Talk:pad ma don yod nyin byed dbang po

Hi Tshering,

say - Taranatha, born 1575 died 1634, how can he have been a "previous incarnation" of the Situ Rinpoches??? Please research a bit more thoroughly before putting up such data. Tibetan "history" is muddled up enough as it is. Better not to blur things further...

Best, TSD

Hello Sherab,

The article is a grab from Wikipedia at the time, and reflects the editing of that site. Thank you for the clarification and advice.

Okay, I've looked around. The source of the possible error seems to be an article from simhas, but I have noticed it in other places. I am reducing the list of incarnations to the numbered incarnations. There is the possibility that there may have been another figure with the name taranatha, though.

[KT]

Hi again Tshering!

Glad you checked it out. I was half afraid you would take exception to my "criticism", which can often be a bit blunt I'm sometimes old ;-) Now, to my knowledge, there was only ever the one Taranatha. A highly unusual name like that would stick out like a sore thumb. As to Tibetan history in general, and the claims of lamas to having been such and such a person in their previous lives in particular: most of that has to be taken with several large pinches of salt. As I have been pointing out for years, to the very few who would even care to listen for a minute, Tibetan history has never been anything like what we understand as history. It was always a tool aimed at further validating your own lineage and inspiring the readers faith in it. Tibetan "history" is clearly of a devotional nature and gives (most of the time) little to no regard to actual historical facts. For example, if you were to read the histories of the Karma Kagyu, it would seem that Gampopa had only a single student, the 1st Karmapa of course. If you check the histories of the Drugpa or Drikung Kagyu, it would seem as if Phagmo Drupa had either only Ling Repa or Jigten Sumgon for a student. The others aren't even mentioned. It doesn't look any different when you check histories of the many Nyingma or Sakya or Gelug schools and lineages. Etc., etc., pp. There are very few exceptions to the rule, like the histories of the said Taranatha, Pema Karpo or Gos Lotsawa. As to people just repeating what they read or hear somewhere, it often seems to me that the word "gullibility" has been deleted from their dictionaries... ;-)

Go on researching! Be critical! Form your own opinion! (Goodie, do I sound patronizing? Here I go again...)

Best, TSD

P.S. You might also take a quick look at "my" entry: The Situ Rinpoches.

Hrm, I hope you don't mind, but I'm going to try and merge those two articles at some point. I'm trying to integrate the many scattered articles of different names all talking about the same thing to redirect into appropriate main articles. [KT]