Rama-Gopala

Prince Rama-Gopala (rgyal sras dga' byed sa skyong) lived approximately from 1566-1575 as the son of a king of a small northern Indian kingdom. He is described as a very virtuous boy, who was clearly inclined towards the dharma and who sought the advice of buddhist teachers even as a young child. In the biographies of Jetsun Jonang Taranatha (1575–1635) it is taught, that Jetsun Kunga Drolchog (1507-1566) incarnated as this short-lived Indian prince specifically to re-acquaint himself with various Indian vernaculars, in order to be able to freely converse with the great Indian Mahasiddha Buddhagupta-natha whose coming to Tibet he foresaw. After prince Rama-Gopala's early death, he immediately incarnated in Tibet, as the illustrious Jetsun Taranatha. Indeed, when Taranatha was barely twenty years old, Buddhagupta-natha came there and the two met. Over several months Taranatha received teachings and transmissions from this Indian master, some of which had never before appeared in Tibet. [TSD]