his mother was called Bukyi (bu skyid). His family was of Monguor descent.
Rolpai Dorje was recognized as a reincarnation of the Second Changkya, Ngawang Lobzang Choden (lcang skya 02 ngag dbang blo bzang chos ldan, 1642-1714) in 1720 and brought to his monastic seat, Gonlung Jampa Ling (dgon lung byams pa gling), one of the four most important Geluk monasteries in Amdo.
He was taken to the Qing imperial court in 1724, after his home monastery was destroyed by Qing troops in response to the rebellion led by Lobzang Danjin (blo bzang dan jin, d.u.). Rolpai Dorje was later identified as an incarnation of the great Sakya scholar and statesman, Pakpa Lodro Gyeltsen ('phags pa blo gros rgyal mtshan, 1235-1280) as well. +
