Shangpa Kagyu

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The Shangpa Kagyu school (shangs pa bka' brgyud) developed independently and is not counted among the Four Greater and Eight Lesser Kagyu schools. It was established by the great scholar and accomplished master Khyungpo Naljor (990-1139), who travelled to India and studied under many masters, predominantly under the two great female Mahasiddhas Niguma and Sukhasiddhi and under Maitripa and Rahula. Khyungpo Naljor hailed from the same family-clan, the clan of Khyungpo, as Jetsun Milarepa. The teachings and practices special to the Shangpa Kagyu school are the Six Doctrines of Niguma, the Six Doctrines of Sukhasiddi and a special Mahamudra teaching known as the "Chagchen Ga'u Ma" (phyag chen ga'u ma), or the "Mahamudra Reliquary".

The lineage succession, as far as I (TSD) could piece together, is as follows. Since I do not have dates for many of them, I can only assume that the order of masters as they appear is correct (it just reflects the order of a number of short biographies of Shangpa masters in my possession). Also, there seems to be a rather large gap between Taranatha and Lama Karma Norbu, one of the masters from whom Jamgon Kongtrul received the Shangpa transmissions. According to Ven. Tenga Rinpoche, the Shangpa transmissions were then continued through a number of lineages. The various streams of Shangpa transmissions were all received by Kongtrul Lodro Thaye and then passed on by him. One of the lineages that Kongtrul received came through the great Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo. I do hope that people more familiar with the Shangpa Kagyu school than I, will correct and expand upon my scribblings soon:

My collection of texts then contains a short text with very short sketches of the lives of the following four masters. Apparently the lineage then continued through various streams. One school, among others, that continued the Shangpa teachings was the Jonang tradition (TSD).

The lineage then continues with:

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