People/Yon tan mgon po
གཡུ་ཐོག་ཡོན་ཏན་མགོན་པོ།
Yutok Yönten Gönpo (1126 - 1202) Born in: sgo bzhi re thangsgo bzhi re thang <br>Tibetan date of birth: Year of the Male Fire Horse, 2<sup>nd</sup> sexagenary cycle. <br>
Yutok Yönten Gönpo (1126 - 1202) Born in: sgo bzhi re thangsgo bzhi re thang <br>Tibetan date of birth: Year of the Male Fire Horse, 2<sup>nd</sup> sexagenary cycle. <br>
File:Yutog.jpg|Himalayan Art Resources File:Yutok yontan.jpg|Himalayan Art Resources File:Yontan Gonpo.jpg|Himalayan Art Resources
File:Yutok Yontan Gonpo.jpg|Himalayan Art Resources|\n|@@@|thumb|none|x200px| }}Yutok Yonten Gonpo the Younger was the twelfth-century Tibetan physician and tantric adept known as the "Father of Tibetan medicine." Tradition holds he was born in Goshi Retang (སྒོ་བཞི་རི་ཐང་), Upper Nyang (ཉང་སྟོད་), Tsang, to Kyongpo Dorje (ཁྱོང་པོ་རྡོ་རྗེ་) and Pema Woden (པདམ་འོད་ལྡན་), and later kept his residence at Shang Pelkye (ཤང་དཔལ་སྐྱེས་). He belonged to a hereditary lineage of physicians said to descend from Yutok Yonten Gonpo the Elder (གཡུ་ཐོག་རྙིང་མ་ཡོན་ཏན་མགོན་པོ་, 708–833), royal physician to Tri Songdetsen—though the Elder's biography is now generally regarded by scholars as a later, largely legendary construction modeled on the life of the Younger, and the family's genealogy was itself elaborated to trace back to the Indian Utpala dynasty. Yutok's hagiography, systematized in the seventeenth century by Jowo Lundrub Tashi (ཇོ་བོ་ལྷུན་གྲུབ་བཀྲ་ཤིས་, jo bo lhun grub bkra shis) and Darmo Menrampa Lobzang Chodrak (དར་མོ་སྨན་རམས་པ་བློ་བཟང་ཆོས་གྲགས་, dar mo sman rams pa blo bzang chos grags) but drawing on earlier material attributed to his chief disciple Sumton Yeshe Zung (སུམ་སྟོན་ཡེ་ཤེས་གཟུང་, sum ston ye shes gzung)—notably the Virtuous Iron Hook (དགེ་བའི་ལྕགས་ཀྱུ་)—presents him as an emanation of the Medicine Buddha Bhaiṣajyaguru and credits him with precocious mastery of pulse diagnosis and materia medica in childhood, alongside standard hagiographic motifs such as floral rains at his birth and contests with rival teachers.
According to Sumton's account, Yutok journeyed to India six times beginning around age eighteen, studying Vāgbhaṭa's Aṣṭāṅgahṛdayasaṃhitā (Heart of Medicine) in Vārāṇasī and Rājagṛha along with other treatises no longer extant, and is said to have received further instruction in Sri Lanka, Oḍḍiyāna, Nepal, and Persia. He reportedly began teaching only after returning from India around age thirty-four, at first using the Heart of Medicine before producing his own synthetic works. His central achievement, and the basis of his reputation as founder of Tibetan medicine, is his authorship, translation, or compilation of the Four Tantras (རྒྱུད་བཞི།, rgyud bzhi; full title བདུད་རྩི་སྙིང་པོ་ཡན་ལག་བརྒྱད་པ་གསང་བ་མན་ངག་གི་རྒྱུད།, bdud rtsi snying po yan lag brgyad pa gsang ba man ngag gi rgyud). Tibetan tradition frames the text as a terma concealed by Tri Songdetsen at Samye and rediscovered by Drapa Ngonshe (གྲྭ་པ་མངོན་ཤེས་) in 1038—accounting for its absence from the bka' 'gyur/bstan 'gyur despite its claimed status as buddhavacana—while an alternate account in the Virtuous Iron Hook instead has Yutok receiving it in the "Golden Isle" (gser gling, Suvarṇadvīpa). Tibetan historians including Desi Sanggye Gyatso (སྡེ་སྲིད་སངས་རྒྱས་རྒྱ་མཚོ་) and Zurkharwa Lodro Gyelpo (ཟུར་མཁར་བ་བློ་གྲོས་རྒྱལ་པོ་), along with most modern scholars (Yang Ga, Janet Gyatso, Olaf Czaja, and others), treat Yutok as the text's actual author or principal redactor, though the question remains debated.
Yutok's significance extends beyond medicine into tantric practice through the Yutok Heart Essence (གཡུ་ཐོག་སྙིང་ཐིག།), a cycle he is said to have transmitted in full to Sumtonpa in 1198. Classified by Nyingma doxographers as a mahāyoga sādhana cycle, it combines preliminary and generation-stage practices, techniques resembling the Six Dharmas of Nāropa, and completion-stage instruction culminating in Dzogchen "pointing-out" (ngo sprod); it later drew commentarial attention from the Fifth Dalai Lama and continues to be transmitted today, including by teachers such as Nida Chenagtsang. Yutok had two sons, Yutok Nyima and Yutok Bumseng, both trained in medicine, and numerous named disciples beyond Sumton Yeshe Zung, including Jangmen Lebse, Belmen Nyimapel, Tonpa Atse, Shakrampa Nyimapel, and Geshe Rokchung; the teachings of Yutok and his students dominated central Tibetan medical scholarship for generations and continue to shape the tradition. Sources agree that he died at age seventy-six, with later accounts describing his passing as an attainment of the rainbow body and departure to Tanadug, the pure land of the Medicine Buddha.
(Source: Adapted from Jaakko Takkinen, "Yutok Yonten Gonpo," Treasury of Lives (treasuryoflives.org, 2020), and the Wikipedia entry "Yuthok Yonten Gonpo the Younger."
| Main Wylie Name | g.yu thog yon tan mgon po | གཡུ་ཐོག་ཡོན་ཏན་མགོན་པོ | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Other Names |
|
; | @@@ | }} |
|
; | @@@ | }} |
| Religious Affiliation | Nyingma | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Is Emanation of |
|
; | @@@ | }} | |
| Has Following Emanations |
|
, | @@@ |
}}
|
| BDRC | https://www.tbrc.org/#!rid=P3005 |
|---|---|
| Treasury of Lives | |
| Himalayan Art Resources |