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Jayulwa Zhonnu Wo was a Kadam monk who established Jayul Monastery in 1138. A student of Tolungpa Rinchen Nyingpo and then Chengga Tsultrim Bar, Jayulwa is remembered as having gained enlightenment through devotional service to his masters. +
Jangdak Tashi Tobgyel was the founder of Sangngak Tekchok Choling Monastery. He was the reincarnation of Ngari Panchen Pema Wangyel and the father of Rigdzin Ngakgi Wangpo, the founder of Dorje Drak Monastery. +
The Thirteenth Dalai Lama, Tubten Gyatso, lived through a turbulent time in Tibetan and world history. Forced into exile first by a British invasion and then by a Chinese invasion, the Thirteenth Dalai Lama learned about modern technology and different forms of government. Following the collapse of the Qing Dynasty, he declared independence for Tibet. His reforms and religious eclecticism put him in conflict with many conservative members of the Geluk clergy, who resisted his efforts to modernize Tibet. +
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. +
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 First Dodrubchen Jigme Trinle Wozer, a principle disciple of Jigme Lingpa and a chaplain to the Derge royal family, was one of the foremost Longchen Nyingtik lineage holders of the nineteenth century. +
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. +
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. +
Tsangpa Gyare Yeshe Dorje 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. +
Mingyur Namkhai Dorje was the Fourth Dzogchen Drubwang and the seventh abbot of Dzogchen Monastery in Kham. A student of the First Dodrubchen, he was a widely venerated Dzogchen master who taught dozens of prominent masters across Kham, and forged close ties with Ninth Dalai Lama, with whom he shared a familial relationship. With the sponsorship of the king of Derge he restored Dzogchen Monastery after it was destroyed by an earthquake in 1842. +
The Fifth Dzogchen Drubwang, Tubten Chokyi Dorje was instrumental in building Dzogchen Monastery’s Śrī Siṃha monastic college into a major center of learning. Having received teachings from many of the most prominent lamas of his era, he passed on the Dzogchen teachings to countless twentieth century Nyingma lamas of Kham and Amdo. +
Yakton Sanggye Pel (g.yag ston sangs rgyas dpal, 1348-1414) was a great master of the Sakya tradition and the first in the line of men known as the Six Great Ornaments of Tibet. He was born in Trang ('phrang). His father's name was Tsetang Chenpo Changchub Rinchen (rtse thang chen po byang chub rin chen). ''The Blue Annals'' also suggests the name by which Sanggye Pel is known came from an attendant called Yak Yu (g.yag yu) who took care of him when he was a boy.
His early education took place at Sangpu Monastery (gsang phu) monastery, where he studied Buton's (bu ston, 1285-1379) commentary on the Prajñāpāramitā and was praised for his skill in memorization. His root teacher was Kunga Pel (kun dga' dpal, 1285-1379), the tenth abbot of Jonang Monastery (jo nang dgon).
Sanggye Pel became a prominent teacher in U and Tsang, renowned for his teachings on Prajñāpāramitā. Among the Six Ornaments of Tibet, who were known for their different strengths in teaching, he is known for masterful teachings on the Sutras. Sanggye Pel's main disciple and eventual successor at Sakya was the renowned scholar Rongton Sheja Kunrik (rong ston shes bya kun rig, 1367-1449). Sanggye Pel primarily taught Rongton the Prajñāpāramitā scriptures and treatises on logic and epistemology. Sanggye Pel's prominent students also included Zhonnu Lodro (gzhon nu blo gros, 1349-1412), Konchok Gyeltsen (dkon mchog rgyal mtshan, 1388-1469), Zhonnu Gyelchok (gzhon nu rgyal mchog, d.u.), Sherab Sengge (shes rab seng ge, 1383-1445), and Kunga Gyeltsen (kun dga' rgyal mtshan, 1382-1446). +
Lingrepa Pema Dorje was a student of Pakmodrupa and the main teacher Tsangpa Gyare, who founded the Drukpa Kagyu tradition. He is frequently credited with founding a "Lingre Kagyu" school, though this is historically inaccurate. He initially developed the site that Tsangpa Gyare would build into Ralung Monastery. He is widely regarded as the one Tibetan who best exemplifies the Indian ideal of the Mahasiddha. +
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. +
Sanggye Yeshe (sangs rgyas ye shes) was born into the Nub (gnubs) clan in the Dra (sgrags) region of U (dbus) around the year 844. His father was Selwa Wangchuk (gsal ba dbang phyug) and his mother was Chimo Tashi Tso (mchims mo bkra shis 'tsho). His birth name was Dorje Tritsuk (rdo rje khri gtsug). Sanggye Yeshe was his ordination name; his tantric initiation name was Dorje Yangwang Ter (rod rje yang dbang gter).
At the age of seven he began studying with Odren Pelgi Zhonnu ('o bran dpal gyi gzhon nu), who heads a long list of luminaries with whom he studied. According to later historians he received tantric initiation from Padmasambhava, his flower landing on the maṇḍala of Yamāntaka, the wrathful form of Mañjuśrī. In his own biography Nubchen claims to have met Padmasambhava on the border of India and Nepal, and to have received teachings from him, but it is unlikely that he lived early enough to have actually encountered him.
The list given of the Indian masters who he met includes Śrī Siṃha, Vimalamitra, and Kamalaśīla, who ordained him. He also trained with Nyak Jñānakumara (gnyags dznya na ku ma ra) and his disciples Sokpo Pelgyi Yeshe (sog po dpal gyi ye shes) and Zhang Gyelwai Yonten (zhang rgyal ba'i yon tan), both of whom had also been disciples of Ma Rinchen Chok (rma rin chen mchog). +
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. +
Drapa Ngonshe was the treasure revealer who is credited with producing the Four Tantras, the root texts of Tibet’s medical tradition. A master in the Nyingma, Zhije, and Kadam traditions, he established numerous religious communities in Tibet, including the great Dratang Monastery which was later absorbed by the Sakya. Ordained in the Eastern Vinaya tradition, he was instrumental in popularizing tantric practices among that community, and later returned his vows to live as a tantrika. +
Perhaps best known today as the author and publisher of the famous biography and collected songs of Milarepa, Tsangnyon Heruka was also one of the most influential mad yogins of Tibet. He is famous for having renovated the Svayambhū Stūpa in the Kathmandu Valley, and for inspiring a whole school of textual production and printing, sometimes referred to as “the School of Tsangnyon.” Tsangnyon practiced and disseminated the core teachings of the Kagyu tradition: the Six Dharmas of Nāropa, Mahāmudrā, and the Aural Transmissions that had been transmitted by Milarepa’s closest disciples. +
Guru Chowang is considered the second of five kingly treasure revealers, famous for the Lama Sangdu and the Kabgye Sangwa Yongdzok, among other revelations. He was an early historian of the treasure tradition and codified many elements of the tradition that became standard in later years. +